Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: MCU

  • Sophia Di Martino Seemingly Prepping to Resume Filming ‘LOKI’

    Sophia Di Martino Seemingly Prepping to Resume Filming ‘LOKI’

    A new Instagram post by Salma Hayek yesterday signaled that she’s expecting reshoots for The Eternals to begin soon, now actress Sophia Di Martino seems to indicate that prep for filming her series Loki is beginning to ramp up as well! See the post below!

    While we’ve been hearing that the Disney plus Marvel series might resume in July, along with the other Marvel shows WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, further evidence like this is certainly an encouraging sign! On top of that Tom Hiddleston was spotted by a fan in Georgia a few days ago. They are perhaps not quite ready to start up again yet but it seems the production wheels are indeed turning again!

  • Victor Mancha: Hulu’s ‘RUNAWAYS’ Reject, Future MCU Big Bad

    Victor Mancha: Hulu’s ‘RUNAWAYS’ Reject, Future MCU Big Bad

    Going back through some old notes recently, I came upon some info I had collected about Season 1 of Marvel’s Runaways, a show which recently concluded its run following its third season. Those notes, accompanied by an early project breakdown and casting grid, indicated that one of the most interesting characters from the comic series was intended to be a part of Season 1 and, according to the notes, the studio may have even had an actor lined up for the role. That character, Victor Mancha, never physically appeared in the Hulu streaming series and his presence in the show was reduced to his last name appearing on a note in the final episode of the series. How did a character, who during pre-production in 2017 was, apparently, supposed to play a significant role in the series, end up being a being an afterthought? I’m not sure and I’m not really here to think too much about that. I am, however, interested in how Marvel Studios might now be able to use the character now that Runaways has ended.

    A little background first and I do mean a little. Victor Mancha first appeared in Runaways Vol. 2, #1 in 2005. A cyborg combining some cloned DNA with some of Ultron’s metal bits, Mancha was destined to become one of the Avengers greatest villains (there was a lot of time travel in Runaways) but, for the time being, has mostly stayed on the heroic side of things showing up in Avengers A.I. and Tom King’s solo Vision series among other places before returning as a head in a box in the recent Runaways book.

    We know that Marvel Studios The-One-Above-All, Kevin Feige, isn’t big on panel-for-panel remakes from the comics and, in Victor’s case, that works to everyone’s advantage. Keeping Victor who he is at his core (basically Ultron’s sleeper agent, but a hero at heart) makes him the perfect big bad to square off with the Young Avengers in their first big team outing. Whether it’s in Ant-Man 3 or the solo Young Avengers project currently in development, having the Young Avengers come together by taking on a villain with ties to the villain who tore the Avengers apart would be poetic. Maybe they destroy Victor; maybe they find a way to reprogram him and add him to their ranks; maybe he lives to fight another day. Whatever way it goes, the resonance is intriguing and very “comic booky.”

    I have no idea what the Runaways show runners had in store for Victor, neither in his season one appearance that never was nor with the neat little note they left as the show went off the air; however, what is clear is that Feige has an opportunity to put a new spin on an intriguing character and who could be a powerful, teenage villain who fits the Goldilocks model for the MCU adaptation of the Young Avengers. Sure, people want to see Kang and Iron Lad, but I wanted to see Starhawk and Vance Astro. We don’t, every time, get what we want but in some cases (not Starhawk, definitely not Starhawk), the version we do get is an upgrade. Victor Mancha might just do that for the Young Avengers. 

    There is, of course, another way for Victor to make a splash in the MCU: turning up in the upcoming Disney Plus streaming series, WandaVision. If Victor were to become aware of his unique nature, he would certainly seek out Vision, as he did in the comics. If you’ve read King’s run, you know that Victor was sent by the Avengers to spy on Vision and, though his intentions weren’t evil, he was responsible for the death of Vision’s son, Vin and met his “end” at the hands of Vision’s wife, Virginia, who is kind of a serial killer. While this particular story is unlikely to unfold, it’s entirely possible that we could see Victor introduced in WandaVision, a project we know to be a central hub from which the stories of Phase 4 and beyond will be spun, acting, as he was in the comics, as a sleeper agent of Ultron’s sent to wreak havoc on Ultron’s great dissapointment: his Vision.

