Iron Fist S01E09 Review: Frank N. Stein

Iron Fist, Season 1, Episode 9: The Mistress of All Agonies

Good lord, this episode. Last episode was kind of messy and poorly written, but at least we have a couple of cool fight scenes to make up for it, and a solid goal that we're pursuing. So far Iron Fist has been various shades of 'this is interesting', but even at its worst (i.e. the first three episodes) it's never been completely bad. I don't think there's any part of this episode that I really liked. 

Where to begin? There's the old-and-tried "villain lets herself be captured to mess with our heroes' head" with Madame Gao trying to play mind-games with Danny, Claire and Wing, but that honestly just feels like something so we have some padding between Danny and Harold scenes. Mostly, because as much stupid zen sayings as Danny repeats over and over, he's not a very enlightened or intelligent person. He doesn't want to kill Madame Gao, but he wants to end the Hand? He wants to interrogate Madame Gao, but doesn't want to resort to violence? He wants to find out about his parents, but not about the Hand's plans now? And when Claire and Colleen call Danny out on this, his answer is an absolutely irritating and petulant "so you guys are ganging up on me now?" Well of fucking course, Danny, because you're being an idiot. He runs into Joy, who tells him that he's been ousted of the company, and his answer is a very indignant "so that's my fault?" Joy's a lot sterner than Colleen and Claire and her flat "yes" is easily one of the few redeeming parts of this episode. 

It's one thing to make Danny impulsive, naive and out of touch with the world. It's one thing to make Danny have a mysterious past and we still have no fucking idea what went down in K'un Lun. It's another to make him do absolutely moronic decisions and get rewarded for it. 

Like, imprisoning Madame Gao with nothing more than a chair and ropes? The fuck? And the whole problem of him being super-convinced it's Madame Gao who killed daddy and mommy because the poison coincidentally happened to be the same is still insipidly moronic writing. And after the truth serum nonsense, it's left ambiguous whether it's even real with Gao's talk about how she's immune to poisons. 

Also how the utter fuck did they get Gao from China back to New York? That makes the FakeChina bit from last episode even more stupid. 

Ward, meanwhile, continues to unravel and apparently his father set him up to be framed for using drugs. Which, mind you, he was totally doing. Or maybe he actually did leave those drug packets out and being careless and his double-fuck-you-fingers deal was actually him being paranoid that everything bad in his life is his daddy's fault.

Speaking of which, Harold comes back to life. Which, as much as the actor is entertaining... isn't a very compelling plot point. Okay, yes, there's the huge revelation that the people modified by the Hand (Nobu from Daredevil, implied to be Madame Gao since she mentions having been alive since the 17th century) will revive themselves after dying. But did we need the long, drawn-out moments of Harold wandering around town like an idiot? Or the unnecessarily and uncomfortably long scene of him murdering Kyle? The show tries to have an emotional moment between Harold and Ward but while the show's probably going for a more "I can't believe it" kind of tone, Ward's deadpan and emotionless reaction was more hilarious than emotional. Yes, Harold meeting Joy at the end is something that's just waiting to drop, and I suppose that's still a somewhat interesting moment. 

The mystery around Colleen is also very... whatever. How the fuck did the poison instantly kill Gao's bodyguards, but with her it creates this beautifully intricate network of black arteries on her shoulder? That plotline was boring, there's no real tension there because we immediately get an out with Colleen's sensei, who turns out to be Bakuto and teaches Danny a Chi-healing technique thing. 

Some military dudes show up for some reason. 

Some random dude bumps into Harold and beats up a random hot dog stand owner for some reason.

Colleen and Bakuto take Danny to... wherever they're working for, likely the Chaste or maybe something more sinister considering they're not letting Claire come with. So many weird questions are raised -- is Gao telling the truth? Who are the military dudes? Who's the ninja star dude? Whose side is Bakuto and Colleen really on? What's Harold going to do? What's Joy going to do? What happened in Danny's past? What's the Hand's endgame? But none of it really feels engaging enough, and to make it worse, despite the slow agonizing job that the show has done in making Danny Rand likable, it backtracks on a lot of it, and turns out that he's honestly just kind of unlikable and petulant. 

Overall, yeah. I really hope the show does something more in its last four episodes, because, holy crap, what a boring ass episode. 

Iron Fist S01E08 Review: Drunken Fist

Iron Fist, Season 1, Episode 8: The Blessing of Many Fractures

Oh, hey, another episode with martial arts fighting! They really should've done this, or the Scythe fight, or the twin Russians, as part of the first episode instead of 'Danny barely gets away from a bunch of thugs'. Both the main battles between Colleen and the Hand henchwoman with a sword, as well as the Iron Fist's fight with Zhou Cheng, who gets my vote as the best martial artist in the show, are a delight to watch, less so for the brawl at the end which isn't helped by really fake-looking axe props. 

Still, it's a step back compared to the previous episode. The Ward/Joy stuff was, in Ward's own words in this episode, 'cliche and pathetic'. There was some nice writing with Joy talking about how she looks up to Ward for doing what he does in Rand Enterprises so smoothly (even though of course, we know Ward is just following daddy's orders) and she wants to fight for a position she's reached. She's hired a certain drunk P.I. hint hint nudge nudge to take compromising photographs because coincidentally apparently every single person on the board is an adulterer. Also Ward tries to cut a deal behind her back because of course he does. And when it turns out that the slow moments of brother-sister bonding is going to get us some revelations, Ward freaks out over seeing blood all the time and tells her sister to fuck off, making a good chunk of this episode feel pointless and unnecessary. 

The therapy session between Claire and Danny also felt absolutely awkward and shoehorned in, with relatively poor writing that feels like it's supposed to be the outline of the conversation instead of the actual conversation itself. And the actual trip to China feels very convoluted. Why did Madame Gao go all the way to China when she's pretty much waving her superiority and untouchability in front of Danny? If Rand Enterprises has presumably cut off Danny and the Meachums' funding, where did they get money for the very first-class-looking airplane tickets? Did we really need that scene where Claire can't find her phone which fell off the dashboard? And Claire and Colleen pointing out that, hey, Danny doesn't even have a plan on how to deal with Gao, which they point out as absolutely dumb... then decide to follow Danny anyway. What the shit?

Danny's naive, I know, but jeez, a lot of what he's doing is utterly stupid, even by TV hero standards. Ward even points out the idiocy of hoping that the Hand will just shrug and abandon their operation and business by destroying one factory, instead of, y'know, retaliating and (to Danny) killing Harold. Claire and Colleen both also point out the stupidity of a lot of Danny's plans and actions in this episode, where he's basically chasing any thread he can about daddy's death. Shit, man, just because Gao knew your father (and anyone can look up his father's name and say it to unsettle him) doesn't mean she killed him! And apparently Madame Gao is the only person allowed to use paralyzing poison, because of course Danny recognizes that the same poison the Hand goons use on their axes are the same ones that killed the pilots of his childhood plane, and therefore, Madame Gao (who, in Danny's mind, is the only one with such a poison) killed his parents. 

Also, where is that powerful one-hand shove that she did in their previous encounter?

Also, you guys are going to fight the Hand, you'd think Claire would call in at least Daredevil for help. I mean, I know it's impossible, but at least handwave an excuse, or write Claire out of this particular raid, because now she looks like an idiot.

So much of this episode is just poorly-executed character moments and a plot that jumps all over the place, but there's a highlight, which is the fight between Zhou Cheng, Defender of the Hand, Disciple of the Qilin or whatever his title is, who employs a very wuxia-inspired drunken fighting. There are some really awesome moves in that fight, and Zhou Cheng's drunken fighting moves includes some highlights like butt-shoving Danny, that spinning thing he does to lean on the ground, and using his alcohol jug, connected to his hand with some rope, to whack Danny. And Zhou Cheng raises some great questions, and without really knowing what the reasons are for Danny leaving K'un Lun, it really doesn't paint a very favourable image for our hero -- especially combined with his very childlike tantrum when planning out stuff with Claire and Colleen earlier in the episode. Zhou Cheng points out, rightfully so, that even though his masters might be murderers, at least he's not dishonourable the way Danny is, abandoning his post like that. He's just charismatic, mixing in taunts and boasts "I need to keep my dragon sedated!" and honestly I'm pretty sure I'm rooting for him. 

Of course, Danny wins because he's the hero, and proceeds to beat up Zhou Cheng's face into a pulp (a very unfortunate image), something that's oh so EVIL. Because they're not trying to stop a ninja drug cartel or anything, no, beating someone's face to a pulp is totally going too far. Really, Claire, you went on this journey to get payback for your dead friend, were you expecting to serve the evil ninjas a subpoena? It's one thing to contrast Daredevil and Punisher's methods. It's another to be complete morons without a solid plan to end this without bloodshed. And honestly, Danny sics a triad gang to shoot up one of the Hand's factories, and Colleen is totally fine with that. Suddenly worrying about accidentally killing Zhou Cheng and potentially killing Madame Gao is wrong?

So yeah. A combination of bad writing and inconsistent motivations and reverting Danny back into 'clueless idiot' from his previous 'charmingly naive' personality, really makes this episode more miss than hit. And when the stereotypical Asian kung fu minion who shows up for all of ten minutes is much more likable than our protagonist, something is seriously wrong in your writing. At least we get proper kung fu fighting in this episode.


Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Jessica Jones finally gets a shout-out after Madame Gao left her out in her 'metahumans that showed up in New York' roll call! It's not explicit, but the hypercompetent, always-drunk private investigator that Joy hired is totally her.
• Likewise, while not explicit, the letter that Claire receives is definitely from Luke Cage, who's 'unavailable' because he's in prison, but Claire identifying him as a love interest pretty much seals his identity. 

Justice League Unlimited S02E13 Review: Before Beyond

Justice League Unlimited, Season 2, Episode 13: Epilogue

So, this episode is supposed to cap of the DC Animated Universe. And honestly still works. Batman: The Animated Series changed the game for superhero cartoons on television. It's not the first cartoon, nor the first good cartoon, but it's the first one that really, truly respects both the source material and the audience's intelligence, being meant as entertainment not to appeal to children of the ages below five, but to a broader audience. The voice-acting and dialogue wasn't asinine, the character writing were actually amazing, the action scenes were great, and while it doesn't steep to the dark themes of modern comics it's still very much content on tackling more mature issues.

It spawned many, many other stories. Superman: The Animated Series. Batman Beyond. Static Shock. Justice League. Justice League Unlimited. Of all these, Batman Beyond perhaps can be called the DCAU's biggest and most ambitious creation, being almost entirely original and not based on any prior DC creation. It's also chronologically the last stories of the DCAU, and where Justice League and Justice League Unlimited served as a capstone to some Superman stories that the showmakers weren't able to tell, not a corner of the DCAU goes without being respected. And one burning question is the whole mystery in Batman Beyond. I have to admit I haven't watched the series beyond its first season at the time of writing this review, but it's still an emotional story nonetheless.

The story works both in-universe and out-of-universe, showing the influence that Batman has on the world, essentially spawning the entire generation of heroes in the DCAU. Amanda Waller as the old, mysterious woman from Bruce's past that reveals a lot of things to Terry -- namely of the 'Batman Beyond Project' to ensure that the world will always have a Batman to protect it, is well done and ties this all to JLU pretty well. It ties in to the greater Cadmus plotline very well, and actually answers a question about Terry -- that he has neither the hair colour of both his parents, and actually resembles Bruce a fair bit. Does it take away from his agency as a character, that he was just 'destined' to become Batman? No, as Amanda Waller points out, Bruce never reveals that he knows (or if he knows) to Terry, and all the trials and tribulations that Terry McGinnis went through to become Batman, to succeed Bruce Wayne as the protector of Gotham City, is real.

It's really an amazing bit of television as Terry hallucinates some black-and-white events of him breaking up with his girlfriend Dana, rejecting the Justice League, rejecting Bruce, and generally acts like a douche after hanging up the mantle of Batman because he feels betrayed. It's not until the final set of scenes (where both Dana and Bruce are very amicable to Terry, and locales that should be destroyed are actually repaired) that we realize it's Terry's imagination and not flashbacks to what recently happened. As someone who has to succeed what is possibly the biggest burden out there -- to be Batman -- Terry goes through a crisis of self-worth as he's confused just how much of the Batman mantle he deserves, thinking that he's the result of Bruce's machinations. Except that Bruce is innocent. Everything is Amanda's fault.

It's a huge bombshell, of course, as Amanda Waller reveals that the world will always have a Dark Knight because of her own machinations, that she alters the genetic code of the reproductive organs of some men, including Warren McGinnis, effectively making Terry the biological son of Bruce Wayne. It changes the dynamic and relationship between Bruce and Terry, but then Amanda Waller always was an extremist. Hell, she very nearly has an assassin murder Terry's parents in a dark alley... it's a good thing the assassin she hires is Phantasm, making a very welcome return to the DCAU in a short but impactful cameo where she refuses to do the deed.

What really sells Amanda Waller why Batman is a hero that the world needs and not, say, Superman or J'onn J'onzz, is not the ease at which Batman maneuvers around her, or how Batman was the one that uncovers Luthor's conspiracy during the Cadmus crisis, but rather one of the best Batman moments ever, in an encounter with the Royal Flush Gang's Ace, one of my favourite creations of the DCAU. See, Ace is a very powerful realty-warping telepath, one of the creations of Cadmus. She doesn't belong among the heroes, she doesn't belong among her other Royal Flush Gang members, she doesn't even belong among crazy villains like the Joker. She tries to make a 'new' Royal Flush Gang, transforming a group of people to be her friends, but they're more intent on destroying stuff.

And Ace has used her powers to transform a huge part of the city into her own personal wonderland, and where Doctor Light and the other League members fight against the four Royal Flush Gang mooks, Batman enters Ace's realm to stop Ace from killing everyone -- she's suffering from a terminal aneurysm that'll kill everyone in the city. Waller is insistent that Batman kill the terminal Ace. It would be a mercy-killing, since the kid's terminal anyway... but Batman is not just a hero because he can fight, or he has a lot of gadgets, or that he's smart. He's a hero because no matter the cost, he upholds his code of honour.

Both Ace and Batman know that Batman isn't going to use the killswitch Waller gave him. Batman finds a different way, and this way is compassion. He holds Ace's hand, sitting on the swing, calming the girl down from her fear of death and her crippling loneliness -- things that Batman is familiar with. It's a moment that tugs at the heart strings, that's for sure, and Batman sees a lot of his young, afraid and lonely self in Ace. Yes, he is the vengeance and the night, but deep down Batman's a nice guy, a hero that's strong enough to be gentle, and it's this compassion that really sells Batman's character as a hero not only in the audience's eyes, but also in the eyes of Amanda Waller.

It's an amazing story, and one that helps Terry get past his own insecurities. Yes, he's part of a legacy both as a son of Bruce Wayne and as the second Batman, but he's still his own man. He's Bruce's son instead of his clone, which is an important distinction. And as he patches things up with Dana and Bruce, and the moment where we see Bruce making dinner for Terry (Bruce knows, doesn't he, damned detective that he is) and Terry setting Bruce's medicine for him is really heartwarming, and he embraces his destiny as Batman... but in his own terms.

It would've been a really great end for the DCAU, where Terry, as the Batman, finally gets a happy ending while still upholding the legacy of the dark knight, showing that Batman and the League's efforts are still being fought for in the future, while telling a very emotional and heart-tugging story for Bruce and Terry.

Of course, it's not the end, since we have another season to go. This is practically the perfect episode to end the DCAU on, though, the perfect epilogue with lots of great character moments and lots of callbacks to earlier stories.

We'll take a break from Justice League Unlimited for a month or so before we go through with the third season. JLU is such an excellent bit of superhero storytelling that it's a gem to review, but it's pretty exhausting too at the same time simply due to how much I have to talk about every episode.

Justice League Roll Call:

• Speaking Roles: Batman (Terry McGinnis), Batman (Bruce Wayne), Amanda Waller, Kai-Ro, Tomahawk, Aquagirl, Dr. Light
• Non-Speaking Roles: Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, Stargirl
• Main Villains: Parasite, Ace
• Non-Speaking Villains: Inque, Shriek, Stalker, King II, Jack II, Queen II, Ten II, Phantasm

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• This episode takes place after every single episode of Batman Beyond, the latest chronologically in the DCAU canon. 
• Ace last appeared in the Justice League episode "Wild Cards". Retroactively and coincidentally, this probably means that Bruce's dog, Ace, is named after this Ace.
• The new Royal Flush Gang is based visually on other properties. King is based on Marvel comics' supervillain M.O.D.O.K., Queen is based on Alice in Wonderland's Queen of Hearts (also she's really a he, a stealth reference to a drag queen), Jack is based on the cartoon Samurai Jack, and Ten is based on Bo Derek in the movie '10'.
• Terry briefly mentions how Joker used DNA alteration on Tim Drake, referencing the events of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Terry also briefly mentions Mister Freeze, a villain that both Batmen have tangled with.
• The Justice League Unlimited roster that appear in the future, namely Warhawk, Aquagirl and the Green Lantern Kai-Ro, are all seen in the Batman Beyond episode "the Call". The villains they fight, other than the Parasite, are all Batman Beyond villains: Inque, Stalker and Shriek. It's revealed that Terry isn't a member of the JLU yet.
• Parasite has mutated to develop a fanged, lamprey-esque mouth, referencing his appearance in the comics. It's unclear if this is the same Parasite as Rudy Jones or not. 
• Phantasm, a.k.a. Andrea Beaumont, was introduced and last seen in the movie Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. 
• Terry watches a movie titled "The Grey Ghost Strikes Back", which is a reference to Bruce Wayne's childhood hero. The title is probably a reference to the Frank Miller comic "The Dark Knight Strikes Again."
• Waller's offhand quip about how the Royal Flush Gang here is "the second or third incarnation" is a reference to how chronologically this would be the second incarnation, but due to Batman Beyond airing before Justice League, then in the real-world this would be the third incarnation of the Royal Flush Gang shown to the audience.
• The events of this episode recycles several plot points from a cancelled Batman Beyond movie which would have Catwoman as the person responsible for the cloning process.
• The episode's final scene features Terry's Batman flying, silhouetted against buildings and startling an airborne police hover-car, with one of them yelling "did you see that?", which is a homage to the opening scene in the very first scene of the very first episode of Batman: The Animated Series, "On Leather Wings", complete with the B:TAS score.

