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#abar black superman
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On April 2, 2016 Abar, The First Black Superman and Shaft in Africa were screened as a double-feature on TCM Underground.
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abs0luteb4stard · 1 year
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W A T C H E D
This was surprisingly good despite its production problems and budget. It's shockingly relevant even 50 years later.
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worshipgodalone19 · 10 days
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Abar: Black Superman | Full Classic 70s Action Movie | Retro Central
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leaarongmail-blog · 24 days
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Abar: Black Superman | Full Classic 70s Action Movie | Retro Central
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leaarong · 4 months
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Abar: Black Superman | Full Classic 70s Action Movie | Retro Central
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tenaflyviper · 2 years
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Black Horror Movies
(If this post looks familiar, it's because I had to remake it, but it now has many more entries and links!)
I had been wanting for a while now to make a post covering horror films made by black filmmakers, or that furthered the careers of black actors and actresses–what better time than Black History Month?  Especially given the unfortunate stereotypes and overall treatment of black people in horror films, I wanted to spotlight those films that avoid such pitfalls, and helped paved the way for black filmmakers and performers to embrace and establish themselves in the genre.
I couldn’t have compiled such a great list without the help of “Blacula” at BlackHorrorMovies.com. His site is absolutely invaluable for those with any interest in black horror cinema, and I highly recommend paying a visit!
I will be including Blacula’s “Racial Representation” rating for each film, when available (ratings are out of five stars).  I will also be including a separate list of films that are more flawed in their presentation, but are still noteworthy.  If you feel a film was omitted from the list, it is likely that it didn’t meet the criteria of positive representation or social/historical significance.
SUPER IMPORTANT: While I will try to add warnings when applicable, I’m afraid I have not seen every single film on this list, so there may be upsetting content that I’m not aware of. If you are unsure about a film’s content, and whether or not it will be right for you, please consider looking up the IMDB or Wikipedia listings (or the entry on BlackHorrorMovies.com) beforehand.  Any potentially triggering words in titles will be censored for this list.
Lastly, permanent link availability is NOT GUARANTEED. I wish I could have had more links to offer, but I’ve tried to rely only on free streaming sites and Youtube, so as to avoid sending anyone to any sites that might be untrustworthy.  Tubi TV requires signing up (on PC, anyway), but it is still 100% free (and it’s also available as an app on Android, IOS, Xbox Live, and Playstation, as are Frightpix and Popcornflix).  I will do my best to update links when there are changes.
There are a few films here that veer more toward being thrillers, action, sci-fi, or dark fantasy, but I still felt they deserved to be included.
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Son of Ingagi (1940) ★ ★ ★ ★
The Vampire’s Ghost (1945) ★ ★ ★ ½
Night of the Living Dead (1968) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Night Gallery (1969) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Blacula (1972) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
The Thing with Two Heads (1972) ★ ★ ★ ½
Alabama’s Ghost (1973) ★ ★ ½
Ganja & Hess (1973) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973) ★ ★ ★ ★
Don’t Look in the Basement (1973) ★ ★ ★
Abby (1974) ★ ★ ★ ★
Sisters (1973) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Beast Must Die! (1974) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
The House on Skull Mountain (1974) ★ ★ ★
Sugar Hill (1974)
Old Dracula (aka Vampira) (1974) ★ ★ ★ ½
The Zebra Killer (1974) ★ ★ ★ ½
Lord Shango (1975) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Welcome Home, Brother Charles (1975) ★ ★ ★
Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976) ★ ★ ★ ★
Devil’s Express (1976) ★ ★ ½
J.D.’s Revenge (1976) ★ ★ ★ ½
Abar: The First Black Superman (1977) ★ ★ ★ ★
Dawn of the Dead (1978) ★ ★ ★
Nurse Sherri (1978) ★ ★ ★ ★
Midnight (1982) ★ ★ ★ ½
House of Dies Drear (1984) ★ ★ ★ ★
Day of the Dead (1985) (added by request) ★ ★ ½
The Midnight Hour (1985) ★ ★ ★ ½
Predator (1987) ★ ★ ★
Stagefright (1987) ★ ★ ★ ★
Lady in White (1988) ★ ★ ★
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) ★ ★ ½
Death Spa (1989) ★ ★ ★ ½
Night of the Living Dead (1990) ★ ★ ★
Predator 2 (1990) ★ ★ ★
The People Under the Stairs (1991) ★ ★ ★ ★
Candyman (1992) ★ ★ ★ ½
Dust Devil (1992) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Back From Hell (1993) ★ ★ ★
Full Eclipse (1993) ★ ★ ★
Cut Up (1994) ★ ★ ★ ★
Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)
Ozone (aka Street Zombies) (1995)
Tales from the Hood (1995) ★ ★ ★ ★
Se7en (1995)
Event Horizon (1997) ★ ★ ★ ★
Beloved (1998)
Blade (1998)
Fallen (1998)
Candyman: Day of the Dead (1999)
Urban Menace (1999) ★ ★
House on Haunted Hill (1999) ★ ★ ★ ★
Ragdoll (1999) ★ ★ ½
Killjoy (2000) ★ ★ ½
Queen of the Damned (2002)
28 Days Later (2002) ★ ★ ★ ★
Cryptz (2002) ★ ★ ★
Bubba Ho-Tep (2003)
Cutthroat Alley (2003) ★ ★ ★
Gothika (2003) ★ ★ ★ ½
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Dark Town (2004) ★ ★ ★ ½
Frankenfish (2004) ★ ★ ★ ★
Vampz (2004) ★ ★ ½
White Skin (2004) ★ ★ ★ ½
Boy Eats Girl (2005) ★ ★ ★ ★
The Cavern (2005) ★ ★ ★ ★
Day X (2005) ★ ★ ★ ★
The Final Patient (2005) ★ ★ ★ ★
Isolation (2005) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Land of the Dead (2005) ★ ★ ★ ½
The Skeleton Key (2005) ★ ★ ★ ½
Devil’s Den (2006)
Gangs of the Dead (aka Last Rites) (2006) ★ ★
Minotaur (2006) ★ ★ ★
Recon 2020: The Caprini Massacre (2006) ★ ★ ★
Slip (2006) ★ ★ ½
Shadow: Dead Riot (2006) ★ ★ ½
Dead Heist (2007) ★ ★ ½
Death Row (2007) ★ ★
The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007) ★ ★ ½
I Am Legend (2007)
Ice Spiders (2007) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Nailed (2007) ★ ★ ½
Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror (2007) ★ ★
Primeval (2007) ★ ★ ★
Promise Keeper (2007) ★ ★ ★ ★
Saw IV (2007) ★ ★ ★
Sublime (2007) ★ ★ ★ ½
Hanah’s Gift (2008) ★ ★ ★ ½
Mutant Vampire Zombies from the Hood! (2008) ★ ★
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (2008) ★ ★ ★
The Crypt (2009) ★ ★ ★ ★
Fury (2009)
Chain Letter (2010) ★ ★ ★
Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! (2010) ★ ★ ★ ½
Attack the Block (2011) ★ ★ ★ ★
The Dead (2011) ★ ★ ★ ½
The Inheritance (2011) ★ ★ ★ ½
Machete Joe (2012) ★ ★ ★ ½
The Mortician (2012) ★ ★ ★ ½
Scary or Die (2012) ★ ★ ★ ½
Blood Tokoloshe (aka Ghetto Goblin) (2013) ★ ★ ★ ½
The Ghost of Saint Aubin (2013) ★ ★ ★
Repentance (2013)
Disciples (2014)
The Purge: Anarchy (2014) ★ ★ ★ ★
American Backwoods: Slew Hampshire (2015) ★ ★ ★ ½
Badass Monster Killer (2015)
Bloodsucka Jones (2015)
Death’s Door (2015)
The Sickle (2015) ★ ★ ★ ★
Unsullied (2015) ★ ★ ★ ★ (R*PE WARNING)
Wasteland (2015) ★ ★ ★ ½
Writer’s Retreat (2015) ★ ★ ★ ½
The Alchemist’s Cookbook (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
The Devil Lives Here (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
Dying to Kill (2016) ★ ★ ★ ½
Home (2016) ★ ★ ★ ½
A House is Not a Home (2016) ★ ★ ★ ½
Initiation (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
The Invitation (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Not Another Zombie Movie (2016) ★ ★ ★ ½
