Marvel vs. DC: Infinite

Namaste and welcome to my blog, I am the one and only Quiet Mouse. As you most likely know I'm a geek. I love science fiction and fantasy everything, from comic books to movies to cosplay. This posting is #4 in my series of blogs about Marvel vs. DC and their continued battle in both the comic book and cinema aspects.

I must admit, up front, my bias toward Marvel, however... I grew up reading comics with the Green Lantern, Superman, Batman., and all the villains that DC has made more interesting than their heroes, but whatever. I actually enjoyed the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight movies with Christian Bale in the lead role as Batman. I was stunned and deeply saddened by the untimely death of Heath Ledger after his engrossing performance becoming the Joker in real life and on film. Same with the passing of Christopher Reeve  who is still the best Superman to this day. Sorry Henry Cavill. I'll even go out on a limb and say the Suicide Squad was better than the critics gave it credit for, mostly thanks to Will Smith and the dude who played Diablo. But seriously... who the fuck is Captain Boomerang, lol?


Okay, time to get down to the brass tacks. We are coming to the end of 2017 and we've seen the likes of Guardians of the galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man Homecoming, Lego Batman, Wonder Woman, Thor: Ragnarok, and the Justice League to finish off the year for comic movies... well, I guess Star Wars: the Last Jedi counts too since there have been comic adaptations of the gigantic Star Wars galaxy/ universe. That movie should kick supreme ass, no doubt.
Back to the meat and potatoes...

Guardians 2 was good, but not quite as great as the novelty of the first one. They brought in a bigger galaxy of celestial beings, humor, and a sense of family.
Overall I'll give it a rating of 86% on the QM scale. +4 from RT.
Opening weekend: 146.5 million
Total gross worldwide: >863.5 million
Rotten Tomatoes score 82%

Spider-Man Homecoming showed that Tom Holland is the real deal. He made quite the impact in CA Civil War and kept the story and intrigue for his mostly solo film. Iron man Tony Stark added contrast to the aspiring teen superhero and Michael Keeton wowed as the Vulture Adrian Toomes.
Overall I'll give it a rating of 91% on the QM scale. -1 from RT
Opening weekend: 117 million
Total gross worldwide: 880.1 million
Rotten Tomatoes score 92%

Thor: Ragnarok was just outright AMAZING!!! We hadn't seen our 2 main heroes Hulk and Thor since the end of Avengers Age of Ultron, but boy did they come back to the cinema screen with a bang. The usual cast of Thor, Loki, Odin, and Heimdall were supplemented by Hulk, obviously, Jeff Goldblum as the eccentric Grandmaster, Valkyrie, Cate Blanchett as Hela, Karl Urban as the Executioner, as well as 2 superb cameos from Matt Damon and Sam Neil, both playing actors in a dramatic play on Asgard for Loki pretending to be Odin. The character development, humor, and overall action experience of the "Revengers" stunned audiences visually, but left you with that open feeling leading toward the culmination of the MCU beginning with the Infinity War.
Overall I'll be generous and give this movie a rating of 95% on the QM scale. +3 from RT
Opening weekend: 121 million
Total gross worldwide: >650 million after approximately 4 weeks in theaters. That's pretty impressive... hell, I want to go see it again
Rotten Tomatoes score 92%

I've talked about the Marvel movies, so let me talk about the DC movies from this year as well.

Wonder Woman actually wasn't horrible. It did feel eerily similar to the Captain America: the First Avenger at some points, but I do think that Gal Gadot played the role well overall. Ares was an unusual villain choice, but with it being basically an origins movie, we had to see a former Harry Potter alumni cast as the villain. Despite the overall success of this movie, I don't think it will do much to combat Marvel in supremacy of the cinema comic universe of characters. I DO, however think that this movie DID do a LOT of good for female super heroes, PROVING that there IS a genre and niche there with more and more women becoming fans of comics, comic movies, and geek material in general.
I'll give it a QM rating of 89%. -3 from RT
Opening weekend: 103 million
Total gross worldwide: 821.7 million
Rotten Tomatoes score 92%

and lastly...
Justice League has been generally seen by critics as "a big missed opportunity". I personally have not yet seen this film, but DO plan on seeing it within the next couple weeks upon which time I will report back my subjective findings on the film. From the start it seemed like a big stretch, primarily since DC has never been able to get away from the big 3 of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Combing that with internal conflict within Warner Bros. micromanaging and alienating director Zach Snyder to quitting, it looked like doom and gloom. Enter savior Joss Whedon who directed Marvel's Avengers. Seems like a conflict of interest and true to my initial concern, many of the reviews felt like he just remade the Avengers, but with DC's less than stellar side-kicks like Cyborg, Aquaman, and Flash.
No QM rating as of yet...
Opening weekend: 93.8 million (much less than even Wonder Woman)
Worldwide gross: 279 million
Rotten Tomatoes score 41%

Moving on, I want to talk about 2018.

