Review: Hollow City, by Kai Wai Cheah

Hollow City (Song of Karma, book 1), by Kai Wai Cheah is the latest in Silver Empire's superhero universe line. While it's been discussed in terms of this version of the Punisher....

This may end up as a Punisher origin story, but our hero is way, WAY too sane to be Frank Castle. The vibe as you read the novel is more Michael Connelly doing a noir superhero novel, with gun porn that outdoes Larry Correia. (No, I'm not exaggerating, and you did not misread that. Gun porn that would make Larry Correia blush).

Six kills in six years.
Super powered cop Adam Song has dedicated his life to the law. In the military and the police force, Adam ruthlessly protects the innocent.

But this time he’s killed the wrong bad guy. Now the local drug lord’s son is dead, and the boss is out for Adam’s blood. Even his secret identity won’t keep him safe. The police department hangs him out to dry, his years of exemplary service forgotten. Adam must take justice into his own hands to keep his family safe.

Because Adam is a Song. And Songs take care of their own. No matter the cost.

When does justice become murder? And just how far will he go to protect his clan?

Dragon and Hugo Award nominated author Kai Wai Cheah steps onto the superhero scene with his debut Heroes Unleashed novel. His characteristic fast-paced action and attention to detail brings Adam Song and the Chinatown of Hollow City vividly to life.

What makes a straight-laced hero cop go rogue? Buy the book or read it in Kindle Unlimited today to find out!

Imagine if Baen did a superhero novel and it was one part Connelly, one part Correia. You've got smart police tactics by a superpowered former soldier as part of a SWAT team, but you also have the problems of the politics of "Primes" (they're not supeheroes or mutants, they're Primes).  It becomes an interesting mix of politics, powers and police. When I reference Michael Connelly, most people should think of his hero, Harry Bosch (yes, now an Amazon Prime show). And the police department in Halo City is very much like the corrupt, politics-ridden (but I repeat myself) legal system of Bosch's LA. It helps with the noir feel of the novel, as it constantly refers to Halo City as the Hollow City, dark, soulless and corrupt....


You know, Chicago.

(Okay, if you're looking for a direct parallel, it's probably if San Francisco were run by Chicago politicians, down to the demographics, and "Grand Park" instead of SF's Grant Park.)

Once again, as with the first book in the series, (Morgon Newquist's "Heroes United") it's a superhero world that feels very real. Screwups are not tolerated, leaving a realistic feel to the narration -- such as referring to an egomaniac "hero" who was going to livestream an arrest... so the criminal set a trap and put three rounds in the sucker's face.  Stupidity is its own death penalty. The politics are realistic enough to make me want to strangle the politicians -- even down to having a Black Lives Matter group that's against Primes. And I love the line "Politics is never personal until it happens to you," I may need to steal it.

And the tactics are solid. The guns are detailed and make sense given the use of force required. The fact that Adam has three guns, as well as a taser, is one of the better carry policies I've seen of a hero in a novel for some time.

The world building is solid. The tactics are great. The character is also well developed. Publicly, Adam Song seems to have the powers of Marvel's Bullseye -- he always hits what he aims for, with preternatural reaction time. That's what everyone else thinks, too. But it goes beyond that, and he has a very simple, straightforward approach to handling everything -- it's handled by the book. I love the byplay between what the public thinks he can do, what he says he can do, and what he actually can do. It's the usually conflict of the civilian mindset versus the mindset of people who actually get shot at with some regularity. I had to look up his Amazon bio to make certain that Kai Wai Cheah hadn't served in law enforcement or the military.

And then there's our hero's family... I await someone to bitch about Kai Wai Cheah using "Asian stereotypes" as he writes his novel in his native Singapore. Heh.

There are a bunch of cute bits as well. They're not SWAT teams, but STAR teams (Resident Evil, anyone?). The investigator is Herbert Franks (cute Cheah. Very cute). Cheah also has bullet storm haiku... no, I'm NOT kidding.

Short version: If Harry Bosch were an Asian superhero, and Michael Connelly had a sense of humor, this is the book you'd end up with -- a Superhero Baen novel. If you enjoy anything put out by Baen, or Harry Bosch, or Astro City, or Jon Bernthal's portrayal of the Punisher in Daredevil, you're probably going to enjoy this one.

My only problem? There is a bit of a cliffhanger. But then again, it did say book 1. For some reason, it does NOT piss me off anywhere near as much as others have.

I wholeheartedly recommend this one. 5/5. I'm seriously considering this for a Dragon Award if I knew where I'd put it.

Review: The Defenders

So, I saw Marvel's NetFlix series for The Defenders a few weeks ago.

What did I think?

Here's a hint: It took me this long to review it. What do you think?

The short version is: it was okay.

The premise is simple: The Hand, magical Yakuza Ninjas, have come to destroy New York.

How? I'm not entirely certain. There's something about a dragon underneath the city, and if you take too much away from the dragon, the city falls down? I think. It was either never spelled out fully, or it was partially explained in Iron Fist (which I'm so glad I didn't see), or I fast forwarded through it by accident -- and I made it a point to watch everything the good guys were in in full, so if it wasn't explained to them, it wasn't explained to me.

Slowly, each of the quartet of heroes is dragged into this little fiasco. Danny Rand / Iron Fist is given a warning that the Hand are going to destroy New York. He chases a hired street kid working for the Hand ... a kid who Luke Cage is trying to keep off the streets. They fight. Hilarity ensues. Meanwhile, Jessica Jones is hired to find an architect, and when that goes bad, she's represented by a blind attorney from Hell's Kitchen. They end up colliding together in an office building owned by the Hand. Then the fun starts...

The fun takes a while to get there. About episode 3. There are the occasional moments before that, but ... eh.

On the positive side, when these people are together, they're actually not too bad. Most of them balance out each other's more annoying qualities. Luke Cage is the rock upon which everything else could stand if they wanted. Iron Fist's whining and stupidity is balanced out by everyone smacking him upside the head. Daredevil is still probably the best part of the show. Jessica Jones' misanthropy is balanced out by her having to share the screen with everyone more interesting than she is.