    As always, it’s far more likely we don’t see Victor in the MCU at all or, if we do, it’ll be in some way altogether different from either of these options. It’s interesting, nonetheless, to think about how a character like Victor, who checks an awful lot of MCU boxes, might be used by Feige as he expands the universe.

  • Salma Hayek Teases Upcoming ‘ETERNALS’ Reshoots

    Salma Hayek Teases Upcoming ‘ETERNALS’ Reshoots

    A new Instagram post from The Eternals star Salma Hayek indicates that reshoots/additional filming for the MCU film should begin soon! Check it out below!

    Reshoots several months after a “wrap” are pretty common and definitely expected. Still it’s good to see things beginning to pick up again for these MCU projects. Hopefully we’ll get more details soon to share with you all on the when and where The Eternals will resume filming.

  • What I Heard This Week: Ms. Marvel Auditions

    What I Heard This Week: Ms. Marvel Auditions

    Every now and then I come across some information the veracity of which can be confirmed by a second source. What happens FAR more often is that I come across some information that while believable and from trustworthy sources, cannot be confirmed by other sources for various reasons. Typically, when the second scenario occurs, I move on and forget about the information unless, in rare instances, it turns out to be proven true somewhere down the road. The news about Peyton Reed working on Season 2 of The Mandalorian came from an article just like this, but I’ve also heard some pretty wild stuff of which we have no proof, like Doom showing up in Black Panther II. Over the past week, we’ve seen unions give guidelines for safely returning to work, plans start to come together for projects to resume filming and an increase in the number of actor/actresses who are signing on to new projects as the film industry attempts to get the big wheel spinning once again.

    It’s been mostly quiet on the Marvel Studios front, however, as we still don’t have any definite timeline for when they will finish production on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (though yesterday did bring some good news on that front), Loki or Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings. And while we heard that Spider-Man 3 is aiming to start up in late-September or early-October, we still don’t know when other projects which missed their intended start dates, such as Ms. Marvel and Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness, will get the green light. However, there is another glimmer of hope that was shared with me and that I’m happy to share with you now… MCU Will Eventually Introduce Kamala Khan, A.K.A. Ms. Marvel ... What I heard this week: after shutting the process down due to the pandemic, casting has resumed for the role of Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel! The casting process for this one has been wild and taken a long and winding road but I was told that actresses were recently being called back in to continue the auditioning process. The casting of Kamala Khan is certainly one that is of great interest to many (my Twitter DMs are proof as they are filled with questions about when and who and if) and one that Marvel Studios is clearly taking great care to get right.

    The timing of the resumption of the process is also of note. As the state of Georgia begins to open back up and film and TV production gets rolling again in and around Atlanta, where Ms. Marvel is slated to film, it’s possible that an imminent casting could lead to cameras rolling on the Disney Plus streaming series before the end of Summer! This is one to keep an eye on over the next several weeks. Should Marvel Studios land the actress for the role, a casting announcement via the trades would be major news and lift the spirits of fans who have had little good news the past few months.  

  • BREAKING NEWS: ‘FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER’ Negotiating a Return to Film in the Czech Republic

    BREAKING NEWS: ‘FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER’ Negotiating a Return to Film in the Czech Republic

    A Facebook post by Czech Republic casting company Extrasfilms has indicated that they are indeed still working out the details and negotiating for Falcon and the Winter Soldier to return to filming in Prague. I apologize for the very rough Google translate to English below but I have checked with a couple of friends there to confirm what the post means.

    It also mentions that the TV series Carnival Row and Wheel of Time are both expected to return there to film at the end of July or early August.

    This is definitely encouraging news! Prague is a beautiful city and I know there were some amazing places they had plans to film. I so look forward to seeing it in the series!

  • ‘SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS’: How The Tournament Could Really Introduce Everybody

    ‘SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS’: How The Tournament Could Really Introduce Everybody

    Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings is my most-anticipated MCU movie coming down the line. I’m a big Eternals fan, cannot wait to see sequels to Black Panther and Captain Marvel, am curious where they take Spider-Man, but Shang-Chi is the only MCU movie (that we know of) that is set in the aftermath of The Blip. The Avengers were essentially disbanded for five years, with Iron Man hanging up his suit, Captain America leading support groups, Thor drinking himself into a stupor, and Hulk merging him and Banner into one person. It stands to reason that other threats popped up during this five year gap from when Thanos first snapped his fingers to 2023, where the Avengers eventually brought everybody back. Keep in mind: Thanos’s snap disintegrated half of the life in the universe, and it also stands to reason that were some pretty serious consequences. With Tony’s snap at the Endgame, I’d wager there were some other unintended consequences too, though I will save that for another article.

