Did Kano (Mortal Kombat) create Brotherhood of Nod? (Command & Conquer)

The following is a load of mostly bullshit albeit somewhat entertaining theory I came up with, based on some in your face observations. Can't believe you people had missed these. Keep in mind that the organizations and characters mentioned below neither exist in the "real" world, nor in a shared universe. They exist within alternate possible realities (with extended lore), so can definitely exist parallel to eachother.)

The "Evidence"

• There's a guy called "Kano" in MK, who is Bald, and who had half of their face blasted off/equipped with metallic/cybernetic stuff (Fig. 1)
• There's a similar guy called "Kane", who is also bald... and the metal attachment stuff (Fig. 1)
• His best friend is "Cabal", (spelt with a "K" in MK) (Fig. 2 - Fig. 6)
• Some depictions of Black Dragon soldiers look same as Nod soldiers. Also, the colours. Furthermore, Nod and BD are terrorist organizations determined to rule the world, just like Cobra. (Fig 7)

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[COUNTER-argument:- "but Kano is Australian and Kane is obv USSR, which means they were born in different places, therefore they are different people, duh!" This may seem self-evident, UNTIL you realize Nod was actually created during the same time (roughly) as the colonization of Australia,.. AND Yuri from Red Alert had a CLONING Lab in Sydney! (see footnotes for "Clone High") This Lab was purposed to clone world leaders, but let's not forget that Yuri-- i mean, Kane himself is a "world leader"] (Fig Aus)

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Interpretation

It's clear isn't it? Kano and Kane CAN be (arguably) the same person. If so, then... Brotherhood of Nod in C&C might overlap with Black Dragon of Mortal Kombat. Question is, which creates which? Does Nod eventually become Black Dragon, or does Black Dragon (itself an offshoot of RED Dragon clan) eventually become Nod? Is it the same faction going by different names at diff points in history?

Conclus--- oh wait, there's no conclusion. Just interpreting evidence.

New Blog!

But actually,... same old blog in a way, part II. What kind of Jobs would a SUPERHERO.... (definitions coming up in a few lines) NEVER take on? "SuperHero" has inside it the parts "Super" as in Hercules, Paul Bunyan or Tarzan and "Hero" as in Tarzan, Cop or noble self-sacrificing sentimental fool. (Who was the FIRST Superhero?) Being a "Hero" or Champion means you can fight better than other soldiers, lift heavier stuff, not die by other people.... Ajax falling on his own sword, Achilles being dipped in the River Styx, Obelix falling in a cauldron full of magic potion, and... Getafix probably cared sexually for his mom? Hercules pushing a boat that not a hundred men could not budge, and THIS awesome power scale from Mahabharat! of Rathi/Maharathi/Athi-Maharathi/etc. They might be dicks, they might be bastards, but they'll be glorified in Legend for winning their war!

https://comicvine.gamespot.com/profile/sweatboy/blog/muscles-in-comics/103618/

But,... the Ethics of what one with supreme power should do, a big idea that's been debated by Kant, Siegel and Schuster, and many others, has a different approach to the word "Hero".

In other words, Super => Achilles being the most badass soldier of their war, a definite deciding factor, an MVP, and "Hero" => Achilles deciding to not rape Hector's cousin, cos he's a gentle human being after all. With a "heart", a "conscience", or a moral sight/duty.

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NOW, i give you Superman on a whaling ship/fishing boat. First seen on Smallville (S 08) in 2008, you see Clark having lost his powers, and possibly memory, at a Russian shipyard. Justin Hartley's GA steals him away under the pretense of... i don't really get that scene, but he mentions BELUGA and Ortesa-- Orset--- probably some kind of Whale, (and no, not Contessa who is stepping in for Lex in this season) White Whale, and Minke. Porpoise.

Is it Clark's and CW's intention of pissing off Greenpeace's Rainbow Warriors + Sea Shepherd here,... or whoever wrote this (also in 2008)

Then u got a movie by awesome moviemaker Schneider,... whose scenes are each so powerful that it puts u to sleep and makes u forget the point... ultimately agree with him because u know, u don't want anyone else in the convo to think you're stupid for "not getting it",.. Man of Steel came out in *checks* WOW! That movie is 10 years old! 2013! @cbishop @ficopedia help me out here: Snyder = Rocks? or Sucks?

