Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about this week’s ‘She-Hulk’ episode, ‘Ribbit’, since it is the penultimate one in ‘She-Hulk’ S1.
What is there to say? Let us talk about the ‘Devil’ in
the room – a while back, MCU and its’ related/connected press services
proclaimed that this will not be a sequel/direct continuation of the Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’
series, but rather a straightforward restart – and so it is. Somehow, Murdoch
made his way from the East Coast, (Tom Holland’s third Spider-Man movie,
remember?), to the West Coast, (‘She-Hulk’ takes place in MCU’s L.A.), in order
to have a relationship with the She-Hulk, apparently… Pause.
Now, again, I have no problem with the two of them
being in a relationship. First, Cox and Maslany really manifest chemistry
between their characters… plus they have the entire red/green contrast thing
going.
Second, Marvel has already done this thing with the
relationships – I am talking about Matt’s relationship with Jessica Jones back
when they were featured on Netflix series instead. The fact that there was no
mention of her, or any other ‘Defenders’ made on ‘She-Hulk’ (so far), doesn’t
matter – it only means that their fates are up in the air for Disney/MCU to
decide upon, that’s all. As for Matt and Jennifer, I am reminded of the Marvel comics’ Avengers: at
first, they were going to set-up Robbie Reyes, (one of the Ghost Riders), with
Carol ‘Captain Marvel’ Danvers. (Yes, that one).
…And then, abruptly, Robbie/Carol ship disappeared;
now, Danvers seems to be mending fences with Tony, (who isn’t dead in the
comics, BTW), while Robbie is hanging around Echo, who is now the host of the
Phoenix force in the comics and is about to get her own show in the MCU.
(Hint-hint). What’s more, Keanu Reeves is openly hinting that he is open to
becoming MCU’s next Ghost Rider. Pause.
Now, MCU already has a Ghost Rider – Robbie Reyes, played by Gabriel Luna, who appeared
in AoS’ S4, and who was supposed to have his own TV show, but that failed, and
he vanished from MCU after AoS’ S4 finale. That said, there was another Ghost
Rider – one who turned Robbie into a Ghost Rider in his backstory, so there is room for John Wick to enter MCU. In
addition, yes, there were several Ghost Rider films in the past that featured
Johnny Blaze, but they are not part
of MCU, so no problem from this part either. Back to the ‘She-Hulk’?
…There isn’t much left to say, actually – somehow MCU
tried to turn ‘She-Hulk’ around at the 11th hour, by having the
Intelligentsia, (yet another super-secret super-villain cabal, sigh), attack
her when she was receiving some sort of an award, causing her to freak out, and
allowing the Damage Control people to step in, suggesting that the show might
be stepping away from its’ previous rom-com incarnation. Since ‘She-Hulk’ S1
has only one last episode left, I’m not feeling too overwhelmed here, not to
mention that as far as power groups go, Damage Control is just a surrogate
S.H.I.E.L.D. – and we’ve discussed both it and S.W.O.R.D. in the current MCU
before, so, uh, excuse me if I’m underwhelmed; the fact that the titular
character here is one of the least sympathetic and popular MCU super-heroes so
far doesn’t help either, (no offence to Ms. Maslany intended). As such, I won’t be holding my breath to wait and
see as to how J.W. gets out of this one, as both she and Damage Control people
are flat-out lackluster, and we have to wait and see as to how the new
Daredevil version fares. Is that it?
Well, no, there is also the ‘Werewolf by Night’ TV
special, but first – a shout-out to the upcoming ‘Wakanda Forever’ movie for
its’ line that Namor is ‘Kukulcan, the earth-shaker god’. Whoever came up with
that line is a moron, because Kukulcan was a different name for Quetzalcoatl –
the god, the pterosaur is called Quetzalcoatlus instead – and regardless of the
name, he was not a sea or an underground deity, no, he was a sky deity instead.
Earthshaker is a moniker that is, or was, associated with Poseidon/Neptune
instead, a much more appropriate deity to Namor, what with the trident and all,
but because he is Old World and all, the movie’s scriptwriters pulled Kukulcan out
of their… orifices instead.
Keep in mind, that Disney is associated with Kukulcan already – via Mr. Riordan and a certain
Ms. Cervantes, who’s YA novels deal precisely with this mythology. First ‘The
Moon Knight’, and now this. No wonder that Mr. Riordan appears to become done
with this universe and is writing straight-out YA novels instead that have
nothing to do with myths or with Disney. Well, kudos for him, ‘because his PJ
is going to be a Disney+ TV series soon, it seems.
However, what about ‘Werewolf by Night’? Succinctly,
it works because, firstly, it was short, compact, and precise, and Disney/MCU did
not stuff it full of their Easter eggs and co. as they tend to do. (In addition,
such approach works best in MCU – just look at the AC TV series). Second, it
works because it is only barely connected to Marvel – it might be just your typical
horror mini-movie for all that it is so no problems there. Third, the same can
be said about characters – they may be from Marvel originally, but so far there’s
no indication that they’re a part – that their world is a part – of the greater
MCU universe, and given how MCU has been playing with the concept of the
multiverse, this might be the start of something new entirely – we’ll just have
to wait and see.
…Otherwise, for now, this is it. See you all soon!
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