Netflix' Punisher Gets Full Trailer

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I don’t think it’d be unfair to say that it’s been a difficult year for Marvel Netflix.  First, there was the costly disaster of Iron Fist, then the shocking news that Marvel would be relocating its streaming rights to a Disney-centric new platform, and finally the very disappointing Defenders, which no one really tuned in for.  A lot has gone wrong or Marvel’s streaming service division, continuing the theme of Marvel having a lot of trouble finding lasting success outside the cinematic arena.  However, the year isn’t fully over yet and the house of ideas has one last release up their sleeves- The Punisher. 

Introduced to the MCU in 2016’s mixed bag of Daredevil season 2, Jon Bernthal’s Punisher is one of the real standouts of Marvel’s Netflix foray alongside season 1’s Kingpin and Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones.  He pretty much single-handedly made Daredevil season 2 worth watching so his solo series has been long in the anticipation, especially given the cult status afforded to Frank Castle’s previous adaptation Punisher: Warzone.  Now, we finally have our first real look at the upcoming series and boy does it leave one wanting. 

Panel Vision - 7 Things to Expect from Spider-Man: Homecoming 2

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So, did you see Spider-Man: Homecoming yet?  Chances are you probably did given the film’s had a big box office success, more or less everyone is praising it, and Marvel is more or less our culture’s cinematic guardian.  What’s more, it does feel like Marvel has poured a lot of time and effort into establishing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man as a new standard bearer for the company.  He’s not quite there yet, mainly because of how much he’s defined by his junior Avenger status, but give him about 3 years I get the sense Spider-Man is going to be one of the faces of the MCU come 2020 along with Black Panther and Captain Marvel.  

As such, and given that the film itself was loaded with references, it’s not too early to start talking about what we might see in a sequel to Homecoming.  Spider-Man’s always had one of the most expansive single character mythos in the entire Marvel brand and a lot of that has already started showing up in the MCU proper so let’s dive in to see what we might see in Spider-Man: Homecoming 2. 

Static Thoughts - Future of Marvel TV

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At the time of writing, we’re in a bit of a dead zone for Marvel TV.  Iron Fist has just finished its premiere and Agents of SHIELD won’t be back for a couple weeks.  As such, I’ve elected to take that time to revise an old topic and delve into where Marvel TV is headed.  I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that TV is the area where Marvel has enjoyed the least success.  That’s kind of a couched statement as Marvel hasn’t really branched out into that many mediums, but even so, it’s kind of impressive that Marvel has made 12 movies, all of them solid, but only one genuinely great TV show. 

It just seems like the house of ideas can’t crack the formula to bring its superheroes to the small screen, aside from 1 or 2 notable exceptions.  As such, the future of Marvel TV, though a clear slate of announced projects, feels more tenuous than anything else at their company.  It’s basically guaranteed that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be a blast and their upcoming Secret Empire event comic promises to be absorbing, but in the land of television, Marvel’s upcoming features read a lot more like a list of threats than promises. 

Panel Vision - Old Man Logan

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So, by now Logan is looking to be on track to be the biggest superhero hit of the season and the latest genuine home run for Fox’s X-Men franchise since last year’s Deadpool.  That makes sense- the film looks incredibly well conceived with a lot of excellent elements, and it’s basically just the most recent iteration of the trend of Mark Millar comics getting amazing adaptations.  

If you’re not aware of him, Mark Millar is a Scottish comics author whose been a major staple of the comic scene for the better part of the 2000s.  Millar’s one of the co-creators of Marvel’s very successful Ultimate Universe, which helped inspire the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and wrote the comics that gave us Wanted, Kick-Ass 1 & 2, Kingsmen: The Secret Service, and Captain America: Civil War. 

The one wrinkle about this success is that virtually all of those films changed a ton from the source material because the original comics aren’t really that great.  I already dedicated a whole article to how bad the original Civil War books are, and I could easily do the same for the rest.  You can already see that with Logan as it’s clearly shed nearly everything from Old Man Logan save for the old Wolverine concept.  However, this case is a bit of an exception because Old Man Logan is a great comic. 

Iron Fist Trailer 2 Breakdown

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One of the interesting things about Marvel’s lead up to Defenders is that each of the lead-up series has focused on a street level social issue that their hero is dealing with.  In Daredevil season 1 the story was about gentrification, Jessica Jones was all about rape culture, Luke Cage touched on race relations within the black community, and Daredevil season 2 was about…ninjas.  That last one, the one that breaks the chain and remains the weakest of Marvel’s Netflix offerings, despite Punisher’s excellent presence, seems to be the one most influential on the upcoming Iron Fist TV show.  