The Purge: Election Year (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
Zoombies (2016) ★ ★ ★ ½
Bloodrunners (2017) ★ ★ ½
Inhumanity (2017) ★ ★ ½
It Comes at Night (2017) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Paranormal Evil (2017)
Parasites (2017) ★ ★ ★ ½
The Transfiguration (2017) ★ ★ ★ ★
Bird Box (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★
But Deliver Us From Evil (2018) ★ ★ ★ ½
Captured (2018)
The Evil Inside Her (2018)
The First Purge (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★
Fixation (2018) ★ ★
Good Manners (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Head Count (2018)
Overlord (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Pooka! (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Slice (2018) ★ ★ ★ ½
Soft Matter (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★
They Remain (2018) ★ ★ ★
A Brilliant Monster (2019)
Head Count (2019) ★ ★ ★ ★
47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019) ★ ★ ★
The Intruder (2019) ★ ★ ★ ½
Jacob’s Ladder (2019) ★ ★ ½
Little Monsters (2019) ★ ★ ★ ★
Ma (2019) ★ ★ ★ ★
(2019) ★ �� ★ ½
Thriller (2019) ★ ★
Color Out of Space (2020) ★ ★ ★
Crawlers (2020) ★ ★ ★ ½
Nicole (2020)
Pooka Lives! (2020) ★ ★ ★
Spiral (2020)
Tokoloshe: The Calling (2020)
Vampires vs. The Bronx (2020) ★ ★ ★ ★
Blackstock Boneyard (2021)
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Films by Black Filmmakers:
Black Devil Doll from Hell (1984) – Written, produced, and directed by Chester Novell Turner ★ ★ ½
Witchdoctor of the Living Dead (1985) - Written and directed by Charles Abi Enonchong
Tales from the Quadead Zone (1987) – Written, produced, and directed by Chester Novell Turner ★ ★ ½
Def By Temptation (1990) – Written, produced, and directed by James Bond III ★ ★ ★ ★
Ax ‘Em (1993) – Written, produced, and directed by Michael Mfume ★ ★ ½
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) – Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson ★ ★ ★ ★
Tales from the Hood (1995) – Written and directed by Rusty Cundieff ★ ★ ★ ★
Spirit Lost (1996) – Directed by Neema Barnette, written by Shirley Pierce, and produced by The Black Entertainment Network (BET) ★ ★ ★ ½
Bugged! (1997) – Written, produced, and directed by Ronald K. Armstrong ★ ★ ★ ★
Three Sickxty (1998) – Written, produced, and directed by Natural Drye ★ ★ ★
End of the Wicked (1999) - Written, directed, and produced by Teco Benson
Cursed Part 3 (2000) – Written, produced, and directed by Rae Dawn Chong ★ ★ ½
Now Eat (2000) – Written and directed by Kerry Alan Williams ★
Scary Movie (2000) Written and produced by Marlon and Shawn Wayans, and directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans
Urban Evil (2000) - Co-directed by James Black
Bones (2001) - Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson ★ ★ ½
Creepin’ (2001) - Written, produced, and directed by Tim Greene ★ ★ ½
Tara (aka Hood Rat) (2001) - Produced and directed by Leslie Small ★ ½
Scary Movie 2 (2001) - Written and produced by Marlon and Shawn Wayans, and produced and directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans
Crazy as Hell (2002) - Produced and directed by Eriq La Salle ★ ★ ★ ★
Holla If I Kill You (2003) - Written and produced by Jeff Carroll ★ ★ ★
Scary Movie 3 (2003) - Written by Marlon and Shawn Wayans
Street Tales of Terror (2004) - Written and directed by J.D. Hawkins ★ ½
The Evil One (2005) - Written and directed by Parris Reaves ★ ★ ★
Damon (2006) - Written, produced, and directed by Eric Richardson-Hagans ★ ★ ½  
Gold Digger Killer (2006) - Written and produced by Jeff Carroll ★ ★
Fright Club (2006) - Directed by Attika Torrence
Holla (2006) - Written and directed by H.M. Coakley ★ ★ ★ ½
Holla If You Hear Me (2006) - Written, produced, and directed by Mark Harris ★ ★
Office Outbreak (2006) - Written, produced, and directed by Shawn Woodard ★ ★ ★
Scary Movie 4 (2006) - Written by Marlon and Shawn Wayans
April Fools (2007) - Written, produced, and directed by Nancy Norman ★ ★ ½
Bleeding Rose (2007) - Written, produced, and directed by Kareem Bland ★ ★
Insane in the Brain (2007) - Written, produced, and directed by Chad Hendricks
Somebody Help Me (2007) - Written, produced, and directed by Chris Stokes ★ ★ ★ ½
Soulful (2007) - Written and directed by Sarah Poindexter ★ ½
Hospitality (2008) - Written and directed by Tony Ducret ★ ★ ★
Blunted House (2009) - Directed by Norman Miller
Somebody Help Me 2 (2010) - Directed by Chris Stokes
Bad to the Jones (2011) - Directed by Marlon Ladd
Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes (2012) - Produced and directed by Cory Grant ★ ★ ★
Into the Woods (2012) – Directed by Hadrian Hooks
Haitian Nights (2013) - Directed by Kenya Moore
A Haunted House (2013) - Written and produced by Marlon Wayans ★ ½
Holla II (2013) ★ ½ - Written and directed by H.M. Coakley
In the Closet (2013) - Directed by Lamont A. Coleman
Scary Movie 5 (2013) - Written by Marlon and Shawn Wayans, and directed by Malcolm D. Lee
The Night Seekers (2014) - Written, produced, and directed by Menetie T. Ejeye ★ ★
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2015) - Written, produced, and directed by Spike Lee (A remake of Ganja & Hess)
Jimmy Did You Get One? (2015) – Directed by Jerry D. May
Ojuju (2015) - Written, produced, and directed by C.J. “Fiery” Obasi ★ ★ ★ ½
Prom Ride (2015) - Written, produced, and directed by Kazeem Molake ★ ★ ★
Filth (2016) - Directed by Douglas Enogieru
Meet the Blacks (2016) - Directed by Deon Taylor
Rhyme Slaya (2016) - Produced and directed by Maurice Thomas
Beast of the Water (2017) - Directed by Rashaad Santiago
Get Out (2017) - Written, produced, and directed by Jordan Peele (Academy Award winner for Best Original Screenplay) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Paranormal Evil (2017) - Directed by Akil Pugh
As Evil Does (2018) - Directed by Yolanda Buggs
Moma’s Spirit (2018) - Written, produced, and directed by Robert L. Parker III
Out of Gas (2018) - Written, produced, and directed by Michael Lemelle, and co-directed by April Marcell
Tales From the Hood 2 (2018) - Written, produced, and directed by Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott ★ ★ ★ ½
The Tokoloshe (2018) – Directed by Jerome Pikwane
Traffik (2018) - Written, produced, and directed by Deon Taylor ★ ★ ½
Disciples (2014)
Horror Noire (2019) – Directed by Xavier Neal-Burgin
Killer Bae (2019) – Directed by Juhahn Jones
Mollywood (2019) - Directed by Morocco Vaughn
7th and Westlake: Nino's Revenge (2019) - Directed by Michael H. Royal
Us (2019) – Written, directed, and produced by Jordan Peele ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Antebellum (2020) - Written and directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz ★ ★
Bad Hair (2020) - Directed by Justin Simien ★ ★ ★
Black Box (2020) - Directed by Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Candyman (2020) - Written and produced by Jordan Peele; directed by Nia DaCosta
Frequent Visitors (2020) - Directed by Moe McCoy
My Biggest Fan (2021) - Directed by Johnnard Harper
His House (2020) - Remi Weekes ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Killing Secret (2020) - Directed by Sheena Herod and Wardell Richardson
Tales from the Hood 3 (2020) - Written and directed by Rusty Cundieff ★ ★ ★
Call Time: The Finale (2021) – Directed by Derrick Hammond
Purgatory (2021) - Directed by Trevor Ford
Urban Horror Series (2021) - Directed by Andre Dixon, Jonathan Rowan, and Felicia Howell
Since tumblr decided to add a 100-link limit, you'll find many more movies in:
Black Horror Movies Part 2
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filmofileposts · 3 years
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Abar The First Black Superman https://filmofile.medium.com/frank-packards-abar-the-first-black-superman-6f5af51b2bce
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what would be the line up for your UN league ?
