We're back to basics, and this time I haven't asked Will Brooks do to the graphics (and you can tell, it's not as professional) - sorry Will - but I've already got him working on plenty of other things...
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| Cover for WILD Dream Dive Training Simulation - art by Qistina Khalidah |
Been a while, but I've been busy. Sorry! And with the day-job (the NEW day-job) involving a lot of computer work, I've been trying to avoid using it when the working day is done. After all, there's only so much staring at the screen you can do without going a little bananas.
However, I have been spending the weekends finishing off the WILD Dream Dive Training Simulation that was Kickstarted last year. Hopefully it should be heading to print sometime in the next week (fingers crossed), barring any changes or horrible mistakes I've made. If you're keen but missed the Kickstarter, click that link in this paragraph and it'll take you to the WILD website, which will let you place an order.
So what next? Outside of the day-job, I guess it's building up to another #RPGaDAY in August. Just need to decide on the prompts and the style of the graphic for this year! I still can't believe it's been going for so long.
Otherwise, I'm going to take it a bit easier. I'm still keen to write that autobiography, though maybe draw it so I can keep away from the computer in the evenings, but my art is lacking to say the least. It's been a long time since I drew comics. I need to get over myself and just go for it - be expressive and wacky, and stop worrying about making people look like who they're supposed to be.
In the dim and distant future there's always plans for WILD Book 2 - Even Deeper, looking in more depth at the Collective Unconscious. We'll see how Book 1 goes down! I still worry everyone will hate it.
Anyway, that's it. Stay safe everyone. It's still dangerous out there.
Over the last few months we've been keeping ourselves sane by rewatching the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in chronological order of events, including the TV series. A mammoth undertaking, but it has been a heck of a lot of fun.
Last post (you can read here) was a fairly large section as we worked through Season Three of Agents of SHIELD, and the movies in that timezone. We were just about to start Season Four of SHIELD, so how far have we got in the last three/four weeks?
Season Four of Agents of SHIELD is one of my favourite seasons of the show, as it did a brilliant thing by splitting into three defined arcs - which perfectly tied together. The first arc, 'Ghost Rider', sees Daisy off by herself, going rogue and investigating the strange flaming figure that is enacting harsh justice. The Ghost Rider arc is flipping great, and as much as I love Nicholas Cage, this arc of a TV series pulled off the Ghost Rider far better than either movie ever did. So cool. Gabriel Luna is fantastic as Robbie Reyes, the latest host of the Rider. And they tap into the comics with the version of the Rider who drives an awesome car with flaming tires, rather than riding a bike. Great stuff.
Anyway, we get to the end of Episode Six, and stop. Coulson, Fitz, and Robbie disappear - shunted into another dimension. And we leave it there? Why? Well, in casual conversations, we've already learned of alternate dimensions. But those strange 'magical' powers that certainly aren't the superpowers we've seen before. So we stop in our SHIELD watching to learn all about magic with the Sorcerer Supreme...
Okay, I'm going to confess that I'm a HUGE Doctor Strange fan. Haven't read an awful lot of it since my childhood when I was reading the UK reprints in 'Super Spider-Man and the Titans', and that artwork - that Gene Colan artwork - was just mesmerising and haunting. I read the run when Chris Bachalo did the artwork (because I love Bachalo's art) but I have a real love for those classic Strange comics.
Doctor Strange was one of those Marvel movies I really had high hopes for, and the result (Directed by Scott Derrickson - who directed the scariest movie I think I've seen, 'Sinister') did not disappoint. Cumberbatch was brilliant, the right level of arrogant learning to be selfless, and another couple of my favourite actors in there too - Chiwetel Ejiofor (who I still think should be the next Doctor Who), and Mads Mikkelsen (the best Bond villain to date). Just great. Mind-boggling special effects. Like Inception turned up to eleven. I wrote a blog post about it a long time ago...
Doctor Strange introduces the 'magic' and explains about power coming from other dimensions. Just what you need to know ready for the return to SHIELD. However, before we return, there's another movie to watch in this order...
Black Panther is a great movie, but watching it now is really hard. Amazing cast with some huge award winning names in there. I mean, Daniel Kaluuya is always great - remember him in The Fades with SHIELD's Fitz? And Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, and Angela Bassett and Forest Whittaker. There is nothing to let this movie down. Not a huge fan of Killmonger as a villain, but it all works, and I love Winston Duke's M'Baku. Duke is such a presence when he's on screen.
But Chadwick Boseman. Oh lord, he was just so good, a perfect T'Challa. A powerful performance, with a playful humour, and it's just all tinged with emotion after his loss. Such a tragedy.