Iron Fist S01E07 Review: Company Problems

Iron Fist, Season 1, Episode 7: Felling Tree with Roots

Man, imagine if Iron Fist started off at this kind of pace and storytelling quality. This really should've happened earlier in the season instead of a little after the midway point. There's a lot here that goes down. Ward and Harold have a confrontation. Danny tries pushing his weight around in the company one too many times. Gao and Danny have a confrontation. Danny, Colleen and the Yang Triad gang unleash a raid on a Hand base.

Let's start with Ward first. Can I just say how much I like Ward and Joy's relationship in this series? It's a bit rare that a show manages to portray a brother-sister villain team with a relationship that felt as healthy as this. Their immediate predecessors, Cottonmouth and Mariah, are also a sibling team whose familial loyalty is marred by a deep-seated resentment they have for each other's methods. With Ward and Joy, they disagree a lot but at the same time, Joy still backs Ward all the time, and even at his worst Ward snapping at Joy a little is immediately followed by apologies. Joy truly doesn't know what Ward is hiding -- she thinks it's something that's just a harmless drug addiction when Ward has a little Frankenstein Daddy hidden in the proverbial basement -- but doesn't push. She tells Ward that he needs to get out and maybe take a holiday for a bit because she recognizes the problems her brother has.

But Ward's relationship with Harold? Oh, that's so hideously unhealthy. It's not just the verbal and physical abuse either, because Harold basically fucks over Ward's attempts to run away by draining all the money from his account. He employs Ward to dump bodies in the river, without really telling Ward just how those bodies get there, and continues to berate Ward for being a weak piece of shit who can't follow instructions. It's a horrible, horrible kind of abuse and it's at least one part in Iron Fist that really comes through as well done. And it's no surprise to anyone that Ward snaps. He's angry at his father on so many levels, and he snaps at the end of the episode after one too many abuses, murdering his father in cold blood with knife to the gut.

Side-note: Ward murdering Harold, while not identical, is kind of similar to how Mariah murdered Cottonmouth during the halfway point of Luke Cage, isn't it? How the more passive of a family villain duo murders the card-carrying villain after one too many personal insults? Harold's a far more terrible father than Cottonmouth ever was to Mariah, though.

Yes, Ward is a huge douchebag especially with the revelation that his escape vacation money was embezzled from pension funds. But he also really didn't deserve literally have his choices be absolutely cut off by his father. Between his addiction, dealing with Danny, having his escape ruthlessly cut off, having had to dispose of bodies gruesomely hacked up by his father... no wonder he cut off. And, well, the episode opens and ends with Ward disposing of a body in the park lake, which is sorta cool, I guess.

It's a pretty good moment even if Harold's absence from several episodes has made him feel like, well, a pretty generic mastermind villain, whose position of interest is pitting people against each other and his shtick as a bad dad. And it does throw a huge wrench into the plans of everyone. He's playing Danny against the Hand, taking Danny into the company to earn his loyalty so Danny will deal with the Hand for him, while assuring the Hand that, fuck, he had no idea what's going on with all this Iron Fist nonsense. "That sounds like a sex toy" indeed. And Harold being absolutely nice to Danny means that Danny believes his act because, well, Harold has been the most (selectively) open to Danny so far, and the dude's kind of a naive fool so it's definitely believable.

Danny, meanwhile, is kind of broken out of his flunk by Harold promising that they're going to fight the Hand together, and he totally get to bang Colleen Wing and get some comforting words from her. Coleen herself continues to be somewhat interesting, with the added wrinkle that her... old boyfriend? Current boyfriend? Bakuto shows up, and the two of them are revealed to actually know about the Iron Fist. I'm not familiar enough with the source material to say whether these are allies (maybe from the Chaste?) or enemies, but either way would make their cryptic conversation make sense.

Joy is running ragged trying to fix Danny's cock-up. And, yes, from the eyes of the boyish billionaire, what he's doing is the right thing. The plant's maybe making people sick? Shut it down! Oh, and pay the employees, too, 'cause I'm a nice guy and doing the right thing. The thing is, the dude handles it in such a hugely assholish manner to the board of directors and Joy that the Meachums and Danny's position in the company is basically evicted. Danny's passion for doing the right thing is definitely admirable, but his impulsiveness and bullheadedness in refusing to compromise is also absolutely cringe-inducing.

You really can't envy Joy's position here. She tries her best to smooth things over, to get Danny to apologize to the board of directors while simultaneously trying to find a middle ground to all this, but not only does Danny throw away the gesture of goodwill, he stamps his foot down and demands that the plant be shut down -- and not only that, he goes behind everyone's back to already make a statement to the news. It's not being the head of a company, it's being a dictator. And you know what? That's exactly what happens when you get someone with the mentality and black-and-white heroism of a ten-year old in charge of a huge company. Meetings? Profit? What's that? Of course, this is television land so obviously Lawrence is the evil one, and naive, bullheaded Danny and Joy will end up teaming up to retake the company. Which is going to be a drag.

And, well, Danny's troubles in the company isn't just that he's now missing Harold and his job, but discovering that his company has been infiltrated by Madame Gao for far longer than he knew. Gao's apparently even conducting her business inside the Rand building itself. Madame Gao shows up in Danny's office without fear, commenting on feng shui and whatnot, and reveals something that's foreshadowed in the previous episode -- that Danny left K'un Lun because he wants to be Danny Rand more than he wants to be Iron Fist, Protector of K'un Lun and Destroyer of the Hand. Gao's proposition is simple. Stay out of each other's business. Of course, Danny can't do that, and he infiltrates Madame Gao's office in the 13th floor -- because not only Harold has a secret floor in the Rand building.

Danny's brief stint at clue-finding seemed to be a bit too easy since Gao actually seems to suspect something both in the elevator and during the guard-less meeting. It's also a bit odd that she's talking about every single operation in New York and her secretary (who doesn't leave with Gao and her two bodyguards) has all the data Danny needs. But hey, it could all be a plan, and as both Harold and the Bride of Nine Spiders showed, Danny's quite easy to fool.

Danny and Colleen get their own army in the Yang Triads (a.k.a. the Hatchet Men, as the show's begun calling them) who murder everyone in a heroin factory to get Radovan, who proceeds to immediately die of his wounds, and he's already told Gao the formula. Also the fact that Gao's gone to Hangzhou, which was Danny's original destination on that fateful plane.

So yeah, the Hand plotline is proceeding quickly even if I still don't really get where they are going with the heroin mass production. Is it literally just for money? The board meeting stuff is easily the least interesting parts of the story, too. But this episode has some really good parts especially in regards to Ward, and introducing new layers of mystery about Colleen Wing, Madame Gao and Danny's history is pretty awesome.


Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• When talking about how the world's gone crazy, Gao references Daredevil and Luke Cage. Pity we didn't a Jessica Jones reference there to get all three of the other Defenders mentioned, but then Jessica's been keeping all her vigilantism secret. 
• Karen Page is referenced again, and Danny apparently went to her to get his story out. 
• Harold briefly mentions the long-running evil organizaion in the MCU, Roxxon Corporation, whose complicity with the Hand was shown in Daredevil's second season.
• The Dogs of Hell, a street gang that was featured in Daredevil's second season as well as briefly in Agents of SHIELD, was briefly mentioned during Gao's discussion.

Arrow S05E16 Review: Hurt

Arrow, Season 5, Episode 16: Checkmate

Whoops, missed an episode. So yeah, a pretty strong episode of Arrow. Oliver Queen confronts Adrian Chase with the knowledge that he's Prometheus, and Chase's reaction is basically "good, I don't have to put up with this good guy act." He makes it clear to Ollie, Quentin and Rene that, yes, he is Prometheus, and there's nothing they can do about in since all of them are high-profile members of the city, and he's not going to go down easy if they decide to come after him the traditional way. Chase's definitely a very interesting villain.

Chase being Prometheus isn't the biggest twist out there, because there's always a shifty way about how Chase carries himself. And, yes, he's either going to be the Vigilante as his comic-book counterpart or he's going to be Prometheus, but either way the cat's out of the bag, and he's now playing an absolute thorn in Oliver's side -- in both his lives. We still don't quite know anything about Chase's master plan beyond "make Oliver hurt", and whether he truly is the son of Jason Claybourne, but we did discover that his real name isn't Adrian Chase but rather Simon Morrison, leaving it open for Vigilante to be an Adrian Chase whose identity was stolen. It's like the Zoom/Jay Garrick thing all over again, but done right.

Chase has kidnapped Susan, and this thing has prevented Oliver from really moving against him. And to make things worse, Oliver traveled to a knockoff of Nanda Parbat to meet his old buddy Talia... who reveals herself to not just have trained Chase, but actually helped him to become Prometheus. Talia reveals her true name of Talia Al Ghul, and while she's estranged from her father she's pissed that Oliver killed him. Nevermind that he's a huge terrorist, he's still Talia's father and she will have her revenge.

Which gets far more complicated when Talia actually shows up to help Prometheus take down Green Arrow in a fight, and actually kidnap him at the end of the episode.

Prometheus is constantly one step ahead of Oliver, really (or TEN STEPS AHEAD! as he keeps reminding us). Oliver wants to talk to Chase's wife? A SWAT team is ready to arrest the dangerous vigilante. Try and get inspector Pike to investigate? Hobo-mode Chase stabs him and leaves him in a coma. Hell, even kidnapping Oliver at the end ensures that none of his allies can reveal his identity to the public.

