“I have no idea what can be said about this book that hasn’t been said already. So I’ll just use this as a completely nonsensical venue to talk about the Captain Marvel trailer, which showed up today.
My expectations are this: Lots of people will talk about weeping when they watch this, someone will probably come up with some stupid reason that it’s offensive, there will be another classic straw man argument between people who don’t think it looks good and people who do. And that’s probably what the internet will say about this 1% of a movie we all just saw.
What does Pete have to say about it?
Captain Marvel Punches an Old Lady!
This is obviously not what it appears. I mean, think about it. Put aside the obvious and use your brain. Why would Captain Marvel, who can fly, be on a bus unless she was going after a bad guy? For anyone who rides the bus, the BEST thing about the power of flight is telling the bus to kiss your ass forever. Transfers, zones, stopping every single fucking block downtown because not one person on the bus can get off a block earlier to save everyone else the trouble? Forget it!
But punching the old lady, it’s a weird action cutaway thing to have in the trailer. The text JUST finished asking “What Makes A Hero?”, then she socks an old lady on the bus? Was someone having a laugh with that one? I did. I chuckled to myself a little because I was like, “What makes a hero? Punching grandma on a bus. I could be fuckin’ Superman!”
I just think it’s such a hilarious thing to have in this trailer, which is going to be seen like a billion times. There’s a two-hour movie here, and the BEST thing to put after asking what makes a hero is a young woman with superpowers punching what appears to be a grandma on the bus? And nobody who saw this was like, “Eh, I know that this thing about punching grandma isn’t what everyone thinks, but couldn’t we splice in Captain Marvel punching like…a bad guy? Or a moon rock or something? Crushing a stone in her hand? Lifting a car off a baby? Something that IS heroic AND APPEARS heroic? I’m just saying, people, we have like 2 minutes to build this premise, and I can’t help but feel like we’re undermining ourselves.”
I think the bigger question here is whether Captain Marvel has learned some sort of outer space martial arts that unlock the secret of punching in very weird fashion: 
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