After those movies, it's back to Agents of SHIELD Season Four - we know about magic, so it's back to those we've left trapped in another dimension. With Aida accessing the scary occult tome (possibly the one missing from the shelves in Doctor Strange) the Darkhold (which we'll see again in WandaVision), she uses the book to open portals into the other dimension to help our trapped agents back - but that's just the start of Aida's descent. The ever deluded Holden Radcliffe's artificial creation is setting things up for the second arc of this season...
After just two more episodes of Agents of SHIELD, episodes 7 & 8, we take another break - venturing off to Youtube for some SHIELD I'd not seen before - Slingshot.
Must admit, I didn't even know this existed, so this was all new to me. The six parts together have a total running time of about 20-25 mins, but it tells an interesting flashback story of Yo-Yo Rodriguez, and an 'off the books' mission. It ties in nicely and provides some much needed spotlight to a great character, and sets up the next arc in Season Four...
Agents of SHIELD: LMD - or 'Life Model Decoy'. They've established at the end of the previous arc that Aida is up to something, and that one of the agents in the team has been replaced by a 'Life Model Decoy', but this arc is a great example of complete paranoia getting out of control. No one can trust anyone else, as Aida continues to gradually replace more and more of the team with lifelike android duplicates, placing the human originals in a hyper-realistic simulation called 'The Framework'.1 - Captain America: The First Avenger
2 - Agent Carter (Season One)
3 - Agent Carter (Season Two)
4 - Agent Carter (Marvel One-Shot - on Iron Man 3 bluray)
5 - Captain Marvel
6 - Iron Man
7 - Iron Man 2
8 - The Incredible Hulk (on Netflix)
9 - The Consultant (Marvel One-Shot - on the Thor bluray)
10 - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Thor's Hammer (Marvel One-Shot - on the Captain America: The First Avenger bluray)
11 - Thor: The Mighty Avenger
12 - Avengers Assemble (the first Avengers movie)
13 - Item 47 (Marvel One-Shot - on the Avengers bluray)
14 - Iron Man 3
15 - All Hail The King (Marvel One-Shot on the Thor: The Dark World bluray)
16 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 1-7)
17 - Thor: The Dark World
18 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 8-16)
19 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier
20 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 17-22)
21 - Guardians of the Galaxy
22 - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
23 - Daredevil (Season One)
24 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 1-10)
25 - Jessica Jones (Season One)
26 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 11-19)
27 - Avengers: Age of Ultron
28 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 20-22)
29 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 1-4)
30 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 1-4)
31 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 5-11)
32 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 5-8)
33 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 12-13)
34 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 9-13)
35 - Ant-Man
36 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 1-10)
37 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 11-19)
38 - Iron Fist (Season One)
39 - Captain America: Civil War
40 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 20-22)
41 - The Defenders
42 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 1-6)
43 - Doctor Strange
44 - Black Panther
45 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 7-8)
46 - Agents of SHIELD: Slingshot (Episodes 1-6)
47 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 9-22)
48 - Spider-man: Homecoming
49 - Thor: Ragnarok
50 - Inhumans (Season One)
Next up is:
51 - The Punisher (Season One) <----- We Are Here!!!
52 - Runaways (Season One)
53 - Agents of SHIELD (Season 5, Episodes 1-10)
54 - Jessica Jones (Season Two)
55 - Agents of SHIELD (Season 5, Episodes 11-18)
56 - Cloak and Dagger (Season One)
57 - Cloak and Dagger (Season Two)
While furloughed from my previous job (I still can't get over the idea that I've quit) I was distracting myself by rewatching the whole the of Marvel Cinematic Universe in chronological order of events, including the TV Series.
Which brings me to Part IV. It's been nearly a month, and we've still been working our way through it. Last blog post about this we'd just finished Season 2 of Agents of SHIELD, and were heading back into Hell's Kitchen again...
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| Daredevil Season 2 promotional image - Matt Murdock gets a bit chained up by the Punisher |
Next up on the rewatch is Daredevil Season Two. I remember the first time I watched this I had a couple of problems with it - one was Elektra's accent, and the other was the casting of Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle (aka, The Punisher). Elektra was one of my favourites as a teen, and one of the comics that got me back into reading comics after a break thanks to Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz's 'Elektra: Assassin'. I'd read that so many time, so in my head I knew Elektra's background as being Greek, so her rather upper-class British accent sounded a bit weird at the time. However, on the rewatch, it didn't bother me for some reason. Maybe because I knew it was coming.
