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Superman confronts Batman on his home turf. Meanwhile, the rest of the heroes turn their attention to a potential adversary from under the sea… |
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It all begins with the paranoid delusions of a half-insane hero called Rorschach. But is Rorschach really insane or has he in fact uncovered a plot to murder super-heroes and, even worse, millions of innocent civilians? On the run from the law, Rorschach reunites with his former teammates in a desperate attempt to save the world and their lives, but what they uncover will shock them to their very core and change the face of the planet! Following two generations of masked superheroes from the close of World War II to the icy shadow of the Cold War comes this groundbreaking comic story — the story of The Watchmen. |
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By Jaclyn Cascio (@jaclynator)
Christian Bale was kicking ass before he ever donned the Batman cape. He was a “gun kata” killing expert in the 2002 film Equilibrium. A dystopian sci-fi film, it barely made a ripple in the genre at the time, but it is an enjoyable and entertaining movie nonetheless.
Kurt Wimmer wrote Equilibrium and made his directorial debut with the film. On a budget of $20 million, Wimmer created an exciting and fun adventure for the audience. So here’s the set-up: Equilibrium takes place in the fictional city of Libria, following WWIII. The world realized it couldn’t survive another world war and took drastic action by creating a drug for the population called Prozium. The medication suppresses feelings and emotions. The people are governed by the totalitarian Tetragrammaton Council, headed by a figure called “Father.” Grammaton Clerics are an elite group trained in “gun kata” (a type of martial arts invented and coined for the film) who strictly enforce the law against “sense offenders.” Looking at art, listening to music, reading a book, or even feeling are all crimes in the new society, punishable by death (without trial).
You’ve got the background now… A future dystopian society that sounds like a real bummer to live in. Now, place Christian Bale as Grammaton Cleric John Preston into the new world order. He is efficient and unfeeling as he carries out his enforcement duties, until his partner Errol Partridge (Sean Bean) is revealed as a sense offender himself. Preston begins to question the society and his place in it, and after a missed dose of the emotion-suppressant drug Prozium, Preston himself begins to feel. As he experiences the world more fully than ever before, he sees the people around him differently and finds that the job is not necessarily a moral one. He attempts to hide his feelings from new partner Andrew Brandt (Taye Diggs), but Brandt is perceptive and ambitious. There’s a bit of a love story in it, albeit a weak (and kind of unnecessary) one, which is supposed to spur Preston into action. Needless to say, Preston finds an underground resistance, and aligns with them. (Or does he?) I’ll save you from the spoilers, but you probably have a fairly good guess as to what comes next!
There’s the 411 on the plot. The problem is that it’s nothing new. Critics have accused Kurt Wimmer of ripping off works like Farenheit 451 and Orwell’s 1984. I’d like to think Equilibrium is the baby of The Matrix and The Giver, raised by the nanny, 1984. However you see it, the movie appears to be a mish-mash of other stories we heard before. But let’s be honest, all dystopian stories are the same, and have been for several decades. There’s almost always a hero/heroine who is trapped in a society that is negative in some way, although the new society is usually formed in an effort to be positive and save humanity or make it better. But the new society discourages feeling, individuality, or even freedom of thought. Something that people feel is the epitome of human nature is illegal. The government is oppressive. The hero/heroine is different in some way, for some reason. They buck the system and revolt. The dystopian story is cookie-cutter at this point and the formula is hard to deviate from. So, like many, Equilibrium fell into the trappings of the formula.
However, despite the mixing and matching that is Equilibrium, the story is still entertaining and still leads a conscientious viewer to contemplate. Fictional governments eliminating art, music, books, etc., and taking them from the people was also done by a very real government under Hitler. How subversive can literature, art, and music be? What kind of tools can they become? What kind of power comes in the form of symbolism and a lone figurehead leading people? How much of our lives is affected by our emotions? How do our decisions change if made without emotion? Would the world look and feel different without feeling? While there is unity in sameness and logic, what is lost? What price are we willing to pay for perceived security? The character John Preston (Bale) initially believes that with no war and no murder the world is better for it. His first partner, Partridge (Bean) said it was “a heavy cost.” The rebel “sense offender” character Mary O’Brien (Emily Watson) has an especially poignant moment when Preston asks her about the point of her existence. She says, “To feel. Because you’ve never done it, you can never know it. But it’s as vital as breath. And without it, without love, without anger, without sorrow, breath is just a clock… ticking.” Whoa. If all that doesn’t get the hamster turning the wheel up in the attic, you’re missing something!
