'Dark Phoenix', C&D, and etc - June 6

…Let us not talk about the ‘Dark Phoenix’ movie for now. The original ‘X-Men: Last Stand’ film was decent enough, but plenty of people have hated it all the same. There is no reason as to why ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ should be any different, but I here want to talk about something else – namely, C&D. Just as the actors from AoS had appeared at the premiere of CM the movie, so has Emma Lahana, from C&D, appeared at the premiere of ‘Dark Phoenix’; and-?

Firstly, it makes the contrast between ‘Dark Phoenix’ and CM look even more in CM’s favor. Ms. Lahana gushed enthusiastically about ‘being a part of the Marvel family’, or ‘the MCU family’, or whatever, but keep in mind that Ms. Lahana is a very talented actress, as she has shown in C&D S2: although they looked, well, identical, both Brigid and Mayhem have come across as two very different people – without the use of CGI, or any special effects, or whatever. Just different clothing…and a lot of acting skill. Ergo, how could you tell that Ms. Lahana wasn’t acting here, acting all happy and etc. about ‘being a part of the Marvel family’? When you got talent, you got talent, and when it is a great acting talent, then you are a great actor, well – actress, but in real life trusting you can be kind of tricky, I reckon.

That said, Ms. Lahana was apparently the only ‘outsider’, MCU or otherwise, who had appeared at the ‘Dark Phoenix’ premiere – and CM has Simmons (Mack) and NCB (Yo-Yo), Ward (Deke) and Wen (Melinda). That is 4 people from AoS as opposed to C&D’s only one, though that’s a great one, no doubt about it. However, many people are already pointing out that the ‘Dark Phoenix’ clearly had some issues regarding MCU on one hand, and that it had to reshoot its’ second half to make itself different from CM, which brings us back to MCU. Whatever is going, or was going, or will be going behind the scenes between Disney and FOX merger, it clearly was not as clear-cut as Disney, FOX, and mass media, want you to believe, but that is real life for you.

On the other hand, there is Netflix. No, not because the second season of C&D made a direct reference to Luke Cage the Marvel character – it was in the penultimate episode of S2 or the one before that – it lasted for about a minute and was kind of blurry; blink and you miss it – but rather about the upcoming final season of JJ that is coming to Netflix, as a part of an original series. In this season, the titular heroine is coming against a man named Gregory Salinger. In the comics, he’s a Deadpool-related villain, (yes, that Deadpool), but clearly in MCU, which is an entirely different Marvel ‘Earth’, he’s going to be a completely different character from what he is in the comics – and Disney cannot really do anything about it or the entire JJ S3. Go Netflix, stick it to the man!

…As for the ‘Dark Phoenix’ movie in general? We will talk about that at another time, preferably after it becomes available to a wider slice of populace than just the movie critics. Until then – see you soon!

Daredevil S3 - Oct 23

The changes come and changes go, in real life they suck, but you can adapt and try something new, just because you do not want to go crazy or worse. On TV, on the other hand…well, ‘Iron Fist’ was cancelled, as we knew even before ‘Daredevil’ S3 was released, and now, it seems, ‘Luke Cage’ is as well.

Still, there are some differences between ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘Luke Cage’ – while theories about the former continue to abound, (most consider the fact that it wasn’t making enough money to be the key fact here), with ‘Luke Cage’ it is more straightforward – differences between Netflix, the crew, and co. It shows too – ‘Iron Fist’ ended with some sort of a resolution, at least; ‘Luke Cage’ – in mid-swing, (so to speak), just as the Deadly Nightshade or whoever was rising to challenge Luke in her turn. Ouch. What next?

‘Daredevil’ S3 has arrived last week, we got introduced to this version of Bullseye, and it was interesting. At least at some point the team of ‘Daredevil’ made Bullseye to be the antithesis of the titular hero – guess Matt really needed it. Of course, with ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘Luke Cage’ gone, ‘the Defenders’ appear to be even less unlikely than they did after ‘Jessica Jones’ S2, where no mention of them really appeared; well, now with the cancellations, they may be the next to follow. Anything else?

‘The Gifted’ may or may not air tonight, due to the World Game (or whatever) it is called – real life sucks, see above. The Americans, of course, and especially their current president are still one-step ahead from the rest of us, in regards to ‘the migrant caravan’ or whatever. In the U.K., on the other hand, no actual evidence of Russian temperance was found, meaning yeah, that all of those cries of ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ were a fabled lie. How will the U.K. get out of this revelation? Ask the wading birds, such as the avocets, in the swamp – they will tell you how!

