TV's Male Heroes Nothing But Wimps

So, I've complained about Arrow...where the hero saves peoples' lives but after doing so, those same people hate him and put him in jail or want to kill him. And indeed the hero goes to jail for the crime of saving lives. And he goes willingly. For those same people who hated him.

We saw Flash go to jail for the frame job put on him by the villain The Thinker. And I had complained about the "hero" Red Reddington who saved Lizzy's life multiple times, (and the lives of most of her friends also, btw) only for her to then hate him and put in motion a plan to "destroy" him.

Now, I'm watching this new show Iron Fist, and guess what. He turns out to be a wimp. He had already said that possessing the "iron fist" was so important to him like it was part of him. But now he no longer wants it. Say what? Yeah, he says he doesn't have the strength of will to possess it without it "consuming" him. So who does he want to have the iron fist? Who is it that's strong enough to possess it? Well, his girlfriend, of course.

I mean what the heck. So why do I want to watch a show about a "hero" who doesn't want to wield the power to be a hero because he believes he isn't strong enough? He's a cowardly wimp. Why do I want to watch a cowardly wimp? I don't. It seems only the girl is strong enough and brave enough to wield the power.  Likewise, why do I want to watch a show about a chump who goes to jail? I don't. Why do I want to watch a show about a chump where everyone he saves hates him and wants to destroy him? I don't.

So yeah, in the show Iron Fist the woman is now the iron fist because the man is not strong enough or confident enough to hold the power. This is bullshit. What is going on with Hollywood? The men who are supposed to be the heroes are instead wimps and cowards. They are weak and they are chumps. They go to jail for saving lives and saving entire cities. Like the Green Arrow. And who was it that put him in jail? A woman, of course. Who is it that wants to destroy Red Reddington? A woman, of course. And who is it that's strong enough to hold the power of the iron fist when the man who had it wimps out? A woman, of course.

This is an extension of the cartoon shows. Most if not all the cartoon shows for the last twenty years feature male characters that are stupid beyond belief. In addition to that, they are cowards and degenerates. Whereas the female characters are the smart ones, the brave ones, and the ones who have all the answers. It's like Hollywood is trying to brainwash America's kids to believe that if you are a boy, you are stupid, weak, and a coward. On top of that you are also a degenerate and a detriment to society. If you are a girl, then you are smart, strong, and determined, even more so than men. And it's like that in most of these shows, like I said, for the last twenty years.

I don't get it because that's not the reality. Look, I know women can be as smart and as strong as men, generally speaking. But this Hollywood nonsense is just going too far. It's the same thing over and over again with every show, seemingly. It's nauseating. I don't buy it. It makes me very glad I created my own hero: Trent Smith, the world's greatest martial artist. He's featured in two of my books, Killer of Killers and Killer Eyes. No one can match him in a fight, male OR female.

No Woman would last one second against Brock Lesnar

One point I want to make clear. As strong as women can be, there is no woman in the world who would be able to last more than five seconds in a ring against the best male fighters. Take Brock Lesnar as an example. No woman in the world would last one second in a ring against him. And I don't mean this to be an insult to women. I know they are strong and many women are trained to fight. But against a man with equal training? It wouldn't be a contest. Not even close.

So all this crap about how men are weak and cowardly and don't possess strength of will, like we've been seeing in Iron Fist, Arrow, and even the current Star Trek and Star Wars franchises is just that. Crap. It makes me want to go back and continue my Trent Smith series. I think I will.

Arrow - Getting tedious and tiresome

When I decided to watch some of these DC comics TV shows, (without ever being a DC comics fan, that is) I decided to give Arrow a try. That was a few  years ago, and I like the show. Stephen Amell was a great actor for the main character who becomes the Green Arrow, and the show was gritty, filled with action and quite dramatic. I started watching The Flash soon thereafter and felt the same charm I felt from Arrow, but I still liked Arrow better. It seemed more serious.

