Thanksgeeking Pt. 2

It's that time of the year again. The time when I have so much to be grateful for, but instead choose to write about arbitrary geek things because real emotion makes me uncomfortable.

So without further ado, here are 5 more geeky things I'm grateful for this year.

1. Natalie Dormer

I know I've already gushed about her when listing my picks for Captain Marvel, but this is about more than just the character I want her to portray. Natalie Dormer is perfection. First of all, she pulls off this hair wonderfully. I'm super jealous. If I could grow long, beautiful hair, I'd totally shave half of it off.

Second, she's a queen of positive body image. "The focus seems to be on [looks] for women and it's not fair and...you're watching us, and you don't realize how much makeup and how much lightning is involved when we look good. We've got a lot of help going on. I often think that it's not health for young girls to be flipping through these magazines and looking at films and TV, seeing these shows." I was in the (very large) room when she said this, and it gave me the chills.

Third, she's a queen of feminism. "Women are over 50 percent of the population. [Mockingjay is] one of the few films that actually represents us. What we’re aiming for in the industry is not to go, “Girl power! Wave the flag!” We want to get to a place where the gender is irrelevant, because then it’s about the personality, and about the story. What I love about Mockingjay–Part 1 is that President Coin or Cressida could have easily been played by a man, and if you look at Interstellar, the Anne Hathaway or Jessica Chastain roles would have been men years ago. I’m glad that cinema is catching up to what television has known for a while: that three-dimensional, complex women get an audience engaged as much as the men. I’m a feminist in the true sense of the word. It’s about equality... It really is crazy that the word “feminist” can have negative connotations in 2014. It upsets me that the younger generation of women think it’s a dirty word, and associate it with a kind of militantism or a sense of female superiority. It’s not. It just means liberation, and equality."

In conclusion, I want to have her babies.

2. The Mary Sue

There are a small handful of websites that I frequent, but none more than The Mary Sue. It's a geek website through a feminist lens, and it's awesome. With article titles like, "The Full Jurassic World Trailer Debuts and Suddenly I'm 11 Years Old Again" and "I'm Sorry, Did You Just Call Agent Carter a Secretary?", how could it not be? It also has the best comments section of any website ever. The moderators are like hawks when it comes to deleting comments that go against their comment policy, and pretty much everything that is left is awesome.

3. Minority Superhero Movies

There have been a ridiculous number of superhero movies and I can count on one hand the number of minority superhero movies. Supergirl, Catwoman, Elektra, Hancock, and Blade. I cold be missing some, but that's it. There are more movies about Batman than there are about superheros who are not white men. And sure, there are minorities in superhero teams, but the vast majority of those teams are almost exclusively made up of white men, apart from the one person (usually a white woman) who isn't.

I've said this before, but I'm tired of watching white men on screen. Not tired enough to stop, but tired enough to roll my eyes every time I see yet another trailer with the majority of actors being white men.

Not that we're even close to reaching any kind of parity, but there are 5 superhero movies coming out in the next 5 years that are not about white men. Two women, two black men, and a pacific islander. Five compared to the ridiculous number that is white male superheros is pretty pathetic, but I'm still excited.

4. Snowpiercer

This is probably the best movie I saw in theaters this year, and I will never stop gushing about it. It's on Netflix right now and I would very highly recommend it if you haven't seen it yet. Chris Evans delivers an amazing performance and Tilda Swinton is, as always, one of the best things about this movie. It's a fantastic post-apocalyptic story and you all should watch it. It should be required watching like 1984 should be required reading.

5. Ships

I don't do ships. I don't do fan fiction. I don't do slash art. I have nothing against any of those things, but they just generally don't interest me.

Until I found out that the Korra/Asami ship was a thing.

I still don't do fan fiction and I still don't do slash art. But I love the idea of Korra and Asami as a couple. I don't know why I can't just love them for being awesome friends and leave it at that. Cause they really do make a fantastic female friendship duo. They're the Super Best Friends Forever of the Avatar universe. But I still just want them both to embrace their bisexuality and love each other. The two of them make way more sense than any of the other relationships on Korra. Korra/Mako was a disaster, Asami/Mako was boring, Bolin/Korra have all sorts of chemistry, none of it romantic, and Bolin/Opal just doesn't make sense to me. But Korra/Asami? It works beautifully.

Captain Marvel or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Marvel Again

What a roller coaster ride this has been. Remember my love letter to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? It wasn't even that long ago. But then the rumor mill started turning and instead of hearing about the highly anticipated (and already long overdue by that point) movies featuring Captain Marvel and Black Panther, we got rumors of more Captain America and more Thor and more Iron Man and a watered down version of what would have been a beautiful Ant Man film.

Then I went to Comic-Con expecting some kind of announcement, but instead got nothing new. I didn't know why Marvel refused to shut up and take my money.