(Yes, I watched the ‘Miss Peregrine’ movie online. Miss Avocet was not a bad character, but the avocet is a wading bird, built almost like a mini-heron or stork. Rather than short and plump, Miss Avocet should have been tall and skinny instead, but who cares? She was just an episodic character anyhow, and regardless of her appearance? She was still neurotic).

Anything else? Frankly, no. Real life still sucks, and while you can try to manage it, sometimes you just cannot. Of course, on TV, things are not always so rosy either, as ‘Daredevil’ S3, (featuring no mention of ‘Jessica Jones’, ‘Luke Cage’, or ‘Iron Fist’) can attest. Still, let us wish Matt and co. the best of luck and move on.

…This is it for now; see you all soon!

Iron Fist S2 - Sep 11

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. My upcoming week promises to be rather bad, so I actually cannot wait for next week’s Monday, because it will give me a reprieve. Go me. My life sucks. I hate it.

…Of course, on the other hand, there is the first-rate tennis player SeWi, who has it worse. To recap, she lost her match against her fellow tennis player N. Osaka, and apparently turned upon the game’s umpire when things did not go her way – and lost her temper. As a result, she is now fined almost 20 grand, (as I have heard), the tennis officials are backing the umpire, (so she now might need to apologize – or not), and there already are some rather crude and unpleasant caricatures of her, too, damaging her reputation further. Yeah, and she cannot blame her bad decision of D.C. and the president Donald either. Poor her. Really.

Mind you, as much as I believe that SeWi is in the wrong here, it must be admitted that the caricatures, (there were at least two different ones), were completely unnecessary, and probably made the already bad business worse. SeWi and her people are probably doing their best at damage control, and the caricatures are making their job harder. One may hate SeWi, (though why? She is not a politician, at least), but still, to go at her deliberately is not a good thing. Hate leads to the dark side, the Jedi said, and they should know: the SW/Disney merger was apparently completely in the dark, it remained in the dark regarding the SW fanbase, and now the merger became successful at alienating that fanbase: some of its’ members honestly do hate it, and will probably abandon it, a new cartoon series or not.

This brings us to another merger – that of Netflix/Marvel. More precisely, ‘Iron Fist’ S2 was aired. How did it go?

It worked. The Netflix/Marvel combo took criticisms of ‘Iron Fist’ S1 and did their best to fix them. So far, it seems that their strategy is to take an ever-increasing amount of ‘Iron Fist’ comic elements and introduce them to ‘Iron Fist’ in particular (and maybe to ‘The Defenders’ in general). Yay?

Very much so. This is, after all, what all of the Marvel shows are about – to give their audiences the Marvel experience that the various comics (and novels) cannot. Otherwise, what is the point? There are plenty of non-Marvel TV shows, (some are not even in related to DC or other comic universes either), so to counter them a Marvel show, (TV, online, etc.,) has to use, well, Marvel elements. Moreover, it worked. Go them.

Anything else? Not really. ‘Iron Fist’ S2 shows that the Netflix/Marvel shows are diversifying and are going beyond the NYC city limits, at least partially. ‘Iron Fist’, the comic and the online series, for better or for worse, is caught between USA and Asia, and it needs to balance between these two landmasses to succeed.

…One may ask, if ‘Luke Cage’ is not similarly caught between USA and Africa. It is not – ‘Luke Cage’ is solidly Afro-American, with the emphasis on American, and while he – and Misty Knight, and a few others – can always come to Africa, especially to Wakanda, on request of their good friend king T’Challa aka the Black Panther, their homeland is still USA. (Seriously, this is what happened in one ‘Black Panther’ comic series: at one point in time a group of super-villains, including – a version of the Fenris twins, tried to take over Wakanda by fermenting internal political unrest, so the Black Panther realized: this is bigger than me and my family, and so he got his posse, which included Ororo/Storm, Misty Knight, and – Luke Cage, aside from other characters, and defeated the villains…eventually).

