Murphy's Multiverse

Category: Features

  • Murphy’s Team-Up Volume 27: Marvel’s Best Streaming Series of 2022

    Murphy’s Team-Up Volume 27: Marvel’s Best Streaming Series of 2022

    With the conclusion of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law’s nine-episode run came the end of Marvel Studios’ streaming series for 2022. The year kicked off in March with a six-episode journey into the mind of Marc Spector in Moon Knight, starring Oscar Isaac; continued in June with Ms. Marvel, which also ran for six episodes and introduced Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan to MCU; and concluded with Tatiana Maslany’s fourth-wall-breaking Jennifer Walters. Each series certainly had its own, distinct flavor and, as with all things, didn’t satisfy the palates of all fans. Team MM watched and covered them all, so with them now behind us, we thought we’d share which series were to our taste in the return of the Team-Up!

    Joao Pinto

    Moon Knight might not be the MCU series that better managed to stick its landing—especially not when compared to Loki, Ms. Marvel, or She-Hulk—but its build-up was indeed special. The character work developed by Oscar Isaac is likely to still be unparalleled in the MCU, and the psychological components made for an incredibly compelling experience ahead of the lackluster and uninspired finale. The weeks while the show was airing were incredibly stimulating both as an audience member and as someone who got to write about the show, perhaps in a way that I hadn’t yet felt, and likely haven’t since, when it comes to Marvel Studios Disney+ series.

    Being a fan of Jeff Lemire’s Moon Knight run it was wonderful to see so many elements from it being adapted to the small screen, as well as witnessing the unfolding of the future of the Gods in the MCU, with established connections to both Thor: Love and Thunder and the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The somewhat tedious series finale is unlikely to remain as the final Moon Knight chapter in the MCU. So being, the amazing work developed in the first five episodes will still surely be given a proper climax, one that highlights just how impressive the show really was…if you leave out the finale.

    Mary Rowe

    She-Hulk is my favorite MCU series of Phase Four. It introduced a main character that represented a very down-to-Earth person, whose super adventures only added to the baseline personal story. It was hilarious, the final two episodes were absolutely phenomenal and memorable, and Marvel seemed unworried about portraying very real women and not shying away from important topics and concepts that are often ignored because they shine a bad light on (a) reality for women, and (b) the “fandom” and general internet’s misogyny. But even without that, it was the most enjoyable show by far, and I can’t wait to see more of this kind of comedy and creative approach in the MCU going forward.

    Torbjorn Frazier

    My favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe series from Disney+ this year was She-Hulk: Attorney at Law with a bullet. While Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel both had fantastic high points, the latest series from Marvel Studios was most consistent with its high quality. Led by a phenomenal performance from Tatiana Maslany, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law felt like the first MCU project to fully embrace its status as a television series within the greater universe. The stakes weren’t as catastrophic as many of Phase Four’s contemporaries, but they were very much real and resonate in the modern world (it truly was a marvel to watch the show so accurately predict the bad faith negative commentary that would come from toxic corners of the internet). And then of course, the back two episodes of the series provided Marvel’s creative high points of the year thus far. Daredevil had a natural transition from Netflix to the MCU-proper, and then the creative team provided a masterful adaptation of fourth-wall shattering akin to many seminal She-Hulk comic runs.

  • Four Characters That Would Be Fantastic for Adam Driver

    Four Characters That Would Be Fantastic for Adam Driver

    News of Adam Driver taking a meeting with Marvel Studios to discuss an unknown role in Fantastic Four generated some crazy buzz when it broke. While there’s absolutely no guarantee that Driver will show up in the film, which is currently set to hit theaters on February 14th, 2025, there’s no doubt that the actor, who has two Oscar nominations to his credit, is incredibly talented and has shown a great deal of range over the course of his career. With that in mind, we take a look at four characters that would be a fantastic fit for the star and to nobody’s surprise, they are all over the map!

    The Maker

    Marvel Studios Fantastic Four will kick off Phase 6 of their Multiverse Saga, so it’s hard to imagine that some multiversal shenanigans won’t be in play. One fascinating option that could tie into a simplified version of Jonathan Hickman’s 2015 event Secret Wars, which is expected to be a primary source of inspiration for Marvel Studios’ 2026 film Avengers: Secret Wars, would be to use Fantastic Four to introduce the Reed Richards of Earth-1610. In the comics, 1610 is known as the Ultimate Universe and its Richards isn’t the hero he is on Earth-616. 1610’s Richards went a bit off the deep end following Sue Storm’s rejection of his marriage proposal. Truly a character worthy of his own story in the MCU, The Maker would prove to be a fascinating character study, something Driver’s been drawn to in the recent past.

    Silver Surfer

    Certainly a role coveted by many in Hollywood, the Silver Surfer’s pathos seems to fall in line with Driver’s resume. Granted there’s no guarantee that Norin Radd will show up in Fantastic Four but he’s as connected to the property as any. In truth, Radd’s origin story as the Sentinel of the Spaceways is as deserving of its own project as that of any hero in Marvel’s vast stable, something that could interest Driver if he were looking for something more than a supporting role. That origin, which features Mephisto, a character reported to be entering the MCU played by Sacha Baron Cohen, begins a story of torment unlike any other in the history of Marvel Comics and Driver can certainly do “tormented.”

    Molecule Man

    Over the years, Jonathan Hickman has shown a knack for reimagining and reinventing characters. Perhaps no character was as well-served by this as Owen Reece, the Molecule Man. While he always possessed great powers, it wasn’t until Hickman’s work on Avengers and Secret Wars that Reece’s full potential as a reality warper was unlocked making him one of the most powerful and important beings in the Multiverse. Hickman also portrayed Reece as a bit unstable, disturbed and aloof. Reece’s characterization under Hickman’s watch is a combo right in Driver’s sweet spot.

