034: Down the Rabbit Hole #2

Welcome to a brand new year of bloggy goodness! I wanted to get something out quickly, but am deeply entrenched in four full-length articles that are taking a lot of research. Still, I felt the start of the year warranted another Down the Rabbit Hole, and we were due for one anyway, so here goes. For those of you who haven’t read the first post in this new series, this isn’t really a continuation. This is my forum for random thoughts, little editing, low research, and frequent topic jumping. I will build off the previous post but delve into new areas. We’ll see where it takes us. You’re travelling the rabbit holes in my mind and it’s a bit more pleasant than it sounds. Hopefully.

Before I get going, a few updates and a correction from my first Rabbit Hole post. I did, indeed, play through 2018’s Spider-Man finally. I didn’t get to the DLC yet, but I will do that before playing a run on Super Hero difficulty. Secondly, we did watch Star Trek Lower Decks and it was great. Very funny, good characters and story, lots of Easter Eggs for fans. Now for the correction… in my previous post I stated that in the comics Scarlet Witch was a mutant. I was slightly incorrect in this statement. She and her brother Quicksilver were considered to be mutants for many years, the children of famed X-villain Magneto. But I lately learned that Marvel eventually retconned the sibling’s origins to be that their powers were the result of an experiment by the High Evolutionary. (Not sure if any of this matters to you all… I just prefer to be accurate.)

Alrighty! So it’s finally 2021! A new year with new potential. 2020 was a rough year for everyone. I was fortunate in that I was able to be home to help my son with his remote learning. Also I wasn’t out of work long enough that it caused an impact on our finances. I eventually landed a stable job working from home. It’s given me more time with my family and focusing on my blog. It’s important with everything that’s going on to be able to count your blessings.

I set a pretty breakneck pace for this blog at the end of 2020. It paid off, though. I managed to get seven posts and two Short Hops done through the months of October to December. (Including my most-read post to date, my post about the Star Wars Holiday Special. Hopefully those of you who found me from that post will find other things here you like!) Once I was done with all the posts I had slated for the end of the year I was pretty burned out, so I gave myself a week off to relax and get my notes in order. I have a lot planned to get done this year as well and wanted to be refreshed before I got started.

Not the slightest among these ambitious plans is breaking into YouTube. It’s no small undertaking. I have a bit of experience in amateur filmmaking from my teen years, but I have a lot left to learn. (Especially on the editing side of things.) I’m working on it, a little at a time. More info on this can wait. I don’t want to reveal too many of my plans before I have it started.

I plan to get this channel launched some time in 2021. I have many more plans for this year: several blog posts, designing a logo and merch, getting back into shape, honing my ability to focus, and completing my game list.

You may recall last year I made a list of games I wanted to complete in 2020. Well, that didn’t work out because 2020 happened. Also I found myself highly distracted by games that were not on my list. I ended up only completing 9 of the games. I will do better this year. Already I’m making better progress. I have 22 games on the new list and have made progress on three of them, along with completing the first Assassin’s Creed. I won’t get into all this much. That’s what my new video game blog is for. Check it out if you want to know more about this undertaking and the kinds of games I enjoy.

Here Doctor Who meets someone I can only assume is the Space Pope. (Credit: BBC)

The main thing I’m trying to do with 2021 is give it a drastically different feel and mood from last year. To do this, I’m completing things (reading books and comics, playing video games, watching shows) that I’ve been procrastinating on for ages. I have also finally started something I’ve been meaning to get into for longer than I care to admit… a little show called Doctor Who. I have started way back with Episode 1 from 1963. There are currently 862 episodes and I watch one episode a night after work. (Two on my Friday.) So it will take me quite some time to get through the series. You can expect my first post soon, however, as I’m most of the way through Season One now. (I’m thinking it will be a SoraRabbit Watches rather than a Rabbit Recap.) So far I’m very much enjoying the show. The First Doctor is a cranky old grandpa and he’s great. Beyond that, you’ll have to wait for my post.

Very excited for more Boba Fett. (Credit: Lucasfilm, Disney)

Speaking of shows, I’ll soon be covering The Mandalorian Season Two. (My Rabbit Recap post on Season One is here.) It was a great season and the Star Wars television universe is expanding at an alarming (and exciting) rate. Eight new Star Wars series have been announced on Disney+. Two of them— The Bad Batch (a continuation of Clone Wars) and The Book of Boba Fett— will likely get the Rabbit Recap treatment. (I may do Ahsoka and Rangers of the New Republic as well, we’ll see.) It’s been revealed that all four of the series I’ve mentioned will tie together into a huge crossover event (at least I think Boba Fett is included, I could be wrong) which I figure will be very interesting. (I suspect the crossover has something to do with a certain blue-skinned villain, but time will tell…)

The happy normal couple. (Credit: Marvel, Disney)

Not to be outdone, Marvel has finally erupted onto Disney+ as well, releasing the first of their series, WandaVision. Cocoa and I started watching this the day it was released and were both hooked instantly. No surprise there. Marvel is experimenting with something new with this series and so far it seems to be paying off. It could best be described as a sitcom/mystery/family comedy with strong superhero roots. It’s full of Easter Eggs, humor, and intriguing hints towards the future of the MCU. I can’t wait to see where it’s going.

