What makes a good villain?

A asthmatic body-builder.

The Joker, Bane, Ra´s Al Ghul, Vaas and Pagan Min. What indeed make a good villain? That is a question that I guess has as many answers as it has people asking it, and while I do not claim to speak for everyone I am going to give my thoughts upon the subject. This is of course linked to the current crop of super hero tv series and movies that we have been graced with lately. Especially as a good villain can save a bad story and wise versa… Nolan-Bane… I am looking at you…

Actually let us start there. In the comics Bane is the perfect specimen intelligent, loyal, and with a strong moral code. But unhindered by conventional morals and without any real ties to other people. Add to this a most of the time hyper stimulated body with enough power to punch through brick walls.  It is easy to see why Bane is a serious threat for most of the DC hero gallery. So how this man-monster keep getting casted as a fairly stupid henchman I do not know. Now I will admit that Nolan-Bane fair better than the Batman and Robin version… That one was… Special…

Would the real Bane please stand up...

But that is the way I like my villains, smart and ruthless. Preferably with a slight sprinkle of crazy. Nothing in my mind is as scary as a villain that you do not know what he or she will do. The Joker from DC or to a lesser degree Norman Osborne Green Goblin really well capsulate this. Especially the Joker is a brilliant but very deranged mind. Completely unbound by the rules and laws of modern society he is more akin to a force of nature. Now the Joker unlike poor Bane have had two really good live action representations and a down right brilliant for the most time representation by the way of Bruce Timm´s Batman and Justice League cartoons.

Anyway, as I said I need my villains smart, but that of course poses a problem, the story for most part dictates that they do something really stupid in order for the hero to win. Monologueing, overly elaborate deathtraps, refusing to flat out kill the hero and so on and so forth. Now things like that works for the more crazy villains that take some pleasure from torturing their nemesis… Or in the case of the Joker have a very strange love/hate relationship with the object of his obsession. But for someone like Lex Luthor or Wilson Fisk to not kill the hero when they have the chance just make no god dam sense. Now as I noted I understand from a narrative standpoint why this has to be but from an in universe it simply does not work. And it annoys me greatly.

Another great villain is of course Ra's al Ghul. Another Batman villain and a definite power behind

the throne player. Obsessed with ridding the world of evil, but going about it in the most pants on head stupid way one can imagine… By ninjas and long enough political plays to make a VtM elder impatient. Ra´s is granted immortality by a magical well called the Lazarus pit. Being a super-genius he has taught himself… Well… everything. Having tactical and reasoning skills on the level of Batman and the added bonus of a few hundred years of experience. Being a zealot he see his work as being the very definition of good and thus is completely immune to normal logic. Now what makes Ra´s so great in my mind is the combination of being a constant threat and not only having the mental upper hand on most heroes in the DC universe but through his organization he has the means to force pretty much any hero to follow his designs, at least initially without it feeling all that forced. Now the fundamental problem with Ra´s is of course that he is at the mercy of the people writing him… hence how a super level intellect sometimes act in a way that can at best be described as stupid beyond belief. Such as trying to make Batman his heir, you would think that one zealot would recognize another.

Reaching outside of the realm of comic’s I have to admit being a little bit in love with the Moriarty as portrayed in BBC´s Sherlock. Again smart, insane and very very unpredictable. I feel this version borrows a lot from the modern day Joker both in his almost loving dedication to Sherlock but also the sort of carefree and almost jolly disposition combined with a hair-trigger bestial rage. A perfect adversary for the cold and controlled Sherlock.

Now I recently come across a new trailer for the next FarCry game and it´s poster boy Pagan Min. Now if you have not seen it, take a few seconds and have a look…

… And welcome back, now tell me how you cannot love that guy.  As a villain of course. He is insane but unlike Vaas he has an element of refinement. Not as much a force of nature but rather a personification of modern society with all its polish on the surface and some really ugly bits under that very polished surface. Now I do not know how he will turn out in the game itself but so far it is looking very promising.

So why am I attracted to this kind of villain, I guess that I do see a small bit of myself in them, in the way that one tend to do. While not a genius by any stretch of the imagination nor a sociopathic monster. I take some pride in having at least above average intelligence and I have always had some problems with relating to strangers so in a way these kind of villains become an image of what I could become if I just let all the constructs of society fall away. By the same token I prefer heroes that are in some way flawed. Now it does sound very pompous and arrogant to speak about the constructs of society, I have never seen war and true suffering up close and to be honest I have no bloody intention of ever doing so. But that is not to say that there have been many times in my life that I felt powerless and while most in a time like that would turn to a hero for their power fantasy. I turned to the darker and more sinister side for mine. I am sure that there are some brain-blenders out there that would have things to say about that but in honesty when the choice was between someone who is active to one that is reactive… I´d go with the active one.

So… Who is your favourite villain?