    Psycho-Man

    If you were waiting to find Victor Von Doom on this list, you’re crazy. And speaking of crazy…it’s Psycho-Man. If you’ve seen Driver in Annette, you’ve seen where the inspiration for him as Psycho-Man is rooted. Though he rules over an empire in the Microverse (the comic’s version of the Quantum Realm), he’s a major threat. The idea of a deadpan Driver walking around holding a box that controls the emotions of those around him is pretty appealing, to me at least.

    With no guarantee that Driver will join the MCU at all, much less Fantastic Four, it’s all just fun and games. But with an actor as talented as Driver, it’s hard not to consider what he’d bring to the table.

  • ‘House of the Dragon’-Episode 9 Recap

    ‘House of the Dragon’-Episode 9 Recap

    The penultimate episode of House of the Dragon did its best to match Game of Thrones‘ Episode 9s, let’s check into how they are preparing for the season finale.

    The Green Council

    After the initial discovery of Viserys’s death, the Hightowers quickly corraled anyone who would know about it, in order to keep things quiet while they did their scheming. Alicent told the council about her interpretation of Viserys’s last words, which she believed to mean that he wished that his son Aegon to succeed him as king. Stop naming your kids Aegon, please. Get creative.

    This was all the justification that the rest of the council needed, as it became clear that Otto and company have been planning to usurp the throne without Alicent’s knowledge. This knowledge seemed to paint her in an innocent light and not the mastermind of these plans. The only two to oppose the seizing of the throne were the Master of Coin, Lord Beesbury, and the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Harrold Westerling. Beesbury got his head caved in by our favorite guy, Criston Cole, for speaking out, but Westerling was let go after he tossed his white cloak off.

    The Search for King Aegon II

    Now, you can’t exactly place a new king on the throne without the king, so where was Aegon? Two search parties were sent out. One by Otto, led by the twins Erryk and Arryk Cargyll of the Kingsguard, and one by Alicent, led by Cole and Aemond. The race for Aegon was a little cloudy, but the root cause is that Otto will try to convince Aegon that Rhaenyra and her family must die in order for him to keep the throne while Alicent would try to offer mercy.

    After a romp through the bowels of Flea Bottom where Aegon spends a lot of time, we got a look at one of his bastards, as well as the child fighting pits that Aegon reportedly frequents. All this to prove that Aegon is a scumbag whereas Aemond studied the blade. Aegon was fiinally found being held captive by Mysaria, who was flexing her status as the true power of King’s Landing. She gave up Aegon’s location to Otto after negotiating the end of child fighting pits in Flea Bottom: a true hero to the smallfolk.

    Mysaria was ratted out by Larys the clubfoot, who shockingly has a fetish for normal-looking feet. In exchange for getting a look at Alicent’s piggies, he promised that Mysaria will die, and the information being fed to Otto through her will also end.

    After being freed from captivity, Aegon felt that he wasn’t truly worthy of the crown, being spurned by his father for Rhaenyra, as well as being a general screw-up in his family’s eyes. Only when he learned from Alicent that Viserys “wanted” him to ascend did we get the full Joffrey look in his eyes when he was toying with Aegon the Conqueror’s dagger. Alicent’s pleas to give Rhaenyra mercy fell on deaf ears as well. The smallfolk cheering for Aegon II had him puffing his chest out, until Helaena’s dragon dream from the last episode came to fruition.

    The Beast Beneath the Boards

    It turns out that Rhaenys and her dragon, Meleys, were the beast beneath the boards. Moments after Aegon was crowned, Meleys burst out of the floor of the dragon pit, killing and injuring a couple hundred/thousand smallfolk before giving the Greens a death stare. This fell really flat for me. Rhaenys knew that this act would lead to war, because she knew that Rhaenyra would not sit idly by while her half-brother steals her birthright. Her act of mercy to the royal family was pure plot armor, and had vibes of the later seasons of Game of Thrones. She had no problem with demolishing the smallfolk to get in a stare-down with Alicent, and then chose to fly away without royal bloodshed, to avoid being a kinslayer. Killing a couple hundred commoners, no problem, but if you choose to kill a distant third cousin, you’re DAMNED to eternity.

    I’m still convinced there is another beast between the boards, but that is likely being pushed to season 2. The rats will have a part to play, I guarantee it.

    Things to Come

    The Black council was omitted from this episode, but they’ll be taking over for most of the season finale. Rhaenys and Erryk Cargyll will be delivering the bad news, and we’ll get to see the reactions. Surely Rhaenyra and Daemon will handle things in a mature matter, right?

    This coming episode will not only see the Black Council’s planning but also the gathering of allies and dragons as well. We’ll finally see Storm’s End, where the Baratheons will have to decide which side to join, whether it be the Greens or the Blacks. No spoilers, but this meeting on Storm’s End will set the tone for the entire war in the seasons to come.

  • ‘She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’ From Page to Screen: Episode 9

    ‘She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’ From Page to Screen: Episode 9

    Welcome back to yet another From page to Screen focusing on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. In the show’s first week, we looked at the differences between the comics’ and series’ versions of Jennifer Walters’ origin story. The following week, viewers got a live-action introduction to Jen’s new legal job, taken straight out of Dan Slott’s and Juan Bobillo’s 2004 She-Hulk run—Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway (GLK&H). Episode 3 introduced a reimagined version of comic book villains, in its fourth week, the show decided to focus on Jen’s love life and, the following week, on Jen’s nemesis, Titania. Episode 6, being a “self-contained wedding episode” was approached as its own thing while referencing a lackluster comic arc where Jen ended up being engaged herself. As for episode 7, with the introduction of Man-Bull, El Águila, and Porcupine, we took a look at other She-Hulk villains that could be showing up down the line before heading into episode 8 which gave us the long-awaited Matt Murdock / Daredevil appearance, which bore some similarities with The Good Old Days story arc featured in the 2014/15 Charles Soule She-Hulk run.