In a way that match up is pretty much perfect.  Daredevil Season 2 is a lot like Iron Man 2 in that it only happened because nobody expected Daredevil season 1 to be such a big hit, so the rush was on to get more of him out there as we pushed towards Defenders.  In that rush, the season ended up without much depth or passion outside Punisher because it was only really produced out of obligation, which is exactly the case with Iron Fist.  All the way from inception up to this latest trailer the message of Iron Fist has been “we’re making it, but don’t think we really care,” and this trailer shouts that loud and clear.

Static Thoughts - 8 Possible Defenders Villains

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One of the most impressive things about Marvel is how well they’ve managed to colonize so many different forms of media successfully.  After successfully establishing themselves as the cinematic guardians of pop culture they’ve now moved on to be the best and most ambitious thing on Netflix.  

Sure, Daredevil might be flawed by Jessica Jones is the best superhero show we’ve yet seen and Luke Cage is shaping up to be the black superhero fantasy we’ve needed for two years now, at least. 

All of this is leading up to The Defenders series next year, which will see a crossover of Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and the upcoming Iron Fist series.  So far the villain of Defenders has been pretty clearly the Hand, the magic ninja clan from Daredevil but recently Vincent D’Onofrio made statements that his villain Kingpin might return for Defenders.  Given this and how many loose threads tie through the MCU I’ve compiled a list of 8 possible villains we could see in The Defenders.

Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Defenders Trailer Breakdowns

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Edited by Robert Beach

As the saga of Marvel Studios continues, the story of their Netflix offshoot has slowly become a production unto itself. Launching in 2015 with the blockbuster Daredevil series, then following it up with the even better Jessica Jones show in the fall, Marvel’s Netflix shows have become their own little universe. 

The inter-continuity of New York street-level super crime has forged the shows into their own phase 1. Heck, there's multiple dangling plot threads supporting super people who could be their own stars like Punisher, Elektra, and Nuke. 

Now, Marvel Netflix is looking to premiere another three shows over the next year and a half starting with Luke Cage this September, followed by Iron Fist in spring of 2017, and culminating in the massive team-up show Defenders in fall of next year. With all that in the cards, Netflix has now released a triple threat of teasers for each of its new shows. Let’s take a look. 

Josh Segarra Cast as Vigilante in Arrow S5

Edited by Robert Beach 

Yesterday, I talked about how CW is approaching the question of what to do with Arrow now that it’s been more or less eclipsed by its adjacent series. My suggestion was that CW is modeling Arrow after Daredevil, bringing in 2^nd rate villains of more popular heroes like Ras Al Ghul and now introducing violent vigilantes ala Punisher in the form of Wild Dog.  

Well, CW seems to be doubling down on this approach by adding a second violent, street-level vigilante to the mix in the form of Adrian Chase, played by Josh Segarra. Much like Wild Dog, Chase is a low-rent Punisher knock-off from the ‘80s with possibly the most uninspired superhero name and gimmick of all time. He’s a hero so lame and non-descript his name is just a synonym for crime buster for he is…the Vigilante. 

Arrow Adds Rick Gonzalez as Wild Dog

Edited by Robert Beach 

How do you solve a problem like Arrow?  That might seem disingenuous given Arrow is the show that kicked off the CW-verse, a vast miasma of interconnected television shows that spans 4 series and a huge amount of characters; the likes we haven’t seen since the Star Trek triple threat of Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Voyager in the late ‘90s, but hear me out.  As important as Arrow was to the origins of the CW-verse, there’s no denying at this point the show’s been outpaced by its own spin-offs. 

The Flash rushed ahead to become a massive favorite; Legends of Tomorrow brought superhero team action to life in a way never thought possible, and Supergirl is the best live-action adaptation of the Superman mythos since Superman 2. Arrow has little to do now, especially now that Ras Al Ghul has receded from the series’ emphasis. So how do you keep a show like Arrow relevant and interesting without just trying to rip-off Batman (like in seasons 1 and 2)? Well, obviously you do what worked in season 3, Arrow’s best season; you rip-off Daredevil.

Cover Story - Top 20 Daredevil Covers

Edited by Robert Beach 

Yesterday marked the launch of Marvel and Netflix’s Daredevil season 2. I’ve already burned through the whole season, and I may do a review of the entire season. For now, I’d still like to get a Daredevil-themed article out there. Luckily, I’ve got this column. 

Yes it’s time to dive into the shallow end once more for a look at the life of the man without fear: Daredevil, showcasing the top 20 Daredevil covers culled from across the character’s massive history.  This is a big list, so let’s get started.

