Superheroes!

[EgonSpengler]

I read that Mike Mignola, David Harbour, Ian McShane, Daniel Dae Kim, and Sasha Lane will be doing a panel on Saturday at NYCC (no mention of Milla Jovovich or Neil Marshall). Mayhap we will get a trailer on Monday or Tuesday?

 

[EgonSpengler]

So there we have it. Vincent D'Onofrio is back, and appears to be the major villain of season 3. The end of the trailer teases a new (super-)villain capable of giving Matt trouble in the hand-to-hand department. It hasn't been officially confirmed, but I think we all know who that is. He's been notably absent from the series so far, like Batman without The Joker. Perhaps his signature moment of villainy in the comics has already been superceded by events in the Netflix series, but an adaptation of the moment from the comic practically writes itself:

(Potential spoiler for the show, if you're not familiar with the Frank Miller Daredevil comics from back in the day. And I haven't read anything about this, this is just me talkin'.)

Spoiler :

 

[Kaitzilla]

So there we have it. Vincent D'Onofrio is back, and appears to be the major villain of season 3.

Yay!

 

[EgonSpengler]

If you're into The CW's 'Berlantiverse', it's premier week. Tonight is The Flash and Black Lightning, Sunday is Supergirl, and Monday is Arrow. Legends of Tomorrow will be fashionably late and won't appear until later in the month. I thought the first season of Black Lightning was decent, and I hope it doesn't have a 'sophomore slump.' I think I've started watching the last 3 seasons of The Flash with some enthusiasm, and then drifted away from them as the seasons wore on and I lost interest in what they were doing. Still, I'll probably give it its annual go-around, to see if it can grab me this time.

Elsewhere, Warner Bros. have swooped on the big free agent of the off-season, signing James Gunn to write (and presumably direct) the next Suicide Squad movie. If you need your memory refreshed, Gunn did Guardians of the Galaxy 1 & 2 for Marvel Studios, and was recently fired after some old, offensive Tweets he wrote resurfaced.

Yay!

Right?

 

[EgonSpengler]

Wow, the season premier of Black Lightning was great. Two great fight scenes, one of which was a clear homage to, and/or inspired by, the first seasons of Daredevil and Luke Cage (not in a cheap, rip-off way - I thought it was awesome). There was a ton going on, but I never felt like it was overstuffed or moving too fast. The other Berlantiverse shows have a really high bar to reach now.

In related news, the idea of using characters from the old Milestone Comics line was brought up with showrunner Salim Akil in an interview. He said that Hardware was his favorite, but he also said that having Black Lightning meet Icon could be interesting, because Icon was politically conservative. I suppose Static Shock would be too much like a teenaged version of Black Lightning, a la Flash and Kid Flash, and we already have Black Lightning's daughters sort of filling that role in the show.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

No love for the season debut of The Flash @EgonSpengler ? I can understand. It wasn't really lovable. Or unlikable. I think of The Flash as sort of the meat and potatoes of DC's television efforts. It seldom offers anything surprising, but it's good solid fare.

 

[EgonSpengler]

No love for the season debut of The Flash @EgonSpengler ? I can understand. It wasn't really lovable. Or unlikable. I think of The Flash as sort of the meat and potatoes of DC's television efforts. It seldom offers anything surprising, but it's good solid fare.

Yeah, it was alright. Like Ralph, Nora is on the razor's edge of being too annoying for me, but so far, she's managed to be endearing enough that I'm not totally sick of her. Yet. They're both walking a tightrope, with not much to gain and a lot to lose, but I guess it works as long as it works.

They could use some more surprises, honestly. If I thought they were really building up to an adaptation of Crisis on Infinite Earths across all of the shows, I'd be giddy, but 2024 is just too far away. The Flash could turn everything on its head this season, by having Barry and Nora try to prevent Barry's disappearance, and accidentally f it up, so that the date on the newspaper headline suddenly changes from 2024 to 2019; then, next season's annual crossover event is actually two-week-long, 10-episode Crisis with all of the shows and all of the heroes crossing over willy-nilly (Supergirl teams up with the Legends; Black Lightning meets Cisco and Caitlin; Batwoman and Joe West; Jesse Quick and John Constantine; dogs and cats, living together! mass hysteria!) that ends with everybody occupying the same Earth. At least, that's what I'd do. The Monitor hasn't been introduced yet, though, so you'd have to get on that. Maybe he could arrive to chastise Cisco and the speedsters for constantly screwing with the realities, or something. Would it be too much for The Monitor to be another Harry? I wouldn't even bother with Pariah or Harbinger, I'm not sure they're necessary.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I think that what makes Ralph work as a character is the commitment of the show to being all about Barry. Ralph does annoy me, but part of the purpose of his character is to annoy Barry so that's just 'the territory.' If they start trying to do a whole lot of developing characters in ways unrelated to Barry then Ralph is far from the only character that will fail to really work. That's part of what I meant by 'meat and potatoes.' The trap DC almost always falls into is that their peripheral characters are far more interesting than the cardboard cutout they use for a main character, and The Flash avoids that neatly.