Then, when everyone least expected it, DC announced its movie lineup for the next several years and on the list were none other than Wonder Woman (woman, obviously), Cyborg (black man), and Aquaman (pacific islander [which is awesome, by the way, because Aquaman is depicted as white and blonde, and they go for a minority!]). That, plus The Flash is going to be played by a man who identifies as queer. Granted, These juicy morsels are slim pickings compared to the plethora of white, straight males that abound, but it's still a pretty huge announcement.

Now, DC still one ups Marvel in the minority department even with the new announcement of Captain Marvel (aka Carol Danvers) and Black Panther (aka T'Challa), but I'm still super freaking excited because 1) Marvel has been cranking out far superior films than WB/DC and 2) apart from Wonder Woman and Batman, my superhero love belongs exclusively to Marvel (although the bulk of my original superhero loves belong to Fox, unfortunately).

T'Challa/Black Panther will be played by Chadwick Boseman, which means I have to go watch Get on Up, but no one will make me watch a sports movie. He'll show up IN COSTUME in Captain America: Civil War and I wouldn't be surprised if we're introduced to T'Challa in Avengers: Age of Ultron because of Ultron's history with vibranium (the metal Cap's shield is made out of, only found in the fictional African nation of Wakanda, where T'Challa is King). Hence the early casting.

Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, however, has not been cast. Which actually really bums me out because when she didn't show up in Guardians of the Galaxy, I was really hoping she'd make a cameo in Age of Ultron. Since there is no confirmed actor for Carol, I'm going to put in my two cents on who I want to see play my current favorite (seriously, start reading her current run right now).

Now, I know I said a while ago that Katee Sackhoff was a no brainer, but I've since cooled on that idea. She looks the part and can kick ass, but her acting ability hasn't super impressed me and Carol Danvers can be equal parts hilarious and terrifying. We need someone with range. So, gentle readers, I present to you (in no particular order because my preference changes often and I would be 100% happy with any of these choices), who I want to see play Captain Marvel.

Katheryn Winnick

Okay, so full disclosure, I haven't seen Katheryn Winnick in anything but Vikings on the History Channel. I guess I have seen her in a few other movies, but those movies were pretty forgettable. However, she is not in the least bit forgettable on Vikings. *Spoilers ahead. She plays a shieldmaiden and a total BAMF who is married to the man who eventually becomes Earl. She and their son eventually leave him because the d-bag wanted a second wife and she marries another Earl in another community. That Earl turns out to be a complete and total bastard and she ends up (rightfully) killing him and replacing him as Earl. She then comes back to her ex's village (as an Earl in her own right) with a bunch of other BAMF shieldmaidens to partner up with him and go on crazy raids in England and overthrow the king of whatever part of Norway/Sweden/Denmark they live in and all sorts of BAMF-y goodness. Her character is pretty much the coolest and she plays that character oh so well. I would love to see her be an actual superhero. And she would to the terrifying moments perfectly. Cause Lagertha can be terrifying.

Natalie Dormer

I have a massive crush on this woman. Huge. I loved her in The Tudors (her character was the only thing that kept me watching, hence me not watching it after she was beheaded), she has been perfection itself in Game of Thrones, and she's going to show us all what a physically kick-ass lady she can be in the upcoming Hunger Games movies. Because let's face it, Marjory Tyrrell is one kick-ass lady what with all the manipulation and ladder climbing and possible non-heterosexuality and charity and general thrive when everyone else is dying know-how. Dormer pulls all this off wonderfully, and the more I think about it, the more I want Natalie Dormer as my Captain Marvel.

Jessica Chastain

Jessica Chastain has been wanting to be a superhero for a while, and I am inclined to agree that she should be. I love Sarlett Johansson, but I kind of wish Chastain was Black Widow. But since she's not, we  can hope that she gets her very own movie as Captain Marvel. She's done action, she's done military, she's done sci-fi, she's done comedy(ish)... What other skills does one need to bring to life Princess Sparklefists?

Emily Blunt

First of all, I want her arms. Secondly, Come on. How is this not a fantastic idea? She actually was first choice for Black Widow but turned it down because at the time, movies did not make female superheros very awesome. And yeah, Black Widow in Iron Man 2 was not very awesome. Okay, she was, but she was very highly sexualized, which was not awesome, so I cannot even start to blame her for reading that script and turning it down. But because of that "I'm no one's eye candy" attitude, she would make the perfect Carol Danvers.

Honorable mentions go to Rosamund Pike and Nicole Beharie, I wouldn't mind them either, but they are second tier.

Of these four actresses, two are already big movie stars, one is a well-known TV actress, and the other is a not-so-well-known TV actress. Based on Marvel's track record, they like to pick people who haven't hit it big yet (except maybe with Dr. Strange, for some reason), so of this list, Kathryn Winnick is probably the most likely. Although I want her to be the most likely, so I really have no idea.

Honestly, any of them would be perfect. And someone not on this list would probably be perfect too. I'm just happy we're FINALLY getting a Captain Marvel movie. 

On Bill Cosby, Rape, and Victim Blaming

Trigger warning.