So, my general issue before I start writing is that I haven’t fully settled on that just yet. I’d like to continue the trend in the books themselves where membership isn’t like, immediately obvious choices and Liz as a leading figure is as much because of her kinda underserved role within Who. At present, I’m keen on bringing in Anne Reynolds from Omega Factor given the plot I have in mind would build out of Century’s failed earlier moonchild attempts. The Sûreté would generously donate the greatest detective of the time, Inspector Clouseau, but he’d be quickly replaced by Agent Cleopatra Wong -from the film of the same name- after it becomes increasingly apparent he’s incompetent and quite possibly unhinged. Eventually, they’d join forces with Abar, the First Black Superman but that would be later on. I’d like maybe one/two more members but I still need to really settle on exact choices. Think I’d find space for the archetypical Patrick McGoohan spy who’d clearly be some merged of both versions of John Drake, the Prisoner, Ice Station Zebra’s  David Jones but more importantly Nelson Brenner from Columbo. Though that would be more in a background figure capacity than an actual member of the team.
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sleepynegress · 5 years
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WATCHMEN thoughts from a black woman fan...
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Thought I’d do a quick rundown on all the eps so far, because this show has so much to chew on... 
And TBH, I am starved for a perspective that isn’t a smug white dude yelling “I CALLED IT!!” (yeah, fool that’s what good storytelling does *purposely* lay out crumbs on the path!) or “ugh, too lib.” The fact that we have this wonderful internet or a mass forum, means we lose the organic first watch experience that I remember from back in the day. So, too many try to outsmart shows by cheating and then smugly pat themselves on the back for “getting it”.   I’m saying, the point isn’t the twist or the gotcha. The point is good storytelling, which this show does ably.  So relax. You don’t get a cookie for “calling it” and you won’t get lambasted as stupid for not seeing it.   Just. Enjoy. The show.   ANYWAY...  You know I gotta put it beneath a cut and bullet it because my scatter-brain lays out things easier that way....
First LINDELOF?!  I mean LOST was okay and now I feel like I need to make a beeline to The Leftovers, because acting, writing, visuals, plot, food for the brain... All. here. in a genre (which you know is my favorite) package.
I picked up a copy of WATCHMEN on a whim waaay back in 2006 (?) in a dusty used book store I used to frequent to just chill in my corner and read a stack.  And I remember having the exact same feeling reading it then *galaxy brain food entertainment goodness* as I’m having with this show...but sadly didn’t have with the movie.  The fact that people came away stanning the “heroes”?  Was a symptom of how wrong Snyder got it.
So, setting up this series sequel as a different type of hero deconstruction, using blackness, especially given how fandom swerves to ignore all the story cues to stan a white villain...is a BRILLIANT way to make certain the show keeps the essence of what WATCHMEN is about. Basically, Lindelof used blackness and race as his own Trieu empathy bomb for what WATCHMEN is actually about. It’s harder to stan Rorschach as a symbol for white supremacy
....I’m saying... white men ain’t supposed to be good at this... Hey, IDK maybe being Jewish helps...wow. he actually is handling the all the layers of black experience allegory and ancestral memory/trauma *soooo* damn well.
*whew!* So Yahya, is this gorgeous, amazingly smart black actor who is picking some interesting projects!!  He’s like MBJ, w/o the anime hotep taint, in terms of projects he’s picking. LOVED this reveal. 
Someone posted that they wanted that whole centuries of longing love cliche with a black woman centered... *whelp*  How about one better, where time don’t even exist??
It must be re-iterated that the work and thought put into all the easter eggs of connections is just so much hand-rubbingly, awesome, world-building and minutiae food for fans... and most especially and uniquely... “empathy” in the black experience... such as...
the existence of an actual 70′s blaxploitation movie called, and I shit you not: Abar, the First Black Superman
Her husband being Cal (as in Kal -El)
Laurie always thinking Cal is fine, because her subconscious knew!
Her blue dildo being from a company called Excalibur, --Ex. Cal Abar
Cal’s very straight conversation about atheism with the kids
Cal’s eternal calm
the much more resonant imbued meaning in Hooded Justice’s costume now that he’s actually black
the fact that this show went there, when it comes to specifically, white gays and a twist on that Paul Mooney quote “Everybody wanna be [in with] a nigga but don’t nobody wanna be a nigga.”
the latest with... intra-racial dynamics with non-white people, whiteness and assimilation being touched on with that flash of nostalgia-hazed memory of Angela seeing Will being bagged at the same moment as the bomber who killed her parents... which I think foreshadows both the common cause and complicated morality of Trieu’s ultimate cooperative plan with Will Reeves.
REALLY all of the nostalgia flashes have meaning...they are all narrative underlines for character motives and hints of what is to come.
UM!!! That elephant is such spot-on symbolism because the real Lady Trieu  was said to have ridden a white one, and because all the things they say about elephants and memory are true... 10 pound brains, people (but I did not like seeing an elephant in that state)
Okay... so back to the show: Looking Glass remains the most trustworthy of the whites on the show IMO.  Remember, he joined AFTER the White Night. And he has infiltrated the Kalvary, because one of the masks was missing... And purely because “I would like to see it” (.gif) I really hope they provide a full recount of how he dispatched the Kalvary in his bunker.