    The season finale was all about fourth wall breaking by doubling down on the few times Jen did just that in the previous episodes. She now literally breaks the fourth wall by breaking out of Disney+, going into the real Marvel Studios HQ all while demanding script changes from K.E.V.I.N., an in-joke for the Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige.

    Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 9
    Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 9

    This, the breaking out not just to connect with the viewer/reader but going a step beyond and conversing with the creator itself, questioning his decisions and proposing something more to her liking, is fairly similar to what happened in the John Byrne’s The Sensational She-Hulk #37. Here, Jen, after getting into a dispute with the Living Eraser, mishandles his Dimensionizers and erases herself blaming Byrne for such a poor decision.

    The Sensational She-Hulk #37 (1992)

    This serves as a prime example of the kind of impact that Byrne had on the character since, at the time Stan Lee wrote her first issue, 1980’s The Savage She-Hulk #1, her ability to step out of the comics wasn’t yet a thing. It wasn’t until Byrne’s iconic 1989 run that she truly became one of the most distinct Marvel characters by gaining such power. But instead of just breaking the fourth wall, Byrne’s She-Hulk made use of it. She tore pages apart so she could skip ahead to the villain more quickly and when things weren’t going her way she would request to basically skip over a fight she knew she would lose. She would even try to convince Byrne and the Marvel editors to change her looks whenever she felt her hair looked bad. The Sensational She-Hulk really made a tremendous contribution to both establishing a comic paradigm shift and dismantling comic book physics.

    The Sensational She-Hulk #5 (1989)
    The Sensational She-Hulk #5 (1989)
    The Sensational She-Hulk #5 (1989)

    And the same can be said regarding the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even if K.E.V.I.N. identified the programming error that allowed Jan to step out of the show into the real world, making sure to say to her that this was the last time she would be able to do that, there is no denying that the level of self-awareness the character may yet instill into the MCU is substantial. That is, if the other characters actually believe her on that, something that both She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and the comics hint at, as these panels from The Incredible Hulk #412 can attest to.

    The Incredible Hulk #412 (1993)

    If Marvel Studios ever decides to introduce a character that is also in on the gag, much as Marvel Comics did with her boyfriend Wyatt Wingfoot and the Blonde Phantom that decided to make a comeback as a She-Hulk sidekick while breaking the fourth wall herself, in The Sensational She-Hulk #4, there are surely a number of possible contenders. Even if this may somehow make Jen’s powers feel less unique, in the context of the MCU it is a concept that will surely thrive. With the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars, why not introduce the idea of a universe where every single Marvel character grew bitter and disgruntled by knowing their free will, their freedom to do otherwise, and the power of self-determination was in the hands of a random writers’ room on Marvel Studios HQ?

    The Sensational She-Hulk #4 (1989)

    She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is now streaming, in its entirety, only on Disney+.

  • ‘Andor’ Episode 7 Featured a Major Character from Two of Star Wars Animated Series

    ‘Andor’ Episode 7 Featured a Major Character from Two of Star Wars Animated Series

    Through the first six episodes of its twelve-episode first season, Lucasfilm’s Star Wars streaming series Andor has fought the urge to drop character cameos into its developing story. Other than a reference here or there, the series has largely ignored the other goings on in the galaxy tied to the growing rebellion, choosing to focus on its own characters rather than name-drop or show-off characters from other Star Wars media. Episode 7 changed that in a fairly major way with the inclusion of one of the most memorable characters from one of Star Wars most beloved IPs.

    As news of the heist on Aldhani spread throughout the galaxy, the Imperial Security Bureau convened on Coruscant to discuss their response. However, rather than Major Partagaz leading the meeting, a more senior officer was called in: Colonel Wulff Yularen. Fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars will remember Yularen as the Republic Navy Admiral assigned to Anakin Skywalker. Though Yularen and Skywalker often disagreed, especially in their early endeavors together, the two grew to respect one another and became one of the Republic’s top teams.

    Though he’s most well-known from his nearly two dozen appearances in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Yularen “first appeared” in Star Wars: Episode IV-A New Hope. While in actuality the character was unnamed, retcons over the years turned the character into Colonel Yularen of the ISB. Placing the Colonel in Andor during this time of galactic unrest, especially when the ISB will be facing major questions about its procedures, aligns with what’s known about the character. Canonically, after helping reform the ISB, Yularen took a post with the Naval Intelligence Agency during the events of Star Wars: Rebels. In his time there, Yularen helped Thrawn track down the traitor known as Fulcrum, who was revealed to be one of Yularen’s own students, Agent Kallus.

    Voiced by Tom Kane in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Yularen is portrayed in Andor by actor Malcolm Sinclair. Given the character’s prominence in the time covered in Andor’s first season, Yularen’s appearance makes for a near-perfect cameo: one that isn’t too distracting fits the plot of the show and illustrates the connectivity of the series to the larger franchise. A+ for creator Tony Gilroy and team and Pablo Hidalgo, who works on keeping continuity between all the Star Wars projects.