Jon Bernthal's casting as Frank Castle only really bothered me the first time around because the only thing I'd really seen him in was The Walking Dead, and I really didn't like Shane in that series. Time has passed, and I stopped watching Walking Dead a long time ago (#JusticeForGlenn - my favourite TWD character). Now time as passed and Shane is a distant memory, I could really appreciate Bernthal's portrayal of Frank Castle. He's deeply troubled, mentally scarred, and feels he cannot be redeemed. Vengeance is all he can see. Honestly brilliant.
And Season Two really ups 'The Hand' and their influence on things - and the sequence where they are escaping in Stick's car, and The Hand are firing arrows into it from the rooftops, is so Frank Miller it's genius. Needless to say, loved it.
But, of course, we weren't JUST watching Daredevil Season Two. The timeline meant we were watching both Daredevil Season Two AND Luke Cage Season One.
They needed to be watched in a special order -
29 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 1-4)
30 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 1-4)
31 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 5-11)
32 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 5-8)
33 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 12-13)
34 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 9-13)
Anyway, Luke Cage Season One was great again. Brilliant cast, Simone Missick is fantastic as Misty Knight, and another one of my favourite actors - Mahershala Ali - who (let's face it) is flipping brilliant in anything he's in, just look at the last season of True Detective, as Cornell Stokes.
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| Promo image for Season One of Luke Cage |
Another beautifully directed series, with gorgeous lighting that gives everything an iconic yellow tint (much like Daredevil has a red hue, and Jessica Jones is blue). And that soundtrack. Absolutely stunning. The only thing I thought that let Season One down was the departure of Cornell (don't call him Cottonmouth) Stokes, and bringing in Diamondback as the big-bad of the season. He was good, but he didn't ooze the charisma of Ali. I guess I should also mention multiple award winning Alfre Woodard as Mariah Dillard, who you just hate from the outset. You know she's up to evil things, and she portrays that power-hungry frenzy with a passion.
The timeline didn't really have too much of an impact until you get to episode 11 of Daredevil, and Clare Temple survives an attack by The Hand at the hospital, and for her safety she leaves Hell's Kitchen. The next thing you watch is Episode 5 of Luke Cage and there's Clare Temple, arriving in Harlem. Really nice to watch it like this.
After the double-bill of Daredevil and Luke Cage, it's back to the movies and back onto Disney+ for Ant-Man.
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| Promotional image for Marvel Studio's Ant-Man |
Ant-Man is one that I was really excited for when it was announced, as initially it was going to be directed by one of my favourite movie directors - Edgar Wright. Unfortunately, he and Marvel parted ways, but his fingerprints are all over this heist tale. I managed to go to the press screening for this when it was released, and to the press conference with director Peyton Reed, and stars Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, and Michael Peña.
Have to say, I do love this movie. It's a brilliantly heartwarming tale of families, wrapped up in a crazy action movie, with a heck of a lot of comedy.
Then it was back to Agents of SHIELD to start Season Three.
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| Promo image of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Season Three |
They really turned up the emotions in Season Three didn't they? Simmons is trapped on an alien planet, falls for a stranded 'sacrificial' Will Daniels, and is rescued in time to see the departure of Bobby and Hunter (such a sad episode, not a dry eye in the house - why did they cancel their spin-off series "Marvel's Most Wanted"?????? Arrrrg!!!). There's a mission to rescue Will from the alien planet, they discover HYDRA's origins, and have to face a new threat in the form of Hive. Really doesn't let up that season. It's brilliant as always, but...
You have to stop at episode 19.
Small pause in the action, just as things are getting really hectic in Agents of SHIELD while we take some time out to watch Iron Fist Season One.
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| Promotional image for Season One of Netflix's Iron Fist |
I know Iron Fist gets a lot of hate, and I don't know why. Sure, Danny Rand is a bit of a naive plum, wandering around New York without shoes, expecting to just walk straight into his old life and become the billionaire he's born to be, and Finn Jones does a great job of this innocence. But the series is really made by the co-stars. Jessica Henwick is brilliant as Colleen Wing, and don't get me started on the Meachums. Ward and Harold Meachum (Tom Pelphrey and David Wenham) are just the perfect level of psychotic and messed up.
There were a few criticisms that the martial arts in it seemed slow and badly choreographed, but I (personally) saw it as being fine - it kinda felt like Danny knew all the moves so much and had them ingrained into his head to the state that he could do them with little of the fury you'd expect from a fight.
After Iron Fist Season One, (no, it's not back to SHIELD) it's onto the movies again for Captain America: Civil War.
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| Promotional poster for Captain America: Civil War |
This is my wife's least favourite Marvel movie, and I can understand why. The characters are all brilliant again, and it introduces two major players in the MCU - Black Panther and Spider-man. And the background plot of Zemo trying to destroy the Avengers from within, by making them turn on each other, revealing who killed Tony Stark's parents, is a great plot.
