Awesome Con 2024 is going to rock as Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson will reunite. Yes, Josie and the Pussycats will be in full effect at the convention.
Dawson, Cook, and Reid starred in the film which was released in 2001. Dawson had previously been announced to attend to the convention alongside Hayden Christensen and others from the Disney+ series Ashoka. Now, fans will be able to see the trio talk and reminisce on bringing the Archie Comics and Hanna-Barbera cartoon to the screen.
With an important and vital election less than a week away, some of Marvel’s heroes are uniting to help “save democracy”. Mark Ruffalo, Don Cheadle, Rosario Dawson, Natalia Cordova, and Clark Gregg, with more being added, are coming together for a livestream event to help support the Wisconsin Democrats. They’re not the only Marvel actors to help this election, Paul Rudd recently stumped for Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman.
Writer/director Dave Filoni begins “The Jedi,” the fifth episode of the second season of The Mandalorian on a dark, bare landscape with trees and walled city. Dystopia is in the air, for sure. And, then, instead of holding her back for a teaser at the end of the episode, Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) emerges from the darkness dual-wielding lightsabers and takes down the goons of the magistrate Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto). It’s one of many beautifully choreographed action sequences in “The Jedi” and a worthy live-action introduction for this popular character from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The scene also sets the episode’s stakes: either Ahsoka Tano leaves Corvus, or Elsbeth will start executing her own people that she tortures in front of her own bonsai tree/koi pond sanctuary.
Of course, Mando and The Child are utterly unaware of the situation on Corvus when they land in the middle of the aforementioned woods with giant creatures idly grazing around them. They get some tense questions at the city gate (Mando smartly conceals The Child/treats him like a pet.), don’t get any answers or conversation at all from the inhabitants of Corvus, and are finally brought before Elsbeth, who offers Mando a staff of pure Beskar to kill Ahsoka Tano and gives him her coordinates. Mando and Ahsoka Tano have a short fight, but she immediately knows that The Child is Force-sensitive and communicates with him telepathically in a touching silent sequence. She also learns his real name, Grogu, and a bit of backstory, including that he was trained on the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, escaped after the Great Purge, and has been wandering the galaxy and suppressing his true origins ever since.
The next day, Ahsoka Tano tests Grogu in his Force abilities, but he is held back by his anger, pain, and attachment to Mando, who uses a part of his ship to coax him to use his telekinesis. Because of all these factors, Ahsoka Tano refuses to train Grogu, but ever the deal-maker, Mando gets her to change her mind if he helps her liberate Corvus from Morgan Elsbeth and her hired gun, Lang (Michael Biehn). This leads to some great stealth action, a heavy dose of anti-fascism, and a thrilling duel between a Beskar staff-wielding Elsbeth and Ahsoka Tano. Inosanto is a highly-skilled martial artist and Bruce Lee’s granddaughter so her stances and moves are fluid and realistic.
Because she is his own co-creation and also integral to the overarching plot of The Mandalorian, Dave Filoni spends a lot of time with Ahsoka Tano, and she even gets her own mini-storyline apart from Mando and The Child that features yet another a nerdy Easter Egg and makes it seem like “The Jedi” is a backdoor pilot for a show with her as protagonist. Dawson plays Ahsoka Tano with a fierceness and also a sense of sad nobility as she is one of the last Jedi in the universe and had to watch her mentor, Anakin Skywalker, go to the Dark Side. Anakin’s name is never mentioned in the episode, but every time she mentions “anger” and “attachment” in the context of Grogu, you can tell that it’s not the usual Jedi line. She wants Grogu to have a good, long life and not follow the road down to the Dark Side. Maybe, he just wants to be a cute kid and not the next hope of the Jedi as one of only three members of Yoda’s (He finally gets a name drop.) species that have appeared in Star Wars canon.
Even though Ahsoka Tano (and honestly Morgan Elsbeth) steal the show, I love the character work that Filoni does with Mando in “The Jedi”. Every named character thinks that he will act according to traditional ways/factions, but he surprises them. Morgan Elsbeth gives him a little speech about the traditional rivalry between Mandalore and the Jedi and thinks that will sway him to work for her, but in actuality, he’s smuggling a little Jedi under his cloak. Later, in the episode, Lang sees him as a fellow gunslinger, appeals to his pragmatism to abandon a lost cause, and go home. However, this doesn’t work on Mando, who as we’ve seen throughout The Mandalorian, is an altruistic person, especially in regards to his relationship with Grogu. Filoni takes time to show Mando free the prisoners with the help of the old magistrate and make sure that they’re safe inside before he begins his fight with Lang while Ahsoka Tano duels with Elsbeth.