    During the five year time gap, my thinking is that Shang-Chi is one of the heroes that popped up during that time. I, also, believe that the time gap they implemented in Endgame was deliberately implemented in order for Marvel to use Disney+ and other feature films to fill in those gaps. One of the things we did not see a lot of in Endgame was how the rest of the world was dealing with the Avengers disbanding. The Sokovia Accords most likely remained in place, and it is a very different world than when the Avengers first fought Thanos in 2018. That means whatever heroes and villains popped up had to do so in secret. Wakanda had no King, as far as we know. The Defenders vanished (even if Feige wants to pretend those Netflix shows did not happen). Ant Man learned the Quantum Realm, and who knows what other fantastic things he ran into while he was trapped in there. Needless to say, there is a lot of story to tell, and Shang-Chi’s tournament feels like the right place to start re-populating this world with heroes and villains alike.

    Backstory:

    Shang Chi #112 revolves around Shang-Chi fighting in an underground martial arts tournament. While Marvel has been loose with the adaptations, this feels like something that could directly translate into making this movie very different compared to other Marvel movies, and our own Charles has found evidence to support that there will be a tournament in Shang-Chi. The basis of the film will most likely see an exiled Shang-Chi is trying to do whatever it takes to get to the Mandarin, aka his Father, and stop the reign of terror he has inflicted with his 10 Rings of Power. With no Avengers to lean on, especially on this side of the world, he enters this tournament to go after him himself. The tournament is held in Madripoor, an island in Southeast Asia that is shrouded in mystery. This island, we already know, plays a role in the upcoming The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Disney+ series, but I do not think Kevin Feige would use such an iconic Marvel location one time. Looking through the comics, there are countless characters that have crossed paths with this location and Shang-Chi, and they’d do well to make up the other participants of this tournament.

     

    Who Fights?

    Let’s kick this off with Wolverine, but he’s not known as Wolverine but as Patch during this time. The ageless X-Men has very often been depicted as the same age as the other X-Men, but he is actually 103 years old when he first encounters the X-Men in 1993. I think Feige honors this part of Wolverine’s origin and doesn’t let him cross paths with the X-Men until much later in his story. For this story, I believe Wolverine is on a mission to hunt the man responsible for blowing up the embassy during the signing of the Sokovia Accords and starting Civil War and after attempting to visit Wakanda and not finding any answers as to Bucky’s whereabouts, he travels 4300 miles East to an island in Asia and ends up in Madripoor, where he falls in love with a mutant operative named Leiku Rose Wu, and befriends a daywalker named Blade.

    Blade is in Madripoor for two reasons: Blade has heard that one of the Mandarin’s 10 Rings, the Remaker, can rearrange the atoms and molecules of a substance, or speed up or slow down their movement, so as to produce various effects. With Blade refusing to feed on human blood, he believes this ring can help him speed up the effects of the animal blood he has been feeding on. The other reason he ends up in Madripoor is that he felt this could be the safest place for him to be given General Ross and SHIELD’s interest in his blood. This is a storyline, at least SHIELD’s hunt for Blade’s blood, derived from the 8th issue of Blade.

    You, then, have a master archer by the name of Bullseye, who after killing Hugo Kostas Natchios and his wife Christina Natchios in 2018, leaves the United States and ventures to Madripoor seeking refuge. He enters the tournament because the Mandarin has offered to keep him safe if he wins, provided he kills Shang-Chi in the process.

    Following Bullseye to Madripoor after he murdered her parents, we have Elektra. Elektra first went searching for Bullseye in K’un-Lun and, believing that he was being hidden by monks, slaughtered everybody except one fighter and left. She uses her family’s resources to track Bullseye to Madripoor, where she is convinced to enter the tournament by a mysterious character.