Susan being kidnapped drives a good chunk of the plot, and it's just a shame that I don't really care for her. It's understandable that Team Arrow wouldn't let Susan die, but she left as much of an impact as me as Thea's HIVE boyfriend from the last season, which is not at all. Still, she is a damsel in distress, and her kidnapping sets up some pretty great fight scenes between Oliver and Prometheus that honestly feels a lot more kung fu-y than the half of Iron Fist I've watched.

Chase's constant telling of Oliver how he's ten steps ahead gets a bit tiresome, but Oliver brings his wife into the mix. It's not the cruel "Imma blow her head off!" type of thing, of course, but she's brought out when Prometheus has unmasked himself and revealed himself to be Adrian Chase (or Simon Hurt Morrison) and his wife is something he didn't expect to show up. Of course, he's a villain so he stabs his wife and leaves her for dead, and there's a nice bit where he actually looks like he feels fucking sorry about all of it, but does so because putting an innocent woman's death at the hands of the Green Arrow vilifies the vigilante and makes him a sad man whose wife was killed by this dangerous fucker. And yes, Chase's wife is less of a person than Susan Williams, but the moment hits nonetheless, with Chase's anger and hatred being so consuming that he threw away his family to further that agenda a little bit is amazingly done.

The B-plots in the episode aren't as well done, I think, and sadly the Russian flashback has lost a lot of what made it so good earlier in the season. It's just Oliver Queen donning the hood and becoming a vigilante to murder the Gregor faction, before going back to fighting Kovar over... shit, the girl from last season's island plot? Gregor dies without much of an incident, but his "if you kill me you'll regret what you'll become" thing is absolutely weird and seems to have come out of nowhere. Boo. Still, we did get a great line from Anatoly: "What is thing you do with voice?"

Felicity's plotline is a lot nicer, as Helix asks some quid pro quo from her. Helix helps her out in locating Susan, but in exchange for Felicity redirecting some satellites. Curtis tries to get Felicity to, well, not do any of this morally ambiguous bullshit, but what choice does she have? She has a resource, a way to find this innocent woman, but at the same time it's also figuratively selling her soul to a very well-spoken devil. Kojo Sledgehammer (or, well, more likely K0J0513dG3h4|\/||\/|3R) is very nice and cheery, and as far as Felicity is knowing they're doing the right thing, if slightly outside the law... which isn't it the same thing that the Green Arrow is doing? Very curious where Helix will end up leading, and if we're going to get the Helix plot tied into the Prometheus one. 

Overall, a pretty strong episode. Smaller moments I didn't get to talk about include the very well-acted frustrated Oliver Queen, Curtis and Dinah's interactions while investigating, and the T-Spheres being even more useful.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Prometheus's real real name is revealed to be Simon Morrison, and a combination of his first name and his actions bring to mind Simon Hurt, a Batman villain whose first modern appearance involves him causing character assassinations of the Wayne family (similar to how Prometheus is fucking up Green Arrow's legacy) and having a personal connection to Batman. Of course, the similarities aren't that obvious, but Simon Hurt as the inspiration for Arrow's Prometheus makes a hell lot more sense compared to the actual DC character Prometheus.
• Anatoly and Oliver's talk about needing someone to pull data out of the bullet-ridden laptop is a callback (or call-forward depending on your perspective) to Oliver's first meeting with Felicity, where he recruits her to decipher data from a bullet-ridden laptop.
• Talia being romantically involved with Batman (or allied with Green Arrow, in this case) but ending up choosing her father when her loyalties are put to the test, is a common plotline in practically every single one of her appearances. 

Justice League Unlimited S02E12 Review: Barry Allen Would Be Proud

Justice League Unlimited, Season 2, Episode 12: Divided We Fall

The Justice League.

Okay, this honestly was meant to be the end of Justice League Unlimited, with the plans and greenlight for the third season coming very late after the second season was underway. And honestly? I can see where so many points in this episode (and the last three) all aimed to end. All the Cadmus storylines that were seeded throughout the first two seasons are dealt with, Green Arrow and Supergirl, the two characters we're introduced at the beginning of Unlimited, come full circle with Green Arrow going from a cynic to recognizing the importance of the League to be the first person to speak up against dissolving it. Superman's storyline that carried so much of season two also comes to a close, as does Lex Luthor himself as the arc villain. Sure, there's a final episode in season two, but that acts as an epilogue to the universe more than it does to just Justice League Unlimited.

And it's fitting that this supposed 'final episode' only stars the main seven heroes that founded the Justice League as they come face to face with this monstrous combination of Lex Luthor and Brainiac, about to take over the world, and having to actually fight copies based on Justice Lord versions of themselves. Yes, it's a bit on-the-nose after so much subtlety throughout much of season two, but this kinda does show that the heroes' sense of justice is far stronger than the potential of them turning out evil like their alternate-universe doppelgangers.

This season of Justice League Unlimited has a long-running theme of how the Justice League became their own worst enemy, how due to the paranoia and escalating arms race between Cadmus and the League, they very nearly ended up destroying each other and allowing the world's real monsters -- like Luthor and Brainiac -- to take over. In trying to deliver this message, part of it is kind of lost (unless you count Green Arrow's speech here) because our heroes have to stop Luthor and Brainiac from destroying the world, but the main themes still stand. With great power comes great responsibility, and if the Justice League wants to be the watchers of the world, they cannot just take the laws into their own hands, lest they become no better than Cadmus or Luthor.

The majority of this episode is just a huge, huge, glorious action scene as the seven founding members of the Justice League is reunited as they do battle with the combined Luthor-Brainiac creature (Lexniac? Brainithor?), from his gigantic tentacle spaceship, to the hulking montrosity that they two are combined into in the first few scenes, to Justice Lord clones, to the final golden form... it's pretty awesome action all around, with a lot of great moments. Hell, even Amanda Waller gets some action in by shooting Luthor-Brainiac when he's monologuing! Lady's got some awesome guts.

All the heroes get their due. J'onn's awesomeness in breaking free, Flash using his vibration-arm technique to blow up Reverse-Flash, Green Lantern and Shayera get to unleash their personal tensions on each other's doppelganger, and Superman gets to have a short guilt trip that he was shaken out of by Diana. Brainiac and Luthor's conversation in the sewer, with Brainiac explaining his real plans, and Luthor getting Brainiac to cooperate with him in a similar way to him manipulating Amazo, is pretty awesome and Luthor-Brainiac getting a power-up by assimilating the Dark Heart is pretty cool, making him far more believable as a threat to all seven League members.

And the Justice Lords episode has been a huge, huge lynchpin in getting this whole Cadmus affair forwards, first by being the thing that caused both Question and Project Cadmus to even consider the League going back in the first place. And Luthor mentions this bit multiple times, noting how 'Flash will die'. And true to that, Flash ends up being an integral part of the episode.

Flash, especially the younger, more inexperienced Wally West version, is someone who's very easy to underestimate. He's just a kid that runs fast -- Superman can do that. He's less powerful than J'onn, Shayera or Wonder Woman, he's not as smart as Batman or Green Lantern. And then he lets loose in this episode, and it's amazing. From how he's vibrating so fast that the rubble around him rises into the air, to him slamming into Luthor-Brainiac so fast that he runs around the world multiple times... that's easily one of the most iconic and most badass scenes that Flash has ever done, and reminds me once again why, despite DC comics and its live-action adaptations thinking otherwise, Wally West will always be the Flash in my mind. Sorry, Barry.

It's just a fucking badass moment, all right? And after essentially being ignored for a good chunk of Unlimited's first season, seeing Flash basically save the day is amazing.

Flash runs around the world so damned fast that each successive force hits harder and harder that Brainiac's Dark Heart technology can't regenerate, and strips away every bit of Brainiac from Luthor's body. Going this fast causes Flash to peacefully fade away into the Speed Force, however, and the horror in everyone's faces -- especially Flash's "big sister", Shayera, is agonizing. And you honestly believe that Wally's going to just be gone, considering how much the mainstream comics likes killing off Flashes as the 'big death' in climaxes. And since this is the final episode of Justice League Unlimited, or is meant to, you almost believe that it's the case. But J'onn manages to telepathically get Wally back, and all the six League members begin a hand-to-hand pull of Flash out of the Speed Force. Even Batman, whose strength is negligible compared to the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman, but damned if the Dark Knight is going to not give his all in getting Flash back. It's cheesy and corny, yes, but fuck, it's heartwarming and awesome.

Luthor-Brainiac is defeated, and Superman calls a press conference to talk about how they're all guilty of the sin of hubris, how they've failed humanity. In Superman's words: "We had the best of intentions to be Earth's guardians, to keep you safe... but we failed you. We looked down at the world from our tower in the sky, and let our power and responsibility separate us from the very people we were supposed to protect. No one should ever be afraid of us."