Admittedly, in doing that they do reduce the other characters to cutouts. Facing facts, we could drop all their names and describe the cast as 'show Barry as son,' 'show Barry as bf/husband,' 'show Barry as friend from guy perspective,' 'same, from girl perspective,' 'show Barry as curiosity.' They had 'show Barry as co-worker' until they ran out of stuff there. They added 'show Barry as mentor' and kept the one that works better in Ralph while sending Kid Flash off to the Legends, mostly. Now they added 'show Barry as parent,' in a pretty clever application of the hackneyed time travel device. I found that surprising enough.

 

[EgonSpengler]

That scene where Barry realized what Nora wasn't saying went the opposite way that I thought it was going to, but in retrospect I realized I shouldn't have been surprised. I thought Barry was going to say something like "Whatever you do, don't tell me what happens to me", but of course Barry can't wait to break his own rule about time-travel. I can't remember if that scene was before or after Wally talked about those events that can be changed without any causing harm and those that are really consequential. But it's kind of the old horror-movie trope: The whole thing would be dumb if the characters weren't. If time-travelers didn't always act like bulls in the china shop, these stories wouldn't be as much fun.

As for The Flash being "the Barry Allen Show" all the time, maybe that's part of why I can't seem to stick with it for long, but yet keep coming back. When I was writing about the season premier above, I thought "...and there wasn't enough Joe West" but I'd already hit Post Reply and didn't bother. I also wouldn't mind seeing more of Caitlin & Killer Frost (I didn't realize that Killer Frost had disappeared, I must have missed that episode).

 

[Timsup2nothin]

C'mon man...if you were displaced in time you'd unleash the mayhem of the ages just because you could, and you know it!

 

[EgonSpengler]

C'mon man...if you were displaced in time you'd unleash the mayhem of the ages just because you could, and you know it!

I'd be the new Genghis Khan.

Wait, does that mean I already was Genghis Khan?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I'd be the new Genghis Khan.

Wait, does that mean I already was Genghis Khan?

Genetically speaking, there's a better than usual chance. Something like one person in 20 is descended from Genghis Khan.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The season premier of Supergirl was a'ight. I think what struck me the most was Nicole Maines' voice. I've heard that a lot of transgender women have a hard time getting the female voice. Admittedly, she's an actor, so selling us on her character is kind of her job, but if I didn't already know she was transgender, I wouldn't have suspected. I like her character, so far, even though I had to Google her just now to remember what her name is (it's Nia). I don't love Chyler Leigh's new haircut. I still feel like I'm waiting for Lena Luthor to take a heel-turn, but maybe I'm just falling for the whole "she's a Luthor" thing. I got a laugh from Braniac 5's "I can't win" bit with Alex, because he actually does kind of grate on my nerves a little. The aliens-vs-natives immigration debate plotline is a little on the nose, but I'm okay with that for now. I'm not sure I ever watched this show for its guile and subtlety.

And here's the poster for the annual Berlantiverse crossover miniseries:

Spoiler :

 

[EgonSpengler]

I hear the season premier of Arrow might be worth checking out. I don't know if I watched a single episode last season. Hopefully that won't matter too much. Of course, Daredevil is on Friday, which I expect will take up some of my time next week. One downside of the all-at-once releases that Netflix does is that while I prefer not to binge things on the first watch, a friend of mine who likes these Marvel shows will bomb through them on the first weekend. It means we basically can't discuss the shows as we're watching them. He'll never know which episode I'm on, and by the time I'm finished, he's moved on to something else. The whole "water cooler talk" aspect is out the window.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I hear the season premier of Arrow might be worth checking out. I don't know if I watched a single episode last season. Hopefully that won't matter too much. Of course, Daredevil is on Friday, which I expect will take up some of my time next week. One downside of the all-at-once releases that Netflix does is that while I prefer not to binge things on the first watch, a friend of mine who likes these Marvel shows will bomb through them on the first weekend. It means we basically can't discuss the shows as we're watching them. He'll never know which episode I'm on, and by the time I'm finished, he's moved on to something else. The whole "water cooler talk" aspect is out the window.

Arrow I have just never been able to get into. I am just over the whole League of Shadows angst ridden assassin thing. I can sort of blot out Sarah's trips down that over beaten path on Legends, but that's my limit.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Arrow I have just never been able to get into. I am just over the whole League of Shadows angst ridden assassin thing. I can sort of blot out Sarah's trips down that over beaten path on Legends, but that's my limit.

