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. 

Tomb Raider Trailer Breakdown

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I think it’s fair to say video game movies are at a crossroads.  Video game films have had a weird, long, unrewarding history despite coming from a medium that’s in its relative infancy.  After making a big splash in the ‘90s with the likes of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter the genre was more or less banished to the realm of direct-to-DVD for the majority of the 2000s and even the early 2010s.  Basically, we spent the decade in which games became a snowballing phenomenon slogging through flicks like Blood Rayne, DOOM, and Hit Man. 

Lately, though, the video game film has come cautiously crawling back to the mainstream blockbuster scene, most pertinently with last years Warcraft and Assassin’s Creed films.  Neither of those were a big successes stateside but the ongoing Hollywood scramble for viable IP and the growing global market seems to have translated to renewed interest in this moribund genre, with a new standard bearer emerging for this new age of video games and women-oriented genre flicks- Tomb Raider, now finally coronated with a shiny new trailer for next year’s film. 

Defenders Trailer Breakdown

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You know, after nearly 10 years it’s possible the Marvel magic is wearing off.  I don’t mean that their films are getting objectively poorer or even that I’m enjoying them less, Civil War is a classic of the genre and Ant-Man, and Dr. Strange are two of my favorite Marvel movies.  No, what I’m talking about is the shock and awe of “I can’t believe they did that!” as a cornerstone of Marvel’s cultural capital.  

Where this is most evident is in the realm of Marvel TV, an arena in which they still struggle even though they’re making some serious gains.  I’m speaking, of course, about The Defenders, Marvel’s impending team-up show meant as the capstone to the past 2 years of Netflix endeavors. 

Earlier on the premise of Defenders felt like it could be a modern and daring new Marvel team but since the announcement that feeling has definitely faded.  First, we realized that the Netflix shows would be more or less divorced from the cinematic universe, then there was the slow realization there wouldn’t be any costumes.

Then Daredevil season 2 was a seriously mixed bag, and Luke Cage was a well-intentioned misfire, then finally Iron Fist came out and we realized this whole thing might’ve been a mistake.  Now, the series has its first full trailer and, brace yourselves, but it actually has me kind of excited for the show. 

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. 

Cover Story - Top 10 Iron Fist Covers

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So, let’s talk about Iron Fist.  By now you’ve probably heard at least a little about him from his new Netflix show and the stewing Online controversy over it.  I don’t want to get too bogged down in that particular conversation, largely because we’re here today to talk about comic covers.  

However, I am still looking at artwork revolving around a white savior trope with a lot of it steeped in Orientalism.  In that regard let me just say that Iron Fist as the great white hope has always been a bad character concept, even when it was widely considered okay back in the mid-'70s. 

What’s more, I’d dare argue that Iron Fist has always been brought down by the awkwardness of trying to fit an Asian pulp aesthetic into the superhero world, so much so that I was barely able to fill out this list of covers.  However, there are still good Iron Fist covers out there and some of the best ones actually manage to address this pretty well.  So, let’s dive into the 40 years of Iron Fist history to see the best of the middle ground. 

Static Thoughts - 15 Netflix Shows for Marvel's Phase 2

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At time of writing Marvel has produced 4 massively successful Netflix series, with 5 more currently in development plus Iron Fist barreling towards us at high speeds.  Basically, Marvel has completely colonized the world of Netflix programming with the same level of success and drive as they brought to conquering the world of summer blockbusters.  

Given this, I figure it’s well passed time to start pitching new shows they could add to their Netflix roster, especially given how many Marvel characters would be better served by a series than a movie.  The diffused time frame, tight budget, and altered expectations basically set-up the Netflix realm to handle any number of more difficult or obscure Marvel characters and I’ve got 15 here that deserve their shot in Marvel’s inevitable Netflix Phase 2. 

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.

Iron Fist Trailer Analysis

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Edited by Robert Beach 

So far, Marvel has produced three original series on Netflix (Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Daredevil); Iron Fist will be the studio’s fourth foray into this particular arena.  Scheduled to premiere in March 2017, Iron Fist will be the last original show before Defenders, which will feature a crossover between all four of the Marvel series along with, presumably, the Punisher. All of the Marvel shows have followed along a somewhat similar track: emphasizing brutal violence, a dark and gritty aesthetic, and a very street-level vision of New York. 

