This is another video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This video is me making the case for Mr. Sinister to being the X-Men’s primary antagonist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He was only teased briefly in the Fox movies. And we’ve already had over a decade of Magneto being the X-Men’s main villain on the big screen. The time is right for Mr. Sinister to show just how devious he can be. And given the current state of the MCU, the timing couldn’t be better. Enjoy!
Category Archives: superhero comics
Why Mr. Sinister Should Be The X-Men’s Main Villain In The MCU
Filed under Jack's World, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, movies, superhero comics, superhero movies, X-men, YouTube
Real Politicians Are Talking Like X-Men Villains (And That’s Concerning)
I’ve been reading comic books all my life. A good chunk of those comics are superhero comics. And a good chunk of those superhero comics are X-Men comics. I’ve made no secret of this on this website or my YouTube channel. So, I hope my love of comics, superheroes, and X-Men should be beyond dispute.
That’s why I find it so disturbing when something happens in the real world that is dangerously similar to what I’ve read in so many comics. I used to think in my youthful innocence that people in the real world could never be as evil, heartless, or cruel as the villains I saw in comics. In general, I had a high opinion of people in the real world. Sure, there were assholes here and there. But most were good and most at least try to do good.
That opinion has since been shattered on multiple occasions, but nothing has shattered it more than the current state of politics.
Now, I don’t want to go off on a long rant about how divided people are politically and how toxic political discussions have become. I already did enough of that during major elections. I’ll just note that most of the political figures, be they elected officials or media personalities, who sound like villains are coming from one particular part of the political spectrum.
I won’t even bother being tactful. That villainous rhetoric is coming almost exclusively from conservative republicans in the United States, especially those who identify as being religious or sympathetic to the causes of Christian Nationalists.
These are the people who are pushing for laws and policies that do the sorts of things that X-Men villains seek to do. They actively try to marginalize vulnerable minorities, especially those within the LGBTQ+ community. They spew hate, bigotry, and ignorance of these people. They call them horrible names and constantly accuse them of grooming children, despite the fact that children are far more vulnerable to abuses in churches. They haven’t yet unleashed killer robot sentinels against these communities, but I don’t doubt for a second that they would if they had access to them.
It’s been especially bad for the transgender community. They’ve become some of the biggest targets of this particular wing of villainous politics. A decade ago, conservative republicans at least tried to cloak their opposition. They didn’t show outward hatred to people they hated or didn’t agree with. But after 2016, the masks are coming off.
They don’t seem to be trying to hide it anymore. They hate transgender people. They hate the LGBTQ+ community. They hate anyone who isn’t on their team and will do anything they can to marginalize, hurt, or denigrate them. In Florida, which has become immersed in petty right-wing political discourse, it has gotten especially bad. It’s gotten to the point where a real-life republican has actually cited X-Men to justify his bigotry in support of an anti-trans bill.
I wish this were a side-plot in an X-Men comic. But unfortunately, this is real. Here’s what Vice reported.
Vice: Republican Calls Trans People ‘Mutants,’ Totally Misses the Point of X-Men
A Republican lawmaker in Florida called transgender people “mutants and imps” on Monday in an anti-trans rant that appeared to almost imitate vitriolic lines from X-Men movies.
Florida Rep. Webster Barnaby shared anti-trans views at the state capitol while lawmakers deliberated House Bill 1521, a piece of legislation that would criminalize trans people for using public bathrooms that don’t correspond to their sex assigned at birth.
“I’m looking at society today and it’s like I’m watching an X-Men movie,” Barnaby said at the start of his speech.
“It’s like we have mutants living among us on planet earth,” Barnaby continued. “That’s a fact: we have people that live among us today on Planet Earth that are happy to display themselves as if they were mutants from another planet.”
Now, to be fair, Representative Barnaby has come out and apologized for his remarks. In general, I try to be a forgiving and understanding guy.
However, I can only be so forgiving to people who talk like supervillains.
Seriously, fuck this guy. Fuck you, Representative Webster.
In case you don’t understand why his sentiments were so villainous, here’s a quick reminder of what the X-Men stand for.
They are outcasts.
They are freaks.
They are subject to hate, fear, discrimination, and mistrust.
