Jessica Jones character breakdown

Jessica Jones is an interesting character that I have only recently researched.  She was present when Peter Parker was bitten by the radioactive spider that would turn him into Spider-Man.  Jessica actually had a crush on him and was about to talk to him for the first time when he got distracted by the spider bite.  Soon after this major comic event, Jessica was involved in a car accident along with her family.  They collided with a military convoy that was, of course, carrying radioactive materials.  Her family was killed, but Jessica survived although in a coma.  She would awaken to find that the radiation had given her super powers; super strength, limited invulnerability, and flight (which she never managed to master in her entire career).

After seeing Spider-Man fight the Sandman, Jessica was inspired to use her powers for heroic purposes.  As Jewel, Jessica Jones had a pretty uneventful career until she faced off against Daredevil villain Zebadiah Kilgrave aka The Purple Man.  Kilgrave used his mind control powers to telepathically torture and control Jessica.  After 8 months of being tortured and controlled, Kilgrave sent Jessica to kill Daredevil, but misdirected her to the Avengers' Mansion.  There she attacked the first hero she saw, the Scarlet Witch. After a brief fight, the mind control began to wear off and Jessica attempted to flee but was stopped by the Vision (then husband of the Scarlet Witch) and Iron Man.  Once again, Jessica was in a coma, but this time being treated by S.H.I.E.L.D.  When she woke, she remembered the intensely violating nature of her experience with Killgrave, combined with the fact that no one noticed she had been missing for eight months, forced a demoralized Jones to give up being a costumed superhero.

She would go on to open a Private Detective Agency, and despite her desire to leave the super hero life she found herself being pulled back repeatedly.  At this time she would begin dating Luke Cage off and on, as well as Scott Lang (Ant Man).  Long story short, Jessica leaves the detective agency and joins the Daily Bugle, gets pregnant with Luke Cage's baby, marries Cage, works with the Young Avengers for a while, before giving birth and becoming an on again off again Avenger.

Jessica Jones will be played by Krysten Ritter.

I am very excited to see these new shows!  Daredevil comes first in April, followed by aka Jessica Jones sometime in the fall.  Luke Cage will make his first appearance in the Jessica Jones show before his own solo series starts.  And Iron Fist will come after that.  I'm sure each series will feature at least 1 crossover and since they all share this universe and know each other, the possibilities are endless!  The potential for some great TV and storytelling is incredible.  Each character on their own is very interesting, but knowing that we'll get to know each one individually and then see them all team up for a Defenders show!  I haven't even gotten the villains!  There are some great ones in there too.  Next time.  Stay tuned!

Iron Fist Character breakdown!

Iron Fist:  was born Danny Rand, son of Wendall Rand, whom discovered the mystical city of K'un - L'un. While there on expedition, Wendall saved the life of the city's ruler Lord Tuan and was adopted as Tuan's son.  He would later leave the city and return to New York where he became a very successful entrepreneur, married and had Danny.  9 years later, Wendall mounts a new expedition to find the city again.  He takes his wife and son and a trusted partner.  During the trip, Danny's parents are betrayed and killed and Danny gets lost.  He's found by K'un - L'un archers who take him to their ruler.  There Danny expresses his desire for vengeance, and he is sent to apprentice for Lei Kung the Thunderer who teaches him martial arts.  He proves to be the most gifted student Lei Kung has ever had and at age 19 is given the chance to attain the power of the Iron Fist by facing the dragon Shou-Lao the Undying.  During the fight, Danny throws himself onto the scar of Shou-Lao and a dragon shaped tattoo is burned onto his chest.  Having killed the dragon, Danny enters the cave and removes the dragon's heart, thus gaining the powers of the Iron Fist.  It is later revealed that Danny is the last in a long line of other Iron Fists.

Iron Fist would return to New York and faced off against enemies in a solo series for a while until being teamed with Luke Cage in Heroes for Hire.  Many years later, Iron Fist is approached by Matt Murdock concerning a problem with Daredevil.  In this story arch, Matt Murdock is outted as Daredevil and in order to protect his loved ones and his secret identity, Murdock asks Iron Fist to pose as Daredevil until the public believes that Murdock and Daredevil are different people.  This was a great story and led to Iron Fist being asked to join The Avengers.