  • ‘House of the Dragon’ – Best & Worst of “The Green Council”

    ‘House of the Dragon’ – Best & Worst of “The Green Council”

    It may be Rhaenyra’s birthright, but it’s starting to feel like Alicent’s kingdom. In the latest episode of HBO’s House of the Dragon, titled The Green Council, Olivia Cooke’s Queen Hightower takes a grain of salt and runs with it. Following a crucial error made by her husband on his deathbed, Alicent feels justified in placing their son, Tom Glynn-Carney’s Aegon II Targaryen, on the Iron Throne. Backed by her father, Rhys Ifans’ Otto Hightower – Hand of the King – and a network of deceptive councilmen, Alicent goes on the offensive to support Aegon and discredit her one-time friend. Unfortunately, the would-be Lord of the Seven Kingdoms is nowhere to be found, and the hunt for his Grace gives Eve Best’s Princess Rhaenrys Targaryen just enough time to mount a rather bold counter-attack. With secrets revealed and the dark underbelly of Flea Bottom becoming a genuine problem for the crown, the Dance of the Dragons has only truly just begun.

    There is more than enough political action to dig through this week, as House of the Dragon takes a deep dive into House Hightower and their many allies. Not even mentioned above – Fabien Frankel’s psychopathic Ser Criston Cole makes a return to prominence when Graham McTavish’s noble Ser Harrold Westerling steps down as Lord Commander of the King’s Guard, Ewan Mitchell’s strong-chinned Prince Aemond proves he may be the best Targaryen brother, and countless innocent civilians are either killed or made to be prisoners because the Royal Family can’t get themselves together. It’s a whole bunch of drama, but nothing Murphy’s Multiverse can’t sort into distinctive categories. With that being said, it’s time to discuss the best and worst moments of The Green Council.

    (Eve) BEST – The Beast Beneath the Boards

    Photograph by Ollie Upton / HBO Eve Best HBO House of the Dragon Season 1 – Episode 9

    Last week, Phia Saban’s Princess Helaena Targaryen gave a frightful premonition to her mother that she should beware “the beast beneath the boards”. It was a wildly cryptic comment that seemed to hint Helaena could see the future, and in The Green Council, fans learn that may be exactly the case. Just as Aegon is crowned King, and starts to get a terrifyingly real feel for power, Rhaenrys bursts through the ceremony on the back of her dragon to let the “Greens” know that Targaryen blood is not burned so easily. It’s a moment that the entire season has been building up to, and it does not disappoint. Best’s performance is incredible, both regal and commanding, and the sweet sweet feeling of watching the duplicitous Hightowers quiver in fear before someone they’ve treated so poorly is enough payoff to hold fans over for at least another year.

    Best also delivers in an earlier scene between her Princess and the newly-empowered Queen, in which the former flexes decades of personal trauma in a conversation Alicent should have known not to have. This moment alone probably would have put Rhaenrys in contention for this episode’s most valuable player, even before she went crashing through walls on the dragon’s back to cement her status as The Queen Who Should Have Been. Either way, her title no longer matters, because she’s earned a new one entirely. First Princess, then an almost Queen, and now – the Beast Beneath the Boards.

    WORST – A Child Fight Club and The Lord of the Feet

    The Green Council pulled back the curtain on quite a bit of the dirty secrets hiding in Westeros’ darkest corners. As such, it was difficult to pick just one as the worst the episode had to offer. As the hour began, it seemed Ser Cole was still a lock for House of the Dragon’s most obnoxious inhabitant, but things changed quickly when Aegon went missing. During the search for his Royal Highness, it’s revealed that King’s Landing is home to an underground fight club where children without homes are forced to sharpen both their teeth and nails before fighting each other to the presumed death. It’s a disgusting scene to watch play out, and anyone who says they didn’t flinch each time one kid landed a claw on another is probably lying. Even worse, it’s implied that some of the children involved are the bastards of Aegon himself, carelessly sleeping his way through the city and leaving his own blood to rot. It’s not a long sequence, but its larger implications are enough to put it at the top of the “worst” list in an episode filled with some pretty bad stuff.

    Also, one would be remiss to write about the downsides of this episode and not mention Matthew Needham’s Lord Larys Strong. In a particularly uncomfortable few minutes, the dastardly know-it-all forces the Queen to show him her feet in exchange for important information. It is yet another example of female objectification in Westeros, as even the Queen herself must use her body to get what she wants. The grotesqueness of this doesn’t need that much further explanation, but the fact it feels like this foot fetish might be a recurring thing on House of the Dragon means it needed to get a shout so it would never have to be discussed again. Really, just icky.

  • A Look at Marvel Studios’ 10-Year Page-to-Screen Rule

    A Look at Marvel Studios’ 10-Year Page-to-Screen Rule

    New York Comic Con hasn’t really been known to be the kind of event where fans should expect huge reveals from Marvel Studios. Traditionally, it’s been a place for Marvel TV and Marvel Comics to take center stage and NYCC ’22 was comic-heavy. Jonathan Hickman revealed some of Valerio Schiti’s artwork from their mysterious new comic series, the 2022-23 event slate was revealed, including the Fall of X and numerous non-event series were teased or introduced. All in all, a great weekend for Marvel Comics.

    However, during their Next Big Thing panel, Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski dropped an interesting nugget of information about the relationship between Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios, both of which are now overseen by Marvel’s One Above All, Kevin Feige. According to Cebulski, Marvel Comics works to stay about “10 years” ahead of Marvel Studios. In essence, that means comic arc that are being told wouldn’t make their way into the narrative fabric of the MCU until 2032. On the flipside, it could also mean that Marvel Studios currently announced slate of projects is looking to draw on comic arcs from 2012.