And, of course, it's Green Arrow -- the biggest voice of criticism against forming an army of superheroes on day one, who spends a good chunk two episodes ago criticizing the League's own methods -- that speaks up against Superman's attempt to dissolve the League. Yes, Superman's, well, Superman, and he takes on other people's burdens because he's the strongest of them all, but he's not the only hero in the Justice League. In Green Arrow's words, no, Superman has not failed the city the world. "If you're quitting because you think you've already done your fair share, we'll throw you a parade. But if you're quitting because it's easier than continuing the fight, then you're not the heroes we all thought you were." Green Arrow's line is one that resonated through me when I watched this episode as a kid, because being a hero isn't about just beating the Luthors and Brainiacs of the world. It's not even just about admitting your mistakes like what Superman just did. It's about not giving up, it's about learning from your mistakes and continuing to help people however you can, because you can. And that's what the League is all about -- it's greater than any one man, it's greater than the original seven.

And yes, the League does continue. Even after the cancellation of Justice League Unlimited, it still continues, be it in comic book form, or in new incarnations of the cartoon (like 2016's Justice League Action that I'm reviewing concurrently, created nearly a decade after this), or in live-action, the League will endure, and the League will continue to exist, with or without Superman. And while it's noble for him to bear the burdens of everyone, every single person in the League are heroes, and what was once just a group of seven people trying to help the world have grown into something larger and more noble than Clark and Bruce hanging out to beat up a couple of terrorists.

Is it the perfect ending that I thought it was when I first caught this episode on Cartoon Network as a kid? Nah, it's not. There are a fair amount of holes when I sat down to review this episode, and I think the last four episodes took the longest for me to review. There's the abandoning of the very interesting proactiveness argument last episode and replacing it with a relatively more generic superhero angst. There's a lack of resolution on the Cadmus part of the storyline, with only Waller really participating in the end. There's the fact that Brainiac still comes out of nowhere and the episode could've functioned as well against him and if Luthor had done everything himself (maybe he succeeds in transferring his body into the Amazo body?). And yes, maybe the rest of the League could come help out and fight the big Brainiac battleship, but keeping it to the main seven works just as fine, I suppose. Whatever the case, it's still a pretty great final episode... well, until the epilogue. And the final season comes around.

Justice League Roll Call:

• Speaking Roles: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Amanda Waller, Steel, Green Arrow
• Non-Speaking Roles: Dr. Light, Creeper, Ice, Fire, Vixen, Supergirl, Nemesis, Aztek, Zatanna, Huntress, Vigilante, Atom Smasher, Vibe, Rocket Red, Waverider, Red Tornado, Dr. Mid-Nite, STRIPE, Stargirl, Hourman, Captain Atom, Wildcat, Gypsy, Commander Steel, Atom, Crimson Avenger, Ray, B'wana Beast, Starman, Shining Knight, Dr. Fate, Sand, Question, Elongated Man, Fire, Mr. Terrific, Black Canary, Metamorpho, Crimson Fox
• Main Villains: Lex Luthor, Brainiac

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Various episodes of Superman: The Animated Series are referenced by Brainiac. I'm not super well-versed in the later seasons of Superman: TAS, but apparently part of Brainiac has been in Luthor's possession, and it's separate from the Brainiac destroyed in the Justice League episode "Twilight", though Brainiac seems to be aware of his betrayal by Darkseid in that episode, referencing it here. Luthor attributes Brainiac for curing his Kryptonite poisoning and giving him super-strength. 
• The Dark Heart reappear after it being confiscated by Eiling and the government in "The Dark Heart".
• The clones created by Luthor/Brainiac of the Justice Leaguers all resemble their Justice Lords counterparts, with Lord Hawkgirl apparently having a Thanagarian general outfit, something we don't know during the Justice Lords episode... and since there isn't a Justice Lord Flash, Luthor/Brainiac creates one based on the comics' Reverse-Flash. Rather ironically, Flash uses the Reverse-Flash's trademark "vibrating hand" murder technique to dispatch his robotic doppelganger.
• Brainiac's gigantic metallic skull ship is based on his appearance in the comics' Silver Age all the way to the 1980's, where he's a skeletal robot riding around in a gigantic skull-ship with metallic tentacles. Meanwhile, Brainiac and Luthor sharing a body, with Brainiac being more dominant, is a possible homage to the comic "Whatever Happaned to the Man of Tomorrow?" where Brainiac does take over Luthor's body.
• Batman's quote, "quis custodiet ipsos custodes", a.k.a. "who watches the watchers" is more likely than not a homage to the iconic Alan Moore comic Watchmen.
• Flash's jibe about how he's going to paint his logo at the Justice League conference table is a nod to how in the comics the League members have their respective logos on the back of their chairs.
• Flash being lost into the Speed Force, finding it peaceful, while trying to stop a powerful villain from destroying the world, is a homage to the death of Barry Allen's Flash during the Crisis to Infinite Earths.

Legends of Tomorrow S02E15 Review: Second Breakfast

Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2, Episode 15: Fellowship of the Spear

Something that doesn't really come up that often in this blog since the main genres I review are superhero TV shows and manga is that, well, I'm a huge, huge fantasy geek. Warcraft III and Legend of Zelda are the first that introduced me to the fantasy genre as a kid, but since then I've branched out and really geeked out over so many other fantasy worlds. And all of them owe to the writings of one J.R.R. Tolkien, otherwise known as 'that dude who wrote Lord of the Rings'. I've watched all the movies, and then again in extended edition, and I've read at least one-and-a-half of his books. They be really long books written in archaic English, okay?

But still, there's a bit of hilarity that shortly after inspiring Star Wars and Camelot, the Legends of Tomorrow seem to have inspired the Lord of the Rings as well. The Tolkien bit was fun stuff, even if Tolkien himself didn't feel that much different from all the other historical figures we've met before. The references to stuff that Tolkien found fascinating -- having to bring a sacred, indestructible plot device to a certain location; script that is revealed when the plot device is exposed to fire... but while there are a lot more for Tolkien fans to geek out, the plot of this episode isn't centered around Tolkien but rather on the titular Spear of Destiny. Hell, Tolkien himself didn't even appear until nearly the halfway mark of the episode. 

The first half was a very, very awesome raid on the Vanishing Point by the Legends, who quickly make use of their own fragments to steal the ones that the Legion of Doom has -- with Atom using his shrinking abilities to keep Eobard in sight, and Firestorm transforming the indestructible obelisk into a mountain of jelly beans. We haven't seen a lot of Firestorm's transmutation powers since... Invasion, I think? But it's great to see it in work. 

With the Legends on the advantage for once, and Reverse-Flash cursing at the sky after being waylaid by our heroes, they put the pieces of the Spear of Destiny together, upon which it reassembles itself with magic. Rip Hunter tells us that the spear will tempt anyone and everyone to use it, so their only option is to destroy it. Mick's light it on fire response doesn't destroy a mystical holy artifact, but it does reveal a message that it can only be undone with the blood of Jesus. Thankfully we sidestep the whole trickiness of adapting religious characters into a time-travel story by Rip Hunter putting his foot down that no, there are some points in history that you literally cannot enter.

So somehow Nate figures out this whole plan of getting the blood of Jesus from the Golden Chalice obtained by Sir Gawain, and the only person to know where it is would be J.R.R. Tolkien who once wrote a paper about it. It's... convoluted, and I truly ask the Legends why the fuck didn't they go ask Tolkien when the poor man isn't in the middle of a fucking World War, or why they see the need to retrieve the blood during said war. I guess they're just in a hurry? It's a weak logical plot hole in this otherwise enjoyable episode. 

Two of our heroes in particular get tempted by the reality-altering powers of the spear. The first is Amaya, who, after her discovering the future of her village last episode, very much wants to use the spear to rewrite destiny and history and change that very fact. Going back to WWI and seeing the horrors of war did nothing against Amaya's personal struggles. She doesn't fall for the temptations, though she did propose the team to use the powers of the Spear of Destiny to rewrite history to write the Legion of Doom out of existence... she did concede the point to the majority vote, and doesn't go with the Legion of Doom in the climax.

Mick, on the other hand? We've seen Snart come back as a hallucination in a previous episode, and for Mick to think that it's just his mind playing tricks on him again -- especially after his brief return to the Vanishing Point -- makes it a lot more believable for Mick to think that his mind is playing more tricks on him. But the truth is that Reverse-Flash plucked Captain Cold out of the timeline before he had a chance to rejoin the Legends (thereby making him kind of 'safe' in this out-of-time context the way Darhk is), and he's fully evil and disappointed in Mick. He keeps telling Mick that his new allies doesn't see him any more than a thug and an attack dog on a leash, and the revelation that Leonard Snart is actually real and not a figment of his fragmented psyche rocks his world.

The thing is, Mick joining the Legends team and gradually finding a niche in the team of heroes is something that he did mostly to humour his friend Leonard Snart, and later to honour his friend's sacrifice. But Snart telling the Legends that it was Mick who told him all about their plans, as well as Mick's closeness to Snart, causes the other Legends to openly ask Mick about his loyalties. It is a little silly that one of his friends would use the specific word 'thug' like three scenes after Snart notes that Mick's little more than a thug, but the words and sentiments echoed by the Legends clearly hurt the pyromaniac more than the others meant to. He clearly was on the good guys' side right before that moment, but a combination of his friends doing exactly the same thing that Snart told him they would do, and turning back on him, questioning his loyalties?

