TEEN TITANS GO MEETS DC SUPER HERO GIRLS (2022)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

Though I gave the first two TEEN TITANS GO features a fair mythicity rating, this 2022 release-- which includes a long subtitle I refuse to type-- is no more than a mechanical exercise.

While I've watched a fair number of TITANS GO, watching for the moments that they employ quirky humor rather than poop jokes, I found myself impatient with the SUPER HERO GIRLS franchise. In a few words, it's just not funny. I'm sure the story of de-aged DC heroines (and some male heroes) learning their superhero craft resonated a lot more with its target audience of middle school girls. Strangely, though many crossovers exist to widen the appeal of a less popular franchise by linking it to one more popular-- an accusation that one of the TITANS characters levels-- GIRLS was the finale to the series, which only lasted from 2019 to 2021.

Further, this crossover is less than monumental, since another Titan points out that the two supergroups already met a few times. As if to summon forth low expectations for irony's sake, most of the Titans spend the whole narrative sitting in their HQ, watching the Super Hero Girls on TV with one of their regular enemies, Control Freak. At the same time, there's a short sequence in which the Super Hero Girls encounter the Titans of another multiverse, which is the biggest waste of time in the story. 

The majority of the story concerns the Super Hero Girls contending with Lex Luthor and his Legion of Doom. Luthor acquires a Phantom Zone projector and proceeds to start exiling superheroes to the Zone. However, for once Luthor's not the prime mover, for he's been covertly controlled by Cythonna, a Kryptonian goddess of evil. Cythonna only aids the Legion because her power is increased by acts of wickedness. The evil goddess also conceives the idea of possessing Supergirl, with the politically correct justification that someday The Girl of Steel will outstrip the power of The Man.

From a POV of a comics-reader, the presence of Cythonna-- a fairly obscure villain from a nineties Superman comic-- sustains a little interest, though she's generally a routine bad guy here. Since the heroines weren't going to be having further adventures, the script just has them go through the motions of familiar problems: Wonder Woman has leadership issues, Zatanna worries that the dark side of her personality may assume dominance, Supergirl resents Superman's bossiness. The only joke I found faintly amusing is that whenever Batman speaks, his voice becomes an indistinguishable mumble that only a few persons can understand. But this might have been a joke recycled from the TV show.

There is one subplot that gets closure: Harley Quinn, after having vacillated between heroism and villainy throughout the series, finally commits to the side of the angels. Tara Strong does quite well in capturing the manic nature of Harley's voice, and it might've helped her get nominated for a 2022 "Annie." Unfortunately, she lost out to a voice-actor for ZOOTOPIA-- and for all the failures of GIRLS, it's not as dull as that feature was.

WAR OF THE WIZARDS (1978)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*

WAR OF THE WIZARDS is an underrated magical fantasy that, while not meeting my criteria for high-mythicity, ranks in my book with similar charming (albeit child-friendly) productions by masters like Ray Harryhausen and Aleksandr Ptushko. WAR absolutely is not in any way a "space opera" just because there are a few opening scenes showing "spirits" in the starry heavens. It's true that co-director and FX-guy Sadamasa (DESTROY ALL MONSTERS) Arikawa worked out some effects-scenes that bore passing resemblance to the juggernaut that was the 1977 STAR WARS. But the universe of this WAR was predicated on the sort of folktales that genuinely took place "a long time ago," but in an archaic world far from space-lasers and FTL ships.  

Despite some opening narration, the movie takes some time to establish that universe. The most one can say is that at some time in the past, two great magical items get concealed in the ocean by parties unknown: a vessel of plenty, that will conjure up anything the owner wishes for, and a book of knowledge. The narration suggests that "three spirits" come to Earth looking for these items, but evidently the narrator can't count, because it's more like ten or twelve different questers.  I *think* the various spirits may have been alerted because humble fisherman Tai (Hsui-Shen Liang) finds the magic vessel on the ocean floor, fetches it up, and soon begins making wishes to benefit both himself and the local townfolk. Oddly, though the opening is careful to show that the poor fisherman is an avid reader of books, he apparently does not notice the book of knowledge in the same area as the vessel.

Tai's use of his endless wishes attracts several murderous agents who want the items. Some of them kill one another in competition for the prizes, and the last of them are slain by two beautiful fairy-sisters, Hyacinth and Violet. Tai is taken with the sisters and invites them to serve as his bodyguards, and they agree. There's like one more scene in which the girls beat up a couple of malcontents-- one of the few usages of martial fighting, since most of the spirits have magical, transformative powers. Tai is so taken with the girls that he offers to marry them both, and they agree. However, they fool him so that he doesn't get with either of them and the reason seems to be that they too were sent to collect the magical treasures by an evil fairy, name of Flower Fox (Betty Pei Ti).

I think Flower Fox gets tired of waiting for the sisters to deliver on their mission. She shows up at Tai's house, kills two other seekers with flame-breath, and cancels out the sisters' powers. Flower Fox captures her pawns and the magic vessel, but she doesn't know where the bamboo book is. In response, Tai dives into the ocean again and locates the book. Some timely advice tells Tai to "ride the Phoenix," and sure enough, when he surfaces a giant red bird sweeps him away from Flower Fox.

Up to this point, Tai has been a fairly passive protagonist, a lot like the original Aladdin of the Arabian Nights. However, the Phoenix takes Tai to some cloudy domain. Tai comes across some peaches and eats them, only to be reproved by an old man who meant the magical peaches for someone else. Both in Chinese and Japanese folklore, peaches often confer special powers and/or immortality, but the dubbed version of WAR just drops the point and goes on to the next thing: Tai asking to become the old immortal's disciple. I suspect that the dubbed version may have cut some training montage for time. In no time Tai, the former layabout, has mastered the use of a magic sword that fires ray-bolts, and even gets a suit of snazzy clothes from his master. He has at least become a temporary hero, though it's unclear if he made this ascension through training or through eating magical peaches.

Flower Fox threatens to flood Tai's hometown to get the book, but he temporizes until he's powerful enough to beard the evil fairy in her lair. With some help from the Phoenix, Tai vanquishes a rather impressive rock monster. However, the villainous fairy also has a human henchman, the mighty Steel Hand (Richard Kiel, who apparently played this part immediately after his star-turn in 1977's THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. released in the US three months after STAR WARS). The battle between Tai and Steel Hand-- so called because the henchman wears metal gloves-- is interesting because Tai has absolutely no kung-fu moves at all; he's like an ordinary guy fighting a colossus, except for having a magic sword to even the odds. The fight looks like it's modeled on those of the James Bond franchise, maybe even with some thoughts of GOLDFINGER in mind. Regardless, Tai defeats (but does not slay) Steel Hand. The hero goes looking for his captive wives, but now he has to fight Flower Fox, who conjures up multiple swordsmen out of the magic vessel. (Oddly Steel Hand is seen bringing the two fairy girls out of captivity.) Tai's then beats the villain by flinging the bamboo book at her. The book binds her arms and Tai prepares to kill her. However, two new spirits show up and surround Flower Fox with a force-shield that breaks his sword. The two new guys then send the evil fairy flying to heaven, and then they themselves fly into the sky with Violet, Hyacinth, and the two magical items. Violet and Hyacinth don't look like they're happy to be leaving, though it's anyone's guess if they'd rather stay with Tai. One of the "good spirits" invites Tai to join them all in heaven. However, the invitation may be sarcastic, for when Tai flies after them, his powers and costuming vanish. He falls into the same bay where he found the items, while a voice tells him, "You gained tremendous knowledge and great skillful powers. Be satisfied!" The film ends with Tai sputtering in the water while a fishing-boat comes to his rescue, assuring that he will survive to return to the workaday world. A fortune-cookie phrase that also appeared near the opening is repeated: "He who desires to possess everything must learn to be content with nothing."