And of course, "Jessica Jones, stop talking" is so perfect a line I want it as my ring tone.

Though one of the crowning achievements of this show are bringing the side kicks together. Sorry, but I really enjoyed watching the Night Nurse with Colleen Wing, or Hellcat... sorry, Trish ...meeting with Murdock's law firm. It was fun. And strange.

And then there's the downside: the bad guys. Sorry, Marvel, unless the villain is Kingpin or Kilgrave, or they just go full comic book villain, we don't care. We really don't. Sigorney Weaver was wasted as Nameless Psycho #4 (no, really, I can't recall what the bleep her name is). She was amazingly boring, she's obviously too old for this crap, and her next step on the creepy train is to go full Susan Sarandon.

Then there's Elektra... sigh. Yes, for those who remember the end of Daredevil season 2, Elektra died. It's a bad habit she's kept from the comic books. Another bad habit is that she keeps coming back. The only difference is that she's been brought back ... wrong. I don't know if she's supposed to have been programmed as a mindless super weapon, or if she's just even more broken than she was from her first appearance. Here, she's as crazy as a bag of cats.

Another major downside: some of the idiocy that just falls trippingly off the tongue. If I hear "White Privilege" one more time, I will hit someone with a 2x4. Thankfully, that was only one particularly stupid conversation and was never repeated ... or I fast forwarded right past it, and never heard a thing about it.

There was also the obligatory superhero beat down. There were two of them. No one one's surprise, it was beating up on Iron Fist. Because this Danny Rand needs to be beaten routinely.

And, honestly, the intelligence of the characters was 100% dictated by the needs of the plot. Thankfully, Iron Fist is stupid enough to be more than stupid enough for everybody. The best idea he's had all throughout the series was that they would make a good team.

The team is fine, when they're actually on the move and DOING SOMETHING.  Seriously, this was a major issues with Supergirl, why is this the end of a Marvel series? They usually do things fairly well. Nope. Not any more.

Sigh.

At the end of the day, yes, I do recommend this ... on fast forward. There is exactly one moment where watching the bad guys comes in handy, and it's Elektra's best moment. But aside from that, you don't need to watch them, and they are in dire need of editing.

Election Day: Who Would Marvel and DC Vote For?

After Green Arrow / Green Lantern, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), and Batman (Bruce Wayne), Captain America, Iron Man (Tony Stark), Daredevil, Deadpool, Catwoman, Superman, Fantastic Four, and Luke Cage ....it's already been a busy day.

But for those of you just showing up, we're doing an expanded version of the 2012 post where I broke down comic book characters by politics. Because the 2016 election has been a joke since the nomination process.

This was an all day thing. One post per character ... mostly. The shorter ones will be grouped together. After all, there's no much I can do with Deadpool.

The ones done for this year include...

Captain America

Green Arrow / Green Lantern.

Spider-Man (Peter Parker)

Batman (Bruce Wayne)

Iron Man (Tony Stark)

Daredevil -- with Wilson Fisk (of course)

Deadpool -- Includes Norman Osborn and Two Face as bonus rounds

Catwoman -- with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn

Superman -- and the Hulk, and even Nick Fury

Fantastic Four -- the Penquin, Mr. Freeze, and some nonstarters

Luke Cage -- this one will surprise you

Deathstroke -- this one may not surprise you as much.

Nonstarters

These are nonstarters in general, and I couldn't really scrounge up enough of these folks for their own entry.  They are both heroes and villains. And, while I would have loved to title this post "WWJVF: Who would Joker vote for," well, he's not really that complicated.

People who I have considered and rejected doing this time out include.

The Punisher: 
He's too easy. Frank Castle doesn't care. He wants his guns, and no one will take them away. Not the mob. Not politicians. No one. Ever. He's like a Honey Badger, he just doesn't give a darn. Trump? Hillary? He would probably take one look at everyone and tell them to simply leave him alone. Or they would be dead. Period.

Doctor Strange: It is too tempting to pull him in, since his film just came out, but really, would it help that much? I'm sure he would hate Obamacare, and what's been done to the healthcare industry in general, but as Sorcerer Supreme, I'm not even sure he's registered to vote anymore. And in what dimension? Hell, have you seen how he dresses? Imagine that walking into a voting booth. Then again, he does live in Greenwich Village, so would anyone notice?

Wolverine: Canadian. And unlike Deadpool (who I'm told is also from up North), he would let that stop him.

Jessica Jones: She's too drunk to vote. Otherwise, she'd vote Hillary, or Johnson, if she was feeling more nihilistic than usual.

Joker -- As noted, he'd probably kill everyone in the polling place, and vote Johnson.

Lex Luthor -- Would vote for himself. He was President once, after all.

Wonder Woman -- won't vote, since both candidates have no military service.

Thor -- Not a citizen, and therefore, can't vote.

Loki -- As a demigod of chaos, you can almost lay money that he would vote Bernie

And, while we're all here....try Murphy's Law of Vampires, sequel to the second place Sad Puppies 4 nominee for best novel, and Dragon Award nominated novel Honor at Stake came out yesterday. 

Enjoy.

Election Day: Who Would Daredevil Vote For?

Between Captain America, Green Arrow / Green Lantern, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), and Batman (Bruce Wayne), and Iron Man it's already been a busy day.

But for those of you just showing up, we're doing an expanded version of the 2012 post where I broke down comic book characters by politics. Because the 2016 election has been a joke since the nomination process.

This will be an all day thing. One post per character ... mostly. The shorter ones will be grouped together. After all, there's no much I can do with Deadpool.

Daredevil, aka Matthew Murdock

A New York trial lawyer, Daredevil is a natural Hillary voter. The ABA backs democrats automatically.

Mathew Murdock is also all about community. I could see him as a supporter of Occupy Wall Street ... assuming that his super sense of smell didn't cripple him every time he found a client who never showered.

Murdock would probably not like Trump, just on attitude alone. He deals with too many loud annoying types as a lawyer.

And he's a bit of a man-whore in the Marvel Universe. He'd be interested in contraceptives, if only to keep potential child support payments to a minimum. He and Bill Clinton would be interesting in the same room.

