Can we just say Marvel is not playing any games!! Wasting no time pulling the fans into theaters and updating their streaming services!! This week’s trailer alerts are dedicated to all the upcoming Marvel television series and films!! Check them out below:
Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (Streaming on the Disney Channel February 10th) [Now I’m super siked about this one!!]
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (In theaters February 17th)
Season 2-What If…? (Streaming on Disney+ Early 2023)
Secret Invasion (Streaming Spring 2023 on Disney+)
Guardians of the Galaxy-Vol. 3 (In theaters May 5th)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (In theaters June 2nd)
The Marvels (In theaters July 28th)
Season 2-Loki (Streaming on Disney+ Summer 2023)
Kraven the Hunter (In theaters October 6th)
X-Men ’97 (Streaming on Disney + Fall 2023)
While there are no trailers just yet for these next few we do have a time period for when to be on the lookout!!
Another week, another set of HOT TOPICS!! Let’s see what I got for you this week. Check it out below:
Fresh off of a huge night, Abbott Elementary fans can breathe a sigh of relief know that there WILL be a Season 3!! This news comes after the show and several actors winning big, Tyler James Williams (Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Television Series-Musical or Comedy), Quinta Brunson (Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series-Musical or Comedy), and the show winning Best Television Series-Musical or Comedy.
Looking to change up your meal plan or simply add a little flavor and spice you are in luck! Tabitha Brown has a new limited-edition collection that just launched at Target on January 8th. This is her third collection which includes cookware and vegan/plant-based food options. Brown’s food items feature vegan cream cheese spreads, pastas and plant-based patties and the cookware includes cast iron skillets, utensils and towels.
#BlackWomenMakingMoves … Angela Bassett made history at this year’s Golden Globes!! Bassett won “Best Supporting Actress-Motion Picture” for her as ‘Queen Ramonda’ in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever making her the first to win a Golden Globe for a Marvel movie. If this is in preparation for Bassett winning a long-overdue Oscar, I’m all in!! See her acceptance speech below:
There’s a new “American Girl”-2023 Girl of the Year doll in town and her name is Kavika “Kavi” Sharma. The first South Asian American Girl Doll. As noted by the AG company, “Kavi joins the company’s long line of contemporary characters, introduced more than 20 years ago, that represent a wide range of backgrounds to reflect what it means to be an American girl today.” Here is a tangible product that represents progression and hope!! In addition to the doll to purchasing the doll, various accessories can be purchased alongside the doll: the “Song & Dance Bundle,” that includes a red, blue, and gold lehenga (a traditional form of South Asian clothing), matching South Asian jewelry including a tikka (head piece), necklace, and a pair of bangles. Other accessories also include backstage wardrobe essentials and various sparkly outfits. The doll is available for purchase now!
For all my MCU fans, Phase 5 is going to be a pretty exciting time!! I know I am looking forward to the upcoming line-up!! And just in case you have not seen the latest news, check out what is coming in 2023:
It’s the FIRST OF THE MONTH!!! NOVEMBER 1st!! I’ve missed you all for a few weeks, but I wanted to make sure I started out the new month with a BANG!! So thankful for your support and hanging in there with me!! Check out the new-new below:
Season 4-Titans (Streaming on HBO Max November 3)
1899 (Streaming on Netflix November 17)
Fleishman Is In Trouble (Streaming on Hulu and FX November 17)
Emancipation (In theaters December 2 & Streaming on Apple TV+ December 9)
Season 3-Jack Ryan (Streaming on Prime Video December 21)
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (In theaters February 17, 2023)
Season 4-Succession (Streaming on HBO Max Spring 2023)
Not only do you get Dr. G’s 2021 Faves, but I had to make sure I gave you a bonus list! Check out Black Future Feminist Intern Jaya as she offers her two cents for 2021!!
Here is a list of my favorite things that came out and/or discovered for the first time this year. These are things that I discovered that really stuck with me through this crazy year. So for my final post of 2021 here are a few things that got me through this year and here’s to a new year!
2021 is just about over, but not before I share a few of my pop culture faves!! I wanted to compile a list of few of favorite shows, movies, comic books, documentaries, short films, podcasts, and soundtracks that made an impact on me in a major way this year!!
These are a few of my favorite things from 2021…Check them out below*:
Comic Books/Graphic Novels
Eve (Victor LaValle, Boom! Studios)
Far Sector (N.K. Jemisin/Jamal Campbell, DC Comics)
Nubia and the Amazons (Stephanie Williams/Ayala Vita, DC Comics)
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts (Rebecca Hall/Penguin Books)
Run: Book One (John Lewis/Andrew Aydin/Nate Powell/L. Fury, Abrams Books)
Podcasts: True-crime reigned supreme in this category!! Gotta love a good mystery.
