One Piece 801 Review: Bounties, Throne Wars and motherfucking ROB LUCCI

One Piece, Chapter 801: Opening Declaration

Well this chapter... it doesn't have anything particularly huge, but it's got a shit-ton of bombshells dropped upon us. So let's just go about it scene by scene, yeah?

The first scene shows us CP-0, which has been something that I've been bitching about all throughout Dressrosa -- why did you introduce CP-0 and then have them do absolutely jack shit? We've got a bit of a recap that the Revolutionary Army raided the weapons from the underground port... and we see that CP-0 is actually made up of... Spandam, Rob Lucci and motherfucking Hattori. And Lucci outranks Spandam now, and he was the one behind the cool mask from before. So, yeah, way to make Lucci relevant again! Lucci has always been one of my favourite villains just for sheer cool factor and to see him actually be involved into the story once more is absolutely fantastic.

We get a couple of pages showing the Dressrosa people and the Tontatta tribe living together in harmony blah-di-blah no one cares.

We cut away to the Marines, where Sengoku and Fujitora are eating noodles. Fujitora refuses to return to base because he doesn't have Law and Luffy arrested yet, and is still too proud to beg Akainu for forgiveness. 

But the interesting scene is Tsuru talking to the captive Doflamingo (who's regained his glasses again) and Doflamingo talks about what a fool Fujitora is for not working together with him and take the Straw Hats out. And even captive Doflamingo is still doing his mojo, talking to unsettle people. Tsuru just goes "fuck off, you sore loser" but Doflamingo is just laughing and notes by cutting off the 'hands that fed', the balance of the seas has been completely upset. We then get a little rundown of all the big players in awesomely-inked art -- the Four Emperors (is that supposed to be Big Mom above Blackbeard?), the Shichibukai, the Worst Generation, the Navy or the Revolutionary Army. And Doflamingo just talks about how the family of D will screw things up and who will betray whom and just claims that Mariejois will fall and the nobles will be dragged off their thrones. And Doflamingo talks about how everyone will fight over the throne that Gold Roger left vacant... well, Doffy, that was an awesome speech. Thank you for hyping things up. Also, I do believe you've been watching too much Game of Thrones.

We get a silhouette of the third admiral, Mr. Green Bull, in that panel with the Marines, which is nice. And who the hell was that dude in the Revolutionary Army panel? There was Ivankov, Dragon and Sabo, but who the hell was that? Ah, all the foreshadowings... and is the seventh Shichibukai in there somewhere?

Doflamingo notes how he's being taken to Impel Down and how he wants the newspapers delivered to him so he can be entertained by the chaos going on...

And apparently the four Marine warships can destroy a country, observed by some dude working for a 'Captain Jack'. Who's convinced to attack. Uh... who is that? Jack's got giant tusks on the ship, so maybe he's allied with Kaido, and he seems to have an iron-esque chin. Is he someone we know? Morgan? Who's this fellow? Do we know any Captain Jacks? Jack Sparrow, is that you?

EDIT: Apparently a "Jack" was mentioned waaaaaaaaaay back in chapter 692 after Punk Hazard as one of the underworld people being informed of Caesar Clown's capture. Huh. The hell's this guy going to do against Fujitora, Tsuru and Sengoku? Huh. Either this dude is a really big player (the mysterious seventh Shichibukai? Kaidou's right-hand-man?) or he's going to get his ship sunk way down to the depths of the sea.

Meanwhile, the Team Luffy have assembled on the Barto Club's ship, the "Going Luffy-senpai" which is basically the Going Merry but with Luffy as the figurehead because what else is appropriate. Bartolomeo and Gambia (the only other dude of Barto's crew that is named) is just fangasming over the fact that they have Luffy's Vivre Card, and apparently the rest of the crew are as large fanboys as Bartolomeo and it's just hilarious to have them all gawking over the Straw Hats. Apparently the seven generals or whatever have split up since last chapter, though they all have Luffy's Vivre Card. Bellamy also takes one, though he makes it clear that he won't be Luffy's underling.

Batolomeo then shows the Straw Hats their new bounties, and while he threw away Law's, he has put the Straw Hats' bounties on a gigantic majestic shrine in their ship, alongside their autographs. Here's the breakdown relative to their bounties right after the timeskip:

• Luffy: 400 million to 500 million
• Zoro: 120 million to 320 million
• Usopp: 30 million to 200 million
• Robin: 80 million to 130 million
• Franky: 44 million to 94 million
• Nami: 16 million to 66 million (we're not quite sure if Team Sanji went up because of something they did, or simply by association with the Straw Hats)
• Brook: 33 million to 83 million
• Sanji: 77 million to 177 million
• Chopper: 50 to 100 (poor Chopper)
• Law: 440 million to 500 million

