Superman And The Quest For Flight!

Christopher Reeve is the Superman for my generation. I'm a bit too young for George Reeves, so the big production movie from 1978 defines the cinematic hero in my estimation. It didn't hurt that Reeve was a man of substance and a man who far from disgracing the role, elevated our understanding of it when he was struck down by tragedy and died all too soon. But that's Reeve, what of the movies? 

Superman was a big deal when it dropped in 1978, long anticipated it was a big-screen full-color adventure which seemed to have the scope and more importantly the budget to maybe make Superman come alive for fans and others across the globe. Well, they almost did it. I have to put myself back into that time, a time devoid of the modern digital wonders which deny us no visual we desire, and a time when to making a man super required a great deal of physical effects in addition to manipulation of actual film stock. The flying they got right. It's not as dynamic as it is now of course, but it might well be more elegant. When Reeve gentle lifts off it's totally convincing, or it was. Clark Kent is a boob, but then he was that in the comics more or less, and his relationship with Lois Lane is the emotional centerpiece of the first film. I've never been a great fan of Margot Kidder's Lois, but in retrospect it's a frothy presentation and I love the running gag that she can't spell. I still squirm when we enter her thoughts while they share their dancing flight. It's always felt overwrought to me. The villains are fun and hold up quite well, but the ending of the movie has always seemed ragged. But as we have known for some time there's a reason for that. 

Superman II from 1980 was a movie doomed before we got to see it. Filmed simultaneously with the first film, it gives us the payoff hinted at in the prologue with Marlon Brando and the Kryptonian villains. And that's where this movie works best, the trio of Kryptonian thugs are delightfully evil, each in his or her own way. Terrence Stamp is fantastic and steals the movie as far as I'm concerned. But the other two are close behind. The Superman-Lois story gets a lot of attention but loses its potency by the middle of the movie. There are a lot of scenes in this movie that have not aged well, the 70's will do that to a movie. The movie is damaged beyond repair by the dreadful decision to change directors and to keep Brando out of it. I know a movie needs to make money, but Hollywood also has to realize that their art is not well served by such short-sightedness. This time I watched the Donner Cut of the movie which does its best to bring to the screen Richard Donner's original version of the movie. And it's clear his version is better. Richard Lester's scenes, especially those where the villains are challenging the military in the backwoods town hurt the movie overall and undermine the sense of scale which this opus was attempting. But that doesn't mean Lester's a bad director, but not the man for this kind of story. 

That's proven by his direction of 1984's Superman III which is basically a comedy with some adventure elements added. Despite the overuse of Richard Pryor this movie still holds up thanks to some really entertaining performances all around. The light tone results in some really good gags and the tone suits the modest production. The focus on computers makes the movie funny in ways not even intended at the time since our understanding of that technology has zoomed into a new era. Clark's return to Smallville was fun though Lana Lang was a tad annoying, and I wish the combine harvester had hit her kid, he was so irritating. I love Loralei, the so-called dumb blonde who reveals some hefty brainpower she keeps hidden for the dubious benefit of her boyfriend. The credits for this movie are outstanding and an entertaining set piece in their own right. The credits for the first two movies were so slow and boring that I remember actively dreading them and was joyfully surprised. 

Superman IV The Quest for Peace from 1987 is the one most folks single out for persecution. But despite his "B Film" quality it has a reasonably solid plot and a proper super villain. I've always argued that this movie was the most like a Superman comic. I can see Nuclear Man showing up in DC's Metropolis quite easily. The special effects of this one are limited but not so much that it impairs the movie in any way that I can tell. Turning the tables and giving Clark a love interest aside from Lois was fun but how they handle it is dubious at best. This is the only movie of the period which uses the logo and for that I will forgive many sins. Most superhero movies often tried to escape their roots, but this movie embraces them. None of the Superman movies make all that much sense if you push the details, but they do a great job with the modern myth which the man from Krypton has become. 