Black Panther opens the season February 16. We will likely see the 6th Infinity stone: the soul stone present itself in this film which leads directly into the Avengers Infinity War against Thanos and his minions of evil which hits theaters May 4th, followed by Ant Man and the Wasp July 6th.

We've now seen on 11/29/17 the official release of the movie trailer for the Infinity War. It really feels like we are coming to a culmination of story that started 10 years ago in 2008 with Iron Man. Currently 17 movies into an arc taking place over 22 films, with only 5 more to go. After the Infinity arc, Disney and Marvel have stated that 20 more movies are planned to happen. Phase 4 and beyond sound like they're going to be quite something. We know for sure now that those movies will include Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Spider-Man 2 (don't know if it's going to be called Homecoming 2 or get a new title), and Doctor Strange 2. Kevin Feige said on record that he does indeed want to do a Black Widow solo movie, but I haven't heard any confirmation on that yet as all the movies POST- Avengers 4 are being kept HUSH-HUSH.
If the first official trailer for the Avengers Infinity War doesn't get you excited, than you may be Drax's wife... (watch GotG 2). Admittedly, I went and showed it to everyone who would sit still for 2 and a half minutes to see the trailer on my new Samsung Galaxy Note 8. I really think this movie MIGHT just be the nail in the coffin for Warner/DCEU, but you decide and let me know.

I would love it if you would please leave comments about this blog posting, among others. Thank you for your time and I hope your day is EXCELSIOR!

Death and Taxes

There is an old adage about how the only 2 things that are inevitable in life are death and taxes. I wrote my last blog about the former, so today I will be discussing more about the latter. Namaste and welcome to the Quiet Mouse Strikes Back, where I try to bring light to social, political, and current issues that are affecting the world around us. I highly encourage my new readers to take the time to go back and read some of my 300+ blogs, with over 50,000 views from all around the globe.

If you've read any of my past blogs you will know and understand how frustrated I am with our current political system and the ineptitude of both major political parties. I do lean left, as you may well know, but I am equally upset with both liberals and conservatives at the moment. This discourse today, however will be aimed at my boiled over frustration with the Republican party, and their so-called conservative Christian supporters.
This blog is going to be divided into 2 parts ANTI's and PRO's. Both subjects are about our TAX dollars at work. I've beaten the tax issue to death in some past blogs, so I'll keep that to a minimum but to say that our tax dollars are ALL READY being taken WITHOUT our consent or congressional approval. The IRS is NOT a federal institution, but a private bank, just like the Federal Reserve.

Moving on...
Conservatives are, generally speaking (because there are ALWAYS rules to the exception), are ANTI-


Birth control/ contraception/ Planned Parenthood
- this is just morality policement at its' finest. I don't see a lot of white Christian women adopting inner city black crack babies. In addition they want to cut support for institutions like Planned Parenthood that serve an integral and necessary function that should be expanded, rather than having the funding cut.

WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) 
- an organization to assist mothers of newborn and infant children with the cost of formula, food, and other costs of young children.

Food stamps/ SNAP
- it is embarrassing that not only can  many people get paid a fair LIVING wage, but then have to suffer the shame of asking for assistance while being hated on by the middle class, most of whom are one accident or negative incidence like a job loss away from the poverty line as well...

Medicare/ Medicaid
- apparently if you are too poor, you're not allowed to have health care, and the haters don't want you to have it at all.
 
Disability care/ Veterans disability assistance
- I AM a disabled veteran at 70% disability status. Not that anyone cares. I cannot speak for others, but I've met civilians that were denied disability as well as former service members. Those who are granted disability ratings by the VA system are often left with inadequate care that you have to jump through hoops to recieve half-ass care, often pushed out the door with little more than a prescription.

