Just for the heck of it, I posted a list of the comics I bought this week over at Sourcerer. Go check it out and let me know if anything else came out today I should buy.
Tag: superheroes
REVIEW: DAREDEVIL, the series
tl;dr version: More like Dare-MEH-vil, amirite???
My wife and I finished the last two episodes of the first season of Daredevil Friday night. It took, oh, two and a half, maybe three weeks from watching the first episode to get to the finale– which for us implies a fair amount of dedication, as no adult TV happens when the boy is awake and after that literally every single other thing we might wish to do with our lives competes with watching fictional white dudes punch each other on TV. So I can’t claim I roundly disliked the show or anything like that; I didn’t. But on the whole, having watched the whole season, I’m not super excited about watching more of this.
Let’s start with good stuff:
- Casting, at least to a certain point. I don’t remember dude’s name and I’m in no mood to look things up, but I liked the dude they’ve got playing Daredevil, and the casting for Foggy Nelson and Karen worked for me too. Racebending Ben Urich was a good call, and Vincent D’Onofrio certainly looked the part of the Kingpin, but more on him later. I loved Rosario Dawson but we didn’t see enough of her. Madame Gao was also fantastic. In general the acting was effective.
- Mood/Direction: Excellent, especially early on. Daredevil was a hard show to watch at times, and I mean that as a compliment; when the show wanted to fuck with your head, your head was gonna get fucked with, and the grit and grime of Hell’s Kitchen left me wanting a shower after a few of the episodes.
- Fight scenes. At least early on; the hallway fight in the second or third episode was outstanding and the fight with Nobu later on was a standout as well. That said, all the flippy stuff got annoying after a bit and sometimes the fight scenes got a bit repetitive.
- Stick. I loved Stick.
- Matt and Foggy’s relationship. The highlight of the series to me, in a lot of ways.
All that said, I have some issues:
- Kingpin. There’s lots of folks praising Vincent D’Onofrio’s take on the Kingpin to the high heavens; they didn’t watch the same show I watched. Hell’s Kitchen didn’t need Daredevil. It needed Zoloft. Supervillains shouldn’t be in need of antidepressants, and I expected this dude to end every single conversation with a sigh and the words “I’m sad.” There was also enough portentous speechifying to fill a Lord of the Rings film. I kept expecting to find out that Wilson’s middle name was actually Lenny, too.
- Vanessa. Related to the Kingpin issues; Vanessa did not help. Their relationship made no Goddamn sense at all and just served to remind me repeatedly that this Wilson Fisk is a twelve-year-old in an oversized body, which could work with certain villains, but not with the Kingpin. And this show had Madame Gao in it! They didn’t even need to put Kingpin on screen in the first season. Make Gao the villain, keep Kingpin offscreen, and use Wesley, who was way more interesting, instead.
- Karen. For the last two or three episodes, I kept yelling “You’ve known them for two weeks!” at the screen. No one could hear me. I know Karen’s a character from the comics and all and so she has to be there, but she’s totally passive-aggressively worming her way into both of the guys’ backstories by the end of the series, acting like they’ve all been friends for years and that their friendship as a group is The Most Important Thing Evar. No. You’ve known them for a month. You don’t get to pretend that you’re part of a we yet. Go ‘way. Also, I swear her hair was a different color in every scene, and for most of an episode it was green. Not actually a problem, but super distracting once I noticed it.
I dunno. If you’re interested in checking the show out and you haven’t yet, go ahead; it won’t kill you. But that’s about as excited as I can get about this show right now.
On Wonder Woman
I have no idea how widespread or old these pictures are, but: this, DC.
Casting call!
So I’ve been thinking about superhero movies lately. This isn’t surprising; if I’m being honest I spend roughly 20% of my waking hours thinking about superhero movies, so… yeah.
For some reason, though, for the last couple of days, I’ve been thinking a lot about casting. And I’ve got this big list sitting next to me of actors that I think should be immediately cast in particular roles. Some of them are super obvious and some are not. One or two have actually already been cast, but I’m including them anyway because perfect. Some of them are never going to happen because they’ve already been cast in other superhero movies– some of them even in the same franchise. I don’t care. Feel free to include others in the comments if you like.
These are in no particular order. Wait, no. I’ll start with villains since I don’t have as many of those. Also, I take no responsibility for formatting here. It’s gonna be a mess. I apologize.
Laurence Fishburne as Lex Luthor. This one is the least likely to happen because the dummies already cast him as Perry White. Laurence Fishburne should obviously have been Lex Luthor. Come on, guys.
Tommy Lister as the Juggernaut. They cast Vinnie Jones as him in whichever X-Men film he was in; I think Lister is both bigger and scarier.
Rosario Dawson as Harley Quinn. Harley hasn’t been on the live-action big screen yet to the best of my knowledge despite being essential to every animated Batman and also a mainstay on the cosplay scene. Rosario would be perfect.
Ken Watanabe as Doctor Strange. I think Doctor Strange has already been cast, although I don’t know for sure and don’t feel like Googling it. Whoever they chose, it’s wrong. Should be Watanabe.
Jason Momoa as Aquaman. This one has supposedly actually already happened. I’m including it anyway because it’s fuckin’ perfect. Speaking of Batman v. Superman, or whatever it’s called…
Idris Elba as Batman. Because fuck a Batfleck. Yes, I know he’s in the Thor movies. Chris Evans was the Human Torch and Captain America. We’ll be okay.
(Actually, Ben Affleck wasn’t that bad an idea.)
Gina Torres as Wonder Woman. Because she is already an Amazon goddess. They gotta fix the costume, though.