All in all, some good entertainment. Christopher was a smiling shining example of what a hero can be even in the worst of times and the late 70's and 80's were rough indeed. But at least they got the flying right. 

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Black Widow - The Movie!

Black Widow the movie is a strange story in many ways because we already know the fate of the main character the Black Widow from Avengers: Endgame. This is a story which precedes the events of Avengers: Infinity War. We finally get the details (to some extent) of the "red" which is in the Widow's "ledger", the things she's done which motivate her to effectively sacrifice her life to battle alongside the Avengers to save the world. 

The story begins in these United States (circa 1995) and we meet Natasha's "family". They are actually Russian spies who pretend to be a family to aid their espionage. But Natasha and her little "sister" Yelena (Florence Pugh) are so young that the three of normal family (more or less) they have in Ohio undercover seems real to them, it becomes for them the family they never had in any other way. Natasha's "Mother" Melena (Rachel Weisz) is "Black Widow" too and her "father" Akexi is the Red Guardian (David Harbour), Russia's only super-soldier. 

The story then jumps forward in time to just after Captain America: Civil War when the Widow is a fugitive from SHIELD and most everyone else. We find that the Black Widows operate out of the "Red Room" which is operated by the cruel Dreykov (Ray Winstone) who uses a masked operative named Taskmaster to help him hunt down folks who get in his way. The Widows are now controlled with a chemical which makes it impossible for them to disobey. Natashas and her sister Yelena fight to free their sister Widows of this dreadful regime. 

The action in this movie is typically hyperbolic, with impossible stunts becoming commonplace. It's exciting and as usual the creators hope the high-speed of the film will let most of this impossible action slide through the audience's credibility filters, and for the most part it does. But the finale battle in the air seemed a step too far for me, since as far as I know the Widow does not have superpowers really, merely exquisite training. It is nonetheless a kinetic joyride, typical of the Marvel movies and the story is possessed of sufficient heart to make a sentimental joker like me care a bunch. 

All in all, Black Widow is a dandy movie. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Highly recommended. Scarlett Johanson has created a fascinating character and she herself will be missed. As for the ending we all knew must come, all I can say is the Black Widow is dead, long live the Black Widow. 

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Batmania - Rat Pfink A Boo Boo!

If perchance you are a Batman fan and have not seen Rat Pfink a Boo Boo from 1966, you have a rustic gem yet to discover. This is a movie by low-budget schlock master Ray Dennis Steckler and weirdly it's at times his most restrained and suspenseful movie and also his most zany and hilarious. That's simply because we have two movies in one here. It begins as a restrained movie of true suspense with a beautiful woman being harassed and attacked by three truly repugnant thugs. This trio of villains select their next victim by random from the phone book and begin a campaign of terror by following and confronting their unsuspecting target. But when after several rather tense encounters they do finally kidnap her the movie switches gears in a stunning fashion.

There had been no indication at all that the woman's boyfriend and her gardener were in fact a somewhat low-rent dynamic duo called "Rat Pfink" and his pal "Boo Boo". Their thrift shop homemade costumes notwithstanding, they then hop in a motorcycle with a sidecar and follow the baddies to rescue the damsel in distress and the movie gets weirder and weirder from that point on. 

To call Rat Pfink and Boo Boo (or its official title of Rat Pfink a Boo Boo -- Steckler declared it was not a mistake) a good movie is a crime against cinema. But to hail this raunchy jaunt as an entertaining movie is a totally on the mark. Batmania fans will revel in the obvious homage to the actual "Dynamic Duo" who were dominating pop culture for a time in the late 60's and there are many other aspects of the movie that make it a hoot. Bob Burns, longtime sci-fi and horror fan and collector and defacto inheritor of the mantle once worn by Forry Ackerman is in this flick in his ape costume called "Kogar". He shows up in the riotous finale when the movie takes another wide swing into yet another direction. 

