The Defenders EXPECTATIONS

Marvel and Netflix’s heroes join forces tomorrow as they become The Defenders!  The series will be available some time tomorrow.  What are our expectations?

Weekly MCU Review for August 5

Another week, and more MCU news!  Not much going on, but there’s some more news about Captain Marvel.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Weekly MCU Review for May 27

Another week, and more MCU news!  This week is a bit light since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is already out and Spider-Man: Homecoming is still over a month away, but we did get a new trailer for the latter.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

The Future of Iron Fist

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Back in March, Iron Fist season 1 was made available on Netflix.  Since then I’ve talked about various aspects of the show and how they work out.  There are definitely some elements of this series that did not work out at all; there are definitely some other elements that work out very well.  I think all of the Marvel Netflix series have been subject to this same criticism, but Iron Fist has definitely received it much more.

But with all that behind us, it’s time to talk about what may happen moving forward with these characters!  There are some obvious plot threads which can be explored, either in an unannounced Iron Fist season 2 or in The Defenders this August.  Unfortunately, we do not know enough about The Defenders say definitively what may appear in each series.

But that’s never stopped me before!

Weekly MCU Review for May 13

Another week, and more MCU news!  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has been out for a week, and a bunch of TV series’ got picked up, renewed, and cancelled.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Iron Fist REVIEW Part 5 (Netflix Connections) SPOILERS

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This is the last aspect of Iron Fist that I really want to talk about, and it is the one for which I’m the most torn.  All of the Marvel Netflix shows share characters and settings, both in the foreground and the background.  This really helps them feel like they are all taking place in the same world, just a few blocks apart.  Considering that these series are all building up to The Defenders crossover miniseries this summer, it is important for them to already feel like they inhabit the same neighborhood—even though there are tonal differences between them.  It’s similar to what Marvel Studios did in Phase 1 by having Coulson, Tony, and/or Fury show up in all the movies at some point.

Unfortunately, at a certain point the shared characters cease to be fun and start being genuine plot holes.  That is part of the problem with Iron Fist.

Iron Fist REVIEW Part 4 (Comic Book Martial Artists) SPOILERS

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This Iron Fist review will be fairly short as I am somewhat pressed for time this week.  There are a number of other aspects of this show that I could certainly touch on before this one, but this is the one that I have wanted to write since watching the series in the first place.  And it’s my blog, so I can do what I want!

I’m talking, of course, about all the comic book martial artists which were included in the series.  Like the show, the martial artists run the gamut from the really well crafted and well thought-out to the (for lack of a better word) embarrassing.  Hopefully future Netflix shows (including the potential Iron Fist season 2) will be more consistently good.

All that being said, there are three comic book martial artists in this series, and the portrayal improves over the course of the season.

Weekly MCU Review for April 22

Another week, and more MCU news!  There’s all kinds of news about movies wrapping production and scheduling the start of their production, plus a whole bunch of TV news.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Iron Fist REVIEW Part 3 (The Villains) SPOILERS

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Before moving on to the side characters in my series of Iron Fist reviews, we need to take some time and talk about the villains.  There are three of them in the series, and each have their positive aspects.  However, none of the villains are perfect.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe catches a lot of flak for its lack of good, well-rounded villains, particularly on the movie side.  I have noted in my movie reviews that I find most of these complaints, though valid, to be overblown.  On the television side of the MCU, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has done a respectable job of creating compelling and interesting villains, particularly once they were able to take off the gloves and really push the Hydra angle in the back third of season 1.  However, the most interesting and compelling villains in the whole MCU have been those on the Netflix side:  Wilson Fisk, Kilgrave, and Diamondback, in particular.  Thanks to the extended runtime and binge-watching format, these villains were all given full arcs and fleshed-out back stories tying them to their respective heroes in personal ways.

Unfortunately, this strong streak does not continue with the three villains of Iron Fist.

Weekly MCU Review for Holy Saturday

Another week, and more MCU news!  So we got the first trailers for both Thor: Ragnarok and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.  And that’s about as much as our little brains could handle!  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Iron Fist REVIEW Part 2: In Defense of Colleen Wing

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When I was thinking about my review series looking at Iron Fist, an article discussing the character of Colleen Wing seemed like a no-brainer.  After all, she is one of the main characters and a love interest.  Additionally, she is based on a character with a long and interesting history in the comic books.  And it doesn’t hurt that she is already confirmed for an appearance in The Defenders.