Mando isn’t a traditional hero, but he helps those who he feels are exploited by the very complicated post-fall of the Second Death Star society. However, with the torture and executions, Elsbeth is a pretty obvious baddie and a total fascist and war profiteer, who was able to afford her pure Beskar staff thanks to exploiting planets to make ships for the Imperial fleet. Seeing Ahsoka Tano kick her ass is quite satisfying, and there is real tension in the fight scene as Elsbeth disarms her and even gets a staff to her throat. Tano and Mando really have to use tactics to retake the city like the old faking his death so he sneak in and occupy the assassin droids and other goons while she quickly infiltrates Elsbeth’s sanctuary.
“The Jedi” really feels a lot like classic Star Wars with a plot about resistance against an authoritarian government with a side dish of fate, destiny, free will, and all that other stuff. But, maybe, Grogu has (silently) experienced so much trauma in his life that he doesn’t want to follow the traditional, Joseph Campbell monomythic path. Thankfully, Ahsoka Tano has experienced similar trauma over the years, and because of this and the bond she can see between Grogu and Mando, she reneges on her promise while giving them intel on a planet where Grogu can choose his fate once and for all. On the surface, it seems like a cop out to have Ahsoka Tano show up, be cool, and not end up training Grogu, but it’s grounded in her character and her experiences even if it continues The Mandalorian‘s RPG plot structure.
Finally, it would be a big omission to not praise the visuals and shot choices of director Dave Filoni and cinematographer Baz Idoine (He did second unit work on Rogue One.), who make Corvus an utterly hopeless and closed off place with its light brown, smoky color palette. Whenever Ahsoka Tano’s lightsabers ignite, it’s like just a glimpse of hope, and Filoni and Idoine linger on the post-liberation celebration like it’s a mini-version of the big one at the end of The Return of Jedi. The mist combined with the training that Ahsoka Tano does with Grogu also create shades of Dagobah and Empire Strikes Back where Luke Skywalker faced his own doubts and didn’t respond to Yoda’s teaching very well. These little visual and sound cues have been a fun part of The Mandalorian Season 2 as the different writers and directors have used them to comment on Mando and Grogu’s journey, not just as fanboy Easter Eggs.
With its insights into Grogu’s emotions and backstory, a fierce, yet vulnerable performance from Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, and operatic storytelling from writer/director Dave Filoni, “The Jedi” is the strongest hour of The Mandalorian Season 2 yet even with an ending that’s a little rocky. It puts the to-this-point self-contained relationship between Mando and Grogu in the context of the larger Star Wars mythos as well as being a crowd-pleasing good versus evil story with unlikely heroes, who traditionally would hate each other’s guts.
It was new comic book day yesterday! What’d everyone get? What’d you like? What’d you dislike? Sound off in the comments below! While you think about that, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.
This is a column that focuses on something or some things from the comic book sphere of influence that may not get the credit and recognition it deserves. Whether that’s a list of comic book movies, ongoing comics, or a set of stories featuring a certain character. The columns may take the form of a bullet pointed list, or a slightly longer thinkpiece – there’s really no formula for this other than whether the things being covered are Underrated in some way. This week: Marvel’sIron Fist
Alright so I know this is going to be a tough sell for many of you so before we get into the meat of the column, I want to clarify my stance on this show because I actually enjoyed it. It wasn’t as good as any of the other entries in Netflix’s live action series on the whole, but it was enjoyable none the less. Taken out of context from the other Netflix offerings, this isn’t as bad as you may have heard. Now for additional context, I’m relatively ignorant as to Iron Fist’s comic history, and so I entered this show not really knowing much about him. But then the same can equally be said about Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and the Punisher.
Iron Fist debuted in March of 2017 to less than positive reviews, with one critic stating that the series “failed to grasp what makes Iron Fist interesting.” Others claimed the show missed an opportunity for diversification by casting Finn Jones as the titular character instead of an Asian actor, whereas Jones’ innocent and naive take on the skilled martial artist didn’t exactly resonate with everybody, either. Despite the criticisms of his portrayal Jones, much like the show itself, isn’t as bad as you would expect. He gives the audience a naive and overly innocent Danny Rand which is a complete juxtaposition to the troubled heroes already mentioned above. Danny Rand hasn’t been broken like Jessica Jones, he has lead a relatively sheltered life despite his extreme martial arts training, and he starts the series full of hope and optimism.