Jemele Hill is Unbothered
Suspect
Over My Dead Body
Dr. Death
Movies
The Harder They Fall (Netflix): An ode to Westerns done in style!!
No Time To Die: Ahhh where will the Bond legacy go next
Candyman: Thank you Nia Dacosta for this beautiful piece of horror!!
Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings: 10/10
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Zola: A movie that offers A LOT of different perspectives regarding one weekend!
The Unforgivable (Netflix)
Army of the Dead/Army of Thieves (Netflix)
Gunpowder Milkshake (Netflix): More action films with women leads especially those of color is definitely needed!!
Raya and the Last Dragon
Judas and the Black Messiah
King Richard
Concrete Cowboy (Netflix): I’m a sucker for a good western and some Black history!
Cruella: Who says you can’t like villains!
Dune
The Tomorrow War (Prime Video)
Red Notice (Netflix): Ryan Reynolds…That’s all I gotta say!
Outside the Wire (Netflix)
Short Films
Us Again (Disney+)
Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma
Twenty Something (Disney+)
Bao (Disney+)
For the Birds (Disney+)
Loop (Disney+)
How to Raise a Black Boy
Documentary
My Name is Pauli Murray
Summer of Soul (Hulu)
Pride (Hulu)
This is Pop (Netflix)
Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali (Netflix)
Mary J. Blige’s My Life (Prime Video)
Television Shows
Insecure (HBO Max): That last episode… (chef’s kiss)….The end of an era…Sunday nights will never be the same… (le sigh) #DayOne
The Wonder Years (ABC): Nostalgia, Comedy and the Black Experience
The Underground (Prime Video): Powerful, Visual American History Lesson
Invincible (Prime Video)
Wheel of Time (Prime Video): Definitely up there with Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings
The White Lotus (HBO Max): I have never been so drawn into a show that made me laugh, cringe, drop my jaw, and so much more…Everything is not always what it seems…
Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu): I do believe what happened actually took place in real life, which is pretty scary if it did…
Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
Love Life (Season 2) (HBO Max): I LOVE #BLACKLOVE and ALL its many layers!
Queen Sugar (OWN Network): Another show that when it comes to a close, I will truly miss this show!! #DayOne
Arcane (Netflix): Definitely looking forward to the next season! Fun to watch!
The Falcon and Winter Soldier (Disney+): My fave of the Marvel series on Disney+ so far…They pulled out all kinds of surprises!!
What If…? (Disney+): Still missing Chadwick Boseman
Run the World (Starz): Love seeing Black female friendships and when cities become actors (I see you Harlem!)
Succession (HBO Max): All I can say is just watch it!!
Reservation Dogs (Hulu): Please more of this!!
Evil (Paramount+): Catholicism is a whole different beast (pun intended)
Blood and Water (Netflix): Had to represent SA!!
Cruel Summer (Hulu): Shout out to my sista-friend Lesley Bonner for this one!! Talk about being drawn in!! It’s all about the little details!
Soundtracks (Television and Film) (I did this instead to avoid having to narrow it down to one artist/group or album)
The Harder They Fall
Insecure (I owe a great deal to this soundtrack, I became aware and a fan of so many new artists because of each seasons soundtrack!!)
Judas and the Black Messiah
Coming 2 America
Cruella
BMF
Queen Sugar
Tom & Jerry (Now this one surprised me!! But trust me on this one!)
So a couple a weeks ago I had the opportunity to offer a few of my thoughts about Asian representation in comic books and its relationship with the latest Marvel film, Shang-Chi andThe Legend of the Ten Rings for CNN Entertainment!! To view the complete article see here.
Check out some of the snippets below:
Shang-Chi’s early issues relied on some problematic stereotypes
Every iteration of Shang-Chi has a similar throughline: He’s always a spectacular martial artist, always playing tug-of-war with his former life as a fighter and always, always tormented by daddy issues. That blueprint was created by Englehart and Jim Starlin, the two-man team who brought the character to life (Englehart, perhaps best known for his dark, noir take on Batman, has also created characters like Star-Lord of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and Starlin is responsible for MCU icons like its biggest villain, Thanos.)
In the early 1970s, Englehart and Starlin approached Detective Comics (DC) with an idea: a comic book take on the David Carradine series “Kung Fu.” (The series has been criticized for its use of “yellowface,” or casting White actors as Asian characters. Carradine is White but starred as a part-Chinese martial artist.)Starlin, an artist, loved the martial arts element of the story, while writer Englehart said he was interested in delving into Taoism and other philosophies to flesh out his protagonist. The two thought they’d found a match with “Kung Fu” — but DC thought the “kung fu craze was going to disappear,” Starlin said, and passed on the idea.
So the pair took it next to Marvel, whose executives agreed only after insisting that the pair inject some pre-existing intellectual property into their comic, both men told CNN.