Usopp's in particular has skyrocketed because of all the God Usopp insanity, and some of their poster images have changed. Sanji now finally has his real face, Brook has his Soul King poster and Usopp has his 'god' half-dead face. And Bartolomeo also notes that everyone involved in the Dresrossa incident also had their bounties raised. And one mysterious thing is that Sanji's poster lists that he is wanted "ONLY ALIVE" instead of the normal dead or alive, so it appears that Sanji's been in some shit himself... and I'm absolutely curious what's going on with him. We haven't seen Sanji in like a year dammit. There has always been a theory that Sanji is really a World Noble prince because of all the 'prince' titles he's been giving himself that people have taken as foreshadowing, especially the fact that Sanji's face has always been out of the spotlight (he wasn't made into the Worst Generation when Zoro had, his face was always missing, etc), so now that he is in the spotlight, well... I dunno. We'll see.

Daredevil S1E5 Review: Kingpin is Awesome

Daredevil, Season 1, Episode 5: World on Fire 

Another rather good episode to follow from the heels of the last one, though honestly “World on Fire” implies that something will, y’know, blow the fuck up and it certainly does in this episode. Wilson Fisk executes the “break the city to rebuild it into something new” absolutely far better than Malcolm Merlyn in Arrow’s first season ever did, and it’s certainly far easier to develop the main villain’s motivations when you don’t hide his identity for half the season for a not-too-surprising fake-out.

But enough comparisons with Arrow. This episode’s actually themed more on how the three titular ship pairings interact with each other, while the main plot is about Vladimir seeking revenge for the death of his brother… against Daredevil instead of Wilson Fisk, who framed the vigilante up. It’s a shame that after the absolutely spectacular performance by Wesley duping Vladimir there really isn’t much that they did with the deception. It plays out more as a distraction done by Fisk to get Vladimir agitated and ready for war. It’s not a bad thing per se because what we got was pretty great with Fisk completely having Vladimir dance on his fingertips while getting himself the bonus of Daredevil himself getting arrested by the police.

We get a couple of scenes that will surely drive shippers wild. We’ve got Foggy’s scene with Karen, of course, which is sweet and built up over the past five episodes with some hints of Karen probably having some feelings towards Matt being thrown in. Upcoming love triangle? The two take their plot arc through a relatively well-written “help the little people stop the big company from taking away their homes” plot, though sadly while Foggy seems absolutely confident he can destroy his pencil-dressed ex in court it might be for naught because, well, shit blows up.

We’ve also got Murdock’s scene with Claire, who has graduated to love interest with them kind of saying it on-screen already and while it has the subtlety of a brick… might as well as get it over with, yeah? I don’t think Murdock and Claire’s relationship was developed as well as Karen and Foggy or Wilson and Vanessa, but I honestly don’t particularly care much. Their scenes did show some rather nice insight into what it is like to live in Daredevil’s world where everything looks like it’s “on fire”, as well as Claire’s concerns that Daredevil is becoming closer and closer to what he hates to fight.

Kingpin, again, steals the show this episode… though not quite as much as the previous two. I do love his scenes, from the apologetic-and-slightly-embarrassed way that he dodges the question of why exactly he crushed Anatoly’s head while confronted by his partners… he isn’t afraid to admit that he killed Anatoly, but the reason – that the Russian interrupted his date – well… we also get a fair bit of shrewdness from him, and I do like how he isn’t just a boring “everyone follow me” leader and actually has to convince Gao, Nobu and Leland to agree with him. Leland is a big ham, and I love him. Gao and Nobu both seem to have some kind of history, and Nobu in particular seems to have ties to a larger organization which is blindly obvious to be an adaptation of a Marvel villain organization.

And then there is his date with Vanessa, which played out spectacularly not only for Kingpin, but for Vanessa herself. She isn’t just this woman who the Kingpin falls for, but she is as shrewd, intelligent and ballsy as the Kingpin himself. And I do love how Kingpin and Vanessa both challenge each other and aren’t exactly blinded by love… plus, y’know, there’s the adorkable scene where Kingpin initially seems to be disturbed by the idea of premarital sex only to reveal that he’s just pissed he didn’t use the pickup line. And while Vanessa doesn’t really seem as twisted as Kingpin is, he did make a really great speech about how he truly wished from the bottom of his heart to reform the city… but it is impossible to do it without burning parts of it – citing the child-napping Russians as a factor he wants to stamp out. It does paint his goals in a far more sympathetic light especially when he talks about how he will live with the guilt for the rest of his life and all that… but he will keep Vanessa safe and will not lie to her.

Absolutely love how Kingpin isn’t afraid to just straight-up wear his weaknesses on his sleeve and admit readily how Wesley was the one responsible for choosing the wine, just like he did last episode. He also calls Wesley his friend which is touching.

I do like how this is going and I honestly cannot believe a dinner date between two borderline-sociopaths can be far more interesting than Daredevil running around trying to stop a gigantic gang civil war.