Laurie is my girl, with all her elder cynicism and remaining longing for her cosmic fuckboy...(and she should NOT be underestimated I KNOW she has a plan) but I think her feelings for the Dr. may cause a stumble or two (maybe that’s why she was slow getting up off the couch)
Angela remains a Regina King whose character has subverted the whole SBW thing by actually have a fully realized character beyond it (love, children, a damn life!) . HELL, we didn’t even *see it* fully until this last ep but yeah...man... she is the dream and nightmare of her grandfather.
I still really want to know what the adopted kids backgrounds are... I feel like of all the theories online...Everyone has forgotten them and given the heavy theme around fertility, cloning, reproduction, memory as empathy AND her son saying to Angela in the first damn ep. (I hit him because you wanted to hit him) etc... I think there may be more *there*-there. Okay... I’ve written enough for now... So, I’m just gonna call his a placeholder for any thoughts I may have forgotten, because I could do this all day.  I’ll add/edit later as I need to. That said, it bugs me so much that this fandom isn’t thriving as much as other lesser shows featuring black women.  Pleease get onboard with this show!!
I both liked and had complicated feelings about the dynamic between child Angela and Officer Jen (can’t wait to learn more about her) because what she saw in the girl, was the pain redirected into resilience and indifference to the violent end of the perpetrator, w/o a trial(!) mind you... which adds up to potential to be a good cop...*mmhmm*
Adrian Veidt is the least interesting aspect of the show for me, albeit weird and funny (I missed our boy Scar, in Jeremy Irons) his prison is surreal and imaginative and Tom and Sarah are both doing great jobs playing the dim imprints of empty-until-filled clones
Most think HE is Trieu’s father and I have to say what her mother-daughter said to Angela gives credence to that. I could see her having the same kind of conversation with Veidt and coming to a conversational space with Veidt’s plan for humanity. Also “D” is the first letter in “daughter”
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cryptovalid · 4 years
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Watchmen: My favorite show of 2019
Now that I’ve watched HBO’s Watchmen in its entirety, I can safely say that it is by far my favorite show I’ve seen this year. The more I think about it though, the less it seems to offer a coherent statement about vigilantism, power and violence the way the original graphic novel did. I don’t think this makes it any less clever, bold or satisfying to watch, but Watchmen is more interested in playing with the weight and drama of themes than actually expressing a clear, useful thesis about them.
The show is a sequel to the graphic novel, taking place in 2019, when the fallout from the 1987 story finally comes home to roost. 
To give you some more context, I’ll be talking about Alan Moore’s 1986-1987 maxiseries of comics first, and then comparing it to the new television series narratively. In terms of acting and production values, I’d say that the show is great across the board, although your mileage may vary. This is doubly true of its narrative: I’m curious if the show is too confusing for people who’ve never read the comic, and the show doesn’t show a lot of reverence for the characters of the original. In my opinion, this is for the best and actually completely in the spirit of Alan Moore’s work. From here on out, There be Spoilers for the comic, movie and the tv series.
Watchmen (1987) by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is by far my absolute favorite superhero comic. It is the only graphic novel to be named as one of Time’s 100 best novels of the twentieth century. It’s certainly not true that it is the only graphic novel that deserves that kind of honor, but it is not on that list for bad reasons. This post would be too long if I listed all of Watchmen’s many achievements, so I will just say this: Watchmen investigates how the existence of masked vigilantes and superheroes would change the real world, and its answer is not positive. No matter how you slice it, in order to inflict violence on strangers or save the world based purely on your own moral compass, you have to be either hopelessly naive or narcissistic, sadistic, fascistic, fetishist, manic, or untethered from human experience in one way or the other. However you imagine them, superheroes escalate danger. They are not cooperative or peace-loving by their nature, the comic says. ‘Superheroes’ will do terrible things in the name of ‘saving the world’ or ‘doing the right thing’. In this sense, the book is thoroughly anti-utopian but also anti-superhero, and it commits to this by depicting all of its ‘protagonists’ as deeply flawed, ultimately dangerous or inept people. 
In terms of plot, the big twist that effects the show is that the smartest man in the world, the vigilante Ozymandias, predicts that nuclear armageddon is inevitable unless he convinces the global superpowers that there is a massive alien threat, making their feuds appear petty and risky by comparison. He literally kills millions of people with a genetically engineered giant monster that he teleports to New York, not including the dozens of murders to prepare the ground and cover up this fact. The fear that more monsters like this could appear prevents nuclear war at the last second, but another vigilante named Rorshach figured out Ozymandias’ plan and wanted to expose it, which would undo its intended peacemaking effect. He was killed, but his notes survived.  
In the end, the only vigilante with actual superpowers, Dr. Manhattan, is so far removed from human experience because of his godlike powers and his nonlinear perception of time, that he seems to retreat from Earth itself, expressing a desire to create life elsewhere.      
This is the backdrop against which Watchmen (2019) frames itself: what would that alternate history look like about 20 years later? But instead of focusing on the evils that vigilantism and superpowers would create, this sequel puts race and policing at the core of its narrative. The main protagonists: Angela Abar, Will Reeves, Laurie Blake and Wade Tillman are all cops and all of them are at one point in their lives masked vigilantes. They are also pitted against white supremacist terrorists, and the show depicts them as regularly violating the constitutional rights of suspects and killing lots of people in justifiable situations. The show depicts both cops and civilians in both real and historical race riots.  
But the more I think about it, the less I can identify a coherent thesis about the origins or nature of racism or the morality of extra-judicial violence. It seems to say ‘violating a person’s human rights is alright as long as they’re racist’, and I mean, I can’t be too mad about that, but it also implies that the cops are basically good, that it is possible to root out specific racist conspiracies and that’s all that’s needed to set things right. There’s a definite assumption that most of the time, we can just trust cops to have integrity. The show rarely frames unmitigated violence as a systemic issue; even when the government is implicated. The protagonists are also relatable and sympathetic, and their victory against the white supremacist conspiracy is without any real moral complications or ironic personal costs. This show, unlike its source material, is pro-vigilante. Or at most neutral on the subject.   
Its message about racism is more straightforward, but also a little hollow. Racist violence is shown viscerally, but also roundly condemed, ridiculed, and avenged by the protagonists. But that’s really as deep as it goes. All racists in this show are openly and stereotypically Southern whites. There is very little exploration or covert or insidious racism: there is a clear divide between literal neo-KKK types and antiracist avengers, with little ambiguity in between. We are not really shown what drives racists to be racist. The most motivation racists are given is a resentment over two attempts at improving the world: Reparations for the Tulsa Massacre, and the aforementioned plot to stop the Cold War by faking extradimensional invasion. Not that I’m begging for a humane portrayal of racist terrorists, but it does make it extremely easy for actual, less obvious white supremacists to ignore any criticism because ‘at least they’re not like the Seventh Kavalery’. It in short, doesn’t give viewers any special insight into racism and how to deal with it in the real world.