Old comics from... Silver Age? Golden Age? instilled Flash and Clark loved Veal, Burgers, all that American meat. Superman grew up on a FARM in KANSAS (not entirely a CHOICE at that point in his life) but also later renounced his Citizenship and went VEGETARIAN cos he could see the auras of the animals (Birthright, 20--10?)

DUTY once again, as we discussed, has been the topic of many a moral debate, with Kant's version being popular, and others weighing in. Kant basically concludes "If you want it done to you, then it must be good, and if you would NOT like it happening to YOU, others probably share that opinion. Do unto others..."

So, American values and hard work at a farm,... polishing tractors, waking up in the morning, sweating it out and all that... The boy who was powered by the sun must have loved it (except in Winter? when he easily catches a cold?) Principles aside tho,... would he do it to SURVIVE or to like... learn a lesson? like in "Sea Wolf"?

Superman would not work to find money TO EAT... however, he might need to pay rent and buy... clothes? ok, feed Ma, Pa, and others, maybe. The guy absorbs the energy of the sun, directly. In Snyder's film, he travels the world UNDER MANY ALIASES,... to see if people are worth saving? Like "The Day The Earth Stood Still?" Whatever took him to these places and all, would he approve of the whole whaling business? If he can sense consicence in animal, and sentience and SAPIENCE,... if that's the argument about not killing whales (cos they are as intelligent and emotional as any other creature...) like, why would Superman pick people over whales, if people are actually being dicks? White Martians kinda look like Whales.

Epilogue: Guys like Aquaman preferring to help out the Nordic whaling communities of Faroe islands etc. might make some sense. I once saw Thor joining environmentalists in a LionsGate animation. But Superman,... by character would it make sense for him to approve of the hunting of whales, unless he was shattering these harpoons?

Master Splinter Daze

There really was no night time or day under these ancient abandoned sewers of stone, where the sun had no influence, but there was a quiet period where everyone slept that they called "night" or bedtime. Sneaking out to practice on his punch bag at this time was the ever-restless, ever-angry Raphael. Even angels had their warring hotheads.

Even through all that noise and commotion of flesh to bag, and the huffs and puffs of the Turtle, another snarling beast could be heard loud and clearly. Raph held the swinging bag and paused for a bit. In the Master's meditation chamber, an attack seemed to be abrew. Master was... was Master in trouble? But how? Splinter was the only one allowed in the room and,... other than his bros and his Mas.. his Dad, who could be here?

Raph crept to the door quietly, but swiftly, only to look upon a sight so dreaded and terrifying that he wished he hadn't seen.

"The Organization"... "Clan".... "Foot Soldiers".... "Oroku Yoshi Nagi Saki"

The words were clear but they made no sense, Splinter was just muttering. Suddenly, the Rat's claws slashed upon wood of the beams. The Master's features were scrunched in and his teeth were out. Raph... stood frozen seeing the ever-calm and collected, matured, civilized master with this visage of bloodlust, unable to recognize his Dad. Unable to believe it. He knew the feeling all too well, to lose control and just Wham-Bam everything in sight, but what was so typical of himself he could not handle in the face of "MASTER SPLINTER!"

A voice cried out through him that shocked Raph: a cracked and teary voice, sensitive and childish. The cry was received by only empty space and stone chamber, as Splinter had lost his consciousness to this "night". Raph plunged at Master, trying to save him from his own rage and calling out to him, but the rat's sensitive ears had been deaf, possibly for hours.

Controlling Splinter was not going to be a simple task. Of course he fought back, swearing at him in filth (which was much MORE typical of himself, and very less typical of him) and he did so with the fortitude and strength of maybe a THOUSAND men. Probably safer to have said a hundred or ten. Raph had never fought a thousand, but he felt a weird moment of pride and horror that his Sensei could do that. To make things harder, the fiery red brother could not throw any punches to hurt his superior. He was restricted to throws, and in a moment of pure thought he realized what it may have been like to be one of his brothers in the face of his own rampages.

