Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: TV Features

  • “Expect to See Him Everywhere”: What’s Next for Charlie Cox’s Daredevil

    “Expect to See Him Everywhere”: What’s Next for Charlie Cox’s Daredevil

    Following the cancellation of Netflix’s streaming series, Daredevil, fans united under the #SaveDaredevil movement to make it clear that Charlie Cox’s iteration of the character shouldn’t be retired. In late 2020, the first reports of Cox’s return to the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home circulated and sparked a debate among disbelievers that wasn’t truly settled until nearly a year later when Kevin Feige finally declared that Cox would be returning in the role. Though his appearance was brief, it was met with thunderous applause in theaters and has fans wild with anticipation about when they might see him again. Several months ago, a source who confirmed Cox’s return to the MCU last December shared something that should add to that anticipation. When asked where Cox might appear again, the response was, “expect to see him everywhere.” With a recent run of rumors lining up with that statement, let’s take a look at what’s next for Cox’s character.

    She-Hulk

    Rumors have persisted that the next place we’ll see Charlie Cox is in Marvel Studios yet-to-be-dated for 2022 streaming series, She-Hulk. This rumor (is it even still a rumor at this point) makes too much sense for it not to happen and promises that Cox will have quite a bit more to do than catch a brick. Rumblings have Cox showing up in the court room as Murdock, where he’ll probably go up against Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters. The two, of course, faced off in Charles Soule’s 2014 She-Hulk, and had quite a fun relationship. It is worth noting that while the rumor has them facing off in a court case involving a superhero tailor, issue #9 of Soule’s run found the two on opposing sides of a case involving an old, depowered Steve Rogers. With Chris Evans rumored to return for two non-Captain America projects, his presence would make for one helluva surprise.

    Of course that’s only half the rumor and the other half sounds a whole lot more fun. Probably also inspired from the same Soule run, the rumor suggests that Cox, sporting a shiny, new, yellow suit and kicking some ass as Daredevil. It looks as though Cox’s reintegration into the MCU is going to be step-by-step with She-Hulk giving fans their first chance to see Daredevil hit the skyline again. So we’ll see the character at least once in 2022, though there is a rumor he has some role to play in Moon Knight as well.

    Echo

    Hawkeye: 10 Things Only Comic Fans Know About Echo | ScreenRant

    Daredevil is also rumored to be appearing in the Marvel Studios streaming series, Echo, which is currently slated to go into production in April. Echo will feature several new Native American roles and a couple of new, female villains but there’s definitely room for Daredevil. Whatever role Cox’s character plays in the series, it’ll be markedly different from the source material. Echo was first introduced in Daredevil Vol. 2 and was trained and sent out by Kingpin to take out Daredevil, who he blamed for the death of Echo’s father; along the way, she met and fell in love with Matt Murdock. While the two did battle, Murdock was able to convince her of the truth before she killed him. Echo went on to take her revenge on Kingpin by shooting him in the face, similar to the scene we saw at the end of Hawkeye.

    Even though that story seems like it’s off the table (we could always see a flashback if Marvel really felt the need to tell it), there’s plenty of room for the two to run into one another. The end of Hawkeye is just the beginning of Echo’s journey. Everything she once thought to be true about her life was revealed as a facade that came crashing down. It’s likely that her journey will lead her back to New York and the Kingpin and that her path will intersect Murdock’s along the way. This should be the first of at least two 2023 appearances for Cox.

    Armor Wars

    Marvel's Daredevil Season 3: 9 Villains That Should Appear – Page 8

    Armor Wars is still a long way off and very, very little is known about it but the premise is that a group of villains mysteriously come into possession of Stark Tech and that James Rhodes will have to deal with the fallout. One of those villains is engineer Wilbur Day who uses the tech to upgrade his original suit. It would represent a major missed opportunity not to include Stilt-Man, originally a Daredevil villain who first appeared on the page in 1965, in Armor Wars and have Rhodey enlist the help of Daredevil in taking him down. Assuming we also see Cox in Echo, this will mark at least his second 2023 appearance (there’s also a rumor he’ll appear in Ironheart, which would come out before Armor Wars).

    Spider-Man 4

    5 Reasons Why Kingpin Is Better As A Spider-Man Nemesis (& 5 Why He's Better As A Daredevil Villain)

    Spider-Man: No Way Home gave fans the first onscreen meeting of two longtime comic book friends: Spider-Man and Daredevil. Although they only met as Peter Parker and Matt Murdock, hope remains that the two will team-up again down the road to take on a shared foe: Kingpin. While he’s best known as Daredevil’s archenemy, Kingpin first entered the world of Marvel Comics in 1967’s Amazing Spider-Man #50. The stage is set up perfectly for an adaptation of that arc where Fisk united crime bosses into the international crime syndicate known as the Maggia.

    Both Tom Holland and Vincent D’Onofrio have expressed their interest in their respective characters coming into conflict, making Fisk a very likely possibility to appear in the next Spider-Man film. With Spider-Man now known to be sticking close to his new NYC neighborhood and Daredevil likely patrolling the city as well, it’s only a matter of time before these two bump into one another and unite to take down the head of NYC’s organized crime. With Kevin Feige revealing that they have already begun work on the next Spider-Man film and Sony’s eagerness to have the character appear every two years, it’s possible that this film could make it into theaters for late 2024.