What Watchmen does do beautifully is representation. The first masked vigilante, Hooded Justice, who in the comic was a clear reference to a Klansman, is reimagined as the victim of a threatened lynching, who fights his attackers still wearing the noose and hood they put on him. He then pretends to be white to gain the support and cover he needs to be a vigilante. This man, Will Reeves, named himself after his childhood hero, the historical inspiration for the Lone Ranger, Bass Reeves. As a child, he was smuggled out from the Bombing of Tulsa in the trunk of a carriage, much like Moses or Superman. We later discover that HJ is bisexual and is essentially strung along for years by the media-savvy Captain Metropolis for publicity purposes and sex, and ends up desillusioned by his white allies. We also learn that Angela Abar, the de facto main character, is in fact his granddaughter, and she becomes involved in his decades-spanning plans to root out the racist conspiracy that the plot revolves around.
Perhaps even more interesting is the decision to integrate Doctor Manhattan into this sequel as a jewish and a black man. Rather than simply recasting the part, the show frames the revelation in a way that Dr. Manhattan might experience it: out of order, but also clearly telegraphed. The show uses this to characterize Dr. Manhattan as someone whose decisions do not adhere to standard causality. Why does he start to woo Angela Abar in the first place? Because from his perspective, he’s always been in love with her. Just like nothing ever ends, it doesn’t really begin from his perspective either. One day, he walks into A Bar and starts explaining to Angela Abar that they will be in a relationship for ten years, which wil then end in tragedy. While she is understandably skeptical, Regina King and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II really manage to sell both the frustrating absurdity and the transcendant romance of this idea. In the end, Osterman chooses to take the shape of a dead man based purely on the fact that Angela is most attracted to, and goes to great lengths to lose is powers and become human again, as a black man named Calvin Abar, who we first meet as Angela’s charming stay-at-home husband and father to their adopted children. The fact that he is Dr. Manhattan all along is revealed to us in my favorite sequence in the whole show. We, the audience, fall in love with both the husband as well as the God, Jon Osterman, as both are vulnerable and honest about who they are. Even though everyone knows it can’t last. These scenes are both heartbreaking and beautiful, and are foreshadowed masterfully from the beginning. This is what I mean when I say the show is clever. 
The dialogue is witty and the cinematography, editing and plotting do a subtle job of worldbuilding. There are very few exposition dumps and characters rarely do or say things just to help the plot along; they are always driven by their own motivations rather than those the viewer might prefer in their hurry to learn more.
As a result, characters feel smart and their personalities and relationships develop more naturally. From Jeremy Irons’ Ozymandias to Hong Chau’s Lady Trieu to Jean Smart’s Laurie Blake, they all come across as clearly defined assholes with a charismatic competence.   
The world and its history also unfold at their own pace. This can be confusing in the first couple of episodes. It isn’t explained why cops wear masks, what ‘Redfordations’ are, or why squids rain from the sky often enough that a siren goes off whenever it happens. Instead, viewers piece a lot of it together from context. The details make it feel very believable. It makes me feel like I’m discovering an alternate history the way a lost time traveler might.
In the end, it is not the themes that make this version of Watchmen so enjoyable. Its the intricate details of its world and the interactions between its characters that make Watchmen 2019 so fun to watch. And as far as on the nose messages go, ‘vaporize as many racists as possible‘ isn’t that bad.  
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On November 14, 2015 Abar, the First Black Superman was screened on TCM Underground.
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typingtess · 5 years
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Tiptoeing through the guest cast of “Heist”
Cast list info - no Nia Long or Esai Morales credits in the press release. - Peter Jacobson as Special Prosecutor John Rogers Back from "Asesinos" in early November.
Dina Meyer as Veronica Stephens Was Lucinda Nicholson in Beverly Hills 90210, Kate Miller in Friends, Holiday in Secret Agent Man (costarring Costas Mandylor (Abram Sokolov)), Barbara Gordon/Batgirl/Oracle in Birds of Prey, Lauren Logan in Miss Match, Amber Hargrove in Point Pleasant, Helen Bennett in Sequestered and was Holly Snow in both the "Jet Lag" and "Guilty Pleasure" episodes of NCIS.
Appeared in episodes of Michael Hayes, Ally McBeal, Six Feet Under, The Outer Limits (2002), CSI: Miami,  Monk, Nip/Tuck, Burn Notice, The Mentalist, Scoundrels, The Glades, Criminal Minds, Kingdom, The Magicians, Code Black, The Affair, American Horror Story and played two different characters seven years apart on CSI.
Obligatory script photo. Working on the episode. Today in having your photo taken with LL Cool J.
MacCallister Byrd as Greg Papastathis Appeared in a few independent projects.
On set photos:  On the lot; dressing room Polaroid; on location.
Lisa Kaminir as Andrea Nelson Was DA Valerie Murrow in Boston Legal.
Appeared in episodes of 3rd Rock from the Sun, Star Trek: Voyager, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Boston Public, ER, Without a Trace, The Practice, What I Like About You, Grey's Anatomy, Crossing Jordan, Shark, Dexter, Standoff, Lie ot Me, Eli Stone, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: LA, Bones, Rizzoli & Isles, Castle, The Mentalist, Blue Bloods, Code Black, Scorpion, Major Crimes and How to Get Away With Murder – usually playing either a medical or legal professional
Tina Masafret as Clare Appeared in episodes of Counterpart on Starz.
Nawal Bengholam as Nour Abar Guest starred in episodes of Criminal Minds, Hollywood Heights, Dark Prophet, The Bold & The Beautiful, Modern Family, The Young and the Restless and Code Black.
Hair and Makeup. Helmut and Makeup.
Roz Witt as Gertrude Longtime working actress, appearing in 80's series like The Facts of Life, Falcon Crest L.A. Law and Mr. Belvedere; 1990's programs like Quantum Leap, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, the first run of Murphy Brown, Diagnosis Murder, ER, NYPD Blue, Chicago Hope, The West Wing, The X-Files and Felicity; 2000's shows like The Practice, Judging Amy, The Drew Carey Show, Without A Trace, She Spies, Monk, CSI, Desperate Housewives, Medium, Brothers and Sisters, The Unit, Til Death, Boston Legal, Happy Endings and this decade's How I Met Your Mother, American Horror Story, New Girl, Castle and I'm Dying Up Here.
Was Mrs. Traiger in The Gilmore Girls.
Tony Van Halle as Lincoln #1 Guest starred in episodes of Days of Our Lives, Body of Proof, Casual and Here and Now.
Kayvon Esmaili as Lincoln #3 Appeared in a number of independent series as well as episodes of The Young and the Restless, Ballers, SEAL Team, Criminal Minds and American Housewife.
Written by: Jordana Lewis Jaffe  wrote or co-wrote wrote or co-wrote “Honor”, “Patriot Acts”, “Dead Body Politic”, “Paper Soldiers”, “Unwritten Rule”, “Big Brother”, “Iron Curtain Rising”, “Exposure”, “Savior Faire”, “Beacon”, “Defectors”, “Exchange Rate”, “Black Market”, “Payback”, “Battle Scars”, "Mountebank", "Vendetta", "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" and this season's "Pro Se".
Directed by: Yangzom Brauen, who directed "Venganzna" last season.
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earthwindfire82 · 4 years
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Now watching "Abar" also known as "Black Superman". #Blaxploitation #Abar #BlackSuperman #BrownSugar https://www.instagram.com/p/B7kM8eElerk/?igshid=3hteiqtsfby9
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aion-rsa · 4 years
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Watchmen Timeline Explained
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We've made a complete and chronological timeline of the events of Watchmen, from the original book to the HBO show. It...wasn't easy.