And like Claire herself pointed out, Daredevil truly is biting off more than he can chew. The little scene showing the Russians arming themselves, with Anatoly sending off runners to hunt down first Daredevil and then Fisk himself when he is informed of the duplicity showcases just how outclassed Daredevil is. But, of course, Kingpin himself outmaneuvers Anatoly. First by making the ‘let Madame Gao’s people do their job as always’ throwaway line from the first meeting be actually crucial when one of Gao’s runners suicide-bombs Anatoly’s main army. And then by having Turk – a recurring character from the earlier episodes – actually feed the mal-information that ‘Fisk and the vigilante is working together’ to Anatoly to get him to mass his forces at several bases. (Turk is funny, by the way) And this shows that Kingpin isn’t only strong because he has people following him or because he is powerful enough physically to strongarm Russians and bash their heads in with car doors… he’s a shrewd tactician on top of it all.

Love the little fake-out that seemed to imply that the waiter at Kingpin’s restaurant was calling in the location where Fisk is to Anatoly, and near the end Kingpin seemed to want to draw Vanessa’s gun from his coat – an obvious usage of a Chekov’s Gun – but it’s subverted to Kingpin paying the waiter for a good job.

Also the fact that Madame Gao has blind people happy to blow themselves up to get the job done makes her far more interesting than Leland, Wesley and Nobu in my books.

I also like the little scene at the police station where the Russian gangster Piotr is just framed-executed by the two policemen on Fisk’s payroll, and how despite Murdock being in the same building he moved too slow to do anything.

The framing of Daredevil killing Anatoly would play more into the cliffhanger where the police finds him beating the ever-loving crap out of Vladimir and Sergei, the two remaining leaders of the Russian mob. This certainly feels like a mid-season cliffhanger… except, y’know, the entire series is out at the same time so it’s just the end of the first act, where the heroes are all in trouble and the villain stands absolutely victorious over everything. I’m pretty sure Kingpin won me over with his awesome speeches too, though. All hail he who must not be named!

Daredevil S1E4 Review: Do Not Interrupt the Kingpin's Date

Daredevil, Season 1, Episode 4: In The Blood

Well that was a lot better than the previous episode. And by a lot I do mean by a huge margin. This is a relatively villain-centric episode with a good bulk of it focusing on our main villain -- Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. the (future) Kingpin, as well as the Russian brothers that are part of Fisk's multi-racial criminal organization. Meanwhile, the good guys' share of screentime is split between Karen and Urich's little team-up in trying to hunt down clues and Daredevil having to rescue Claire from the Russians.

Let's talk about the good guys first, because I do have less to talk about them. I do like the exploration of how utterly stupid Karen's attempts at trying to one-man-show the whole "uncover the gigantic criminal conspiracy" was, and how she nearly got herself killed. Points for balls, though. And as I mentioned before, the idea of Ben Urich's role in this story is pretty well-done, and no one really believed he was going to leave Karen out to dry. The two have teamed up, ready to tackle the expose with Urich's greater experience... and we get some backstories snuck in too rather subtly and marvelously, a short backstory about Urich's tragic love story and how he didn't appreciate his wife enough because he was a workaholic, and some hints to some dirt in Karen's past. We also get some bonus "people who cross the Kingpin are disposed of" information too which is a nice little bonus.

The Daredevil part is honestly a bit more familiar territory to anyone who's watched or read anything from the superhero genre, where Daredevil is confronted with one of his allies, in this case Claire, captured by the bad guys and savagely interrogated to get to him. And having a crisis of whether he is going the right thing, before his allies ensure him that, yes, he is. Claire gets something to do when he bashes the Russian leader's head in, so despite the talk about Daredevil putting people in comas, she's not above some self-defensive violence herself. The whole sequence about the whole 'confronting what he is doing' is done a lot more succinctly and a lot less meandering than, say, Arrow did, so props for that. There really isn't anything particularly special or noteworthy about the Daredevil scenes this time around, but they're definitely well done.

One thing I do like is the ready acknowledgement that the people Daredevil fight actually do get hurt. The dirty cop that Daredevil threw off a roof in episode two is in a coma and him brushing it off kind of builds his darker character a bit, and sets the tone for the grittier setting this takes place in. 

Also Daredevil was totally pulling off a Batman in that scene. And Batman predator scenes impressed me when I was seven, and will probably continue to impress me until I'm seventy.

Kingpin is where it's at, though. I am the first to admit that I'm not that well-versed with Marvel Comics characters, so I'm not quite sure how accurate this portrayal of Kingpin is -- all I knew from the old Spider-Man cartoons I used to watch is that he's basically a mafia version of Lex Luthor... and this episode really delves into just what makes Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, tick. We see that he subverts most of the trope of the super-cultured Blofeld-esque rich mafia-boss type villain that people like Don Corleone or Lex Luthor are. I do love how he acts like a lovesick little boy around the girl from the art museum last episode -- named Vanessa, apparently -- and it is absolutely a powerful and strong performance from D'Onofrio in this episode.