The story may not be original, but I think Equilibrium is redeemed by the action sequences and by its overall production (costumes, sets, lighting, etc.). Rated R for violence, Equilibrium certainly doesn’t shy away from hitting, shooting, slicing, and generally hurting characters. As of 2009 (sorry for not having more recent statistics, folks!), John Preston (Bale) killed 118 characters (half of the total character deaths in the movie), putting him in 3rd place for most deaths directly caused by a character. But in general, the violence is tasteful, and at times even graceful! No wire work was used for stunts in the film, and Christian Bale did a majority of his own stunts. And he made action sequences look slick! If you’re looking for realistic fighting, “gun kata” is far from truth. The film tries to explain how statistics and probability make it possible and useful, but the façade is a stretch. However, the fighting style is still fun, entertaining, and almost beautiful in its execution. Yes, it’s flashy and over the top, but as a viewer, I’ll happily take the quick cuts over slow motion (which seems to be often over-used in action flicks, in my opinion). The fighting style felt more realistic with the use of swords (yes, there’s swords!), which made it easy on the eyes!
Again, another redeeming quality of Equilibrium is the overall production. The outright story may be cliché, but there are more subtle ways to tell a story, which Wimmer and his team did with incredible success! Very few sets were built from scratch for the movie. Most of the filming for Equilibrium occurred in Germany (with some shooting in Rome as well). The production team felt that the fascist architecture really lent itself to the story, with massive structures almost becoming characters themselves by representing the government nearly swallowing up individuals. The genius of the film-makers must be noted, as several sets were re-used due to the low budget of the film, but with changes in lighting or rearranging objects within the sets, they looked different (while maintaining some of the uniformity so valued in the fictional society). The look of the film was clear and consistent through the telling of the story.
Equilibrium used color like a character, a tool that was absolutely representative of the story. The sameness of Libria was emphasized by the use of various shades of gray. (No, not THAT kind of shades of gray!) This made the introduction of a color like red all the more alarming and eye-catching. The stark contrast between Preston’s typical outfit of black and his white uniform in the final scenes of the movie drew a line between an old self and a new one, integral in the character arc. The white also created a canvas upon which the red of blood, violence, and death could be painted and observed. In addition, the beginning of the film is completely washed-out faded almost to the point of black-and-white, but as Preston begins to feel, the colors warm up, and by the end of the film you’re seeing things more brilliantly and vividly than ever before. This color saturation effect allows us to make the journey alongside Preston as he also comes more alive and sees the world more fully.
Other subtle factors were integrated into the telling of Equilibrium, fleshing out the story and providing depth when the story itself did not. For example, law enforcement faces were always covered up, and their voices always sounded as if they were coming over a radio. This took away the humanity of the enforcers, further elaborating on their uniformity as well as their lack of feeling and connection. While colors evolved, so did Preston’s outfit. He began with the black outfit and a buttoned covering (like a jacket), but as he began to feel more, the covering came off. Then the collar would be unbuttoned. He finally finished in an outfit of white, an opposite to what had represented him visually at the start of the film.
The ultimate evolution was told through the tremendous performance by Christian Bale. Playing a character who is at first stoic and cold without coming across as a bit of a zombie can be a challenge, but it was one that he was able to face and overcome. As the character Preston began to feel more and come alive, Bale almost seemed to leak emotions, as if they were sneaking out of him without permission – which, I imagine, would be the experience of an adult man who has never felt before in his life as the medications leached out of his system. He accurately conveys the immensity and gravity of feeling for the first time! During the transition, Bale is expected to play first as cold and unfeeling and then to play as a person feeling who is pretending to be cold and unfeeling. (It’s like Robert Downey Jr. as a dude playing the dude disguised as another dude.) It’s a demanding feat, but Bale 100% delivered on that performance. (I guess he was just practicing for when he would play a millionaire who is hiding a secret identity when he capes up in Gotham.)
Also, a shout-out to Sean Bean’s performance is warranted. The director and a producer stated that many people didn’t even want to read for the role of Errol Partridge because they felt there was too little screen time. However, the role is pivotal in the story, in the awakening of the protagonist Preston. Bean brought a gravitas to the character that was necessary. In a short time, he was able to be the spark in igniting the fire within Preston!
A final shout-out to the cutest puppy in all of creation. Let’s just say that adorable ball of fluff was also pivotal in the awakening of Preston. Good dog!
There you have it. My conclusion is that Equilibrium may not be the most original story you’ll see, but it’s definitely entertaining and fun! You can happily walk away from the movie and feel assured that you enjoyed your time in Libria with Cleric John Preston and company.
