Category: Games

By Jonathon Dornbush

Many of the best superhero movies aren’t really great because they’re about beating up the bad guys and showing off cool powers. They’re great because of the human stories they tell through the super-powered set pieces and villainous plots.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is great because it’s a take on ‘70s paranoia spy thrillers wrapped up in the similar worries citizens have today of a nanny state. The Dark Knight is a masterstroke because of how it blurs the lines between right and wrong and the power of choices and their consequences. And The Incredibles is such an enduring Pixar classic — and incredible superhero film — for its very real look at the struggles of keeping a family together, parenthood, chasing our glory days, and what it means to truly be exceptional.

But it sure doesn’t hurt that its main characters have a blast being superheroes, too.

Pixar has created its fair share of modern animated classics, but few have left fans clamoring more for a return to its world — and made them wait so long — as The Incredibles. From minute one, Brad Bird’s joyous, honest, and mature-yet-whimsical film establishes a superhero universe with its own distinct tone and style.

Supers were once beloved, and loved their own work, but too much collateral damage and governmental pressure forced them all into hiding. And so the Supes Formerly Known as Mr. Incredible and ElastiGirl lived simply as Bob and Helen Parr, whose excitement came not from the thrill of the chase or the glory of the public eye. Instead, it’s derived from finally unpacking all of their boxes in their new home or watching their newborn Jack-Jack grow.

Of course, that enthusiasm isn’t fully shared by Bob, who remains wistful for his spandex days and jumps at a dubious opportunity to return to them. What follows is an engrossing story of identity, the joys and tribulations of parenthood and marriage, responsibility, and so much more.

And it’s those elements, brought to life by Pixar’s beautiful animation and the voice acting of the ensemble, that make The Incredibles such a deeply relatable, enduring film.

Violet’s sense of isolation and misunderstanding by those around her. Dash’s desire to be his full self in a society that may not want him to. Helen’s love for her family, and particularly Bob, while having to reckon with the secrets they keep from society and, occasionally, from each other. Bob’s struggle to maintain a “normal” life and appreciate the world around him while having to tamp down on a major part of who he is. And even Syndrome’s need to find identity in someone else, unhappy with who he is and his own life.

All of these plights feel real and honest; issues any of us watching might go through under different circumstances. (Unless some of you reading this are superheroes in hiding, of course.) The relatability of those themes, and the care with which they’re explored inside the trappings of a superhero movie, made The Incredibles feel so fresh in 2004 and still so relevant today.

There’s one element of the film that’s difficult to quantify but I think made all the difference in ensuring The Incredibles’ longevity — joy. Both from those who created the film and from the characters themselves, there exists an exuberance about the world of The Incredibles that is downright infectious. It shines through in the character arcs, smartly woven through the narrative’s biggest moments to make them as fun as they are emotional to watch. It shines through the animation, which gives each hero, villain, and citizen in need a distinct personality. And it shines through the characters themselves, those who love being part of this world, or are just beginning to find themselves in it.

And trying to find yourself in the world, whether it’s one filled with people who can turn invisible and shoot ice from their hands or one less superpowered like ours, is a universal struggle. We all reckon with our identity, who we are, can be, and should be based on what society, family, and our own minds tells us. The Incredibles shows that this journey can happen at any point in our lives, and may still be ongoing years after we think we’ve figured out.

Which is why it’s so exciting to finally return to such an incredible world.

Jonathon Dornbush is an Associate Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

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Spoilers for Black Panther below!

Continuing Marvel’s ten year tradition of post-credits stingers and teases for upcoming movies, Black Panther included two end credits scenes.

With the movie out in the UK and hitting worldwide this week, it’s time to talk about them.

This is your last warning: If you haven’t seen Black Panther yet, stop reading now!

Ready?

Civic Duty

The first is what you might have expected, given the end of the movie itself. T’Challa presents Wakanda’s anti-isolationist shift to a United Nations-style government body, announcing that his nation will now be open to sharing their resources with the world. Of course, remembering that as far as the rest of the world is concerned in the MCU, Wakanda is a third world, underdeveloped country, he’s met with some confusion–all while his new friend CIA Agent Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) smiles knowingly from the back of the crowd.

The stinger doesn’t overstay its welcome. T’Challa isn’t actually shown dropping the proverbial Vibranium bombshell on the poor unsuspecting world leaders, but the implication is enough. The landscape of the MCU, both politically and technologically, is about to change in a major way. This is a deceptively important detail, especially given the MCU’s upcoming movie slate.

With Wakandan tech made more accessible, the landscape for both superheroes and civilians is about to take a major leap forward–and it’s a safe bet that not every change will be positive, especially with the possibility of villains appropriating new tech too.

The real question is when–rather than if–we’ll start seeing the impact of publicized Vibranium and Wakandan tech. After all, we can venture a guess that Wakandan weapons stand a better chance against Thanos than standard military faire–but will they be ready in time for Infinity War?

The White Wolf

Black Panther‘s second post-credits scene is a bit more direct with its Infinity War connections. We see, first in first-person perspective, someone waking up in an isolated Wakandan village, surrounded by curious Wakandan children. That someone is revealed to be none other than Bucky Barnes, last seen being put back into cryostasis in–surprise–Wakanda, during one of Captain America: Civil War‘s post-credits scenes.

The Civil War stinger didn’t offer much context for Bucky’s decision to be returned to stasis, outside of his own fear that he may be “activated” and manipulated by his Hydra-implanted trigger word programming all over again. But thankfully, between the end of Civil War and the end of Black Panther, Shuri, T’Challa’s 16-year-old engineering genius sister, has been hard at work trying to solve Bucky’s unique psychological problem.

We get a wink to Shuri’s involvement during the movie itself when she offhandedly comments about being given “another broken white boy to fix” and an extrapolated look in Infinity War: Prelude #1, part one of a two part prequel comic released in January–not to mention the fact that Bucky was shown standing with the Wakandan army in the Infinity War trailer–so none of this is really all that surprising.