Grappling his arm in a block-grab, and stretching his free hand between Splinter's furry shoulder/neck space, Raph used the shell on his back to turn Master's face away from claws (as if to separate the two animals in the same body, or to save him from himself) Finally, he managed to cut the power and thrust between his murine upper limbs and.... OhFUCKtheTAIL!! Raph had his shell, but Splinter had his tail! In defense, Sensei was twice... maybe four times as stronger than he was in pure aggressive frontal assault! But why was Raph surprised, he knew this already? Guess he was getting a taste of his own medicine. It was like near-death clarity before a moment of defeat. He remembered all the times Splinter had pinned him to the ground when the big Turtle had gone berserk! Just like that, moments before he landed on his shell, Raph spun and threw his back foot in the air, falling face to face with Splinter and forcing the wind out of him.

He heard footsteps! Oh good, it was Leo! Thank the Gods, he was much suited for this kinda shit than he was. But WAIT, what was he gonna say when he saw...

"THEHELLARE You DOING Raphael!!!" Leo turned the lights on "Get off Master Splinter, you--"

Raph started to explain "No, Leo... it's-it's not what it" but the words weren't reacting to his thoughts, not that Raph was ever the wordiest guy. His wit was usually quicker than his punches buuuut.....

"Thank you, My Son," Splinter grabbed his smooth, green, massive tricep.

By now, Splinter's growls had slowly quietened and he was blinking back into reality. The lights sure did the final trick in bringing him back, but sadly (or fortunately) none of what had passed was seen by them.

"I don't.... know what came over me," Splinter trailed off, still winded.

But very little slipped past Leo, now standing on the same doorstep Raph had been moments ago watching Splinter cursing and acting like a zombie fur-whirlwind. Leo's mouth was in a little 'o' and his eyes were aquinted, taking it in and trying to guess what had happened here for Splinter to apologize to Raph. And where there was Leo, Detective Donnie wasn't far behind, the only guy here big enough to lock Raph down. Last would follow Mikie, rubbing his eyes, still in his wee-willy-winkies.

"Guys, what's going.... whoa dude, why's Raph on top of Master Splinter?"

A chuckle broke out of Raph. Man, wasn't he a sight! All "baffled" and bedaffled and such. "I'm sorry... i'm so, so sorry!" Raph said, referring to all the times he had acted out in the middle of a heated sparring match and the guys had had to pin him down till he cooled off. But right now, this scene was so out of place and everyone's mental faculties were whacked out, so yeah....

It didn't help that Raph had tears, apparently, and his voice cracked like a baby's. They stood him up and carried his almost limp body away to the couch. Leo handed his left arm to Mikie so he could help Donnie, and turned back to Splinter with a wordless question on his face. Splinter could only look away in.... guilt? shame? So much was off with this night. Leo just pulled the curtain back on his way out, deciding to let Splinter handle his bruises on his own. After all, it seemed more of a toll on his conscience or psyche than on his physique.

Guys! Look what I just drew! Conceptual art about tiny Ninja Turtles standing against a current (all wet and amphibious, water dropping off them. Sewers, ooze, moss and slugs and frogs, pond life.....

Tiny sized TMNT are standing in the gaps BETWEEN a Foot. I suck at drawing feet, apparently. Donnie is HUGE compared to the other dudes. Raphael is probably the second largest, but he's crouching "Wolverine" style, so we can't tell his height. He could also be shorter, but I want to make him second largest. Mike and Leo could be the same height, or different sizes (Leo stands unique ((as does Don as the largest)) making Mike and Raphael same sized)

Mikie's "Toe" faces away slightly, so we could assume that his story is quite a little stranger than the paths of the 3 Turtles directly facing forward.

There's something so eerily familiar about everything that happens in the Harley Quinn cartoon.