Despite all this, they try to be heroes. But the villains they often face involve humans who either want to wipe them out completely or make their lives objectively worse on every level.
This asshole, who clearly knows what the X-Men are, didn’t seem to grasp that. He might have seen the first X-Men movie and thought it was a tragedy about a brave senator who tried to pass Draconian laws on an entire class of people. Now, he wants to do the same to transgender people, but it will not stop with them.
We’ve already seen this script play out before. It’s happening as we speak with abortion. It’ll keep happening as long as the people in power believe they can get away with it, keep their jobs, and earn money from their doners, who are often villains in their own right.
People like Representative Webster aren’t going to stop with bullshit policies like this. They won’t stop for the same reason the X-Men’s villains never stop. They believe they can get away with it. They believe they’ll get more power, money, and prestige out of it. Some may very well just be hateful assholes who just want to make people they don’t like suffer.
Those people exist.
I’ve had to deal with them.
But unlike the X-Men’s villains, these people are real. They’ll continue doing whatever they think they can get away with, either out of malice, spite, or just plain ignorance. And we can’t expect superheroes to come along and save us. These are villains we’ll have to deal with.
It’s not as easy or cinematic as Wolverine cutting up a Sentinel attacking the Xavier Institute. But it’s something we all need to be aware of. Because the alternative is letting the villains win in the long run. And take it from someone who has read enough comics about dark timelines and dystopian futures.
We must not let the villains to win.
Filed under Current Events, politics, superhero comics, superhero movies, X-men
An AI-Generated Comic Was Denied Copyright Protection (And Why That’s A Big Deal)
Every now and then, a story slips under the radar of a much larger, but closely related story. The larger story makes more headlines and attracts more attention, but the smaller story might end up having a far more lasting impact.
That seems to be happening a lot with news involving artificial intelligence and the various AI tools that have emerged in recent years. I’ve already talked about plenty, giving my opinion on the rise of ChatGPT and showing off some AI-Generated artwork I made. There’s so much going on in this field that it’s hard to keep up with, let alone discuss.
But recently, one of those little stories caught my attention. It involves the same AI-Generated art I mentioned earlier and comic books, something for which I’ve shared my passion for in many forms. And it’s a story that I don’t think is getting enough attention.
It has to do with a comic called Zarya of the Dawn, a comic created by Kris Kashtanova. It’s not published by Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, or any other mainstream comic publisher. You can actually download it right now for free. But what makes this comic different isn’t the story, writing, or style. It’s how it was made.
This comic was written by a person.
However, all the artwork inside was created with AI-generating art tools, most notably MidJourney.
That, in and of itself, is quite remarkable. The visuals within this book are certainly eye-catching. They might not rank on the same level as a Jim Lee or a Jack Kirby, but it’s a solid visual spectacle that brings to life a story.
For people like me, who cannot draw and don’t have the money to pay artists to depict the stories we want to tell, this is truly remarkable. I would go so far as to say it’s genuinely exciting. It shows just what’s possible with these tools. A writer with no drawing skills was able to produce this comic using only an AI art generating tool with text prompts. And the end result is stunning.
But this is where the story takes a turn. When Kashtanova attempted to copyright this comic, the US Copyright Office issued a surprising decision that might very well set a major precedent moving forward. Because the comic used AI to create the artwork, it could not be granted copyright protection. This was the exact statement, according to Ars Technica:
“We conclude that Ms. Kashtanova is the author of the Work’s text as well as the selection, coordination, and arrangement of the Work’s written and visual elements. That authorship is protected by copyright. However, as discussed below, the images in the Work that were generated by the Midjourney technology are not the product of human authorship.”
That bolded part is my doing because that’s the section with the biggest implication. This is the US Copyright Office stating outright that images and artwork created by AI can’t get copyright protection. That means that every piece of AI art you create for whatever reason can’t be owned by you in any legal sense. Because technically, you didn’t make it. The program made it for you.
Without getting too deep into the legal issues, I don’t think enough people realize the ramifications this might have for the future of the comics industry and for the art industry as a whole. On the comics side, there are actually two sides to consider.
On one, this technology will allow ordinary people with little to no art skills to produce comics with quality artwork. People who never once had the skills or means to make comics could suddenly start producing them on their own without a publisher or a skilled artist.