 Now that October have kicked off properly I will be building up towards All hallows eve at what point I intend to have a give-away of some stuff including but not limited to some digital comics and other nice digital goodies. So keep an eye on the blog and follow me on twitter @TWiddesgard to make sure that you do not miss the announcement or any other tidbits.

What a bunch of a-holes….

This is pretty much spoiler free... 

So I just came from Guardians of the galaxy, here is the short version… Go see it… it is the best fucking movie you will see all year.

It has been said that Marvel studios do not make superhero movies per se, they make movies that are set in a super hero universe. The meaning of this is of course that each movie can have its own tone. GotG is a comedy, a very good comedy that get most of the timing right even if the pace is a bit shaky in the start in my opinion. But once the movie get going it has a very nice flow. It does not take it self all that serious, rather choosing to play with our expectations. And of course if you are a child, or rather a teenager of the 80´s the shameless flirting with your nostalgia will have you smiling and nodding along several times. Like the Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy this movie do not make any excuses for the humour nor does it try to play it of as sarcasm, it simply love what it does and expect you to love it too. A love letter to the 1980´s and it just works.

So… The guardians them self is one of these marvel teams that I know of but have not followed very close, in fact as far as the roster goes I do from time to time get them mixed up with Starjammers. If you like to know the detailed backstory of either group I recommend that you do a wiki search. But this lineup of the team that comes form it´s second reboot consist of Star-Lord, a Han Solo like scoundrel with a heart of... well... maybe not gold but at least copper or brass. After opening on a good solid gut punch in the feels we get introduced to an adult star-Lord acting like the man-child he is and rocking out to some sweet 80´s pop music. If you by some act of tremendous willpower or other act of your deity of choice missed the original trailer for GotG I can tell you that 80´s pop play a key role, almost being a character on its own. Setting up moods and offering some nice twists along the way. On Star-Lords crew we have Gamorra a living weapon that serve Ronan the Accuser, a very angry Kree, and I will go in to what a Kree is a bit later. Any way Gamorra have had some serious upgrades and in essence serve as the gruff counterpoint to the outwardly care free Star-Lord. Next up is Drax the Destroyer a homicidal maniac that has one goal… vengeance… This rather one note character is given some much needed… maybe not depth but at least dimension by a surprisingly good Batista who normally spend his days as a WWE pro wrestler.  He even get in a good chuckle or two and that was A LOT more then what I expected going in to this movie. Interestingly Drax is not the muscle of the operation, for that we have Groot, a sentient plant who looks like the Ent´s after they got a good nip and tuck. He is one of two full CG characters and his voice actor is no other then Vin Diesel. Now I have say I am massively impressed by Vin´s work on Groot. You see Groot only say three words… I... Am… Groot. In that exclusive order. Even with such a limited vocabulary Groot has a lot of emotion and give a serious Chewbacca vibe, you actually get invested in what happens to him. Kudos to both Vin and the Marvel studio animators. So we come to the last member of the crew and the second full CG character Rocket (aka Rocket Raccoon) a character who in my mind was this movies breaking point, if they did him badly it would be a silly walking Raccoon… The next Jar Jar Binks… Fortunately he is one of the best CG characters I have seen so far, not only in a Marvel movie but in general. While the fact that he is a anthropomorphic raccoon keep me from fully accepting him as a “real” character I think this is as close as it gets. Wonderfully animated and stacked full of attitude thanks to brilliant voice acting Rocket in a way is the glue that holds it together, not so much in regards to the story as in regards to the dynamic within the group and how it plays out on the screen. So as I mentioned earlier Rocket is a half a meter tall talking raccoon that walks upright and swings a mean gun most of the time. Thanks to some old fact sheets Rocket was actually the member of the GotG that I was the most familiar with and this version actually stack up pretty well with what I remember. Some of the weirder parts of his origin have been left out but all in all he is the same.

So what did I not like… Well it is a small detail and it has to do with the Nova corps but in order to keep this mostly spoiler free I am not going in to it and in the end it is not enough to blemish the movie as a whole. Just a small nitpick as I said.

So the Kree… They are an ancient race of blue skinned humanoid aliens that see the earth as an unimportant backwater for most of the time. In the comics they are usually at war with the shape-shifting Skrulls and rarely get involved with earth apart from when their war spill over to our part of the woods. In the Marvel movie/tv universe they have not made much noise at all until GotG but there is an indication that they might have been guests on earth in the past. But no absolute proof have been put forward.

So to sum this up. Guardians of the Galaxy is perhaps not as good as Avengers but it is still one of the absolut best Marvel studio movies to come out so far and if they can make a bottom of the barrel team as the GotG look this good I am really looking forward to Avengers 2. With cap Am 2 and this one Marvel is on a roll that I have a hard time seeing DC or anyone else slow down, even if Batfleck looks bloody awesome.

See it even if you are not a fan of superhero movies.