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This article contains nothing but spoilers for Watchmen, both the book and the HBO series.
HBO’s Watchmen is non-linear and occasionally confusing (or “infuriating” as Dr. Manhattan puts it) in its use of time. The book from which it draws inspiration is similarly non-linear and occasionally confusing in its use of time. To make matters even trickier, the show expands upon and even retcons events that take place or are alluded to in the book.
So what’s a fan to do? Why, make a complete and chronological Watchmen timeline, of course! That’s a perfectly sane and normal activity for any well-adjusted adult, and it certainly didn’t give me any severe migraines or make me question my own perception of time at any point. Nope. None at all.
read more - Watchmen: Unanswered Questions We Have From the Finale
To compile this complete Watchmen timeline, I only used stated dates from the book by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, dates and events from the show itself, dates noted in HBO’s official supplemental materials, Peteypedia, and the occasional date from actual real life (for example, the birth of lawman Bass Reeves). I don’t consider DC’s Before Watchmen prequels canon (and apparently neither does this show) but I DID cheat and use dates from some long out-of-print Watchmen roleplaying game supplements that Alan Moore consulted on to date a couple of events from the book. 
Now, let's get to work...
July 1838 - Bass Reeves born.
1908 - Nelson Gardner (Captain Metropolis) born.
1915 - Will Reeves born.
1918 - Obie Williams, Will Reeves’ father and the great-grandfather of Angela Abar, serves during World War I. It’s here he picks up (and keeps) a German propaganda flier indicating that there’s more racial equality in Germany than there is in the United States. He carries it with him until passing it on to Will.
May 25, 1921 - Trust in the Law, a silent movie about Bass Reeves, premieres.
May 31 - June 1, 1921 - The Tulsa Race Massacre takes place. Will Reeves and June Abar escape Tulsa.
1936 - Hans Osterman takes his son Jon from Germany to England to escape the rise of the Nazis. There they stay with other refugees in an English manor home, sheltered by a kind young couple, who later inspire Dr. Manhattan to create life in their image.
Nelson Gardner honorably discharged from the Marines.
1938 - Will Reeves (Hooded Justice) and Hollis Mason (Nite Owl I) graduate from the New York Police Academy.
Spring 1938 - Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman is published. Will Reeves and others take notice. The arrival of superheroes as a publishing phenomenon inspires a number of people to put on costumes and fight crime. Ironically, the presence of real world superheroes ends up killing them as a viable genre in comic books, where other genres such as pirate stories instead become dominant in the form and pop culture.
Oct. 1938 - After intervening in a mugging after he had been the victim of a racist attack by his police office colleagues, Will Reeves makes his costumed debut as Hooded Justice.
1939 - Hollis Mason debuts as Nite Owl. The Silhouette, The Comedian, Silk Spectre I, Captain Metropolis, Dollar Bill, and Mothman, all inspired by the exploits of Hooded Justice and Nite Owl, make their crimefighting debut shortly after. 
July 2, 1939 - Adrian Veidt born.
Mid 1939 - The Minutemen form.
March 21, 1940 - Walter Joseph Kovacs (Rorschach) born.
Oct. 2, 1940 - Edward Blake sexually assaults Sally Jupiter (Silk Spectre I) after a meeting of the Minutemen. Hooded Justice intervenes and severely beats Blake. Blake is expelled from the Minutemen shortly after.
1942 - Nelson Gardner (Captain Metropolis) puts crime fighting career on hold to serve in the Marines during World War II. The Comedian joins the war effort, beginning a long career as a government agent and super soldier.
Sept. 18, 1942 - Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl II) born.
Aug. 7, 1945 - Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Jon Osterman’s life path changes from being a watchmaker to a nuclear physicist.
1946 - Minutemen member The Silhouette is outed as a lesbian in the press, kicked off the team, and subsequently murdered by an old enemy.
1947 - Sally Jupiter quits Silk Spectre career.
1948 - Sally Jupiter and Edward Blake conceive Laurie Juspeczyk (FBI Agent Laurie Blake on the show) in a secret, consensual sexual encounter.
Autumn, 1948 - Jon Osterman accepted to Princeton.
1949 - Laurie Juspeczyk (FBI Agent Laurie Blake) born, the Minutemen disband.
Dec. 1, 1949 - Judd Crawford born.
1952 - Will Reeves (Hooded Justice) uncovers the Cyclops mass hypnosis plot and executes several of their members. 
1954 - The remaining members of the Minutemen are called before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and asked to reveal their identities in testimony. Hooded Justice disappears after refusing to reveal his identity to HUAC.
1955 - Circus strongman Rolf Muüller found dead. While this fact was never made public, Muller was murdered by Edward Blake, who believed him to be Hooded Justice, in an act of revenge for the beating he received at HJ’s hands in 1940.
J. David Keene gifts Judd Crawford’s father with a replica of George Catlin’s painting, “Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship.”
1956 - Sally Jupiter divorces Laurence Schexnayder. Adrian Veidt begins traveling the world and preparing for his crime fighting career.
1958 - Adrian Veidt makes costumed debut as Ozymandias.
Spring 1958 - Jon Osterman graduates Princeton with a PhD in Atomic Physics.
May 12, 1959 - Jon Osterman begins work at Gila Flats, site of the intrinsic field generator, and meets Janey Slater.
August 1959 - Jon Osterman trapped in Intrinsic Field Generator and torn to atoms.
November 1959 - Jon Osterman “returns” as Dr. Manhattan after reassembling his physical form on the atomic level.
March 2, 1960 - Dr. Manhattan’s existence revealed to the world.
May 1960 - DC Comics begins publishing Tales of the Black Freighter, a pirate comic by Max Shea and Joe Orlando.
June 17, 1960 - Dr. Manhattan meets Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) for the first time.
May 16, 1962 - Nite Owl I (Hollis Mason) retires.
1963 - Under the Hood, Hollis Mason’s memoir about the Minutemen and his time as Nite Owl is published. Among other things, this popularizes the (incorrect) theory that Rolf Müller was actually Hooded Justice.
March 20, 1964 - Walter Joseph Kovacs begins crimefighting as Rorschach
1965 - Rorschach partners with Nite Owl II
April 14, 1966 - Nelson Gardner (Captain Metropolis) tries and fails to put together a new superhero team, the Crimebusters. Dr. Manhattan first meets Laurie Juspeczyk. Laurie first meets Edward Blake.
May 1966 - Dr. Manhattan begins romantic relationship with Laurie Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre II).
Aug. 26, 1966 - Janey Slater leaves Dr. Manhattan after learning of his affair with Laurie Juspeczyk.
1967 - Adrian Veidt exposes “a plot by rogue right wing extremists in the US military to test biological weapons on the citizens of Nairobi and the surrounding areas.”
1968 - Adrian Veidt begins formulating his master plan to bring about world peace.
March 1971 - Dr. Manhattan intervenes in Vietnam and meets Edward Blake.
June 1971 - The United States declares victory in Vietnam, marking the first VVN night. Edward Blake murders a vietnamese woman carrying his child while Dr. Manhattan stands by and does nothing.
1972 - Fogdancing by Max Shea, an important and influential work of literature in the Watchmen universe, is published.
Aug. 9, 1974 - Nelson Gardner killed in automobile accident in New York City.