    Daredevil

    The final rumor is that a solo Daredevil project is now in development at the studio. I’ll caution (though it’ll do absolutely no good) that being “in development” never, ever means a project will get made but, given the enormity of the popularity of Cox in the role, this odds that this ends up getting a green light have to be high. It it happens, it’s probably 2 to 3 years off but given the possibilities outlined above and Cox’s other contractual obligations, it may well be that long before he can lead his own project. At this point, all we really know is that it is not currently slated to enter into production in 2022.

  • 2021: What We Learned From ‘WandaVision’

    2021: What We Learned From ‘WandaVision’

    After sitting out 2020, Marvel Studios returned in a big way in 2021 with 4 films and their first 5 streaming series. That all kicked off in January with WandaVision, a 9-episode series that paid homage to eras gone by and changed the way MCU fans consumed and processed media. It’s not overreaching to say that nothing has been the same since the series concluded its run, so as the year comes to an end, let’s reflect on what we all learned from WandaVision.

    To Appreciate Character-Driven Projects

    Elizabeth Olsen and Jac Schaeffer on Wanda Maximoff's Grief and Journey to the Scarlet Witch | Marvel

    While fans initially disapproved of the slow pace of the first few episodes of WandaVision, they also noted the incredible work by stars Lizzie Olsen and Paul Bettany. Bettany got to show off his comedic chops while Olsen put on a master class, essentially playing a new character in every episode (which also served as interesting meta commentary on changes made to the ways women have been portrayed in sitcoms over the decades). It’s not as if these were talents we didn’t know they possessed, it was just that they hadn’t been allowed to exhibit them in the MCU as they were overshadowed by the actors whose characters were headlining the films in which they appeared.

    Upon deeper reflection, however, it wasn’t only because they were finally getting their starring roles. Marvel Studios was making a different kind of product for their fans and they bravely and boldly proved that by releasing 3 episodes of WandaVision with almost no trace of the big action associated with the brand. In short, they let their actors act. The trend continued in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, where Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan gave a depth to their characters that they would never have gotten on the big screen and Daniel Bruhl actually got to perform; it continued into Loki where the bond between Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson became the heart of the show and Jonathan Majors laid out the gauntlet for the future of the MCU in one of the best performances in its history; it concluded in Hawkeye, perhaps the strongest character work yet, with Jeremy Renner’s subdued performance while his character embarked on a redemptive arc, Hailee Steinfeld’s star-making work as a new hero and her incredible chemistry with Florence Pugh and great turns by Vera Farmiga and Tony Dalton. By simply letting the actors act, Marvel Studios found the key to making its streaming world go round: keep the focus on the characters.

    That Expanding the Universe Is Good

    Loki's Jonathan Majors On Bringing Kang Back For Ant-Man 3 | Cinemablend

    With characters who had previously served as supporting characters taking the leads in their own series, new characters had to be inserted into their stories to help flesh out them and their worlds. Undoubtedly one of the best gifts given to fans in 2021 came in the form of these new, supporting characters. And it wasn’t just the new heroes that fans learned to appreciate, the expanded universe and the time to breathe gave life to incredible new anti-heroes and villains, too.

    WandaVision gave us Teyonah Parris, who will co-star as Monica Rambeau in 2023’s The Marvels, and Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness, who will now lead her own series, Agatha: The House of Harkness. We also met Tommy and Billy Maximoff, who were the first of the MCU’s Young Avengers to enter the universe, and who will serve as the catalysts for the next steps taken by Wanda. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier gifted us with Julia Louis-Drefus’ Val, Wyatt Russell’s punchable John Walker and Erin Kellyman’s Karli and Carl Lumbly’s Isaiah Bradley, who made Sam question what being a hero really means. In Loki, we were introduced to the concept of Variants and with that met two whose impact extended far beyond the confines of the series. The confrontation between Sophia Di Martino’s vengeful Sylvie and Jonathan Majors‘ He Who Remains changed the MCU forever but also had a profound impact on Loki himself. And, in Hawkeye, Marvel Studios created a street-level corner of the universe that gave us Maya Lopez and Wilson Fisk, who is likely to show up again in the Lopez-centric Echo series in 2023.

    As 2021 comes to a close, the roster of heroes and villains, and those who toe the line, is fuller than it has ever been and it’s hard to argue that the MCU is worse for it.

    The Weekly Format is Good

    Sam Wilson is Captain America': Marvel fans embrace The Falcon and The Winter Soldier's new Cap | Web Series - Hindustan Times

    As was the case with The Mandalorian, Disney eschewed the binge watching preferences of streaming audiences in favor of the old fashioned weekly format for the Marvel Studios streaming series. In review, the weekly format allowed for an incredible amount of content and conversation around the projects which can only be a good thing. A careful schedule was created that began with screeners sent out to media outlets. Outlets had strict scheduled to follow, first sharing social media reactions, then later full reviews ahead of the premiers, building hype for the first week’s release. Following that, the studio arranged weekly interviews with the cast and crew, something that would have previously only happened in pre-screening junkets for films. Whether fans loved or hated the episodes, the conversation was constant and engaging. However, the weekly format also had some pitfalls, notably…