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In this groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail. Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun Home." It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve. |
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When the Joker nuked Metropolis, it was assumed there were no survivors. But now a distress call comes from the ruins. Is it an automated signal, a hoax, or a trap? No one is sure if Superman should respond. Who or what will he find? |
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After a hard-fought battle against Black Adam, Superman and Wonder Woman decide on a desperate tactic to ensure that he remains subdued. But Shazam (and his alter ego, Billy Batson) wonders if this is the right thing to do. How much longer will he remain loyal to Superman’s campaign? |
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Batman’s resistance team goes on the offensive, targeting Hawkgirl. Inside the Watchtower, Superman and his allies consider their response. But it may be Lex Luthor who comes up with a plan. |
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"SOMETHING TO FEAR" CONTINUES! This extra-sized chapter contains one of the darkest moments in Rick Grimes' life, and one of the most violent and brutal things to happen within the pages of this series. 100 issues later, this series remains just as relentless as the debut issue. Do not miss the monumental 100th issue of THE WALKING DEAD! |
By Chris Chan (@GKCfan)
By now, the 2017 Oscars have been thoroughly discussed by everybody with an interest in awards and movies. The big subject for debate and exploration was the mix-up over the Best Picture announcement. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway declared that La La Land was the winner, and the La La Land producers gave their acceptance speeches, only to reveal that there’d been a mistake, and that Moonlight was the actual winner.
After hearing and reading the responses of many ordinary movie fans and professional pundits, it becomes clear that a large number of people seem to be completely unaware of the fact that the process of voting for the Best Picture Oscar is a lot more complex than most people understand. Despite the glitz, glamour, and politicking that go into the Oscar race, the Best Picture Oscar is dependent on math– and perhaps some manipulative strategy.
For some decades, there were only five Best Picture nominees, and Academy members voted for a single candidate and the movie with the most votes won. Since the full results of Oscar voting are never released, the number of votes earned by the runners-up are known only to the tabulators, and the general public never knew if the victor triumphed by an overwhelming majority or by a single vote. Whether one or two films dominated at the ballot box or if the support was widely distributed forever remains a mystery.
Several years ago, after the Academy opened the Best Picture nominees slots up to ten pictures (the rules were later amended to allow anywhere from five to ten nominees, depending on the results on a long and complicated voting process), and because theoretically with more nominees, the more theoretically possible it is for a movie to win with only a small percentage of the votes– under certain (admittedly unlikely) circumstances, a movie could win Best Picture out of ten nominees and over eighty-nine percent of Academy voters could have hated the film.
That’s one of the reasons why the Oscars switched to a “ranked” or “preferential” system of voting for Best Picture (other Oscar categories still rely on a “vote for your favorite, most votes win” model). On the Oscar ballot, voters are expected to rank all of the nominated movies. If ten movies are nominated, the voter’s preferred film receives the “1” ranking, and the least liked movie gets the “10.” (These numbers of course change depending on the number of nominees). In order to win the Best Picture Oscar, a movie has to get more than half of the first-place votes. If a minimum 3,001 of 6,000 submitted ballots rank the same movie as “1,” that film is the winner. In the far more probable contingency that no film triumphs in the first round of ballot tabulating, the movie that got the fewest number of “1” rankings is disqualified, and the ballots assigned to the newly eliminated movie are divided amongst the other nominees based on the “2” designations. If no film has enough to win, then the next least-popular movie is no longer a contender, and its ballots are reassigned to the other movies based on the “3” votes. This process continues until one movie reaches the “50% + 1” mark.
Are you confused? Actually, the rules can get a lot more complicated, because a lot of people don’t understand how the voting works. Apparently a significant number of voters only list their first or second choice, and leave the other slots blank. Ballots that aren’t fully filled in lead to disqualifications in later rounds of tabulating, which can bring down the necessary number of votes needed to win. If a ballot’s top-ranked films are disqualified, the redistributed ballot goes to the highest-ranked movie still in contention on the ballot. There are so many contingencies available for ranking the votes that readers might be excused for needing Dramamine to figure out how a movie wins.
Ideally, this system of voting is expected to provide a level of consensus– Even if only a minority of the voters think that a certain movie is the best of the year, the preferential ballot assures that most Academy voters thought the movie was at least one of the year’s finest. Of course, this also leads to the possibility that a movie with a strong plurality of initial “1” rankings” can lose in favor of another film. It’s possible that the movie that a lot of voters thought was only the third or fourth-best movie of the year could take home the prize.
Every year, there are some nominees that may deserve their Best Picture nomination, but have very little chance of winning. For savvy Oscar campaigners, it may not be enough to court voters to rank your film “1.” Some campaigns might target fans of movies that will probably ranked last or next-to-last in the first round of voting, and attempt to convince them to rank their candidates as “2,” and to place their chief rivals in the lowest slots.
There is a rather uncouth aspect to this new system of voting. By ranking all of the nominated movies, voters essentially declare which film they believe is the “worst of the Best Picture” nominees. “Hate-voting” can come into play, although attempts by the top-ranked movies to sabotage their rivals are essentially blocked by the nature of the voting system. With a “one vote, film with the most votes wins” system, one picks the movie one likes the most, and one expresses no opinion on the other nominees. A “love it or hate it” movie could win under the old system with a substantial plurality, but with the preferential ballot, the divisive movie could lose to a film with broader support.