On the other hand, Matt Murdock has always been Catholic.  He's very Catholic ... his mother left his father and became a nun. The democrats trying to make the Little Sisters of the Poor pay for abortions and contraceptives would seriously piss him off.

Also, Matt Murdock has probably spent far too much time around really stupid political leftists in New York and San Francisco. Half his clients seem to be small businessmen, and he's also a small businessman. He wants lower taxes, if only so his clients can actually have money to pay him.

VOTE GOES TO: Trump

BONUS ROUND

Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin (Marvel)

By day, he is a businessman.  He is more local in his business interests and his crime. And, in his personal life, he left the crime world and moved to Japan, mostly for his family.  He actually stayed out of the crime business for his wife. Only when his family was threatened, and his wife lost to him, that he reentered the world of crime. Add to that he spent a lot of time in Japan learning philosophy, martial arts, etc.

While you can say many things about the Japanese, their traditional culture is very, very conservative.  And, between that and his [relatively] small business interests, Fisk probably comes out as both an economic, if not a social conservative.

VOTE GOES TO: Trump. Assuming he doesn't have something on Hillary. He'll probably has blackmail on somebody. Whoever he can manipulate more.

See the previous post: Captain America
Green Arrow / Green Lantern.
Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
Batman (Bruce Wayne)
Iron Man (Tony Stark)

Or, while we're all here.... Murphy's Law of Vampires, sequel to the second place Sad Puppies 4 nominee for best novel, and Dragon Award nominated novel Honor at Stake came out yesterday. 

Enjoy.

Iron Fist (Trailer) Has Arrived

Yes, the new trailer for the latest Marvel NetFlix show has arrived, and it's for Marvel's Iron Fist.

If you don't recall him from my Hollywood is Racist article, Iron Fist is the superhero identity of Danny Rand.  Danny is one part Batman, one part Daredevil, and all badass.

Now, like Bruce Wayne, he is a billionaire orphaned at an early age. His parents had been friendly with a secret Shangri La realm. During a family trip there, Rand's parents were killed, leaving young Danny to live among mystical monks and magical martial artists. He is trained in mystical martial arts, and eventually returns home to the US...

Only now, Danny Rand wields the power of The Iron Fist, the ability to focus his chi so that he can make any part of his body as solid as iron.

And of course, Rand even having this ability paints a target on his back for the mystical magical tour of killer ninjas, et al.

Thus, expect the Hand to make an appearance.

In the comics, Danny Rand would team up with Luke Cage as "Heroes for Hire," a super powered PMC before there were PMCs. It was a merging of Hong Kong action films and Blaxploitation movies; usually paired as double features.

So if you thought the stunt work and fight choreography of Daredevil was impressive, I suspect that this will blow that away.

If you pay close attention to the trailer, you can see Daredevil's Madam Gao. Perhaps we'll get some back story on her, too.

As mentioned, I expect the Hand to arrive ... if only because I can't really tell you any other of Iron Fist's rogues gallery Just saying "Martial artist bad guys in the Marvel universe," leads me to think either Silver Samurai, or The Hand.

Of course, this leads us to The Defenders, which is supposed to take place after Iron Fist in the Marvel NetFlix arc. That should be interesting.

And, if you're really interested in Martial Arts, while you're waiting for Iron Fist, you might want to check out my Sad Puppy and Dragon Award Nominated Novel Honor at Stake by clicking this link.

And ... enjoy.

#DragonCon Report, 2016, Defender of Hell's Kitchen (Charlie Cox)

And, if you like Martial Arts, you might want to check out my Sad Puppy and Dragon Award Nominated Novel Honor at Stake by clicking this link.

And ... enjoy.

Daredevil Season 2 Review

So, at long last, we have Daredevil, season 2, reviewed on the blog. That only took ... five months.

This was a strange season, overall, and not because of the content so much as how it was handled. While season 1 had a great, brilliant buildup of the antagonist and the protagonist, ramping up to an inevitable collision of two men who really were mirror images of each other, season 2 was a little all over the place.

Hi, my name is Frank.
I'll be the sniper for this evening.

To start with, we have the introduction of Frank Castle, the Punisher. He's running around Hell's Kitchen, massacring the three gangs involved in a massive shootout that butchered his wife, his daughter, and his son, and left him for dead in a hospital. Daredevil, on the other hand, believes in law, order, and the possibility for redemption, and generally objects to this approach. In fact, you could say that the primary motivation for Daredevil going after the Punisher is purely philosophical, because it's bad enough that the NON-lethal vigilante is running around, doing the cop's job for them, but having a professional killer wiping them out en mass starts to sound like a recipe for mob rule, complete with torches and pitchforks. When the Punisher is caught, Frank Castle is represented by .... Murdock and Nelson.

On the other hand, there's the plotline with Elektra -- Matt Murdock's crazy ex-girlfriend, who's first going up against a corrupt corporation and ... spoilers ... sort of ... is going up against The Hand, magical Yakuza ninjas. (Yes, comic books, where "Magical Yakuza Ninjas" are a thing).

And by "crazy ex girlfriend," at the time, I even thought the line: "Oh Matt, don't stick it in the Crazy ... oh no. Too late." Yes, she's hot, but there are moments that she is crazier than a bag of cats. She doesn't mind killing, and dang, does she seem to enjoy her job.

This three-way plot sort of devolves after a while. The Elektra thread seems to have little to no connection to the Punisher thread, only insofar as the two plots interfere with each other and cause problems for our hero, pulling him in two different directions at once. Dealing with the Hand and Elektra drags Murdock away from the Punisher case, and dealing with the personal and professional fallout of defending the Punisher puts stress on Daredevil as he fights the hand. By the end of the season, the finale feels a little rushed. In fact, it's starting to feel like they knew they were going to have to have multiple stories spin out from this season.  But I'm rushing ahead.

Subtle

First of all, let me address some of the acting. Elodie Yung is marvelous as Elektra. She's insane, she's enjoying every minute of it, and I think her performance works, overall.