…Yes indeed ‘The Gifted’ S2 is returning to TV on Tuesday, September 25^th. I must admit - this is good news, and the current trailer is already exciting; the lines are drawn: the Mutant Underground vs. the Hellfire Club and Lorna is, potentially, the wild card. Magneto was never a member of the Hellfire Club, the Cuckoos have lied to get Lorna in, and if she ever finds out, the results will be explosive: Magneto was powerful, but never subtle, and Lorna seems to have inherited that. She will not be happy to have been lied to, that is for sure.

On the other hand, ‘The Gifted’ S2 trailers seem to imply that the Hellfire Club will undergo some sort of an W&H (from AtS) moment, which involves an internal coup. If done right, it will be a game changer, but to do that, ‘the old guard’ who will be killed off should be established first, otherwise the coup’s impact will be diminished.

…Yes, this all takes place in different Marvel universes: ‘The Gifted’ takes place in a separate universe – Earth-TRN674, while ‘Iron Fist’ – on Earth-199999. I have no life, (but this week, and especially the weekend still suck). Of course, it would make a cool crossover, but we will have to wait for someone to write it, so for now, we have to watch ‘Iron Fist’, and wait for ‘The Gifted’ S2, and also – for ‘Daredevil’ S3, which is also in the works. Unlike ‘Iron Fist’, ‘Daredevil’ so far takes places only in NYC, so for now, ‘The Defenders’ focus will be shifting back to NYC, leaving the rest of the world for the Avengers or whoever.

Yes, it does not appear that Thanos’ cosmic snap has affected the Netflix corner of MCU, (and as it was hinted at ‘C&D’ S1 finale, ‘Rands’ & ‘Starks’ share the universe – and Roxxon, and ‘C&D’ are also a part of that universe. However, some kinks are still needed to be worked out – so good luck with that.

This is it for now, see you all soon.

Iron Fist S2 - Aug 17

…Back to the topic of Marvel, the 2^nd season of ‘Iron Fist’ is appearing early in September 2018. Yay!

…The problem that ‘Iron Fist’ featured was that it was generic – it was about a single Caucasian male superhero. If he was, you know, Oriental, that would be okay, as ‘Luke Cage’ demonstrates: its’ titular character a single Afro-American male superhero, and that makes it different from ‘Daredevil’. ‘Iron Fist’ doesn’t have that, which gives it an extra need to differentiate it from the older, more established and successful, ‘Daredevil’.

Why is the titular character of ‘Iron Fist’ not Asian-American but instead is Westeros’ Flower Knight? There was never much of a satisfactory answer, but that is okay – there was never much of a pressure to change the actors either, so let us admit that the racial issue is there, but it is not as important as people like to pretend, and move on.

The actual problem that ‘Iron Fist’ may be facing is the lack of originality – according to the rumors, he is facing a bloke named ‘Steel Serpent’ in his second season. So far so good, but this Davos person appears to be mostly an ‘Iron Fist’/’Danny Rand’ turned evil – kind of how Jessica Jones’ mom in her S2 was just like the titular heroine herself – only evil. Come to think of it, weren’t the villains in ‘Luke Cage’ S2 also both sympathetic and evil? Yes, and there was something of a parallel ‘team-up’ – Luke and Misty on one hand, Mariah and Bushmaster on the other? Yes, and we’re probably reading in it too much, but if ‘The Defenders’ are trying to keep themselves original, (with ‘Daredevil’ aside, his situation is different), there’s nothing odd about it either.

As for ‘Daredevil’… look. Not only is his comic base much more solid than the rest of ‘the Defenders’, there were also a couple of ‘Daredevil’ and ‘Electra’ movies in not so recent past. They weren’t very good, especially the ‘Electra’ one, but they did occur, so the crew of ‘Daredevil’ does have more material on which to work with, and it is tested, so they some ideas at least as to where to go with it, and what to do, and what not to do, etc. Thus, they do have an advantage over the rest of the team Defenders, and it shows.

But again, this does not matter to ‘Iron Fist’, not entirely. The current trailer shows that Misty Knight from ‘Luke Cage’ will appear in the series, (just as Colleen and Rand themselves did in ‘Luke Cage’ S2), so the semi-crossovers and the improvement of ‘the Defenders’-verse is still strong, but it is not a wonder-cure either. ‘Iron Fist’ was probably the weakest of ‘the Defenders’ show and it has to work especially hard to catch up to them…and so far there’s no indication that it is doing so. “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce to the gander”… maybe, but with TV shows, and online shows, and so forth it may be different, but we will have to wait until September 2018 to see.