(Fair question: Why am I not casting Superman? Because it is essential to me that any actor playing Superman be someone I have never heard of in order for me to take him seriously. Superman must be an unknown; ergo, I can’t play this game with him. Plus, I really really want an Icon movie. Hmm. Chiwetel Ejiofor would make a great Icon.)
More? ‘Kay:
Naya Rivera as Zatanna. Yes, from Glee. Zatanna’s got a stage background; somebody who can sing and dance would work well, depending on how they wrote the movie. Again with the costume, though.
I’m only partially convinced about this one, but I’m going to go with it anyway:
Will Smith, preferably in bulked-up Muhammad Ali mode, as Captain Marvel. Yeah, okay, this one’s a little odd. Why do I like it so much? Because then we also get…
Jaden Smith as Billy Batson. Which, c’mon, having a father-son team play Billy Batson and Captain Marvel in the same movie would be kind of awesome. Even if I do kinda think Jaden Smith sorta sucks a little bit.
Okay, yeah, still potentially a little weak. I will fight you if you don’t like this one:
Donald Glover as Spider-Man. A choice so obvious that the actor himself has campaigned for it and if you type his name into Google “Donald Glover Spider-Man” comes up on its own. Yes, I know about Miles Morales. I love Miles Morales. More than Peter Parker, actually. But I still want Glover as Parker.
Speaking of people named “Captain Marvel”…
Aisha Tyler as Captain Marvel. The awesome one. Come on, she’s perfect. PERFECT, I tell you!
Orlando Jones as Reed Richards. I feel like at some point I didn’t like Orlando Jones; I don’t remember why and now think I was crazy. He doesn’t immediately scan as somebody who should play a superhero… but neither does Mr. Fantastic, really, and he’d be great as a super scientist. Do this, Marvel.
Speaking of actors from Sleepy Hollow…
John Cho as Hank Pym, preferably in his white-trench-coat, gadget-growing incarnation from The West Coast Avengers. Hilariously, getting Cho cast as Pym is actually far more likely than the Pym from the Whackos ever getting acknowledged on-screen.
Speaking of Hank Pym…
Dascha Polanco as The Wasp. Mostly because I want to see Dascha Polanco everywhere I look for the rest of my life, as she’s adorable. Also considered, because hilarious: Dazzler.
Two more. This one may be slightly controversial. And, speaking of actresses from Orange is the New Black:
Laverne Cox as She-Hulk. At first I was a little nervous at the idea of casting a transgender woman as She-Hulk, because it feels just a teeny bit wrong. Then I came to my senses because Laverne Cox is God damned awesome and she gets to play She-Hulk if she bloody well wants to.
And, finally…
Lupita Nyong’o as Storm. Which, okay, you may have noticed I sort of have a theme going here, and this casting sorta breaks it. But still. No one alive gets to play Storm on-screen again until actual literal African goddess Lupita Nyong’o does. And I know I used that phrasing once already, and I don’t care, shut up.
More suggestions in comments!
WARNING: NERD CONTENT CRITICAL
There’s a weird kind of freedom in today and tomorrow’s posts, because judging from the traffic yesterday and what I’ve gotten so far today, I can say with a fairly high degree of certainty that absolutely no one is going to read anything I write for the next two days. So: nerd post. Huge nerd post. Unforgivable nerd post.
Let’s talk about what would happen if Hulk fought Superman.
Yes, that’s really what I’m writing about. Feel free to tune out right now. Or not, because you need to watch these first. I just discovered these videos yesterday, since the most recent bit has just been released, but an animator by the name of Mike Habjan has apparently spent a good chunk of the last three years of his life putting these little CGI videos together. Part one, I’ll admit, is not going to blow you away. The next three, though? They become progressively more and more awesome each time.
So, watch some videos and then I’m going to geek out:
Literally my only gripe is that Superman isn’t bleeding after the ass-kicking he gets in Part 3. It’s obvious that he’s in a hell of a lot of pain but there ought to be some visible wounds– although maybe that’s too much modification to the model or something; I don’t know– it still looks fantastic. What’s awesome about these fights is that they go exactly how you’d think they might– Superman uses his heat vision and speed a lot, and Hulk just sort of sits back and waits for Superman to screw up enough for Hulk to grab him, which results in the tremendous ass-kicking that Superman catches at the beginning of Part 3. Superman, it should be noted, isn’t going to be terribly used to getting hurt— he’s got one, maybe two other villains who can challenge him on the level that Hulk does. Hulk, on the other hand, you can hurt– it just doesn’t matter, because it’s going to heal anyway and because being hurt just makes him angrier, and that’s always a bad idea.
There’s two ways for Superman to win this fight, at this point, since “End it as quickly as humanly possible” is no longer an option: 1) Get Hulk out into orbit, where the sun’s rays are rejuvenating Superman constantly and Hulk doesn’t have any leverage to counteract Superman’s speed and eventually strand him on the moon or toss him into the Sun or something; and 2) play possum, and just hope he can survive the beating until Hulk loses interest. Note that if you survive a fight with the Hulk? You won.
The longer it goes on punch-for-punch, the angrier Hulk gets, and the more impossible it becomes for Superman to win the fight. You cannot outlast the Hulk. Superman’s reserves aren’t literally unlimited the way Hulk’s are.
Actually, one more gripe, but I’ve had this gripe with every incarnation of the Hulk ever because it may actually just be my idea– I’ve always thought that if we’re going to stick with this angry = strong idea for the Hulk, he should get bigger as he gets angrier. His size has always been inconsistent; let’s actually use that.
Can’t wait for Part V. 🙂