    To Separate Rumors from Theories and Speculation…Well, Some of Us

    Best Superhero Halloween Costumes: Marvel, DC Comics, and More | IndieWire

    More than any project before or after it, WandaVision fueled an insane amount of speculation on a weekly basis. Speculation led to theories and then, somehow, theories led to disappointment and, even more damaging, disbelief in the obvious. Mephisto was everywhere, but when he wasn’t, that meant that there was no way Sharon Carter could be the Power Broker? The trail of cookie crumbs leading to Kang’s presence in Loki couldn’t have been easier to follow, but because Evan Peters was Ralph Bohner, that meant there was no way Kang was showing up and that, instead, Loki would be meeting himself at the Citadel at the End of Time. It was easier for fans to believe that the big boss running organized crime in NYC, Maya’ “uncle”, was either Val or, worse yet, Jack Duquesne, even AFTER seeing and hearing Vincent D’Onofrio in Episode 3. The lack of critical thinking trickled over to the film side of things where, despite an incredible amount of evidence that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were in Spider-Man: No Way Home (and absolutely no evidence of any other potential plots that did not include them), fans persisted in their beliefs that they would not appear and that the film’s plot would not include the multiverse…DESPITE IT FEATURING CHARACTERS FROM THE SONY FILMS!

    WandaVision changed the game in the way some fans perceive information now. Because Reed Richards didn’t make Monica’s suit and because it was Agatha all along, there has never been more refutation of reliable sources of information. It’s not all bad, however, as other fans have learned to be scrutinize more and think more critically about what to believe. For that second set of fans, the MCU might actually be more enjoyable in the future as there will certainly always be wild rumors, speculation and theory leading up to Marvel Studios’ projects. If there’s anything we should all have learned from WandaVision, it’s that knowing how to separate them into their appropriate categories makes a big difference.

    That the “Big Reveal” in the Last Episode Doesn’t Always Work

    Hawkeye': Vincent D'Onofrio on Kingpin's Return & What Happened in the Finale

    In some cases, despite the fact that the were making streaming series, the projects were put together like longer films. What was sometimes lost in translation there was the fact that in most all films, the villains are revealed early on. Beginning in WandaVision, Marvel Studios seemed to really embrace the idea of last act/last episode reveals and it really was hit or miss. Agatha Harkness, He Who Remains and Kingpin all came onto the scene late in the game with only one really getting enough time to make a major impact on the series. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier took a different approach, developing Karli over the course of the series alongside the other characters, allowing her to be much more impactful to the overall story. As they move into 2022, their decisions on WHEN to do things with their villains will be something to watch closely.

    Moving forward into 2022, it’s likely that Marvel Studios has learned a significant amount about how to move forward with their projects. We’re already seeing an increased level of secrecy with upcoming projects like Moon Knight, Werewolf By Night and, to a lesser extent She-Hulk. Let’s all meet back here next year to see how what they’ve learned from WandaVision changes things again.

  • ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Episode 1 Primer

    ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Episode 1 Primer

    Famous Star Wars Bounty Hunter, Boba Fett, is finally getting the spotlight in his own show. The series The Book of Boba Fett streams tomorrow on Disney+! After being briefly teased in Season 1 of The Mandalorian, Boba played a key role in Season 2. He reclaimed his armor and helped Din Djarin protect Grogu before heading back to Tatooine and forcefully taking the former throne of Jabba The Hutt, with Fennec Shand by his side. That is where we will find him at the beginning of Episode 1.

    Boba Fett will be trying to transition from bounty hunter to crime lord and this road he’s going down is going to be a little bit rockier than he thought. So what’s in store for Boba as the series goes on? Lucasfilm has been especially secretive, refusing to send out media screeners to keep as many secrets protected as possible. However, we do have some idea of what is going to happen thanks to trailers, rumors, and information from the cast.

    Star Temuera Morrison has revealed that the show is going to go back in time. In the trailer we can see Boba climbing out of the Sarlacc Pit fans believed he died in during Return of the Jedi. That will give us some idea of how he got back on his and catch us up to the point where we saw him in Season 1 of The Mandalorian. Rumored appearances of other Empire-era bounty hunters, Crimson Dawn and even Luke Skywalker have made their way through fandom, but with fewer than 12 hours to go, we truly don’t know what to expect.

    Arlyn’s Assumptions

    SPOILERS: 'The Mandalorian' Chapter 14 Recap – Robert Rodriguez Directs A Fun Episode With A Pair of Familiar Faces – THE RONIN

    Based on what we can see in the trailers, Boba and Fennec are going to have to do a lot of fighting despite Boba’s wishes to the contrary. They are also going to meet a few of the galaxies most dangerous bounty hunters along the way, not all of whom are friends with Boba. Given Lucasfilm’s secrecy we should expect Grogu-sized suprises.

  • ‘Hawkeye’: Clint Barton Succeeds Where Tony Stark Failed

    ‘Hawkeye’: Clint Barton Succeeds Where Tony Stark Failed

    The Marvel Cinematic Multiverse is in full-swing and, as it turns out, in a point of transition as it moves from a semi-grounded MCU into the next phase of the content Marvel wants to put out. I’ve long theorized that Phase 4 would be made up of smaller phases building out over one big story, as opposed to the first 23 films where it was all building to Thanos. We have original Avengers transitioning their titles to the next generation of heroes, some of which are even younger than they were when they joined the fray. One transition in particular deserves special attention, both for what it means for the future and how it handled the present in the shadow of the juggernaut that is Marvel’s latest big-screen offering. It also deserves kudos for successfully landing the plane on the mentor-mentee relationship in a way that Peter Parker’s arc really didn’t. We now have a new Hawkeye and that is Kate Bishop.