Well, two things trying to tempt and corrupt Mick ends up breaking the poor man, and he ends up walking towards Damien Darhk and Captain Cold at the climax, choosing his side. It's a betrayal that's felt as deeply as any earlier Snart/Mick moments in this series, and the two of them have consistently been the twisted, thuggish heart of the series from the get-go. The Legends undoubtedly lose this fight. They lose Mick, they lose the Spear, the blood they fought to get is destroyed in the firefight, and turns out that the Legion can activate the powers of the Spear.

The final scene, with the Legends (well, mostly Ray) noting that they could've treated Mick better is sobering, because, shit, everything here was all the Legends' fault. Merlyn's apparently off on his own adventure to get the magic spell to activate the Spear of Destiny, and at the end of the episode, the five-man-strong Legion of Doom put their hands around the Spear (very, very surprised Eobard didn't decide to betray them there, but I guess he's grown fond of the others) and began changing destiny.

Two episodes left, which I guess will be all climactic showdowns between the Legends and the Legion in whatever twisted world the Legion has created. 

DC Tolkien Easter Eggs Corner:

• Not much in lieu of DC comics Easter Eggs in this episode, but a lot of references to the Tolkien stuff.
• Fellowship of the Spear is an obvious nod to the first part of the Lord of the Rings series, the Fellowship of the Ring. Nate even intentionally uses the term Fellowship in front of Tolkien himself to hammer the point home.
• The writing on the Spear is only revealed when Mick unleashes a tongue of flame upon it, similar to the One Ring revealing elvish words when thrown into flame.
• Just like the One Ring, the Spear of Destiny grants immense power to those who wield it, yet it also whispers temptations to corrupt even pure-hearted individuals who would otherwise use the ring for something good.
• The power the created the Spear and the Ring are respectively the only ones that can destroy it, and the Legends had to bring the Spear into a war-ridden land to get to the place where they can get to the blood that can destroy the Spear, similar to how the Fellowship traveled to Mordor to destroy the ring.
• The Spear glows when in close contact to the blood, similar to how the Ring's influence gets stronger the closer they are to Mordor, as well as the orc-detecting glowing sword wielded by Frodo, Sting.
• Likewise, the Fellowship is betrayed by one of its own, Mick, which in the novels would be Boromir. Mick's story here also borrows parallels from Gollum, where he's ostracized and treated as a barely-tolerated outsider, leading to his eventual treachery.
• Tolkien's commanding officer calls him "fool of a Tolkien", which is similar to how Gandalf likes to call Pippin "fool of a Took".
• Martin Stein does a variation of the memetic line from the movies' version of Boromir: "one does not simply walk into Mordor", swapping out Mordor for the war zone.
• Rip's speech borrows a fair bit of lines from Aragorn's speech ("but today is not that day!") to the assembled army at the climax of the Return of the King.
• Tolkien's "I enjoy long stories" line is an obvious reference to the length of his novels (which are absolutely long) as well as the movies that they are adapted into.

The Flash S03E17 Review: He's the Music Meister

The Flash, Season 3, Episode 17: Duet

Okay, so maybe my expectations for the 'Music Meister makes Flash and Supergirl go on a musical' episode is a little off, mostly because I've already watched the awesome Batman: Brave and the Bold episode that starred Music Meister in the first place, and I'm bummed we didn't at least get a cover of the titular Music Meister's villain song, or indeed anything from that episode.

It's going to be a very polarizing episode, though, simply due to the format. Musicals ain't for everyone, though I certainly like them, having been involved in several musical plays during my high school days as well as being raised on Disney movies. At the same time, though, the titular Music Meister barely does any singing, only doing a brief cover at the start of the episode. And the entire episode isn't fully a musical, but rather more an episode that's half a musical-parody-dream-world, and the other half's just our normal cast doing normal crossover stuff. Don't get me wrong, cast members do get to sing a lot, and in addition to the Supergirl cast members, we even get Victor Garber (actor for Martin Stein) and John effing Barrowman (actor for Malcolm Merlyn) making a guest trip from Legends of Tomorrow to show off their wonderful singing voices.

So after Winn, Mon-El and J'onn show up on Earth-1 after the Music Master 'whammied' Kara, the Music Meister himself shows up on STAR Labs, easily manhandles Flash and Kid Flash, and transports Barry into the same nightclub world where Kara is performing and absolutely gorgeous cover of 'Moon River'. It's not long for Barry and Kara to be given an introdump by the Music Meister that this dream-world is caused by the two of them binge-watching musicals recently, and they're going to have to figure out how to get out of this musical-world, in which they play the roles of two singers working for Malcolm Merlyn! Or, well, a character in the musical that's played by John Barrowman, anyway. Characters played by the actors of Cisco, Winn, Malcolm, Joe, Stein, Iris and Mon-El all show up in this dream musical world, acting out their own version of West Side Story, and it's a thinly-veiled allegory to let Kara and Barry work their love problems out. Music Meister even acknowledges it as such near the end of the episode.

Just to be clear, I absolutely enjoyed the musical aspects of the episode. Kara and Barry's absolutely corny 'Super Friends' duet, Barry's equally-corny solo at the end when he proposes to Iris, Kara's Moon River solo, Music Meister's jumpy jig, and most of all the absolutely great sing-a-long between Joe, Stein and Merlyn. Victor Garber, John Barrowman and Jesse L Martin have absolutely wonderful voices that they show off, and while Stein and Joe have sung in various episodes before, I didn't expect John Barrowman to have that angelic voice.

It's definitely a surreal episode that also lampshades the musical genre, with Barry and Kara being equally huge musical geeks that they relish singing and playing along, while also recognizing the absurdity of how quickly a song can just progress the plot of the story. And the show has absolute fun by showing off familiar characters in strange roles, like Iris as a smartass gangster's daughter, or Joe and Stein as a pair of lovers that lead a gang, or Malcolm Merlyn as a smooth-talking nightclub owner.

Honestly, I thought there was just simply not enough musical numbers. You'd think that the big climactic moment where Barry and Kara confront their feelings for Mon-El and Iris would deserve a big, touching moment, but we didn't get that. Also the fact that neither Music Meister nor the gangster daddies get a good old-fashioned villain song is also a missed opportunity. I guess having the whole romance problem between the two main pairs be resolved in this corny musical episode is as best as we can get without extending the romantic plot tumour longer than it should, so good for the showmakers for sneaking in this resolution to a plotline no one really cares about in the first place. (Kara's problem with Mon-El last Supergirl episode felt more like a tantrum than anything anyway, and Barry breaking up with Iris didn't make sense at all in the first place)

Meanwhile, in the real world, Music Meister apparently... siphons the powers of those he puts in the dream-land? It's all part of the act, but while Music Meister himself isn't malicious (if anything, he's like a sane, not-asshole version of Mxyzptlk) he does end up giving us a big team-up between Vibe, the Martian Manhunter and Kid Flash, something I didn't realize I needed so much in my life. Hell, I just need J'onn J'onzz do more Martian Manhunter things, and honestly a little part of me just absolutely geeked out when J'onn reveals his martian self to Cisco and the others with a grin and says "Call me Martian Manhunter".

And, again, that team-up? Amazing. It's short, with Vibe using portals to send J'onn and Kid Flash to whack the Music Meister, but it's still pretty cool nonetheless.

The episode ends almost all-too-perfectly, with Barry and Kara making up with their respective love interests (it's amazing how well the two of them work as platonic buddies), the Music Meister revealing that he shows up because he doesn't really want to deal with any of this mopey romance bullshit that the audience doesn't care about before disappearing, and Barry proposes to Iris for real-realsies. Oh, and Kid Flash gets over his confidence issues.

So yeah. You're either going to hate this or love this, but come on. This episode really has all the dorky cheesiness that both make Supergirl and Flash so lovable in the first place, and after a streak of depressing episodes and nonsensical romantic developments, it's nice to have everything be resolved with some singing. Besides, you get to hear Malcolm Merlyn, Professor Stein and Joe West sing a song together! How many episodes get to do that? I don't think this episode is superior to the Brave and the Bold's musical number, and I'm a little disappointed in the Music Meister here, but I'm honestly not complaining that much.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• This episode takes place immediately after the Supergirl episode "Star-Crossed".
• The Music Meisssster sings the song that the world wants to hear! Let's not fight, let's get a-long for our hypnotic puppeteer! The Music Meisssster is the man that the world shall obey! So do your job, steal all you can, while you're under his sway! -ahem- The Music Meister is an original character from the Batman: Brave and the Bold episode "Mayhem of the Music Meister", the unquestionable best episode of that series. While in this episode he's a strange godlike being that pretends to be villainous to solve our heroes' funk, in the original source material he's a straight-up villain who takes over an entire city (and several superheroes and supervillains) and mind-controls them, as well as causing every one to speak in song and dance.
• Originally voiced and sung by the (wait for it) legendary Neil Patrick Harris, the Music Meister here is played by Darren Criss, who is a Glee alumni just like Grant Gustin (Flash) and Melissa Benoist (Supergirl).
• Jesse L Martin (Joe), Victor Garber (Stein), John Barrowman (Malcolm) and Jeremy Jordan (Winn) all have performed in Broadway, whereas both Barrowman and Carlos Valdes (Cisco) both have musical careers alongside their acting ones.
• "I'm Your Super Friend" is, obviously, yet another nod to Superfriends, one of the earliest DC comics cartoon adaptations.
• Barry briefly mentions Superman while singing his duet with Kara. Though the two never met before, presumably Kara told Barry about her cousin off-screen in one of their previous team-ups.
• Caitlin noting that she remembers Barry's singing voice happens during their one-time date in episode 12, "Crazy For You". (Incidentally, I don't often ship characters... but Barry and Caitlin were absolutely cute together in that episode)
• While every single character in Barry and Kara's dream-world gets a new name, Mon-El gets the name 'Tommy'. In the dream-world Mon-El's counterpart is the son of Malcolm's counterpart, whereas the real-world Malcolm's son is also named Tommy. 