I know this is not what I normally write about, but I feel like that girl from Mean Girls who doesn't even go here and just has a lot of feelings. I want to yell at someone, but I don't know who. I want to kick something, but I don't know what. I want to change things, but I don't know how. I guess the next best thing is to write a blog post that 9 people might see.

If you haven't heard about the rape and sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby, go google it and read up on the subject before reading this post. Also tell me where exactly the hole is that you live in. I want to come visit.

I was never a fan of Cosby, so this is not a "fall from grace" situation for me. I had no opinion of the man. I was too young to enjoy The Cosby Show and I may have seen a few minutes of his stand up in high school. I've always known who he was, of course, but I knew him as the Jell-O guy as a kid more than anything else, so it's not that I had a personal investment in the man. That does not make the current news easy to deal with.

Nor am I a victim of rape or sexual assault. I can't imagine what these (so far) 15 women went through and their experiences do not illicit some horrible memory from my own past experiences. That does not make the current news easy to deal with.

I am, however, a woman. A citizen in a society that is rampant with rape culture. Not only does sexual assault happen every day (every 2 seconds in the US, to be exact), it is normalized and victims are blamed for what happened to them.

"What was she wearing?" is victim blaming.

"How much was she drinking?" is victim blaming.

"It was oral? Why didn't she use her teeth?" is victim blaming.

"Why was she in a bad neighborhood?" is victim blaming.

"If he wasn't armed, why didn't she try to run away?" is victim blaming.

"Why didn't she try to fight back?" is victim blaming.

These questions are absolutely, 100% irrelevant to the conversation. If you ask what she was wearing, you immediately imply that if she had been wearing something else, she wouldn't have been raped. If you ask how much she was drinking, you immediately imply she wouldn't have been raped if she wasn't drinking. If you wonder why she didn't fight back you immediately imply that she either wanted to have sex and is lying about being raped (more on that later) or she wouldn't have been raped if she had just tried harder not to be raped.

Let's think about those last few words for a moment. "Try harder not to be raped." That's essentially what you are saying when you ask one of those questions, yet how much sense does it make? Rapists are going to rape and rapists are the only ones who are responsible for rape. End of discussion. I could walk naked down the street in a horrible neighborhood while drunk, and if there aren't any rapists around, I WON'T GET RAPED.

To illustrate how ridiculous these questions are, I'm going to quote “The Legal Bias Against Rape Victims (The Rape of Mr. Smith)” by Connie K. Borkenhagen from the American Bar Association Journal. Keep in mind this was published in 1975, 40 years ago, and we are still dealing with this exact same thing. 

“Mr. Smith, you were held up at gunpoint on the corner of First and Main?” 
“Yes.” 
“Did you struggle with the robber?” 
“No.” 
“Why not?” 
“He was armed.”
“Then you made a conscious decision to comply with his demands rather than resist?” 
“Yes.” 
“Did you scream? Cry out?” 
“No, I was afraid.” 
“I see. Have you ever been held up before?” 
“No.” 
“Have you ever GIVEN money away?” 
“Yes, of course.” 
“And you did so willingly?” 
“What are you getting at?” 
“Well, let’s put it like this, Mr. Smith. You’ve given money away in the past. In fact, you have quite a reputation for philanthropy. How can we be sure that you weren’t CONTRIVING to have your money taken from you by force?” 
“Listen, if I wanted –” 
“Never mind. What time did this holdup take place, Mr. Smith?” 
“About 11:00 P.M.” 
“You were out on the street at 11:00 P.M.? Doing what?” 
“Just walking.” 
“Just walking? You know that it’s dangerous being out on the street that late at night. Weren’t you aware that you could have been held up?” 
“I hadn’t thought about it.” 
“What were you wearing at the time, Mr. Smith?” 
“Let’s see…a suit. Yes, a suit.” 
“An EXPENSIVE suit?” 
“Well yes. I’m a successful lawyer, you know.” 
“In other words, Mr. Smith, you were walking around the streets late at night in a suit that practically advertised the fact that you might be good target for some easy money, isn’t that so? I mean, if we didn’t know better, Mr. Smith, we might even think that you were asking for this to happen, mightn’t we?”

Ridiculous, right? So why is it not ridiculous to ask the same or similar questions about someone who was raped? 

And what about the big cases involving well-known men like the current one with Cosby? Saying that "she just wants her 15 minutes of fame" or "she's after a piece of the settlement" is more than likely not true and unfair to say about someone who might be (and probably is) the victim of sexual assault. 

Of course statistics on how often women lie about rape are hard to pin down, but the US Justice Department puts false rape accusations at about 2% and most other sources I looked at say somewhere between 2 and 8 percent. Meaning if you assume a woman is lying about a rape allegation, you will be wrong between 92 and 98 percent of the time. Granted, that also means that if you assume a women is not lying, you will be wrong between 2 and 8 percent of the time, but I like those odds a lot better, personally. If I was truly unbiased, I wouldn't assume anything, but I'm not, so I can't. Until rape isn't so prevalent in our society that women get free rape whistles in college and they hand out tests to see if your drink has been drugged, I probably can't be unbiased. 