I do love how he just subverts the super-cultured stereotype by straight-up admitting that he doesn't understand a god damned thing about wine, how he gives in to vices like eating that funny dessert he likes... and is so wonderfully adorkable when he tries to interact with Vanessa with some really awesome facial expressions. How a date can be far more interesting than Daredevil trying to rescue an ally being tortured I don't know, but Kingpin makes it work. And then we get a display of power when the sane Russian brother came in, since the whole restaurant stands up in defense of Kingpin. And we get such believably human expressions from Kingpin when Vanessa gives an equally humanly ambiguous reply at the end. Hell, Kingpin really feels human all around, with that unguarded expression of "shit did I say something wrong" and "oh I think I said a cool line" at various points during the dinner. And that's not counting the little speech about his motivations, which in itself is pretty awesomely scripted.

And, of course, we get a stark contrast to his innocently cultured side by having him utterly brutalize the Russian brother than barged in to sue for peace. And this is a scene which is actually made better by the gore, unlike the gratuitous examples from last episode. It underscores just how powerful Kingpin is (and how prepared, considering he went into the fight with body armour) and how utterly brutal he is. I did think the head-smashy scene with the car door did go on for a bit too long, but on the other hand it underscores Kingpin's rage against the Russian brother from interrupting his date, and a stark contrast to the cultured Kingpin from a scene ago, just trying his hardest to talk about wine and paintings and his desire to reform the city with a girl he likes.

It also underscores something more important about Kingpin. It's no stranger to anyone watching fiction for a main villain to kill off lesser villains for disappointing or slighting him/her, but Kingpin beats the Russian guy up -- the Russian brother who wanted peace, by the way, which was what Kingpin wanted -- simply because he fucked up his date. And honestly it wasn't even irreparably ruined either. But it does show that Kingpin is a far more, well, emotion-driven being than what we was initially led to believe, him being just this supreme gangster overlord. And I do love this little direction we're taking.

Wesley, Kingpin's right hand man, has a relatively smaller role this time around but still continues to entertain, especially at the end with his utter indifference of the brutality happening just inches away.

The Russians themselves... well, I do think that we did spend a wee bit too much time on them, and what was the purpose of the first flashback scene, or extending the 'wake up the dude in a coma' scene too long. But since the surviving brother (Vladimir?) seem to be shaping up to play a role in fighting Kingpin in the next two or three episodes, I guess we do need to care about them somewhat. But eh, he ain't gonna stand half a chance against Kingpin, honestly. When Daredevil alone can Batman-style the shit out of their entire forces...

Overall, definitely my favourite Daredevil episode out of the four I watched so far and I do hope the quality stays around the same.

Daredevil S1E3 Review: The Courtroom Episode

Daredevil, Season 1, Episode 3: Rabbit in a Snowstorm

It’s honestly a big underwhelming episode for me compared to the previous two episodes, though it’s no small part due to the factor of me being the viewer instead of any real fault of the episode’s. I have never, in any way, been interested in fiction within a courtroom setting, so the fact that the bulk of the episode takes place in the courtroom with some subtleties (and likely obvious facets) of trials being absolutely lost on me. So all that stuff going on in the trial? Really kind of boring, for me. Though I still do get the gist of what’s going on and how this relates to the big Kingpin organization… and honestly I don’t think they needed to take up an entire episode just to focus on, well, this topic. On the surface Murdock and Fogey being sort of forced to work for what they know is a hired killer is an interesting concept and Murdock’s speech about good and evil is definitely a well-scripted one, but so much of it is just dragging on and on about paid jury members and whatnot and honestly I just don’t really care at all.

Add to the unnecessary amount of gore and brutality in this episode… the horrific way that Healy dies is excused in my books for the shock value that it creates (as silly as it is for him to whack his head on a jutting piece of sharp metal instead of using something more practical) – both for Daredevil and the audience to showcase just how horrifying the Kingpin is meant to be – but the brutal arm-breaking (twice!) during the initial fight between Healy and the random bowling mafia dude he kills? Did we need that? Did we really need to see the bone jutting out? I’m no stranger to gore, but it really felt like it was thrown in that scene for no reason.

Daredevil rather hammilly channeling Christian Bale's Batman during the interrogation sequence is equal parts embarrassing and awesome, let's leave it at that.

We’ve got some second-stringer plots running along with Karen trying to deal with her old bosses at Union Allies threatening to blackmail her, as well as a new character to the MCU, Spider-Man supporting character Ben Urich – intrepid Daily Bugle (changed here to a different Marvel newspaper, the New York Bulletin) reporter. Ben Urich’s scenes are honestly the most interesting ones to me in this episode mostly due to how humdrum the rest of the scenes are. The lawyer scenes are boring and Karen’s little plotline is just more or less the same as the ones she went through before – just her being confronted by things way too big and Kingpin’s organization reaches everywhere… it’s just blah. Urich’s is at least interesting, and actually changing his newspaper from the big media behemoth that is the Daily Bugle into the smaller, struggling New York Bulletin is a nice move.