First off, the characters (lesser known ones people could probably NEVER have heard of, sometimes) like the Deathstroke-esque Russian dude on the train who kicks her out, at the very beginning of episode 3. Who? I immediately recognized him from Robin. Remember Robin's original girlfriend? The Russian girl whose dad's (uncle's?) shop Tim helped save from the Russian Mafia? The one he went to school with for a while? I don't need to remind. Chuck WROTE it, we all read it. Nobody could have figured out KGBeast, but I feel like he was targeting a very specific audience, because at least to Robin readers, he DID have a lot of impact or value.

King Shark's been gaining a lot of popularity, and I'm 100% sure he belongs at Harley's side because obviously, SUICIDE SQUAD! However, the first thing that comes to MY mind when I see King Shark, is Watery Grave. Superboy manipulated his TK to copy strength, flight, invulnerability and a lot of Superman's powers. But whether post-Crisis or pre, Superboy seems to always have a problem with one specific power: HEAT VISION. One might even say that heat vision is the one power that defines a Superboy as a MAN. Twice in his life, Superboy has used heat vision. Once when Klarion messed with everyone's metabolism and turned the kids into adults, and once when he had these red shades, which he lost while fighting the Silicon Dragons, in Watery Grave!

Ok, so I'm drawing weird similarities and trying to approach a weird conclusion that I want (because people see what they WANT to see,...) but then comes the weirdest character in all of.... Frankie Muniz? Aka Malcolm in the Middle. A very awesome show, and made EVEN MORE popular after Hal (Bryan Cranston) did Breaking Bad. As Malcolm was a tv show from... mid to late 90s, going on into the 2000s, we could assume something very specific about Harley Quinn's age. Was she a 90s kid? She had a crus on him BEFORE she hit puberty, when Frankie was also the same age because they were either roughly the same age, or Harley was as young as 6 when Malcolm was 12.

We used to make fun of how NONE of us would be able to run the Tomb Raider's obstacle course without getting killed "at least once" in real life, because there were so many times where we had to load the game from the last saved point. So I start thinking, how do Batman or Lara Croft or any action hero dodges and climbs roofs in a free-running spree?

What if you didn't KNOW what you were gonna face on the other side? Are ya gonna hypothesize, or are ya gonna somehow premonition that shit?

So, as a person who is thinking about the Ninja Turtles all the time, everyday and every few hours or so,... i wondered what LEO would do. Obstacle in question: Leo and the Turtles have to run, grab hold of a spinning pole, spiral upwards using momentum of their run and land on the same side as they started, but one floor higher. They can't physically see what's on the next floor. Leo tells Donnie that whoever lands first will have to use Donnie's staff to pull or pivot the Turtles who land out of their position before the next dude lands on his shell. Raph and Donnie start to argue over Leo's decision as leader, asking if he doesn't trust Donnie to use his own staff. Leo says they need to make sure they complete the mission, for the greater good, closing with "Look, I KNOW I can do this. Donnie, are you? no! I'm doing it" only to land on the top floor and realize their plan needs immediate improvisation where he asks Mikie to halt his jump. Donnie's already made his jump, and Raph is spinning and leaping his way up,.... Raph shouts at Leo for being over-confident and tells him he doesn't deserve to be leader (which is basically every TMNT episode ever, except most). Of course, all this can only happen IF they survive!

A second variation of this same scenario works a little differently, with it actually working out. In this one, they could SEE some spirit lines running along buildings and columns. These guys are NINJA. What do they got that the Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones didn't when running through booby traps? "Mystic Eyes".

In Batman vs Ninja Turtles (starting with the most recent example) we saw Shredder doing Foot Magic to concentrate his Qi. In 2012, (in cartoon and game, Legends) we saw Leo doing hand signs to heal his partners, and all 4 Turtles took a spirit quest. Back in "The Last Lesson", all the way in 1990 in their first motion picture, Leo saw Splinter through the flames while he was meditating. So I was thinking, in a very Legend of Korra's-little-niece's-spirit-world-experience way, 4 random spirit pets or creatures, maybe their own astral selves, could guide the Turtles showing them how and where to jump when they parkour!