Scott Glenn returns as Stick, Murdock's schmuck of a mentor, who actually does care, he just has really lousy ways of expressing it, and his duties are such that he looks schizophrenic ... until he explains himself, and all of the secrets he's keeping. Seriously, Stick, if you actually explained yourself earlier, there might be fewer problems.

Foggy Nelson, this year, is a much firmer character. He has more confidence, he knows what he's doing, and in some cases, he mans up because he has no other choice. Hell, he manages to use his superpower to get out of some nasty situations. He avoids being killed by bikers, he defuses a gang war in an ER, he stands up to a vicious District Attorney who is more of an antagonist  than some of mad dog killers. He really stood out this season, and the actor gets some serious props from me for pulling it off.

Karen Page surprised me at how much she was a driving force this season. After Frank Castle is arrested, and we go into "The Punisher Case," Page comes to the fore of this story. Having had to shoot someone herself, she clearly sees parallels between her and Castle. And she dives into this case headlong, and she barely stops long enough to be shot at. Fatigue and exhaustion are her primary adversaries, and she doesn't seem to be really shaken too much by bullets anymore. She does most of the legwork and investigation this season. Ben Urich has rubbed off on her. This is what I call character growth.

Hell, half of Daredevil this season seems to be more like The Punisher season 1, costarring Karen Page as a sort-of sidekick. In fact, after the initial arrest, Daredevil and Punisher come face to mask only once, and Castle and Murdock come face to face perhaps twice.

And then, of course, there's Jon Bernthal, playing Frank Castle, the Punisher. I gotta tell you, I don't think the Punisher was ever handled this well. Ever. In fact, I would say that Frank Castle is more sympathetic here than in the comics. They finally got him -- he's a man whose family was butchered right in front of him, he was left for dead, and the only thing he has left is revenge, and killing people who have it coming. He's a killing machine, that's all that he is ... and he's not terribly happy about it. But he has to do it. He must. And I don't think I've ever seen a trigger pull break your heart quite like this before ... One Batch, Two batch.....

Not to mention that Castle has some of the better moments in this season. There is a particularly heartrending moment in a diner, sitting across from Karen Page, as she complains about how Murdock is driving her insane, and hurting her every time he does something else stupid.

Castle's response is perfect.

People that can hurt you, the ones that can really hurt you, are the ones that are close enough to do it. People that get inside you and tear you apart, and make you feel like you're never gonna recover. Shit. I'd chop my arm off right here, in this restaurant, just to feel that one more time for my wife. My old lady, she didn't just break my heart. She'd rip it out, she'd tear it apart, she'd step on that shit, feed it to a dog. She was ruthless. She brought the pain. But she'll never hurt me again. You see, I'll never feel that. You sit here and you're all confused about this thing, but you have it. You have everything. So hold on to it. Use two hands and never let go. You got it? 

Which, of course, leads to something else. This season, they decide to follow up on Karen Page and Matt Murdock being an item, as they were in the comics. Which is BS. I'm sorry, but please go back through season 1, and watch Karen and Foggy as they're bar hopping in season 1. They had all sorts of strange chemistry, but dang it, it WORKED. This? Eh. Not so much.

And now, looking at Matt Murdock himself. Charlie Cox, is, as always, perfect for the role. Though the problem of these season is actually the problem with the character--and Daredevil has always had personal problems. In this case, Murdock is trying way, way too hard to be Superman.

Yes, Daredevil has always had the reputation of being one of the most stubborn men in the Marvel universe, but season 2 is where he really starts pushing his own limit. And the bigger problem also feeds into it. He doesn't talk to people, and he tries doing everything, failing spectacularly. Remember the priest that Matt spent every other episode with in season 1? He makes one appearance in the entire season. And while Matt spends his entire time talking to Elektra or Stick (or early on, with Castle), you watch him fall apart. Let's face it, these are not the people you want to spend all of your time with if you're going to stay sane ... or sane-ish.

This is particularly highlighted by an episode where Matt has to bring in multiple wounded victims to a hospital, at the same time Foggy is also wounded in a shooting. This leads to bringing back Claire Temple, the Night Nurse, played by Rosario Dawson, who insists on smacking Matt upside the head with common sense, while he's busy trying to play martyr ... which is a common comic book trope. If you don't believe me, just look at the history of Spider Man. It's part of the character's problem, and it really should boil down to "Dude, take a break for five minutes. Try getting Tony Stark on speed dial."  Murdock is in a mindset where he's thinking "I'm going to be Daredevil from now on!" Yeah, I know. But Tony Stark also had ideas like this at one time. Stark was drunk out of his mind at the time, but Murdock has never been the most stable Marvel hero.

And of course, in the latter third of the series, everything picks up again. Not because of the hand, but because of the one man that everyone has been waiting for the entire series.

Yup, the return of Wilson Fisk, played by the always entertaining Vincent D'Onofrio. He's back, and he's here to interfere with the plot. And, seriously, this man has more impact on the series just by showing up than almost anyone else who ran around, dumping exposition.

What's Fisk doing here? In part, he's here to show us exactly what he's been up to since he went to jail. What is he actually doing in the plot?

Well, let's just say that he ends up meeting Frank Castle. The result is that Castle ends up looking like this.

And when Murdock finally -- and I mean finally -- does some work in the Frank Castle plot, and puts together that Fisk has been up to shenanigans.

This of course, leads to an interesting confrontation that we never really got in season 1.

You can imagine how well this goes, especially since season 1 gave the credit for bringing down Fisk to the Murdock and Nelson law firm. So Fisk knows that the guy across from him has put him in there. And Fisk, as usual, has anger control issues.

Then Murdock threatens Fisk.

Hilarity ensues.

One highlight that I have to point out is episode 3.  Like in season 1 and their episode 2 ("Cut Man") in season 2, episode 3, "New York's Finest," they felt the need to have Daredevil talking throughout most of this, ending with an awesome fight sequence. you might remember "Cut Scene" ending with a simple tracking shot of a fight going back and forth down the hallway. In this case, they did the same thing with Daredevil walking down a flight of stairs.