While I have seen everything above said about the 15 women accusing Cosby (and any woman who makes the news accusing someone of rape), the one I see the most is, "if it was true, why didn't they come forward years ago?" First of all, some did. It's only hitting the media now because Cosby's lawyers and PR reps have worked very hard to keep this under wraps. Second, why would they? What incentive is there for someone to come forward? Let's break it down.

According to a variety of sources (including RAINN, the FBI, and the DOJ), out of 100 rapes, only 40 get reported to the police. 10 lead to an arrest, 8 lead to a prosecution, 4 are convicted of a felony, and 3 will spend time in prison.

So, if I am raped and I decide to go to the police, there is a 7.5% chance my rapist will go to prison. That's only after an often traumatizing criminal trial where a defense attorney will try to discredit me by any means.

If the media picks up on it, I will be called horrifying names and accused of lying, gold digging, and attention seeking. If I am accusing a likable person in the community, someone who has a promising football/college/whatever career ahead of them or someone famous, I will be asked why I am trying to ruin this person's career, life, or future prospects. I will be accused of wearing a skirt that is too short, of drinking too much, of acting like a tease, of not fighting back. Basically, I will be accused of bringing this on myself.

I ask again, what incentive is there for a victim to come forward about a rape?

Want to know one thing that will make it easier? Stop victim blaming. Stop assuming the accuser either is lying or brought it on herself. Stop calling her names. If you can't stop thinking those things, then just stop writing them online or saying them out loud.

We have made progress. Since 1993, rape has fallen by a bit more than 50%. That's great, but it's not enough. 1 out of 6 women are still victims of rape or attempted rape. Meaning in all likelihood, you know someone who has been sexually assaulted. Victim blaming only discourages people from coming forward if it happens to them.

Feige Syndrome

A day may come when I will tire of this topic, but it is not this day. This day I write!

It has recently been pointed out to me (thanks to The Mary Sue reader, Rob Payne for this) that I suffer from Feige Syndrome.

What is Feige Syndrome? According to commenter Payne, it's "the comic book movie version of Stockholm [Syndrome]." 

So, here's what happened: 

Kevin Feige, PGA (apparently joining the movie producers' professional organization warrants letters after your name), first captured me with Iron Man. Soon after, I started fighting back once viewing The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2. I wanted to escape, but Feige was drawing me in with Avengers movie buzz and post-credit scenes. With Captain America, I was officially drawn in and by the time Avengers rolled around, I was suffering full-fledged Feige Syndrom. 

Then came the female super hero movie talk. That sweet summer child I was didn't know better. I thought Feige could do no wrong. Of course he was going to make a Black Widow film. He probably already had Black Panther and Captain Marvel planned out too. 

It was about this time that rumors started going around about a Peggy Carter show. 

Then word came that they were making a Defenders series on Netflix and none other than the brilliant Jessica Jones was getting her own show, along with Daredevil (who is blind), Luke Cage (who is black), and Iron Fist (who I have very little knowledge of, but he's white and has no disability). It's not perfect, but this is more the kind of representation I want to see in my media and pop culture. 

So yes, Feige drew me in with fancy movies and female led TV shows. 

Then Feige kept saying stuff like this. He kept talking about wanting to do female super hero movies, but in reality he was saying, "we totally want to but can't yet," which, is of course absurd, since Feige is the one who decides what movies get made. He (or Disney) just doesn't want to. 

With all my disillusionment, I thought I had broken free of Feige Syndrome. Then today, this happened: 

Evangeline Lilly, who is playing Hope van Dyne in Ant-Man, is sporting a new haircut that is all too familiar. My first reaction? I was excited. I actually got chills. I told a friend the other day that the only way Ant-Man would start redeeming itself is if Judy Greer plays some flash-back version of Janet van Dyne, aka the Wasp. Just a few days later I get a picture of Evangeline Lilly (who would kick ass as Janet van Dyne) looking like Janet van Dyne. 

Janet is married to Hank Pym (played by Michael Douglas) in the comics, but something "tragic" has happened to her in the movie and she is no longer around. I can only assume she was killed, which sucks because 1. she was a founding member of the Avengers and actually gave them that name and 2. they killed off an awesome character (and one of my favorite Avengers) for the sake of moving a male character's plot along, also known as fridging, which is a crappy and overused trope in any medium. 

Point being, the moment after seeing this picture, I was so excited and starved for a female super hero that I was willing to accept the idea of fridging Janet as long as I got to see some incarnation of the Wasp. 

This is what Feige has done to me. Whenever I think of leaving, he'll throw me a bone like this, but I'll never taste that sweet female super hero movie steak. 

What would really piss me off is if Hope didn't become the Wasp in this movie. At this point I might swear off all Marvel films if that were to happen. 

...but probably not. 