Mikie would be the quickest to get the hang of it (remember how well he did in Dimension X?) Leo and Don might catch on at the same rate, but after Mikie (because they're both eager students and will try to impress Splinter.) Raph, and perhaps Donnie, might have trouble because as well as they do in real life, they may lack in the mystic or spiritual senses. But,... think of the designs they could use for spirit companions! The toy possibilities!

More Devine than enlightened, (or was the correct word "realized"?)

Are the portrayal of the statues of Gautama.

Siddhartha Gauthama, the man we believe to have achieved lasting peace;

On his own and deciding to share.

How prostate are their posture?

How delightfully bright they are, whether gold or white?

We offer to them: light, lotus and fragrant incense.

Its hand mudra resemble the flame too,

As Apollo is Lord of the Sun.

His own statue is surrounded by 1,000s

Of Gods from the first sermon,

And of bald copies, much shorter,

As evidence of sculptors' skill rather than fact.

His figure is surrounded in Myth of EPIC proportion

("60 riyan", "10 Riyan", notice those puns)

Larger than his peers/follower, larger than life.

His devotees are pious,

They dress in White, they refrain from Sin and from breaking their comfort zones.

Sri Lanka is not Greece, but just as well,

At night, convene the Satyrs of Dionysus.

Bearded, under dim light. Indulging in fluid, both liquid and smoke.

These are the ones who have strayed.

Sometimes, these are the same ones who pray to Apollo at day,

But by night, want to impress their business colleagues.

But the truly lost, those who at least are comfortable

In the zone of fear,

Those real satyrs, not the sheep between full fleece,

They are the drinkers of blood and true wine.

We have this dichotomy, but we don't look at it.

We are insane, but we pretend not to know it.

TMNT from 1987 (season 4) might not be such a goofy and silly cartoon as you may have remembered.

Watched the Wingnut and Screwloose episode from 2016 (I couldn't keep up with the 2012 stuff because of adulting and real life), which reminded me of a similar episode from the 90s, "Michelangelo meets Bugman". Now this, i watched when TV was still a thing and you had to catch the episode at airtime or miss it forever (unless the show was cool enough to have re-runs) Over here in Sri Lanka, we had re-runs of Thundercats several times, but I hadn't seen the latter seasons of TMNT in some years,... probably never since the first time i saw them. Cool intro, it was fun going back to the show.

Now, the themes of the Wingnut and Screwloose episode, "Bat in the Belfry", were pretty similar to Bugman, obviously. Mikie's a central character, we see him reading comics (a difference is that in the 2012 version, Leo and Raph share their preferred comics as well, instead of just laughing at Mikie for being a geek), no one takes Mikie seriously. Screwloose and Bugman are both insect-themed mutants.

Beyond this though, there were a few moments where the show seemingly made fun of its use of April as a damsel in distress. She was always getting herself into traps she couldn't save herself from, and the Turtles' main priority was being her knights in shining armour (a fact the 25th anniversary movie "Turtles Forever" made fun of).

Mikie's lines were a little..... eye-opening? hard to swallow? misogynist? They sound very offending because he's basically telling "useless old April" to STAY PUT like a child, while he goes and saves the day! Note that they SOUND or seem that way. It's obvious that a trained ninja and a mutated male with high muscle density could do MORE than April could,... but April (in my eyes) has always been the Lois Lane of the show, a brave reporter who manages to get shit started, expose the bad guys and even fight. Then in the other photo, Mikie refers to April as a "defenseless dudette". But his question is valid. WHY are so many people in society cruel to those that are weaker than them, be it women or puppies or a random African wild animal that you shot with a high powered rifle from several miles away? Isn't that COWARDICE, not bravery?

The villain's answer could be seen as appalling or too realistic. Is it funny? There's a moment where that line sounds SO BAD, as in so misogynist and un-PC, that it's funny. And you think to yourself as a mature adult who has been exposed to topics of violence against wimmin in the real world, and wonder "COULD THIS HAVE BEEN AN ACCIDENT?" Or, alternatively, "Could this have been done ON PURPOSE?"