    Danny Rand aka Iron Fist (after ascending to Iron Fist) leaves K’un Lun in search of the female assassin he saw murder his family. He believes it was Elektra, and receives a message from the Mandarin that leads him Madripoor.

    King M’Baku, who ascended to the throne in T’Challa and Shuri’s absence, ends up in Madripoor when T’Challa vanishes after The Snap: he ventures there because Patch tried to enter Wakanda looking for Bucky. M’Baku wants answers, as he is frightened after the alien invasion in Wakanda and wants to keep his people safe. He enters the tournament to fight Patch and get answers from him.

    Lastly, a mysterious fighter named Mister X, also, enters the tournament, though his intentions are a bit unclear. He is, later, revealed to be Taskmaster, who worked with Zemo to orchestrate the events that led to Civil War and who actually survives his fight with Black Widow in the upcoming Black Widow movie.

    Tournament Results:

    First Round:

    Wolverine beats Mister X pretty soundly but, while sleeping, is captured by the Thunderbolts, who want to hand him over to Weapon X

    Blade defeats Bullseye but is stopped by Elektra before he can kill him, and Bullseye escapes. As Blade goes to kill Elektra for stopping him, Iron Fist stops Blade from killing her with the thinking that he wants to be the one to kill Elektra.

    M’Baku beats Iron Fist, who is still reeling from earlier fight with Blade

    Shang Chi and Elektra fight to a draw, Mandarin orders there must be a winner, they escape once Elektra confirms she wasn’t in K’un Lun.

    2nd Round:

    Blade advances because Patch is gone

    Shang-Chi defeats M’Baku and tells him what happened to Patch

    Finals:

    Shang-Chi defeats Blade and shows him how to escape Madripoor.

    The End

    Mandarin descends and fights Shang-Chi, revealing that he was the one that turned Wolverine into Weapon X because of Wolverine’s relationship with Shang-Chi’s sister. The Mandarin, Taskmaster and Zemo are revealed to have orchestrated the events that led to all the fighters in the tournament ending up in Madripoor in order to capture Blade to steal his blood, torture Iron Fist for the location of K’un-Lun, kill Elektra to ensure she receives the blame for the killing of the monks when it is revealed that the new Black Widow was really responsible, rescue Bullseye so he can join the Thunderbolts, and capture Shang-Chi if he happened to take possession of the 10 Rings. Shang-Chi and the Mandarin fight and Blade, M’Baku, Iron Fist, and Elektra fight the Thunderbolts while Shang-Chi and Mandarin fight one on one. Shang-Chi defeats the Mandarin and, not willing to let him live, kills him. The Thunderbolts escape.

    Post Credit Scene:

    Zemo returns to Madripoor to recruit a wounded Bullseye and Bullseye joins Thunderbolts (who now have Zemo, Red Hulk, Taskmaster, Black Widow, and Bullseye)

    Post Credit Scene 2:

    Wolverine in a tent washing his wounds, after escaping from Weapon X, when he hears a voice in his head say “Logan”

  • The Real Deal with Ogun

    The Real Deal with Ogun

    After sitting on it for months, we recently released an image from the Madripoor set of Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier that revealed what appeared to be a biker gang logo. Shortly after running the story, we were contacted by Twitter user and Murphy’s Multiverse reader @AmzingShite, who believed he had a match for the face on the jacket; he believed (and in subsequent conversations on Twitter it became clear that a lot of folks share the same opinion) that the face was incredibly similar to a red demon mask worn by one of Wolverine’s oldest acquaintances: Ogun.

    First introduced in the 1984 series Kitty Pryde and Wolverine, Ogun is a ninja who once served as friend of Logan’s and mentored him in the Art of the Samurai. During their time together, Ogun revealed to Logan that he had mastered the forbidden art of cheating death. Ogun could copy his psyche and then upload it into the bodies of others where it would slowly begin to erase their personalities and install his, a process he intended to do to Logan before the X-Man departed. Following Logan’s departure, Ogun fought all over the world wearing the red mask seen in the picture above, one that presents a common depiction of demons in Japanese art.

    That connection to Logan has people plenty excited as fan-generated rumors were already circulating that Wolverine would pop up on location in Madripoor, but what’s more interesting is the relationship Ogun himself as to the island, specifically to an underground tournament fought there at one point…

    Apparently bored killing people on his own merit, Ogun joined the Yakuza as an enforcer. Already shown in Avengers: Endgame, the Yakzua are expected to appear in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in the episode where the gang visits Madripoor. In that regard, it’s possible that we see Ogun as the head of a Yakuza biker gang, thus explaining the symbol on the jacket.

