EPISODE 835: I AM SO VERY TIRED OF COMPLAINING ABOUT MARVEL
HBO's self-trolling, Kevin Feige's No Good Very Bad Days and the Return of Roadhouse Jesus!
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
Hi and welcome back to Pop Culture Spirit Wow, the newsletter that wonders, if I write this in the woods and there’s no one around, Will the trees gather and devour me? (That’ll make sense in a minute, as will a two years old Mare of Easttown meme.)
Lots hopping this week. Let’s get into it.
THE WOWND UP
This week HBO CEO Casey Bloys admitted that both he and his senior VP for dramatic programming Kathleen McCaffrey have occasionally trolled TV critics using fake Twitter accounts and issued pro-HBO comments on websites. Because apparently everyone involved with HBO is actively trying to destroy it. Seriously, just how crazed do you have to be to be running the most successful streamer out there from a content point of view—and for a long time now—and still want to put down critics who didn’t like Kate Winslet’s accent in Mare of Eastwick, or whatever. Casey, with love, take a day off and work on your breathing.
Also, Variety issued a report suggesting Marvel Studios is in real trouble, after a series of bad decisions and concerns that The Marvels, which comes out Friday, is likely to underperform (something I’ve also written about, in light of comments that a Ms. Marvel season 2 depends on the film’s success). No one seems willing to say yet that Marvel Overlord Kevin Feige’s job may be in jeopardy, but um, it sure looks like Marvel Overlord Kevin Feige’s job may be in jeopardy.
Elsewhere, the LA Times did a report on zombie forests, a growing region of dead conifers in the Sierra Nevadas which are dying out because of climate change. In addition to the important questions this raises about global warming and the future, I gotta ask, what’s the thinking behind making catastrophe sound awesome? Like, who doesn’t want to see a lurching forest of brains-eating trees?
And astronaut (and native Chicagoan) Ken Mattingly died. Mattingly was the astronaut who got scuttled from Apollo 13, and then, despite being in a deep depression about having been removed, ended up helping saving the lives of his friends from the ground when an oxygen tank exploded during the mission.
I love this photo of Mattingly that the NY Times ran with the story.
CHRIS KENT’S CORNER
As I mentioned in the comments after my post Friday, friend of the Wow and noted futurist Chris Kent pointed out that “No one puts baby in the corner” is from Dirty Dancing, not Roadhouse, reminding me once again of why my self-loathing is not entirely without merit.
Having said that, call it the serendipity of errors, but I stand by the idea of Roadhouse Jesus.
I AM TIRED OF READING AND WRITING ABOUT BEING TIRED OF MARVEL
Today Variety columnist Owen Gleiberman reflected on what he calls “a moment of breakdown” at Marvel Studios. “The gears and cogs are coming loose; the numbers aren’t measuring up; the era of Peak Superhero may finally be past its peak.” There’s chum in the water, Jaws is circling, and it’s starting to look like the only way Marvel can stop the beast is by blowing itself up.
I’ve written more than my share of “Hey Marvel, I’m exhausted” pieces in recent years, as has everyone us, and fan art like this pretty much capture why.
Feel free to join me in silently screaming.
But honestly, I’m exhausted with the exhaustion, too. Reading those pieces is like opting to lick sandpaper. Sure, I’m curious beforehand, but Really, me? Really?
Gleiberman’s argument is that it doesn’t matter if Marvel dies. If audiences refuse to have better taste they’re just going to be fed more shit like it. Maybe there’s truth there, but I think we can also agree that argument gives big “f*** that guy” energy. As a lifelong Catholic I can attest to the fact that telling people they are the problem is the never a great motivator (and usually completely misunderstands them).
I wonder if Gleiberman’s focus is too small. The question may not be Marvel’s Hypercontinuity of Doom but cinema in general. What exactly do you and I want at this point? Movies, maybe, but the overall theatrical release experience? And regularly? I just don’t know.
You look at Barbie or the new Taylor Swift film and it’s clear, at moments our old appetite returns. But both of those films are very clearly not just movies but cultural touchstone moments. Also communal events: going to those films is like going to a concert. You very much feel like a part of a happening.
Marvel movies were like that for a while, too. And the continuity of it all was actually a part of the excitement, as we knew that everything was building to this massive final battle with Thanos. I wonder, if Marvel had taken 5 years off at that point, done their own Blip to breathe and plan and let what they’d settle, and then come back with a fresh set of characters and problems, would we be having this conversation. Or would they have generated that must-see-event thrill all over again?
They didn’t do that, obviously, and things are what they are now and lots of people aren’t happy. But I don’t know, reading Gleiberman—whose thoughts mirror a lot of my own, minus the schoolmarmy “You kids suck” vibe at the end— I find myself unexpectedly rooting for Marvel, and more generally for cinema to learn from this moment.
That’s the thing that so many of us commentators don’t allow for, really. We love to write an obituary. But things always fall apart eventually, and the result is rarely just an ending. People say there is no better teacher than failure, but in my experience, there’s often no other teacher, either.
And in a way isn’t that the heart of Ken Mattingly’s story? He didn’t fail exactly, but he sure didn’t get what he expected when he expected it, and it sounds like it low-key destroyed him. But then what came from that loss was so important.
And Mattingly would end up going to space a bunch of other times, including orbiting the moon, doing a space walk, and commanding shuttles.
Maybe instead of Total Disaster, this terrible-looking moment in the history of cinema is the booster rocket that’s going to fall away so that something new and interesting can soar. And rather than shit again and again on Marvel’s recent failures, maybe we who write about it all should be helping artists to explore the possibilities of the future so that it can happen.
We should definitely be asking, What has happened? But there’s another question out there, and it’s actually pretty thrilling: What now?
I BET IT’S GOOD THOUGH
I haven’t had the chance yet to read this article about Jeff Tweedy from the band Wilco learning to love pop music from ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.” But I love the premise.
I KNOW IT’S GOOD THOUGH
Rohan Salmond does a Substack on pop culture and religion called Modern Relics. He finds so much good stuff, like this wonderful hot take on whether you can beat Pokemon without breaking the Ten Commandments. Check it out. I really really love it.
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See you back here later this week!