I've no idea if WAR might owe anything to established Asian folklore. In Western terms, the "moral of the story" seems stuck somewhere between "Aladdin," in which a lazy loafer gets all his wishes fulfilled," and the Grimms' "Fisherman and His Wife," in which the greedy wife of the fisherman prevents their profiting from the wishes given them by a magical fish. My best guess is that the filmmakers wanted to give the audience some of the thrills of wish-fulfillment, while stopping short of total apotheosis. Thus Tai only gets a brief time to dally with the powers of the immortals, though I think he at least earns some of them, up to a point. Possibly the movie makes its message clearer in the original Taiwanese. But even if WAR isn't as clear as I might like it, I think there was some theme being invoked, that it wasn't just an endless, meaningless stream of marvels like those Asian films I've called "chopwackies."                      

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE, SEASON THREE (2016)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological, sociological*

I was a moderate fan of AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES, and nothing I saw in the first two seasons of that show's replacement, AVENGERS ASSEMBLE, made me think the follow-up was an adequate substitute. However, though there were still various weak episodes in Season 3, for the first time other stories were at least on the same level of good melodrama as the best tales in MIGHTIEST.

One of the weaker arcs is an attempt to boil down the very involved introduction of the 1990s superhero-team The Thunderbolts into a handful of episodes. As in the comic, the members of the team are all supervillains pretending to be heroes, in line with a master plan by their leader Baron Zemo. In the comic book. the whole idea is to gradually show some of the villains turning good, but that's not possible in ASSEMBLE, so the best thing about the Thunderbolts is just that it puts a few new costumes into the mix. The character Songbird makes a few other appearances, and has a slight rapport with Hawkeye, who's a former criminal in the comics (not sure about in the cartoon).

 Ultron and Kang make return appearances, and they're both as forgettable as they were in previous seasons. But I greatly appreciated the show's take on The Black Panther's first encounter with these Avengers. I don't know to what extent this Disney XD show was privy to the MCU's articulation of its Panther-iteration, though elements of that variation began to appear as early as 2015's AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (with the introduction of the Panther's regular enemy Klaw) and then with the Panther himself appearing in CAPTAIN AMERICA CIVIL WAR the next year. In contrast to 2018's BLACK PANTHER, the Panther-episodes in ASSEMBLE do not over-emphasize a "woke" political viewpoint, and in that sense the cartoon-Panther is better than the live-action one. However, I think that one or more of the ASSEMBLE writers may have known about the politics brewing in Ryan Coogler's teapot. In the episode "Panther's Rage"-- significantly named for a famous (if unrelated) arc in the comics-- Panther gets into a battle with Klaw, who of course now looks like the live-action character. During the battle, Klaw has a line which I'll paraphrase as, "I'm gonna steal all your vibranium for the cause of colonial supremacy! Just kidding; I'm doing it for the money!"

Various other Marvel characters make peripatetic appearances. The Carol Danvers of Captain Marvel (who had appeared as the original "Ms. Marvel" in MIGHTIEST) shows up, and though she's as lousy a character here as in the comics, at least no one avoids using the Captain Marvel tag for her. Close on Danvers' heels is the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel, who's also a nothing character, though the animators make her a better fighter than a lot of other iterations. This Ms. Marvel is made to be in line with her late 2010s iteration, who was retconned into a spawn of The Inhumans due to Disney/Marvel's attempt to build up those characters into a franchise to rival that of X-MEN. That attempt failed both in the comics and in the dismal live-action INHUMANS show. But though the Royal Family of Inhumans aren't particularly memorable in their ASSEMBLE appearances, the show gets decent mileage out of the situation where the Inhumans' mutation-chemical gets loose and transforms various humans into super-types. among them the aforementioned Ms. Marvel II. The social panic of these transformations causes the government to clamp down on the Avengers' activities, particularly upon the Hulk, and this development at least makes a little more sense than the MCU's idiotic Sokovian crisis. Though Season Four will deal with some sort of "Civil War," I liked the fact that in this arc, all of the Avengers defend their green-skinned fellow member, and thus earns better characterization-marks than many similar events both in comics and live-action movies.   

HOLOGRAM MAN (1995)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

No one goes to PM Entertainment for well-conceived science-fiction societies, and HOLOGRAM MAN is in essence another near-future, low-budget flick derived from movies like ROBOCOP and TERMINATOR. However, the society in HOLOGRAM at least makes more sense than the one in the two CYBER TRACKER films.  

To be sure, anything one learns about this near-future world has to be acquired in the midst of running gun-battles. We're apparently in future-California, but we don't know anything of the rest of the world except that somehow, humans caused the destruction of the ozone layer. This put a repressive government under the control of one Jameson (Michael Nouri). In reaction to that repression, anarchist Slash Gallagher (Evan Lurie) organizes a small band of similar terrorists devoted to violent overthrow of the government. However, tough cop Decoda (Joe Lara) manages to stymie Gallagher and send him to prison. But in this future world, the government places convicts' bodies into statis while computers seek to reprogram the sinners into useful citizens.   

Years pass, and it's time for the prison parole board to review whether or not the reprogramming had the desired effect. Decoda, who would have preferred seeing Gallagher put down like the mad dog he is, attends the hearing, while both his girlfriend Natalie and her father serve as technicians in the process. However, elsewhere Gallagher's old gang engages a hacker to interfere with the computers. Bingo: not only has Gallagher not been reformed, he becomes a being of pure energy, a "phantom terminator" who can't be harmed by bullets or bombs. 

A little past the middle mark, Gallagher corners Decoda and Natalie at the computer building, shoots Decoda fatally, and leaves both cop and technician behind to be annihilated by a bomb. But Natalie apparently figured out what rogue process created the energy-Gallagher, so she puts the dying body of her boyfriend through the same treatment, making him into an energy-creature too. This leads to a big battle between cop and criminal, as well as getting rid of the tyrant who fomented the toxic situation.

For me the most interesting thing is that even though the hero becomes a super-powered being like the villain, I'm not sure Decoda counts as the main character. Aside from the rage the cop expresses at the callousness of both Gallagher and Jameson, Decoda is even more of a cipher than most action-heroes in flicks like this one. In contrast, Gallagher's psychotic persona gets much more attention, and though nothing he says is overly witty, the movie seems far more predicated on what happens when a hologram-- intended to be a neutral representation of a human psyche-- becomes infused with the evil of the psyche's owner. True, by the end of the story Decoda is the only surviving "hologram man," and I suppose he might go on crusading against evil a la the inhuman Robocop. But when his girlfriend asks what they should do in the wake of Jameson's demise, Decoda ends the film by throwing the power back to the people with one word: "Vote."

Not much humor in HOLOGRAM, but I did like it when one of the goons calls the hacker a "chip shit."