My first LootCrate

Today my first LootCrate  arrived, and now you ask what a LootCrate is.

Well it is a kind sampler box for nerdy stuff. A Swagbag but without having to attend the tradeshow. LootCrate has a theme each month and past months have been such as Dragons (a dragon themed one.. No real surprise there) or Attack on Titanfall (an Attack on Titan / Titanfall themed one) and it cost 13.37$ (yes… I kid you not… =) It is kind of adorable). You can read more on lootcrate.com and should you feel like you want to try a subscription I ask if oyu can use my referral link as it gives me some loyalty points to spend on fun stuff. Should I get enough to use i will try to give back to you who helped me get there. 

My referral link

http://mbsy.co/lootcrate/8644985

 

So this month’s theme is Villains so I was pretty sure that I would like what was in the box since I am a big comics fan and a lot of the promo material for the box have had the Joker and Harley Quinn in it.

So here is the box as it looks when I picked it up.

Inside some lovely scoundrels had doodled all over it.  =)

With every lootcrate you get a small magazine that contains articles, editorials and info on the items of the month. The cover at is always special made for LootCrate and the theme of the month.

Now for the good stuff… The actual stuff. Opening up the crate the first item is a T-Shirt with a custom print made for LootCrate and the theme of the month.

 

This month we see a mashup between the trickster god of Asgard Loki and the clown-prince of crime the Joker in what can only be described as daringly clashing outfit. Now this is a mashup i´d like to see in comics… Having the controlled and scheming chaos of Loki butting heads with the raw chaos of the Joker. Yum yum… Destruction ensues. The T-shirt itself is black and made from a thin but not overly cheap material. I will come back on how well the print holds up as this is my first shirt. 

Next up we have more clothes, as I said before the content of the box varies from month to month and there is no set patter for what goes in to them beyond the T-shirt, the magazine and the button(I will get back to that later).

 

While Ambush Bug are looking for a pair of argyle socks… I can keep my feet in style with a pair of Deadpool socks. Now there are people who argue that Deadpool is not a villain… They might have a point… But seeing as he is an egomaniac that has no regard for others and most of the time take immense, almost inappropriate pleasure in causing widespread destruction and chaos I feel it is semantics. Any way I think they are very cool. Again I will have to come back about quality as there is no chance in hell I am putting on a pair of socks right now… You people should be glad I am wearing boxers at all. Bloody heat-wave.

As I mentioned I am a comics, especially super hero comics so it was nice to get a special variant cover one in this box. Now you do not need to be a rocket scientist to figure out why a Guardians of the galaxy tie-in comics ended up in this month’s crate… But as cool as Thanos is… I´d much rather seen an item with a closer tie to the theme. 

Now I like a nice poster as much as the next guy and these two, yes there is actually a perforated line in the middle to split them if you like, these two are fairly nice but a bit small. Also I have no real good place to put them and I am not sure what to do with them. So not really a homerun but by no means a bad item, I just need to figure out a place to put them. Maybe the guest bathroom need some color. After all who would not enjoy staring on that Joker face while answering the call?

Rounding off the comic villains is a documentary (or what you want to call it) that take a look at the DC stable of villains, narrated by Christopher Lee himself. So if nothing else you can just close your eyes and listen. I have seen this before and it is pretty good. Not very deep or digging but still a fairly interesting bit of work. Also no matter how you turn it DC have some of the most interesting villains in comics. If Marvel are the masters of the flawed hero, DC rules the land when it comes to villains with broken but interesting personalities.

Now you cannot have a villain crate without the granddaddy of them all, the original man in black and the most effective practitioner of management by fear. Darth Vader. Here seen as a small key-chain thingy. It is a soft rubbery material so it is unlikely to cause any harm to your leg should you bump in to someone or sit down at the wrong angle, but it also means that it will wear out over time. It can also most likely be used as an emergency eraser should the need arise. Beyond that it is a nice detailed (that you can’t see in the photo because I suck.) little hanger that will look good on both your key-chain and your bag. It is a tad too heavy for an earring but should work nice as a pendant.

Another original villain is the big B himself. A nice and fairly big fridge magnet that let anyone know that there is a castle that need a princess and that you can in fact be that princess. Or he need more Koopas… Either way if you like fridge magnets this one is clean and bright with a nice motif.

As with every LootCrate there is a small collectible button that you can… Well… Collect. It has the same image as the magazine just a bit cropped and the theme, month and year printed on the orange ring... Making it a bit hard to read at times. I would suggest a more contrasting colour.

So did it live up to my expectations? Yes for the most part, I did some serious research before getting it so I knew that the content could vary wildly between crates and that the theme dictated how much or little you would like the content. I feel I absolutely got my money’s worth even if the content itself can be a bit hard to price due to a lot of exclusive items. In fact the T-shirt alone was worth the price of the box in my mind.

I will absolutely get a few boxes more before I give an absolute verdict but so far so good.