Wonder Man 1x2: side quests and distractions

Episode 2 begins with Trevor presumably returning from China, having survived the events at Ta Lo in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The continuity is less important than its thematic parallel. The conflict in China arose out of Shang-Chi’s dad being deceived into thinking his wife was imprisoned by her own people, making him chase an empty final mission — a tragic end for someone reputed to be immortal, and otherwise always got his way. Anyway, we get where Trevor’s been as he is on a plane talking to a Chinese woman, recounting to her how his mom set him on his life’s mission to be a great actor someday.

Trevor’s mission is once again sidetracked when, at the airport, he is tackled to the floor by the DDC for being the terrorist he only thought he was playing. He takes a deal to play under the direction of DDC’s P. Cleary in the act of deceiving Simon into revealing evidence of superhero powers.

At this point, let’s take a detour to explore the DDC. Damage Control debuted as a comic book, but it set a much different tone and function from the DDC in the MCU. Comic book Damage Control was a pure comedy of non-powered office workers and engineers impossibly tasked with cleaning up and restoring the damage caused by superpowered activity — a common occurrence in New York 616. Essentially, Damage Control represented stagehands and set builders for the Marvel Comics “theatre,” resetting the stage for the next violent encounter, though less like conventional theatre and more like Toho Studios, famous for its weekly Godzilla rampages. This conceit explained why New York always looked pristine before it got wrecked again in another powered clash.

The MCU’s DDC is cast more like present-day real-world immigration control, dealing more with the superpowered beings themselves rather than the damage they cause (though we did see their engineering department in Spider-Man: Homecoming). Nothing funny about them — they seem like self-righteous, officious a**holes.

OK, back to the series.

Simon’s agent, X. Mayo (Janelle James), diverts his attention from Wonder Man to make a self-video audition for another movie project, hinting that it might increase his chances of being cast in the role he really wants. Simon tries to make the video at home, but the stress of having his girlfriend walk out on him, combined with his inability to get into character, causes him to lash out with his powers (possibly telekinetic) and damage his apartment.

When Simon reaches out to Trevor for help, Cleary sees an opportunity for Trevor to get evidence from Simon’s apartment. Cleary gives Trevor a device that can clone Simon’s laptop. Trevor’s job looks easy-peasy to us — the evidence is all there to be collected.

But Cleary’s plans get derailed when Simon decides not to shoot in his own apartment and instead rents a private studio. Here, Marvel shows us another way Hollywood auditions talent. OK, nice. At the studio, the camera operator proves so inept at reading the audition script that they abandon the effort altogether. It’s a bit of poetic justice. What Simon did to wreck his shoot last episode parallels what happens to him in this one.

Trevor has the brainwave to shoot the audition video at his old co-star’s house. Joe Pantoliano plays himself, reality bleeding into the fictional world. Here, we’re treated to some social theatre where past hurts and old grudges are smoothed over with politeness and platitudes. Trevor has lived a long time with the idea that Joe had backstabbed him in their long-ended hit series South Side Hospital, but that “scene” had played out very differently from Joe’s point of view. When Joe tries to explain, it only rankles Trevor further. He breaks from social politeness and storms off, while Simon takes his side, insults Joe, and leaves too — his audition tape still not made.

Simon finally decides to shoot at home after all. Now everyone’s back on track with the main side quest — the audition tape. Cleary gets whatever his device has cloned from Simon’s laptop, and Trevor accomplishes his mission. Trevor also uncovers actual superhero damage inside Simon’s apartment, but for now we don’t know what he will do with that information.

Simon gets his video shot, with Trevor reading the co-dialogue. The bond the two have developed through their misadventures shines through. Simon has found his motivation and his character’s frame of mind. More than that, the scripted dialogue sounds so intimate and sincere that it feels as though the real-life actors, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley, are speaking to one another in genuine respect and appreciation for the working partnership they have in the real world.

The theme of betrayal rings strongly in this episode: Shang-Chi’s dad betrayed by the “mega soul-sucker” as optional backstory, Trevor betrayed by Joe, and Simon in danger of being betrayed by Trevor. The layers and concentric circles blending reality and fiction are palpable here — not just as text, but as lived experience. And this is only Episode 2.

Wonder Man 1X1: The Hero's Backlot

Marvel has delivered another act of self-commentary in the new Wonder Man. It comes across as an understated Marvel superhero offering, but it is more about processes -- the overlap of a new hero's backstory and how a Marvel movie is made, where the behind-the scenes of movie production takes precedence over superhero shenanigans.

Let's see if I got this: we viewers are watching an actor (Yahya Abdul Mateen II) playing the main character, actor, Simon Williams, auditioning to play the main character of a remake of a movie "Wonder Man," a character with super powers -- but although Simon has powers, he pretends he doesn't, while auditioning to play a character whose identity is tied to the powers he openly wields. It is a washed-up actor looking to make a comeback, Trevor Slattery, played in real life by Ben Kingsley, who once thought he was acting as a terrorist, not knowing that actual acts of terror in the MCU were being carried out in the name of the Mandarin, the character he thought he was playing. Trevor has put Simon on this path to play Wonder Man, Simon's childhood hero, but the audition itself is a sham, an act Trevor is perpetrating on Simon on behalf of P Cleary (Arian Moayed), agent of the Department of Damage Control. It's Trevor's "Mandarin" role all over again -- smaller, scaled-down and this time fully complicit in the deception.