In terms of pointing out individual episodes, by the time we get to the finale, it's getting a little strange. How strange? Well, there's Elektra and Daredevil versus what looks like a hundred ninjas. When our "heroes" come up to face the ninjas ... there are maybe only two or three dozen. Yes, that's still a lot, but where did the rest of them go?

If you're wondering, "Shouldn't the Punisher be in this, somewhere?" You'd be right. I was expecting more of a Castle ex machina, but perhaps he was busy slaughtering the other five dozen ninjas somewhere offscreen.

Honestly? I think they should have had another episode, or add at least ten minutes to this one.

At the end of the season, there was an interesting monologue by Karen Page about heroes

"What is it, to be a hero? Look in the mirror and you'll know. Look into your own eyes and tell me you are not heroic, that you have not endured, or suffered... or lost the things you care about most. And yet, here you are... a survivor of Hell's Kitchen... the hottest place anyone's ever known. A place where cowards don't last long. So... you must be a hero. We all are. Some more than others, but none of us alone. Some bloody their fists trying to keep the Kitchen safe. Others bloody the streets in the hope they can stop the tide, the crime, the cruelty... the disregard for human life all around them. But this is Hell's Kitchen. Angel or devil, rich or poor, young or old, you live here. You didn't choose this town. It chose you. Because a hero isn't someone who lives above us, keeping us safe. A hero is not a god or an idea. A hero lives here... on the street, among us, with us. Always here but rarely recognized. Look in the mirror and see yourself for what you truly are. You're a New Yorker. You're a hero. This is your Hell's Kitchen. Welcome home."

All I can think is "Tell me that wasn't written by a New Yorker who lived through 9-11."

At the end of the day, this is a 4-star season, perhaps a 5-star season. Heck, I'd actually say the Hand plot was 4-star, and the Punisher was 5-star.  Hell, I think I would have liked a shorter season just to focus mostly on Punisher. Daredevil season two is a lot more of a mystery than season one. Imagine Steve Martini meets Larry Correia. You watch as they put together the mystery of who Castle is, then who slaughtered his family, and what's the big deal around this one man.

And then there's the hand. And yes, the Hand plot is needed to set them up as the Big Bad for The Defenders series, and Daredevil was a good place to do it. I just wish that it didn't make the season feel slightly disjointed.

By the end yes, I liked it.

As for what all this means for The Defenders?  Well, by the end of this season, Foggy might well end up at the law firm where Jessica Jones hangs out, so imagine the fun bits of that happening. And now that Punisher is getting a series, I expect him to be in Defenders.

Though, honestly, I'm trying to see any of the Defenders working with Jessica Jones. At all. eriously, imagine locking her and Punisher in the same room. Or with Matt Murdock. Hell, imagine her in the same room with Karen Page. I think I'd rather see her interact with Jones' friend the radio show host (Hellcat). Who am I kidding, I want a Hellcat series, not Jessica Jones season 2 -- one of them has charisma, and she's not the brunette.

As for season three, I suspect there will be at least one or two people figuring out who Daredevil is, so that'll go well.

Anyway, at the end of the day, I enjoyed season two. Have fun.

Speaking of fun ... insert a shameless plug for Honor at Stake. :D

Marvel after Civil War

After Age of Ultron, I did a post on the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Where would it go, what would we see? What would the movies consist of?

If Civil War is anything to go by, every film from now on has the potential to be an Avengers movie, so I should probably do another one.

It goes without saying that everything from here on out is going to have spoilers for the franchise to date. If you've seen Civil War, the only spoilers will be speculation that I might get right. Also, perhaps some comic book spoilers.

If you don't want spoilers, STOP NOW.

Now then, where were we....?

After Civil War, I am curious about how much the future films will be Avengers tie-ins.  Especially the Black Panther movie. But we'll get to that.

The Line up

As we've seen in the previous films, the Infinity Gems have been the major MacGuffin devices in the series. The Tesseract / Cosmic Cube was the main plot device in Captain America and The Avengers. The "mind gem" was in Loki's staff in The Avengers, and was responsible for Ultron. The "Aether" of Thor: The Dark World turns into a third. And Guardians of the Galaxy was driven by a fourth (held on the planet of the Nova corps).

For the record, there are two others out there. And there's a reason Why Avengers 3 is Infinity War, part one and two.

Phase 3 will be all about the build up to Avengers: Infinity War.  Why? Because it has to. To this point, the villain, Thanos, has been a background character in only three films: Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Age of Ultron, and that's about it.

Thanos is supposed to be the villain behind everything since Avengers ... okay, not everything, he's not Moriarty, but still, he provided Loki an army, unleashed a crazed Kree on the universe, and .... he showed up for a second after the credits of Age of Ultron. That's it. On screen, we know nothing about his character, his goals, or why he wants the gems.

From now on, Thanos has to appear in several of the upcoming films. Must. Why? Because by the time Inifinity War comes up, we will have been building towards him for a decade. (Iron Man came out in 2008).

The lineup thus far (and it's been changed in last year) is

• Doctor Strange (2016)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
• Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
• Black Panther (2018)
• Avengers: Infinity War Part I (2018)
• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
• Captain Marvel (2019)
• Avengers: Infinity War Part II (2019)
• Inhumans (TBA)

If you're wondering what happened to the Inhumans movie, Agents of SHIELD happened, that's what.

And yes, Spider-Man, even though he's shared by Sony, will be part of the MCU from here on in.

We'll also know that there are two Infinity gems left in play.

Dissassembled

They're all still running.

Civil War split the Avengers team right down the middle. In fact, odds are that Captain America won't be seen again in any film until 2018, because he and his people will be on the run. Bucky's on ice. Hawkeye will probably go back to retirement. Ant-Man is a fugitive on a good day anyway. In short, none of these people will be able to pop their heads up without getting it shot off.

Now imagine what happens when Avengers comes up again. That's a lot for them to overcome, considering the events of Civil War. Because trust me, what I know of Thanos, and the Infinity Gems, they're going to need all hands on deck. And then they'll need even more.

Which leads us to ....