One thing I can wait for is Spider-Man 3. If you’ve read my previous Rabbit Hole post or my Twitter, you likely know my enthusiasm for the third MCU Spidey movie has waned in the wake of countless irritating rumors. I’ve banned any googling of Spider-Man until Marvel releases something official, because the rumors are getting more ridiculous by the week. According to the rumor mills, the previous two incarnations of Spider-Man will appear, along with their love interests and villains Electro and Doctor Octopus. (Thereby making non-MCU movies canon to the MCU which I find highly troubling for the integrity of the franchise.) Last I saw, the Netflix version of Daredevil was also supposedly slated to be in this film, adding more layers to the complexity of this cinematic mess.

I’m hoping that these insane rumors are just misdirection to keep people from finding out what’s really going on in the movie. It’s my firm opinion that throwing all these disparate elements into one movie will cause a bigger flop than Amazing Spider-Man 2. And it’s not just Spider-Man’s series that’s at risk, it’s the entirety of Phase 4 of the MCU. Like I’ve said before, there’s a singular vision at work and it can’t survive cramming multiple non-MCU films into canon.

I’m trying my best to trust that Marvel wouldn’t take such a huge misstep and ruin what they’ve spent thirteen years building… but the fact that they’re not quashing these rumors concerns me. Of course, I have to admit that it’s possible they will smash all these elements into one film and it may turn out okay. Stranger things have happened. I will gladly come back here and admit I was wrong if that turns out to be the case. But enough of that.

It’s good to have some form of Ghost Spider back. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Art: Ken Lashley)

In happier Spidey news, the comics are just as good as ever. I was a bit disappointed with Last Remains, the huge Spider-Man story involving the mysterious villain Kindred. It had its good moments and its bad, but at the end of the day it really answered none of the questions it posed. It was an anticlimactic letdown after being teased and built up for so long.

But the massive Venom event called The King in Black is awesome. It’s the payoff to years of storylines and appears like it will have lasting effects on the Venom character going forward. My favorite part is that Ghost Spider AKA Spider Gwen AKA Gwenom has a role in this story. They have brought in Gwen’s version of Mary Jane to become a new version of Carnage, which is an interesting choice. There are definitely unresolved feelings of annoyance and jealousy on Mary Jane’s part that are sure to come to a head in this. I’m seriously hoping she gets her ongoing series back at the other end of this, but time will tell. She deserves more than guest roles and limited series.

So many Mileses. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Art: Taurin Clarke)

In other news, it was revealed that Miles Morales is getting his own Clone Saga! The Clone Saga was a highly controversial storyline in Spider-Man’s history that lasted from 1994 to 1996 and ended with the reveal that Norman Osborne/The Green Goblin had recovered from his apparent death. I loved this storyline, even though some of it was awful… it was a blast and brings me back to the beginnings of my Spider-Man obsession. The fact that Miles is getting his own modern version of it is great news to me.

The Miles Morales PS5 game was lots of fun. It was much shorter than the Spider-Man game that came before it, but just as much fun. It kept much of the same gameplay elements and the game had its own feel that set it apart. I really enjoyed the bioelectric mechanics and what that brought to combat and puzzle-solving.

I’m enjoying my PS5 quite a bit. Astro’s Playroom, which came with it, is fun. I also played tons of Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory. (Maybe too much? Nah, no such thing.) I have also started Assassin’s Creed 2 on it. (Which will probably be the subject of my next Video Game Blog post.)

An unexpected side effect of getting the PS5 was moving my PS3 down to my game room. This made me play it a bit more than I have been. I played a lot of my old Angry Birds Trilogy and started Lego Batman 2. The latter of which is on my game list. I really am trying to stay more focused this year.

This is gonna be so awesome. (Credit: Legendary)

My focuses on my blog are pretty set in stone, at least for the start of the year. I have the next six posts in varying stages of completion. I’ll leave those as surprises, but seeing as how Godzilla vs Kong is finally coming out on March 31st, you can bet on some related content in the next couple of months. Smelly monkey content. Whee. Side note: We finally got the long-awaited trailer and the movie looks great. Slanted towards Kong as the winner, though. (I’m obviously a Godzilla man myself.)

What else? Aside from Doctor Who, there are several other topics I’ve been wanting to touch on. These include The Legend of Zelda, Spider-Man, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Steven Universe. We’ll see what I get to. My hope is to continue putting out posts while launching my YouTube channel. I still have a lot of work to do before I can do that. Baby steps.

Anyway, that’s enough rambling for now. I’m due to get back to researching my next posts so I can make room for some monkey posts! Thank you for following me around the rabbit holes. I hope you stick around and enjoy what I have in store for 2021. Let’s find some new treasures together!