The Modern Madame Missionary

Drinker's Chasers - Oh No! She-Hulk Season 2 Cancelled

The crowd discusses the difference between the classic "She-Hulk" comic book and the Disney+ attempted "feminist sitcom" reinterpretation that fell flat.

I can do anything better than you

I didn't watch the show or read the comics, which allows me to be objective. In my objective opinion, the Disney+ creators (Jessica Gao et. al.) are doing missionary work for the woke religion.

Traditionally, missionaries go to where their fellow believers are to get money and then go to where the heathens are to make converts. Repeat as needed. Such inventions as the internet, zero interest rates, and rampant financial speculation make it possible to do this at scale and at a distance (limiting risk and discomfort while improving pay) -- but the basic approach remains.

For quite some time the Wealth of the USA has been concentrated in the hands of women -- the sort of fact that is sometimes called "an inconvenient truth," but not in this case since it is never mentioned. Earlier in that period, their wealthy Husbands would die at sixty (thank you, big Tabaco) and they would live to 85, sipping red wine and attending charitable functions. Their considerable wealth, however, would be managed by men to produce the best returns -- while often promoting the interests of men (expanding industry, for example). These days, it is managed by women, oftentimes to promote the interests of women (specifically, the daughters of the well-to-do).  This is labeled "social justice" and has acquired the trappings of a secular religion combating an evil "them" that strongly resembles working-class white males who read comics (it's where the heathens are). When Steve Jobs (the scion of a working-class family) died his widow became a modern-day Joan D'Arc -- a fortune being mightier than the sword. Multiply this a thousandfold and we get all this ESG nonsense.

Money, Money...Money, Money

It's all good until you make a loss -- and during a period when the Fed was underpinning an economy rife with speculation, it was all good. When the missionary work starts shrinking your assets (and no one likes a shrinking asset), the whole approach deserves a re-think.

Call me Chato has a more professional take.

Better or Badder?

Disney's Anti-man but pro WASP

Doesn't Disney know that WASP stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant?  This is a sub-genre of the White Supremacy conspiracy theory: the White Specificity conspiracy theory.

Disparu has a review of  Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the latest Marvel Movie.  I haven't seen it. I'll wait for it to show up on Tubi. Disparu's annoyed that the socialism of the movie "ants" is commented on quite favorably -- then finds much else to be annoyed by. The womanly WASP up-stages Ant-man in the big fight scene and I say "but of course!" Are the poor production values worse than the poor plot? Hard to say.

Apparently, the folks at Disney don't know that socialism comes in various flavors, which displays both an ignorance of history and a lack of imagination. For instance, if Putin took over Disney, top executives and whole creative teams would start "jumping" from the windows of very high buildings. Of course, this is not an example of true socialism -- just socialism as it actually exists. In true socialism, an ant happily works herself to death because she knows the Queen is her true mother and she and the other workers form a true and mighty sisterhood!  In false socialism, the ant sadly works herself to death after the Queen has falsely imprisoned her with the other bitchez and they all fight over scraps. False socialism is what we truly get.

Some will argue that Socialist Justice only requires the summary execution of the fat 'n happy few at the top, while the "creative teams" will churn out poorly produced, but highly expensive, sneakers at a repurposed "amusement park turned reeducation camp."

Forgetting that serious socialists are not easily amused, camp inmates will claim they've already been highly re-educated at Yale and Harvard and demand their student loans be "socialized" while they keep their cars and condos. The jokes on them. Their appeals will go unanswered but not unpunished. In the tragic aftermath, the world will be afflicted with tattered track shoes.

Marvel wonders where the marvel went

Many fans of established franchises such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are bewildered by the radical change in direction taken by the new owners of these IPs.  They watch a favorite white male heterosexual character reemerge as a black female gay character and wonder: what is the point? It appears that one person's "retconning" is another person's wrecking.

When an aggressive civilization conquers another they will typically take over important cultural sites of the conquered people and put their own important symbols there. The Christians turned the pagan Pantheon in Rome into a Christian cathedral. The Hagia Sophia started as a Christian church in Constantinople and became a Grand Mosque in Istanbul.

These actions show the conquered who's in charge and help identify the remaining objectors for future cancelation. This is what happened when the imperial Romans placed a statue of the Emperor in the Second Temple in Jerusalem and "encouraged" the inhabitants to make offerings. The resulting fuss is best described by that old Latin saying, "They made a desert and called it peace."

So Super Hero fans might complain that those who have conquered Hollywood should create new characters embodying the cultural traits they wish to emerge triumphant and leave the formerly established icons alone (that would make good business sense!). However, that would miss the point. Conquest is not about making money, it is about taking control and rubbing "their" noses in it. The money and prestige come after. So perhaps our new cultural overlords will create a cultural desert and call it peace while forcing the doubters to agree. Or perhaps they will find their actions were premature and those whose noses are now out-of-joint are too formidable to contend with. Stay tuned.

MARVEL "Re-evaluating" After Disastrous Phase 4