This is a complex system, and by no means a perfect one. A lot of voters don’t understand the intricacies of the system, which leads to less than complete consensus over how to rank the films. Furthermore, the opinions of people who liked the less popular can have inflated importance over people who supported the most initially popular films. The ranking and tabulating system may rely on the arbitrary decision-making that goes into assigning a number for a film. The more complex the system is, the more likely it is for human error to play a role– after all, the tabulators made a mistake in handing out the envelopes, so the suspicious and the bitter might wonder if a comparable error might have factored into tabulation.
There are alternative voting methods that could be developed to create an environment where Academy members vote for certain films rather than against other films. One possibility could be the “five-star system.” Each voter would be assigned five “stars,” which could be divided into half-star units. Voters could assign stars to whichever movies they deemed worthy, though no movie could receive more than three full stars. For example, if a voter really liked two nominated movies and was neutral towards the rest, that person could assign three stars to his favorite movie and two stars to his second favorite, giving no stars to the other films. If someone had absolutely no preference and there were ten nominated movies, that person could award half a star to each film. This system allows people to vote for multiple movies that they liked (to varying extents), while eliminating the necessity of identifying which movie you like the least (though a voter could make that clear if desired). Of course, the movie with the most stars would win.
Of course, all awards are subjective, and no matter which movies win what, film fans are bound to debate over who really deserved to win for a very long time. It’s just important for Oscar buffs to realize that the current Best Picture ranking system isn’t nearly as simple as it used to be.
WonderCon Anaheim 2017 looms larger on the horizon! Here's some more schedule info the big event, March 31–April 2 at the Anaheim Convention Center, including Anime, Children's Film Festival, and Portfolio Review schedules!
You might think you've encountered maestros of villainy before, but no one conducts a sinister symphony like the Music Meister.
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Avatar Aang asks his friends to help him honor Yangchen's Festival—one of the highest Air Nomad holidays, which hasn't been celebrated in over one hundred years. But cryptic visits from the spirit of Avatar Yangchen herself lead Aang to discover a jointly owned Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom refinery—operating on land sacred to the Airbenders! Is this the cause of the pollution Aang finds there, or is a more mysterious menace afoot? * The official continuation of Airbender from the original series creators! * Continues to top the sales charts! * The perfect companion to The Legend of Korra ! "One of the best new pop culture mythologies to debut in the last decade."—Kotaku "A fantastic glimpse into the post-series universe."—Bleeding Cool |
Four more special guests are added to the list for Comic-Con International 2017, bringing the total up to 35!
By: David Carner (@davidcarner)
Welcome to the Iron Fist series review. Iron Fist comes at an unenviable position. When the Marvel-Netflix shows first began, there were no real expectations. Daredevil was a scary proposition given how bad the movies were perceived, deserved or not (I personally didn’t think the Daredevil movies were that bad, but Electra…that was a burning bag of crap). When Daredevil came out of the gates strong, the bar was raised a little. Jessica Jones, my personal favorite of all the shows, was well-received, and they also introduced us to Luke Cage. Luke Cage broke Netflix (literally) for some time when it came out because everyone was trying to watch it. Now we have Iron Fist. It has greater expectations of all the others and it’s the last one before we get to the team-up everyone has been waiting for in Defenders. I’m digging this show.
Joy and Ward are such complicated characters. They are the childhood friends of Danny, and their fathers created Rand. Ward appeared to be the evil mastermind to start and as the show progressed we find he’s been manipulated by his father, and eventually he loses it. He tries to redeem himself, and by the end you find yourself slowly rooting for him. Joy appears to be a good person, but she’s a cold-hearted calculated business person, who wonders why she’s doing what she’s doing, and you think is going to change, but by the end, she may join the dark side.
There is subtle humor throughout the series if you pay attention. Each time Ward’s phone rings and it’s from Harold, who’s been brought back from the dead, and his phone reads Frank N. Stein.
The overall plot of the show is simple, Danny Rand decides to come back to New York 15 years after he disappeared and everyone thinks he is dead. He has no idea how to reconnect in today’s world after disappearing at 10, and then living a simple lifestyle amongst monks. The main bad guys appear to be the Hand, led by Gao, who we originally saw in Daredevil. This entire series is Danny’s journey of balancing his return to New York along to follow his sacred oath of destroying the Hand. Like most Marvel characters, he makes errors in both fields. He returns to take over Rand Enterprises, yet has no idea how today’s business world works, and makes mistakes on the side of good and compassion, instead of the bottom line.
