The timeless child!
Thats not the lore!
The rise of skywalker!
Thats not the lore!
So Marvel has hit us with another special presentation and already I’m hyped because
Werewolf By Night trumped almost every single long winded weekly series from Phase 4 that
couldn’t justify its length.
Its a low rent Guardians adventure and at times that lack of cinematic polish is really
noticeable - but since it's still written and directed by James Gunn this feels like
an essential piece of Guardians canon.
That IS part of the lore… ha..ha.
It was really nice to get just a little bit more out of the guardians before their swansong
in May next year.
Unfortunately they were utterly wasted in Thor Love and Thunder; you could give star
lord’s lines to another character and there would be nothing lost by them being written
out, so at least we got a second wind this year through the holiday special.
Mantis and Drax are the two guardians who have had the least time to shine, and they
happen to be some of my favourites - I mean, to be honest all the guardians are awesome
- a much more consistently great team than the Avengers - anyhow, having these two as
the leads for this story was a great choice and allowed Gunn to stray further away from
action and closer to full blown comedy.
It’s inconsequential and a straight up caper with next to no action.
I feel like the way this works is what supposedly she hulk was doing - but I didn’t really
find it too funny and it went on for way too many episodes.
We need more special presentations - please!
I’d be up for more 40 minute specials that feature movie characters in stories that don’t
feature a whole lot of action.
Something like Spider-Man: Blue which puts the romance ahead of the action, something
no Spider-Man feature will probably ever do.
So Mantis, with the knowledge that she is secretly Peter’s sister, wants to do something
special for him and get him a christmas present.
Drax comes up with the genius idea to kidnap an innocent actor and engage in some harmless
human trafficking, and with that this family friendly christmas special kicks off.
Drax and Mantis are probably the most weird and alien of all the guardians so dropping
them into Hollywood for the festive season provides plenty of laughs as they try and
track down the Invisible Man.
[God of war reference] The Kratos comparison was hilarious - although it’s funny that
this is one of the few times Drax has decided to wear a top.
Shirtless Drax is way more Kratos but I guess even destroyers get cold in fimbulwinter.
Cosmo the space dog is soooooo cute - and surprisingly powerful - Gunn will no doubt
have a lot of fun with her telekinetic powers in Volume 3.
Kevin Bacon is great in this - and damn neat steals the show.
It’s such a fun and unexpected payoff to finally have the guardians meet him.
I thought the break in was a bit of a missed opportunity to do it more from kevin’s perspective
- particularly when mantis is leaping around that shit would be fucking terrifying with
the right track.
And imagine dave fucking bautista breaks into your gaff - you’d piss your fucking pants.
It was also a fantastic gag to have Drax and Mantis find out that Kevin Bacon is not a
hero in their sense, but a thespian.
[What about that time you fought magneto and the X-Men and he drove a coin through your
head?]
The presence of Kevin Bacon doesn’t help the cinematography that feels oddly at home
in an EE commercial but the purely comedic tone, the inconsequential side quest nature
of it and the fact its mercifully short means it just about gets away with it.
The best artistic flourishes are the 2d animated bookends, proving once again Yondu was a sweet
but flawed father figure, and the musical number intro credits.
[peacemaker] No not that one!
Speaking of peacemaker, John Cena made a blink and you’ll miss it cameo as himself.
It would have been really wild if the pair stumbled onto the peacemaker set and met john
cena dressed as the titular dc character.
I mean we already got a batman reference so why not a cheeky not quite crossover?
The only drawback would be people would start demanding a proper crossover which I think
ultimately just works well on screen as a gag.
So of course there is a teeny tiny bit of action wherein Mantis reveals she’s learnt
to throw some hands… and feet..
In the time since we last saw her.
Watching Drax feel only mildly tickled by an onslaught of bullets was funny but I’m
also glad it showed once again just how powerful he is.
A feel like he comes across as roughly super soldier tier strength sometimes, and he gets
his ass handed to him way too much.
The dude can take machine gun fire to the chest and go toe to toe with Ronan drunk as
a fart.
Hopefully in his final appearance he’ll actually get to kick some ass.
I don’t know about the sister reveal with Mantis you know.
Kind of feels like a weird retcon - it just seems like something we would have noticed
by now - we didn’t get any time to see how she felt about their father’s passing - only
Peter's perspective - and we don’t get that here to catch up either.
Nor does she explain why she was spared from being killed by ego when she didn’t present
the power of the light.
Why does she have just mind powers?
I dunno - all these things can be explained of course but it just feels a bit fiddly to
what amounts to a moment nowhere near as heartfelt or tear jerking as guardians’ best moments.
Who knows maybe this sibling relationship will thrive in guardians volume 3.
Even so, the heart is still present at the end of the special, and it’s especially
sweet for Kraglin to explain that Bacon’s heart and performances were what inspired
Peter to be a real hero.
Probably the best cameo in the whole thing is none other than Bucky Barnes arm, gifted
to Rocket by Nebula.
How did she get the arm?
We never find out, which is why it’s funny.
It’s better left unsaid but people have still tweeted at James Gunn saying that it
would be impossible for Nebula to do this to Bucky but I don’t think that’s a bad
match up!
Nebula is super strong - possibly just as strong as Bucky and she has enough fighting
prowess to rival gamora who is one of the best fighters in the galaxy.
She’s the daughter of Thanos and even as a hero she is utterly ruthless.
Bucky is strong but he’s still not winter soldier strong - plus he got his arm confiscated
by a dora milaje who arent even super soldiers [they werent even super soldiers] Maybe Nebula
knows the method, who knows?
I would love to see these two throw down either way…