This movie was made over a very long time to make, essentially when Steckler had the money to continue and that explains the changes in some characters both physically and also suggests why the movie veers off course so stunningly at times. The movie stars Steckler's wife Carolyn Brandt as "Cee Bee Beaumont" the damsel and Ron Haydock (under the name "Vin Saxon") as "Rat Pfink" and the boyfriend. Haydock was a comic book fan contributing to a number of fanzines in his time and was also an early rock and roll singer with a few minor tunes to his credit. He sings four numbers in this movie. "Boo Boo" is played by Titus Moede, a Steckler regular who actually went on to have a tiny career in regular material. The odious and menacing "Chain Gang" features a few Steckler regulars as well with Mike Kannon as "Hammer" and James Bowie as "Benjie", and one-timer George Caldwell as "Linc". 

If you're a fan of Steckler's work than you've seen Rat Pfink a Boo Boo as it's one of his most famous alongside the psychotronic hit The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies. But unlike that movie which had a small budget, this one has almost no budget being produced out of Steckler's pocket for the most part with the help of his friends. It's not only a noirish black and white film but a silent movie as well, since Steckler always shot his movies silently (all the equipment he could usually afford) and added sound later. In this wacky thing that works to its benefit giving it a fun shlocky feel like a badly dubbed foreign film. If you see no other Steckler movie I can sure understand that, but everyone who has ever heard of Batman needs to see this one. 

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Batmania - Holy Bat Babes!

Bat Woman  (La Mujer Murcielago)is not really all that bad of a movie. I'm not saying it's necessarily a "good' movie but it is entertaining and works harder than many lower budget films to keep the audience occupied as the minutes roll along. As the poster above atests this movie was produced in Mexico in 1968 or thereabouts as a later entry in the "Batmania" which swept much of the continent for a brief but all-encompassing time. 

It's star is a beautiful Italian actress named Maura Monti and watching her fetching figure prance around for much of the movie in a bikini variation of the classic Batman outfit is nigh near enough to warrant watching the flick on its own. 

She's stunning and waltzes around in the skimpiest of fighting togs without the slightest sense of self-awareness that might make it seem peculiar. The movie is goofy but not unlike the TV show that spawned it, it's a goofy satire that doesn't wink at the audience all that much. 

Bat Woman is a crimefighter and a spy who also wrestles quite successfully. When she's not in the ring and not training she shifts around town in a nice little sports car looking for villainy. She finds it in this movie aboard a floating lab called "Reptilicus" owned by a properly mad scientist and who along with his grungy assistant Igor are killing wrestlers to get a precious gland to help them make a race of undersea fish men. (Actually the creature seems more crablike to me, but it's still a decent suit all things considered.) The scientist named Williams howls and yells and his minions try to do their best to do his worst but in the end as we all know he will meet defeat at the hands of the sexy Bat Woman. 

I've been wanting to watch this one for years and at long last got hold of it alongside another Mexican wrestling movie called Panther Women. The English dub is pretty decent though the occasional shout out of an off-screen voice to offer translations of street signs and such is jarring at first. Bat Woman is brave and smart and despite doing some inexplicably stupid things is worthy of the name. 

The Wild world of Batwoman is a movie like few others I have seen. It's on one level a farce, a laughable and clumsy attempt to piggyback on the surprise success of the 60's Batman TV show which itself was satire. Produced by Jerry Warren, a huckster movie maker who according to many who knew him was singularly unconcerned about the quality of the work he generated. His focus was to grind out a movie as quickly and as cheaply as possible and dump it into the market to gather who shekels it might before word got out. Hopelessly incompetent, the utter sheer badness makes it nonetheless on one level a compelling watch.

I first learned of this movie a few years ago and saw some of it online. But a few weeks back I had the chance to snag a copy and I did, along with some other Jerry Warren outings (coming attractions). The movie just sucks, that is unless you like to watch Go-Go Girls. If that's the case then have I got a flick for you -- this is besotted with Go-Go Girls who never miss an opportunity to shake and twist and fall into the hedonistic throes of 60's dancing. 