In summary, we have overlapping layers of actors playing characters thinking they are being themselves, but are really playing characters in someone else's theatre. That is some rabbit hole. The overarching premise, it seems to me so far, is that Marvel is lifting the curtain on the process of making a superhero movie in the real world, but depicting the process in a world inhabited by superheroes, where the actors -- for contractual reasons or because they are hunted by DDC -- have to pretend they don't have powers if they do.

What drives this opening episode is the first step in the actor's process of being cast, the audition. Simon is an actor who overthinks his roles, even when all he needs to do is say a line then lie dead in a moonbeam. Yes, Simon is at the time we are introduced, a Day Player. An extra. A "calafaire", however it's spelled in my region of the world. For Simon, there is no small role. His impulse is to take over his entire shot and build a reality around his character who merely exists as an afterthought for the rest of the crew. But in building his character's reality, he destroys the real reality of the shoot -- time, budget, goodwill and patience -- that his shoot gets cancelled and his reality as he envisions it never gets made.

Having been politely fired, Simon goes to a screening of "Midnight Cowboy" (a movie about a man pretending to be a cowboy, eventually finding meaning in human connection, not performance -- an ironic mirror to Simon's life) and enters Act 1 Scene 1 of Trevor's play which involves implanting in Simon the idea to audition for "Wonder Man". At this point, we get the inkling of a fake friendship that could possibly evolve into a very real one eventually. The situation here is seemingly foreshadowed in the audition script for "Wonder Man" that Simon is to read. It is the character of Wonder Man monologuing about refusing to abandon his friend, possibly mentor, while making a last stand against hostile aliens.

Episode 1 takes us through the audition process, from the interaction with Simon's long-suffering Agent, to Simon finagling an audition spot at the last minute, to the door where he signs in to receive his script (and declare that he does not have super powers), to the queue of hopeful auditionees. We get to observe Simon's nerves under pressure and his breakdown, but Trevor (Act 1 Scene 2) meets with him to steady his nerves and give him tips on how to audition successfully: don't think, which is the very opposite of Simon's method. And when Yahya Abdul Mateen II delivers that monologue at Simon's audition, this scripted speech lands as the most heartfelt and sincere lines spoken in this episode.

This is going to be a fun series, but I anticipate maybe not for the hardcore superhero fanboys. Is it a documentary? A mockumentary? A superhero schlockumentary? I don't know yet, but this series so far pings big on my metafiction radar.

Portrait de ma famille sur la porte*

Ma famille, rendered as cartoon caricatures and proudly displayed on my front door. They represent traditional Chinese couplets the wife decorates our entrance with annually, welcoming blessings into our home. Each panel bears the character "fu", meaning "fortune", and each family member wears a horse hat for the Horse Year ahead. CNY is still officially a few weeks ahead, but taobao has been expeditious with its deliveries so we're celebrating early.

*The title wordplays on "port", so literally, pardon my French. Credit: Google Translate.

New job title

In the swirl of events of yesterday, I did not recognise the significance of the above email. I thought there were still one or two more steps to go, but technically I can now claim the job title of Published Author! 

Yes, my book is no longer merely conceptual -- it actually exists in the real world! It'll be a few more days before I can hold it in my hands via snail mail but it is done! The culmination of fragments of work spread over the last 5 or so years is a destination I did not anticipate when I started this personal project, yet here we are.

I still need to proof the first printed copy to ensure there are no mistakes in the printing process, and then I'll release it into the market when I'm satisfied it's all good. Hopefully, a few weeks from now. In the meantime, preview People, Peace and Power-ups on thegprebel.sg, where this whole idea started as just a thing to do on the side.

Going to sit down and take a breath now...

15 years of Headbanging

An unexpected treat showed up on YouTube! BABYMETAL dropped a remake of the iconic Headbanger MV. Headbanger features a young female protagonist celebrating her 15th birthday, so it makes sense that this remake is meant to celebrate BABYMETAL's 15th anniversary.

The location has been updated to a gaming arcade in which a crane game grabs a neckbrace to kick off the song. Out of a video game screen, the ancestral spirit, or Kami, makes his reappearance Sadako-like. SU sings lead and MOA provides the clean harmonies as always, but MOMO gets to go full ham on her backing growls, adding an even harder edge to this classic track.

The choreography is the same, but after 15 years of repetition, the movements are polished and energetic without being breathlessly frenetic. The Kami steals the show, though. He goes into a Kevin McCallister style frenzy, running around the arcade like nobody's looking (nobody is looking 'cos it's empty), but Japanese finesse still comes though as he politely gives silent thanks before tucking into his ramen. He also celebrates with a soda pop shower (you're still not allowed to celebrate with champaign at 15), but mops up his mess at the same ridiculous Red-bull fuelled pace immediately after. It's a cute comedic touch to the faux horror theme that is so BABYMETAL.

Happy 15th anniversary to BABYMETAL! I hope to continue supporting your work until you change your name to BIDDYMETAL 50+ years from now!