    There is, however, one more interesting possibility that could connect The Falcon and The Winter Soldier not only to someone from Logan’s long history, but also to a long-standing rumor about the plot of Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings! During an arc in Wolverine, Vol. 2, Ogun found himself in Madripoor at the time a secret, underground martial arts tournament was being fought. It’s a crazy tale that involves him trying to take over Madripoor by taking over the body of Viper, but it checks enough boxes to at least bring it up here.

    Admittedly a blurry picture of a biker jacket is absolutely not enough evidence to suggest that Ogun is showing up and that’s not what I’m suggesting here. It’s likely that this is either just an Easter Egg for Ogun or completely unrelated; however, to me, the images are similar enough that not taking the time to point out the potential connections would be silly given we originally published the picture and had some great followers from our community (including @hradesi14 who gave a nice summary of Ogun’s character) point it out to us.

    This is one we’d love to hear about in the comments. Do you think we’ll see Ogun in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier? Are we just a few degrees of separation away from the MCU version of Wolverine? Get a discussion going in Disqus and let us know.

  • What Anthony Mackie’s ‘FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER’ Update Means

    What Anthony Mackie’s ‘FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER’ Update Means

    A recent interview by Jimmy Fallon of The Tonight Show with Anthony Mackie sparked an expected burst of articles in comic-book-movie-blogger-land quoting Anthony on the status of his upcoming TV series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Unfortunately, it seems like there is some confusion about how much the series has left to film and when they might go back, so I thought I would try my best to bring clarity to some of that based on what I know.

    Let’s start with Anthony’s quote from this interview:

    Well, I’m happy to say, we are not cancelled, we are on hold. So we’re going back hopefully sometime soon and finish it up. We have very little stuff to do. I’m very happy with it. We have a little bit more we can go back and do but everybody rest assured, it will come out. We are not cancelled.

    When Anthony says “very little stuff” and “a bit more” please bear in mind that the man was filming this series for close to 5 months before they were put on hold. “Very little stuff” in comparison could certainly still amount to several weeks at least, which is what has been previously reported. And certainly it could be his “bit more” is just in reference to his character’s part, while stunt crew and other actors may have much more to do beyond that to finish up.

    Case in point, in a Sebastian Stan interview with SAG AFTRA Foundation interview last month, Seb said they had “roughly a few weeks of shooting” left on FaTWS.

    That is certainly “a bit more” than some might think going by the “very little stuff left to do” headlines I’ve seen recently. Please understand, I don’t say this to tear down my fellow bloggers, only to make clear that there is indeed a significant amount of work left to do on Falcon and The Winter Soldier and I don’t want to give fans a false hope about it finishing up super fast and being ready for an August 2020 premiere. This seems to me and other much more “in the know” types I’ve spoken to, to be near impossible. I hate saying that, many who’ve been following me on Twitter a while know this show is my #1 I’m looking forward to the most. But I can’t deny it seems unrealistic the show will make August 2020, and perhaps not even the Fall.

    On March 6, Czech extra casting company Extrafilms posted on Facebook that there was specifically 3 weeks of filming to be done in and around Prague. The casting call for active runners and bike riders to film at a stadium there mentioned the shoot had a filming date of March 20th. My friend from the Czech Republic @FFilmu on Twitter had also found street permits revealing that the production would likely have been there until March 23. The production was shut down and began leaving around March 10-11, meaning nearly 2 weeks should have been remaining to film in the Czech Republic.

    Around this same time, I also spoke to Atlanta resident @loburger, the same guy who caught some great footage of them filming at Atlantic station and more set images referencing Samson Development, about what was going on at his location. He told me, via a couple friendly security guards watching over things, that the series was meant to return for a bit more filming at that location at the end of month. So it was going to be two more weeks in Prague and then back to Atlanta for at least a little more. He also mentioned to me on March 10th they still seemed to be constructing more stuff for sets there. As of May 16th, according to @loburger everything was still there at that point. In other words, definitely more planned to do in Atlanta, I’d say. Whenever that may be.