However, those were not the primary reasons why I decided that I wanted to write this article. In reality, this originated as a reaction to a couple negative reviews I read shortly after the series premiered in which the reviewers noted their dislike for Colleen’s character in this series.  However, any more than that will risk spoiling elements of the series.

At the outset, it should be enough to say that I really like Colleen’s character arc in this season and think that it is setting up a strong future for her in the Marvel Netflix series.

Weekly MCU Review for April 8

Another week, and more MCU news!  Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back, we know when The Defenders will be released, and there’s all kinds of other news from Marvel TV!  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Weekly MCU Review for April 1 (April Fools' Day)

Another week, and more MCU news!  Sony is still moving forward with their Venom and Black Cat/Silver Sable movies (and that's not an April Fools' joke).  But on the bright side, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns this Tuesday!  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Iron Fist REVIEW Part 1: Danny Rand (SPOILERS)

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Rather than review each episode individually for Iron Fist, something that fizzled out about halfway through on Luke Cage, I’m instead going to break my review up into a number of articles reviewing specific aspects of the season.  Obviously, all of these articles will contain SPOILERS for Iron Fist season 1, so consider this your SPOILER WARNING for every Iron Fist related article for the next month or so.

This week we will start off by talking about Danny Rand himself, considering that he’s the main character, after all.

There was a lot riding on Marvel’s decision to cast Finn Jones as Danny Rand for Iron Fist.  Considering that Iron Fist was one of the original characters selected by Marvel Studios/Marvel TV for The Defenders, it was important to get the character right the first time since he will make multiple appearances in both his own show and the crossover, as well as possible appearances in the other shows.  Additionally, Iron Fist was the series that Marvel seemed to have the most difficulty with in the pre-production process, which led to multiple calls by critics for Marvel to do something completely different with the series.

The biggest call from critics was for Marvel to cast an Asian-American actor as Danny Rand in order to increase diversity among the heroes.  Did Marvel make the right call in casting Finn Jones in the lead role?

Weekly MCU Review for March 25

Another week, and more MCU news!  Iron Fist is out now and The Defenders finished filming.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Iron Fist Episodes 7-13 NON-SPOILER REVIEW

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For the fans, Iron Fist is an exciting introduction to the final Defender and his supporting cast.  The series is not without its flaws, but it does a respectable job of tying things together, connecting in the other Marvel Netflix shows, and setting up the upcoming crossover The Defenders.  Without giving away too much, here is my non-spoiler review of the second half of the season.

Iron Fist Episodes 1-6 NON-SPOILER REVIEW

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The biggest story relating to Iron Fist in the week leading up to its release was, unfortunately, the wave of mostly negative reviews from the critics who were able to see it prior to release.  Sadly, I was not one of those (not that I ever expect to be), so I didn’t get a chance to watch for myself until everyone else did.  Well, Iron Fist was just released on Friday, and so far I have watched my way through the first six episodes.  This will be a non-spoiler review, mostly focusing on the question of quality as well as the series’ suitability for all viewers.

Weekly MCU Review for March 18

Another week, and more MCU news!  Iron Fist came out yesterday.  And Sony is still trying to make a Venom movie—whether or not it’s in the MCU is still not known.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Iron Fist EXPECTATIONS

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Marvel and Netflix look to continue their hot streak tomorrow when Iron Fist becomes available for streaming (and offline viewing) on Netflix.  What do we expect from this series?

Iron Fist TL;DW

I have written these “Too Long; Didn’t Watch” articles before for upcoming movies, but this is the first time I’ve felt the need to write one for a television series.  However, with the TV corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe continuing to expand, I feel like it’s only faith that I put together a “Too Long; Didn’t Watch” article to anticipate the Netflix release of Iron Fist later this week.  The “TL;DW” articles for the movies have offered viewing suggestions, but I don’t think I can really do that here.  For one thing, it’s only 3 days until Iron Fist comes out; for another, there is so much TV to wade through, and it’s pretty much impossible to pick and choose which episode to watch, at least with the Netflix series.

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For the sake of brevity, this “TL;DW” will ignore everything happening in the movies (apart from acknowledging Doctor Strange), as well as Agent Carter, which takes place in 1946-47 and probably won’t be much of a factor on Iron Fist.  Of course, just because I said that, Peggy Carter will find a way to appear on Iron Fist, just to make me look stupid.  I will deal with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. first, and then take the Netflix seasons in order of release.  At the end I will note the other upcoming TV series, though I doubt there will be much connection to Iron Fist.

Note:  Here is your (inevitable) SPOILER warning:  from here on out, this article contains major spoilers for everything having to do with Marvel TV!  You have been warned…