HARLEY QUINN-- SEASON 3 (2022)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *irony*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological* 

In my review of Season One, I left things open as to whether the writer-producers of HARLEY QUINN really believed all of their rants about White Patriarchy, and by extension, all other such cant, such as the un-ironic use of the term "cisgender" in Season Two. It was at least possible that these raconteurs were simply trying to make a buck by playing to an audience that wanted an ultraliberal version of SOUTH PARK, with loads of naughty language and hardcore violence. But if Season 3 of this show demonstrated anything, it's that only true believers could pen a line like this one:

Harley Quinn (speaking to another female): "Congrats on freeing yourself from the chains of hetero hell!"

The showrunners make other dubious decisions-- the Riddler is gay, and Catwoman had a lesbian encounter with Poison Ivy but can barely tolerate the "hetero hell" of an ongoing relationship with boring billionaire Bruce Wayne). All these things demonstrate that the producers have goneg full tilt boogie into a trope I'll call, "Gay Always Good, Straight Always Bad." Before this, the scripts focused almost entirely on celebrating one particular lesbian hookup: the written-in-the-stars romance of BFFs Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Season 2 particularly burns up a lot of episode-time leading up to the inevitable union. But the apparent success of the HBO series evidently made the showrunners convinced that they could get away with anything-- just like SOUTH PARK, but with absolutely no wit or style.

From a very limited POV, Season 3 doesn't suffer from exactly the same crippling inevitability as Season 2. Once all the sexy pyrotechnics have been executed, Harley and Ivy have to deal with the pressures of an ongoing relationship. I don't mean to imply that the scripts show any logical progression of even very limited melodramatic characters; I'm only saying that the change of pace COULD have been allowed for better stories than those of Season 2. One big change comes from Ivy, who for two seasons of this show, put aside her forceful personality from other iterations and became a "shrinking violet," the better to play "femme" to Harley's "butch." Now, in order to play up the very different personalities of the lovers, Ivy starts to return to her eco-terrorist mode. Harley initially approves-- anything to make her leafy lover happy-- but at some point, even the empty-headed maniac realizes that Ivy's obsession is too extreme, even for her.

Season Two broadly implied that the main reason Harley launched a murderous campaign to take down most of Gotham's other villains was because she had no good lovin' in her life, and had never had even when she cohabited with the Joker, because well, "hetero equals hell." But once she's bumping nasties with Ivy, Harley conveniently forgets about her queenpin-ambitions and even starts making noises like a hero, which includes keeping Ivy from massacring large quantities of Gothamites. Of course, in the world of the fanatic, it doesn't matter than Harley herself has quite a few murders on her rap sheet, and not just villains-- unless we're supposed to believe that her attack on Earth with the forces of Darkseid conveniently cost no innocent lives. Being gay makes everything okay.

But in one sense Harley's dream of becoming a queenpin comes true, for in order for her to rise, the Big Bat must fall. Yes, the previous two seasons repetitively dragged Commissioner Gordon through the mud for a laugh, and other heroes were mocked, but the fanatics mostly left Batman alone. However, to him he's a straight white male hero, so he must be removed to make way for a gay (but also white) female villain with heroic aspirations. To be fair, in the comics Harley does undergo a psychological change that puts her mostly on the side of the angels. But the showrunners here have no interest in psychology except in the form of tedious bromides. "Batman has a savior complex. Bruce Wayne turns off Catwoman because his parental issues make him clingy." But in addition to all the factors that make the Big Bat a weak-ass white guy, he also belongs to the "one percent," and for that crime he must be punished, so that Killer Harley can take his place and check more boxes.

I confess I laughed at one joke that involved the Riddler running a danger room. However, the scripters lost that one point and more by making the Prince of Puzzlers gay for no reason but to create more pink representation. For TV animation, HQ is competent, particularly with respect to the violent fight-scenes. I'm aware there are two other seasons and another on the way, so I guess someone likes it. I won't be in any great hurry to review more of these turd-productions.                          

ASH VS EVIL DEAD SEASON ONE (2015-16)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous* 
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*

Though I have respected the place of the EVIL DEAD movies in the history of horror, it's never been a favorite franchise for me. But along came the STARZ sequel series to the three movies, and now I have to re-evaluate a wild, thrill-ride grossout that at the same time makes me conscious of mortality as much as these words of D.H. Lawrence from his poem SHIP OF DEATH:

We are dying, we are dying, so all we can do

is now to be willing to die

ASH VS EVIL DEAD takes place thirty years after the events of the last EVIL DEAD movie, ARMY OF DARKNESS. The forces of darkness unleashed by Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) in the first film were placed in abeyance in ARMY by Ash's heroic actions. However, at one point before the series' opening Ash-- who always devolves into a self-indulgent putz when his life's not in danger-- takes out the Book of the Dead, with which the Evil Dead demons were first summoned, and drunkenly reads passages from the tome at a poetry slam. And so once more the demons are unleashed upon mankind, usually possessing dead bodies (called "Deadites") to work their will. The ten episodes of this and the two ensuing seasons are always a congeries of high-octane set-pieces, so there's not a lot of involved storytelling. Rather, each episode I'll review mostly to keep track of notable kinetic effects. There's no rating for individual episodes because they're on the same "good" mythicity level.

EL JEFE-- It must be slightly toward the end of the thirty years when Ash spectacularly screws up and reads from the book, for his first new Deadite encounter is not slow in following (intruding on Ash's butt-sex session with a young trollop). He makes plans to leave his job and flee, much to the regret of his co-worker Pablo (Ray Santiago). In the first story Pablo seems to nurture some unexplained hero-worship for the fifty-something Ash; later it'll be revealed that Pablo has had some mystic training by a brujo uncle and believes that Ash is "El Jefe," a true champion of life. Less impressed with Ash is another co-worker, Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo), who responds to a pass from the boastful older man by putting him in an armlock. Elsewhere, two Michigan cops respond to a disturbance, and one of them is killed and turned into a Deadite. The surviving partner, Amanda Fisher (Jill Marie Jones), is saved by the intervention of a bizarre woman, Ruby (Lucy Lawless), who puts Amanda onto Ash's trail as the one responsible for unleashing the Evil Dead. After being attacked by two more manifestations, Ash realizes he has to take arms-- particularly with the arm that he can fit with a chainsaw--against a sea of undead troubles.

BAIT-- Kelly receives a call from her father, claiming that her dead mother is back, so she motors her way back to her home town. Ash is prepared to go off on his own mission, but Pablo tricks Ash into pursuing Kelly. Ash and Pablo arrive at Kelly's house, and all appears tranquil, with Kelly having convinced herself that her mother's death was just a mistake. But during a sitdown dinner Ash exposes Mother Suzy (Mimi Rogers) as a Deadite and to Kelly's horror the two of them fight it out until Ash destroys the Deadite. Kelly dedicates herself to expunging the threat, while far behind the trio, the pursuers Ruby and Amanda get closer.

BOOKS FROM BEYOND-- Ash and his allies seek out an occult bookstore, and Ash convinces the owner, a dabble in magic, to summon a minor demon, so that they can question it to find out the best way to dispel the demons as a whole. However, Amanda has tracked the trio to the bookstore, and her intrusion on the ritual allows the demon Eligos to get free. After the heroes dispel the demon (temporarily) and subdue Amanda, Ash gets the bright idea of binding the lady cop with her own handcuffs. But once the heroes are gone, the slain bookstore owner rises as a Deadite and threatens her.

