Deadpool & Wolverine: spoiler-free review

I feel like I should start this review with some background about myself.

I'm a lifelong fan of Marvel comics. When I was 6 years old, my parents decided that comic books could be a good way for me to practice reading. They started giving me 5 Finnish marks (80 cents in euros) per week that I was allowed to spend on comic books. This would have been the year 1992.

After school, I went to a second-hand bookstore just across the street, and they had this trough of superhero comics, 50 pennies (8 cents in euros) per issue. And in that trough, I found my first Marvel comic book, Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars #4 from 1984.

Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars #4
Cover art by Bob Layton

I recognized Spider-Man on the cover, surrounded by all these other colorful characters. And I immediately wanted to learn all about them. I kept going to that bookstore every day after school to get more comics. And so a new Marvel fan was born.

16 years later, something magical happened. With the release of the first Iron Man film, Marvel Studios launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For the first time ever, there was an entire film studio dedicated to faithfully translating Marvel comics to cinema. And it was as if something I wished upon a star had actually come true. What an incredible time to be alive!

Another 16 years have since passed and we are currently in phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. My social media feed is absolutely dominated by articles on how sick and tired people are of the MCU. Not me, though - I saw Marvel comics survive the creative and financial bankruptcy of the 90's. I have faith in the timeless charm of these stories and characters. Marvel Studios can and will figure out how to make good movies again if I just stay patient and keep believing.

And then came Deadpool & Wolverine.

Monster Hunter needs to do a better job with women's armor

The Monster Hunter series is 20 years old, and it's time for Capcom to re-evaluate how they approach women's armor design.

I understand that Capcom has worked very hard to create a visual design language for the Monster Hunter series, and they've been careful to stay true to that visual identity for two decades. It's nothing short of impressive and I wouldn't want to see them abandon that commitment. As a fan, it's important to me as well that future Monster Hunter games continue to look like Monster Hunter. However, I've noticed two persistent features of women's armor design that we could do without:

1. Female characters often wear wigs or tiaras for head protection while male characters wear helmets.
2. Female characters often wear crotchless pants and/or leg armor that allows you to see their underwear. Male characters do not.

These outfits are not designed for the female audience who play these games and wish to experience the power fantasy of battling giant monsters. They are designed for the male audience who want women to look pretty and sexy for their enjoyment. There is an entire subculture of male Monster Hunter fans who do not want to see things change. They play female characters, and they want to be able to see those panties - it's a whole thing.

And I know it's a thing because back when Twitter was still called "Twitter" and I was on that app, I had the misfortune of interacting with that part of the Monster Hunter fandom.

By the way, their arguments in favor of women's crotchless pants included:

• "You're a stupid bitch!"
• "Shut up bitch!"
• "You are Aspergers as fuck!"
• "People are still complaining about female armor in Monster Hunter?"

So, yeah. Not the best debate team I've ever faced.

I would urge Capcom to consider if they want the girls and women in their audience to feel equally welcome and respected. Or if they want the female characters in their game to serve as eye candy for their male player base.

Men get closed helmets and full suits of armor.
Women get wigs, tiaras, plate miniskirts, and crotch windows.

Even the bulkiest armors often come with crotch-access openings.
And you better believe men's armor sets don't have those.

Alright, Giancarlo Esposito, I'll take a shot at guessing who your character is in Captain America: Brave New World

In case you missed it, Marvel released the first teaser for Captain America: Brave New World. Here's what that looks like:

Following the teaser, there has naturally been a lot of speculation about who the mystery character is that Giancarlo Esposito is playing in the film. A popular theory was that it's one of Rob Liefeld's characters, named (sigh) George Washington Bridge, or GW Bridge for short. But Mr. Esposito himself has said that no one has correctly guessed his MCU role.

I guess I'll have to take a shot at this.
So, here's who I think he might be playing.

I have never made a character build in a Soulsborne game and neither have you

Shadow of the Erdtree has been out for a week now, and the Elden Ring git-gudders are now review-bombing the game for being too hard. The root of the problem (tree pun for a tree game) seems to be that there is an entire subset of players who just want to rush some dang bosses, but the game expects them to engage with all these disgusting features that have no place in an open-world action RPG - things such as story, NPC questlines, exploration, discovery, reward, treasure, et cetera. Yuck!

Case in point: there is a new resource item in this expansion called Scadutree Fragments, which grant you a permanent stacking increase to your damage dealt and a decrease to damage received. This buff is intended as your primary means of increasing your power level while you are in the Realm of Shadow. There are 50 of these fragments in the expansion and the game essentially hands them out as a reward for reaching new areas and making progress in questlines.

You know, the normal stuff that you do in a Soulsborne game.

But as it turns out, a lot of players are unhappy with FromSoftware for having the audacity to spend two years working on this intricately crafted open-world expansion and then expect them to actually, like, look at stuff, pick stuff up, and interact with the world.

Ain't nobody got time for that!

Thankfully, the ever-helpful folks of the modding community have rushed to our aid with mods such as Normalized DLC Damage which negates your need to explore the DLC that you (or your mom) paid € 40 for, and makes the whole experience a breeze! The mod description reads:

"If you're tired of having your entire build thrown in the Trash just because you're not into collectibles, this mod is for you!"

Oh no, not your build, bruh.
You bloody loved that build.
You had so many great memories of running that build.

Well, let me actually talk at you about your stinkin' Elden Ring build, and why you never had one to begin with. Tenaciously clench your orifices, put on these swim goggles, and get your giant grains of salt ready.

This could get a little bit spicy.

Neglected monsters that I want to see return in Monster Hunter Wilds

In 2018, the Monster Hunter series finally entered the high-definition era with the release of Monster Hunter: World, and saw a lot of classic monsters get lovingly updated to modern standards. From Yian Garuga to Fatalis, from Ludroth to Espinas - there have been many incredible glow-ups. And yet, many more monsters remain whose majesty deserves to be admired in the warm, gentle, ray-traced glow of a 4K screen.

Also, fair warning:
This blog may periodically turn into a full-tilt Monster Hunter fan site as we slowly approach the release of Monster Hunter Wilds. I could try to write a very professional blog that keeps its topics nice and varied. But then I wouldn't be doing this for me.

I gotta listen to the brain-bees.

Now, allow me to present four monsters from the pre-Monster Hunter: World era who I would love to see make a big comeback in the series' upcoming 6th generation!

Wizards of the Coast agree with my D&D character creation process

I can't believe it.
Dungeons & Dragons just released video on their official YouTube channel describing how they've changed their character creation process in the upcoming revised Player's Handbook... and it is the exact same process I described in my article "Dungeon Master's advice for creating your next Baldur's Gate III character." 😚👌

You can watch the entire video here:

Not gonna lie, it feels pretty validating to know that the approach I've used for years is also how D&D will officially approach character creation going forward.

Excuse me, would you like to see a picture of my cat?

There's someone I want you to meet.

In one of my articles, I said that I have a cat for whom I would happily slay Satan.

This is her:

This photo was taken immediately after I had laughed at my cat for how funny her face looked as she was about to drift to sleep. This is the look she gave me. I'm so sorry, buddy - you looked like you were about to give up the ghost!

I named her Halloween, because I adopted her in late October 2019. (And no, I did not win the Nobel prize for cat naming that year.) At the time, her estimated age was 2 years old. She is a rescue cat, who had been adopted from the rescue organization once before, and then returned to the organization because her new owners found her to be... "too rowdy."