Saturday in Hall H or: Why I was Underwhelmed

This was only my second year at San Diego Comic-Con and I caved. I camped out for Saturday's Hall H lineup. A lineup that included some of the biggest panels including Warner Bros. and Marvel. There were seven in our group that decided to camp out and two of them got in line at 4:30 PM on Friday. Want to know how close we were to the front of the 6,400 person room? Half way. There were over 3,000 people in line by 4:30 in the afternoon the day before. Pretty sure that set a new record.

Needless to say, it was not the most pleasant of nights.

Then came the sitting. So much sitting. The panels started at 10 or 10:30 and I stayed until about 7. And those seats are pretty terrible. I had the good sense not to send my pillow back to the hotel with the rest of our stuff, and honestly I wouldn't have been able to survive the day without it.

Obviously the lead up to the Marvel panel was not a great ordeal, so forgive me if my expectations were a little high, but I wanted to make sure it would be worth it. And there really were some great things that day.

I got to be among the first to see Wonder Woman's Xena knockoff outfit...

(So much wrong with this: one shoulder strap for no apparent reason, zero color, dangerous armored boob plate [consult google for reasons the boob plate is dangerous], over the knee boots that are not optimal for running or kicking, heels that are not optimal for anything, and I'm sorry to be critiquing her body, but Gadot is still too skinny for Wonder Woman. I like her tiara and her arm bands. And that's a good, strong pose. That's all the good I can say from this. /rant)

I got to see some pretty awesome footage from the new Mad Max movie (everyone needs to go see this)...

I got to see some absolutely AMAZING footage for Crimson Peak (which everyone also needs to see), as well as hear Guillermo del Toro swear up a storm and say "f#@k that" to the no swearing rules on the back of his name card and make sure movie studios knew that we all wanted Hellboy 3 and Mountains of Madness...

I got to see some fun footage for Boxtrolls (which everyone, again, should see)...

I got to skeptically watch the Sin City 2 footage (I have mixed feelings about the first, and the second looks just as problematic, hence the lack of picture here)...

I got to watch this awesome Women Who Kick Ass panel and hear Maisie Williams talk about how frustrating it is that no one is talking about how f@#%ed up Arya Stark is (you know, being a child and killing people and all) and Natalie Dormer talk about body image (with a hair cut that I will forever envy)...

I got this fantastic poster for being in the marvel panel...

And, of course, I was there for the Marvel panel. 

Oh, Marvel. My honeymoon with you has long been over, but I still thoroughly enjoy most of the movies you put out (despite their flaws). Maybe the honeymoon wasn't completely over until that Saturday, but I expected more. 

What did I expect? 

Something more substantial about Ant-Man.

Instead, I got to hear about Peyton Reed's nerd-cred and why he's the right man for this project. I got to hear about how Evangeline Lily hasn't seen the script yet and knows nothing about her character. I got to see some sub-par footage with Rudd and Douglas' voice overs. Worst of all, I got to hear about how Janet van Dyne is (in all likelihood) dead. The Wasp is dead. A founding member of the Avengers (and one of my favorites) is dead. Lily plays van Dyne's daughter, so she better don the costume in honor of her mother. Seriously, I'm gonna be pissed if she doesn't and is just there as Rudd's love interest. 

Something substantial about Dr. Strange.

Now, I know next to nothing about Doctor Strange, so I have no personal ties to this project at all. However, that doesn't mean I'm not excited to see what seems to be a bad ass older sorcerer on the big screen. I was hoping for at least a date confirmed or a casting announcement.

About that casting announcement, by the way. I'm not a fan of the rumored choices to play Strange. They're all great actors, but I don't want to see them in this movie. Again, I can't have that much of an opinion here, but I think this would be a fantastic opportunity for Marvel to pick someone who is older (he's supposed to be, right?) and/or a person of color. So far their rumored picks of Joaquin Phoenix, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, and Jared Leto do not fit either of those descriptors. Also, I'm suffering from a major bout of Cumber-fatigue. Regardless of who they end up choosing I'll still go see it, but that doesn't mean I won't be tired of all the white guys.

(I'm noticing a definite trend here...)

Move of all, I wanted something about a new movie that hadn't already been announced.

Isn't that the point of waiting in line all night? To be in the room when they announce new movies? To get hyped up with your fellow nerds? To feel the chills of excitement running down your neck? To scream until you go hoarse?

Yes, they announced Guardians of the Galaxy 2, but I had read a couple of days before that James Gunn was set to write and direct a second installment, and really, who thought they wouldn't be doing a second Guardians? Yes, the crowd exploded, but this was not news to me.

I wanted to hear something new.

Why Won't Marvel Shut Up and Take My Money?

I know, I know. It was only four months ago that I wrote my love letter to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I look back at that woman and want to just shake my head and say, "oh, you sweet summer child." I was so full of hope. So sure that Marvel could do no wrong. Those hopes, dear readers, have been violently dashed over the last several months.

I'm not even going to talk about the lack of Black Widow, Princess Leia, and Gamora merchandise or their respective hashtag campaigns (or the fact that this is because Disney is under the impression that boys of all ages think girls are icky, so don't put Gamora on their t-shirts). Let's just talk about the movies.