I didn't have the same problem with it that you did, but yeah, I only watched it regularly for the first couple of seasons. It's hard to believe they're in season 7 already. Anyway, the premier was alright. There was a handful of characters I didn't know, but that didn't seem to matter too much. Star City P.D. has gone full zero-tolerance on vigilantes, for some reason. That must have happened last season. Oliver is in prison, and the rest of the crew are keeping their heads down at their day jobs. Felicity is in hiding as a punk-rock barista somewhere in blue-collar America, taking care of Oliver's son. Thea has left town. Vinnie Jones and Michael Jai White play the prison thugs that Oliver has to tussle with, and a mysterious stranger is impersonating Green Arrow. It wasn't a bad way to spend an hour, but I can see myself getting distracted and missing 5 episodes and then deciding that I don't have the time to catch up.

 

[Cutlass]

I watched 2 or 3 seasons of Arrow. But the writing was just too bad to keep me with it.

 

[Cutlass]

October 19, 2018 7:22pm PT by Rick Porter

'Luke Cage' Canceled as Netflix Trims Its Marvel Roster Some More

The cancellation follows on the heels of 'Iron Fist' getting the ax.
Netflix has canceled its second show from Marvel in as many weeks: Luke Cage is done after two seasons.

The cancellation comes seven days after the streaming service pulled the plug on Iron Fist, also after two seasons. Both shows were part of the original quintet of Marvel shows Netflix ordered in 2013. The first of the five to premiere, Daredevil, launched its third season on Friday.

"Unfortunately, Marvel's Luke Cage will not return for a third season," Netflix and Marvel said in a joint statement. "Everyone at Marvel Television and Netflix is grateful to the dedicated showrunner, writers, cast and crew who brought Harlem's Hero to life for the past two seasons, and to all the fans who have supported the series."

A source tells The Hollywood Reporter the cancellation was due to creative differences and the inability to agree to terms for a third season of the show. Netflix doesn't release viewership figures for its content.

Cheo Hodari Coker created Luke Cage and served as its showrunner. Mike Colter played the title character.

With the cancellations of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, Netflix now has three Marvel shows on its roster: Daredevil, Jessica Jones — which was renewed for a third season in April — and The Punisher, which wasn't part of the original order but grew out of Jon Bernthal's guest appearances as Frank Castle in season two of Daredevil. Its second season is due in 2019.

The fifth Marvel series Netflix originally ordered was The Defenders, a team-up involving the lead characters from every show save The Punisher. It had a one-off, eight-episode run that debuted in August 2017.

Marvel's parent company, Disney, is preparing to launch its own direct-to-consumer streaming service and is planning to remove all Marvel feature films from Netflix to run on the in-house platform when it launches. Among the Marvel movies currently on Netflix are Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok and Doctor Strange.

Daredevil, Jessica Jones and The Punisher, however, are set to remain on Netflix for the time being under terms of the original deal.

Deadline was the first to report the cancellation.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/l...=referral&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral


So these things aren't working out for them as well as they'd hoped. Too bad.

 

[EgonSpengler]

October 19, 2018 7:22pm PT by Rick Porter

'Luke Cage' Canceled as Netflix Trims Its Marvel Roster Some More





https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/l...=referral&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral


So these things aren't working out for them as well as they'd hoped. Too bad.

Netflix are staying tight-lipped of course, but an optimistic view of the situation is that while the series have been canceled, the characters remain in Netflix's clutches, and they're planning to do Heroes for Hire (fka Power Man & Iron Fist), and/or Daughters of the Dragon. There's no way to know the details of the licensing agreement. Fox, for example, owns the right to the Fantastic Four and X-Men characters, and can make as many different films or shows as they please.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Bits n' bobs from around the Nerd-o-sphere:

• The next Wonder Woman movie has been pushed back 7 months. I'm okay with that. If you need time to make the movie better, I say take all the time you need.
  
• The Six Billion Dollar Man has been removed from Warner Bros. release schedule. I don't think I'm going to shed a tear over this one. I haven't heard anyone clamoring for it. I mentioned it to a friend who's also into superhero stuff, and he didn't even know it was in production. I'm not sure if he was a fan of the original show. Somebody did a remake of The Bionic Woman a few years ago that was kind of a dud. It did have one good bit: The experienced professional spy says "Do I really have to bring her [on the mission]? She'll just slow me down." The newly-bionic woman says, "I am so much faster than you." The pro says, "Only at running." Hey, it made me laugh. Maybe it was in the delivery.
  
• A set photo for the annual CW-Berlantiverse crossover miniseries - titled "Elseworlds" - reveals...
  Spoiler :

  John Wesley Shipp wearing his old Flash outfit from the 1990-91 series.
• Bane is going to appear in Gotham. Does anyone even watch that show anymore? I haven't watched it in a few years. A friend of mine was watching it last year, I think, but I don't know if he still is.
  
• Deborah Ann Woll is knocking me out in season 3 of Daredevil. I don't know what's changed, me or her or the script, but she's killing it.
  
• Supergirl continues to be as subtle as a fire truck in a hurry, and despite feeling kind of concussed by the end of every episode, I'm still enjoying it. This show must send political conservatives into a spittle-flying rage (which might be partly why I'm enjoying it, I have to admit ).