1975 - Constitutional amendment abolishing Presidential term limits passed, allowing Richard Nixon to seek re-election. Ozymandias retires and reveals his identity to the public. Rorchach’s activities become more brutal in the wake of a kidnapping case he solved.
March 3, 1975 - Will Reeves is presented with the contents of Nelson Gardner’s will in New York City. Will Reeves is working at a movie theater in Harlem at the time.
1976 - Judd Crawford marries Jane Lestley. Angela Abar born.
Nov. 22, 1976 - Calvin Jelani born.
June 1977 - A superhero exploitation movie called Sister Night is released in Vietnam. It would later go on to influence young Angela Abar.
Aug. 3, 1977 - Nationwide police strike and civil unrest leads to the passage of the Keene Act, outlawing masked vigilante activity. While Silk Spectre and Nite Owl II retire in light of the new law, Rorschach refuses.
1979 - The Comedian frees American and Canadian hostages from Iranian “anti-Manhattanite extremists.”
1980 - Judd Crawford joins the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Department
Early October 1985 - Edward Blake (The Comedian) drunkenly confesses to Edgar William Jacobi (Moloch) the details he has learned of Adrian Veidt’s plan.
Oct. 12, 1985 - Edward Blake (The Comedian) is murdered by Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias). Rorschach begins an investigation and notifies Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl II) of Blake’s death.
Oct. 13, 1985 - Rorchach notifies Adrian Veidt, Laurie Juspeczyk, and Dr. Manhattan of Blake’s death.
Oct. 16, 1985 - Edward Blake’s funeral.
Oct. 19, 1985 - Dr. Manhattan leaves Earth for Mars, a result of continued public pressure after information planted by Adrian Veidt leads the world to believe that Dr. Manhattan’s presence causes cancer.
Oct. 20, 1985 - Russia invades Afghanistan, bringing the world to the brink of World War III.
Oct. 21, 1985 - Rorschach arrested for violating the Keene Act, framed for the murder of Edgar William Jacobi (Moloch).
Oct. 28, 1985 - Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II return to active duty as costumed adventurers to rescue people from a burning building in lower Manhattan.
Oct. 31, 1985 - Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II break Rorschach out of jail. Hollis Mason (Nite Owl I) is murdered by a gang of Knot-Tops who believe that he’s the same Nite Owl responsible for breaking Rorschach out of prison.
Nov. 1, 1985 - Nite Owl and Rorschach head to Karnak, the Antarctic retreat of Ozymandias, to confront Adrian Veidt about his plans. 
On Mars, Laurie Juspeczyk convinces Dr. Manhattan to intervene on behalf of  humanity, and learns the truth about her parentage. 
Lady Trieu conceived when her mother artificially inseminates herself with Veidt’s genetic material.
Fogancing author Max Shea, and anyone who can connect Adrian Veidt to 11/2 is killed. Rorschach’s journal is delivered to the New Frontiersman offices.
Nov. 2, 1985 - 3 million killed in New York City after Veidt teleports a giant, telepathic, genetically engineered squid into midtown Manhattan. The ensuing chaos averts World War III and ushers in a new era of global cooperation. Intermittent squid rains begin shortly after.
Across the Hudson River in Hoboken, NJ, young Wade Tillman survives the psychic shockwave unleashed by the squid, and is severely traumatized, putting him on a path that leads to him becoming Detective Looking Glass back home in Tulsa, OK.
Rorschach killed by Dr. Manhattan. 
Dr. Manhattan leaves Earth for Europa, begins terraforming the planet and creating life.
December 1985 - Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk assume new identities as Sam and Sandra Hollis. At some point in the next few years, Dan founds Merlincorp and begins providing Nite Owl technology to police departments.
July 1986 - Lady Trieu born.
Mar. 21, 1986 - New Frontiersman begins printing excerpts from Rorschach’s Journal. They’re widely dismissed as the ravings of a crank, and the general public doesn’t believe Adrian Veidt had anything to do with the events of 11/2/85.
c.1988 - Richard Nixon dies in office. Gerald Ford takes over as President.
1992 - Robert Redford defeats Gerald Ford to become the new President of the United States.
Jan. 21, 1993 - Robert Redford sworn in as President, and learns the truth about Adrian Veidt’s involvement in 11/2 via a videotaped confession.
1993 - The Tech Recall and Reintroduction Act is passed, “reintroducing technologies once deemed unsafe or illegal back into the public space” after the paranoia brought on by the events of 11/2. 
c. 1994 - Steven Spielberg releases Pale Horse, a movie about the events of 11/2/1985.
April 19, 1995 - Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk arrested for violations of the Keene Act, in the process of stopping Timothy McVeigh from carrying out the Oklahoma City bombing.
April 28, 1995 - Merlincorp, the technology company owned and operated by Dan Dreiberg and that provides police with crimefighting tech (and Laurie with that crazy Dr. Manhattan dildo), is raided by the FBI. 
1999 - Veidt Enterprises licenses cloning technology. Eventually Lady Trieu uses this technology to clone her mother, Bian.
2004 - Judd Crawford becomes a detective in the Tulsa PD.
2007 - Adrian Veidt’s final public appearance, accepting Kenya’s highest civilian honor, the Chief of the Order of the Golden Heart. Trieu Pharmaceuticals launches Nostalgia.
2008  - The Victims of Racial Violence Act, known by some as “Redfordations” passed.
Lady Trieu first confronts Adrian Veidt in Karnak about her identity and her plans to surpass his accomplishments and make the world a better place.
June 2009 - Dr. Manhattan meets Angela Abar in Mr. Eddy’s bar on VVN Night. Several weeks later, he takes the form of the deceased Calvin Jelani.
Dec. 13, 2009 - Dr. Manhattan, in the form of Calvin Jelani, visits Adrian Veidt in Karnak. Veidt gives Dr. Manhattan a device that will neutralize his powers and his memories so he can live a normal life with Angela Abar. 
Dr. Manhattan sends Adrian Veidt to Europa, the moon of Jupiter where he has been creating life.
Dr. Manhattan meets with Will Reeves.
With the onset of his Veidt-assisted amnesia, Dr. Manhattan “officially” assumes the identity of Calvin Jelani, after taking his form for several months prior.
2010 - Trieu Industries begins launching space probes.
Dec. 13, 2010 - Adrian Veidt celebrates his first anniversary on Europa.
Dec. 13, 2011 - Adrian Veidt celebrates second anniversary on Europa. To celebrate, he puts on a play dramatizing how Jon Osterman became Dr. Manhattan.
2012 - Adrian Veidt declared missing on Earth.
Dec. 13, 2012 - Adrian Veidt “celebrates” his third anniversary on Europa and begins formulating his plan to escape. He runs afoul of the mysterious Game Warden.
2013 - Adrian Veidt uses the bodies of his servants to spell out the words “Save me daughter” on the surface of Europa, just in time for one of Trieu Industries’ space probes to fly by and see it. Shortly after, Veidt is put on trial by the inhabitants of Europa for attempting to escape. 
read more: Watchmen Finale Explained
2015 - The trial of Adrian Veidt concludes, and he is sent to prison.
Dec. 24, 2016 - The White Night. “Mike” a member of the 7th Kavalary is mysteriously teleported to Gila Flats during his attack on the Abar residence, raising suspicions that Dr. Manhattan is alive and well and living in Tulsa.