BRUJO-- Fortunately for Amanda, Ruby comes along and defeats the Deadite, and the two join forces in tracking the trio. Ruby has a special means of doing so: she's gained possession of the dismembered hand Ash lost in EVIL DEAD II, which has a link to Ash. Meanwhile, since the heroes learned nothing from the demon Eligos, Pablo proposes that they meet with his uncle the brujo. They do so, and the brujo is not very impressed with Ash, acknowledging that he's a major player but one crippled by indulgence. The brujo gives Ash a hallucinogenic drink that sends him on a wild mental trip to Ash's favorite mental place: Jacksonville Florida. In the process Ash also has to fight demons, and in the process formulates his version of "Zen shooting," of slaying demons without consciously thinking of doing so. However, the questers aren't free of Eligos, who has possessed Kelly despite her not being dead. Eligos also works a whammy on Ash's mind so that he thinks he's batting the demon when he's actually strangling Possessed Kelly, so that Pablo and the brujo bind Ash, thinking he's been possessed.

THE HOST-- While Ash argues with the brujo to get free, Possessed Kelly comes on to Pablo, who's had a thing for her since the beginning. She's actually trying to get him to kill himself, but Ash finally convinces the wizard that Kelly's the possession victim, so that Pablo's saved and she's restrained. The heroes perform an exorcism and expel Eligos, though he kills the brujo before Ash slays the demon with his Zen shooting.

THE KILLER OF KILLERS-- Ash interprets his vision as an oracle to return to the cabin where it all started and bury the book there. Sometime after the trio leaves, Amanda and Ruby arrive, and Ruby tries to get information from the remains of the brujo. Ruby's caught in an explosion and Amanda drives off in the car. The trio stops to eat at a cafe, where Pablo tries to suss out Kelly's feelings for him but gets shot down. Amands catches up with the fugitives, corners Ash in the men's room, and after a brief fight (during which Ash ogles her breasts), Amanda takes him prisoner. However, the demons strike at the cafe by converting more humans into Deadites. The heroes defeat the zombies and finally convince Amanda to join forces with them.

FIRE IN THE HOLE-- Ruby rises from the ruins of the brujo's house, disclosing that she was never truly human. As the foursome enter the forest looking for the cabin, they butt heads with a group of survivalists. After various encounters with more Deadites and survivalists, Ash tries to spare his friends by leaving them behind while he seeks out the cabin. But his dismembered hand is also on the way to the cabin.

ASHES TO ASHES-- Kelly, Pablo and Amanda get lost in the woods, though Amanda goes off on her own and manages to find the cabin. Ash, unable to talk her into leaving, makes a pass, and Amanda isn't entirely unreceptive. Kelly and Pablo encounter three hikers in the woods and try to guide them away from the cabin. When a female hiker tells Kelly she's interested in Pablo, Kelly tries to discourage her. For some reason Ash seeks out the woodshed where he left the remains of his girlfriend Linda, whom he had to dismember, and of course demonic power seals him in the shed while the head of Linda, which still appears to be whole, rails at him. Amanda then encounters what she assumes to the real Ash, only to notice that he has two hands of flesh. She tries to escape the dupe Ash and is killed.

BOUND IN THE FLESH-- Kelly and Pablo arrive at the cabin and have to figure out which of the two Ashes is real by learning which is more obnoxious. While Real Ash uses his chainsaw to cut up the duplicate, Kelly and Pablo see the hikers approaching the cabin and try to guide them in another direction. However, Deadite Amanda escapes the cabin, overtakes the hiking party and slaughters two hikers. Pablo and Kelly are unable to retaliate, but Ruby shows up and fights Amanda, who then runs off. Pablo, Kelly and Ruby seek out the cabin, and Ruby tells Ash that they can only destroy the book by cutting it up during an occult ritual. However, during the ritual, Ruby reveals her true colors, causing the cover of the evil book to possess Pablo while boasting that she's the one who wrote the book, for the purpose of subjugating humanity.

THE DARK ONE-- Ash is distracted from Ruby's perfidy by another attack from Amanda, but he destroys her. Ruby takes the possessed Pablo down into the cellar. Ash follows but is briefly knocked out, whereon he gets a vision from Ruby, telling him he can end his sufferings by accepting a truce that allows him to retire in his beloved Jacksonville. Ash awakens and pursues Ruby, who brings forth a demon-child from Pablo. In another part of the cabin the demon-forces persecute Kelly and the last hiker, and the last hiker is killed. When Ash faces off with Ruby once more, she persuades him to accept the bargain of his vision. Ash does so with the stipulation that Kelly and Pablo will join him. The season ends with this uncertain bargain.

Though DEAD is replete with dozens of cartoonish ultraviolent stunts, something about the way the writers kept finding fresh ways to outrage human bodies struck me as having different roots than your average gore-gushing production. Maybe it's because, amid all the blood and guts, the writers also keep reminding viewers how vulnerable the human body is. Even comic actions like Ash being forced to cinch in his fat gut with a girdle may remind one of the body's destiny to deteriorate. In this season and season 2, Ash finds himself constantly being reminded of all the mistakes and missteps of his life, and as comical as this heroic meathead may be, he's also haunted by a lot of things besides death-dealing demons.               
          

        

HONOR ROLL #290

 JILL MARIE JONES takes aim against both Ash and the Evil Dead.

"Nobody-a cry-a when KING SHARK die."

Nobody asks for the services of EVAN LURIE on the holodeck.

  

"Avengers Assemble" accomplished the rare task of making the second MS. MARVEL seem like a dynamic presence.

BETTY PEI TI makes a much more colorful presence than the rather dull hero of this film.

The "Go" version of ROBIN annoys the DC Super Hero Girls.

 

JUSTICE LEAGUE SEASON TWO (2003-04)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*  

Aside from introducing a major subplot about the provenance of Hawkgirl upon Planet Earth-- something Season One didn't address adequately-- Season Two is much like its predecessor in structure, 14 stories, usually consisting of two episodes, though occasionally single or three-parters provided some narrative variety. I have the general recollection that the 3-season run of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED provided better stories overall, but that remains to be seen. Again, mythicity-ratings for individual episodes signify good, fair or poor.                                                                                                       

  TWILIGHT (P)-- In my general review of SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, which brought the Kirby-Kreations of Apokolips and New Genesis, I wrote: "Many of the plots, particularly in the third season, emphasize the hero's encounters with the forces of Darkseid.  Darkseid, unlike the rest of this Superman's fight-and-flee rogues' gallery, is a figure of Satanic majesty.  Even when Superman defeats this villain physically, Darkseid remains in a sense unbeaten, living on as the virtual incarnation of evil.  Yet this struggle too lacks the deeper resonance found in the "Fourth World" comics of Jack Kirby, from whence Darkseid springs.  In contrast to Kirby, the producers of the Superman series apparently view evil as inhering mostly in mindless violence.  Villains are never very clever in this world." The JUSTICE LEAGUE treatment of The New Gods cosmos is just more of the same, with the added touch that  Superman, the only Leaguer who had previous contact with the Lord of Apokolips, bears the villain a sizable grudge. But when Darkseid tells the League that Brainiac is about to wipe out his world, the heroes have to respond like heroes-- and so they get trapped by the connivance of both villains. A few character moments for Orion and Highfather don't disguise the weaknesses of this tale. The title is a simplistic Wagner reference.                               