Universal Health Care/ Single pay
- First off, the United states is the ONLY major 1st world country that does not offer universal health care to its citizens as part of their tax dollars at work. I'm are NOT talking about adding on any additional taxes to pay for this. NOT ONE SINGLE CENT. Instead, the US with it's high GDP and budget could spend those tax dollars more wisely on OUR OWN CITIZENS rather than the policement and endless wars all over the world. We are granted LIFE, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by the Constitution of the United States of America. The LIFE part, in my opinion, should include low cost medical care that is often LIFE saving, that is subsidized by our CURRENT tax dollars.

CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Plan)
- another health care for low income families that cannot afford the for-profit medical system that has crippled so many families with bills and debt. Families should not have to choose food and bills vs. medical treatment.

Unemployment benefits
- life happens to everyone. We are all, at some point or other, faced with emotional and/or physical crises such as losing job and home. As I stated before, nearly HALF the families in THIS country would be devastated upon encountering an unexpected crisis of JUST $1000, let alone all the bills that rack up when you are not having gainful employment. A LOT of jobs that have been around in the past are phased out now, as in they are NEVER coming back. Much, if not most of this reduction in work force jobs isn't due to cheap foreign labor. No, my friends, it's innovation, technology, machinery, and computers. The latter WAY more than any of the former. Computers have taken away millions of jobs... another tool used to create this "PROFITS OVER PEOPLE" system we currently abide in.

Welfare/ TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)
- Welfare has ALWAYS had it's detractors and critics. It may indeed be more HUMANE to assist those in need, but that doesn't really work well with profits in mind, or at least 50% of our budget going to the Department of Defense and the industries supporting the military industrial complex. When there is so much money and focus going into war, the human aspect is kinda lost along the way, even here at home where homeless and poor numbers continue to escalate, but are often swept under the rug and forgotten about. 1 in 3 children in this country is malnourished. In this land of plenty we owe it to our brothers and sisters to get them back from injury or unemployment and back into the work force to make America great again. Welfare was never meant to be a lifestyle, but a TEMPORARY necessity for those in need of assistance.

School breakfast and lunch for EVERY child
- This one is infuriating. I might curse, but I'm trying to keep this blog PG. IF our tax dollars can give 3 hots and a cot to prison inmates, who cost the system MORE than it would cost to actually rehabilitate and retrain those same inmates to intigrate back into society as tax paying citizens... if we can pay all that for prisoners, then we can DAMN SURE FEED hungry children. I'm fucking tired of seeing news stories about how a child was shamed publicly at school for not having enough money in their account, often having their food taken away, leaving hungry and disenfranchised. This should NEVER happen in this society of plenty. We just let our government get away with fucked up priorities.

Low-income housing/ HUD
- Another program that has been used to segregate minorities and create tension between the poor and middle classes. Bill Clinton believed that EVERY American had the right to owning a home. Predatory lending of greedy profit-driven bankers who turned something that could have been great into an issue for conservatives to hang onto and hold over liberals. I bet those bankers don't consider themselves Democrat anyway...

Equal pay for women
- this is pretty self explanatory because women on average make about 30% LESS than a male counterpart in the same job. WTF?!?

Lastly, a few other things that the GOP hates that aren't tax related.
- the poor
- women, in general
- "minorities"
- homosexuals
- alternative medicines/ cannabis


Back to the flip side of the coin. I went over the anti side, now for the PRO side
Conservatives are and have always been:

Pro WAR
- We've been at war, as a nation, for all of my children's lives, with no end in sight. How can we claim to support freedom while spreading terror across the globe? How can we keep going with a failed foreign policy that creates more terror and terrorists, when we bomb, drone strike, shoot, or otherwise murder fathers, whose son's grow up to hate America?


Pro torture and detention in places like Guantanamo bay, Cuba, which goes against the Geneva Convention among other international treaties. This weakens our support from allies, right, wrong, or otherwise. If our government claims the power to deprive a person of rights, both civil and humane, arrest you, torture you, and kill you... all without warrant or due process... it's no wonder we have so many enemies abroad.

Pro IMPERIALISM
- the United States currently has over 800 military bases in over 70 countries. This ISN'T NATIONAL DEFENSE!!! We have a continued military presence in Afghanistan to guard private business contractors to harvest and mine over a TRILLION dollars worth of natural resources including blue ray crystals, lithium, cobalt, poppy (for opiates... while we are in a nationwide opiate crisis), among other precious metals. We, as a nation are CURRENTLY bombing 6 other nations under the guise of national defense: Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan. In 2016, the United States military dropped a reported 26,171 bombs on these foreign lands. And don't you conservatives DARE to rebut with some bull shit about how we are bringing freedom to other nations. They sure don't see it that way when millions of lives of their citizens have been lost to endless bombing.