It seems more likely that the show/writers were aware of themselves and the hilarity of April crying out the names of the Turtles like she was a baby, and were making fun of the fact. Because if someone put those lines in there JUST TO MAKE SOME KIDS LAUGH, that would be pretty fucked up! Sneaking something past the editors isn't uncommon. When the Comics Code banned mentions of drugs or real crime in comics, (reportedly) Comic Book writers have tried to sneak messages into the final product (political opinions, a hallucinogenic POTATO in Swamp Thing that won Moore an Eagle Award) past their editors. Some of these might have been a few panels or some lines that made no sense taken out of context, but alone and put together made..... some sense. Censorship therefore had (again, reportedly) made writing comics a hard craft to master. The only question is who it was sneaked past, or rather who ALLOWED those lines in; the creative team or the network?

IT GETS WORSE! Warning: this may ruin your childhood forever. Tell me if you see the Turtles FONDLING April in this photo, or if my mind is more fucked up than I had previously thought. With big grins! I like to keep my superheroes apart from my fetishes and sexual pervs. But Raph and Don here,....

So if my theory here is right, then..... 1987 Turtles, as goofy as they may have been, might have been a more mindblowing cartoon than either the 2003 come back or 2012

3 questions follow:

1) If not for April saving them when the sewer tunnels were destroyed, would the Turtles have lived to see issue #10?"Second Time Around" was the name of her antique shop. When the mousers in the comics and the Foot Clan in the movies discovered and wrecked their sewer hideout, the Turtles had nowhere to live. They were seeking refuge and,... to pay back for saving her life, April let them stay with her. Now in both the Mirage comics and the movie, as well as the 2003 and 2012 cartoons, the Turtles had to run completely AWAY from NYCity and go live in Casey Jones' upstate mansion. In this way i guess Casey and April both helped in equal ways. April helped out because she felt obligated, but Casey was just being nice. The Turtles (and April) lived over at April's for longer than Casey's, but they did spend months at Casey's too. I'm not sure as to how long they stayed at each place.Just before meeting Fugitoid, April was also involved in a van chase with 4 ninja turtle passengers.

2) Is it possible to have a TMNT movie or cartoon without even a mention of April O'Neil's character?I think not. She is an INTEGRAL part. April has been in all 6 of the movies made (3 live action movies in the '90s, animated in '07 and the recent Nickelodeon ones starring Megan Fox as April)Shredder was absent in 2, unless you consider Karai a Shredder. The Foot and Karai were present in '07 animated but.... they weren't main villains. It's possible to have a movie without Casey Jones (Jones was absent in 2 as well). No one wants to see mousers in a movie, although that's how April came to be the Turtle's friend. As seen in the 1st TMNT movie, Mousers and Dr Stockman could be omitted out completely and replaced by the Foot without hurting the canon. Just makes April less of a scientist and more of a reporter. We can have cartoons and movies without Bebop&Rocksteady, or Fish Face and Tokka. They are so popular, and as someone who was a kid in that generation, having had grown up with the '87 cartoon, I can't help but think of Bebop & Rocksteady as essential villains. Every Ninja Turtle story has to have the Foot, and April O'Neil (Master Splinter is considered one of the Turtles) She doesn't have to be in the story, but the Turtles need to have met and gotten used to her. April is like an Angel to them, the closest these demons from the sewers would come to seeing heaven, or man's world.

3) How would the attitudes of the Turtles toward humans and Earth be changed if they never came into contact with O'Neil? O'Neil is essentially to the TMNT what Lois is to Superman. Superman loves humanity, and by "humanity" he remembers the personalities and deeds of several close people like his parents, and.... Lois. Lois, Lex and the Kents are a big part of what shaped the alien Kal El into living as Clark Kent. Remember how the alternate versions of a Soviet Superman and Superman raised on Apokolips, by Darkseid, were much different from Clark.And this is why we cannot have the Turtles without coming into contact with O'Neil.