Doctor Strange

With the infinity gems, supposition is that one of them is the "Eye of Agamotto," a talisman that Doctor Strange uses. He'll have #5 of 6.

Gotta catch them all.

Other data is TBD. I suspect there will be little tie-in to the rest of the series, outside of having an infinity gem.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

We're now at the point where Thanos must be explored as a character. Why? Because this is the Marvel Cosmic Universe, where Thanos mainly exists. And if Thanos isn't brought in at this point, well, he's barely been in this franchise.  Despite his appearances, even in Ultron, all he's done has been to back Loki in Avengers and the Kree in Guardians. He's had a handful of lines in the three films we've seen him in. If he's had a full page of dialogue, I'd be surprised. At best, he's a consulting supervillain.

GotG 2 would give him his moment to shine, and show off just how much of a badass he is.... Oh, hell, one of the last lines in the GotG movie was about Thanos. We should at least get a CV on this guy.

Personally, I think at least part of the plot should have Thanos attacking the Nova Corps to get the MacGuffin gem from GotG, if not getting his hands on gem #6.  However, if they're following the original 1991 Infinity Gauntlet storyline, I expect a man named Adam Warlock to appear here. Then they're really going to get strange ... Stranger, anyway.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

... Pass. I have nothing.

Seriously, how is Spider-Man going to have something that impacts the MCU? Beuller? Beuller?

Short version is that this will be a thorough introduction film, without any origin story. Thank God. That's the best part about Civil War -- Spider-Man will have already been invented. I don't have to see yet another Uncle Ben die. And they've done their best to avoid the line "With Great Power comes great responsibility."

We'll have to see what happens.

Ragnarok

Dollars to doughnuts, Thor: Ragnarok will serve the same purpose as Civil War did. It's going to start moving players off of the chess board. It'll at least be something else to overcome for Avengers: Infinity War. Because not only will this have Thor, it will also have Bruce Banner in the cast.

Yes, I know Natalie Portman won't be back for the next film, and honestly, who needs her? When We last saw Thor fly off, he was going to investigate his visions in Age of Ultron, with the potential end of Asgard and the Infinity Gems. Honestly, where would Jane Foster fit in all this?

Where would Bruce Banner fit? Easy. The "Tesseract" (the Cosmic Cube of the comics) emitted gamma radiation (Avengers), so expect the other gems to have something similar.

I suspect that part of Ragnarok will, in some instance, feature Thanos. Let's face it, right now, the Tesseract is being sheltered in Asgard. In fact, last time we saw the Infinity Gauntlet (the user interface for all six Infinity Gems), it was in the vaults of Asgard. Thanos has to get his hands on it somehow.

This means that Ragnarok will either have Thanos attacking Asgard, or will have Thanos in a final, post-credit scene in which he goes through the wreckage of Asgard, coming up with the gauntlet, and probably the Tesseract.

One way or the other, Thanos should end up with the Cosmic Rubix Cube, and we should see Asgard falling apart under the rule of fake-Odin. If GotG 2 just talks about Thanos, this must be the movie that shows off what a threat level he truly is.  If an entire civilization of aliens who are all on the level of Thor are going to get trounced by Thanos, what hope does everyone else in the universe have?

Black Panther

This will be ... interesting, depending on how they want to play it.

Option 1: Civil War 1.5.  Large chunks of Captain America's Avenger team (Secret Avengers, if you will) are hiding out in Wakanda. Since Wakanda is basically an entire country running on Stark-level technology, anyone who wants to get their hands on it will want a piece. This could be Hydra, AIM, or any other sinister organization.

Option 1a: People discover Bucky, on ice, in Wakanda.

Option 2: This has nothing whatsoever to do with Civil War, and will involve T'Challa dealing with people a) stealing Wakandan technology or b) peddling Wakandan tech on the black market. Expect to see Andy Serkis' character from Age of Ultron make an appearance. Probably with a cybernetic hand. After all, Serkis' character was a Mister Klaue (pronounced "Claw"). Insert your own joke here.

(Side note: In Age of Ultron, when Serkis has to deal with a CGI motion-capture character, you have to wonder if he thought So this is what it feels like to be the real character when the other is a green screen effect. He and James Spader must have an some interesting conversations. All I'm saying.)

My money is on some variation on #2. If Serkis isn't in the film at all, I'll be a little disappointed.

Unless...

Option #3 (a joke post): Black Panther moves to Hell's Kitchen to take over for Charlie Cox's Daredevil.

..... BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA.  It'll never happen.

(PS: If it does happen, I was only making a joke based off of Black Panther doing the same thing in the comics)

Possibly this might have Infinity Gem #6. Because let's face it, Wakanda has to run on something  as a power source.

Avengers: Infinity War, Part I

If my previous guesses are correct, by the time this film opens, Thanos will have 2 out of the 6 gems.

This should either bring Thanos to Earth, or he should be on his way by then. We know that Earth has the Mind Gem with Vision. If we're right about Doctor Strange, he's also got a gem.  If Thanos wants to collect the whole set, he has to go through the wielder of at least one, if not two gems.

As I said last time, the bulk of this movie will be picking up the pieces of Civil War, bringing everyone back on board, bringing Stephen Strange into the Avengers (whatever may or may not be left of them). Expect the last scene of the movie to have a money shot of every last superhero mentioned above gathered in one space with the obligatory "Let's get to work" or even, maybe,just maybe, "Avengers, ASSEMBLE!" Yes, that would be one crowded room.

If I took Marvel seriously when they insisted that Coulson would be back for Avengers 3, right after "Avengers Assemble," Coulson should appear out of nowhere and answer "Whatever you say Captain."

But I don't have have that much confidence in them.

In short: this one should open with Thor crashing into Earth after Ragnarok (assuming he hasn't been blasted into another plane of existence by then), and playing Paul Revere: Thanos is coming, Thanos is coming!

It's time to mount up.

At the end of the day, part one will be about getting the band back together.  The Russo brothers (in charge of the franchise right now) have already said that more characters will be coming in with this one. That would make a certain level of sense.