Big hair and sleek asses bounce and bounce as these "Bat Girls" perform in anticipation of Bat Woman calling upon them to foil the plots of the villain called Rat Fink. This baddie, clothed in all black from head to toe employs two dopey thugs and a mad scientist named Neon to operate his schemes which seem not to really have much point to them. They kidnap people for random reasons and threaten crimes which seem not to offer much chance of profit, but it does get Bat Woman into the fray. 

This ain't a good movie, it's a really badly made movie, but so badly made that it's incredibly fun to watch. 

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Zack Snyder's Justice League!

Now this is the Justice League movie I was waiting for. Despite a number of minor flaws, not the least of which is the excessive length, the Justice League are gathered and fight against the immortal threat of Darkseid and his agent on this Earth Steppenwolf with the appropriate seriousness of purpose and the proper attitude to exerting mayhem. Having said that I don't wish to suggest that I want my heroes bloody, but neither do I want my heroes to turn away from what needs doing in the moment it needs that doing. Heroism is doing what is hard in hard times and all too often in narratives we feed our heroes easy outs to allow them to keep the stains off their colorful garments. 

Now about the length of this beast, I'd say it's best to approach as do the creators and think of hit as a mini-series. This one has six parts and an elaborate epilogue and there's plenty of meat in all the episodes, enough really for any normal movie most likely. This is story with a heavy lift and needs to introduce seven heroes at the very least, get them together in a somewhat reasonable fashion, feature them in fights in which they both lose and win before they ultimately win the day, if it is only the day. And to be heroes they need a proper villain and at long long last Darkseid has come to call and he's fucking magnificent in this screen treatment, glowering and deadly and every creepy dire thing I always imagined him to be. Lex Luther and Joker are chaff in the wind next to the likes of Darkseid and it's best the heroes know it. 

Some will anguish that much of the lighter banter which highlighted the previous version of this story is missing and truth told I missed a few funny bits here and there, especially Aquaman's lasso confessions, but when I grokked what Snyder was doing, making these heroes, even the light-hearted Flash, a tad darker I accepted the changes as necessary. So many fans want these DC movies to be just like the Marvel ones, and sure the Marvels have found a secret of success, but I've always cottoned to the darker tone of the DC films and when they veer off into a lighter zone something usually falls a tad flat. 

It was treat to see the Martian Manhunter and to realize I'd been seeing him for some time was nifty as well. Trying to capture all the action in the "Age of Heroes" battle when Darkseid was first repelled was a job in and of itself. So much goes on there that it could feed out to several movies. And that's the greatness of this material, the density of the universe in which the drama is played out has grown and evolved for over eighty years and the richness is when handled deftly is like good wine. I wish this movie was considered canon, and maybe in time it will be. I know that I'd love to have a copy of it when it ever becomes available in my area. 

And that wraps up my month-long look at all things DC. DC won't be going away in the month of July, but will be joined by a wide range of other comic book companies and characters. Looking forward to it. 

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WW84!

I absolutely loved the first Wonder Woman movie. My girls and I were enthralled with it in the theater in its original run in 2017, and we were muchly entertained when we screened it at home just before diving into the new one. I will confess the early glimpses had shaken my confidence and sadly I must agree with the majority that this is not nearly as good a movie as its predecessor. Mostly it seems to substitute sentiment for true cathartic pathos and frankly much of the film, especially early on confused the crap out of me. More after some spoiler cautions. 

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. 

It took me longer than it should've to figure out that Pedro Pascal's frenetic Max Lord in this story was a parody of Donald Trump, but when I finally did, I began to get a grip on what was being put forth in the film, at least in terms of theme. The wish stone which is the focus of all the action is miserably explained and its connection to longtime Wonder Woman foe the Duke of Deception was all but incoherent. This movie falls in a place no story should, in that its expository set up utterly fails and that makes the rest of the tale, no matter how filled with kinetic hijinks just plain activity and not storytelling. 