Iron Fist will be the first to break from this aesthetic as the titular Iron Fist, AKA Danny Rand, is both a wealthy CEO and a living weapon, master of the mystic kung-fu technique of the Iron Fist. The whole mythos is full of that kung-fu fantasy weirdness like secret hidden cities, other living weapons, and outright dragons, magic, and chi channeling. It’s a different aesthetic is my point. After months of controversy, campaigns, and disappointing casting announcements, we have a full trailer to give a voice to that tone and boy, is it ever mediocre. 

Cover Story - Top 12 Luke Cage Covers

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So Luke Cage has finally premiered and become a pretty major deal.  The show is the final realization of a plan a decade in the making to shepherd G-list blaxploitation hero Luke Cage into the hearts and minds of popular culture.  Ever since his inception in the ‘70s Luke Cage has defined street level cool for Marvel, with his legend persisting through generations of creators and editors till it eventually rose him up to become an Avenger.  

Now, Luke Cage stands tall alongside Marvel’s greatest heroes as one of their premiere black heroes alongside the likes of Black Panther, Storm, and Blade.  What better way to celebrate such a momentous leap forward than with a look into the past and the Top 12 Luke Cage covers of all time.

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. 

Film Land - How Do You Solve a Problem Like Thor?

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Edited by Robert Beach

I have a lot of tangents that develop as I do these articles, and one of the most prominent ones has become “how do you solve a problem like Thor?” It’s a question that’s hung around Marvel’s neck like a dead weight ever since 2013 when Thor: The Dark World’s derailment came to a crushing finale. Thor's mighty sequel hammer lost to Hunger Games: Catching Fire at the box office. 

Overall, it’s easy to see how Thor ended up on the fringes of Marvel’s slate. The first Thor was a refreshing and fun fantasy comedy. It served as the world’s introduction to Marvel’s cosmic mythology and acted as the most child-friendly Marvel superhero production. 

Since then, Guardians of the Galaxy has come in as the new face of Marvel cosmic, and the Studio has reclaimed (Editor's Note: joint custody) the rights to Spider-Man to make it their kid-friendly franchise. Even Thor’s possible role as a mystics and magic franchise is teetering now that Dr. Strange and Iron Fist are on the way.  

It also doesn’t help that Chris Hemsworth has proved himself the least versatile of the main Marvel actors. With all that looming overhead, I still ask "how do you solve a problem like Thor?" And the answer from Thor: Ragnarok seems to be this: just make it a Hulk movie. 

Static Thoughts - How to Fix Agents of SHIELD

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Edited by Robert Beach

As we continue the march towards San Diego Comic Con something that’s been weighing on me quite a bit is Agents of SHIELD.  At time of writing Agents of SHIELD is, arguably, Marvel’s largest and most public failing.  Even though the comic company turned blockbuster film studio manage to turn off-beat oddities like Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant-Man into smash hits they just don’t seem able to make Agents of SHIELD stick, not with audiences and not as a credible show worth diving deeper into than a few episodes. 

We’re headed now towards a fourth season that could easily end up the show’s last outing, as four seasons is all that’s required for a show to be eligible for syndication.  Given the show’s diminishing audience that seems the most likely case but, if Marvel is going to pull out all the stops for a season 5 bid, I came up with four ways they can make Agents of SHIELD a better show. 

Static Thoughts - Future of Marvel TV

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As I write this, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is at something of a crossroads.  The films have entered such an institutional point in our culture that even widespread disinterest is more or less unable to derail their success.  Cycles of disappointment, disengagement, rediscovery, and reappraisal have been sped up to an insane degree and Marvel’s cross-media presence has pretty much guaranteed them cultural dominance through to the end of the decade.  What’s more, their series of Netflix shows have proven thoroughly successful and aside from a handful of major casting flubs the MCU is the most powerful it’s been since Avengers. 

The one area where things have faltered, however, is on TV, with the network television side of the MCU slowly atrophying as projects end up postponed, canceled, or passed on.  Agents of SHIELD is barreling ahead into another season but the proposed spin-off Most Wanted was passed over, the Damage Control show seems to have been quietly scuttled, and Agent Carter was officially canceled.  All of this has folks wondering: what does the future hold for Marvel television?

Is Ghost Rider coming to Agents of SHIELD?