                   
TABULA RASA (F) -- Luthor finds Amazo, an android left behind by the late Professor Ivo and manipulates the innocent artificial man into attacking the League with his limitless ability to imitate super-powers. It's mostly a big battle-story, with a few Frankensteinian touches.                                                                                                 

ONLY A DREAM (F) -- The writers should have included a tip
of the slouch hat to Wes Craven, as evil Doctor Destiny telepathically takes control of the heroes' dreams. Only two members remain awake to save their allies, and they're running on fumes.                                                                                                                       

MAID OF HONOR (F)-- This is one of the better Diana-centric episodes. Wonder Woman befriends an engaged young princess who's trying to live up her last days of pre-marital freedom. Then Wonder Woman and the rest of the Leaguers learn that the princess is supposed to marry Vandal Savage, who of course has the usual supervillain scheme in mind.                                                               

 HEARTS AND MINDS (F)-- John Stewart gets center stage this time, and we learn that he had a fling with his Green Lantern trainer Katma Tui. This allows the writers to show some mild jealousy on the part of Hawkgirl, foregrounding the romantic relationship that she and the Lantern will enjoy later this season. Despero, a routine comic-book alien evildoer who happened to have three eyes, is revised into a cult-leader who's persuaded his entire world that he is the Second Coming of their sacred deity, partly because he was born with that third eye. The script contains the usual bromides about the excesses of cultish religions but says nothing new.                                     

A BETTER WORLD (F)-- And here, as if by collaboration with Mark Waid, we have an alternate universe where things went to hell because Superman broke his code against killing. The result is that the Justice League of that world became The Authority-- I mean, the Justice Lords. Despite the Lords having brought their world under draconian control, they aren't happy with their accomplishments. Upon learning of the League's world, the six corrupted heroes (Flash having been slain by Luthor, whom Superman then killed) journey to League-world, imprison the real heroes, and begin a new campaign of conquest. There are some good character moments here for Superman, Batman, and the non-deceased Flash, an appearance by Doomsday (who talks this time out), and Regular Luthor redeeming himself-- temporarily.                                                                               

ECLIPSED (P)-- Explorers accidentally release the demonic Eclipso, who proceeds to take control of most of the Leaguers with his power over their dark sides. Twenty years later, STARGIRL did the same story better.                                                                                 

 THE TERROR WITHIN (F)-- Yes, I'll give this one a fair rating just for working in a salute to Marvel's Defenders, consisting of Doctor Fate (for Doc Strange), Solomon Grundy (for Hulk), and Aquaman (for Sub-Mariner). The main plot is a disposable "Lovecraftian-demon-getting-unleashed" plot, and it's not improved by shoehorning in the assertion that Hawkgirl's people once worshipped the demon.                                                                                                 

 SECRET SOCIETY (F)-- Luthor's Injustice Gang is remodeled as Gorilla Grodd's Secret Society, but the only thing "secret" about this assemblage of career super-villains is that Grodd is a lot sneakier about undermining the heroes with psychological techniques. The anthropoid antagonist uses his mind-control talents to aggravate many of the petty resentments the Leaguers harbor toward one another, making it tough for them to work together-- not unlike the ten or twelve times this sort of thing happened to the Avengers or the Fantastic Four. Surprisingly the pongid predator does not pick up on the concealed romantic feelings of Hawkgirl and Green Lantern, though I can guess why the writers did not go there. They did put some quasi-Nietzschean ideas in Grodd's mouth, which is a nice touch for what's still just three big battles between heroes and villains-- though "Society" does boast one of the best multi-character fights in both live-action and animation history.                                               

 HEREAFTER (G)-- I'm surprised that an episode featuring one of the many "Fake Deaths of Superman" proved to have such strong mythicity. Part of the credit lies in the writers' riffing on a famous Silver Age comics-story, "Superman Under a Red Sun," in which the hero is flung into a far-future Earth whose sun is now red, depriving the Kryptonian of his super-powers. In HEREAFTER, a battle with a cadre of villains brings about the Man of Steel's transposition into a similar future-world, while everyone back in 2003 thinks that their greatest hero is dead. But after wandering about the ruined world for a time, Superman is found by "the Last Immortal on Earth," the ever-persistent Vandal Savage. It seems one of Savage's world-conquering plans went awry and killed everyone else on the planet, so that he can only pass his time with pointless hobbies-- until he gets the idea to change history with the help of the Last Son of Krypton. This is one of the better time-travel stories in animation history, largely because of the byplay between the compassionate hero and the vaguely remorseful evildoer. And before the Leaguers learn that their friend is still alive, they have to endure the attempt of the raucous Lobo to take Superman's place in the hero-group. It doesn't really work to imagine Lobo hanging out with a bunch of do-gooders, but his presence does provide a few touches of needed humor.                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                 WILD CARDS (F)-- Just because the Joker worked pretty well in the Injustice Gang, that doesn't mean he makes a good main opponent, not even when he's buttressed with a new version of those "wild cards" the Royal Flush Gang and with the even wilder Harley Quinn. Joker invades Las Vegas and challenges the League to uncover a series of bombs that will decimate the city, even though a lot of residents manage to flee. Of course, Batman gets the honor of taking down the Clown Prince, as well as manipulating Harley against him, while the others occupy themselves with the cannon fodder. Good basic action sequences and greater development of the Hawkgirl-GL romance make it all go down easily.                                           

   COMFORT AND JOY (F)-- The writers push themselves to do a sentimental Christmas episode, and though not everything works, it could have turned out much worse. The Hawkgirl-GL romance ramps up, in preparation for having John Stewart get the rug ripped out from under him.                                                                                          

STARCROSSED (F)-- And just like that, the writers drop the other shoe. Hawkgirl didn't just happen to land on Earth by accident as she maintained; she was sent to spy on Earth, and on the League, by her superiors in the Thanagarian military. The winged heroine went along with this plot in the false belief that her people merely planned to briefly control Earth in order to establish a beachhead against the Thanagarians' spacefaring enemies, the Gordanians. But when Hawkgirl learns that her people plan to destroy Earth for their own military advantage, she has to switch loyalties, even though her former friends deem her a traitor as well. There's lots of strong melodrama in this three-part season finale, but not that much myth beyond the standard "don't trust aliens bearing gifts" trope. The romance, not surprisingly, does endure into the run of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED. 

FANTOMAS (1932)

  

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny* 
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological* 

This French movie is apparently the first sound outing for the mysterious criminal Fantomas. It starred a French cast and was directed by a Hungarian, Pal Fajos, who'd made a couple of Hollywood films prior to working on this project. I don't know what if any of his non-American oeuvre might be metaphenomenal in nature but, as other reviewers have said, the first half-hour of FANTOMAS feels like a better-photographed version of one of the silent "old dark house" movies of the period. 