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Will this feature Ant-Man on the run? No idea. Seriously, no idea. Though Scott Lang has been a fugitive so long, being wanted by the government might not be a deterrent.

But the fact that this sequel takes place in between films makes me think that, no, Thanos will not be on Earth by the end of Infinity War Part I. Otherwise, nothing else would be going on.

Scott Lang will probably be off doing something else of minimal importance in the middle of all of this.

No, Ant-Man doesn't impress me. Civil War was the first time I really liked him.

Though the end of this one will probably be an Avenger knocking on his door saying "Suit up. We have work to do."

Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers is, essentially, an Inhuman (as seen on Agents of SHIELD) an alien weapons program that tried to turn other races into living weapons of death.  In the AoS franchise, the official Inhumans license is due to the Kree ... in the comic books, the Skrulls created Captain Marvel, but we haven't seen the Skrulls, yet (or we have seen them, as the Chitauri, depending on who you listen to).

This can go a few ways.  The film can start with Carol Danvers being abducted by aliens to be experimented upon, and the powers she's given cause her to break loose and wreak havoc upon her captors as she fights her way back to Earth, thereby causing another uniting factor between Marvel Earth and Marvel Cosmic.

.... or she can be a bit player freed by the Guardians of the Galaxy in their sequel. Which may work. Maybe. 

Otherwise, if the GotG aren't already in Infinity War part 1, I will lay money, right here, right now, that Carol Danvers will be broken out, or given a ride home (in a post-credit scene), by the Guardians. Because this is another way to bring this particular band of misfits to Earth.

Infinity War Part II

Welcome to the End of All Things.  This should be the biggest, baddest, most epic shootout ever.  I'm not sure if it's going to be (1) the Avengers in a beat-the-clock chase to collect all the Infinity Gems before Thanos can get them, or (2) if it's them defending the last gem, or (3) if it's "Thanos has all the gems, and the gauntlet, and we're screwed."

If it's #3, expect casualties. A lot of them. In fact, this might be their excuse to start recasting certain actors (like Robert Downey Jr., who is both awesome, and getting too old for this, and probably reaching 8 Marvel films by this point, if not more).

Originally, I thought that the Infinity War #1 could end with Thanos getting his hands on the final infinity gem. Except here's the problem. I've read the script ... okay, I read the original comic book. Why will this be "bad" if Thanos has all of the gems?  Think about it: Any one of these gems seen thus far can destroy a planet, if not the universe. Now collect all six.  Yeah. It will be bad for our heroes. Unless someone can trick Thanos into being very, very stupid.

In the comic, when Thanos had all six gems, he won. Against everybody. And then he did something truly stupid.

Obviously, the people who have gems will feature heavily in this one.

In Civil War, Vision wanted to master the gem he wears. Expect Vision to master his gem here. Really master it.

Also expect Doctor Strange to feature heavily. He'll be on Thor-level power by then.

Also? Both of those might not be enough.

If they're lucky, this battle will take place in outer space, and not on Earth.

If it takes place on Earth, let's hope it takes place in Nevada, or the Sahara, or some other location that doesn't have a lot of people.

Also, remember all of the street-level fighting that happened in The Avengers? If the Russos really want to play ball with every character ever, then we should have NetFlix meet up with The Avengers. Especially since The Defenders show up the year before -- with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, et al. They should be dealing with the street-level, "Save the civilians" work while the heavy hitters try to stop the threat. However, given how little interaction there has been, I'm not holding my breath.

If done well, this will be epic, with each Infinity War film being 3 hours or so.

If done poorly, expect a train wreck. But after Civil War, my money is on epic.

Inhumans

Who cares? We'll see if it even happens. Agents of SHIELD will have probably killed that franchise possibility, especially since the ratings keep dropping each season.

And let's face it, after the Agents of SHIELD and Infinity War, who will give a damn?

And that's ... all the guesswork I can come up with.

The Return of Everything

One, yes, I'm back. My guest has left for parts unknown (Iowa is greatly unknown to me) and I am now free and clear to right blogs again. The first thing I did was go over to the Catholic Geeks and pump out some articles, because I like to fulfill my obligations.

And, after finishing those news articles, I have to ask ... What is wrong with everyone lately?  Why is everyone and everything dedicated to reboots?

Okay, in some cases, I understand it. If it's a comic book something, fine, yay.  But why are people bothering bringing back crap that no one liked in the first place?

For example, Star Trek.  I understand bringing back Star Trek, because it's a force to be reckoned with, a franchise that's on the rebound.  So I understand having the return of Star Trek to the small screen.  Granted, in this case, it's smaller than usual, because it's "coming back" to computer streaming services, not to network or cable television. And, since the films are doing so well, it only stands to reason that Star Trek would take another stab at TV.

Star Trek has a fan base. It has some really die hard fans. These fans will cut you if you point out how DS9 ripped off Babylon 5. Star Trek is a franchise monster that's on the rebound.

THAT I understand.

But Van Helsing?  Remember that terrible Hugh Jackman film in 2004?  It's coming back, only to the Syfy channel and gender-swapped. And apparently with nothing to do with the original movie. None of the original people behind the film seem to be working on it, none of the cast are released, and it's being brought to us by the channel behind Sharknado.

Who thought this was a good idea? No one liked the original film, it died a horrible death at the box office, and it's so old, no one currently going to college probably even remembers it.  Honestly, it was 2004.  Do you remember that year very well?  It was the year after Lord of the Rings had finished, leaving Harry Potter to continue on inertia. Van Helsing was just a bad film.  And even worse, they've made it Vanessa Helsing -- unless it's Vanessa van Helsing, that means even THE NAME OF THE SHOW IS WRONG.  And if they make her nickname "Van," I'm going to throw rocks at the tv screen. That's such a stupid nickname, no one would swallow it.

Yes, I'm only pissed at the gender-swapping because they've managed to screw up the name in that route.

What is a Jessica Jones?

Oh F**K this is going to be creepy as Hell.

.... Ahem. Anyway. I wanted to get around to doing this one now that we actually have a full trailer, not just bits and pieces scattered all over the universe.  There are possible spoilers ahead -- spoilers for the comics, anyway, not sure about the tv show.

