{"id":54247,"date":"2022-04-18T06:00:40","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T10:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=54247"},"modified":"2022-04-20T05:43:11","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T09:43:11","slug":"diecast-unplugged-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=54247","title":{"rendered":"Diecast Unplugged #9: Future Avengers"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the silver linings of the pandemic has been an overall reduction in the number of seasonal illnesses I’ve had to contend with. Thanks to the additional hygiene, staying indoors, and the mask-wearing, most run-of-the-mill infections never really stood a chance. I’ve enjoyed a nice long stretch of time without a cold or flu popping up to ruin my day.<\/p>\n

Well, the streak had to end eventually. I managed to catch something and spent most of last week with chills, coughing swamp water out of my lungs. I’m on the mend now, but I wasn’t in a position to record a Diecast at the time.<\/p>\n

Here are a few things that would have been featured on the show if I’d done one:<\/p>\n

Microsoft-Mandated Mojang Migration<\/strong><\/p>\n

I finally got around to migrating my Mojang account so I can play Minecraft again. I’ve been putting this off for weeks because I suspected it would be a nightmare. Maybe the system would request an email confirmation that never arrives. And then after ten minutes of trial-and-error, ten different confirmations arrive at the same time, but then the system won’t recognize any of them. And then finally when I get through that I discover I can’t migrate because my existing password is too long to fit in the new system, and then it won’t let me reset the password during migration, etc. etc. Microsoft’s Games for Windows LIVE was diabolical at coming up with these long chains of connected problems, and I expected this process was going to be another dose of that bitter old medicine.<\/p>\n

But no. It was fine. It took two minutes. All done.<\/p>\n

Sorry to those of you who were looking forward to a tale of woe. I don’t know what happened. I’m just as disappointed as you are. I was looking forward to having something to complain about, but sometimes when you ask for lemons, life gives you lemonade.<\/p>\n

Final Fantasy XII<\/strong><\/p>\n

Man, this was a stroke of luck. When I invited the Rocketeer to post his FF12 series<\/a> to my blog, I was just looking to put some fun content on the site. I didn’t realize how much I was about to need<\/strong> that extra content. I have surgery coming up, and the end of the Final Fantasy XII series should make sure that new stuff is still being posted to the site during my recovery.<\/p>\n

Back when I announced my health problems<\/a> at the end of March, lots of people kindly told me, “Take all the time you need Shamus! We’ll be here when you get back. Take care of yourself!” I appreciated the gesture, but I also knew that this wasn’t strictly true. <\/p>\n

I doubt it will shock anyone to hear that blogs aren’t as popular as they used to be. Most gaming discourse has moved to YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, and other social-networky type places. Those places aren’t really likely to send traffic my way, so these days I’m very reliant on people’s existing reading habits to keep the site going. If this place went dark for several months, I’m sure many of you would pop back the moment I returned. But I also know that some people wouldn’t. Twenty Sided would fall off of people’s reading lists and the community would drift apart. <\/p>\n

After the hiatus, I’d face the difficult task of trying to get the site rolling again from a cold start, and that’s going to be a lot harder now in 2022 than it was in 2006. I don’t know if I’d be able to hit critical mass again. <\/p>\n

But thanks to Rocko, I don’t have to worry about that. We’ve got two months of content lined up now, which is about double what I think I’ll need. This means I’ll rest easier in the coming weeks, without the anxiety that comes from having the same post stuck at the top of the page for weeks on end.<\/p>\n

Future Avengers<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was looking at the list of upcoming Marvel films and I noticed there aren’t any Avengers titles in the works. On one hand, this is probably a good sign. The MCU ran for four years before they did their first big team-up movie, and it makes sense to take the same approach here. The audience needs time to get to know these new characters before we’ll get excited to see them meet. *raises eyebrows, looks pointedly at DC Comics*<\/p>\n

Having said that, Endgame was 3 years ago and I don’t think Marvel has any Avengers in the works at all. I guess the pandemic probably stole a lot of Disney’s momentum, so maybe they’re going to need more than 4 years to put this next team together.<\/p>\n

I’m sure it’ll happen eventually. But I wonder who’s going to be on the team?<\/p>\n