I reviewed the first FANTOMAS novel in 2018 and liked it well enough. However, I didn't make that many notes about the plot of the novel, so I guess the parts of the novel involving the mysterious villain's crimes didn't do much for me. Though I'm not a Fantomas fan, I give the character props as an important transitional figure within the superhero idiom. Bur since I remember little about the crimes of the novel, I can't say if the 1932 movie is adapting them accurately. All I can say is that Fajos works well with the French actors, particularly in the opening scenes, making them seem reasonably alive despite their being bare plot-functions. The movie does get across the inscrutable nature of this perhaps-uncatchable fiend, and unlike the book, there's a scene in which the villain dons an all-black catsuit with a black cowl, in which garb he strangles a woman to death. Later he wears another "costume" of sorts, attending a party in a tuxedo but donning a domino mask when he attacks a potential witness. I assume that actor Jean Galland portrays the murderous thief in all his disguised personas.

One omission I did note was that the character of Charles (rechristened "Fandor" in the novel) is downgraded to just the assistant to Juve, the inspector in charge of pursuing the elusive criminal. So here Charles has no real backstory, but he does-- in contrast to the novel-- get to face off with the disguised Fantomas in a climactic brawl. In contrast to the practice of later sound serials, the two combatants more time whaling on one another with lamps and chairs than with bare fists. But before the viewer gets there, one has to forge through a lot of dull mystery scenes.

LEGEND OF THE RED REAPER (2013)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

Before watching REAPER-- a passion project for writer/director/star Tara Cardinal-- I glanced at some of the IMDB reviews and saw a lot of "worse movie I ever saw" type of responses. Well, REAPER's far from being the worst movie even in the ranks of low-budget fantasy-films. It's not exactly good, but even if I judged it as "bad," it would be the badness of stuffing the script with too much stuff rather than too little. I always prefer the bad films that make a real effort over the ones that make little or none.

To be sure, it's tough to fit together all the puzzle-pieces in the life of Cardinal's character Aella. She dwells in a fantasy-world where humans and demons intermingle on a regular basis, and of course given the budget, the demons just look like humans in makeup. She's the seed of a human mother never given a proper name and a demon-lord named Ganesh (a peculiar reference to a Hindu elephant-god). The mother apparently has exclusive custody to Aella at the point where Mom marries a human lord named Adonis. Then the mother trades young Aella to her father in exchange for a vial of demon-blood, with which the human mother can stay young forever, or at least a really long time. Ganesh treats his daughter cruelly, though we only see one flashback of him whipping her (teen?) self. Aella is rescued by the Reapers, a cadre of warriors who were also the spawn of humans and demons, and who, despite a few demonic features (Aella has scales on her back), pledge their loyalty to the human world.

In the film's real-time, Aella has apparently served her lordly father Adonis for a while. Most of the film's early action, however, is confined to Aella having practice bouts with other Reapers and with humans. Her contact with human lords has caused her to form a romantic dalliance with Prince Eris, but various factions want Eris to marry a human noble, Princess Indira. Adonis is really the only one who nags Aella to step aside; the few others who know about the affair seem okay with it. 

After about half an hour of this melodrama-- including a side-plot about the possibility that Aella's inherited the prophetic powers of the mother she despises-- something finally happens to get the plot rolling. Aella is ambushed by a gang of humans, who riddle her with arrows, though this only incapacitates her. They take her to a hut and drain off her half-demon blood, planning to kill her thereafter. But Aella is rescued by her wayward mother, now billed as "The Teller Witch," who transports Aella to another hut, where the Witch lives with her other daughter, who for all the importance she has in the story might as well not exist.

If Aella or any viewer hoped for the mother to justify her past actions, there's not much of that. The Witch simply informs her prodigal daughter that the humans serve Ganesh, and that they intend to use her blood to strengthen an army to attack the semi-human Reapers and Aella's foster father Adonis. The broad implication is that doing so will bring about Ganesh's rulership of the mortal world, but political strategy is not a big concern here.

From then on, the rest of the film is mostly lots of running around and sword-slinging. Before Aella can return to the keep of Adonis, Bad Father Ganesh duels Good Father Adonis and kills the latter. Aella does find a half-dead Eris on the battlefield and feeds him her blood to revive him. I *think* she runs off because she thinks he's died, but Eris does revive and joins the Reapers in trying to fight the demons and their human allies. I can't say that any of the combat, armed or unarmed, is anything special, but I have seen much worse. Strangely, despite all the tactics used to build to a fatal confrontation between good daughter and evil father, the two of them fight for a few minutes, but Eris gets to strike the fatal blow. This, on top of Aella stepping aside to allow Eris to make his political marriage, seems like a curious attempt to downplay the main character in order to make her story seem "tragic." 

Still, Cardinal does better than many actresses have in playing a tough swordswoman, and since the movie does at least have a muddled take on the concept of human-demon interactions in a fantasy-universe, I'll give REAPER a fair mythicity rating.  

        

FUTURE WAR (1997)

  

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*

Well, FUTURE WAR scored some sort of victory over me. Usually, I can discern some basic meaning of even the most jumbled junk-movie. But I've tried to watch this film three times-- the MST3K version, of course (the film by itself might break me) -- and I can't figure out what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish, even on the level of imitating other, better films.

All I can make of this super-cheap film is that some humanoid alien called The Runaway (Daniel Bernhardt) arrives on Earth, pursued by cyborg soldiers who bring with them some mini-dinosaurs they use as trackers (that never look like anything but badly manipulated puppets). Though one might think the cyborgs would be the main menace, they don't play a big part in the incoherent story until the end, when the kickboxing fugitive fights some sort of cyborg assassin (Robert Z'dar). Most of the film consists of rambling conversations between Runaway and various Earth-people, mainly a gal-pal named Sister Ann (Travis Brooks Stewart). The sister is a nun of some sort, but she became a drug addict and sold her body. She never talks or acts like any kind of nun, except that she never becomes a romantic interest to the hero. I considered the possibility that Runaway might be a sort of secular savior to Sister Ann, but the script isn't even inventive to go there. 

Bernhardt was a pretty decent low-rent martial hero in a few nineties movies and in the one-season MORTAL KOMBAT TV show. However, he's out of his element in a zero-budget flick, and so his fights prove lethargic and he fails to put across even basic heroism. After the nineties the actor became pretty a much a stunt-guy. Yet I guess no one can blame FUTURE WAR for that, since I can't believe anyone ever watched it, even on video, until MST3K revived it for purposes of mockery. The director never did anything else of note. The two writers garnered a few more credits but the only thing I recognized was a silly comedy called BIKINI HOTEL, and that timewaster was like gold next to this turd.   

ANGEL SEASON 5 (2003-04)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological, sociological*

The final season of ANGEL goes through some odd mutations as it shifts from "film noir mystery" to "working from within to take down the evil company." Further, according to a recent interview with James Marsters, when his character of Spike was resurrected for this series, this exigency may have caused the producers to cut Charisma Carpenter from the cast. This means the character arc for Cordelia is never really brought to a satisfying conclusion, at least in the teleseries. Still, in Season Four the writers had written themselves into a corner with respect to that character, so maybe they couldn't have done much with her anyway. And one more season of Spike, being brought into continuous conflict with his old hell-mate Angel, was probably a decent trade-off.            

CONVICTION (F)-- Season Four dropped the Fred-Gunn romance in a contrived manner so that by Season Five one can hardly tell they were ever together. This set up more unrequited agony for Wesley, who still loves her but can't seem to make a play. Gunn, for his part, gets super-charged with legal knowledge so that he can function as one of W&H's lawyers, just so he has a more definite function in the series than busting heads. Harmony is invited-- by Wesley, no less-- to become Angel's new secretary, but the Senior Partners also send Angel a new advisor, name of Eve, who serves as Hell's liaison. The main plot, about the team trying to prevent LA from being blown to hell, is just filler. The episode ends with Spike appearing in the offices of W&H, but as an insubstantial phantom.