Along with his mastery of martial arts, Iron Fist has enhanced strength, speed and stamina.  After gaining the power of the Iron Fist, Danny is able to summon his chi (or natural energy) into his hand creating a glow around his fist.  Hence the "Iron Fist" moniker.  This "iron fist" can be used to strike an opponent or surface with superhuman impact while his hand becomes impervious to pain or injury.  This, however, leaves him feeling drained and vulnerable.  In order to perform such a maneuver again requires time; sometimes full days are needed to recover in some instances.

Casting for Iron Fist has not been announced as of now.

Up next:  Jessica Jones!

Luke Cage character breakdown!

Luke Cage:  Has become one of my favorite characters.  He debuted in 1972 in Luke Cage: Hero for Hire, but was retitled to Power Man for issue #17.  Luke was one of the first anti-heroes in the Marvel.  The first concept for Cage was as a super hero who would do good things only if he was paid for it.  The running gag became that he would be offered a certain amount of money for a heroic act, only to deny it for the sake of "justice being served".  He gained his popular in the 70's within the Blaxploitation genre of comics.  Once the popularity of the genre faded, Cage became unable to hold a solo series and was teamed with another hero in with a declining popularity genre, the master martial artist, Iron Fist.  The two would go on to team up for a decent run from 1978 to 1986.

The 90's would see an upgrade for Luke Cage along with a new solo series titled simply CAGE.  Gone was the old uniform of yellow shirt, metallic headband, dark pants, and the old Blaxploitation catch phrase "Sweet Christmas!”  Luke's popularity grew and he would go on to appear with and then lead such teams as The Thunderbolts and The New Avengers.  From there he would be handed the reigns of a brand new Avengers team from Captain America.

Luke Cage has maintained his "street level" reputation all while gaining more respect and quite a reputation within the superhero community.  What I like the most about the use of all these characters is that they all "grew up" together in the comic books.  Power Man and Iron Fist was one of the first comic books I ever read, he frequently teamed up with Daredevil even before they were both Avengers, AND he's married to Jessica Jones!

His powers include superhuman strength and stamina, as well as unbreakable skin.  He gained these abilities during an experiment in cellular regeneration, a second experiment would grant him the enhanced strength and stamina and a sped up healing factor.  Luke Cage is an exceptional street fighter and was a gifted athlete before receiving superhuman abilities. He has also studied martial arts under Iron Fist's instruction, learning how to couple leverage with his strength in order to increase his combat effectiveness against more powerful opponents.

Luke Cage will be played by Mike Colter.

Up next:  Iron Fist!

Daredevil Character breakdown!

On April 10th, Marvel releases a new TV series on Netflix and will introduce Daredevil into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).  This is the first of 5 shows produced by Netflix to be released.  After Daredevil, we will see a private eye style show titles A.K.A. Jessica Jones, which then will be followed by Luke Cage.  Right after that Iron Fist will follow.  All of these shows will feature 13 one hour long episode seasons culminating in a mini-series of sorts called The Defenders.

We're still a couple of months away, but casting announcements are being made and folks are confused as to who these characters are.  Before I get into the descriptions though, I'd just like to talk about what these releases mean to comic fans.

At this point I'm sure everyone who's been reading this blog is familiar with the current MCU.  We have heroes such as Iron Man, Captain American, Thor, the Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the Hulk; also Guardians of the Galaxy, but they're way out in space and won't affect Earth for some time.  All of these characters have been developed over a series of solo films and the first Avengers movie and Guardians movie.  So Marvel has been able to build themselves quite a solid universe.  Along with the movies, they've produced Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (AoS) a TV show on ABC to expand their movie universe.  It's worked very well so far, with certain episodes of AoS tying directly to a movie that was released the week before the episode airs.  With the release of Daredevil in April, Netflix will help expand the MCU even further than before.  It also allows Marvel to get a little darker with the content of the show.  Netflix doesn't have to go by any of the rules basic cable channels do, so we could in theory see HBO style content.

Anyway, onto the characters.