    You might at this point say, “Okay, there’s only 3 weeks left to film. No problem, they can finish that in July for August or in August for September. No problem.” Except, there are some pretty damn big problems. One of the biggest for pretty much everyone worldwide being COVID-19.

    Even if they’ve completely straightened out the script to remove some or all of the “pandemic” elements to the story which we believe would have involved a Madbomb storyline, and they have the same amount of planned reshoots left as they did before the shutdown, there is the risk of everything shutting down again. There is also the high likelihood that everything will take significantly longer to film based on new COVID safety guidelines limiting crew, extras, and actors and dictating what they must do to stay safe. So maybe approximately 3 weeks left becomes 4 to 6 weeks? Maybe cases spike and they have to stop again for several months? Or maybe they plan to start and have to throw out those plans last minute, make different plans, or just keep waiting. While I have heard that perhaps mid to late July is the expected time filming will resume for many productions, including the Disney Plus shows, there is no set start dates that we’ve heard about yet, and even if there were it could very well change at the last minute. All we can do is wait and see.

    Because unfortunately, there are much bigger problems and caveats in the way of the series finishing. COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise in Georgia all the while the state continues to loosen restrictions on social distancing and other preventive measures. This is all very worrisome and as much as I want the shows, I want the people making them to stay safe more.

    While things currently seem to be more stable over with my friend in the Czech Republic @FFilmu, and some filming has resumed there with plenty of guidelines. That could change quickly for the worse as well. And yes, I do believe that they want to return to Prague to complete filming there. But that would again involve a smaller crew, less extras, and in all likelihood take longer than the estimated 2 weeks left to film there unless other plans are made.

    So what happens if Georgia and Prague are not feasible or too dangerous due to this virus spiking? Los Angeles has been trending poorly with the virus as well. On top of that, a significant problem is studio space is hard to come by all over. This is yet another big problem for any of these shows to get finished this year. Everybody wants to finish their movies and TV series that have been paused, not just Disney and Marvel.

    Now that I’ve depressed everyone including myself here. I do think there is hope that both The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision are completed and air in 2020. But we must be cautious with our optimism to avoid a very possible let down with further delays. You may now understand why Disney/Marvel have refrained from officially announcing changes to the release dates of these shows. I suspect that it is due to continued uncertainty due to the virus about when these series can be completed. Even with filming done there would still editing and vfx to finish on new footage, scoring, and I’m sure other elements to complete. That all takes time. And I’m sure most if not all of you reading this wouldn’t want them to rush it.

    I truly believe these shows will be worth the wait tho. So hang on, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and those of us longing for our favorite MCU characters to return will get there. I am very hopeful of that.

  • Jeff Lemire’s HAWKEYE May Be A Big Influence on Upcoming Series

    Jeff Lemire’s HAWKEYE May Be A Big Influence on Upcoming Series

    Even though we don’t know when production will begin much less when it will air, fans are very excited for the Marvel Studios series Hawkeye to drop on Disney Plus. Kevin Feige has told us two very important things: it will introduce Kate Bishop and it will feature some more of Clint Barton’s time as Ronin. Rumors have swirled about other potential plot point and characters, but those two tidbits from Feige are key. Additionally, if we’ve learned anything from the limited information available to us about the other Disney Plus series, it’s that they will truly build a world, full of supporting characters, around the leads. For The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, that means we’ll meet Sam Wilson’s family and get some more details about Bucky’s history; the same is very likely for Hawkeye.

    Executive Producer Trinh Tran has promised that the show will paint a picture of Clint Barton’s past and while it’s been retconned a few times over the years, there are some parts and people that seem to stand the test of time. Clint’s story is rooted in an abusive childhood, depends on a relationship with his older brother, Charles Bernard “Barney” Barton and time spent at a carnival where the brothers met some criminals who influenced the rest of their lives. It’s also likely we’ll see a deeper dive into Kate Bishop’s history which means a look at her father, Derek, and his dirty dealings.

    We already know that Matt Fraction’s acclaimed Hawkeye run is going to heavily influence the series. What you’ll see here are some panels from other classic and recent runs that could help us get deeper into the pasts of our Hawkeyes. I have no insider knowledge here, just a lot of comic books, a decent memory, a subscription to Marvel Unlimited and a little more free time than normal. So, enjoy the read and let’s see if we can spot these influences when the show airs!