But this season the shows have reversed. Now it's the Flash that's better written. And I'll tell you why. Mostly it's because the story lines in Arrow have become tedious and tiresome. Arrow had accrued a team of fellow crime fighters by this the seventh season. And after several years of fighting crime together, saving one another's lives in the process, the team has quit on the Green Arrow. This is something I can't buy into. Why? For the reason they left. That's why. The team of three disgruntled members are acting all butt-hurt because Felicity, (Arrow's wife) had tracked them on her computer for the reason that one of them was going to betray Arrow to the FBI.

And it turned out to be true. One of them was. But all three of them quit the team because now they say they can't trust the Green Arrow. This is a load of crap. I mean, when you've been fighting wars as a team for years, saving lives and each others' lives for that long, you don't let a simple "tracking" for the reason explained split you up. But it did and it's bullshit.

And then Arrow's best friend and closest ally quits because he too is all butt-hurt because the Green Arrow won't let HIM be the Green Arrow. Say what? Well, yeah, that is exactly it. I mean is this guy still in kindergarten? John Diggle was his first partner in fighting crime and most loyal, except, um, he's not so loyal as it turned out.

I mean it's all so petty. And ridiculous. If the writers wanted the Green Arrow to go solo again, they should have written the stories a lot better than that. So yeah, they suck now. A shame, really, as I did like the show before this latest season.

As for Flash? Like I said in an earlier post, it's been pretty dark lately. Gritty and serious drama here. This latest villain is a little whacked. His goal is to "enlighten" humanity, he says. But by killing dozens of innocent people in the process? I mean, there's something wrong with that picture. It's like you want to save the world by killing people. Um, that doesn't really work. Reminds me of the stupid plot in the latest Avengers movie. The bad guy wants to save the universe by killing half of it. Pretty stupid plot if you ask me.

But back to the Flash, we've seen the demise of some good characters. I liked the Elongated Man. But he was killed recently. I hope they can bring him back somehow, like they did in Arrow so many times. I didn't really like it in Arrow when they did that. I mean Arrow brought Black Canary back to life, and he brought back his sister from the dead as well, and it was getting to be too much.

But if they can bring back Elongated Man somehow, that would be okay with me. In the meantime, I am enjoying Flash more than Arrow this latest season. Will it end up that way? I'm almost through with the full season of both shows. We'll see when I'm finished.

Flash Show Turns Dark

I'm watching the fourth Flash season now, along with the fifth Arrow season. I don't bother with Supergirl or Legends of Tomorrow. I've never been a DC fan. But I have to say the Flash show taking a dark turn makes it an intriguing show to watch.

What I appreciate mostly is that The Flash show not a goofy show like the Marvel movies have become. The Marvel movies and their characters are worse for that goofiness. But the DC shows have not followed suit, to their credit. Flash, particularly, has evolved into quite the dark show. Meaning the events are grim and even scary. It reminds me of the darker Twilight Zone episodes or Outer Limits episodes of some years ago.

It's not really new either. From the beginning the Flash TV show has had some dark episodes. From the Reverse Flash villain, to the Doom villain, to the Savitar villain. The fact that all of these villains were speedsters like the Flash was redundant, and lacked imagination, but the story lines were dark, and not goofy. Which was refreshing. Facing speedsters all the time is along the lines of the kind of villain a hero like Flash should fight. But season after season, especially the first three seasons, made for some questionable storytelling.

In season four we don't see another speedster except for a brief reappearance of Reverse Flash in the crossovers of episode eight. Which is a good thing. And speaking of that crossover thing, fighting Nazis? Sheesh... Talk about recurring villains. We've seen Nazis and Neo-Nazis as villains more times than I can count over the history of Hollywood. But at least the shows weren't goofy. Well, wait a minute. The fact that all the Nazis were shooting blanks from their machineguns was goofy. It was downright comedic. The Nazis were shooting literally thousands of rounds over the four episode crossover and only once did they hit a target....an old man...and it was comical.

But I digress. We see an even darker villain emerge in season four of Flash. A professor with an artificially enhanced IQ. But he also has ALS. Because he's becoming paralyzed, he takes over a younger dude's body. Meaning he transfers his mind into the body of a much younger and healthier man. Which all in all was pretty scary. I'm not into horror, but the darker stories are preferable to the goofy slapstick comedies Marvel's been putting out recently.