JUST REWARDS (F)-- Not only is Spike a phantom, he also can't leave the evil law offices and so sticks around to bug Angel as much as possible. At the same time, Angel demands that W&H stop supplying a client named Hainsley with grave-derived corpses. Hainsley, a necromancer, threatens to take Angel down, and tries to get Phantom Spike to betray the noble vampire. The expectation set up is that Spike, who betrayed the Buffy team a few times, will do anything to get a body again, but it's no great surprise that Spike is not so much loyal to Angel as disloyal to the necromancer.

UNLEASHED (F)-- This is a decent filler episode in which the Angel Team protects a brand-new werewolf, name of Nina, from becoming the main course for a bunch of gourmets hungry for werewolf flesh.

HELL BOUND (F)-- Scofflaw though Spike is, he knows that all the things he's done in his vampire persona should doom him to eternal perdition. For the first time, the second "vampire with a soul" is faced with that fate, as a being called the Reaper, whom others at W&H cannot see, continually torments him. The existential confrontation with damnation, however, is circumvented when it turns out that the Reaper is the ghost of a sorcerer who's found a way to preserve his existence by sacrificing other spirits-- even though, technically, Spike is not exactly a ghost. James Marsters gets all the good scenes here, but the story is only adequate.

LIFE OF THE PARTY (P)-- And here's the first crummy episode of Season Five. Lorne arranges a Halloween party at W&H as a means of cementing the firm's relationships with its many demonic and sorcerous clientele. But Lorne has overextended himself by not getting enough sleep, and so he unintentionally starts commanding the other members of his group to do things against their will, much as Willow unintentionally did in "Something Blue." The foremost of these incidents is that Lorne's suggestion that Angel and Eve "get a room" causes them to have sex, though this doesn't have much overall effect upon the series as a whole. During the big bash, a Hulked-out version of Lorne shows up and tries to bash everyone to bits, and once the monster's defeated, Lorne vows to get some sleep.           

THE CAUTIONARY TALE OF NUMERO CINCO (F)-- This episode isn't all that good, but I give it props for trying to write a love letter to luchadores movies. Angel has a violent encounter with Numero Cinco, the W&H mailroom-guy, who walks around in a wrestler's mask-- but this is just a prelude to learning that Cinco is the only one who can stop a demon that feeds on heroes' hearts. The most significant subplot is that Spike, despite still being a phantom, hears some details of the Shianshu Prophecy, and wonders if it might apply to him, not to Angel.

LINEAGE (G)-- Finally one of the stories turns up the drama to eleven and does so in such a way as to reveal the psychological depth of the Wesley character. The opening scenes give the impression that the team is faced with just another new foe: a horde of cyborg assassins. Fred gets injured in these scenes while Wesley, who still has yet to make a romantic pass at her, becomes very guilty at having put her in harm's way. The script still plays it coy as to whether Fred reciprocates his feelings, because the focus here is not on Wesley's future but his humiliating past. His father Roger Wyndham-Pryce is trying to rebuild the Watcher organization that was wiped out in BUFFY's last season, and he wants his son to join him. Wesley, however, wants his independence, even if it does involve working for a hellish law office. The matter becomes irrelevant when it turns out that (a) Roger is a mole, trying to steal a weapon from the office, and (b) Roger is a cyborg, which Wesley only finds out after being forced to shoot his "father" dead. Though the real Roger Wyndham-Pryce is still alive and unaware of all these events, Wesley is once more put through a dark night of the soul, his third following Angel trying to kill him and his loss of Lilah.  

DESTINY (G)-- Up to this point Phantom Spike has been no more than an annoyance to his former pack-mate Angel, but a strange box arrives at W&H and it turns Spike to a solid being again. However, the same magic that works on Spike starts breeding chaos in the law offices and spreading to the outside world The Angel Team gets the info that they can cancel out the magic if the destined champion of the prophecy drinks from a magical cup. Naturally each of the two ensouled vampires thinks he's destined to receive the honor, and they end up having one of the series' best fight-scenes at the climax. This is also one of the last times the show flashes back to the period when Spike had been newly turned by Drusilla, and Angelus, the "big dog" of the vamp-pack, puts Spike to the test. More importantly, Young Spike is sincerely in love with the wayward Drusilla, and his first big quarrel comes about when Angelus, on the outs with Darla, seduces Drusilla. So this provides the genesis of the long rivalry of Angel and Spike, and from then on, their continuing love/hate affair bedomes the final season's best feature. The story also brings back evil lawyer Lindsey (Christian Kane), who's running some conspiracy with his lover Eve, W&H's link to the senior partners.

HARM'S WAY (F)-- This makes a good counterpart to "Disharmony," being a focus on how Harmony copes with being Angel's secretary. At the very time that the team is trying to manage a difficult summit between rival demon tribes, Harmony is framed for murder. She blunders about trying to prove her innocence and nearly kills some of the regular cast. One of the better funny ANGEL episodes. A minor development of the Spike story is that he stops talking about seeking out Buffy for a time, possibly fearing that if he sees her again, she'll reject him.

SOUL PURPOSE (F)-- "Hell Bound" put Spike through a hallucinogenic wringer, so now it's Angel's turn, reflecting his loss of confidence after being defeated by Spike. Many of Angel's delusions involve his seeing Spike taking over his position as champion and being feted by the other members of the team while Angel himself becomes the mail-boy. Meanwhile, Lindsey launches the next part of his hard-to-follow plot. He takes the name "Doyle," formerly that of the half-demon psychic who passed on his powers to Cordelia in Season One and convinces Spike to play vigilante.   

 DAMAGE (G)-- Here's a good callback to the history both Spike and Angel had with vampire slayers, as they encounter an insane young woman with Slayer strength. Dana (Navi Rawat) has been in an insane asylum for years following suffering abuse, but thanks to the spell that unleashed all Potential Slayers in BUFFY Season Seven, she comes into her power and breaks loose. Unlike Buffy and Faith, Dana's memory somehow taps into those of the last two Slayers-- the ones whom Spike killed-- so she's out to give Spike grief. The episode loses points for pointlessly bringing back the unfunny BUFFY character Andrew, though the climax does involve his command of other Slayers who take custody of Dana at the end.

YOU'RE WELCOME (F)-- And now it's time to say goodbye to Cordelia Chase as well. Angel, in the midst of contemplating defection from W&H, gets a call about Cordelia awakening from her coma. This may have been mystic flummery, for by the episode's end we learn that Cordelia's body never awakened, though something that looks and feels like the living Cordelia greets the Angel Team. She follows them back to W&H and has brief interactions with Harmony, Gunn and Lorne. She asks after Connor and finds out that Angel agreed to work for W&H in exchange for remolding reality to give Connor a happy life. Cordelia is not shy about telling Angel that he's gone down a bad road, though as in all the other Season Four episodes, she never reveals any details about how she got hijacked by Jasmine. The team learns that Eve has made an alliance with Lindsey to get revenge on Angel, though his actual plot never made much sense. Cordelia aids Angel in defeating Lindsey and sending him to some hell-dimension. The story concludes with Cordelia shuffling off the mortal coil to become a vision-thing of some sort. It's hard to believe the story was conceived as a guest-shot for Buffy.