First, they tore Edgar Wright's Ant-Man script to shreds and pushed him out of the project he has been attached to for eight years. It was Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman fiasco all over again. Wright's Ant-Man was going to be perfect (as all his films are) and that's a perfect film I am never going to see.

Then they offered the project to several writers/directors, many of whom turn the offer down because you don't do that to someone like Edgar Wright. The writers who do accept the job (Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari) have a shorter resume on IMDB than I do and the only reason Adam McKay is helping them pick up the pieces is because of Paul Rudd. To top it off, the director they eventually hired (Peyton Reed) is the mastermind behind classic comedies such as Bring it On, Down With Love, and The Breakup.

Then Kevin Feige had the balls to say (or didn't have the balls and stand up to Disney and not say) that Ant-Man is "in the best shape it's ever been" under Reed.

The more I hear about this film, the more I'm convinced it's going to be the worst film to come out of Marvel Studios.

But the real icing on this cake of disillusionment has been Feige's comments on the possibility of a female super hero movie. His "blowing smoke out of my ass" comments have gone back to 2012 when Avengers was released. (Thanks to Angie Han at SlashFilm for this compiled history of Feige quotes)

April 2012: Avengers is pretty much a Black Widow movie plus, we're busy.

"Well, I think you saw it in Avengers. I think that’s one of the many amazing things Joss Whedon can do. I think people are going to be surprised by how powerful Scarlett is in this movie, and how evolved her role is... A lot of it is that we’re only going to make two movies a year, maybe sometimes it’ll be one movie a year like this year, maybe someday it’ll be three movies a year just depending on what comes together. But really, it’s two movies. So there’s kind of a backup on the runway right now in terms of when can something go."

May 2013: It's just a matter of time but we're busy right now.

“We have a number of candidates from the comics and from the movies we've already made. It’s just a matter of finding the right storyline, the right filmmaker, the right time.” 

October 2013: We have ideas, but you already have Pepper Potts, Jane Foster, and Black Widow, and they'll have to tide you over, cause we're busy.

"I know we have numerous exciting female heroes, whether none of them are currently slated, some of them are in development -- frankly, you can look at what Jane Foster does in [Thor: The Dark World], look at Pepper Potts literally saving the day and defeating the bad guy in Iron Man 3, and I'd say we already have great female heroes that are showcased and play major roles in our universe now. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as you will see, features Black Widow in her biggest role yet in any of our films. In terms of a solo stand-alone female hero, I'm not sure when that will be. We make two movies a year, we've planned through 2015 and we have some ideas of what we're doing in 2016 and 2017, so we'll see what happens."

March 2014: Oh, we have better ideas than Black Widow, but we can't do any of them yet cause you know, we're busy.

"What people are really saying is 'When are you doing a standalone female superhero movie?' The answer is: I don’t know. We only do two a year, we know more or less what’s coming up through ‘16/’17... I’m very proud of the way the Marvel movies handle the female characters who are in all the movies we are making, as opposed to feeling the pressure of ‘When are you doing a female movie?’ We’re exploring a lot of Widow, and that’s going to continue with Age of Ultron in a big way... Frankly if we do a Black Widow movie after Age of Ultron, when she’s been central in three or four movies I don’t think we’d get the quote unquote credit for it. People would say ‘She’s already a big giant superhero!’ But if we had a great idea, we’d do it... I like the idea if we’re going to do a [female lead] do a new one. Do a wholly new character, do an origin story."

April 2014: Winter Soldier was basically a Black Widow film, and Ultron will be too, so...

"But people would ask me on the floor of the Thor: The Dark World junket, 'Are you’re doing a Black Widow movie?' And part of me wanted to say, 'Well, we did, and it’s called Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Wait until you see it!' The emphasis we put on our characters, and in particular our female leads in all our movies, is very important to us. And showcase extremely strong, intelligent woman that control the course of the entire movie and the entire plot, and that absolutely carries over into Scarlett’s role in Age of Ultron."

July 2014: STFU, fans. We do what we want. Plus we have TWO black people in our films. TWO! DIVERSITY! *fist pump*

"Well, yes. I don’t think J.J. Abrams or the ‘Star Wars’ people — I have no idea — but my guess is that they were not swayed by any backlash. We’re not going to be swayed by the backlash. We’re going to keep bringing the movies out the way we envision it and the way we believe in it — and that includes diversity in all of the active films. And certainly, on our development slate of many of the characters — some of which you just named — and always being conscious of that."

August 2014: We totes want to do a lady movie cuz we know it's gonna make us money, but srsly, we're super busy.

