lizardxu

There’s a biological term called convergent evolution…where animals of different classes, orders or families and so on evolve the same features to cope with their environments…how both sharks and dolphins have fins to swim and how both bats and birds have wings. Apply this same logic here. Kaiju from Pacific Rim and Angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion are both types of large monsters posing a threat to humanity, and as humans are small and pathetic in comparison, large humanoid machines controllable by humans seem to be a good answer. Jaegers weren’t meant to copy the Evangelion Units, they were created to fight their universe-specific monsters.

And saying that all instances of mecha occurring across different works were inspired the very first one…that’s like saying the iPhone was inspired by the invention of Alexander Graham Bell.

Its very much a shame that the creative force behind justice league had not done the characters justice (no pun intended), in that I believe whole-heartedly that Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Wonderwoman, The Flash and Cyborg has much more potential than Marvel’s avengers. Hear me out. Their powers are each unique and can be considered somewhat equal to each other’s despite being very different. There’s Superman who has the power to do almost anything he would want to do but with self-imposed limitations; Batman, a dual weapon who by night is able to fight mid-range villains (enough for the one city of Gotham) and by day controls humankind’s social circles as Bruce Wayne; Curry, who can control the entire element of water; the Flash, who has an advantage in time, a thing which makes fools of almost all men; Diana, a demi-god and even Cyborg makes sense, uniquely balancing the line between humanity and machinery. Overall, a very balanced team. Meanwhile, there’s Marvel, and I have a huge, huge problem with the power unbalance of their Avengers (although I realise this is what makes some people actually prefer Marvel). One major issue for me is Thor; he always seems to be underplayed. A demigod like Diana I can understand, but why would a full god, and a major god at that, constantly cohort with a better than average marksman, a female spy, a billionaire with a cool metal suit, a super soldier with a strong shield? The witch, Hulk and Vision I can understand, as they are beings with powers that are above mortals, but rich, smart or strong humans that are otherwise unremarkable almost seem a dime a dozen in the Marvel universe. I mean, using common sense, wouldn’t a divine being have far, far more power at his disposal? Marvel not even breaching half of this character’s potential seems to only spit upon Nordic legend. If we can only have Marvel’s storytelling with DC characters, but one can only wish.

As someone who would have once have chosen to live in the past without a question if someone had given me the choice between the past or the future, I have realised that my choice had reflected on a very limited and fearful worldview. I now realise that fear of the unknown is greater than the fear of the knowledge that some of the worst aspects of humanity have already been perpetuated in our history. Thus, dystopian fiction is brave to write, as it requires the author to take certain unsavory aspects of humanity and evolve it, for humankind is constantly evolving – a feat which would be mentally and emotionally taxing – and brave to read, as it no doubt adds to today’s current sense of crisis. Readers realise that our world of hypernormalisation leading rise to quite a few of the iterations of the distopian futures provided could very well prove a viable possibility.

In any case, I would now choose to live in a possible future, aware of my own and collective fears, a gamble I would be willing to take just for the thrill of it. Anyone else with me, or kindly disagree?