I was much better pleased by the Cheetah than I expected. I thought the comedic actress Kristen Wiig cast in the role looked too goofy in the bits I'd seen before the movie to have the gravitas to give WW a suitable contest. That's taken care of as the Cheetah's slow steady transformation is interesting to follow, if as confusing at times as much of the rest of the film. I was much reminded of Michelle  Pfieffer's turn as Catwoman in Batman Returns. And while I'm at it, I didn't mind Chris Pine's return, though after the fashion jokes there wasn't much for him to do really. As I mentioned to my daughters, the resurrection of Steve Trevor is a Wonder Woman staple. 

I enjoyed the appearance of the invisible plane and it was curious to see Wonder Woman learn to fly. This time the sequences reminded me of the vintage Christopher Reeve Superman sequences in which he and Lois kite around. Since this movie was set in 1984 these references to the earlier franchises might well have been intentional, but they affected the tone of the movie to its detriment. 

And along those lines, the image of Paradise Island reminded me more of Hogwarts than a remote isle filled with the tenacious warrior women we'd met in earlier films. The Amazons in the stands watching the competition (which it should be noted most of which they could not see) looked more like giddy college girls than deadly dames of daring and do. And the costumes the contestants wore were fuck awful, leftover remnants from those teen dystopias like Hunger Games. 

And what is up with Wonder Woman's lasso. She's been in four movies now and this is the first one in which the lasso operated more like Spider-Man's webbing than an actual rope of a certain length. She seemed able to make it twitch and jump at her command and it reached out as long as necessary to do what needed doing to make that particular scene work. 

On the upside, Gal Gadot was just as ravishing as Wonder Woman as she has been in every appearance so far. Only the aforementioned Chris Reeve captured the totality of his character as effectively, at least in terms of pure looks. She is a stunning woman to watch and if they just made a movie of her walking around in those slinky gowns and whatnot, I'dl likely buy a ticket. But then I'd know not to expect a coherent story with that. 

HERE ENDETH THE SPOILERS.

 

All in all Wonder Woman 84 is a big glossy colorful disappointment. I wish it were more coherent as a story. But truth is it ain't. Maybe they'll get it right the next time. 

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The Joker's Wrath!

For me, Joker, much like the most recent Batman trilogy, approached the material not as if it were a comic book movie, but rather that it was  merely a movie that drew upon literary material as a source, just as movies have done with novels forever and day. Comic book fans get disgruntled with movies not made just for them, those filled with the little details that all of us love to look for and giggle gleefully over when we find them. That's fun -- but not every film need follow that limiting model. Joker doesn't as far as I can tell. Sure the details are here, the characters are present, but shuffled up to make a complex and compelling movie.

Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal is stunning in its detail and sheer unrelenting force. He is almost literally in your face throughout this film and the power comes from the fact we cannot look away. I don't give  a monkey's behind how close to this or that earlier incarnation this Joker is, I just want the movie to hold together and work on its own merits. Joker does that in spades. His performance shimmers like a diamond, despite the fact the setting is the very essence of bleak. The heartbreak of the revelations in the story we know so well but learn more about and is felt by the moviegoer, who is clubbed with an emotional blast that only ever builds upon itself.

The Joker here is a dangerous and brutal man, but a man wanting only what we all want -- acceptance, respect and love. But he is denied those things and in fact learns that possibly he might be incapable of ever having these things, and the vengeance he wreaks on a world in which his true face is shunned is deadly and dark and never ending. Society could've have saved itself from the Joker's limitless wrath, but chose not to do so for reasons we see in our real world everyday. We just don't care enough.

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Duck Before It's Too Late!

Howard the Duck (the movie) has been a synonym for awful for so long that it's hard to recollect what it was really like. Released in 1986 it's a movie mired in its time unfortunately. Movies then required all too often hectic antics to fill in for characterization and car chases, no matter how illogical or inane were the calling card of any movie of the time not starring Meryl Streep. It seemed to be a law in Hollywood that a cop car had to crashed in every movie made in the 80's. All this hokum invaded the potential of a really excellent Howard the Duck movie, something I'd still love to see.