I know the movies are based on comics to a certain extent, and that all the characters are comic characters, but there's always that comic trope of heroes fighting each other. Who would win? (And before you ask, Wanda could take Superman) You know what? I don't care who would win. They are heroes. They fight villains who would cause the world harm. I love Tony Stark, though I love Steve Rogers more. I don't want to see them beat seven-hells out of each other. I want them joining together and fighting a bigger threat. The 'big fight' at an airport has its plus-sides (this is a great portrayal of Spider-man, and his witty remarks in a fight), but when you see Hawkeye and Black Widow fighting and you know they're pulling their punches you have that moment when you think - why are they actually fighting, and can they stop and get along now please?
Not so much a Captain America movie, but more Avengers 2.5, it's just good that they get over their differences in time for Thanos... but that's a way off yet...
But, it does introduce something major into the MCU timeline, something that will surface again very soon as we return to Agents of SHIELD Season Three for episodes 20-22. The Sokovia Accords. You can see why you watch Civil War between episodes 19 and 20, as episode 20: 'Emancipation' seems to say 'Sokovia Accords' a billion times in its first twenty minutes as the need to register and keep an eye on powered individuals is felt all over the MCU.
Season Three closes with the end of Hive, the end of Grant Ward, and the end of another Inhuman (spoilers for those who haven't seen it yet). It's emotional, but before you can rest there's the post credits sequence at the end of the last episode and we jump forward six months to realise Coulson's not the Director of SHIELD, Daisy has gone rogue, and it's all going to heck.
Before moving onto Season Four (one of my favourites in Agents of SHIELD) we need to finish the big culmination of those Netflix series - everything in the four individual series have been building up to The Defenders.
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| Marvels' Defenders promotional image |
After some great first seasons in their own respective series, The Defenders resolves (most) of The Hand storyline mostly from Daredevil and Iron Fist, when we discover what they've been doing with that hole under the building in Manhattan, unlocking the key to immortality. Admittedly, it really starts very slow, but by episode three of the eight episode limited series they've all met in The Hand's offices (or rather a shiny room where Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver), one of the five fingers of The Hand, is meeting with her minions), and the cinematic punching begins.
Sure, there are the Civil War problems where some of the characters just don't seem to get along, and there's a marked moment in one of the later episodes where they remember all the excellent supporting characters and Colleen, Clare, Karen, Misty, Foggy, and Trish, have a quick catch-up and get them involved again. It all ends with lots of punchy action again, and a lot of me shouting 'why haven't you powered up the fist?' repeatedly.
And that brings us up to date (just about). Yesterday we started Season Four of Agents of SHIELD (as I mentioned, one of my favourite series of SHIELD - mostly as it did a brilliant job of Ghost Rider, had a great Life Model Decoy storyline, and then became "Agents of HYDRA" for a bit).
For those of you who want to keep up, I'm using the order that DigitalSpy produced a little while ago. If you want to join in, here's the list we've worked through so far...
1 - Captain America: The First Avenger
2 - Agent Carter (Season One)
3 - Agent Carter (Season Two)
4 - Agent Carter (Marvel One-Shot - on Iron Man 3 bluray)
5 - Captain Marvel
6 - Iron Man
7 - Iron Man 2
8 - The Incredible Hulk (on Netflix)
9 - The Consultant (Marvel One-Shot - on the Thor bluray)
10 - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Thor's Hammer (Marvel One-Shot - on the Captain America: The First Avenger bluray)
11 - Thor: The Mighty Avenger
12 - Avengers Assemble (the first Avengers movie)
13 - Item 47 (Marvel One-Shot - on the Avengers bluray)
14 - Iron Man 3
15 - All Hail The King (Marvel One-Shot on the Thor: The Dark World bluray)
16 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 1-7)
17 - Thor: The Dark World
18 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 8-16)
19 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier
20 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 17-22)
21 - Guardians of the Galaxy
22 - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
23 - Daredevil (Season One)
24 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 1-10)
25 - Jessica Jones (Season One)
26 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 11-19)
27 - Avengers: Age of Ultron
28 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 20-22)
29 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 1-4)
30 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 1-4)
31 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 5-11)
32 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 5-8)
33 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 12-13)
34 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 9-13)
35 - Ant-Man
36 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 1-10)
37 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 11-19)
38 - Iron Fist (Season One)
39 - Captain America: Civil War
40 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 20-22)
41 - The Defenders
Next up on the list is:
42 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 1-6) <-- We are here!!!
43 - Doctor Strange
44 - Black Panther
45 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 7-8)
46 - Agents of SHIELD: Slingshot (Episodes 1-6)
47 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 9-22)