I'm glad that after IDW and coincidentally that slime-factory that is known as "Nickelodeon", not the best of creative studios usually, gave April a MUCH larger role in the Turtle family. As a telepath/telekinetic who was hunted by an alien race, she became a very integral part to the plot, plus having looked after the unmutated Red Eared Snappers as one of Baxter's interns in the IDW comics made her family. Maybe a little too much though. I mean I’m fine with Megan Fox and the IDW intern April raising the Turtles as their.... mother? But the Kraang telepath thing,.... It’s nice to let her have her own niche in the alien traveling scenario but.... I think 2003 cartoon did a satisfactory job, so Nickelodeon didn’t need to change it. I feel like it was just them falling into the Feminist game and trying to justify her character into politically correctness, WHICH SHE DIDN’T NEED! Learning to use a sword or fan with Splinter, that was done before Nickelodeon took over. The 2007 animated series had a fighting April

I LIKE the old Sam Raimi trilogy, but there's a difference between "liking" and "the best" (liking is subjective, what i like may not be what you like, but the best stays the best). The actors were awesome in the old trilogy, but not too over the top. Take Toby Magguire for instance, NOBODY knew who he was. It wasn't like Scarlet Johannsen or Nicholas Cage in another lead role, and he wasn't "pretty", more of a Charlie Cox, with odd features and the least likely demeanour you'd expect in a hero. That works for Spider-Man. For every one of those though, you had a Kirsten Dunst, who had acted from childhood, beside greats like Tom Cruise, Bradd Pitt, Banderas, Robin Williams, before she was maybe 16, AND son of Tom Hanks. That girl played the little girl in Little Women. In addition to that, we had Topher Grace as Venom, depicting the antagonist to both Spider Man AND to Peter Parker. One (the alien symbiote) was repelled by Spider-Man, one had beef with Peter. However Venom wasn't as BIG as Venom should have been, nor as COOL as Venom should REALLY have been. Nobody in the old trilogy really looked cool. Big fan of Willem Dafoe here, and he played that villain PRETTY well. But the OLD trilogy truly rules because of the recurring minor players like Bruce Campbell, aka Autolicus from Xena, aka Ash, from Evil Dead, aka Sam Raimi's FIRST business partner ever and lifelong friend.

However, like i said, liking and the actual, uncontested "BEST" are 2 different things, and Andrew Garfield's ASM was much cooler. First of all, the new team fixed a lot of errors made in the old trilogy, like fixing the tag from "Spider-Man" to "AMAZING Spider-Man". If you go back and check the long standing Spider Man comics, they used the tag "Amazing". All Marvel titles had some adjective like that, ex: the INCREDIBLE Hulk, UNCANNY X-Men, "Fantastic" in Fantastic Four is already an adjective. Furthermore, like Superman started out in "Action Comics #1", Spidey started out in "Amazing Fantasy" (number was probably 13). The "Amazing" tagline is pretty important, basically essential to the CLASSIC Spidey outfit. Also, they brought back the spider threads. They put in maybe too much science and had too many spiders in one ceremonious scene. Sam Raimi kept it simple by showing some kids at a museum or something, taking pictures, fooling around, not paying attention, when a loose Spider crept up and bit the kid in a horror inducing, pretty slow but not so musically ceremonious scene. That's what Spidey comics did, follow a strict formula where the protagonist started out at a natural state, going about his business and enjoying life (unless he's trying to pay bills and make ends meet) All real life. ASM, in that way, gave the origin too much FATE factor and ruined certain things. ASM's Goblin was WAAAAAY better than James Franco's Goblin. Love Franco, but Franco's brooding wasn't enough brooding. This guy actually made you kind of feel, you could really empathize with this villain. If you follow the games that accompanied the movies though, after Connors became Lizard, (and Spidey got his powers through the same chemical stuff?) the waste went down into the sewerage system and there were new mutant creatures crawling around in New York City sewers. That adds to, but changes Spider-Man mythos, but if you want anything awesome about that, think of the NINJA TURTLES! Well, the Turtles CAN'T exist in the Marvel U., because they fight the Foot, and Marvel has the parent Hand, and because New York sewers in the Marvel U. are taken up by mutants called Morlocks. Two families can't live in the same house. However, it could create Morlocks, possible, but then the MCU is different from regular old Marvel U as well. (i don't think Spidey's even IN the MCU). But the DEATH SCENES were what really made ASM 2 the best