My only complaint is why is this "professor" guy so evil? I mean when you wish ill will on others for no reason, that's an evil thing. And this guy is doing that. Killing innocents for no reason? I mean, where is the guy going with this? What are his reasons? He's supposed to be a teacher. And his mind is supposed to be so smart with his enhanced IQ. Whatever. I suppose the show will answer all the questions when it pans out. I'm only on episode nine, so we'll see. I hope.

My point is serious drama beats dumb comedies any day. That's not to say all comedies are dumb. Inspector Clouseau was great. But superheroes, as Inspector Clouseaus, are not great. They're only dumb. And to me, at least, dumb is not funny. And far from great.

Mission Impossible Fallout - Action Packed

Mission Impossible Fallout Poster

Talk about never a boring moment. The new Mission Impossible movie, Fallout, was action packed. And I enjoyed every minute of it. I like action movies, as I'm a writer of action novels, especially my two Killer books, and I'll say Fallout never failed to impress.

Tom Cruise is getting up there in years, but he still pulled off a series of stunts that would make a man in his prime proud. I heard during the course of production he had broken an ankle on one of those stunts and it reminded me of Robert Conrad of Wild Wild West fame. Conrad had insisted on doing his own stunts until the inevitable day came when he got hurt.

So I don't blame actors for using stunt men as fill-ins for the more dangerous scenes. I'm guessing Tom Cruise learned his lesson. But the scenes were seamless and the movie top notch. I have one critique, or one complaint--SPOILER--and it is this: Henry Cavill of Superman fame does not make a good bad guy. Meaning he's not convincing as a bad guy. Meaning, when you see Henry Cavill, you see Superman, the ultimate good guy.

Henry Cavill in MI: Fallout

I'm not suggesting Cavill is typecast as Superman, but I am suggesting Cavill is typecast as a good guy. And that's not a bad thing. After all, in every Tom Cruise movie, Cruise is a good guy. There are other actors like that. Jason Statham, Vin Diesel, and Ben Affleck are good guys in every movie they've been in. Same with Christopher Reeve, the other Superman actor. The list goes on and on. So making Cavill a bad guy in Fallout didn't work for me. But it didn't ruin the movie. The only thing that might have ruined the movie was Cavill's mustache. (Cavill with a mustache? Please, no.)

Another reason I hated seeing Cavill as a bad guy is the fact that if my book, John Dunn; Heart of a Zulu were ever to make it to the big screen, Cavill is my first choice to play the lead role of John Dunn, the white chief of Zululand. I had posted comparable photos of the real Dunn and Cavill, each with a beard, and they are strikingly similar in appearance. Apparently Cavill sports a full  beard much better than a lone mustache. Even if its accompanied with some stubble as shown to the left

But whatever. I don't know if Cruise as the years remaining to make more MI movies. This was, what, the sixth or seventh? That's a pretty successful run of a franchise right there. I suppose he might make one more. Maybe two. And I'm betting they'll both be good.

Antman and the Wasp movie - Too Goofy

I don't know why the latest trend with the Marvel movies is slapstick comedy. Or an attempt at slapstick comedy. It ruined the last Thor movie. I had posted that Thor's latest movie made him seem like another Inspector Clouseau type of character, instead of the god of thunder.

Well, this latest Antman movie did the same thing. The entire movie was slapstick comedy. It made me think I was watching the Three Stooges. The first Marvel movies, although not perfect, were at least not ridiculous efforts of comedy. They were serious dramas. Which they should be. It was a removal from the tongue-in-cheek movies that Hollywood used to think comic book movies should be. If you'll recall the fist Bat Man and Superman movies were tongue-in-cheek. And bad tongue-in-cheek at that. They were so cheesy that they didn't appeal to the serious comic book fan.

Now that doesn't mean all tongue-in-cheek movies are cheesy. Tongue-in-cheek is one of the hardest genres to make. If you can do it well, it can be a good movie. But the comic book tongue-in-cheek movies were not done well.