Daredevil:  probably the most well-known of the new characters to be introduced.  His real name is Matt Murdock, and as Murdock he works as a defense attorney in New York City's Hell's Kitchen.  When Matt was a kid, he was blinded by a radioactive substance.  Although he was blind, the radiation caused Murdock's other senses to heighten to superhuman levels.  Few villains know that he is blind, as Daredevil has been able to develop a radar sense similar to echolocation.  His senses are so sharp that he is able to read a book (without braille) simply by running his fingers over the ink; he can hear someone's heartbeat so clearly that he can act as a human lie detector.  As strong as his senses are, they are also his greatest weakness.  A powerful odor or strong sound can distract or disorient him from his radar sense and be used to immobilize him.  Daredevil is also a master of martial arts, having mastered several styles all while making full use of his superior gymnastic skills.

He does carry a weapon.  A billy club of his own design that looks like a blind man's cane during the day, but doubles as a multi-functioning club that holds 30 feet of aircraft control cable connected to a case hardened grapnel.  He uses this to travel through NYC as well as fight off enemies. He is also a skilled detective, tracker, interrogation expert, as well as an expert marksman.

Daredevil has had many adventures over the years, and has proven to be one of the most well written Marvel Characters of all time as well as one of the most popular.  He's teamed up with Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, and over the last few years was asked to become a member of The Avengers.

Daredevil is, what is referred to in the comic book world, a "street level" hero.  Which means his crime fighting focus is very specific to a certain location.  He shares this branding with the other heroes being brought to Netflix.  All operate out of NYC and most specifically in Hell's Kitchen.

I am very excited for Daredevil to premiere April 10th.  I am positive that the writers and actors have something really special and fun in store for us.  He's such an awesome character with so much potential for the future.

Daredevil with be played by Charlie Cox.

Up Next:  Luke Cage!

Both sides of the Man of Steel Argument

I was going to start this post by warning those who have not seen the movie to not read, but forget it.  If you haven’t seen Man of Steell by now, well too bad.  ENJOY!

So back in 2013, Warner Brothers released the latest addition to the Superman franchise and the first step into creating a shared universe for their DC Comics Cinematics Universe (henceforth known as the DCCCU).  It was met with mostly mixed reviews (but strong box office numbers), as director Zack Snyder made some origin and character changes that fans freaked out over.  Today I bring you both sides to that argument.  In BOLD is the main argument against the movie, then the ITALICS is the argument for the movie, and finally there’s my two cents on why fans like me are “outraged” over the changes Snyder made. **As part of the argument for Man of Steel I used pieces of an article previously posted on comicbook.com by Dennis Upkins. Entitled In Defense of Man of Steel.  You can view the article in it's entirety here.

1.) This Superman Destroyed An American City!

Clark isn't guilty of destroying much of Metropolis. He is guilty of stopping Zod's forces from destroying the entire planet.

Supes may be in fact defending a city against an alien invasion, but he does not at any point take a look around and seem to notice or care about this city he's helping to destroy!  Fans of Superman are used to him loving Metropolis and especially Smallville, and yet he seems to have no regard for the lives he’s endangering or the buildings he’s destroying.  He’s lived most of his life in his hometown in Kansas, and yet meets Zod’s henchmen face to face on Main Street Smallville.  It looks like a showdown in a western for crying out loud!  I mean, it looks awesome, as all of the explosions and action does in the movie; but by the end of the movie everyone is like, “alright already”.
As inexperienced with his power set as he is, Superman still is far more aware of his abilities than Zod.  He admits to being 33 years old in this movie, and we see that his powers started to manifest when he was a little kid; so wouldn't that mean that he's had 25 plus years of experience in mastering those powers?  Admittedly, he only realized his full potential as an adult, but I would think that this fact would only make him MORE aware of how capable he is of such devastating damage.

2.) This Superman Was Reckless!

Inexperienced, no question. But also heroic. With no formal training and little knowledge of his powers and origins, Clark was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice if necessary to protect Earth while being targeted by the U.S. government and Zod alike.

I'll give you the heroic part; yes, he saved some lives, but he most absolutely WAS RECKLESS!!!  Every move Superman makes in his fight with Zod and the other Kryptonians put humans in danger.  EVERY MOVE!  He never planned on taking the fight elsewhere, he never HAD a plan!  The very definition of reckless!

3) They Made This Superman A Murderer!