Iron Fist S01E06 Review: Tenkaichi Budokai

Iron Fist, Season 1, Episode 6: Immortal Emerges From Cave

So a significant portion of the earlier episodes had Danny kind of flash into him in Chinese clothes on a mountain, and it's left ambiguous whether he literally had his soul or mind or whatever return to a spiritual plane, or if he's having flashbacks. A good chunk of this episode shows Danny talking to the spectral image of what I assume was his master (Lei Kung?) admonishing him for not being able to let go of the material world and embrace his destiny as the Iron Fist, living weapon and destroyer of the Hand. Danny Rand should be dead, and only Iron Fist should remain.

Multiple characters like Madame Gao and her warriors also make note why the legendary Iron Fist has descended from K'un Lun when he should be guarding the gate, so yeah, all of this does raise questions as to just what the fuck K'un Lun really is, what Danny is doing, and why is he in New York. Is he banished? Is he on a mission to destroy the Hand? Is he escaped? The stuff that Ghost Master was talking about did seem a fair bit brainwashing-esque, so maybe he's just tired about that, and refuses to deny his 'Danny Rand' persona?

There's a nice bit of ambiguity whether Danny's master is a ghost, communicating through him from K'un Lun, or if Danny's just hallucinating it all. Certainly none of the others can see the dude. It's all very interesting and comic-book-y, for sure, and learning bits about Iron Fist's enigmatic backstory while simultaneously learning little is a bit frustrating, especially when you consider some of the earlier episodes could've told the K'un Lun story alongside its corporate stuff, but at least we're getting there.

So the cast is basically divided into three groups at this point. After saving the chemist, Rodovan, Danny decides to track down his kidnapped daughter, ignoring poor Ward's attempts to just get him to come to a crucial meeting. Meanwhile, Claire and Colleen go bring the dying Rodovan to a hospital, and Ward deals with his own drug addiction and basically self-destructs.

The B-plots in this episode are nice additions, for sure, following the theme of urgency around Danny Rand's life at this point. His big gesture to appease the crying mother is putting the company in jeopardy. Joy pulled some strings to get someone to help out, but Danny refuses to even come to the meeting (sending Ward instead of Joy there is a bit of a dumb move, though) and Ward's going through drug withdrawal. He throws away all his painkillers in an attempt to appease his sister after overdosing last episode, but this leaves him sleepy, jumpy and jittery during the meeting, possibly dooming it even worse than it already is. Ward's spiral into even worse decisions is honestly not necessary and I'm not sure it required the amount of focus it did.

Colleen and Claire, meanwhile, are forced to bring Rodovan to a hospital and I for one am a little happy that Claire's nurse skills doesn't just magic away every single life-threatening disease. They end up being bamboozled by the hospital, which is infiltrated by Hand agents already, and while Claire and Colleen do their best (including a pretty badass takedown of a Hand agent by Colleen) it still really doesn't do much to catch interest.

There's a cool, kung fu movie 'gather the fighters' scene as various invitations on purple pillows are sent out over the course of the episode's first few minutes, as we're introduced to a group of villains. A pair of Russian meat butchers, a female Korean scientist experimenting with spiders, and a psychotic dude that karaokes Take On Me as he brutally murders people. The latter two are apparently actual Iron Fist enemies Bride of Nine Spiders and the Scythe, and, well, they certainly feel like comic villains that carry the flourish of their comic book origins while still feeling at home in the more grounded adaptation.

Basically, Madame Gao sends a challenge to Iron Fist, expecting Danny to go around in that Aston Martin of his and find the decapitated head of the goon from last episode that Gao killed... but find it he did, and Iron Fist enters this holy ritual to fight the Hand, observed by Gao. The three villains (well, four, but the butcher twins fight as one) act like boss levels in a video game, and, well, finally we get some martial arts. A little ham fisted in how he still has flashbacks with his master and basically having a conversation with him, but hey.

The Russians have the least personality, basically asking Danny if he's the Iron Fist, and if he is, why did he abandon his post, blah blah, before being beaten down. But they felt a lot better than the Bride of Nine Spiders, who I think was kind of poorly realized. I do like that she's gloriously hammy, and while her introduction with spiders and whatnot is pretty cool, during the tournament she shows up in a gothic corset, and gets close and seduces Danny in record time -- literally walking up to Danny and stabbing her with a poison needle. It's definitely a little eyebrow-raising that the only female fighter dresses provocatively, doesn't actually throw a punch, makes everything about her revolve around her sexuality (unlike the other fighters, who makes references about the Iron Fist and duty and whatnot) and gets knocked down by a single kick.

Scythe's easily the best and most entertaining villain of the bunch, even from his introduction scene of singing karaoke after brutally murdering a bunch of dudes. His obsession with weapon clashes very well with Danny's insistence that he is the weapon, and the fight with Scythe, while partly obscured by the dark lighting of the scene, is still easily one of the best the show's done.

Gao isn't keen on honour, though, threatening to slit Sabina's throat if Iron Fist doesn't formally withdraw. Danny is actually taken aback that Gao would stoop to so low... yeah, he hasn't been out of the monastery much, has he? And the best thing is that the show's spent a not inconsiderable amoutn of its screentime telling us how idealistic and naive Danny is, so yeah, him expecting Gao to fully honour ancient traditions is definitely something that I totally see Danny as doing.

It's predictable that Danny's going to choose to save the civilian over destroying the Hand, which he also does earlier during his time in the office, choosing to ignore literally everything Ward is saying because he has to figure out where the Hand is, and he has to save the girl. Moreso than Daredevil, Danny Rand and Iron Fist are very much separated, and the real Danny is somewhere in-between, the guy who finds more purpose saving girls and fighting evil ninjas instead of staying in an office, yet he's also the guy that'll choose to not be on an autopilot "destroy the Hand" mode all the time.

The opaqueness of the whole K'un Lun stuff is irritating, to be honest. We're already buying into a show where a kung fu dude fights with a glowing fist that channels chi, so why keep it so secretive? It's really suffering from the same problem that Daredevil's second season does, but at least Daredevil has the excuse of switching from a 'vigilante takes down criminals' plotline into a mystical ninja cult plot. Here the premise has always been that Iron Fist is a mystical warrior, so while I'm not faulting the show for keeping some mysteries hidden for a later episode, it's getting frustratingly roundabout that we don't get a lot of answers but just more questions. And not knowing the full story, the full weight of being the Protector of K'un Lun, really hurts the climax of Danny choosing to be Danny Rand instead of Iron Fist a little.

Still, Gao reveals some nice tidbits about herself and Danny, too. She's from K'un Lun, or at least has visited there. She's met a previous incarnation of the Iron Fist, noting how different Danny is because he doesn't fall into all the brainwashing "kill your past self, you're only a weapon" thing. Also, Wendell Rand has something to do with her, at the very least... and whatever answers Danny is seeking ends up a dead end as Madame Gao can literally knock him halfway across the room with a single touch.

It doesn't end well with him. He has to forfeit the tournament and since Danny's an honourable fellow he's probably going to honour his part of the deal. He rescues Sabina, but he doesn't know that her father's been recaptured. His already-precarious position in Rand Enterprises gets shaken even more (though poor Ward's a lot more volatile than he is now). And Madame Gao shows that with a simple tap on the chest she can send even the mighty Iron Fist flying into a wall. And Danny's choice to save the girl instead of crushing the Hand causes his ghostly master to turn his back on him. Not a good day for Danny.

Still, as frustrating as the lack of information about K'un Lun is, and as ineffective as the Bride of Nine Spiders is, it's nice that the show's elements started to work a lot better. There are still a lot of things that didn't work and keeping both Iron Fist's backstory and the mechanics of his power ambiguous and only sparsely scattered is both maddeningly slow yet gives some nice mysticism to him. Also, yay for actual kung fu fight scenes, which, if nothing else, was a fun enough distraction from the weaker parts of the episode.


Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The cast of the hospital previously appeared in Daredevil season two, including Claire's long-suffering superior Shirley.
• Claire drops Luke Cage's signature "sweet Christmas" when chasing the Hand ninjas in the hospital.
• The crisis manager dude mentions the Hulk in "that incredible green guy".

Supergirl S02E16 Review: Prince Charming

Supergirl, Season 2, Episode 16: Star-crossed

Different corner of the DC media-multiverse, I know, but Justice League trailer woop!

So, anyway. It's a very romance-centric storyline that plays up the campier feel of Supergirl up for what it's worth. The series as a whole didn't really have the best track record at delivering engaging romances, and that could simply be a problem with CW as a whole, but Supergirl and Mon-El's bonding was handled far more organically than Jimmy/Kara or Kara/Winn ever was. Still, the big revelation about Mon-El's true identity -- if you haven't figured out that he lied during his introduction and he's actually the prince and not the soldier -- is a shoe that's been waiting to drop. That honestly is the only real reason that so many people would respect and hunt down Mon-El.