That means many great comics that wouldn’t have otherwise been made can be made. Great stories that once only existed with words could be brought to life through beautiful renderings.
But on the other side, the absence of copyright protection is an issue. Yes, these comics could bring to life amazing stories. However, the creators won’t be able to monetize their work, nor would they be able to stop others from using it for their own ends.
That means that, in theory, you or I could create a beautiful comic with this technology. It could find a massive audience and become a beloved story with countless fans. Then, a big company like Disney or Warner Brothers could come in, take the story and the depictions, and basically turn it into their own entertainment product. And since they have more resources and better lawyers, the creators likely wouldn’t get a penny of the profits.
This story also doesn’t account for how those same companies might use this technology to further undercut their workers and creators. Comic companies already have a not-so-great reputation for screwing over writers and artists who create iconic characters. Just look at what happened between Jack Kirby and Marvel for a hint of those issues.
If these same companies can use this same AI technology to produce more comics while not having to pay their artists or writers as much, they will do it. They’re a business. They’ll jump at any chance to pay less to get more. It’s cold, callous, and uncreative. But that’s the world we live in.
Add other tools like ChatGPT into the mix and it’s entirely possible that an AI could create an entire comic from scratch. And everything within it, from the art to the story to the characters, could not be copyrighted in any way. At a certain point, the AI might get so good that it would be hard to tell if there was ever a human creator to begin with.
These are all strange scenarios, equal parts exciting and distressing. We’re already seeing so much change as a result of these new tools, but I don’t think we’ve even seen a fraction of what’s possible. As AI technology improves, art generation and storytelling will change a great deal. The comics industry is more vulnerable than most, as Zarya of the Dawn just proved.
It’s hard to know what this will lead to. But whatever happens, it all started with this story and the precent it set.
Filed under AI Art, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, superhero comics, technology, writing
Why Jeff The Land Shark Is Marvel’s Baby Yoda
Over the holidays last year, I bought a subscription to Marvel Unlimited. For those who don’t know, it’s basically the comic book version of Netflix, but for Marvel Comics. It costs a little over $100 a year. And it’s an app that gives you access to Marvel’s massive catalog of comics, going all the way back to the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby era of the 1960s. If you’re at all interested in getting into Marvel comics without buying massive amounts of books, this is the way to go.
In addition to back issues, Marvel Unlimited also offers some exclusive content that you can’t find in a comic book store or a site like Comixology. Every week, Marvel releases a series of specialized comics designed to be read on a tablet or smartphone. They’re like traditional comics in terms of style, but they’re structured in a way that allows you to scroll down and read them in the same way you would a website.
It’s a very different kind of comic book reading experience, but one I’ve grown quite fond of once I got used to it.
And among those exclusive comics is a series about a character named Jeff the Land Shark. I promise you it’s not as menacing as it sounds. In fact, it’s the complete opposite.
Jeff The Land Shark is kind of what his name entails. He’s a shark, but a land shark. He can swim in the ocean like a shark. He can also walk on four legs, just like a dog. Also, his name is Jeff. It might be generic, but that’s not his most defining quality. What makes Jeff so special is that he is undeniably, unequivocally, unbelievably cute.
Seriously, look at him. In terms of cuteness, he checks every single box and then some.
His story and history is not that elaborate. He’s a fairly new character, having debuted in 2018. He’s mostly been affiliated with characters like Gwenpool, Kate Bishop, and the West Coast Avengers. Sometimes, he’s a pet. Sometimes, he’s a companion. But whatever his role, his primary effect is to be unabashedly adorable, lovable, and a little mischievious.
He’s basically to Marvel what Baby Yoda is to Star Wars. He is the perfect mascot for everything cute, uplifting, and happy.
Why am I singling him out?
Why am I dedicating an entire blog post to Jeff?
Well, there’s a more personal reason that I felt compelled to share. You see, in the past few years, I’ve become a proud uncle to multiple nieces and nephews. And I take my role as their awesome uncle very seriously. If I can lovingly spoil them, I will. That’s what awesome uncles do for their nieces and nephews.
And during our various holiday festivities, a couple of nieces and nephews wanted me to read them comics. That’s something I’ve done for them, even before I discovered Jeff and Marvel Unlimited. But now that I had access to Jeff the Land Shark, I discovered something that gave these wonderful kids a direct dose of unmitigated joy.