    Hawkeye, Vol. 3 (2003). Fabian Nicieza and Stefano Raffaele.

    Why They Might Use This Run

    As you’ll see, each of the books here that take a deep dive into Clint Barton’s background will have a few things in common. First of all, they’ll focus on the relationship between Clint and his older brother, Barney, Secondly, the books will show the time the Barton boys spent living the carnival life. Finally, they’ll tell some version of how they were influenced by Swordsman and, in almost every instance, Trick Shot, a couple of carnival showmen with criminal proclivities. In this case, this is probably my favorite iteration of the Clint/Barney relationship, which could make for a really interesting plot device.

    Possible Influential Panels 

    The flashback, as many do, starts with Clint stumbling upon Swordsman embezzling money from the carnival. In this version, Swordsman chases Clint, causes him to fall and break his legs and prepares to kill him before he’s stopped by Trick Shot.

    Following the unfortunate series of events, Barney invites Clint to join him in enlisting in the Army. Clint, at first reluctant to go, changes his mind but misses the bus. Barney goes on to become an FBI agent after leaving the service and, in a cruel twist of fate, meets up with his brother while undercover and is shot in the chest by Clint!

     

     

    Hawkeye: Blindspot (2011). Jim McCann and Paco Diaz.

    Why They Might Use This Run

    McCann’s series, as many of the others here, give us some insight into the early days of the Barton boys. We get a little different version of things each time, but here their abusive father dies and the boys run away and, of course, end up at the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders. While the carnival life really seems like an odd thing to put into the series, it’s hard to imagine the boys not being influenced by Swordsman and Trick Shot. This limited series gives us a brief look at the original Trick Shot, Buck Chisolm, training Clint. It also sees Clint square off with Barney, who is working for Zemo as the new and improved Trick Shot. Should Barney feature in the series, it’s possible they go with this version of the character and take the sibling rivalry to a new level.

    Possible Influential Panels 

     

    All-New Hawkeye, Volume 1 (2015). Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez

    Why They Might Use This Run

    This 5-issue limited series details  (and retcons) the early days of Clint Barton and his brother Barney and Jacques Duquesne, aka the Swordsman, as their paths converge at the Carson Carnival of Travelilng Wonders. The events that take place here, during Clint’s formative years, put him on the road to becoming Hawkeye. While this retcon removes Trick Shot from the early days, it makes Duquesne an even bigger part of Clint’s early years and considering that we saw Barton’s skill with a blade in Avengers: Endgame, it seems very likely that we’ll see Duquesne’s early influence on the Bartons and this version is a little more mild than some of the other options.

    Possible Influential Panels 

    Lemire’s run made some alterations to the Barton boys’ history as told in Hawkeye: Blindspot but he did shine a little more light on the abuse they suffered at the hands of their father and, after his death, their foster dad. The flashbacks show us the day where Barney has finally had enough and fights back. The ordeal leads to the boys running away and stumbling upon the Carson Carnival.

    After the boys fall in love with the wonders of the carnival, their foster father shows up and begins to rough them up until he’s interrupted by Duquesne. Duquesne runs their foster father off and immediately becomes a hero to the boys.

    Duquesne takes Clint under his wing, teaching him to shoot a bow and quickly realizes the skill of the young man. In fact, Duquesne begins to train Clint to join his act. Unfortunately, Duquesne takes Barney under his wing, but instead of teaching him archery, he teaches him to become a criminal. Clint discovers what’s going on and confronts Duquesne. Thought it doesn’t turn violent, it leads to Clint and Barney going their separate ways.

     

    All-New Hawkeye, Volume 2 (2015-16), issues 4-6. Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez

    Why They Might Use This Run

    These 3 issues give new insight into Kate Bishop’s early years and establish just why she and Clint Barton have such an incredible bond. Just like the 2015 series, the events that take place in Kate’s formative years put her on the road to becoming Hawkeye.

    Possible Influential Panels 

    Lemire continues to use flashbacks to give us the goods. The second half of the series fills in some serious gaps in Kate’s past. We find out her father, Derek, hasn’t made all his money through his publishing company and that he’s involved with some dangerous-though-D-list-criminals, mostly notably the infamous El Matador. Kate decides to snoop on her father’s dealings, finds herself stranded in the top secret meeting location, found by someone who looks suspiciously like Tarantula and then held for ransom by the wily Matador!