"I think it comes down to timing, which is what I've sort of always said, and it comes down to us being able to tell the right story. I very much believe in doing it. I very much believe that it's unfair to say, 'People don't want to see movies with female heroes,' then list five movies that were not very good, therefore, people didn't go to the movies because they weren't good movies, versus [because] they were female leads. And they don't mention "Hunger Games," "Frozen," "Divergent." You can go back to "Kill Bill" or "Aliens." These are all female-led movies. It can certainly be done. I hope we do it sooner rather than later. But we find ourselves in the very strange position of managing more franchises than most people have -- which is a very, very good thing and we don't take for granted, but is a challenging thing. You may notice from those release dates, we have three for 2017. And that's because just the timing worked on what was sort of gearing up. But it does mean you have to put one franchise on hold for three or four years in order to introduce a new one? I don't know. Those are the kinds of chess matches we're playing right now."

Look, I'm fine with Feige and Marvel holding off on a female super hero movie until it fits in with the story, but here's the thing - if you want her to fit in with the story, you have to write her into the story. Don't tell me Captain Marvel doesn't fit in right now, because she tends to hang around with both the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

I sometimes wonder how much of this is because of Disney and if Marvel really has the autonomy they said they would when Disney bought them in 2009. I do think that plays in with the Ant-Man fiasco, but Feige has successfully sold Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, and freaking Dr. Strange to Disney execs. Captain Marvel certainly would be an easier sell, especially after Frozen. Or is that just me being optimistic?

I hope I'm wrong. I hope all this is just Marvel being coy and that one of the many release dates they have reserved is tied to a Captain Marvel or other female super hero movie. But given Hollywood's track record, I don't think it's irrational of me to assume that I'm right.

In conclusion, I would like to use a very special gif. I have historically reserved it only in instances where we discuss how "tricky" Wonder Woman is. However, given the circumstances, I'd say it's appropriate here.

One of Life's Highlights

This is long, but it also has gifs.

I love a lot of celebrities, yet only a select few fall into my 'LOVE' category: Joss Whedon, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Chris Hardwick come to mind. These are people I would go out of my way to meet. I would donate to any Kickstarter they created, even if they already had millions of dollars. I would do menial tasks for them, just so I can say I work for that person. I've interacted with Chris Hardwick on two separate occasions (three if you count that time he responded to my tweet), and he was delightful each time. I briefly thought this might give me unrealistic expectations for when/if I meet anyone else on my LOVE list. However, on Saturday, July the fifth in the year of our Lord two thousand-fourteen, I was again astounded at the graciousness of celebrity.

Gentle readers, I met Simon Pegg.

Before I get too far into this post, let me first say thank you to two people. Well, one organization and one person. First, thank you, Fantasy Con, for doing whatever you did to get Simon Pegg to Salt Lake City for his first non-SDCC convention. Thank you for timing it when you did so he only had to take a quick flight from Los Angeles. Thank you for all that you are. 

Second, thank you, Simon Pegg, for effectively saying "eh, what the hell?" when Fantasy Con contacted your people. Thank you for taking a day to fly from Los Angeles and meet your fans in the nerdiest state in the nation (according to Estately.com). 

Now, I've been devotedly following Simon Pegg's career since I first discovered him in the mid 2000s ("'obsessive' is what lazy people call the dedicated" -Mack). I honestly can't remember if I saw Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz first, but whatever it was, I went out of my way to find his works and a budding one-way relationship was formed. I knew that in a different world where he wasn't a rising star and I wasn't your run-of-the-mill college student, we'd be friends. How did I know this? 

It wasn't until later that I found out he loved Buff the Vampire Slayer. So, you know, duh. 

I watched his career grow from cult movies to blockbusters like Mission Impossible and Star Trek. All the while I looked on fondly as this man I admired so much was rewarded for being freaking awesome. 

Anyway, Fantasy Con decided to be a thing (or I heard about it for the first time this year, still not sure which it is), and if you read my blog regularly, you know that I only decided to purchase a ticket because of Simon Pegg. 

Every now and then I would remember how many days it was until July 5th or I'd see him tweet something about Fantasy Con and/or Salt Lake City and I'd fangirl with a cheesy grin and watery eyes. I was so freaking excited. 

Then they came out with the prices of photos and autographs. Typically around $35 for a photo and less for an autograph, but Simon was not typical. $85 for a photo and $75 for an autograph. 

I thought long and hard about it. None of the celebrities did pictures at their booths with fans, so it was either pay or get nothing. I decided to pay the $85 for the photo but not get the autograph because I don't care as much about autographs. I was still not super happy because my experience with the professional photo with Sir Patrick Stewart was essentially this:

I did find out later that the guy had gotten zero hours of sleep and decided last minute to come, so I don't blame him for being near comatose. 

Anyway, I bought the photo op and they told me to show at 2, about an hour before it started. This did not sit well with me because that was when his panel started. So at that point it was either miss his panel or miss the picture.  

Luckily, I don't often accept things that are unacceptable (just ask everyone I ever interacted with in the University of Utah's social work department) so I headed back to his booth to see if the volunteers there could tell me to do what I had already decided to do - go to the panel and just rush back for the photo. Good news, they did. 