2017 - Trieu Industries acquires Veidt Enterprises. Angela Abar adopts the identity of Sister Night in order to continue her police work. A Trieu Industries spacecraft lands on Europa to collect Adrian Veidt and bring him back to Earth.
2018 - Judd Crawford becomes chief of police in Tulsa. Lady Trieu breaks ground on the Millennium Clock.
Sept. 9, 2019 - Adrian Veidt officially declared presumed dead. John Grisham retires from the Supreme Court.
Sept. 16, 2019 - Judd Crawford dies. This is where the events that take place in the present day on the show begin, and they take place over the span of three weeks. 
Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.
Read and download the Den of Geek Lost in Space Special Edition Magazine right here!
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Watchmen
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raybizzle · 5 years
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yasbxxgie · 6 years
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One of Cinema’s First Black Superheroes Is Not Who You Think It Is
An ahistorical claim has been making the rounds as of late, falling from the mouths and keyboards of people earnestly, yet clumsily, trying to explain why Black Panther has become a cultural juggernaut unlike anything we’ve ever seen. It goes something like, “This is the first ever big-budget comic book film starring a black superhero.” That’s a lot of qualifiers. And it’s not entirely accurate—sure, the movie’s budget is twice as big as Catwoman’s, but that feline-centered campfest was still made for $100 million in 2004, hardly a small, or even medium, budget at the time. Even ignoring those qualifiers, however, there’s a danger in inadvertently isolating Black Panther by ignoring its predecessors. Thankfully, a few have used the occasion to remind us that there have been movies about black superheroes long before Ryan Coogler and Disney brought us King T’Challa: Spawn, Meteor Man, and the Blade trilogy, to name just a few.
And yet before all of those exceptional characters made their way to the big screen, there was Abar, a character I only just recently learned about thanks to a great film series on black superheroes currently playing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Abar, the First Black Superman, in fact, as the movie’s title handily spells out. A long-forgotten, low-budget blaxploitation flick from 1977, Abar is about the dissipation of race relations, consolation, segregation, dispensation, and more. It’s defiant, didactic, and occasionally delirious. The cast of amateurs seems to be competing for whoever can give the stiffest, most incoherent line reading of the fantastically terrible script. And you should definitely grab a friend or two, some intoxicants, and check it out.
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Here’s the scoop: Dr. Kinkade (J. Walter Smith, also credited for the story) moves in to a posh, all-white Los Angeles suburb with his wife and two kids. At first, two nosey Gladys Kravitz types from next door, assuming that they are “the help,” greet the family pleasantly and inform them they are planning a luncheon for their new neighbors. But when Mrs. Kinkade reveals that they are, in fact, the new neighbors, the welcoming committee turns indignant. “I won’t let them!” an enraged Mabel retorts to her friend. “I won’t let them move into our neighborhood!” As she spews more hatred about burning the house down herself, Mr. Kinkade attempts to calm Mabel down by slowly reaching for her shoulder, but she tumbles dramatically to the ground and yells, “Get your black hands off of me!” Awkwardly abrupt dissolve into a loud group of white people picketing outside their homes, marching in circles and carrying signs.
As the demonstrators hold court and the community board plots to push the Kinkade family out of their home, in steps John Abar (Tobar Mayo), leader of the Black Front of Unity, a grassroots band of fly-looking motorcyclists who work to “help the brothers and sisters down in the ghetto” and preach nonviolent self-defense. (So basically, a fictionalized version of the real-life Black Panthers.) After hearing about the Kinkades’ troubles on the news, he and his team arrive at their home offering protection from the white people outside. But there’s a catch: Abar wants the family to consider moving back to the ghetto, so they can uplift their own people. Dr. Kinkade isn’t interested, and Abar and his men leave disappointed. Nonetheless, Abar returns sometime later, just in time to fend off a couple of white guys who are attacking the doctor on his doorstep. (He throws them in a garbage truck to the tune of that familiar wa-chicka-wa-chicka musical queue found in pretty much every blaxploitation movie.) From then on, the two develop a complicated relationship in which Abar agrees to protect the Kinkades’ home and participate in some tests the doctor is running for a prevention for heart disease (a leading cause of death for black Americans, especially). They constantly debate what is best for the black community and how things might be fixed as if they were in the middle of an after-school special.
Much like The Room, a good chunk of Abar is pretty slow going—though never not bizarre, thanks to an unforeshadowed death, a dream sequence in which the son imagines Abar as an Old West cowboy (“My friends call me Deadwood Dick, but my enemies call me Smart Black Nigger”), and the actors’ consistently delayed reactions to one anothers’ lines. But the last 40 minutes finally get us where the film really wants us to go. (Spoilers ahead.) It’s revealed that Dr. Kinkade isn’t actually working on a cure for heart disease but has developed a potion that can make a man in top physical condition—a man like Abar, it turns out—“indestructible” so that he can clean up the ghetto in one fell swoop. At first, Abar is resistant, but he soon changes his mind (although not before a surely unlicensed Martin Luther King excerpt is heard, for some reason) and drinks the serum.
This last act of the film is all over the place, with Abar realizing that the serum has worked on him after two cops shoot him for coming upon them as they plant a gun on an unarmed black man they’ve just killed. Abar’s unhurt and now roams the ghetto using his new superpowers for good. A guy steals a lady’s purse on the street and runs off? Abar squints hard and compels the thief, by telepathy, to run and tumble back to her, returning the bag. (Waka-chicka-waka-chicka.) A prostitute is being slapped around by her pimp? Abar telepathically confers on her the strength and skill to defend herself and beat him to the ground. (Waka-chicka-waka-chicka.) Troubled youths are hanging out on the street, smoking and shooting craps? The powerful mind of Abar sends them straight to graduating, emerging from a school in caps and gowns with diplomas in hand. (Waka-chicka-waka-chicka, then, generic graduation music.)
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The most bonkers moment is saved for the end. Abar uses his powers to bring down a plague of biblical proportions upon the Kinkades’ white neighbors—powerful, hurricanelike winds (you should see the actors tossing their bodies around like rag dolls for extra effect), rat infestations, snakes in beds. He drives them all away, except for the aforementioned Mabel. She approaches the Kinkades in the middle of the street, meekly humbled. And then: “I want to apologize for the way I behaved when you moved in to Meadow Park. The reason I didn’t want you to live next door to me is because … I’m black, and I’ve been passing as white all these years and—”
The doctor cuts her off. “Yes, I know.” But how did he know? Well, in an earlier scene, Mabel fainted—immediately after calling their son a “little black bastard,” mind you—and the doctor was kind enough to take her in to his home and call her doctor to find out if she had any pre-existing conditions. It turns out she had—wait for it—sickle cell anemia.
She asks for forgiveness. The Kinkades look at one another and embrace her reassuringly, as MLK’s voice swoops in once again: “I HAVE A DREAM that one day my four little children …” They walk down the street together, happily, as a proud Abar looks on.
Abar, the First Black Superman is truly a cinematic marvel. It has its heart in the right place and fumbles spectacularly in every way possible—the painfully preachy dialogue, the scrappy special effects, the too long running time. But even if it’s not anywhere close to the achievement of Black Panther, it’s a fascinating product of the time and more proof that black superheroes have long existed outside the Marvel universe. And just like Black Panther, their superpowers are almost always political.
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