The roiling hysterics of modern day society, led by our Doofus-in-Chief have made me yearn more and more for a time when satire had real bite because it wasn't reality. Steve Gerber made a duck to speak for all of the little people, those lost and put upon in a world they don't feel a part of. But Howard was not a victim, he was more like Steinbeck's Tom Joad, a being who saw what needed doing and did it, albeit reluctantly. A hero for the common man, set apart by his species, but never his attitudes.

I watched Howard the Duck again yesterdat and then listened to the "How it was Made" vignette and I knew immediately why the movie doesn't strike home. The makers of this movie used the word "silly" in reference to Howard and while Gerber's Duck is supposed to be "absurd" he is never meant to be "silly". To their credit the producers said they didn't really want to explain how Howard came to be on Earth and that really struck me as a successful way to approach the character -- he just is and we deal with it. But then they said they wanted to make the movie in Hawaii at first too and that would've been a disaster. This felt like a movie of convenience and its lackluster reputation is a result.

I'm plunging my nose into some of the raw Howard in the weeks to come and no doubt a report or two will result. Steve Gerber and the artists who worked with him such as Val Mayerik, Frank Brunner and Gene Colan made something quite remarkable in those waning years of the 70's. I'm eager to tap back into it. I know one thing though...it won't be "silly". The span between absurd and silly is the entire world.

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The Wild World Of Bat Woman!

The Wild world of Batwoman is a movie like few others I have seen. It's on one level a farce, a laughable and clumsy attempt to piggyback on the surprise success of the 60's Batman TV show which itself was satire. Produced by Jerry Warren, a huckster movie maker who according to many who knew him was singularly unconcerned about the quality of the work he generated. His focus was to grind out a movie as quickly and as cheaply as possible and dump it into the market  to gather who shekels it might before word got out. Hopelessly incompetent, the utter sheer badness makes it nonetheless on one level a compelling watch.

I first learned of this movie a few years ago and saw some of it online. But a few weeks back I had the chance to snag a copy and I did, along with some other Jerry Warren outings (coming attractions). The movie just sucks, that is unless you like to watch Go-Go Girls. If that's the case then have I got a flick for you -- this is besotted with  Go-Go Girls who never miss an opportunity to shake and twist and fall into the hedonistic throes of 60's dancing. 

Big hair and sleek asses bounce and bounce as these "Bat Girls" perform in anticipation of Bat Woman calling upon them to foil the plots of the villain called Rat Fink. This baddie, clothed in all black from head to toe employs two dopey thugs and a mad scientist named Neon to operate his schemes which seem not to really have much point to them. They kidnap people for random reasons and threaten crimes which seem not to offer much chance of profit, but it does get Bat Woman into the fray. 

This ain't a good movie, it's a really badly made movie,but so badly made that it's incredibly fun to watch. 

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The Last Avengers - A Reflection!

And that's a wrap folks. The long winding and often convoluted saga of the Marvel cinematic universe reached a breaking point with the distribution of Avengers Endgame. The movie is a long one, that's for sure. I at first was going to wait a week or so to see it, but it was clear that details of the story were going to shake loose sooner than later, so I found a front row center seat at a early morning screening and enjoyed it mightily. There are great laughs and there are tears, lots and lots of tears. sagas we've been following for some years now have found some degree of resolution and yes there is  death, both for the benefit of the world and otherwise. Below is a spoiler rich discussion of some thoughts about this ultimate movie and what it says about the nature of heroism and about humanity.

UNAPOLOGETIC SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT SO TREAD WITH EXCEEDING CARE...

Someone told a friend of mine that they'd not need to have seen earlier movies to enjoy this one. That's not even remotely true. The earlier Avengers films are needed, along with Iron Man, Captain Ameica: The First Avenger, and Thor. Others certainly help, but without knowing the themes of both the Shellhead, Cap, and Thor story lines, apprehending the meaning of this one will be elusive I suspect. And there was also the Black Widow who found her way into many if not most of these tales. What are those themes?

