What Was the Point of Marvels Secret Empire There was something very telling about Marvels decision this past Monday to announce to The New York Times how its Secret Empire event would end. It felt like the publisher was trying to get ahead of yet more problems coming from the series conclusion. Now that the final issue of its primary series is in stores today, we know thats rightand how thoroughly Secret Empire failed. The core concept that Marvels blond haired, blue eyed living symbol for American patriotism could actually be a sociopathic fascist with a plan to remake the world in his image was a disturbing one, to be sure. But Secret Empire had the potential to become an iconic story about the dangers of blindly buying into a dark, warped form of American exceptionalism that, given enough time, became the base ideology for Hydras oppressive, authoritarian society. This potentially powerful storys importance was only further heightened by the major political events that defined 2. Watch Free Full Length Movies Online. Streaming Movies. Free films. Watch Trolls 2016 From the creators of Shrek comes the most smart, funny, irreverent animated comedy of the year, DreamWorks Trolls. This holiday season, enter a. XMovies8 Free HD movies online without downloading on xmovies8. Download movies for FREE Watch movies online, free movies, free movies online Putlocker. Greetings from the future Welcome to Postal Apocalypse, io9s admittedly sporadic mail column by me, editor Rob Bricken. This week Ive got a lot of. Watch Cars 3 movie online, Free movie Cars 3 with English Subtitles, Watch Cars 3 full movie, Watch Cars 3 in HD quality online for free, putlocker Cars 3, xmovies8. There was something very telling about Marvels decision this past Monday to announce to The New York Times how its Secret Empire event would end. It felt like the. Watch Thankskilling 3 Online Free 2016' title='Watch Thankskilling 3 Online Free 2016' />D list comic book supervillain managed to become President of the United States. Marvel insisted that Secret Empire wasnt meant to be a piece of political commentary, but the series launched at a time when its plot eerily echoed the social and political anxieties plaguing the country. Political or not, Secret Empire had every chance to become the kind of seminal story that defined what a flagship comic book event could be in the 2. But by Monday, when Marvel spoiled the ending to its own major comic book event, the writing was already on the wall Secret Empire was about to end poorly and damage control was necessary. Having read the issue, we can say that calling it a series of predictable, unfortunate, bad events is too charitable. Even if youre able to completely divorce yourself from the many controversies associated with Secret Empire, you cant deny the fact that todays issue 1. Or, at least, lazy and not at all the kind of well thought out issue a publisher would want to end an event with. After months of brutal battles and painful deaths, Earths mightiest heroes all finally get a chance to take on Steve Rogers himself, newly in possession of a nearly complete Cosmic Cube and a Hydra themed suit that allows him to harness its power. As the heroes all dive at Steve, more than prepared to bring the worlds suffering to an end, its obvious that even now Secret Empires more interested in shocking plot twists than trying to actually say or do anything interesting with its story. The Avengers, X Men, and Champions converge on Steve only to be effortlessly erased from existence because Steves wearing a suit thats literally powered by a macguffin. What are a few humanoids in spandex to a man with the ability to bend reality itself to his willBut this is a comic book event, which means that the Good Guys have got to win, and theyve got to win thanks to a clever plan that nobody, not even a man with cosmic omniscience could see coming. Watch All American Bikini Car Wash Full Movie. After Steve erases all of the physical devastation hes inflicted upon the world, hes surprised by a visit from Sam Wilson, the current Captain America, who just so happens to have the final piece of the Cosmic Cube that would turn Steve into a god if he managed to get his hands on it. At this point in the story, theres nothing much that Sam can really do to fight Steve. Hes outgunned and his friends are all dead, so he does the sensible thing and bends the knee to Steve, offering his piece of the Cube as a show of good will. But its a trick Though the piece of the Cube is real, buried deep within it are Ant Man and Bucky Barnes, shrunken down so small that theyre in the microverse within the Cube itself which, it turns out, is a place weve seen before. All of the dreamy flashes to the land bathed in white where an amnesiac alt Steve has been encountering his friends and loved ones during all of Secret Empire Thats all happening inside the Cube where Kobika living embodiment of the Cubes powers whos taken the form of a little girlhas been hiding from the mess shes made of the world. Through some comics weirdness thats never adequately explained, Bucky travels into Kobiks pocket universe, grabs her and the Good Steve by the hand, and manages to make his way back into the larger universe all within a matter of seconds. While all of this is happening, Evil Steve is standing there like a moron, looking at his suit wondering why his god powers arent working anymore. Evil Steves horror at the fact that hes been outsmarted immediately intensifies when he comes face to face with Good Steve who, because of the way that the Cosmic Cube works, is now a real flesh and blood person. As Kobik undoes all of the changes to reality that Evil Steve made and the Avengers are resurrected, the two Steves face off Civil War style and proceed to beat the shit out of each other in classic comic book fashion. Im being rather glib about all of this because theres absolutely nothing about any of these sequences that at all feels novel or truly creative, especially when you consider the sorts of ideas that big comics events have tried to tackle in the past. No one watching the two Steves fight questions them or unpacks the symbolism of their clash, and that feels like a major mistake. Its a sorely missed opportunity for Spencer to at least try and have Secret Empires characters say something meaningful or lasting about Steve, a living concept at this point, and the ways that hes put them all through hell. Sure, one of these men is ostensibly supposed to be good and the other bad, but both of them are beings who wouldnt exist without the Cosmic Cube. Secret Empire wants you to feel as if Captain America is a person redeeming himself for the sins of his darker half, but in reality hes just a physical construct going through the narrative motions of a predicable heros narrative. Even that wouldnt be all that bad if it