So, in Marvel Comics earlier this century, they had a Marvel "Max" line -- mature content. No nudity, but certainly rated R ... well, R-ish ... especially around language. One of the headline titles was Alias -- no, nothing to do with the TV show of the same name with Jennifer Garner (how's that for 6 degrees of Marvel?).

Anyway, Alias focused around, surprise, Jessica Jones, a former superhero who was now a PI. She's a drunk, she's self-destructive, in a meaningless "purely physical" relationship with another hero, Luke Cage, just so she can feel something, (in quotes because they end up married with a kid by the end, if I recall correctly), and she's a borderline basket case.

In short, she's the poster girl for PTSD. What happened? What could destroy a superhero?

Enter, Zebediah Kilgrave, aka The Purple Man...

No, it's not the dumbest villain name in comic books -- I think that belongs to the Condiment King (yes, really) -- but Kilgrave has two characteristics. 1) Yes, he's purple. 2) He has mind control powers.

And, as you probably noticed in the trailer, Purple Man's favorite trick is telling other people to kill themselves. Originally a Daredevil villain, Kilgrave makes Hannibal Lecter look downright charming and friendly.

And when she was a superhero, Jessica Jones was held captive by Kilgrave for over six months. Because he was having "fun."

And that's how the comic book opened. With the full-blown PTSD aftermath.

So, if you were casting someone who could kill you by talking to you, who would you pick? Every time I asked someone this question, I was told "Vincent D'Onofrio." However, he's playing the Kingpin.

So, who else? Who?

Who indeed?

April is the busiest month [in review]: killer puppies, Daredevil, and more.

Yikes, a lot happened this month.

The Political Cliche's in writing, in which I bitched about the various and sundry mistakes and forced crap shoved into the faces of your standard television watcher.  It was a follow up to the one about Christians.

This was before the attack of the puppies.

The month of Daredevil, from the trailers to the series itself.

Then, of course, we had the Puppies of April. First we let slip the Puppies of War, then we watched the backlash go insane.  Then again, the Puppies are responsible for my FANifesto. Sort of.

Then there was the week of the trailers -- Batman v. Superman, Ant-Man, Star Wars, and the post script for my Daredevil review.

Then I had my analysis of porn ... yeah, that was odd.  Then again, that came after my Rape article, as well as my sword video.

And of course, there was my update -- my book is about to be published.

Then, of course, there was the epic return of Lindsey Stirling to the blog.

8 blogs, 3 weeks, and we're not even counting the six music posts.

I seriously don't know how Larry Correia does the 1000-word articles every single day.  Yikes.

Daredevil Has Arrived

So, miraculously, that didn't suck.

The first of the Marvel NetFlix tv shows has debuted ... oh, the whole season has dropped on Netflix like an atomic bomb ... and I've seen the first three episodes of Daredevil.

What did I think?  I think it's borderline artistic, and in this case, I'm thinking that's a good thing.

If you saw the Affleck version, you know the story, though the NetFlix version is very understated -- Matt Murdock "sees" by using his senses. Instead of the CGI "vision" in the Affleck version, all that Matt Murdock has to go on are sounds, and smells he talks about.

The storytelling is smart. It doesn't hit you over the head with anything, just emphasizes some points a little, and that's about it. The origin story is littered with little, Arrow-like flashbacks used to great effect.

In fact, there's nothing really over-the-top, and even the stunts are relatively low-key in comparison, though there is more straight-forward martial arts (real moves from real, identifiable martial arts, including capoeira, some Krav Maga weapon disarms, and some boxing styles).  While not being over the top, wi-fu (wire-fu), there are serious, serious stuntmen involved in this, some of them from the Taken franchise. And they are all having fun.

It's also nice to have a show on the streets of my home town that are back-end streets that look like places that I can identify.  That doesn't happen. Ever. But it does today.

Daredevil: the GOOD trailers

Don't get me wrong, I liked the original Daredevil trailer, but these actually make the entire storyline look interesting.

It also shows us Karen Page, who was a long-term character in Daredevil, on-again, off-again girlfriend of Matt Murdock's (one of about five hundred, from what I can tell), before she was murdered by Kevin Smith during his brief run (though if she's back from the dead again, I wouldn't be that surprised).

In other Daredevil news, apparently they'll be going to swap out this black costume in the trailers with the classic red costume (not the early yellow one, thank God).

Daredevil is here

Yes, the opening narration is by the Kingpin, played by Vincent D'Nofrio. This will be interesting.

Matt Bowman has said this looks a lot like a western. Personally, I think this looks a lot like Batman.  You know, the "how much of a difference is there between Batman and the people he fights?" sort of things, where the answer comes very, very close to "Not much."

This will all hit Netflix at once in April. We'll see then just how much fun they decide to have with it.

Then again, the other Netflix series, House of Cards, is dark as night. So, we'll see just how dark the Marvelverse will get.

Then again, Killgrave will be the enemy for the Jessica Jones series, so I'm thinking "pretty dark."

Holy Terror ... Batman? A writing Blog.

Frank Miller is a name you might be familiar with.  He wrote the comic books that would spawn the movies 300, Sin City, several Batman titles, including the annoyingly omnipresent Batman: Year One, and he had a very popular run on Daredevil, and even created the character of Elektra, the assassin with father issues.  Miller was also the director on The Spirit-- and has a small lynch mob after him for that, I'm sure.

So, Miller gets around.

Several years and a few lifetimes ago, Frank Miller said he wanted to write a graphic novel called "Holy Terror, Batman!" a play on a line from the 1960s Batman TV show with Adam West.

Miller has debuted his Holy Terror and ...

It doesn't have Batman.

Miller decided to work with a new hero, it wouldn't be a DC comics project, etc, etc.

On the one hand, I can understand that Frank Miller has had issues lately with DC.  His All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder was, as I understand it, universally panned by reviewers, except for those who seem to want Frank Miller's baby. They weren't pretty, either way.

Miller's version: it was more Dirty Harry than Batman. It just didn't work with Batman.....

Really?