During the series, we are introduced to Colleen Wing, and reintroduced to some amazing characters, most of them female. Finn Jones is right, the women in this show are incredible and their characters are the ones that keep it together for the male characters. Colleen is frickin incredible! The seeds for the Defenders are sown, although none of the actual heroes show up.
A word of advice, when you go into this show, try to put yourself in the shoes of a 10-year-old Danny and how his world was then and now trying to return to the real world. It makes a lot of his decisions and actions make a lot more sense. One thing that this series is missing is a soundtrack like Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. There are moments of music that pulls you in, but there isn’t the soundtrack that pulled you in like the other two series had. One last thing, I’ve read a lot of criticism about this show, and some is true. Like all Marvel Netflix shows, it could have been done in 10 or 11 episodes, but there is a deep story here. Give it time to play out. Every time you think you know something, you find out you’re wrong. This show is slow-paced, and it is a lot like Daredevil. Many don’t think the fighting is as good, and Finn seems to go at half speed. I think that’s done intentionally to show you how good he actually is. If you put a gun to my head and made me rank it, I’d put it 3rd behind Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. But, just like Daredevil, I think it is one of the top 4 superhero TV shows today. One cool little side note, each episode name is the name of a Kung-Fu movie.
Episode one is basically the return of Danny Rand, and getting the first clues to who our bad guys are. Now imagine if you had disappeared in 2002 as a 10-year-old. This was pre-social media, the very beginning of cell phones, and people still talked to each other. Now imagine you have been trained by this group of mysterious people and all you want to do is see your friends and family. Meet stalker Danny Rand. Yeah, it comes across creepy, but what else do you know? People gripped about the fight. It looked to me like a guy who wanted to get upstairs but not hurt the people doing their jobs. We have some strange flashbacks, and learn one of Danny’s friends, the one who won’t even talk to him now because he doesn’t believe he is Danny, is a JERK. A BIG OLE JERK! (Is Ward a jerk/bad guy in every Marvel show) We meet Colleen Wing the first episode, who looks to be the breakout character of this series, and she gives him some shoes. Many reviewers talk about the lack of fighting, but taking out four gunmen during a parade is nothing to sneeze at. We also meet Ward’s “dead” father, Harold, who apparently got better(Joy doesn’t know he is alive). Joy and Ward drug Danny to end the show, and he wakes at what appears to be a mental hospital. Is it the best first episode ever, no. Is it as good as anything on the CW, ABC, or other network show, yeah.
Episode two Danny is in a mental hospital on a 72 hour hold. We learn more of the back story and there is a passport with his picture on it and the name John Anderson. The Meachums have the hospital bugged and offer money to Colleen to sign papers saying Danny is dangerous. We learn that Danny is a warrior that is out to destroy the Hand, and apparently they know about Harold. Joy begins to have doubts about what she did to Danny. Ward offers Colleen 50k, and she goes to visit Danny. Colleen believes him and takes M&Ms, minus the brown ones, to Joy (a memory from their childhood). Joy believes him, and Colleen leaves the papers with Joy unsigned. Ward refuses to believe its Danny, and won’t have him released from the hospital. The doctor at the hospital finally believes him, however Danny starts talking about K’un-Lun and the doctor believes he is making the Iron Fist up, and keeps him in the hospital. Danny can’t summon the Iron Fist because of the drugs he is currently being given. Harold wants Danny moved to one of his private houses, however Ward has Danny beaten, which helps clear the fog of drugs and the Iron Fist comes alive. Danny escapes as Harold watches on the monitor.
Episode three Colleen’s dojo is broken into by men looking for Danny, but she handles herself in a 3-1 fight. Someone please tell me why Harold sleeps in a glass coffin, actually don’t. We finally have the test of skills between Danny and Colleen, and yeah, it’s full of sexual tension. Danny goes to Joy’s home/his old home to try and fix things with her (and he appears to have finally showered). Joy offers him $100 mil to change his name and buy him out, of course Danny storms off. Danny figures out who is putting flowers on his family’s grave, and it’s Jeri Hogarth…she’s back! (It’s starting to tie together!) She explains to him the business and how much he’s worth which is foreign to Danny. At Harold’s the lights go out, and we here an older woman’s voice, it’s Gao from Daredevil. Harold has an agreement with her. We learn that Ward and Joy appear to be quite connected and willing to do anything to get business done. Danny tries to find a file at the hospital proving his existence and the records room is burnt by one of Ward’s men. Danny confronts Ward and Joy about it, and Joy tells him they aren’t family. Danny drops the bomb about Hogarth being his attorney. Colleen fights in a cage against a huge muscular guy, beats him, and gets a roll of money. A fingerprint on a piece of pottery proves Danny’s identity, Ward swears he’ll drag it out in court for 10 years. Danny follows Ward after the meeting to Harold’s apartment. He is breaking in from the outside window, when he is shoved by someone and falls.