This episode also offers us the first glimpse at the big man, Kingpin, himself. Or, well, Wilson Fisk, as he is still calling himself. Throughout this episode and the previous two we’ve seen hints of Kingpin actually making his power play against the other mafia heads – we’ve got Healy taking out one in here, and Urich talks to another one who’s leaving New York to Florida. In a way it is interesting to see all these things going on in the background, how Kingpin is rising up in Hell’s Kitchen as much as Daredevil himself is… but on the other hand I’d actually rather see more of Kingpin’s organization. And while we only saw a little bit of Kingpin admiring art (the titular rabbit in a snowstorm… which doesn’t really make sense to the episode’s main themes but whatever) he does look pretty awesome.

Wesley is as smooth and slimy as ever, and he is another one that’s a delight to watch throughout the episode, providing some form of tension when Murdock starts trailing him – though nothing really comes out of it.

A solid episode, definitely… but a wholly underwhelming one for me. It’s definitely not badly written and in no way can this episode be called bad… but it sure as hell is boring and I really wished there was more that happened in here. Not necessarily action scenes, but some actual world-building or character-building other than established dynamics we’ve already seen in the past two episodes. 

One Piece 800 Review: In Which Luffy Is Forced To Get An Army

One Piece, Chapter 800: Exchanging Sakazukis

This week’s One Piece is honestly a bit underwhelming. For chapter 800 which we seem to have been building up to, it ends up being nothing but a small continuation of 799. No Akainu, no Kaido, no Kidd or anything really like that. It literally just is a continuation of the exchanging sakazuki cups scene from last chapter, drawn out with Luffy being his usual ‘I don’t wanna do this it’s so cramped’ self while the seven captains basically just forcing themselves on Luffy, responding to Luffy’s troll logic with one of their own – basically since Luffy tells them to be free and they’ll be buddies nonetheless, they also want to be free to choose to become Luffy’s subordinates. At the urging of Cavendish, Hajrudin and the others, Bartolomeo gives a speech about how they are ‘free’ to exchange cups with Luffy even if he refuses.

And, y’know, Zoro being hilarious and sneakily drinking the wine by himself probably doesn’t hurt either.

The image of Hajrudin holding a tiny cup and Leo holding a comparatively oversized cup is funny.

They come under attack by the dudes that are upset that Doflamingo is taken down and have ruined their respective agendas, but Orlombus tells his fleet (apparently one of his inferiors is called Colombus?) to handle it… and the Fujitora gives his own farewell gift of launching the rubble onto the ships of the Straw Hats’ enemies and somehow missing all the Straw Hats.

Anyway they’re Luffy’s fleet whether he likes it or not, since they’re gonna be Luffy’s fleet even without his permission, and then Luffy gets distracted by the feast. Bartolomeo can die happy now. Meanwhile we get a short scene of Fujitora thinking that he doesn’t have the right to go after the Straw Hats, and after what they did to clean up the World Government, he does a bow to thank the Straw Hats witnessed by no one but Sengoku, which causes Fujitora to pull off a hilarious face.

We get a short scene with Rebecca and Kyros which is short and sweet and didn’t take up an entire page, and then we get the obligatory party beer drinking time scene, and we close off with ‘the seven oddballs that called themselves Straw Hat Luffy’s subordinates will continue to grow on their own and make their mark on history, leading to a big incident… in a story that is still untold.’

Which is epic and all, but considering it’s in a sense an extension of last chapter not really much happened in the big Eight Hundred beyond just a confirmation and honestly I do find it rather underwhelming. Definitely a good chapter, but for all the buildup, it is underwhelming.

Daredevil S1E2 Review: In Which Daredevil Is Found In A Dumpster

Daredevil, Season 1, Episode 2: Cut Man 

This episode doesn’t really impress me as much as the first episode, but on the other hand it just feels like such a different beast from most of the other superhero TV shows out there in that Daredevil, the titular hero… gets his ass handed to him. Really hard. The first half of this episode features this new character Claire Temple (who’s apparently merged with the character of Night Nurse from the comics… neither of whom I am familiar of) finding a severely wounded Daredevil in a dumpster, and spending like a good ten minutes just playing ‘tell me your secret you mysterious person’ with each other, while Daredevil goes into convulsions due to a pleural effusion and whatnot.

All this is cut back and forth with a rather generic yet still-touching flashback story of Matt’s father, Jack Murdock, dealing with trying to follow fixed boxing matches to get money for his poor son… but the Big One, pitting him against Carl Creel (also known as the Absorbing Man, making a full appearance in Agents of SHIELD’s second season). It’s some Pulp Fiction-esque shit as Jack ends up, naturally, winning the fight and pissing off the bad men running things and gets gunned down… all to get a shit-ton of money for Matt Murdock. It’s a bit generic, honestly, as touching as the story was, though I did think that it was executed well and worked well with the narrative.