Sam Wilson’s Captain America<\/strong>: Obviously the new cap is on the team. I loved Sam Wilson in Marvel Phase 3, but I hated<\/strong> what they did to the character in the Disney+ series. A Captain America who refuses to oppose murderous terrorists because he likes their politics? A shy mope who doesn’t want the shield until the government gives it to someone else? An impotent, sanctimonious loser that lectures politicians without offering any solutions of his own? That’s not a superhero, that’s a Redditor. But! the Disney+ series was designed so that you didn’t need to watch it. I’m guessing you can just pretend the whole thing never happened. The Cap we we see in the opening Chapter of Avengers 5<\/em> will probably be the old Sam Wilson. <\/p>\n

Spider-Man<\/strong> is obviously on the team. He’s probably the MVP as far as Disney is concerned. <\/p>\n

Shang Chi<\/strong> has already been announced<\/a> as an “Avenger” by Marvel, so I guess we know he’s going to end up on the team. I liked Shang well enough. My only real gripe is that I think his costume is horrible. The “dragon scale armor” looks like cheap red plastic, and isn’t particularly flattering. It sort of works against the fantastical backdrop we see in Act III of his movie, but if you drop that costume into a modern city then your superhero is going to look like a DIY cosplayer. I know Marvel loves to tinker with costumes between movies, and I have to imagine they’ll take another swing at this one. Without Tony Stark 3D printing suits for everyone, I wonder where the new costumes will come from?<\/p>\n

Captain Marvel<\/strong> lives in space, so I wouldn’t bet on her joining the team. Like Superman in the Justice League, she’s so powerful that she makes the story hard to write. Any fight that she can’t win instantly is probably a fight that would kill Captain America instantly. <\/p>\n

War Machine<\/strong> is an interesting character to consider. If War Machine is still in business, then that suggests that the world has figured out how to make Iron Man suits without Tony Stark. But then, wouldn’t that suggest that we’re about to be flooded with knockoff suits? Or maybe the writers are going to claim that Col. Rhodes is wearing the last operational suit and nobody can make more? <\/p>\n

Ant-Man<\/strong> is probably on the team. Hey, remember the Sokovia Accords? Government oversight for the Avengers? I guess those went out the window when Thanos showed up, letting guys like Ant-Man off the hook to engage in freelance superheroism.<\/p>\n

Moon Knight<\/strong> is still running on Disney+. I like the show well enough, I guess. But then, I’m a huge fan of Oscar Isaac and I think he’s carrying the show for me. His power levels fall into the Goldilocks zone for a super-team position. He’s strong enough that we’re not going to wonder why we brought him along (Hawkeye) and he’s not so powerful that he wins without trying. (Captain Marvel) On the other hand, his split personality gag is interesting in his show, but would require way too much screen time to explain in an Avengers movie that’s trying to introduce a new ensemble cast. <\/p>\n

Scarlet Witch<\/strong> and Doctor Strange<\/strong> and Thor<\/strong> are all engaged in Cosmic Business these days, and they are worried about stuff larger than the Earth. They are probably too busy and powerful to hang around Avengers HQ, waiting for the next army of punchable minions to invade. I get the impression that the Thor mantle is going to pass from Thor Odinson to Jane Foster. If that’s what the writers do, then we would end up with a new Thor that’s from Earth. Jane Foster is just a regular person, not a cosmic being. If she were granted the powers of Thor, then I imagine she’d want to return to Earth and try to put them to good use. So Thor Classic is off the team, but this new Thor would be in a hurry to join.<\/p>\n

I have no idea where Marvel is going with Hulk<\/strong>. He’s appeared in a post-credits scene recently so we know the actor is sticking around. We also know that She-Hulk is going to be a mini-series at some point, and current Hulk is going to have a supporting role in that. Maybe they’ll handle Hulk just like Thor: The actor will pass the mantle to a new performer before retiring. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the silver linings of the pandemic has been an overall reduction in the number of seasonal illnesses I’ve had to contend with. Thanks to the additional hygiene, staying indoors, and the mask-wearing, most run-of-the-mill infections never really stood a chance. I’ve enjoyed a nice long stretch of time without a cold or flu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[287],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diecast-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54247"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54260,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54247\/revisions\/54260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}