When it came to the fight scenes, they felt more elegant than the scrappy brutal action of Daredevil, even though there were (yet again) criticisms over choreography I never felt as though the action was phoned in (honestly I was more frustrated that Iron Fist didn’t seem to be as legendary a fighter as one would expect given his reputation). As someone who has trouble telling the difference between a roundhouse and a side kick, and I’m probably not the only one, the fight scenes were good. Granted I much preferred Colleen Wing’s sword play over the fisticuffs, but then I was on a Game Of Thrones kick at the time this came out.
Speaking of Colleen Wing, it was Jessica Henwick’s character that stole the show for me. Her interactions with Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple often provided some of the more entertaining and humorous moments in the show – and often at Danny’s expense. Indeed were it not for Colleen Wing and Claire Temple, one could argue that Danny Rand would have been utterly lost about half way through the series. Danny’s naivety was his biggest weakness in the series, often leading him into some dumb decisions and because of that the plot needed some strong characters to push, pull and guide the Iron Fist where he needed to go – and more often than not save him from himself. Iron Fist may have been a story around Danny Rand’s return to the world, but it’s the supporting cast who are the real stars of the show.
Iron Fist is the weakest of the Netflix Marvel shows, but when you stop comparing it to them you’re left with an enjoyable show that is, arguably, among the upper middle tier of live action superhero adaptations across the various distribution methods. However because the show is a part of the same shared universe that Daredevil, Jessica Jones et al inhabit the comparisons are inevitable (the less said the better about the seeming lack of connection to the larger MCU other than the odd mention of the Chitauri invasion from Avengers and the other plot points from the movie). Unfortunately for Iron Fist it doesn’t come off as well in those comparisons. The lead isn’t as strong as those in the other entries, but then few are. Finn Jones delivers a more than capable performance but is often outshone, especially in The Defenders, by his costars’ screen stealing performances.
All of this contributes to the general bad feeling toward Iron Fist, which when coupled with the internet’s love to hate on things (no judgement – I’ve been caught up in the wave as well before), didn’t allow the show to stand on its own legs. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a great show, but it’s better than you’ve likely heard – and that’s why I feel it’s Underrated.
That’s all we have for this week, folks. Come back next time when there’s something else Underrated to talk about.
Rosario Dawson announced on Twitter that she’ll be involved in a project involving La Borinqueña a Puerto Rican superhero. The project will be along with Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez (the creator of the character), David Atchison and Dawson’s Uncle Gustavo Vazquez.
Miranda-Rodriguez added on Twitter:
There may be 3.5 million Puerto Ricans on the island, but there are over 5 million of us in the diaspora and we will no longer stand for Puerto Ricans being treated as second class citizens.
All Tweets used #Ricanstruction which Miranda-Rodriguez has used to promote his projects but also being used by some to highlight to current efforts to rebuild Puerto Rico.
There may be 3.5 million Puerto Ricans on the island, but there are over 5 million of us in the diaspora and we will no longer stand for Puerto Ricans being treated as second class citizens. It's time for #LaBorinqueña's #Ricanstruction! https://t.co/faZAObJdNw
— Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez 🇵🇷 La Borinqueña (@MrEdgardoNYC) January 22, 2018
A Justice League Dark film has been a long time coming and before they get a live action version, the team will be getting an animated film.
DC Animation vet Jay Oliva directs the film from a story by J.M. Demotes. Matt Ryan reprise his live-action performance as John Constantine. Jason O’Mara continues as the animated movie universe’s Batman. Also joining the cast are Camilla Luddington as Zatanna, Nicholas Turturro as Deadman, Ray Chase as Jason Blood/Etrigan, Jerry O’Connell as Superman, Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman, Enrico Colantoni as Felix Faust, Alfred Molina as Destiny and Roger R. Cross as both Swamp Thing and John Stewart.