Episode four Danny grabs a light fixture as he falls, handing over New York traffic. He falls onto part of the building and is alive. He wakes in Harold’s apartment. Harold tells Danny that the Hand saved him, but he had to actually die first. Harold says they have him trapped, and begs Danny to help him. Harold tells Ward to drop everything against Danny. Ward warns Danny about Harold. Danny is introduced back to the world, and within minutes he has made a mark in the company by selling a drug at cost instead of a $45 per pill profit. Joy takes Danny out to get him away from the company, and during their conversation we learn she gave Geri the bowl. Colleen returns to the cage, she wants a 2 on 1 match, and wins. Danny tells Joy some of his past. (These weren’t peaceful monks) Men try to take Joy, and Danny goes to save her. BTW dudes have hatchets, and you would think 6 guys with hatchets would do better. They are part of the Golden Sands (Triads) Danny has words with them, and he tells the Triad that the Hand wants the pier. The Triad apologizes and runs. At Harold’s Gao shows, makes him put on a hood, and takes him. Harold is taken to see Joy from across the street, the first time he’s seen her in years. Harold sees she has been hit, and asks Gao to make it right. The Triad member that hits Joy dies, by Harold dressed in Hand garb. (It’s a little nasty.) A note and packet is left at Danny’s door, and we finally see the Iron Fist dragon symbol on his chest.
Episode five opens with women selling synthetic heroin, we cut back to Rand and the note he was left is the ingredients to the new drug, and it’s actually all legal. As Danny leaves the office the women selling heroin enter Rand enterprises and the lady that opened the show with Joy talks to Danny. Her son has cancer and Danny promises to make it right. At the Dojo, Claire Temple is working out with Colleen when Danny walks in with “takeout”. Danny asks Colleen for help with the heroin, and has also bought her building. Danny and Colleen have another skills challenge, and the board has a meeting about Danny’s promise. Danny and Colleen go to the pier to find the heroin, but find the chemist in a trailer instead. The chemist is stabbed during the fight, Claire has to save him, and we find out that the chemist daughter is being held by the Hand. Claire goes ballistic and tells Rand the back story (Daredevil season 2). Rand promises the chemist he’ll save her, and Claire tells him he isn’t qualified. He tells her he can, and she tells him he needs help (I about jumped off the couch), but Colleen tells him she’s in. (I thought we were about to have the Defenders!). We switch to Gao inspecting the truck, and she suspects the Iron Fist. During the episode it is alluded that Ward took the synthetic heroin but not confirmed until episode six.
Episode six is directed by RZA! (You do know who the Wu-Tang Clan is right?) Danny has looked up all the Rand warehouses to try and find the chemist’s daughter, and Joy is on Ward about a meeting to fix Danny’s mess with the video. She gives him grief about being stoned the night before and he throws out all his meds. Ward accompanies Danny to make sure he is back in time for the meeting. At one of the warehouses they find the Hand member (what’s left of him) that was blamed for the chemist escaping. Danny has been challenged by the Hand and he must fight their fighters to get back the girl. Gao accepts Rand’s terms and the fight begins, Danny wins round one. Claire and Colleen get the chemist to the hospital, her former boss has the chemist taken to the OR. Round two begins against a woman who poisons him with spider venom over and over. He wins, but is hurt. At Rand, Ward is going through withdrawal during the meeting and sees the severed head from earlier. He slams his hand in the door and goes to an urgent clinic. Joy follows him and stops him. At the hospital Claire realizes something is wrong, and finds the chemist has been taken. Colleen has to fight off the Hand, but they lose the chemist. Round three begins, and after an amazing battle wins. Gao cheats and puts a knife to the girl before Rand can destroy the Hand member. Rand agrees, and learns that Gao has been to K’un-Lun. Gao taunts Danny; she knows his father, but uses powers to blast him away. Danny thinks he has failed, and the master he keeps seeing turns his back on Danny.