werent for the heavy handed, coded language of resistance scattered throughout the panels. Even though Secret Empire isnt about politics, multiple pages of the issue are dedicated to conveying the basic idea that pseudo Nazism Hydra are Nazis deal with it is bad and that punching a Hydra figurehead is a good thing. Thats a lovely sentiment to espouse, but it comes at a point in Secret Empire when readers have had to watch as Captain America murdered thousands and sent minorities to internment camps. How Will the Game of Thrones TV Show Affect the Books Greetings from the future Welcome to Postal Apocalypse, io. Rob Bricken. This week Ive got a lot of Defenders questions from one curious reader, a lot more Game of Thrones questions from many curious readers, and I explain why you should only be slightly worried about the Captain Marvel more right now. Book Learning. Sean P. Stephenson Ive been following the HBO version of Go. T since the beginning, and have been toying with reading the books, but I had a multi part question I feel only you can answer. When Go. T concludes next year on HBO, do you think GRRM will incorporate any of the premises presented that have been shown on the small screen that he didnt originally come up with, and do you think he will change anything he had already come up with because of what was already shown, as in I thought that was a good idea, but having seen it played out, lets go a different route. Its impossible to say. Sorry to defer the question, but George R. R. Martin is still writing The Winds of Winter, and has A Dream of Spring left to go if not moreI still believe hes going to end up writing three more books all told before hes done. What he has planned today may change tomorrow, or next year, or the year after that. Or the year after that or the year after that. You see where Im going with this. At some point, GRRM, David Benioff, and D. B. Weiss sat down to discuss the end of the story, both A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. I sincerely doubt he told the showrunners everything he has planned, but there were definitely some story elements just too entrenched into the narrative for the show to skip, e. Hodors name. There may be a few others, but unless Weiss and Benioff fess up, we wont know for sure until the books are out. That said, the show will end up being vastly, vastly different from the books. Part of this is because the show has made its own changes to the narrative over its many years, which cant help but affect the ending part of it is because the series is ending in such a condensed timeframe only this Sundays season finale and six more episodes to go and part of it is likely Benioff and Weiss respect for GRRM, and their desire not to trample on what he has in mind for the books ending. But mostly because the books have so many more elements at play than the TV series the Fake Aegon, Lady Stoneheart, Victarion Greyjoy, Jeyne Poole whom Ramsay Bolton marries and claims is Arya, and more. Maybe Martin has something planned that the show is doing that, after seeing it, hell change his mind about. But we cant possibly know until he writes it. The Defense Rests. Jess D. Dear Postman, I have some Defenders questions. A lot of Defenders questions. Why is there the remains of a giant dragon underneath New York City How did the monks of Kun lun get over to North America to build a door that only the Iron Fist could open If the Substance was so dangerous, why not leave the door locked permanently Or better yet why not destroy it Why didnt the Hand just dig around the door There was a huge cavern down there. Couldnt they have dug to any other area and gotten in Why would removing the Substance destroy NYC If the Hand wanted to get back to Kun lun, like they said all the time, why did they only seem interested in getting to that underground place that we know wasnt Kun lun from Iron Fist I can give you answers to all of these, as long as you dont mind that The Defenders TV series in no way supports or confirms any of them. In ancient times giant dragons roamed the earth, and died like any other creature. The monks tasked themselves with protecting the Substance left behind by these dragons to prevent evil people from getting ahold of it. They traveled by boats to North America, and then used their mystical powers both to push the bones deep, deep underground and to create a magic shield all the way around the cavern that now housed them, leaving a door as the only access point. The monks did this instead of destroying the Substance, because they could foresee a time when they were so desperate they might need the Substance themselves, and thus made the key the Iron Fist, who would always be a protector of Kun Lun until Danny Rand fucked it up. Oh, and then the mystical energies of these dragons subconsciously led humans to build cities on top of them. Although, the Hand clearly got to the Substance under Pompeii and Chernobyl, because they said they destroyed them hmm the dragon under New York City was the biggest dragon and had the most substance, which made it the one that most needed to be denied to the Hand, and is why New York City is a much, much more major city than Chernobyl or Pompeii. More dragon, more mystical energy, more Substance, more city. And after so many millennia, the Substance became part of the essence of the Earth itselfmysticallyand thus removing would effectively cause a cataclysm in the location it was housed. As for your last question, its because uh by sealing the area off, the Monks effectively made it part of Kun Lun, even though it was thousands of miles from the actual mystical city. So Sigourney Weaver and the rest were speaking metaphorically. Yeah. The Jon Con. W I feel there hasnt been enough discussion about the legitimate reveal that Jon is in fact the legitimate son of Rhaegar and the entire dynamic this imposes on Jon Dany hook up believers. He is in the direct succession to the iron throne. I honestly cannot see how these two would work if this gets exposed to the whole world. Even if it is after she may or may not get pregnant with a mini incest royalty baby, I cannot visualize a way for the plot to just make this situation okay with Jon. I can realistically see Dany dying after all this simply because Jon will in fact always know nothing. Dany cannot possible just stop her quest for total dominance of Westeros just because Jon gets revealed to be the true heir at least lets hope the show writers dont take the easy way out. Its not going to get exposed to the whole world. When Jon finds outif Jon finds out, he could probably fulfill whatever prophecy Rhaegar heard that made him seek out Lyanna Stark and marry her and throw all of Westeros into civil war without ever knowinghes not going to broadcast it. Hell likely tell Dany, who also wont tell anybody, for obvious reasons.