    After being put through the ringer while finding out her parents were willing members of organized crime, the world’s greatest archer ensures that her mother faces some consequences for her actions. The Elder Bishop is last seen asking her daughter if sending parents to jail is what heroes do after she is unable to gracefully exit the Kingpin’s criminal enterprise. It would not surprise me to see the Kingpin enlist a masked vigilante like Madame Masque to take the younger Bishop down if we get a Season 2 or a Hawkeye and Black Widow movie down the line. Whatever form she next shows up in, Kate Bishop won’t be alone.

    At the end of Hawkeye, Clint Barton solidified his relationship with Kate Bishop, and completes the arc that began in 2012’s Avengers. His family is safe, his wife’s past life is secure, and he can now finally rest. Not only does he do this, but he brings Kate home with him. At this point, only Nick Fury and the Avengers even knew his family existed. This shows how much he actually cares about Kate, and how much the “your mess is my mess” line isn’t delivered just for kicks, but actually symbolizes a partnership that began reluctantly. It’s a much better partnership than that of Peter Parker and Tony Stark.

    Whereas Iron Man recruited Spider-Man out of necessity, he then took the young man into space and watched him die in his arms. Before taking him to space, Stark wanted to have Peter join the Avengers: this was his grand gesture since letting him go against The Vulture alone as a way to clean up the public relations mess after Captain America broke the Avengers out of The Raft. He let a 16-year old kid keep a hyper-advanced suit and it was the way he treated past employees that led to one of them targeting Peter to the point of outing his identity. In a lot of ways, it was Tony Stark’s recruitment of a starstruck Peter Parker that has now led to the multiverse exploding.

    Clint Barton is no Tony Stark.

    Clint went out of his way to protect Kate from the beginning, and he risked his family just to make sure she was safe. He didn’t want her to get involved, then got to know her and doubled down on protecting her, and even tried to send her home when he realized things got too dangerous. When Kate wanted to confront her mother after receiving the video of the Kingpin, he told her he’d help. Clint taught Kate how to make arrows and how to assess targets. Compare that to Stark, who didn’t take Peter seriously when he told him about the Vulture and who left him (and the rest of the Avengers) absolutely no financial stability after his passing. Given her mentor, Kate Bishop has a chance to be a better Avenger than Spider-Man’s ever been.

  • Connecting Imaginary Dots: Daredevil vs. Stilt-Man in the MCU

    Connecting Imaginary Dots: Daredevil vs. Stilt-Man in the MCU

    It’s been a little over a year since we first reported that Charlie Cox was making his big MCU debut in Spider-Man: No Way Home, an appearance that has garnered praise and excitement. The future of Daredevil in the MCU is bright with many rumored appearances in the pipeline. In addition to the long-rumored She-Hulk appearance of Matt Murdock, the subreddit /r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers now alleges that the Man Without Fear is slated to appear in Armor Wars as well.

    Daredevil’s inclusion in such a sci-fi industrial spectacle may seem unusual at first but one look at the show’s source material, the titular Armor Wars by David Michelinie and Bob Layton, gives an idea of how he could possibly tie in.

    For the uninitiated, Armor Wars is basically about a bunch of supervillains getting their hands on coveted Stark technology. Characters like Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo are some of the many tech-based baddies to get a Stark upgrade in the story. One particular tech-based that appears early in the story is Stilt-Man, infamous for being… a man with stilts. And it so happens to be that Stilt-Man is a classic Daredevil villain.

    Interestingly enough, MODOK showrunner Jordan Blum said a while back that they originally had plans to bring Stilt-Man into the show but were prohibited for reasons uncertain. Blum’s quote coincided with Kevin Smith‘s own comments about how they weren’t allowed to use Werewolf by Night in the Howard the Duck show they were working on. As evidenced by the MCU’s history, when things like this happen, it’s usually because Marvel Studios has dibs on those characters. Months later, We now know that Marvel Studios is, in fact, already working on a Werewolf by Night D+ Halloween special, adding credence to Blum’s comments. ‘

    Could a fun Stilt-Man appearance in the MCU be on the books? Is Kevin Feige revving up to give us a Daredevil vs. Stilt-Man showdown, a match-up harkening back to the 8th issue of Daredevil from 1965? Should the rumor be true, it certainly would be a nice way to bring Daredevil into the fold while staying true to the tech-based premise of Armor Wars.

    It does seem like Marvel Studios is keen on bringing more of the Silver Age elements of the character into the fold, such as the rumored classic yellow costume for She-Hulk. Bringing in Stilt-Man would be another great Silver Age aspect that would deepen the tapestry of the live-action Daredevil.

  • Recapping the First Three Seasons of ‘Cobra Kai’

    Recapping the First Three Seasons of ‘Cobra Kai’

    The small-screen follow-up to the Karate Kid films, Cobra Kai has become a massive hit with a fourth season on the way and season five having already filmed. It’s one of the rare reboots to last and, with Season 4 around the corner, we take a quick look back at the show’s first three seasons and why each season has only continued to grow better than the last.