Pro raising the debt ceiling
- these bastards have ZERO problem in cursing further generations with an insurmountable debt that is nothing short of slavery for future generations. ALL for the profits and open-checkbook spending by the government, often as I learned in the military, with contractors that won no-bid contracts worth millions or billions of dollars in the case of companies like Haliburton. But NONE of that money is going to the failing infrastructure of America when cities like Detroit and Flint look like Beirut, Lebanon.

PRO special-interest lobbying for BIG $$$
- Our political system resembles Nascar. Perhaps if our elected representatives wore their corporate sponsors on a jumper like those who race cars professionally, we might have more accountability in our leaders. Elections are basically bought by corporations or private funding from wealthy businessmen. This isn't only allowed, it's actually encouraged. Sadly, those who swore oath of office to serve the citizens of the United States are derelict in their duties to put the Constitutional interests of the over 300 million Americans first before their corporate masters.


PRO privatization of EVERYTHING, for PROFIT
- EVERYTHING is sought out for privatization of public schools to healthcare, and everything in between. When profits are put over people we end up with a corporate run business system that continues to cut benefits, insurance, pay, and what the hell is a retirement fund?!? Those haven't been around for a while... There is a HUGE difference, though, about making money to put food on the table vs the corporate welfare machine that seeks to fuck over workers who work harder for less money. There is not a single man, woman, or child that should ever go without food or shelter in this land of plenty. When profits are placed over people we end up with insurance claims denied, wrongful and untimely deaths, a populace that has lost faith in the government and fellow human beings (especially those parasites in Congress that vote for their own pay raises and debt-ceiling raises, but vote to deny things like affordable healthcare), and social unrest.


I KNOW that there is no easy solution to the problems of this nation. I AM a patriotic citizen who served honorably in the U.S. Navy. I'm a firm believer in the ideals of our founding fathers who believed it was our civic duty to question our government and elected leaders. When we get to the point as a society where we are not allowed to ask those hard questions and are discouraged from voicing those grievances... well that's an infringement on our Constitutional right #1, freedom of speech. Every generation has to step up to defend the freedoms the Revolutionary war was fought for. Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Washington, and many others that fought to free this nation would be ashamed of the current state of affairs. They fought a war over taxation of like 3%. We pay WAY MORE than that now in countless taxes. All I, and others, are asking for is accountability with those tax monies; a shift away from war and policing the world to taking care of OUR nation FIRST, OUR citizens FIRST, OUR infrastructure, schools, and healthcare FIRST... BEFORE foreign wars or foreign aid or paying a disproportionate amount for organizations like the UN and NATO.
What we need as a society is a goal. Plain and simple. Almost everyone can agree the significance of climate change and its impact on the globe and our society as well. The goal for the future must be to FIX the broken problems of the last 100 plus years of industrialization, failed foreign policy, and environmental carnage like overfishing, pollution, toxic plastic waste, nuclear waste, etc. We can mend our partnership with our allies by agreeing to a global initiative to clean up our mess and leave less of a burden to our children and future generations. Millions of jobs could be created through environmental cleanup, alternative energy sources like solar, hydro, and wind, and I would even go as far as suggesting we create, as a nation of concerned citizens, a mandatory enlistment of national service for youth of 1 year. During this time of service, a young person can learn responsibility and national pride by working in the national park industry, cleaning up roads and highways, fixing potholes and building community centers, cleaning up lakes, rivers, and other places damaged by industrial pollution. They may also serve as an international ambassador to other nations to repair our many years of failed foreign policy and deter future generations from becoming terrorists and hating America. There are tons of other opportunities that can be implemented... IF we can come together and agree as a society. Partisanship to political parties has created this gap and allowed for the influx of inequality, prejudice, and mistreatment of Americans BY fellow Americans. Whether standing on the Red side or Blue, Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal or independent... we are ALL AMERICAN FIRST AND FOREMOST. It's time to start acting like it. It's time to demand our tax dollars are spent more wisely on citizens and infrastructure rather than war and world policing. It's time to stop fighting over petty differences and stand together for a common goal, a common good: the betterment of society and ALL mankind... because we are either ALL equal and free or we are ALL not.