In this case, the company had the rights to the character Fu Manchu, a racist caricature of a Chinese man created by British author Sax Rohmer in the early 20th century. The villain was then “grafted onto the series” as Shang-Chi’s father, Starlin told CNN in an August interview. (Racist depictions of Asian characters had appeared in comics before this, like the egg-shaped villain “Egg Fu” in a 1965 Wonder Woman issue and the 1940 character “Ebony White” in the early comic, “The Spirit,” said Grace Gipson, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who studies race and gender within comics.)
Gipson, a pop culture scholar who studies race and gender within comics, said hiring writers of color like Yang to helm series about characters of color is an improvement, but it “is really not a hard task.” She said while comics creators have made great strides in deconstructing norms of who a comic book reader is and what storylines they want to see, the hiring of creators of color needs to happen consistently.”It’s about making sure the voices of those being represented always have a seat at the table as well as a microphone to speak,” she told CNN.
Still, she said, as a fan of comics herself, she’s enjoyed seeing more representative stories being told in mainstream comics.
Who is still on a high from that Loki season finale and the Black Widow movie?!! I know I am and definitely looking forward to seeing what comes next!!
Well I got a little info on what is coming up next out of Marvel Studios (film and television), check it out below:
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (In theaters September 3rd, 2021)
Eternals (In theaters November 5th, 2021)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (In theaters December 17th, 2021)
Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness (In theaters March 25th, 2022)
Thor: Love and Thunder (In theaters May 6th, 2022)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (In theaters July 8th, 2022)
The Marvels/Captain Marvel 2 (In theaters November 11th, 2022)
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (In theaters February 17th, 2023)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (In theaters May 5th, 2023)
Looks like there is going to be a lot of interweaving of the MCU films and television shows, which should make things very interesting!! Definitely no shortage of engaging content for the next couple of years!!
Closing out this month on Jaya’s Pop Culture Minute, BFF intern Jaya dives back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with an analysis and some commentary on the Disney+ series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier!!
With the ending of Wandavision, Marvel was set to release its latest series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, a show following two characters that when all is said and done we do not really know. But as the episodes started coming out there became a clear divide between the praise Bucky Barnes was sent and the lack of praise and comments for Sam Wilson. Essentially Sam Wilson is being treated as an accessory within his own show.
As the show ratings progressed, it became known that Sam Wilson was not the reason why the Marvel fandom liked the show. This is nothing new, Black superheroes are constantly pushed behind their white counterparts, and are treated less than by a majority of the marvel fandom, (mostly from dudebros and uneducated fans). What most of the fandom lacks in seeing is what they deem Sam Wilson is worth. Within a week of the first two episodes Sam Wilson was at the bottom of polls conducted by various fan run sites and pop culture news outlets. For example, one had Sam polling at 11% while Zemo was at 20% (according to Fandom Wikipedia). This is a noticeable difference. It was not until the fourth episode that Sam Wilson started to gain traction as a result of John Walker, the government appointed Captain America bludgeoning an innocent person to death (episode 3). It’s almost as if Sam had to prove his worth in the eyes of the Marvel fandom in order for him to gain credibility.
As a Bucky and Sam fan myself, I noticed how Bucky polled very high early on in the show, while Sam stayed low. Interestingly enough, in the first few episodes Bucky had more lines than he did in the MCU movies, but this does not mean he was better in any way than Sam. Time and time again this pattern repeats itself, Black superheroes whether they have their own movie, or show, constantly have to prove their worth or earn their credibility in the eyes of a majority of the Marvel fandom. An early example of this is James Rhodes and Tony Stark. Through the Iron Man franchise Rhodey is treated as a sidekick or an accessory to the playboy philanthropist. We get very little backstory about Rhodey and he’s treated almost like a filler character. This continues even in the Avengers movies where Rhodey is seen as the sidekick. Even now, decades later after the last Iron Man movie, the Marvel fandom still treats him as a sidekick and not his own character due to Marvel’s lack of character development.
After watching the finale it seems even more obvious that Sam had to prove himself as a character for people to like him more, whereas Bucky was already well liked. Additionally, the finale received the lowest ratings, which is interesting because this episode is the first time we see Sam really step into his role as Captain America. On Instagram only a DAY after Sam took up the mantle people were making their own edits of Sam in the suit, along with tweets of who should be the next Captain America after as if Sam did not just become Captain America. This further proves how much Sam Wilson is treated as a side character/ accessory in his own show. As stated earlier, the Marvel fandom has shown this pattern time and time again. This is an issue that Marvel writers must deal with moving forward. A step in the right direction would be to hire more diverse writers so we can stop this pattern, because as a Black Marvel fan this constant pattern is tiring and irritating.
Sebastian Stan as James ‘Bucky’ Barnes/the Winter Soldier and Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon
Black Future Feminist 