    Season 1 (YouTube Red)

    Where it all began. When Cobra Kai was first announced, it was being developed as a YouTube Red series, a service YouTube had begun to try and compete with streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. The first season saw William Zabka return as Johnny Lawrence, alongside Ralph Macchio, who returns as Daniel LaRusso. The first season continues their rivalry from the films, showing that, despite the amount of time that has passed, Johnny hasn’t been able to get over what happened between the two of them. He’s a down-on-his-luck contractor, while LaRusso has built a name for himself as a car salesman. It isn’t until Johnny finds himself going to one of LaRusso’s facilities to get his car back that he’s forced to deal with his problems with LaRusso head-on. It’s ultimately this confrontation between the two that results in Johnny bringing back Cobra Kai, much to LaRusso’s dismay.

    It’s through bringing back Cobra Kai that Johnny goes on to build a relationship with his neighbor, Miguel, who he soon ends up teaching karate. As his bond with Miguel grows stronger, his relationship with his own son, Robby, continues to decline. It only gets worse when Robby ends up working for LaRusso’s company and ultimately becoming his mentee. This strikes a cord in Johnny, of course, and when Robby decides to compete in the All Valley championship independently, using LaRusso’s teaching, Johnny finds himself both eager to protect Robby and yet see him win. Unfortunately, though, Miguel ends up using Robby’s injury from their fight against him during the final match and wins, injuring Robby and forcing Johnny to see the Cobra Kai of his past is not something to celebrate. The season ultimately ends with LaRusso opening up Miyagi-do, while Johnny is paid a surprise visit by John Kreese, who is ready to bring back the Cobra Kai of their past.

    Season 2 (YouTube Red)

    The show’s second season is ultimately where s**t hits the fan and it’s absolutely great. Season 2 is when Cobra Kai becomes dojo vs dojo, with both Johnny and LaRusso trying to outdo one another with their respective dojos. Following their win at the All Valley tournament, LaRusso is eager to spread the word about Miyagi-do in hopes it’ll drown out interest in Cobra Kai. Things only become worse when LaRusso learns Kreese is back in the fold.

    The fight among the adults soon spills over onto the kids, as the students begin to fight for their respective dojos, with the Cobra Kai students often acting as bullies thanks to their “no mercy” training. The bullying tendencies are showcased best when some of the Cobra Kai students, led by Hawk, seek to destroy Miyagi-do and take Mr. Miyagi’s medal of honor in the process. As the season goes on, and the students begin to realize how violent Cobra Kai is making some of them, they opt to move to Miyagi-do where they’ll learn self-defense, rather than being trained to become merciless fighters who are taught to strike first.

    We saw Miguel’s relationship with LaRusso’s daughter, Sam, implode after he got drunk during Season 1 and accidentally hit her. So, naturally, it isn’t surprising to see both characters enter new relationships in Season 1. Miguel finds solace in Tory, a fellow Cobra Kai student, while Sam begins to develop feelings for Johnny’s son, Robby, who her father has taken under his wing. Still, the tensions seems to only grow when Miguel tries to do the right thing and return Miyagi’s medal of honor, only for Robby to plant the medal in the yard and not tell Sam the truth.

    When the students attend a party where both dojos are in attendance, Sam and Miguel briefly kiss. While it’s short, and both immediately realize their wrongdoing, it’s too late as Tory saw everything. This leads to her starting a full-on karate fight on the first day back at school, when she announces she’s coming for Sam over the intercom. Cobra Kai students go to back Tory up, while the Miyagi-do students go to Sam’s aide. Ultimately, the fight comes down to Tory vs Sam and Miguel vs Robby, as both boys attempt to stop the girls from fighting. It’s during this fight that Season 2 takes a huge turn.

    While Sam and Tory continue their fight on the stairs, Robby and Miguel have moved up higher, where they continue to battle it out, all while trying to stop the main fight. Unfortunately, while Miguel opts to show mercy, something Johnny has been trying to teach at Cobra Kai after acknowledging his faults, Robby does the opposite. With his back turned, Robby knocks Miguel over the rail, with Miguel falling on the staircase below.

    The season ends with Johnny trying to check on Miguel, only to find his mother insisting he stay away from her son — and also her, suggesting anything romantic between the two is officially over. While the LaRusso family ends up going to the hospital to collect Sam as she had to receive stitches because Tory stabbed her with her spiked-bracelet. At this point, we know Robby is on the run, and it’s unclear if Miguel will ever be able to walk again, let alone partake in karate.

    Things only continue to get worse for Johnny as Kreese decides to take Cobra Kai from him. As he sees it, Miguel is in the hospital because he showed mercy. According to Kreese, it’s all Johnny’s fault, and Kreese wants to ensure the students are ready for the battle ahead of them. The season ends with Kreese making a mysterious call, followed by the teasing of Terry Silver’s return.

    Season 3 (Netflix)

    Enter Season 3…. and Terry Silver. It’s bad enough Kreese is back, but now, he’s brought Silver back to help him run Cobra Kai. Or at least, he finally succeeds in doing so after paying him a surprise visit at his house. As Silver later tells it, Kreese has reignited something within him and in him, something that made him want to return to Cobra Kai after so long.

    A fair amount of the season is centered around Johnny helping Miguel to regain his strength and the ability to walk – in the ways only Johnny Lawrence can. One of the weirder bits of the season, though, comes as LaRusso finds his image to be tarnished after the public learns of Sam’s involvement in the fight that injured Miguel. This sends LaRusso on a journey – quite literally, as he heads to Japan – to try and fix his name and save his company. Along the way, he meets up with a few old friends from The Karate Kid: Part II: Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) and Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita). Somehow, he finds exact what he was looking for and manages to safe LaRusso Auto.