How so? Glad you asked! (ok, so no one asked). So how many people died in Spider-Man movies? (main characters, who we really saw die) Gwen Stacey was the last one to go, her father died too (and if anyone thinks someone played by Dennis Leary s a MINOR character, you'd be wrong). Besides, in Cpt. Stacey's case, we're not really looking at his own death, but at the EFFECTS caused on the remaining people by that death. Let the dead stay dead, it's the living that.... has to put up with death. So counting from the bottom, Ben Reilly died, but then he HAD to die as we wouldn't have had the story start without him. There would be no "Spider-Man" without Ben Reilly's death, and his last words. That's the guy who triggered him into doing what he does. Then there was Reilly's killer, or the thief at the wrestling match, but hey, pretty inconsequential. The first major finale death is Dafoe's death as Goblin. Now, Willem Dafoe has a reputation for death scenes. There's a chance he was chosen with that in mind. This villain did have a sensitive side (and if he didn't have a "sensitive" side, at least we see him changing through the course of the film, and at the very beginning, in his limo, we see a nice father/scientist figure in Norman Osborne chatting up Peter about science and University. The villain was a friend of Peter's, even if he had his own faults in personal relationships with his son.) So by the end, villains had died, but none of the heroes, except for Ben Reilly, whose death doesn't REALLY count because it had to happen. Kind of sad, and definitely a tragic ending because Harry sees Spider-Man with his dead father and assumes the worst. Both Aunt May and MJ almost die, as hostages taken by Goblin to scare Peter, or manipulate Peter into joining him, but they didn't. Then we had Octavius, also a big scientist who talks with Peter over breakfast or a glass of juice. I've had a similar convo with someone I sort of looked up to, over his breakfast, so I can understand how that would feel. Later in the movie, like right at the end, he died. We see him going crazy, we understand WHY he did what he did, (and by that i mean HE SACRIFICED HIS WIFE IN THE NAME OF RESEARCH, AND HE WAS ALREADY EVIL, AND HE DOESN'T DESERVE NO PITY FOR THAT!) Mary Jane ALMOST died, but didn't. once again. In the 3rd movie, James Franco, longstanding best friend of Spider-Man's who momentarily goes haywire but manages to turn to the good side by the end of the movie, died. Once again, MJ is spared after a bit of heavy torment. Actually, that last movie was hell for MJ, all throughout. BUT SHE DIDN'T DIE, which was all fine because MJ, just like Lois Lane, is ESSENTIAL for the longstanding mythos of Spider-Man. She's the girl he gets married to, and she's the girl who survives to the end of the line (after being introduced before Gwen, but later than Betty Brant). Gwen, not so much. Now, the way "death" and life is treated in ASM, is COMPLETELY different! People do die. Good guys do die. If you enter a war-zone, either on your own free will or by force, you know you have a risk of dying. You take that risk of dying. Now, choosing to take part and not being kidnapped and playing damsel-in-distress every other day opens up a whole other dimension of feminist philosophy/ethics, i realize. But forgetting that,... Spider Man SAVES the villain, but gets his girlfriend's father killed. Cpt. Stacey advices him to stay away from his girl, but after some heartache, he decides he could have everything he wants. So he gives it a chance. And ends up getting Gwen killed as well. Technically, like i said, she chooses to get into the mix, and i believe Gwen did come up with the plan that saved NYC. It wasn't Peter's fault. And as sad as it is, Gwen DOES die in the comics, so it's ok for Gwen to die, speaking out of comics mythos here. Gwen's contribution to Spider Man's life was basically just going in the fridge (http://comicvine.gamespot.com/women-in.../4015-43763/). But see, the way death is treated, the chaos in a major char's death, the shock value, how the audience/viewer feels after it,..... how there's no sugar-coated bullshit about ALMOST falling off a rooftop, 3 scenes every movie, before being miraculously rescued by a thread, (literally "hanging on by a thread")