Episode seven begins in Harold’s apartment. The Hand talks to him again, and are about to hurt him when Danny comes in. Harold kills both of them, and Danny tells Harold he can’t summon the Iron Fist because he is cut off from his chi. Harold cuts off a finger so Gao won’t come searching. Joy and Ward argue over his problems. Danny is at Colleen’s getting stitched and he tells her about K’un-Lun. She asks him to stay and he does…sexy time. Ward dumps the bodies for his dad, finds some pills in his car, and partakes. At Rand Joy and Danny argue about the statement Danny is to read when Gao shows up. Gao and Danny talk, and Gao mentions Luke and Daredevil. She says he left to be Danny Rand, not destroy the Hand. Gao gives a veil threat at Colleen and Claire, and leaves using a Rand keycard at the elevator. He jumps down the shaft to give chase, using the Iron Fist, and finds out they’re on the 13th floor, home of the synthetic heroin. Rand overhears the plan to distribute the heroin using his trucks. He makes one of Gao’s women sellers run after getting her password so she won’t die like the last person that fought him. Bakuto, an old friend of Colleen’s, shows up at the dojo (in the comic he’s a hand member). Colleen tells Bakuto everything about Rand. Rand decides to shut down the New Jersey plant, and tells Karen Paige who runs the story in her newspaper. Danny and Colleen go to save the chemist. Ward, on his way to a treatment clinic, finds out 25 mil has been drained from his account. Colleen and Danny ask the Triad to help them fight the Hand, and they join in. Joy, Ward, and Danny are removed from the company. Danny and company attack the Hand. The chemist told Gao how to make the heroin, tells Danny where Gao is, and then he dies. The city is where Danny and his family were heading 15 years ago when his plane crashed. Ward had actually stolen 25 mil from the company, but Harold stole it from him. The two argue, Harold degrades and beats on Ward, and Ward losses it and kills Harold. Ward buries him where he buried the other two Hand members.
Episode eight starts with Claire getting mail from an inmate (wonder who that could be). Danny goes to Harold’s but finds the place empty and with a blood streak. Ward shows up and acts like he knows nothing. Claire, Colleen, and Danny head to China to fight the Hand. Joy and Ward are offered 100 mil each as severance. On the flight to China, as turbulence kicks in, Danny begins to tell his story. Joy turned down the severance package, costing Ward money. Joy had a PI do digging into the board and she has many pictures (she doesn’t say Jessica, but she mentioned she was great, when sober). Colleen and Danny break into the plant to burn it down. Danny fights a Hand member at the plant(a drunken master) and nearly kills him. Ward goes to take Joy to their father’s apartment, but starts seeing blood everywhere, freaks out, and leaves. Gao shows up, and tells the Hand guards to kill all the women. They all fight. The weapons were poisoned, and Danny realized that the pilot was poisoned. Danny goes full Iron Fist and hits the wall just beside Gao’s face, exploding the wall. He grabs her and they leave.
Episode nine begins with Harold waking from the swamp he was buried in and his finger has grown back. The group has Gao captured and they decide to get Sodium Pentothal to make her tell the truth. Gao plays mind games on each member that watches her and eventually Colleen becomes sick. Joy discovers the building Ward took her to was bought by Harold, and begins to investigate. Harold wanders New York, half out of his mind. Gao says that she knew Danny’s mother and she introduced Danny’s father to Gao. Colleen collapses from the poison from China. Ward leaves Harold, but Harold tells him is going to tell Joy so she’ll help him. The Hand attacks the group. Ward goes to the Triad to find out how to take on the Hand. The leader of the Triad tells the legend of a man who had been healed by the Hand the way his father had. Each time he came back, he was worse (this is Marvel, not DC, right?) Harold kills his assistant. Drugs are found in Ward’s car and he’s placed on a 72 hour hold at the mental hospital. Joy finds her father. Bakuto shows up and tells Iron Fist he can heal Colleen. Danny heals Colleen and collapses. Bakuto and Colleen take Danny and Gao leaving Clair behind.
Episode ten begins with Danny and Colleen waking up in bed in the safest place Colleen knows. They are at Bakuto’s sanctuary, and Bakuto shows Danny footage of an Iron Fist from 1948. Harold contacts Danny, and he tells him Gao is gone. Colleen and Bakuto talk and we learn that Colleen was keeping something from Danny as Gao said last episode. Danny finds Gao in confinement and she tells him that she is being held by the Hand. (Been waiting on that one.) Colleen confirms that they are the Hand, but says that Gao is a rouge faction of the Hand. Colleen and he go back and forth about who is brainwashed. Bakuto tells Harold that he will be taking over for Gao. Danny finds the monitoring station and Bakuto is waiting for him, and they fight. Harold confronts Wilkens over pushing his children out of the company. Harold tells him to kill himself, and when he refuses, Harold kills him and makes it look like suicide. Danny and Davos try to escape the compound but Danny can’t summon the Iron Fist, they fight the Hand at the compound. Colleen opens the gate for them and the two escape. Colleen runs off as well. Joy speaks to the board and gets their jobs back. Davos wants to go home, but Danny refuses and continues to bleed from the stab wound he received by the Hand.