I sat through panels with Sean Astin and six of the dwarves from The Hobbit in part to make sure I had a good seat for Simon Pegg. As my friend Mike and I anxiously awaited the panel to start (well, anxious for me, he hadn't seen Pegg in much), we thought of questions to ask. Mike got up to get in line a bit early, but I'm a chicken and I waited until they actually said we could get in line. Mike was about 5th in line and I was about 10th. I was okay with that. 

By the way, this whole time I was visibly shaking. Probably for a good 15 minutes before the panel started up until it ended. 

Before I get to my question, some highlights from the panel:

• Thandie Newton pranked Simon on the set of Run Fat Boy Run. Among other things she put saran wrap over his toilet and left a snickers bar, molded to look like poo, on the floor of his trailer. 
• One time a guy at some function went up to Simon and said, "Shaun of the Dead: The Musical!" to which Simon replied, "f*@k off" thinking the man was joking. He was not. 
• Although Fantasy Con was family friendly, Simon didn't clean up his language (and I wouldn't have had it any other way). When he swore for the first time the volunteers looked uncomfortably at each other, all internally wondering what they should do. I think the only thing I didn't hear him say was the C word and he talked about how it's a worse word here than in England. "I even call my mum that. We'll be playing Jenga and she'll make her move and I'm like, 'oh, you [mouths C word]'."
• If Shaun, Nicholas, and Gary got into a fight, Nicholas would take out Shaun after Shaun hit Gary over the head with a croquet bat. 
• When Leonard Nimoy said the line, "You are Montgomery Scott" in Star Trek, Pegg giggled and had to do the line again. 
• Edgar Wright's Ant-Man is a thoroughly Edgar Wright movie and Pegg said it was a shame no one will see it, but he's proud of Wright for sticking to his creative convictions. 
• Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's meet cute is the best meet cute in the history of meet cutes. According to Pegg, he was out to dinner with a group of people (Frost included) and he made a Chewbacca noise. No one knew what the noise was except Frost, their eyes met, and "Take My Breath Away" began to play in the background. 

I asked him about his show Spaced, which is one of my favorite shows of all time and he took a good chunk of time to answer the question and answered it well. And you know, we totally made eye contact (or close to it, we were still far away from each other). 

That's me asking my question and Pegg looking engaged. My friend recorded my question and his response so I'll add that here as soon as I get it from him.

[UPDATED] So, remember how I said I'd post the video of me asking my question to Simon? Turns out Fantasy Con put the entire panel on YouTube, which is even better. My question starts at 20:30 if you want to jump to that, but I would recommend watching the whole thing. If you skip the beginning and don't see the "foul language" warning, be warned that there is some "foul" language.

*I use "foul" in quotes because the video uses that word and I'm finding it hilarious for some reason, in case you were wondering*

When the panel ended, they took pictures of the room. I can kind of make myself out. If you see the guy in the green shirt next to Simon's fist, I'm next to that guy.

Once that was over, I walked rather briskly to his booth to get in line for the picture. There were more people who skipped his panel or left early than I thought, but the line moved quickly. It probably took maybe 30 minutes for me to get my moment with Simon Pegg.

I walked through the curtain and up to him and he said, "Hey, thanks for your question, I appreciated it!" Needless to say at that moment, I was surprised I had any control over my body at all. He remembered me! I said, "oh, thank you" or something equally lame then asked him to do a cheesy thumbs up for the photo. And yes, I was thinking of this moment when I asked him that:

I said thanks and started walking away but he turned to me and said, "you don't have to clarify. Thumbs up - always cheesy." I probably just laughed and said thanks again because my very being was so overcome with star struckedness.

As I was standing in the line to pick up the photo I just took, I started to regret not bringing something for him to sign. Sure, they had pictures from his movies, but that's hokey, in my opinion. I took a breath and remembered it was another $75. But he was just so awesome, I wanted more interaction. Then it hit me. He could sign the picture I was about to pick up! There was no turning back at that point. I got the photo, bought an autograph ticket, and got into his autograph line.

It was only a few minutes before I got up to him. When he saw the picture he said, "awe, look at us" and I commented on how cute we were. 

As he was signing the photo, I said, "I just want to say, I don't know how they got you here, but I'm very glad you came." He went on to tell me that he had never done a con like this, just SDCC to promote things for work. He was free and just thought he'd give it a try. He said the people had made it a great experience "and you're one of those people." 

And you know, fangirling of epic proportions ensued.

Except on the outside I just said thanks again (probably a couple of times) and left.

I'm sure I could have been a bit smoother. But I feel like my behavior was better than what I'm more often than not wont to do...

Smooth or not, I still felt like a total badass as I left. I had a couple of mini conversations with Simon Pegg. He put his arm around me. I HAD THE PHOTO TO PROVE IT!! YEAH!!

In short, he exceeded any and all expectations I had. The man was friendly, personable, and seemed really down to earth. I knew there was a reason he's been at the top of my LOVE list for so long. 

And after a total fangirl post like this, I feel like I have to clarify to you... 

Cause I know you were gonna ask in that smug way you do. Yeah, you.