    Though it’s clear and expected that not every project in 2022 is based on stories from 2012, interestingly enough, some of that flipside lines up. The end of 2021 saw Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye, which was published in 2012, adapted into a Disney Plus streaming series. Incursions, which were introduced to the MCU in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, first appeared in issue #3 of Jonathan Hickman’s New Avengers in January of 2013. The idea of Wakanda at war with Atlantis, which is central to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s plot, came from the pages of the Avengers vs. X-Men event, which ran for most of 2012. Kamala Khan first hit the pages of a comic in 2013. Jason Aaron’s epic run on Thor, which introduced Gorr and Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor, characters seen in Thor: Love and Thunder, began in, you guessed it, 2012. It’s by no means a perfect predictor, but for the past year, there are enough hits to make one take the time to look at how the next (about) ten years of Marvel Studios projects could be shaped by the last (about) ten years of Marvel Comics.

    2023

    Riri Williams will make her debut in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever before her solo series, Ironheart, streams on Disney Plus. The character first appeared in the comics in 2016, so this series is 7 years post. That’s not exactly 10, but it might prove informative later.

    2024

    Captain America: New World Order will hit theaters in 2024. Ten years earlier, Sam Wilson: Captain America hit newsstands. The Nick Spencer book could hold some clues as to what fans can expect in the film.

    A version of the Thunderbolts featuring Bucky Barnes appeared in the comics in 2016. Bucky and the Thunderbolts are headed for the big screen in 2024.

    Deadpool 3 hits theaters in 2024 and while nobody knows exactly what to make of the Ryan Reynolds/Hugh Jackman team-up, one theory is that it could adapt Marvel Comics Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, which came out in 2012.

    Fantastic Four. Announced in 2019, it’s taken a while to get made and is going to take a while longer. Whenever fans see it, it is likely to be heavily influenced by Hickman’s run on the characters which started in 2010.

    2025 and 2026

    Marvel has plans for two Avengers films over these two years. If you’re wondering who might be on the team, Marvel Comics All-New, All-Different Avengers, first published in November 2015, might be a decent resource.

    Beginning with 2022’s Werewolf By Night, monsters are now historically part of the MCU and more are on the way. In 2015, Marvel Comics published The Howling Commandoes of S.H.I.E.L.D.

    A Nova project continues to be in the works and The Human Rocket is likely to land on one of the dates slated for D+ in 2025 or 2026. A Nova comic series, featuring Sam Alexander, launched in 2013.

    In July, a pair of trademarks were filed for what are believed to be MCU solo projects for Hercules: Rise of the Gods and Black Knight: Origins. in 2015, comic series featuring both of those characters brought them back into the spotlight after some time away. Black Knight dove into the cursed nature of the Ebony Blade while Hercules told the story of the Greek godling making his way through the modern world. Both of these ideas are adaptable in the MCU given where the characters were left in their introductions in Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder, respectively.

    An Illuminati project has been reportedly in the works at Marvel Studios for a few years now. In 2015, Marvel Comics published The Illuminati, featuring Parker Robbins, who will make his debut in Ironheart, Titania, who debuted in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and the Enchantress, Sylvie Lushton, who seems to have a lot in common with Loki’s Sylvie.

    Avengers: Secret Wars was originally planned for 2025. While there have been multiple iterations of the story, it’s believed that with Michael Waldron writing it, it will be strongly influenced by Hickman’s version of the story.

    2026-2032

    Years back, Marvel Studios was looking for a pitch for a Secret Warriors project. While the first volume in the comics hit shelves in 2008, a second volume featuring Kamala Khan was released in 2017.

    Quite a bit of buzz continues to persist around Marvel Studios bringing the Midnight Sons to the MCU and a trademark was filed. In 2017, a Spirits of Vengeance mini-series was launched that featured many of the characters you’d associate with Midnight Sons in a war at the gates of hell.

    Marvel Studios trademarked Avengers: Eternity Wars. Marvel Comics published an Eternity War event in the pages of The Ultimates in 2017.

    With the X-Men not quite set to appear in the MCU for some time, the 2018 event Hunt for Wolverine might make a good adaptation at some point in the late 2020s, once the X-Men have become established.

    War of the Realms is one of the finer events Marvel Comics has produced in years. While it doesn’t seem like on the surface like a story that could be told in the MCU, remember the multiverse is in play and anything is possible, including giving Malekith a fair shake.

    Another property that could potentially take inspiration from Jonathan Hickman is an adaptation of Dawn of X. Hickman’s redefining take on mutants kicked off in 2019, meaning it could hit the low end of what Marvel considers about 10 years if an adaptation were to hit the MCU around 2026 or later, which actually seems about right.

    This is nowhere near comprehensive as there are so many unknowns about what projects are in development and nearing a green light, which are still slogging through and which have been shuffled to the back of the pile. However, it does give us a better idea of what about “10 years” means. It looks like characters and stories are fair game if they were about 7-12 years before the project is intended to release. Obviously, that window can expand either way and it is a lot more likely to expand on the side of more than 12 years than less than 7 years, but it provides a window through which we can potentially peer into Marvel Studios’ plans.