…This is it for now, see you all soon later!

Cloak & Dagger, 'Ghost Stories' - July 20

…With only episodes left in S1, ‘Cloak & Dagger’ are stepping up their game and most of their cast is back – only father Delgado is absent. And the Voodoo priestess. And her niece, but – with master Jip lurking in the wings, it probably is only a matter of time until they reappear, because ‘Cloak & Dagger’ might be going into the more supernatural side of Marvel, due to the fact that in this universe the titular characters’ powers’ origin is more mystical – in the original comics they became, well, Cloak and Dagger by being experimented upon by a mad scientist type – kind of how it went down with Luke Cage, for example too – and here, on TV, we have a bunch of underwater scenes, and some black-and-white oily powers, and who knows what else – very different. Go, Ty & Dy!

Speaking of Luke Cage, or rather – ‘Luke Cage’ S2, Danny Rand, or rather – Iron Fist, will be airing his S2 soonish as well. So far, we know that this time the villain is someone called the Steel Serpent, but-

But there are at least two canon characters who are named that, so…it’s going to be rather how ‘Luke Cage’ S2 went, with one its’ main villains being the Bushmaster, (are ‘Luke Cage’ crew and co. will be putting the titular hero against snake-themed villains from now on?), the only thing is that it was the ‘other’ Bushmaster, in comics this name is usually used for one Quincy McIvor, while John McIvor is more of a runner-up. With ‘Iron Fist’, though, the situation is reversed – the Steel Serpent who is going to appear is the regular, a bloke named Davos, while the runner-up – the master of the death touch – will appear at a different time, if ever. We will have to wait and see just how MCU’s version of Davos is different from the comics’ version…

Back to ‘Cloak & Dagger’? This episode – ‘Ghost Stories’ – marked a milestone for the characters. On one hand, they have succeeded: Ty the Cloak got the Corrupt Cop put away, while Dy the Dagger confronted the chief of Roxxon over her dad’s death. On the other, they failed: Dy discovered that her late father wasn’t as good as she assumed in her idealism; in particular, he’d seen nothing wrong in some good old fashioned domestic abuse with her mom on the receiving end of it…so she’s going to take Roxxon’s hush money, and-

And nothing. So far Dy is back to hiding her cash in remote places, saving it for later. Mind you, saving money for later is a good thing, but in that case, Dy should have figured out a scheme to legitimize this cash in put in the bank under percentage or bonds or whatever, because just hiding the money does not work, the last time her mom discovered it and spent it all on a drug binge. Wonder what will happen to this cache of Dy’s cash?

Onto Ty? His main big scene will happen next week, and this week’s episode ended when Detective Mayhem comes home and discovers that her obligatory love interest – another cop, who appeared about once per scene every few episodes or so – is dead and stuffed in the fridge, with everything else in it pulled out beforehand to make space for him. This is ‘Godfather’ done in an obsessive-compulsive way; maybe it is master Jip finally making his own move?

Otherwise…no, this is it. ‘Ghost Stories’ was another good episode, masterfully done and with plenty of action and drama that was so lacking in the first few S1 episodes. Sadly, the numbers for the show still remain low, and with AoS’ remaining Disney/MCU’s obligatory supplement canon TV show, while the Netflix crowd is still more successful than ‘C&D’ are, the future of ‘C&D’ is still up in the air.

…Well, this is it for ‘Ghost Stories’; see you all next time!

Cloak & Dagger, 'Call' - June 22

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks on so many levels. With that out of the way for now, ‘C&D’ adventures continue this week, and-?

And in this week’s episode, ‘Call’, T&T, the titular characters, spent getting to know one each other, while – in flashbacks – the audience could see just what their lives are are…normally. Without any supernatural cloak and dagger powers. Shall we discuss it?

Well, we certainly could, there are plenty of topics of discussion, from Tandy’s hypocrisy regarding her condition – yes, her assailant deserves to go to jail, but so’s she, he’s an aspiring rapist, she’s a practicing thief with a drug addiction problem, and detective Mayhem, (no, that’s not her name, but that is what I’m calling her until the show proves that she isn’t that comic character), is an idealist enough to demand that if Tandy wants her help, she’ll need to come clean too. As ‘Call’ showed, Tandy hates that idea, and if she doesn’t, her previous tentative relationship with the detective is over – astrology-wise, Mayhem looks like a Solar Leo, the sun lion, which means that on one hand, she loves helping people, for it feeds her inner ego, and on the other, if she ever suspects that anyone is taking advantage of her, she’ll turn on them immediately, for she hates being fooled more than anything else.  Where were we?