What really distracted, however, were the constant cutaways to Foggy and Karen just running around being drunk. We did get the nice, meaningful scene of Karen confessing that she’s traumatized from the whole episode 1 thing, and I did laugh at the “WE ARE FILLED WITH MIGHTY EEL STRENGTH” thing but other than that it feels like relatively unimportant padding and they really could’ve gotten something more interesting for the two of them to do.

Claire is pretty interesting, as this outsider who sees two sides of Daredevil the vigilante – on one hand she’s seen all the people that Daredevil has helped presumably prior to season one. On the other hand Daredevil is an obstinate bastard trying to ignore the wounds on his face, and goes around dropping fire extinguishers on people’s skulls and actually following on with the threat of dropping the corrupt policeman off the roof. Granted it’s into a dumpster and he apparently lived, but this isn’t Batman who uses the fear of being dropped off a roof and ultimately stops from dealing potentially life-threatening injuries.

It’s a really wild contrast to the first episode’s “lawyer story with superheroes thrown in” vibe, switching gears rapidly to explore Daredevil’s, well, more devil-like tendencies. The interrogation with Claire actually advocating Daredevil to stab him in the trigeminal nerve was chilling, and the aforementioned casual endangerment of life adds to how much darker Daredevil is. It is a bit gratuitous, especially the eye-stabbing scene, but again it creates another stark contrast with the rest of the MCU. The fact that Daredevil doesn’t really give a fuck when it’s, y’know, child-kidnapping and human-trafficking shitstains… also do like the little nod to the ending of last episode because the kid Daredevil is trying to rescue is the catalyst for this whole episode taking place.

Claire’s costume – basically nothing more than a white hoodie and an additional ghost-esque piece of cloth with creepy eyeholes to cover her face – looks awesome and creates a stark contrast to Daredevil. It’s white compared to black, obviously, but it also actually looks creepy and sinister and actually looks like a costume instead of Daredevil’s piss-poor fashion choice. I mean, I know the dude’s blind but come on, when even the show itself makes fun of the “costume”…

Also, that last fight scene in the corridor? It did go on for a bit too long and Daredevil did look freakishly tired all throughout, but it was a fucking awesome scene and it made sitting through this mostly talk-heavy episode totally worth it. He just keeps falling down even while he does these impressive feats of jumping around and dropkicking and spin kicks and whatnot, but like the message in the flashback, he always gets up and it’s a nice, subtle way to tie in the two sections – something that Arrow could stand to learn.

It’s definitely a slower episode and one that’s more geared towards displaying how much darker this show is going to be, and sets the tone of the superhero sections of the Daredevil TV show. I still find it weird because Daredevil really looked pathetic in the first half of the episode, being beaten off-screen by a bunch of thugs, though I guess still persevering in spite of his injuries counts as badassery? I dunno, it just kinda seemed like an odd choice to show the main hero be so pathetic early on in the series, and I do realize that invincible main characters are boring, but on the other hand you don’t just tear down the badass cred of your main character in the second episode.

Though, again, that final fight scene was beautifully shot and re-establishes Daredevil’s badass status so yeah, all is forgiven. Overall I still think this episode is a bit of a weird beast, but I still kinda liked it.

Daredevil S01E01 Review: Great Episode, Stupid Costume

Daredevil, Season 1, Episode 1: Into the Ring 

Okay, I did say that I wasn’t really interested in Marvel-Netflix’s Daredevil. It’s just like why I didn’t exactly watch DC’s Constantine, though the upcoming tie-in with Arrow’s fourth season might change that depending on how much I like Constantine in that show. See, unlike John Constantine who I only know tangentially from Zatanna and Batman comics, I actually do know Daredevil. I mean, I am hardly an expert on Marvel comics (unlike DC) and I won’t say I’ve read a lot of Daredevil comics… but hey, I was bored and I ended up booting up the pilot of this show.

It was… okay. My Daredevil reviews will be a bit different from my normal TV show reviews, since it’s a been out for a while I’m going to be a lot more concise instead of the rambling way I usually review TV shows that came out a week or a month ago. Also not sure how regular Daredevil reviews will be, because I'm not sure how regular my watching schedule's gonna be. So yeah.

Anyway, Daredevil the TV show is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is honestly the main reason that it drew me in, but the way this pilot is structured it might as well as simply be a courtesy. Unlike its sister-show Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil doesn’t even bother trying to fit with the tone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, being far darker, far more pessimistic and has a focus on the dark seedy underbelly of crime. There is the offhand mention of the destruction of New York City (presumably what happened in the first Avengers movie, though, y’know, they tend to blow cities up and it might be referring to something more recent, basically any MCU movie before Age of Ultron) but other than that Daredevil makes it clear that it is doing its own thing, its own darker Netflix-sanctioned brutal tone.