Daredevil Season 2 Trailer Round-Up

Edited by Robert Beach

In exactly one week’s time, Netflix and Marvel will join forces for the third time to bring us the highly anticipated second season of Daredevil. So far, Marvel’s Netflix offerings have been pretty solid ranging from the enjoyable, if moderately overrated, Daredevil season 1 to the exceptional knockout that was Jessica Jones. Both serve as a major point of contrast to the often less-than-stellar Marvel network shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Agent Carter. 

However, it’s also pretty clear Marvel was initially planning to put together a second Daredevil season this quickly as most of their Netflix wheels turn pretty hard towards the Defenders crossover.  Daredevil season 2 as a quasi-last minute “give the most popular guy a sequel while we work on the next 2 pre-crossover things” lands it in the same bin of creation that gave us Iron Man 2. Given that, I’ve compiled all the pertinent advertising media and rumors so…let’s talk about Daredevil season 2.

Panel Vision - Jessica Jones Season 2, What To Expect

So, Jessica Jones seems to be a bona fide hit with audiences, a major success that’s earned Marvel all kinds of critical acclaim and plenty of audience accolades as well.  It’s a major win for Marvel Studios, another example of how well they can convert obscure properties into crowd-pleasing hits while also proving just how dark, complex, and adult the Marvel universe is willing to be.  With all that said and considering it’s been a week since the show’s premiere I think it’s time to start talking about Jessica Jones season 2. 

That might seem a little premature but by comparison Daredevil had its second season confirmed after only 11 days so it doesn’t strike me as too early at all.  Now, as this post is going to be discussing what could come next I’m going to have to dig deep into what’s already happened so this article will contain spoilers.  If that’s a problem for you don’t read ahead, instead go watch the show, it’s excellent. 

Comics Rainbow - Daredevil Villains

This Friday will see the premiere of Marvel and Netflix’s second collaborative streaming show Jessica Jones, based on the comic series Alias.  The show is the next installment in the lead up the streaming crossover series Defenders after Daredevil earlier this year and will feature the second Daredevil villain brought to life in the form of David Tennant’s Purple Man.  It’s been no secret that the Marvel cinematic universe has been lacking for interesting bad guys since day one and a big part of that has been that all the cool bad guys are part of franchises Marvel doesn’t own the rights to like Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, or the X-Men.  However, it’s not at all surprising that Marvel is on the cusp of scoring two big villain wins this year with Kingpin and Purple Man, two Daredevil bad guys.  Daredevil has always had one of the more interesting rogues galleries among heroes, usually counted alongside Flash, Batman, and Spider-man as one of the best in the genre so it’s about time Marvel dove into that toy box of madness for inspiration.  So, that’s what we’re going to look at today, the full spectrum look at the many foes of Daredevil; shades, shames, successes and all.

Madame Masque Villain of Agent Carter Season 2

Edited by Robert Beach 

here’s no denying this has been a rough year for Marvel studios. Age of Ultron did well but wasn’t the same cultural smash as the first film, and Ant-Man’s modest success was undercut by the MCU’s ongoing issues with representation. Yet one area Marvel has really thrived in 2015 is in television. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was finally able to find a major audience as it ramped up its connection to the films; Daredevil was a smash hit on Netflix that catapulted the Kingpin to a major villain position and helped fast track Jessica Jones, and their winter mini-series Agent Carter has been picked up for a full series. 

Now with half of the year over, and the fall and winter seasons looming, the first details on Agent Carter season 2 are beginning to filter through the media cracks. Some early news indicated the series was going to be set predominately in Hollywood this season and would feature the return of Howard Stark despite Dominic Cooper’s role in Preacher. The first major reveal has been slipped: the season 2 villain will be Iron Man antagonist Madame Masque. 

Devil Dinosaur, Clone Saga, & Marvel's Future

So the numbers are officially in and Jurassic World has beaten Avengers as the third highest grossing film of all time, earning it a sequel that will go head-to-head with Avengers: Infinity War part 1.  This marks yet another major defeat for Marvel who’ve shaped up to have a pretty bad year all around.  Age of Ultron has been subsumed in the wake of hits like Furious 7 and Jurassic World with more competition coming this fall between Spectre and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  What’s more Ant-Man hasn’t shown a lot of audience interest and critically it’s only served to raise a lot of problematic issues with the Marvel universe as a whole.  The only Marvel projects that seem to really be gelling with audiences these days are episodic in nature, stuff like the major interest in Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD finally finding a major audience, and Daredevil ending up a major cultural hit.  What does all this mean for Marvel going forward?  Could we be seeing the end of Marvel Studios?