WHY WE FIGHT (F)-- If nothing else, this one's a good change of pace, as most of the story is a flashback to Angel's years in the US during World War Two. In short, Angel, Spike and two other vampires get trapped in a submarine at the bottom of the sea. The frame story concerns how one of the mortals menaced by the vamps comes back to gain vengeance on Angel.

 SMILE TIME (F)-- I must admit that though there's nothing exceptional about the story, "the one where Angel gets turned into a puppet" remains one of the most memorable ANGEL tales. Spike's huge amusement at Angel's humiliation alone makes the episode, though he takes a back seat to the boss vamp's temptation to romantically pursue werewolf-woman Nina. In between the puppet-hijinks, Gunn begins to lose his downloaded talents and makes an unwise deal, while Fred finally breaks the ice with Wesley. Both lead to bad ends.

A HOLE IN THE WORLD (G)-- Fred is infected with the essence of an Old God named Illyria, which destroys her body and soul despite everything the team can do to prevent it. Even more than the BUFFY episode "The Body," "Hole" shows the utter inability of even super-powered mortals to stave off death, which I assume is the "hole" referenced in the title. A special perk is that for once writer Josh Whedon expands on his quasi-Lovecraftian universe in a fully mythopoeic manner, as Angel and Spike delve into a subterranean domain, "The Deeper Well," only to learn that even attempting to oust an Old God from her chosen vessel will cause untold destruction. Denisof and Acker ratchet up the waterworks to give Winifred Burkle a send-off, while introducing a new character for Acker, that of an incarnate god who has little patience with the fatuities of mortals.                      

   SHELLS (G)-- Wesley has not even a moment to mourn Fred, for he must immediately deal with Illyria, an Old God in human form. She remembers nothing of Fred's existence but is aghast to learn that the world has now been overridden by humans, who were a nugatory species on the level of pond scum. Angel and Spike return from England, having failed to reverse Illyria's possession of Fred's body. They question the W&H scientist Knox, who conspired to give Illyria her new form. Then Illyria abducts Knox, casting aside all opposition. On a minor note, Gunn learns that the process that gave him a permanent download was also involved in Illyria's incarnation, though this seems out of left field. Wesley does not react well to Gunn's accidental betrayal and stabs Gunn, albeit non-fatally. Illyria, with Knox's aid, successfully opens a gateway to a pocket dimension, from which she plans to revive an army of conquest. However, to her great consternation her soldiers have all perished over the centuries, and on top of that Wesley kills Knox. Despite the conflict between Illyria and the Angel Team, the former goddess shows up at W&H once more, having nowhere else to go.

UNDERNEATH (F)-- Eve wants the Angel Team to protect her from the senior partners, who already have Lindsey. None of them knows that for whatever reasons, Lindsey's captors have put him into a suburban paradise with a pretty wife and a child, though his familial pleasures are regularly interrupted by torture sessions with a S&M demon. Eve convinces the team that Lindsey can solve their problems with his insight into the minds of the senior partners, so Angel, Spike, and Gunn invade the holding-dimension to rescue Lindsey. In their absence-- during which time Wesley is still babysitting Illyria-- a hulking man in a suit (Alec Baldwin) invades W&H, trying to find Eve. However, though the hulk (name of Hamilton) is from hell, he's only here to take Eve's place as a new liaison to the firm, so she's not harmed. Gunn isn't so lucky. In order to expiate his guilt for having indirectly caused Fred's death, he takes Lindsey's place in the otherworld so that Angel and Spike escape with Lindsey.

ORIGIN (P)-- Naturally the writers don't really want Connor totally sidelined, since he causes Angel all sorts of grief. So one day Connor's parents bring their son into the W&H offices to find out how their son was able to survive being run down by a car. It doesn't make a lick of sense as to why Connor would still be half-demon if his entire timeline has been rewritten. The writers choose not to explain this, even though they make up a special demon, name of Vail, who's credited with having accomplished the rewriting. And yet there's some balmy prophecy that insists that Connor is the only being who can destroy Vail's enemy, the scheming Sahjhan from Season 4. The only good part of this mess is the scene in which Spike tries to "test" Illyria's powers, which makes for some decent face-smashings.

TIME BOMB (F)-- Though Wesley persuades Illyria to crash into the hell-dimension and to rescue Gunn, the team worries that Illyria's powers will soon build to a crisis point and she'll explode, destroying lots of Earth real estate in the process. Wesley devises a ray-gun to disperse her power, though for most of the episode the viewer is led to believe that he intends to kill her. While this goes on, Angel also has to deal with a legal matter about a sacrificial cult trying to take possession of an unborn baby from its mother. The episode's best feature is a series of time-distortions resulting when Illyria becomes "unstuck in time." Presumably the script was written when the staff hoped to be able to continue for a sixth season, which would have included Illyria becoming a regular, less reluctant team-member.

THE GIRL IN QUESTION (F)-- This is another silly concept. Angel and Spike journey to Italy to protect the decapitated head of a demon-clan master while simultaneously trying to pry Buffy from the clutches of a mysterious, never-seen seducer known as The Immortal. Naturally, since Sarah Michelle Gellar did not choose to come back for what would have been a cameo role, Buffy is only seen from a distance and is never involved in any story-action, any more than is the mysterious man she's now dating. In this comedy both Angel and Spike are played for fools, and even the perpetually uncool Andrew is allowed to shine. The only redeeming virtue of the episode is the writers are still able to keep up the great rapport between Angel and Spike, allowing the viewer to see glimpses of the amity they once shared before either of them got a soul. Flashback scenes also show their wenches Darla and Drusilla having been seduced by the ultra-manly Immortal, which seems like gilding the lily a bit too much.   

POWER PLAY/NOT FADE AWAY (F)-- There are some good moments in this concluding two-parter, but the myth-discourse is palliated by the attempt to shoehorn in all of the subplots, such as the overrated Shianshu Prophecy. (There was even talk of having Buffy make one last guest appearance, but though Gellar might have been willing, the idea was dropped.) In the first part, Angel begins acting evil, as if completely corrupted by running Wolfram and Hart. The rest of the team run around worrying, except for Illyria, who bonds a little with Spike in running around fighting evil. The subplot with Lindsey belatedly takes shape, though he doesn't do much beyond providing bits of info. Angel seems to be auditioning for membership in an elite convocation of demons, the Circle of the Black Thorn, who are the means through which the senior partners work their will upon the mortal plane. Not surprisingly, Angel's running a scam to deceive both the watchful Hamilton and the duplicitous Lindsey. In essence, the hero has realized that there's no point in seeking to use W&H "to change things from within," because the power of the senior partners will always be used to keep humans down. The best that heroes can do is to shake things up, to inflict substantive damage on the lords of Hell, even if they themselves perish. The two-parter finds time to work in character moments for minor figures like Connor and Harmony, and all the major players get to have big action-scenes taking out demonic forces, with Angel squaring off with Hamilton. Lorne, though not a fighter, gets an uncharacteristic final moment that nevertheless sums up his place in the world of champions. The final scene, in which the Angel Team takes arms against an irresistible tide of monsters, does much to redeem all the weak moments of this uneven but still important teleseries.