    As it turns out, Clint and the Avengers have been tailing El Matador and rescue Kate. After being saved by Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Kate is fascinated that Hawkeye, using just a bow and arrow, can hold his own a team of super-powered or suited up heroes. Given a few tweaks here and there, these scenes could easily be retconned into the MCU. We know that, for at least part of Hawkeye, we will see some more of Clint’s adventures as Ronin. We also know, thanks to Rhodey’s exposition in Avengers: Endgame, that one of Clint’s adventures ended up leaving a bunch of dead criminals in Mexico. It doesn’t take much imagination to tie that brief description to the first meeting of the Hawkeyes!

    These final issues of the series build up to the Hawkeyes going their separate ways after sharing some honest moments about how much each one means to the other. The great takeaway here is that Clint, through all his troubles and daddy issues of his own, has provided Kate with the positive father figure she was never going to have in Derek.

    When you’re dealing with a character like Clint Barton, who has been around for so long, there are so many possible stories from which to draw. If you’re looking for one that seems most ready made for Disney Plus and that keeps as many of the key points as possible, it’s certainly Jeff Lemire’s. Lemire’s work on Kate Bishop’s background is equally well-done and likely to inform the MCU version of the character. At this point it’s likely to be a while before we start to uncover some plot points for the series, so as we sit around and speculate, it’s great to have these panels in mind!

     

  • ‘THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER’ Madripoor Gang Jacket Revealed

    ‘THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER’ Madripoor Gang Jacket Revealed

    Many of you reading this may remember a little over 6 months ago when The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was doing a week long shoot in Griffin GA. Just Jared posted a large batch of photographs from the shoot revealing a nasty bike gang and other unknown forces harassing our heroes Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes along with the villainous Zemo.

    Instagram user Justbeachy4stacy visited this set in Griffin one night, just as she had visited the Barnesville set the month prior. We spent quite a bit of time the night she went, chatting in DM about what was happening there and if she was seeing any stars. She spotted Anthony Mackie but was too star struck to take a picture, just missed Daniel Bruhl, may have seen the director talking on the phone at one point, and saw a really big bald guy she thought was probably an actor but couldn’t place.

    In our conversations at one point she showed me a picture she snapped of the back of someone else at the snack area. She said she thought he was actor or extra. I couldn’t tell who it was but I was very intrigued by the symbol on the back of the jacket pictured below.

    I held back the image at the time thinking it might be a piece to a puzzle for another day. But now with a Murphysmultiverse.com redesign and relaunch and still no real clear idea what the symbol may mean, I felt it was as good a time as any to share and let people discuss it.

    And I will say, it may mean nothing, or it may be an Easter egg for us to pick up on later, or it may have a larger link to some of our villains who Bucky, Sam, and Zemo face in what we now know was Madripoor.

    At least some of the biker gang members surrounding the boys in those Just Jared pictures are wearing the same jacket, only cropped out to mostly cut out the gang symbol. See on the right on this image, and on the left on this one.

    Here’s a closer look at the symbol on the jacket itself.

    A number of villains immediately came to my mind upon seeing this symbol. Red Skull & Mephisto, of course, immediately spring to mind.

    Mephisto

    The Madripoor dragon, and other traditional villains of Madripoor spring to mind as well. We know there was extra casting calls for gang members of various ethnic groups for this shoot. IMDb lists at least one stunt actor as a Yakuza gang member, although it seems as if the group surrounding Bucky and Sam in those Just Jared shots are not exclusively Japanese but a mix of people. So again it is unclear if it’s one group which is a mix, or multiple different groups surrounding them.

    Madripoor Dragon

    But those don’t seem like quite the right fit for this image. There’s also the white sort of claws there, and faint circle around the head. It actually made me think of M.O.D.O.K. first. Could this be a redesign of that very strange and distinct looking villain? Perhaps an Easter egg, or perhaps a hint of him taking control behind the scenes in Madripoor? Or perhaps it’s something else entirely.

    M.O.D.O.K.

    What do you think? Let us know in the comments!