It’s Samhain Season again! That’s another excuse for me to unload more outdated Marvel Comics ephemera. This is distinct from Marvel Cinematic Universe ephemera. (Watch Werewolf By Night again!) Toy talk has been sequestered to the end for your convenience. I’ve also removed the muties so they can get their own post soonish. The DC Comics equivalent could probably fill out more.
Its flickering candle makes a groovy strobe effect.
Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, & The Punisher have all been cancelled. Jessica Jones is the last Defender standing. Well her series is done after season three, but it’s the last of Marvel’s Netflix shows to be released. Although I refuse to let go of Kilgrave not being purple, Jessica Jones season one was great. I liked season two more than most thanks to Janet McTeer’s superlative performance as Alissa Jones. Netflix hasn’t released any fun stills to riff on, so I’m falling back on my own natural resource of cat action figure photos. (Marvel & Netflix care about it so little they didn’t even make any mock covers for it like last season.) Now let’s pour one out with SPOILERS for Jessica Jones season three! Will it finally pay off Chekov’s Stilt-Man?
Had this deleted scene been set after Endgame, Double J could’ve finagled a European vacation from Triple J.
I successfully didn’t watch Arrow’s season seven premiere! I did see Daredevil season three. Remember when Netflix used to space these out? Dare you read down into SPOILERS? Please do or I wrote this for nothing.
Bullseye’s favorite song is “Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand, & his favorite store is Target.
This Luke Cage season two review is somewhat late because it’s not a series conducive to binging in one day. It should be more punctual than my season one review. Does that make it a lukewarm take? Much like the headline, this contains spoilers.
Why does he only fight union scabs instead of the Serpent Society proper?
If you’re reading this, congratulations on surviving the total Eclipso of the heart! The big news that dropped just as I was reviewing The Defenders is that WB will be making stand alone Elseworlds movies separate from the DCEU (this is still a yucky name). These could be really interesting palate cleansers for folks that are bored with the current film continuity & tradtional superhero movies in general. The first one up is … a gritty The Joker origin movie set in 1980’s Gotham City? So this will still have nothing to do with anything fans like about the Joker? So far it’s just produced by Martin Scorsese not directed by him, so don’t get your hopes up.
Netflix’s The Defenders is finally out! My pre-Defenders blog became obsolete so fast! (If you’re not interested in this series, I recommend streaming the following international films on Netflix, depending on your region: Tag, The Forbidden Room, Wetlands, Filth, Look Who’s Back, Bon Cop/Bad Cop, & The Treacherous.) I was impressed by Daredevil season one, loved Jessica Jones, disappointed by Daredevil season two, & pleasantly surprised by Luke Cage. Instead of bothering with Iron Fist, I watched Crazyhead, which has the best title sequence so I regret nothing! Last chance to defend yourself from The Defenders spoilers!
The Defenders comes out on Friday! Until I get a chance to watch it at a leisurely pace, here’s some random other musings! If you make it to the bottom, I’ll tell you about DuckTales!
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My feline overlord had her ferocious fifth birthday! She actually liked her presents this year! I don’t know how to process this.
A Purricane of judgmental kitties would be more terrifying than any Sharknado.
The Defenders is coming soon! (I’m hoping it abruptly switches from them teaming up to thwart The Hand to Patsy getting married to Daimon Hellstrom.) Thanks to a temporary Netflix (the company that wants both the TV & movie awards for technically being either) account, I finally got around to fulfilling my promise of watching Luke Cage. Anybody still need an overview of that? (Let’s see if this obsolete review is more popular than timely reviews of Atomic Blonde & Valerian. Surely it’s got to do better than my S-M: TOTD critique.) My review gets a bit spoilery, but maybe that’s not such a big deal since it’s been out so long.
I wasn’t too excited about watching this since Luke Cage was pretty dull in the mostly great Jessica Jones. Daredevil season 2 left a bad taste in my mouth too. I liked Luke Cage, however, more than I expected. It helped that I didn’t have to marathon the whole thing in a single day, though the Netflix bastards kept shrinking the credits on me. Fortunately Mike Colter can make Luke a likeable character when he’s the lead. Showing how afraid he is of being sent back to prison for a nebulous crime he didn’t commit (or breaking out, which is a crime he did do) explains why he was so low key in Jessica Jones. Despite all his rage, he is still just a Luke in a cage … of his own trauma. Cage does grow into an inspirational hero though. He even does a riff on a timely Captain America speech where he explains that Harlem is only great if it has great denizens. He also frequently exclaims “Sweet Christmas!”
Unsurprisingly, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was not very good. (It also wasn’t that awful.) To compensate, I’ll talk about plenty of geeky adaptations that are more worth your time. That could be a really expansive list, so I’ll narrow it down to what I’ve recently seen.
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The “Worlds Finest” crossover episode of Supergirl really should have an apostrophe after the first ‘s.’ F-Lash getting everyone ice cream cones is the best use of superspeed since Zoom handing out posters of Harrison Wells in Earth-2. Winn absorbed Barry’s affability just by being near him. Barry also somehow managed offscreen to make it so metahumans no longer need to be imprisoned in military black sites. Extraterrestrials still aren’t entitled to due process in the Lucy-ocracy though.
It was great how they matter-of-factly established Silver Banshee was a kind of magic. (See, it’s that simple, Marvel Studios!) I loved how Siobahn just did her face up like comic Silver Banshee without needing an over-explained justification. She just decided to become full Goth (unlike that poseur, Pixie). All that facepaint shows commitment & showmanship. Too bad Livewire didn’t get a costume upgrade to match. Why couldn’t she have received an offscreen makeover too? She looked especially bad next to her new bestie. You can’t dress in ratty civvies like a radio face anymore if you want to be respected as a supervillainess, Leslie!
This episode was the anti-BVSDOJ. The set-up, tone, colors, & characterization were wonderful whereas the climax was lacking. I really don’t like it when regular people save superheroes, especially when it makes F-Lash superfluous. After all her build-up, Silver Banshee is accidentally defeated when Livewire is once again vanquished by municipal water. Rushing through the finale to get to Non’s Myriad cliffhanger was not cool.
Matt The Catania 