Another theme that rose in ‘Call’ is the role of mothers: Tandy’s mom is a more passive version of Tandy herself, complete with the drug addiction but minus the dagger powers; without her cleaning her act, Tandy will never succeed. …In fact, if it was not for the mom discovering her belongings and went on a binge with them, Tandy would have split and left New Orleans back at the series premiere, as soon as everything hit the fan at once. And, considering that Tandy did take to hide her belongings in the first place, means that her mom was, or is, actively looking for them too, which is a different level of wrongness entirely than just stumbling upon it; and once Tandy figures it out, she’ll…have to be the hero, here, take the moral high ground…or she will lose it, and go directly onto the dark side, Sith-style, (she already got the swords/daggers/whatever). Go team Tandy.

On the other hand, we got Ty and his mother, who pulled him and his father out of squalor and ensured that they are people to be respected and reckoned with, at least by material standards. Materialistically, Ty is better off than Tandy is, but this does not change the fact that he is still angry at the world for its unfairness… but then again – off topic – the world is unfair, it always is unfair, and all the attempts in real life to change it into a fairer one did not work, but rather backfired. The USSR was one of those events. The current version of USA is another…only now the backlash is beginning. You can rush headfirst into a utopia and think that everything will work as planning and that everyone will be happy, but the actual result? You can see it in contemporary real life America for yourself – just read the current news.

Back to ‘C&D’? Ty is trying to overcome his innate fears of cops as he goes to meet detective Mayhem in regards to Tandy’s case, (without knowing all of the details, mind). Judging by the promo ad at the end of ‘Call’, it will be a mixed success, at least initially. Considering that Ty is still cautious around cops, this can still go south, and considering that his arch nemesis the crooked cop will probably be around the precinct at just the right time to overhear him for plot progression, and…we’ll just have wait for the next week’s episode to see if it happens.

Anything else? ‘Luke Cage’ S2 is airing today on Netflix™, and compared to ‘C&D’, it is the better Marvel™ show. Why? Because it is.

Facepalm. Phrasing. But! If ‘C&D’ was supposed to address the various ills of the contemporary American society, and show it in all of its’ glory, then the various Marvel™ Netflix™ shows did it too, and for much longer; all of them have at least one season under their belts, they have more experience than ‘C&D’ does, and it shows. Plus - Marvel™.

It may sound like something uttered by Captain Obvious, but part of the reason why the viewers want to see all of these shows and movies is because MCU is building upon the well-established comic franchise. People already know Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, the Runaways and so on, and they want to see them live on TV too – and Marvel™ obliges, on its own, or in partnership with various other companies, including Netflix™, and now, in case of ‘C&D’, Freeform™. Only, in case of ‘C&D’ and Freeform™, where is the Marvel™?

Oh, it is there, to be sure, but so far? It is more of a salad dressing, as the ‘C&D’ cast and crew are concerned, apparently, but that is not what the viewers want…as the numbers show. They did get better after the previous episode, ‘Stained Glass’, but are still very low, lower than for AoS’ S5. Considering that we are talking about a seriously low bar here, the failure here sucks even more. Anything else?

Again, ‘Jessica Jones’, for all of its’ own problems, began to tackle the gender inequality problems in the U.S. society before ‘C&D’ did; ‘Luke Cage’ does the same for racial inequality, and as its’ S2 shows, the folks at the Netflix™ and Marvel™ tandem took notice of ‘Jessica Jones’ S2 problems – lack of a coherent villain, lack of ties with the general ‘Defenders’ universe – and fixed them. Good for them. And ‘C&D’? So far we got nothing specifically Marvel™ aside from the titular characters, (and maybe detective Mayhem, cough), and that is not what the viewers want. Not from a technically Marvel™ show, anyhow. If they wanted something else, there is plenty to choose from on TV, and that is what they do – they watch something else, which is not what ‘C&D’ needs, after all…

Well, this is it for now; see you all soon, hopefully!