    Season 3 also brings about the introduction of Eagle Fang Karate. (And yes, don’t you worry, there are plenty of jokes regarding the absurdity of the name and logo.) They might’ve lost Cobra Kai, but Johnny and Miguel are not willing to give up on those that need them. LaRusso, naturally, opposes to the new dojo, but Johnny soon proves he’s trying to be different from Cobra Kai. He understands his mistakes and wants to do right by his students, or at least those that’ll listen to him.

    Just as both parties look to be getting their lives back on track, they learn the All Valley Tournament has been canceled. The reasoning behind the cancelation, of course, is due to the fight at the high school. However, Miguel (who is fully recovered) and Sam, are unwilling to see the tournament cancelled and take it upon themselves to fight for the tournament when the adults fail to sell its importance.

    The third season also sees the return of Elisabeth Shue as Ali Mills, which naturally brings out the worst in both Johnny and LaRusso. While they continue to have their issues, by the end of the season the two mean have found they work best together. Which results in them teaming up their dojos to try and take down Cobra Kai following an attack by its students. This leaves Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang to work as a single unit, with both Johnny and LaRusso teaching them. It took three seasons, but the series allowed the two main characters to undergo tremendous growth. Even better? Some of the students seem to follow suit and switch dojos – including Hawk, who has decided to leave Cobra Kai behind him.

    One can only help the fourth season doesn’t regress because the ending of Season 3 sets up a pretty stellar Season 4.

    The fourth season of Cobra Kai debuts on Netflix on Dec. 31.

  • A Dozen Characters Ready to Be Saved From Mediocrity Now that ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Isn’t Canon

    A Dozen Characters Ready to Be Saved From Mediocrity Now that ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Isn’t Canon

    For seven seasons starting in 2013, Marvel Television and ABC Studios’ soap opera, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., adapted characters and story lines from Marvel Comics that were unlikely to ever make their way into any of the company’s mainstream films. With former head of Marvel TV, Jeph Loeb, stepping aside and the company falling under the oversight of Marvel Studios One-Above-All, Kevin Fiege, the series was not renewed following its seventh season, which received rave reviews from all 15 critics who took the time to watch it and share their opinions with Rotten Tomatoes.

    In late-2018, Marvel Studios began developing its own series which were set to become key central to Disney’s efforts to enter the streaming wars. By early 2019, development on several series had begun, including Hawkeye, which would be officially announced by Feige at SDCC ’19. Hawkeye recently concluded its 6-episode streaming run and, in its finale, clearly identified Laura Barton, played since 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron by Linda Cardellini, as a former Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. More specifically, it was made clear that Laura was Agent 19, a designation that belonged only to Barbara “Bobbi” Morse, also known as Mockingbird, the one-time wife of Clint Barton. This revelation indicated to fans that the events of the long-running ABC soap opera, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., could no longer be considered canonical in the Sacred Timeline of the MCU since that show had its own Bobbi Morse who had a very different story.

    With the startling revelation that Marvel Studios would choose to tell its own stories with the character it controls, we thought it a good time to take a look at other characters from the ABC series who could be recast and see their stories retold in the Sacred Timeline.

    The Secret Warriors

    Marvel's Agents of SHIELD': Daisy is Forced to Show Off her Quake Skills (VIDEO)

    In the mid-2000’s, Marvel Comics’ writer Brian Michael Bendis went on a hot streak the likes of which was rarely seen before it and has rarely been seen since. Beginning in 2004 with Secret War, Bendis weaved a fascinating story with Nick Fury at the center. After killing one his old friends, Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine, and finding out she was a Skrull, Fury began assembling, in secret, a team of under-the-radar powered warriors to fight back. These individuals were called Caterpillars and were split up into 3 teams each of which were led by agents who Fury deeply trusted. First appearing in Mighty Avengers #13 during the company’s line-wide Secret Invasion event (overseen by Bendis, who wrote the event series), Fury’s Secret Warriors eventually headlined their own series (co-written by Bendis and Jonathan Hickman). Starting in 2009, Secret Warriors took readers on an absolutely insane ride that slowly unraveled a wild story that included Leonardo da Vinci’s secret council of spies, known as the Great Wheel of the Zodiac.

    The third season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was loosely based on parts of Bendis and Hickman’s Secret Warriors as it saw Agent Coulson and Daisy Johnson assemble a group of Caterpillars who, in the show, were Inhumans, to battle Hydra and the Hive.

    In May of 2020, it was revealed that Marvel Studios has been developing their own Secret Warriors project. Should this project go into development and stick a little more closely to the source material, Marvel Studios could chose to repurpose the following five characters, all of whom were integral to the Secret Warriors comic book though not all of them appeared in the Season 3 Secret Warriors arc of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

    • Daisy Johnson/Quake
    • Elena Rodriquez/Yo-Yo
    • J.T. Slade/Hellfire
    • Madame Hydra
    • Daniel Whitehall/Kraken

    Ghost Rider

    Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." The Ghost (TV Episode 2016) - IMDb

    Season Four of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. featured Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes in one of the most beloved arcs of the series. Earlier this year, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. VFX supervisor Mark Kolpack revealed that the creators turned to Reyes’ character after abruptly being told they could NOT use original Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze, whose story they had already been prepping and planning to tease at the end of Season 3. And so, Robbie Reyes showed up for 10 episodes before picking up the Darkhold (which was also recently recast in WandaVision) and pissing off for Hell, never to be seen again.