It’s a good take, certainly. And one that fit someone like Daredevil better than, say, CW’s heavily-Batman-inspired take on Green Arrow. But without getting into Arrow comparisons, Daredevil’s first pilot episode was… pretty decent. It does take it slow, introducing the main characters – Matt Murdock (a.k.a. Daredevil) and his buddy Foggy Nelson, plus the damsel-in-distress-turned-main-character Karen Page. Karen is Daredevil's main love interest in the comics, but I didn't know/forgot that particular bit so it's a bit of a welcome surprise when it turned out that she was going to be far more important than what she initially seemed to be. We spent quite a bit of time in the beginning building up Matt and Foggy’s “those two dudes” chemistry, as well as the whole “lawyers without profit” setup they have going on. The sheer amount of snark that Foggy and Murdock lays down onto various characters does definitely have a MCU vibe, I must say. We did get a fair bit of backstory about Murdock’s father and how he got blind, but we don’t exactly get the entire episode devoted to just being Daredevil: Origins, which is great and is something more superhero shows/movies should be doing. Though honestly Daredevil's origin story isn't all that spectacular and the little we saw in the opening and the short flashback bonding moment is really all that we need to know. 

Daredevil’s action scenes are, of course, pretty awesome, well-choreographed and nowhere as brutal as people led me to believe. Or I dunno, maybe Game of Thrones and 24 have desensitized me to TV violence. It’s pretty nice and I do like how Murdock doesn’t immediately win his fights... unlike what the Ben Affleck movie did with him having super-strength, I do like how Daredevil is just a blind man with above-average martial arts training and better hearing to compensate for his blindness, and against the trained assassin in the second half of the episode he actually does take as much of a beating as he doled out. I also do like how there isn't any overlong scenes detailing his powers. We did get a bit of him listening to people's hearbeats to see if they're lying, and him listening to his surroundings and whatnot, but it isn't fully spelled out for us and I appreciate that quite a bit. 

The show’s tone is definitely darker, though, make no mistake. Daredevil’s main villain isn’t some alien army or fallen Norse god or rogue AI, it’s a faceless, well-organized criminal organization that’s happy to kill all the little people, and I absolutely love the ending which shows that while Daredevil might’ve saved Karen Page from being killed, exposed the shady deals in the company and those kidnapped girls in the opening scene, we get some Godfather-esque cutaways from Murdock training to showing how Kingpin’s organization is still running at full strength and how all the people that failed the organization (the assassin that Daredevil fought at the climax, Karen’s boss, the poor policeman blackmailed to attack Karen being found by his daughter) all wiped out.

It’s a nicely structured episode, with Karen being built up as just a random episodic case that Murdock and Foggy takes up, but ends up introducing Karen as the third member of the main characters and tying into the big Kingpin (oh come on literally everyone knows that the unseen main villain is Kingpin) organization plot pretty seamlessly. I also do like the smooth ‘main villain’s right-hand-man’ Wesley (who wasn’t named on-screen in this episode) due to how strong his performance was. We also get established to what I'm assuming to be the main lieutenants of Kingpin's organization. In addition to Wesley, we've got the white old man Leland Owlsley (who people told me is actually a major villain, the Owl, in the comics. Well with a name like Owlsley...), the Chinese drug lord Madam Gao, the Japanese man Nobu and the Russian brothers Vladimir and Anatoly. At least they're easily identified by race, if nothing else. 

Daredevil’s costume design is extremely stupid looking, far worse than the ‘let’s make this realistic and street’ design that Arrow had in his first season, and even more ridiculous than his one-piece horned comic book suit… and when you look worse than your already-silly comic book counterpart, you know you’ve done fucked up. That’s really my biggest complaint about this show. Yes, you can make things darker or alter details so it doesn’t look too stupid… but basically ditching the costume in favour of wrapping a piece of cloth on your eyes and wearing black clothes? Jeez.

But overall it was a nice watch. Not particularly great, but it’s definitely a solid episode. It veers more into the ‘optimistic naïve lawyers digging way too deep into a powerful organization’ type of crime thriller stories than, y’know, superheroes throwing tonfas at bad guys, but it is a pretty decent pilot. 

One Piece 799 Review: New Straw-Hat(s)!

One Piece, Chapter 799: Parent & Child

When I clicked on this week’s chapter and saw the title, I let out a huge, gigantic groan because I thought we were going to get yet another chapter focused on Rebecca and Kyros. But no. Thankfully, no. And a lot of people were speculating that at the end of the arc we’ll get a new Straw Hat member. Rebecca, Viola, Law, Bartolomeo, Cavendish… (even if those last three don’t make sense because, y’know, they were already pirate captains of their own) people were speculating since the beginning of the Dressrosa arc.