The romance genre is one which has had its day in comics, and while comics goes through various phases, it is unlikely that comic fans will ever see the massive proliferation of romance titles as there were in the 1960s and 1970s. The modern treatment of romance comics differs greatly between the big two publishers, among whom the trend was the most popular (primarily because they were the only mass market publishers at the time.) DC still occasionally puts out a title which perpetuates the naming rights for their romance titles, such as the recent Young Romance superhero tie-in, but they mostly ignore its own past in the genre. While the genre is equally long since dead at Marvel, they have incorporated the romance characters into their universe in a more comprehensive way. Patsy Walker has become the Hellcat, Millie the Model shows up occasionally as one of the Marvel universe’s actual supermodels and the Night Nurse has played an important enough role in the history of superheroes, notably Daredevil.
The recent Daredevil television series thrust the Night Nurse back into the spotlight. As played by Rosario Dawson, she was a combination of two nurse characters in Daredevil’s past. With a bit of interest and curiosity about her past, it seemed a natural fit for Marvel to put out an anthology focusing on the character’s early history. This anthology features a collection of the original series for the character, which lasted only 4 issues back in 1872, as well as her introduction into the superhero community in the pages of Daredevil. There are in fact numerous Night Nurses to start with, although the series focuses on Linda Carter. She is young and perhaps a bit naive as she endeavors not only to treat the sick but also true to the genre, often ends up falling in love.
This anthology makes for an interesting read, especially for those interested in comic history. While the romance genre influences are a bit over-the-top at times (such as how many of her romantic interests turn out to be criminals) it was still more progressive at the time to put a female character at the front of her own series, especially one that was not solely a romantic heroine. Compared to today’s quality, this anthology will obviously feel a bit dated, even the more recent Daredevil selection, but this still stands as good representation of a forgotten era of comic history.
Story: Jean Thomas, Linda Fite and Brian Michael Bendis Art: Winslow Mortimer and Alex Maleev Story: 7.7 Art: 7.7 Overall: 7.7 Recommendation: Read
Today is a brand new-day in the Marvel Universe with the debut of Netflix’ Daredevil TV series; the first of four television shows set in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” (MCU). The characters that will be having their own shows on Netflix are Marvel’s “street level” characters; Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. And just as with the Marvel big-screen counterparts, all four shows will culminate in a crossover TV series, The Defenders!
While this is not Marvel Studios’ first foray into the small-screen, as we’ve seen with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, Daredevil brings Marvel Studios into new territory. Daredevil has a darker tone than the any film or show in thus far in the MCU. And it isn’t just because they say “shit” a few times every episode, or the fact that they showed a *gasp* side-boob! Daredevil displays the dark underbelly of the MCU, and it is TERRIFYING.
TV programs that release all their seasons at once are a different entity than serialized shows. In terms of comics, I like to think of serialized shows as periodicals and a TV show like Daredevil is more likened to an original graphic novel. Watching the first five episodes had given me a strong glimpse of what the show is going to be about, but it will be those eight extra episodes I haven’t yet seen that will define the show. So I will say this right now, Daredevil is a fun, pulpy show with characters that will mesmerize any fan and will have no trouble making converts to those not familiar with Daredevil’s world. But I will reserve my final judgment on the series until I see the full first season as a whole.
Let’s talk about the characters on the show. Daredevil is mostly influenced by the Frank Miller run of the comics; the dark-noir book that took Daredevil from a Spider-Man wannabe to a hero whose adventures were incomparable to any other comics coming out at the time. The main cast features Charlie Cox as Daredevil, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple, a.k.a. The Night Nurse and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, The Kingpin. All actors portray their characters incredibly well, particularly Vincent D’Onofrio as The Kingpin.
Vincent D’Onofrio transformed himself physically so he looks like the comic incarnation as drawn by John Romita Sr., but his acting is subtle and frightening! In the first several episodes, viewers don’t see much of the character, and when people speak of him they do so as if he were some kind of boogeyman. But when he first shows his face, his intentions are vastly different than what’d you’d expect. Incidentally, since The Kingpin is also a Spider-Man villain, so I think it would be great if Vincent D’Onofrio played the character in the upcoming Spider-Man movie. Trust me when I say that he will make a realistic and formidable foe.
And while Vincent D’Onofrio is the show’s stand-out, a close-second is Charlie Cox as Daredevil. First, let me say kudos to the fine folks at Marvel Studios for casting an actor whose name is an alliteration just like Daredevil’s secret identity is Matt Murdock. I find the most interesting thing about Matt Murdock is the mystery surrounding his back-story. In the first two episodes, they tell the heart-warming tale of Battlin’ Jack Murdock in flashbacks, as well as how Matt Murdock gains his superpowers. But after five episodes, viewers still don’t know who trained him to fight, the moment he decided to fight crime, as well as why his costume is all black. “It’s a work in progress,” Daredevil later says about his costume.