    As Kolpak indicated in the interview, Feige has plans for Marvel Studios to use Blaze (in fact, they may have found their guy) and are developing a solo Ghost Rider project.


    Deathlok

    J. August Richards on playing 'Deathlok' on 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D' - ABC7 Los Angeles

    One of the first teasers for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. featured a character jumping out of a building and cracking the concrete beneath his feet. Fans speculated WILDLY about who it might be. Was it Luke Cage? Nope. It was legendary Marvel Comics’ character Mike Peterson, portrayed by J. August Richards. Peterson, a one-time Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., volunteered for the Centipede Project which was meant to build an army of super soldier for Hydra. Apparently a big project guy, Peterson then became a subject in Project Deathlok which turned him into a laughable version of the comic book character. I mean he had a rocket launcher in his forearm.

    Interestingly enough, in 2019 Deadline reported that Marvel Studios was looking to use the character in an upcoming project. Presumably, the studio would do so by using one of the five comic book characters who have become Deathlok and not creating a new character to act as a poor substitute.


    Victoria Hand

    Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 17 – “Turn, Turn, Turn” | Geekquality.com

    In another pretty poor page-to-screen adaptation, Victoria Hand went from a S.H.I.E.L.D. accountant fired by Nick Fury in the comics to a Level 8 Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the show. Hand’s time on the show was short, thankfully, as she was betrayed and murdered by Grant Ward. In the comics, Hand became the right hand of Norman Osborn as he rose to power in the aftermath of the Skrull Invasion of Earth and helped him create the Thunderbolts. She later became an Avenger and was killed by a ghost, which not many people can say.

    Production on Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion is underway and there’s no telling how messy things will get in the MCU following the events of the paranoia-driven series and who will be left standing to pick up the pieces. Obviously S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn’t existed in years, but that doesn’t mean a version of Victoria Hand doesn’t exist in the MCU, waiting to be redeemed for how she was handled in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.


    The Antagonists

    The Blog of Delights: Agents of SHIELD - Season 2 Finale

    If there was one thing Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did incredibly well, it was utilizing interesting comic book villains in incredibly uninteresting ways. Franklin Hall, Graviton, a one-time Master of Evil, A.I.M.’s Minister of Science and an Avengers-level threat was forgotten about after being introduced in Season 1 before his powers were, inexplicably given to Glenn Talbot. Mr. Hyde was turned into a homeless, junkie and the father of Quake (and then the comics retconned Daisy’s whole past to line up with the show). Small-timers Blizzard and Blackout were unceremoniously dispatched. And that brings us, finally, to Carl Creel, the Absorbing Man, who ended up being used by Talbot to turn him into Graviton?

    • Franklin Hall/Graviton
    • Calvin Johnson/Calvin Zabo/Mr. Hyde
    • Carl Creel/Absorbing Man
    • Marcus Daniels/Blackout
    • Donald Gill/Blizzard
    • Glenn Talbot

    Of these characters, it’s possible that Carl “Crusher” Creel could show up in the MCU in the next year. Creel’s wife, Titania, plays a major role in She-Hulk and the two have been nearly inseparable in the comics over the past several years. Creel’s power set, much like many of the rest of the villains on the list above, would play much, much better in the big budget world of Marvel Studios television than they did on the melodrama budget of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And Talbot has been a thorn in the side of Hulk since the 1960s; hell, he was even included in Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk. He deserves an upgrade, too.

    Fingers crossed, True Believers! Some day some of your favorite heroes and villains will make the jump to the big leagues and join the MCU, just like Agent 19, aka Mockingbird, aka Bobbi Morse, aka Laura Barton.

  • ‘Hawkeye’ Rumor Review

    ‘Hawkeye’ Rumor Review

    Correct: Kingpin Will Appear

    This one was a well-known fact among many in the “scooper” community and made its way into the public via a Reddit post. After being referenced regularly and teased in Episode 3, Kingpin was seen at the end of Episode 5 before making his grand entrance into the MCU in Episode 6.

    Incorrect: A Combo of a Fat Suit and CGI Will Be Used to Make Kingpin Appear Huge

    Kingpin se verá tan exagerado como en Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse en su regreso al MCU | Código Espagueti

    This one spread like wildfire after RPK News shared it and ended up generating the ridiculous looking picture above. As it turned out, it was just D’Onofrio who, at 6’4″ and 250+ lbs., is plenty big enough to be physically menacing.

    Correct: Clint Barton Would Need an Audiologist

    One of our own and one that was never in doubt since it came from a casting call. Clint’s hearing loss played an integral part in the beginning of the series and, as expected, he had to visit an audiologist. This visit was also seen in set pics taken during filming.

    Incorrect: Madame Masque Would Appear in a Supporting Role

    Shared last Fall by The Direct, this one turned out to be inaccurate. To add to it a bit, there were also rumblings that Kate’s Mom, Eleanor, would be revealed to be Madame Masque: this was never the case and not something that was “cut” from the series.

    Partially Correct: Trickshot and the Tracksuit Mafia Would Appear

    Who Are the Tracksuit Mafia in Hawkeye? Why Do they Want the Watch?