For Iron Man or better yet Tony Stark it's about learning the limits of life and finding humility which comes with love. The Stark we meet in Iron Man is a cock-sure genius who is dead certain he knows everything about everything and if he doesn't he can in mere moments. His universe is one he controls utterly and there are no problems he cannot solve. He is given a second chance at life by Yinsen, a man who sacrifices his life for the greater good and for his family as well. Stark and Cap debated in the first Avengers movie about the nature of heroes and need to fall on the barbed wire for others, to sacrifice your life for others. Despite his origin, Stark is certain he can find a way to solve all equations and to come extent he does, though it creates startling shifts in his understanding of the world. In Endgame he goes there, he gives his life intentionally for the benefit of others, others he cares about more than himself and it's suggested that's because he's now a father. Parenthood can change you they say and it seems to have changed Tony Stark. He wanted to build a shield around the world, to keep it safe in anticipation of any danger, but it always seemed his efforts were thwarted by the whims of life and death. In Endgame he finally understands what Yinsen showed him so long before, there is no protection which is absolute, no shield strong enough, there is only what individuals do when they are required and for the first time, Tony Stark lays his body on the wire.

For Captain America it's been a different journey. He's always been the hero's hero, the template for bravery and goodness. But in order to become the hero he had to give up his life and his love. He did it, he made the choice but in this movie he gets the chance to choose again. I won't pretend to understand all the vagaries of the plot here, with its time-traveling details, but somehow Steve Rogers is able to make the universe safe and still find time to live life slowly. While some aspect of him slept in the ice, some other aspect found marriage and happiness and sadness and grief and all the rest of that bittersweet package we call the daily life. He was not just the hero anymore, he was the man named Steve Rogers. He's not the perfect warrior, he became the imperfect human and had the humility to become just a guy from Brooklyn, which in the final analysis was all he ever was. The heart of these movies has always been their success in tapping the emotions of the audience and the saga of Captain America or more properly Steve Rogers does that in spades. Who knows what the future has in store for those who remain, but that's life ain't it.

For Thor, it was always about meeting the obligations which were his as the son of the mighty lord of Asgard, Odin. We meet him as a callow youth who bellows and brags and fights with vigor and bristling stupidity. His strength is his weakness, his pride is his downfall and we see him in the first story learn that leaders are not born, they are made. He becomes in that first story worthy to accept the mantle and in later stories he does just that. In this one, the burden has become too much and he's lost his way again as many of us do. He's a god but he's not perfect and he hides from his pain behind the balm of drink and distraction and ignores what must come next. By being pulled back into the larger story he slowly and reluctantly again learns that gods are just people too. In the end he gives up his leadership, he chooses to do it and that's the difference. He is pointed in the way of the future and into the depths of time and space.

And finally for the Black Widow the saga ends. She has been in many the most fascinating character in all of these movies, first appearing in the second Iron Man flick and becoming a linchpin of the Avengers team. Her guilt over the grim past  always weighs heavily it seemed, even as she quipped with a particular gallows humor. Her special history and unique connection to Hawkeye, in many the most normal and "human" of the characters proved her worth, though she doubted it always. Her romance with Bruce Banner seemed to be a special match, two "monsters" trying to hide themselves behind human faces. She said once that her "ledger was full of red", and the movies are a relentless march toward her salvation which comes with her self-sacrifice, meant to save the world itself. She is dead in that distant dimension and somewhat forgotten at the film's conclusion. But that's the way she was considered within the narrative flow of the movies, always crucial but often underestimated and sadly all too often overlooked. The depth of character in the Natasha "Nat" Romanova has been one of the true revelations in the movie universe.

Other heroes came and fought and will fight again. Thor will certainly find a place of some kind with or without Chris Hemsworth with the Guardians of the Galaxy. But for Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and Natasha  Romonova the road seems well and truly to have ended, or at least it has for the nonce. Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johanson are gone, but with any delightful fictional character there is a more than a tiny bit of immortality.

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