As Daredevil, Charlie Cox is a delight. He’s often glib, never once showing any signs of weakness as Matt Murdock; even though to the world, he is “disabled”. He has strong chemistry with all of the other characters, particularly with Rosario Dawson’s character. In the start of the series, Matt and Foggy start their iconic lawfirm, “Nelson and Murdock”. They are supposed to be best-friends but Foggy is such a chatterbox, Matt hardly gets a word in edge-wise. Deborah Ann Woll is just okay so far as Karen Page. I’m curious to see where her shocking story takes her. Then there’s the ancillary characters. Ben Urich is in the show! And so is Vanessa Marianna, played by Superman’s Kryptonian mother from Man of Steel! Her character is fascinating, and for all Daredevil comic fans out there, we all know who her love interest is!
When I would read interviews about Daredevil from its show runner, he would often say that he is attempting to emulate The Wire with Daredevil. That’s a pretty brazen statement, comparing Daredevil to perhaps the greatest television show ever created. While I do not think Daredevil is as great as The Wire in quality, it certainly succeeds in tone. And that in itself is quite an achievement.
It’s Monday and that means another dive into Facebook‘s data. This week I thought I’d look into the future a bit, and see what the demographics are for people who like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage, the characters who will headline the first two series of Marvel‘s slate of shows that’ll begin to stream on Netflix in 2015.
First up though is the look as to who “likes” Netflix in the United States. Netflix has a little over 40 million people who like their page of which 17.2 million are in the United States. Of that the majority are women, who account for 52.33% of the likes.
The first show that’ll premiere in 2015 is based on the character Daredevil. The page dedicated to the show has 37,477 while the character himself has 1,578,910 individuals who like him. Of that, a little over 79% are men while just under 19% are women.
I also decided to look at the various actors who are playing some of the characters. Lead actor Charlie Cox doesn’t have a Facebook presence, but Rosario Dawson and Vincent D’Onofrio both do. Dawson especially has a very large presence and fandom. 68.75% of Dawson’s 3.2 million likes are female, while Do’Onofrio is 65.45% male for his 220,000 likes.
When you add in the main actors with Facebook pages into the Daredevil character stats, you get 63.16% female, primarily due to Dawson’s following.
The second series that’ll launch is based on the character Jessica Jones who will be played by actress Krysten Ritter, and will feature Luke Cage who will be played by Mike Colter. Colter doesn’t have a Facebook presence, but the rest do.
Ritter has the most female friendly Facebook stats with 44.44% women, and Jessica Jones the character has 35.38%. Cage has just a little over 19% of his fans as such.
All together, when you combine Jones, Ritter, and Cage, 30.67% are female, under Netflix’s 52.33%.
We’ll stay on top of this and revisit the stats as we get closer to the show’s premieres.
Iron Fist debuted in March of 2017 to less than positive reviews, with one critic stating that the series “failed to grasp what makes Iron Fist interesting.” Others claimed the show missed an opportunity for diversification by casting Finn Jones as the titular character instead of an Asian actor, whereas Jones’ innocent and naive take on the skilled martial artist didn’t exactly resonate with everybody, either. Despite the criticisms of his portrayal Jones, much like the show itself, isn’t as bad as you would expect. He gives the audience a naive and overly innocent Danny Rand which is a complete juxtaposition to the troubled heroes already mentioned above. Danny Rand hasn’t been broken like Jessica Jones, he has lead a relatively sheltered life despite his extreme martial arts training, and he starts the series full of hope and optimism.
Speaking of Colleen Wing, it was Jessica Henwick’s character that stole the show for me. Her interactions with Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple often provided some of the more entertaining and humorous moments in the show – and often at Danny’s expense. Indeed were it not for Colleen Wing and Claire Temple, one could argue that Danny Rand would have been utterly lost about half way through the series. Danny’s naivety was his biggest weakness in the series, often leading him into some dumb decisions and because of that the plot needed some strong characters to push, pull and guide the Iron Fist where he needed to go – and more often than not save him from himself. Iron Fist may have been a story around Danny Rand’s return to the world, but it’s the supporting cast who are the real stars of the show.