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We are now about 2 weeks out from San Diego Comic Con, the biggest event of the geek media calendar year.  It’s basically Christmas in July for the geek world, the point in the year where we catch a glimpse of everything that’s going to dominate our social media conversations and news feeds for the next year or so.  Lately, each year has been marked by some major announces from the good people at Marvel Studios, even though recent offerings have been a little sparse given their greater focus on the Disney Expo.  As we all impatiently salivate for the latest major announcement from the little multi-billion dollar business that could one of the more shockingly relevant Marvel properties up at bat this year is Agents of SHIELD. 

Despite spending 3 years hemorrhaging viewers and slowly becoming the least integral aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe the show has managed to turn quite a few heads with a shocking train reveal of their new logo design which features a flaming chain.  While there are several Marvel heroes that use both chains and flames as weapon most fans have taken this to mean that Agents of SHIELD season 4 is planning to introduce Ghost Rider to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Static Thoughts - The Case for More Agent Carter

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Edited by Robert Beach

Let’s talk about Agent Carter. Springing out of the surprise success of Captain America in the early 2010s, Agent Carter was the second major attempt by the highly successful Marvel Studios to transition from films to television. After the tepid response to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 2013, Agent Carter’s 2015 launch was vaunted as Marvel TV done right with Kevin Feige promising a true experience to wow and engage audiences, and, at first, that’s what we got. The first season of Agent Carter wasn’t necessarily great, but it was solid as far as period espionage plots go. 

What’s more, the show had a solid core focusing on the way women were being forced out of the independence World War 2 afforded them that would shape the feminist and sexual revolutions going forward. Marvel immediately threw away all that good will with the second season, and the show was canceled. Fan demand for a revival has already started, and while I’m not super on board with such exercises, I do think that Agent Carter deserves a second chance to be the hit series it never really got the chance to be.  

Iron Fist News Round-Up

Edited by Robert Beach 

At time of writing, Marvel has successfully produced 3 Netflix original series with a 4^th ready to premiere this fall. Marvel’s Netflix output has been…mixed to say the least. Jessica Jones is one of the greatest iterations of the superhero genre ever produced while Daredevil season 1 featured a breakout performance from Vincent D’Onofrio as the Kingpin. Conversely, Daredevil season 2 has been met with a good amount of dislike owing to the plethora of unresolved plot threads, lack of a strong antagonist, and abysmal adaptation of Elektra.  

The second season did boast the incredible Jon Bernthal as the Punisher, who’s apparently getting his own Netflix show down the line. For the moment, the Marvel/Netflix saga isn’t in as strong a place as it was in 2015 when it first burst on the scene. That could all change this fall with Luke Cage, but only one name is dominating the Marvel/Netflix news cycle, and that is Iron Fist. And that’s not a good thing either.

Dr. Strange Trailer & Set Photos

Edited by Robert Beach

My favorite thing about Marvel studios is even amid all the formula-driven plots and studio-mandated storytelling, there’s still a creative spark and vibrance for the material at the heart of these movies. Every time I’m feeling a little burnt out on the Marvel product something new pops up to drag me back in. When Thor: The Dark World and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. exhausted me, Captain America: Winter Soldier brought me back to life. I liked Age of Ultron, but it was still a frustrating mess. Then Ant-Man and Jessica Jones washed all that away. 

A lot of that has to do with tone and style. Marvel’s simply at their best when they aren’t actively trying to make blockbuster hits, but are more trying to experiment with genre and visuals. And now we have Dr. Strange, Marvel’s latest “experimental risk” in a long line of experiments that proved to be not that risky. But is there a better film to be found in this first trailer, poster, and set photos or are we on track to another well-intended disappointment in the vein of Incredible Hulk. 

6 Questions About This Fall's Luke Cage

Edited by Robert Beach 

This Friday will mark the premiere of Marvel’s 3^rd Netflix series in the 2^nd season of Daredevil. However, that won’t be the end of Marvel and Netflix’s partnership this year as they’ll also be launching a new series this fall. Coming September 30^th Marvel’s Luke Cage will premiere on Netflix. Luke has already debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing as a supporting character in last year’s hit series Jessica Jones.  

It was established in the series that Luke already has his super powers from the comics of enhanced strength and unbreakable skin. It’s also been confirmed Iron Fist, Marvel’s next proposed Netflix solo hero, will have some part in Luke’s outing. Beyond that, we don’t really know much about the Luke Cage show, so I’ve put together a list of major questions about the upcoming series. 

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.