    An old rumor from MCU Cosmic suggested that Trickshot, the brother of Clint Barton, would appear in Hawkeye. In what seems like a missed opportunity to introduce that character, he was not included. The same report also indicated that the Tracksuit Mafia would appear in the series. Of course, they did appear and were one of the highlights of the series.

    Correct: Carlos Navarro Joined the Cast

    Another one of ours and it was spot on. The MM team was tipped off and a quick check of social media gave us enough confidence to run it. At the time, we thought maybe Navarro would be playing one of the NYC detectives in the show but, as it turned out, he got to be one of the bros in the Tracksuit Mafia instead!

    Correct: Ace Ventura Villain Simon Callow Joined the Cast

    This past summer, The Cosmic Circus correctly reported that Simon Callow joined the cast of Hawkeye. Callow, who played one of the Armand’s, was fantastic in his short time in the series.

  • How the ‘Hawkeye’ Finale Sets up Swordsman to Surface in a Second Season

    How the ‘Hawkeye’ Finale Sets up Swordsman to Surface in a Second Season

    Criminal. Mentor to Clint Barton. Avenger. Strategic genius. Father of the Celestial Messiah (in a really creepy way). In the comics, Jacques Duquesne, the master of bladed weapons known as Swordsman, was all these things before he ultimately gave his life in defense of the love of his life, Mantis.

    Broke rich guy. Witless buffoon. Guy who bought a book on being a step-father. In the Marvel Studios streaming series Hawkeye, Jack Duquesne, the avid collector of bladed weapons known as, well, Jack, was all these things before he was used as a fall guy by the love of his life, Eleanor Bishop, to cover her tracks.

    Hawkeye showrunner Jonathan Igla and directors Rhys Thomas, Bert and Bertie did the character of Jacques Duquesne dirty over the course of the six-episode series; however, the series’ finale did redeem the loveable moron and provide an opportunity for the character, played wonderfully by Tony Dalton, to return down the road. And should we see this daringly-different Duquesne again, whether it be in a second season of Hawkeye or another project, the creatives also left him in the perfect position to suit up as his swashbuckling self from the comics.

    Desperately in need of some new friends after being manipulated and used by his fiancee, Duquesne finds himself in the company of one of the show’s First Responders, Adetinpo Thomas’ Wendy, following the big events of the finale. Before becoming distracted by the blood on his tie (Balls!), Duquesne was talking with Wendy about a potential “leisure activity”: LARPing.

    Throughout the series, the window to the First Responders’ hobby provided comic relief and Clint’s original meeting with them provided fruit down the road as not only did they help out the heroes in the final battle, but also created the great new outfits for Clint and Kate. And while Jacques and Wendy don’t get to finish their conversation, the creatives of Hawkeye have certainly set the table for Jack to give LARPing a shot if/when we see him again. And if we do see Jack (there’s no way they don’t bring Dalton back if there is a Season 2) and we do see him LARPing, the creatives could do the character a solid (though a ridiculous looking solid) by having his LARP in something resembling his classic Swordsman suit, first seen in Avengers #19.

    At this point, it seems obvious that the Duquesne of the MCU won’t ascend to the ranks of Avenger and he likely won’t have his dead body possessed by a tree-alien who then uses it to copulate with Mantis (he could, however, meet Mantis, I suppose, if the Guardians where to say, come to Earth at some point) and conceive a child. But we saw enough from the guy over the course of the season to know that he has a big heart, probably way too big, and is always up for a good time. Given that (and the fact that the creatives actually included Hawkeye’s original comic book costume in a LARPing scene before cutting it), it doesn’t seem to far-fetched of an idea at all that we might see a swashbuckling Swordsman braving the battlefield with bladed weapons some time down the road. En garde!

  • ‘Hawkeye’ Finale’s BIG “Death” Explained

    ‘Hawkeye’ Finale’s BIG “Death” Explained

    Marvel fans waited patiently to see Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin make a big splash in Hawkeye and their patience paid off in the season finale. Wilson Fisk proved to be a major physical threat and pretty damn hard to kill. He shrugged off an arrow to the chest, showed almost no ill effects to being hit by a car and was able to walk away from an explosion that would have left a normal person in pieces. His reward for all that? Being shot at point-blank range by Maya Lopez at the end of the episode. Is it over for the Kingpin? Did Marvel Studios bring D’Onofrio back simply to kill him off? Absolutely not.

    The final meeting between Lopez and Fisk in Episode 6 of Hawkeye was nearly identical to the way things went down between the two characters in David Mack’s Daredevil (Vol.2) , Issue #15, entitled “Vision”, published in 2001. In both cases, Maya took her revenge on Fisk by shooting him at point-blank range.

    As we saw in Hawkeye, the Fisk from the comics has also been notoriously hard to kill. In “Visions”, as Fisk is brought into the hospital following his encounter with Maya, readers learn that he was shot multiple times, including once in the head. The medical staff concludes that while he might live, they won’t be repair the damage done to his vision, leaving Kingpin blind. Of course, Fisk didn’t say blind forever and, after having surgery in Sweden to repair the damage done, he returned to his criminal ways.

    Given the combination of the way the event went down in the comics, the fact that Hawkeye’s Fisk was essentially indestructible and that we didn’t actually get a look at what transpired, it is reasonable to assume that Fisk is not dead and will be back in action in Echo.