I first showed them a single issue of Jeff’s ongoing Marvel Unlimited solo series, It’s Jeff! I just scrolled through the comic, narrating it as any great uncle would, and guided them through the wonderful world that is Jeff the Land Shark.
And they absolutely loved it!
Every time we finished one issue, they laughed and asked for another. It wasn’t too long before we read through every single issue. And even afterwards, they asked me to read through it again. Jeff made that kind of impression. Even Baby Yoda didn’t get them this excited.
It surprised their parents as much as it did me. They often asked why they were cheering the name, Jeff the Land Shark. Then, I showed them a picture of who Jeff was and they immediately got it. Now, reading Jeff the Land Shark is kind of a tradition. I’ve yet to meet a kid that isn’t captivated by his cuteness.
For that reason, I hope Marvel and their Disney overlords take note. I doubt they’ve forgotten how much a boon Baby Yoda was for Star Wars. If they want to do the same for Marvel, they would be wise to leverage Jeff the Land Shark’s cuteness to the utmost.
That’s not just good advice.
That’s an urgent request.
My nieces and nephews want more Jeff the Land Shark content.
So, on their behalf, please get to work on that Marvel and Disney!
My wonderful nieces and nephews need his cuteness and so does the world!
Filed under Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, real stories, superhero comics
Megamind: How Roxanne Richie Redefined (And Reaffirmed) The Damsel Trope
This is another video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This video essay delves into the damsel trope. It’s a trope that has been subject to far greater scrutiny in recent years. Changing trends, as well as plenty of unflattering portrayals, have given this trope a bad reputation.
However, there is still value to the role of a damsel in a story. And no movie makes that point clearer than Megamind.
Through Roxanne Richie, a character who checks almost every box as a damsel, this movie dared to show that a damsel could be more than just a frequent target of abduction. And in doing so, Roxanne proved that she is the true hard of this movie. Enjoy!
Filed under Jack's World, movies, superhero comics, superhero movies, YouTube
X-Men 97 Update: News (And Exciting) Details!
This is another video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This video is me sharing my excitement about the latest news about X-Men 97. If I sound overly giddy, I promise it’s for a good reason. Enjoy!
Filed under Jack's World, Marvel, superhero comics, X-men, YouTube
Ultimate Invasion: My (Mixed) Thoughts On The Return Of Ultimate Marvel
This is another video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This video is a reaction and response video to Marvel’s recent announcement that they’re revising the world of Ultimate Marvel in June 2023 with Ultimate Invasion. I found this news somewhat striking because a year ago, I made a series of videos arguing that Marvel should reboot the Ultimate Universe. And there’s a real chance we could get something like that with this event. However, based on what little we know about the event, my feelings are somewhat mixed. And in this video, I explain that sentiment while also exploring the potential and pitfalls of this news.
Filed under Jack's World, Marvel, superhero comics, superhero movies, YouTube
How Fox Got Wolverine Wrong (And How The MCU Can Get Him Right)
This is another video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This video essay is me making the case that, for the most part, Fox got Wolverine wrong as a character over the course of multiple movies. In some cases, they got him egregiously wrong. And there are definitely lessons to learn from these movies, which will hopefully lead to a better Wolverine once he enters the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Enjoy!
Jack’s Comic Gems: Cyclops Starstruck
This is another video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This is video another entry in my ongoing “Jack’s Comic Gems” collection. And this particular gem takes Cyclops, one of the most controversial and well-known X-Men characters, and puts him in an unfamiliar setting. He’s not leading the X-Men. He’s not clashing with Wolverine or obsessing over Jean Grey. He’s not even in his adult form thanks to some time travel shenanigans.
Instead, he’s in space re-connecting with his father, Corsair. He’s going on adventures with the Starjammers, channeling his inner space pirate. It’s not your typical Cyclops story, but that’s exactly what made it such a gem. Enjoy!
Filed under comic book reviews, Jack's World, superhero comics, X-men, YouTube
Jack Quick Reacts: Ant Man & The Wasp Quantumania
This video is another video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This video is my quick reaction to Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. Please note there are a few spoilers is this reaction.
Jack Fisher's Official Publishing Blog 