And, in a sense, this chapter at near the end of the Dressrosa arc does give us a new Straw-Hat. But not just one. Several, in fact – basically most of Luffy’s allies from the Coliseum have proclaimed themselves as Straw Hats… I’m slightly unconvinced that Luffy will want to behave like a normal Yonko and accept all these other characters as his subordinates, but we’ll have to wait until chapter 800 for that.

The first few pages of the chapter starts off with Luffy fighting Fujitora, and while, y’know, it is Luffy fighting Fujitora we don’t get an entire elaborate fight devoted on just the two fighting. Luffy exchanges some blows with Fujitora and it’s awesome, but Fujitora calls Luffy out for obviously calling out where he is going to punch, telling him to take the fight seriously even if he’s blind. Luffy is still fighting seriously, but on the other hand he will not beat the crap out of a blind man without at least warning him.

Fujitora does a big PFFFFT face which is hilarious. Fujitora knocks Luffy back with his gravity-sword thing, talking about how Luffy has changed his own worldview… but he himself is bound by what he must do, so he is going to fight seriously as well. Hajrudin the giant catches Luffy and thankfully spirits him away with the other pirates. We get an awesome panel of Zoro, all insane and shit, going “all right, my turn.” What we would’ve given to see Zoro fight Fujitora! As it is, sadly, it’s not to happen.

Luffy’s allies forcibly abduct Luffy and run down a line of ships arranged to lead to Orlumbus’s giant Yonta Maria fleet. But Fujitora has created, y’know, a sky filled with debris from Dressrosa and while the pirates are running Fujitora reflects upon himself how the moment the pirates set sail, the debris will rain down upon them and completely obliterate them. And even if they did survive, taking out Doflamingo will have dire consequences.

Fujitora also gives us a bit of a background on himself, mentioning that he cut out his own eyes after seeing too many things he didn’t want to see – presumably he’s done this mercy-killing of technically-honourable pirates before? Fujitora goes all “I should make your trip to hell less painful” but before he can rain destruction, the entire civilian population of Dressrosa run towards the pirate ships and are all like “give our princess back you scumbag pirates!”… except, y’know, they’re actually smiling and are in on the story that Rebecca’s returned to her father, and are just using their concern for their princess to cover for the fact that they’re helping a pirate escape.

Fujitora knows this, but he ends up relenting and is actually curious just what kind of person this Luffy looks like to be able to inspire so many. Maybe he has a kind face? We leave Fujitora pondering that while muttering to himself that he can’t “show off [his] cool moves with all the junk he’s put up there.”

That’s the last we see of Fujitora for a bit, because we cut over to Luffy and company. We see Orlumbus’ giant ship the Yonta Maria. We get a bit of a re-introduction to several of the more prominent gladiators. First up is Hajrudin, who talks about his four giant crewmates, and how he’s hoping to bring back the giant pirates. Usopp brings up Brogy and Dorry and the giant land of Elbaf to remind us. Orlumbus then talks about how all 56 ships will be ‘of use’, Leo talks about how they ‘have permission’.Ideo’s crew is joined up by Bluegilly, Abdullah and Jeet, while Suleiman the beheader joins up with Cavendish… who, while acknowledging Luffy, still wants to be the most popular dude around… and it starts to dawn on the readers, if not the Straw-Hats that all of these pirates already want to join Luffy’s army.

Luffy is all like ‘so you guys just do whatever you want!’ And apparently they’ve even decided the ‘order’ by lottery. They have around 5600 people across their seven fleets, and they want to exchange wine cups with Luffy to become Luffy’s followers, like the little crews under a big crew. We’ve seen this demonstrated most clearly with Whitebeard, but also with the other pirates. Whitebeard has his own personal crew (Marco, Jozu, Ace, etc) but he’s also got like a gajillion other pirate captains who has sworn allegiance to him. It gets around people like Bartolomeo actually joining the Straw Hats while still retaining their crew and their identities as captains.

And while it’s a bit doubtful that Luffy will want this whole system to go down – he does seem friendly enough with them so I doubt he’ll decline. I mean, we even got an order! The order is as follows:

1.      Cavendish the White Horse with his beautiful pirates, 75 men strong

2.      Bartolomeo the Cannibal and his Barto Club, 56 men strong

3.      Don Sai and the Happo Navy, 1000 men strong (this one was actually pledged to Luffy a fair bit ago)

4.      Ideo and the ‘Triple X Gym Martial Arts’… 4 men strong. Apparently it’s just Ideo, Bluegilly, Abdullah and Jeet. Okaaaay.

5.      Leo and the Tontatta Army, 200 men strong.

6.      Hajrudin’s giants, 5 men strong

7.      Orlumbus and the grand Yonta Maria Fleet, 4300 men strong.

So yeah, a good chunk of Luffy’s (potential) future army is going to be provided by Orlumbus and Sai, but still, this is an exciting development whether Luffy wants to take part in it or not, but damnit, either way we’re set up for an insane chapter 800.