Episode eleven opens us showing Danny becoming the Iron Fist for the first time. Colleen goes to the dojo to look for Danny, but Bakuto is there and berates society for not helping children after the “incident” (I assume the Avengers movie). Danny goes to Claire to get stitched, but it’s too bad and she has to get a stapler. (I kid you not.) (I screamed a little) Danny tells Claire about Colleen. She gives him Luke Cage’s shirt, with the bullet hole in it. Davos tells Claire about Danny being the fist and how he shouldn’t have left. Colleen goes to a former student for antibiotics for Danny, and she turns her into the Hand. Bakuto sends her to a torture chamber where her two former students get ready to work on her. She escapes and fights her former students. Danny and Davos are waiting at the compound to carry out Harold’s plan to destroy the Hand when Danny tells Davos why he left K’un-Lun. Danny see Colleen running and goes to help her. She tries to take him out as well, enraged over realizing the Hand isn’t what she thought it was. They have a moment…in the rain…as Davos watches…still mad he isn’t Iron Fist and Danny won’t come home.
Episode twelve starts with Ward in the hospital. He’s having a rough time. Bakuto gives him an antidote for Gao’s heroin, and offers to help him. Bakuto is playing Ward against Harold. Danny and Colleen are working things out, when Davos accuses her of being with the Hand. They try to fight a few times. (Darvos is reminding me of Mordo from Dr. Strange, a stickler for the rules and traditions, and eventually goes evil.) Ward returns to Harold’s and tries to get Joy out. It goes bad and Ward gets a gun from the guard and Bakuto shows with the Hand. Things go real bad and Bakuto shoots Joy on a video call to Danny as Davos tries to stop Danny from leaving. Danny races to Harold’s to get Bakuto to let her and Harold go, who he will behead in 30 minutes if Danny doesn’t show up. Danny appears at the last second. Bakuto tells Ward and Harold how each other set the other up. Bakuto takes Danny away. Danny finally recovers his Chi, summons the Iron Fist, and as he swings at Bakuto, it disappears. Darvos and Colleen appear to make the save. They take out all the Hand but Bakuto. Bakuto talks smack to Colleen, and she accepts the challenge. Colleen stabs Bakuto in the stomach. Davos stabs Bakuto in the heart after Colleen and Danny decide to send him to jail. Davos says Danny is a failure and Danny snaps and they fight hand to hand. Danny beats him and apologizes for leaving him. Davos leaves, they turn around, and Bakuto’s body is gone. Joy gets to the hospital and Harold thanks Danny what he did for his family. The next morning Danny gets a text from Ward to get out, but it’s DEA that are storming the dojo. Harold has set them up according to Ward. Danny and Colleen run off.
Episode thirteen has Harold returning to Rand. Jeri is in Ward’s office as Harold returns. Ward wants to help. Claire is sent to meet Jeri (DEFENDERS CAN NOW UNITE!) and they go meet Colleen and Danny. All the Hand drug info was moved to be in Danny’s name. Danny has to go find Gao to prove his and Colleen’s innocence. Gao is the only person left at the compound, and she eventually tells Danny that Harold killed his parents. Danny is fighting something, apparently his Chi, and Danny tells Clair and Colleen how he heard his mom crying out for him in K’un-Lun. Ward and Danny have a face to face, and Danny has another episode that Ward witnesses. Joy goes to Rand and talks to Harold. Joy accuses Harold of lying. Joy leaves realizing Ward was telling the truth. Harold hits Ward with a golf club in the back of the head as he calls Danny telling him to call of the plan for the night. Danny goes in after the other two try to talk him out of it. Colleen follows behind, and Claire sticks to the plan. Ward is up as the fight begins (I thought he was dead,). Colleen goes to kill Harold as Harold turns at her with a gun. Danny goes full Iron Fist and punches the ground, taking everyone down, and blowing the windows out of the floor of the building. Harold runs off, chased by Danny. Ward gets the tablet, he and Collene are stuck in the debris. Harold shoots Danny in the Iron Fist hand before he can summon it. Danny and Harold fight. Harold knocks down Danny, and Danny remembers all he’s been through. Danny gets up, fights Harold again, and kicks him, sending him into a spike while Danny has another episode. Danny tells him they’re done, and he done hating him. Harold frees himself, grossly, and shoots at Danny. Danny summons the Iron Fist and blocks the shot, as Ward shoots Harold, sending him over the side of the roof of the building. Harold is cremated, Joy has left, and Danny is cleared by the DEA. Ward wants Danny to return to Rand. Danny tells Claire and Colleen that he is returning to K’un-Lun, and Claire gives them advice and leaves. Colleen is heartbroken until Danny said he wants her to come with him. Davos and Joy meet and Davos tells her that for Joy to get back her life, Danny must be killed. Joy says she is listening as Gao sits unbeknownst to them, listening and smiling. Danny finds blood and dead Hand members at the entrance to K’un-Lun. The entrance is gone, Danny is stuck on Earth, and he says it’s all his fault.
If you haven’t today, please take a second to open the Donate a Photo app by Johnson & Johnson. When you donate a photo, $1 is given to the charity of your choice, and Operation Smile is one of those charities. There are several other charities on there as well. Thanks for reading and I look forward to Defenders!
