Secret Identity Crises

Jennifer Garner as heroic superspy Sydney Bristow (pic from Yahoo TV)

Finished with the fifth season of Alias, finally. The show, created by JJ Abrams, has been an intelligently written, entertaining, and at times, a perplexing series. It explored recurring themes of duplicity, betrayal and heroism, and its many characters have mostly been multi-dimensional, flawed people with clear and strong obsessions. The good guys—the team composed of top CIA operative Sydney Bristow and her colleagues Jack, Marshall, Vaughn, Dixon, and later, Nadia, Tom, and Rachel—were especially interesting to follow. The villains usually weren’t just totally evil; they’re shown as people with their own frailties. But when they’re bad, they’re really merciless. Irina, Sark, Arvin Sloane, Gordon Dean, The Covenant, The Alliance, Prophet 5, and their numerous henchmen and henchwomen, have proven themselves a sharp contrast to the do-gooders.

While many episodes were good, there were times that storylines were stretched too thin, and the dialogue faltered every now and then. The scavenger hunt for artifacts created by the prophetic 15^th century scientist, Milo Rambaldi, was exciting until the third season, but by season four, every time that name is mentioned, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Still, the consistently careful treatment of Sydney and the other characters justified the ongoing adventures, and gave the lead spy a sense of destiny and prolonged purpose, because she tied heavily into Rambaldi’s “prophecies.” Season five cleared many things up, and gave some good enough resolutions to long-standing puzzles.

I noticed that Alias also has interesting story parallels to another TV heroine series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At certain points of their careers, the women adventurers were each called “the Chosen One.” Both series had traitorous female characters by season three. They also discovered sisters that they never knew existed. Sydney and Buffy eventually fought doubles of their friends, and themselves. For the ultimate benefit of humanity, they’ve formed uneasy alliances with their staunchest foes. By their show’s final seasons, both have advanced to the role of teacher, were handed special prophesied objects by old enigmatic figures, and witnessed amulets figure strongly into the final gambits. Sydney and Buffy, if they teamed up, they’d have some stories to share. There are major differences, though, like Sydney’s very complicated family ties, love interests, and the shows’ respective bittersweet endings. Ultimately, these women, and all the girl characters in them, kick ass. No hyperbole.

I hope there’ll be TV super-heroines like them again, and soon.

Children of the Atom, and Juggy

Charlie and the X-Gene Factory (pic by Benedict)

Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, re-arranged from last time (June 2006), and with a few recent additions like Longshot, Psylocke, Chamber (bro got that over a decade back) and Wolfsbane (from a 1998 pre-Marvel Legends set, got it on sale a few weeks ago). Those last two figures’ proportions allow them to mingle with the Legends, but they have very few points of articulation. I don’t have Havok, Captain Britain and Shadowcat, because they’re part of the frigging exclusive Giant-Man set, grrr, but I’m happy with this cool bunch right here.

By the way, I’ve been hearing good things about the adjectiveless X-Men comic book by Mike Carey, whose lineup consists of Rogue (the team leader), Cannonball, Iceman, Cable, Mystique, Sabretooth, Lady Mastermind (Mastermind’s daughter) and Karima Shapandar (the cyborg Sentinel from the Genoshan Excalibur team). Must read that some day.

Back to the toys. I hope they make a Cannonball figure. Other New Mutants members like Magma, Magik (armored and with Soulsword), Sunspot, Mirage (Valkyrie version), Cypher and Warlock (two-in-one pack) would be great, too. It’s good that some of those characters have become teachers at Xavier’s school in the X-books as well. I’m not too excited about the New X-Men (Hellion, Mercury, etc.) having their own figs yet. Maybe in a few years.

To Hasbro, figures of Polaris (preferably in the red and gold X-Factor costume), Jubilee, Madrox, Dazzler, Northstar, Forge, and Strong Guy are long overdue, and must be prioritized. We don’t want more of the X3: The Last Stand figure set mixed with the upcoming Legends waves.