  • How the Rules of the MCU’s Multiverse Allow for Daredevil and Kingpin to Meet Again…For the First Time…For the Last Time

    How the Rules of the MCU’s Multiverse Allow for Daredevil and Kingpin to Meet Again…For the First Time…For the Last Time

    A half-dozen Lokis, including a woman, an old man, a child, one that looks just like Tom Hiddleston, and an alligator. Four Doctors Strange, including a zombie with a ponytail. Three Spider-Men. Three Peggy Carters. Two Kangs so far, including one referred to as a “warrior”, with more to come. Two Gamoras. Two Nebulas. Two Thanoses. Two Christine Palmers. And two Mordos and two Maria Rambeaus who hang out with three guys who have never before been seen in the MCU’s 616-universe. The Marvel Cinematic Multiverse is full of Variants and is sure to see more enter it as the Multiverse Saga continues over the next 4 years. So why is it, that in this vast multiverse, Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk are expected to be the genuine Netflix articles when probability would dictate they probably aren’t?

    The rules of the Multiverse, as created by Michael Waldron and explained in Loki by Miss Minutes, allow for a tremendous amount of room in the creation of Variants. Nearly any event, no matter how great or small, from “creating an uprising” to just being “late for work” causes a Nexus Event which creates a branch from the Sacred Timeline. As Miss Minutes explained, one Nexus Event could “branch off into madness” creating an almost infinite number of Variants and the potential for a multiversal war. That multiversal war is coming in Avengers: Secret Wars, but it’s the more mundane sort of multiversal madness that’s relevant here. Given the relative ease with which a Variant can be created and the fact that the death of He Who Remains allowed the multiverse to branch off into madness, it’s statistically more likely that the Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk who are on track to meet in Echo are Variants of the ones who appeared in the Netflix Defenders-verse shows.

    In addition to the relative ease with which the MCU can explain away the Variant nature of the two characters, according to Charlie Cox, it seems like that is the plan. Cox has been clear that he and Kevin Feige think of Daredevil: Born Again as Season 1, not Season 4, and recently called it “a whole new deal” that gave the studio a chance to start from scratch in some instances.

    What’s great about that is that we potentially get to tell some of the stories over and over again, in the same way that they do in the comics. Every now and then they start back in the beginning of Murdock’s journey as a little boy and they tell the whole origin story again, so maybe we’ll get to do that. I don’t know.

    Charlie Cox

    Herein lies the brilliance inherent in the simplicity of the multiversal rules. The MCU’s Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk only need to be a little different from their Netflix counterparts in order to allow Feige, the Marvel Studios Parliament, and the creative teams of Echo and Daredevil: Born Again to keep much of what fans loved about the characters they met on Daredevil while also telling their MCU stories on their terms. And they never have to tell anyone how it happened. Just simply let it unfold on-screen.

    An infinite multiverse means infinite possible Variants of the characters. That means a Matt Murdock who can see, a Kingpin who never killed his father and any other version you can imagine exists somewhere. But in order for Marvel Studios to tell their version of the story, they don’t have to erase all those key points in the development of the character. Vincent D’Onofrio has spoken at length about how he’s playing Fisk as the same character and that makes perfect sense because all of the tragedy and abuse that he suffered when he “was a boy” can still be the backstory for the character.

    I mean, obviously, my character in Hawkeye is physically stronger and can take a lot more physical abuse. But my approach to him is exactly the same approach that I did on Daredevil. He is an emotional human being, he is a child and a monster simultaneously. The same things that are going on inside me when I’m playing the character, the events that I use, whether the joyful ones or sad ones or frustrating ones or angry ones, the events that I use from my life are the same ones that I used in Daredevil that I used to portray Fisk. So it’s connected, for sure. In my mind, for sure.

    Vincent D’Onofrio

    The rules of the multiverse absolutely allow for everything D’Onofrio said about the Fisk that showed up in Hawkeye to be true AND for the character to be different from the Defenders-verse character. How simple is it? Incredibly simple. If being late for work can create a Nexus Event and a new branch of the multiverse, any number of events could be used to explain how a Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk who are nearly identical to the ones from Daredevil are co-existing in the MCU’s Hell’s Kitchen but have never met one another, much less become archenemies. Why would they do this? To give the MCU’s creatives a chance to tell the story of these two characters on their own terms rather than be forced to accept someone else’s interpretation. As Cox explained, it gives them the opportunity to retell stories as often happens in the comics when new authors take over.

    What would this mean for the MCU? It would mean that to audiences, the characters would seem to be exactly the same, only a little different. Ketchup and mustard Daredevil seems to be, for the most part, the same as black mask Daredevil, except he’s a little different. His fighting style isn’t quite the same, he’s a bit more flippy and he doesn’t seem to hate being alive and is rather quite the ladies’ man. Hawaiin shirt Kingpin seems to be, for the most part, the same as stare-at-the-wall Fisk, except he’s a little different. He works out of a garage in relative anonymity and seems to be a walking tank.

    Using Variants provides the people who worked on Echo and are working on Daredevil: Born Again a tremendous amount of creative freedom. You like the way the story with Stick training Matt as a boy worked? Keep it. It happened before the Nexus Event. You don’t like the fact that Ben Urich is dead? Get rid of it. It happened after the Nexus Event that created this MCU Variant Daredevil. Characters can seemingly be brought back from the dead without ever having died. Don’t like the way the Hand storyline played out in Daredevil? Retell it. It happened after the Nexus Event that created this Variant. Giving the writers working on Echo and Daredevil: Born Again that type of flexibility will ultimately allow for a better final product. There are some hoops to jump through to ensure the chosen point for the Nexus Event follows continuity (so you don’t go the route of Fox’s X-Men films) but it can be done.

    At the end of the day, if fans can accept alligator Loki and are looking forward to seeing Jonathan Majors mold himself into multiple versions of Kang, it doesn’t seem as though it’s asking much to accept that in an infinite multiverse, other versions of their favorite characters can and do exist. Is this a definitive statement that these characters are NOT the Defenders-verse ones? Of course not. Only Marvel Studios can make that statement; however, they are better served in never making it, allowing the debate around the characters to carry on until their decision is revealed on screen, whether large or small.