Then Hollywood got wise, (which is rare, but it happens,) and made some good comic book movies. The first Marvel movies were pretty good. Now they have regressed and are back to bad humor. If you can put a little humor into a serious drama, that's fine. Even better. But it has to work. This latest Antman movie, as a comedy, like the last Thor movie, didn't work. My sons didn't even like it.

My oldest son was shaking his head saying the movie sucked midway through the movie. I agreed. That's not to say there weren't some good moments in the movie. But overall it was a thumb's down rating. A disappointment. Too bad. Antman is a good character. So is the Wasp. But not in the Hollywood universe. They are cheesy, dumb, and stupid. Like the movie.

Arrow - Same Stories - Flash - Corny Ones.

I'm back to watching Arrow and Flash, and, well, I'm disappointed in the same story lines. Like before, Arrow has a son who he's worried about, and like always, the father-son relationship is strained. The mother was killed, it seems, in the prior season finale, and Oliver Queen, (Green Arrow) has to raise his son as a single father now. But of course, the son is acting like a jerk, and gives little credit to Oliver for his efforts.

Glad my sons aren't like that. It makes for an uninteresting show. You can't help but dislike the character of the son. But whatever. At the same time we have another recurring story line. Once again, Oliver's identity as the Green Arrow has been revealed. And once again he's under investigation by law enforcement for the "crimes" of the Green Arrow. This is so old it's ridiculous. The show has already done this. And it's not interesting to go through it again.

Another reason, besides redundancy, is the fact that everyone recognizes the Green Arrow as a hero. But of course, not the investigators. They always seem to think he's as bad as any street thug, and not the guy who's saved countless lives, and has even saved the entire city multiple times. But does any of that matter? Why, no, he's got to be brought to "justice" for the "crime" of being a good guy.

It's so pathetic, I'm finding myself wondering why the hell am I bothering with this crap. At least Flash isn't rehashing the same story line over again. He's got a new suit which seemed pretty cool with the Tony Stark-like implements that Cisco put in there while Barry was in Limbo. But of course, there's got to be a new baddie who has the power to manipulate the techs in the suit.

Yeah, it's all corny, but at least it's not something they did before on the show, like Arrow. Maybe I'm too old to be watching these shows. My students are watching these shows, and some of them think it's cool that their teacher watches the same shows, so I'll keep it secret that I'm not really enjoying them anymore.

I guess it's true. After about three seasons, shows just seem to run out of stories that made them good in the first place. It happens to almost all shows. I used to love The Blacklist, but it turned into a stupid show. Even Homeland got lousy after season five. At least it had two seasons past it's third that were still tops.

Writers only have so much in them, it seems. Maybe they end up grasping at straws. Maybe they need more collaboration. Maybe they need to think outside the box. Or maybe that's what got them into trouble in the first place. I wonder if the creators are involved. I would think that would be important, meaning the person who created the characters might have the best insight into what should happen to them and how they should respond. Maybe that makes too much sense.

The Vase, Second Chance, and Heart of a Zulu

Since two of my publishers have gone out of business, three of my books are out of print. The Vase, Second Chance, and Heart of a Zulu are no longer available with two exceptions. On Amazon, there are two more books left of Second Chance, and one more book of Heart of a Zulu.

Because of that, the price of Second Chance has skyrocketed. Two hundred forty-nine dollars. That hasn't happened with Heart of a Zulu yet. So if you're inclined to read a true story that takes place in South Africa during the nineteenth century, you'd better jump on that. It's still listed at 14 dollars.

As for Second Chance, well, I don't expect anyone to pay over two hundred bucks for a book. Even if there are only two copies left. I am, after all, trying to find new publishers pretty soon. Unless some collector wants to get the now rare copies of first editions. There are collectors who do that. Usually they are well-to-do people who have the money to spend on thing like that.

The first issue of Superman sold for over a million dollars. And that was a ten cent comic book. So you never know. In fifty years, or a hundred years, anything goes.