Regarding Zod’s death, what else was Clark supposed to do? Clark had him in a full nelson while pleading for Zod to stop the bloodshed. All the while, Zod was still trying to use his heat vision to murder innocent people while vowing to make it his mission to destroy Clark and his adopted planet.
Zod had already been imprisoned to be rehabilitated. That didn’t take. Even as Clark begged him to stop, Zod vowed he would keep coming and keep plotting to destroy the Earth.
Additionally, Superman has killed previously in the comics. It’s very rare and only as an absolute last resort when every other possible option has been exhausted as was the case in Man of Steel. Murder is usually premeditated and avoidable.

I actually agree with this one.  Superman really did not have much choice.  Taking into account his inexperience, and what he was facing at the moment.  Killing Zod was the right thing to do here.  It also helps develop his character.  He obviously had a problem with it, and I believe that decision will be a factor in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Even though I agree with this point, Superman has always portrayed himself as above killing.  He HAS killed before (in the comics) but he has always been presented as the Boy Scout, the ultimate good guy, and the guy who always does what's best for everyone else.

4) This Superman Movie Is Too Dark!

On this charge, agreed. However, in this case Snyder, DC/Warner and the other Man of Steel shot callers are not to blame. If anything, they're guilty of trying to meet public demand.
For years the general public and a good portion of fandom alike have complained about Superman being too boring and too much of a boy scout and isn't "cool" like Batman.
In fact, more edge and more action were the charges against Superman Returns.
Now many of the same critics have attacked Man of Steel for being too dark and this Superman crosses the line. We got the do-gooder in Superman Returns and the masses complained endlessly.  Man of Steel was the attempt to address that. Whether or not the film succeeded is certainly open to debate. So to the general public who wanted "an edgier and cooler" Superman film, you got it.

Yes, we did want a darker Superman.  The younger audience members and even fans of the character wanted to see something more than the boy scout persona.  Personally, the number 1 thing I wanted out of Man of Steel was to see Superman punch someone.  And I got it.  Boy did I get it.  Basically the entire 2nd half of the movie is Superman punching someone or something.  Visually, it looked awesome and was exactly what I wanted.  But there was something else about this version of the Last Son of Krypton that didn't sit right.  Zach Snyder shot this movie to give it a dark and gritty feel, and in the process sucked the color and the life out of this new world.  When I was a kid, and even to this day, I loved the whole aspect of Superman with the symbolic "S" along with the red, blue and yellow soaring through the sky to fight for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.  Zack Snyder took all of that away to give us a more "realistic" feel.

There is a line in the movie that sticks out like a sore thumb to me.

Lois Lane: What's the 'S' stand for?
Superman: It's not an 'S.' On my world it means 'hope.

This is the first and LAST time this is mentioned.  There is nothing in the rest of the movie that would make the people of Earth believe that Superman stood for “hope”.  He just helps to destroy nearly everything he touches.
Gone is also any kind of good nature, the movie is nearly devoid of any sense of humor.  I know that Zack Snyder and Warner Brothers are trying for an obvious difference from the Marvel movies, but come on...no joking around?  Ok, yes it doesn't really fit the character, but even the characters written to alleviate some of the tension with humor weren't funny.  It IS a comic book movie; we could all do with a little more laughter in our lives.
AND you cannot argue that because of Superman Returns, we got these creative choices in Man of Steel!  Superman Returns was AWFUL, plain and simple.  It paid homage to the Christopher Reeve run of the franchise, but did not promote the character nor create a want for another Superman movie.  This is why we have 7 years in between films.

My conclusion is this.  I actually really enjoyed Man of Steel.  Yes I had a lot of problems with it, and each time I watch it I find more things that make me go "hmmm".
Why argue against the movie though?
Well, because I am such an enormous fan of the character, there are certain aspects of this character that I hold dear.  I (along with most fans) grew up with Superman, and to see such changes made to this icon causes a visceral reaction.
It also makes me weary of future movies inside the DCCCU.  Batman v. Superman will be historic and probably break some attendance records, but from what we’ve seen in Man of Steel, the quality of BvS is highly in doubt.
However, I am interested in each artist’s interpretation of Superman, and I look forward to the universe that Zack Snyder is building.  This movie was flawed, but no movie is perfect.  Well except for Marvel’s The Avengers.  When the helicarrier lifts out of the water, I literally yelled, “HAHA, IT’S PERFECT AND GLORIOUS!”