    You want to believe these guys are your guys? Go for it, probability be damned. You want to believe these guys are Variants? Go for it, the evidence suggests they are. At the end of the day, these are stories meant to be enjoyed by audiences and much of that is determined by what you carry with you in your own mind and if you believe in it strongly enough, not even the multiverse can take it away from you.

  • How the MCU’s ‘She-Hulk’ Became Truly Savage

    How the MCU’s ‘She-Hulk’ Became Truly Savage

    The finale of Season 1 of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law opened with a great callback to the classic Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno series, The Incredible Hulk, that ran on network television in the late 1970s and early 1980s and spawned not one, not two but three made-for-tv movies in the late 1980s. The callback, which served as the recap of the series so far, ended with what’s become the norm for the series, a new, weekly title: The Savage She-Hulk. That title is, of course, the title of the first appearance of Jen Walters in Marvel Comics, The Savage She-Hulk #1, which hit newsstands in 1980. Ironically, through the course of the D+ series, Jen’s She-Hulk has been anything but savage for most of the time; however, the same can’t necessarily be said for the series itself.

    Language is an ever-evolving thing and, over the last decade or so, one word that has experienced some changes in its usage is “savage.” The way the kids are using it these days (these days being like 5-10 years ago), it means someone who has zero regard for the consequences of what they say when they rip into a person or a group of people. It’s in this way that Jessica Gao and the rest of the writers’ room on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law made the series one of the most self-aware and savage social commentaries in modern pop culture history.

    As the finale pointed out, Marvel Studios has an internet problem. No matter what project they churn out it wasn’t long enough, didn’t have enough cameos or didn’t include THAT character or THAT story that some fan was certain was going to be there. However, some projects have a bigger internet problem than others: the ones featuring female leads. From Captain Marvel to Ms. Marvel to Thor: Love and Thunder and now She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, female-led projects at Marvel Studios are described as “problematic” and “sloppy” before general audiences have seen a second of footage. And as Marvel Studios enters its second saga of stories and begins to introduce legacy characters, many of whom are female, the internet has come out swinging with chants of “Mary Sue” and “Thor is a name, not a title” as characters like Kamala Khan, Jen Walters and Jane Foster assume heroic mantles.

    It is in addressing these internet problems head-on that She-Hulk became truly, in the modern context, savage. The savagery really began in earnest in Episode 3, “The People vs. Emil Blonsky”, when Jen’s work at GLK&H began to garner more attention. In a brief sequence, the show called out anonymous and misogynistic social media influencers and YouTubers by making a mockery of their go-to commentary. “They took the Hulk’s manhood away, but then they gave it to a woman?” “So we gotta have affirmative action with superheroes?” “No more female superheroes plz.” “Why are you turning every superhero into a girl? Nobody asked for that.” “Why everything gotta be female now???” “So we have a #MeToo movement and now all the male heroes are gone?” Ridiculous only in their accuracy, these comments could have been (and most likely were) taken from real social media account from men decrying that “every hero” is now a female. Forget the fact that Thor: Love and Thunder featured both a man and a woman co-starring as Thor (and the female died), facts have no place in this dojo.

    To add an extra layer of verisimilitude to its social commentary on social media, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law brought the dudebro online community known as The Intelligencia to the forefront. While initial theories about who might run the group understandably centered on characters from the comics associated with the group, it turned out to be a collective of manbabies united by one thing: their insecurities. The creatives laid the satire on thick and in layers going so far as having Jon Bass‘ HulkKing scream “come at me bro” shortly after turning into Chris Kattan-Hulk.

    Between satirizing the ridiculous nature of online discourse around these projects and having Jen be the first MCU character to really explore dating and sex (she even smashes Matt Murdock on occasion), the Gao and the writers certainly had the very same people they were mocking clutching their pearls. And they did so by simply capitalizing on the very nature of the character pulled straight from the comics where she was Marvel’s first character to be aware that she existed inside of a story and interacted with the world that existed outside her story. So while Jen’s She-Hulk proved she was anything but the savage version her cousin Bruce thought she might be, Marvel Studios went full frontal savage and, in doing so, made their most socially relevant project to date.

  • ‘House of the Dragon’-Episode 8 Recap

    ‘House of the Dragon’-Episode 8 Recap

    Throughout the first season of HBO Max’s House of the Dragon, Viserys has been the buffer between the two factions of his house, headed by Alicent and Rhaenyra, respectively. Each of them knows that they can’t make any moves while Viserys still rules. While Alicent and Otto have been tiptoeing about up until Episode 8, Viserys had grown very weak and has given the keys to both of them to run his kingdom. About 6 years of time have passed between Episode 7 and this one. Time to get into some lore.

    Viserys

    This is the dying King’s finest hour. Viserys talked with Daemon in an earlier episode about how he felt he’d never been tested as a king, and how he wished he could prove his mettle. He did that in this episode, rising to the occasion to save his daughter and grandsons from losing Luke’s inheritance and legitimacy. His walk up to the throne is a top 5 scene from the Game of Thrones franchise, taking all of his effort, and only accepting help from Daemon in his climb. According to the director, the crown falling from his head and Daemon placing it back onto Viserys was unscripted, and it made the moment all the more powerful.

    The events of that scene were forced by Vaemond Velaryon, Corlys’s brother, trying to go around Viserys and Rhaenyra, straight to Otto and Alicent to secure his claim, reasoning that Luke is not a true Velaryon and has no right to Driftmark. Vaemond got taken out at the knees when Rhaenys, the matriarch of the Velaryons, put her chips in with Rhaenyra, agreeing in front of the court to marry Jace and Luke to her granddaughters, Baela and Rhaena. This sent Vaemond into a rage to call out that the boys are bastards and their mother is a whore. Viserys warned that anyone who questioned Jace’s and Luke’s parentage would get their tongues ripped out; however, Daemon took matters into his own hands, slicing half of his head off with Dark Sister, but he let him keep his tongue.

    With his family all under one roof for the first time in 6 years, Viserys hosted a dinner with all of them, where there were toasts all around and everyone was playing nice, with Alicent even telling Rhaenyra that she will make a fine queen. That seemed to indicate that the matter of succession was over. Yeah, in Viserys’s dreams. I am happy that in Viserys’s last moments before he was carted off, there was a small smile seeing his family happy all together. Even for all of his faults, he deserved a better family than the vultures he had. His last, muttered words were “My love,” pretty obviously in memory of his first wife, Aemma.

    It’s shown very explicitly that both Rhaenyra and Alicent have some differing parental styles. Rhaenyra is supportive in Jace’s learning of High Valyrian, and there has been no signs of mental or physical abuse towards her sons. Also, we got our first sighting of Aegon the Younger and Viserys, which are Daemon’s and Rhaenyra’s sons. There’s no denying that they are Targaryens with that platinum hair, and it’s great that Viserys got to see them before he died.

    The Children

    Speaking of Viserys’ terrible family, Alicent was shown to be abusive to Aegon, and this episode showed that it had been well deserved since he sexually assaulted one of the handmaidens and dismissed it as “Just a bit of fun.” But what did Alicent do? She covered it up, paying the girl and giving her moon tea to eliminate any chances of an unwanted pregnancy. She followed up by then slapping Aegon in the face and saying he’s no son of hers. Problem solved, put a band-aid on it!

    I noted that Alicent finally ceded to Rhaenyra and admitted to her being the next queen, but the seeds had already been sowed in Aegon and Aemond’s minds that they were above Jace and Luke, and deserved the inheritance. Aegon repeatedly asked Jace’s bethrothed, Baela, if she wanted to sleep with him right in front of everyone. Even after that, Jace raised a toast to Aegon and Aemond, hoping they could become friends as they once were. Aemond had a pig placed in front of him, a reference to when Aegon, Jace and Luke dressed up a pig as a dragon for Aemond. This really really pissed him off when Luke is seen to be laughing at him, so in retaliation he raises a toast, calling Jace Luke and Joffrey “Handsome, smart, brave….. and STRONG.” This sent the Blacks into a fury, only stopping when Daemon stood between Aemond and Jace and stared him down, sending him away with his tail between his legs. Aemond is trying so hard to be Daemon, but as of now, there is only one Daemon. There’s a showdown coming for those two in future seasons. Alicent and Rhaenyra have a touching moment after, where Alicent wants Rhaenyra to stay in King’s Landing. They’ve finally put their differences aside and want to be close again. If only.

    The Power of Prophecy

    Throughout all of this series, people have been driven by prophecy. The all-encompassing prophecy is The Song of Ice and Fire, which includes The Prince that was Promised as the messiah figure. If you watched Game of Thrones or read the series, you know there have been many, many people who believe that they were the chosen one, and each time war has broken out. Rhaegar’s belief that he or his children were the Prince, led to Robert’s Rebellion and the destruction of the Targaryens. Stannis’s belief that he was the Prince, led to the War of the Five Kings, and the destruction of the Baratheons. And finally, both Jon and Daenerys were led to believe they were the ones, and while they destroyed the White Walkers, it also led to thousands of people’s deaths. The question is always asked, is the prophecy always meant to come true, or is it the people’s actions after learning of it?

    House of the Dragon continues, or sets (?), this tread with Viserys unknowingly having fed this information to Alicent while delirious and moments from dying. He talked of Aegon the Conqueror’s dream and that this prophecy will save the kingdom, which Alicent took to mean that her son Aegon would be the one to save the realm. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back as Alicent believed she had no choice but to stand against Rhaenyra, fulfilling Viserys’s last wishes. The Westerosi version of telephone where it sent hundreds of thousands to their deaths.

    Things to Come

    With Viserys dead, there is now nothing to stand between the Greens and Blacks, and both of them feel they have the right to rule. Episode 9, if my predictions are correct, will send both sides into a full-scale war. While Aegon is the elder, Aemond will be the martial leader of the Greens, versus Daemon on the Blacks.

    A very small part of this episode showed that there are twin Kingsguards, Arryk and Erryk Cargyle. Their parents are absolute trolls naming them. This will come into play if the series follows the book, because one of these twins will be with Rhaenyra on Dragonstone, and the other with Alicent in King’s Landing.

    We also saw Mysaria again, who has contacts in the Red Keep that are keeping tabs on the royal family for her. She keeps popping up for small appearances, so she still has a part to play in the Dance.

    Also returning are more Helaena Dragon Dreams! During dinner, she muttered to herself, “Beware the beast below the boards.” As with most of her other dreams in this season, this was meant to be taken literally. If you watched Game of Thrones, you know that there are tunnels underneath the Red Keep where people can travel in secret throughout the castle. Tyrion, with help from Varys, used these to sneak into his father Tywin’s chambers to kill him. In that time, it was basically only Varys that knew these passageways, because the knowledge had been lost in time. In House of the Dragon, there are many people who know these tunnels, because they use men instead of cats as rat catchers. They’re not doing a very good job it seems, as there are rats seen throughout a lot of different episodes. What are they hinting toward? Wait and see.