So the Daxamite royalty, King Lar Gand (hee hee) and Queen Rhea show up in a huge-ass spaceship to retrieve their son. However, their quest is quickly cut short as Mon-El surrenders himself to them, and Kara finds out that, hey, Mon-El is actually the Prince of Daxam. What follows is a bit bizarre and unexpected, because instead of vilifying the Daxamite or focusing on their cultural dissonance, Mon-El's parents really didn't get to do much, if anything at all, in this episode. Sure, we get the brief scene with Queen Rhea trying to sweet-talk Kara into doing what's best for Mon-El, but that really didn't amount to much. It's refreshing in some way that we have some antagonists who are just basically racist but well-meaning parents instead of "you disobeyed us, now your adopted world will DIE!" That said, though, we didn't quite see enough of Lar Gand or Rhea to really know if they're actually just supporting Mon-El in spite of their blatant racism against Kryptonians, or if they're just buggering off to return with an army or something.

No, instead the episode focuses more on the betrayal that Mon-El caused to Kara, and it does lead to some pretty nice drama. How well the show handled it varies depending on the viewer, I think. I have a more neutral stance in all this, in that while the conflict felt a bit shoehorned and exaggerated, it was totally in Kara's personality to explode over something like that. Of course, the true story of how Mon-El escaped from Daxam is the reverse of what he told us before. Instead of being a mere royal guard being saved by a selfless, noble prince, he is that prince, who in his last moments in Daxam was fucking with some random woman he left behind, and the soldier had to shoot a Kryptonian dignitary in the head for Mon-El to steal the ship.

No, it doesn't undo Mon-El's character growth and how much he has adored and respected Kara's worldviews since the beginning of this season, but it is a betrayal to Kara in a very personal sense. Kara does have a point that being part of the culture and being part of the royal family that promoted and encouraged that culture are two very different things. And, yes, Mon-El has changed enough to pick his new adopted home instead of rebuilding Daxam. Yes, the speech between the two of them are corny as all hell. It did work in the context of the show, it just wasn't as entertaining as it could've been.

The B-plot was one that I didn't care that much when I watched it, but one I found that I really, really liked when I wrote this review. Winn is a very underused character in Supergirl despite casting a clearly talented actor in the role. The first season relegated him to being Mister Friendzone, and the second season made him a poor man's Felicity Smoak. Times like this where Winn is actually allowed to stretch his acting chops is actually pretty amazing. He's been dating and museum-fucking the Valerian, Lyra, for a couple of episodes now, and here the shoe drops. Lyra's actually an art thief, who makes a career by seducing tech guys and have them hack into a museum's security systems under the goal of having exotic sex... but she's invisible to recording equipment, so only the hapless men like Winn get captured by the policemen. In an attempt to exonerate himself, Winn enlists the help of other DEO agents, find out that Lyra is doing so because she's pressured by an alien art-smuggling syndicate because her brother's being threatened.

It's such a corny, comic-book-y plotline, yet it also manages to deliver Winn's earnest love and trust for Lyra, as well as his initial hurt feelings of betrayal, very well. Lyra's a very one-note character that hasn't been anything beyond Winn's exotic booty call, and it's nice to actually develop Winn somewhat. Winn's interactions with Maggie in particular was a highlight, and his wry one-liners about how aliens appreciate Picasso is hilarious. James shows up as the Guardian a couple of times to help beat up members of the alien art smuggler ring (which are only slightly more ridiculous than Iron Fist's immortal ninja drug dealers) but the change of focus on Winn instead of James makes a world of difference. I did find it hilarious that Guardian literally gets knocked out after two hits from Mandrax, who himself didn't even feel like a threat.

There's a very stark difference between how Winn and Kara handle their respective partners' lies to them, too. Winn sees how troubled Lyra is and is willing to give Lyra a second chance. Kara rebuffs everything from Mon-El and decides to basically dump him, with the added justification that it'll do more good for the Daxamite people. Then the episode ends with the very abrupt transition to the crossover with the Flash when Music Meister -- who's apparently some kind of fifth-dimensional trickster imp like Mxyzptlk in this incarnation? -- breaks free, knocks Kara out, dimension-travels to Earth-1 and traps Kara in this world where she's told to sing on stage? I totally forgot this musical crossover is going to happen, and after all the heartbreak in the Savitar plotline on that corner of the CW-DC universe, it's definitely one that needed a little bit of levity. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Mon-El's father is called Lar Gand. In the comics, the Daxamite superhero Valor (whom this Mon-El was based upon) adopted the name Mon-El when he landed on Earth because he was amnesiac, in an attempt to copy Superman's naming scheme ('Mon' from Monday, the day he landed, and 'El' from Kal-El), while subsequent stories would establish that his real name is Lar Gand.
• Rhea is played by Teri Hatcher, the actress who played Lois Lane in Clark & Lois. There is a character in the DC comics called Rhea based on the mythological Greek Titan, but that's definitely unrelated to this show's Queen Rhea.
• Kara dubs her team the "Super Friends", which, of course, is a reference to the Superfriends show. 
• In a rare case of Marvel/DC crossover Easter Egg, Winn compares Lyra's strength to She-Hulk, a Marvel superheroine.

Iron Fist S01E05 Review: Stealing Takeout

Iron Fist, Season 1, Episode 5: Under Leaf Pluck Lotus

We get the ball rolling in more ways than one. Apparently, Wang's little package from the last episode's cliffhanger was a sign to tell Danny about the heroin trade that Madame Gao -- who's now explicitly working with the Hand -- is running right under everyone's noses. We get another returning player in Claire Temple (a.k.a. the nurse that's a main supporting character in literally every single Netflix Marvel show). We get some actual superheroing (finally good lord) done with Iron Fist and his trusty sidekick Colleen Wing. The first stakes of war has been stoked. Ward gets high. Claire steals four boxes of expensive takeout. 

Claire is a pretty consistent character in both Daredevil seasons, Luke Cage and a relatively bit role in Jessica Jones, and while her introduction here in Iron Fist would kind of confuse anyone who hasn't watched this show's predecessors, let's be honest... the only reason we're watching this is because it's a Marvel Cinematic Universe TV show, and I don't get to pretend like I don't know who she is. Her role here is pretty minimal, showing up for a sparring session with Colleen, stealing Danny's takeout and later helping to patch up the plot device chemist they rescued... and inadvertently tells Danny that she knows way more about the Hand than Danny himself does. She's not the most compelling of characters, that's for sure, with her purpose being an expository tool to connect the multiple series first and character second, but she's at least somewhat interesting to follow around even if her introduction isn't the most organic of things.

Of course, why Claire's first reaction at the end of this episode isn't "wait, let me call Matt Murdock right now" and instead goes "well, I guess I'll trust you... you have abilities like my other three friends, right? ... right?" Could've been a little better in that front, really. 

It really helps that the writing around Danny really works so much better in this episode, too. Bringing in a very fancy dinner from what looks to be a five-star restaurant for 'takeout', and not even a date-style takeout (apparently he took a vow of chastity) either. His idea to help out with Colleen's rent is to buy the building, unaware of how creepy and how much of a billionaire-dick-waving move it was. It really shows how Danny's mixture of 'billionaire heir' and 'humble monk' doesn't necessarily meet in the middle, but a combination of two extremes. His motivations are also a lot more distinctly altruistic, whereas the previous episodes flip-flop on making him a bit of a insensitively dickish billionaire. Here he's just a guy who wants to do the right thing, which flows more smoothly to his decision to recruit his friend to play ninja.

Ward refuses to entertain Danny's rant about Shao-Lao the Undying, the Steel Dragon, K'un Lun and everything else that Danny spouts, so Danny goes off to Colleen Wing to investigate on his own. While there's a bit of a fake-out that seemed to indicate that the crates only carry normal equipment instead of a huge heroin shipment, Danny infiltrates one of them (purely by accident, too) and discovers that the cargo isn't the drug, but rather the chemist that'll allow the Hand to basically manufacture their dragon-heroin en masse. As far as plotlines go, stopping a ninja drug cult operating on a pier isn't the worst you could come up with, so I'm definitely intrigued. There's nothing particularly special, and the reveal that the Chinese lady is actually Madame Gao is absolutely blindingly obvious to anyone who knows that this is a sequel to Daredevil, but at least we're getting somewhere.

So yeah, the pier really seems to be bought over by the Hand simply to get the chemist in, and he's far more willing to do the Hand's dirty work because they've got his daughter. It's a bit disappointing since drug trade feels a bit of a letdown from the more mystic feel of this season, and I assumed they needed the location for a portal or something similar to the weird huge pit in Daredevil's second season, but eh.

Joy's more ruthless businesswoman side is shown in this episode when she shuts down an inquiry about their factories allegedly causing cancer. It's business as usual, of course, and she might be a little too brutal, but she feels absolutely sick about it mostly because her father died (well, she thinks so, at least) of cancer and she knows the feeling of being lost and looking for any kind of hope or justification for the things that has happened. And, yes, Rand Enterprises may or may not have been responsible, but they're operating within the law.

Danny, of course, is absolutely new to all of this more nuanced stuff. He's smart enough to know not to call the police lest his company's name is dragged through the mud, but he doesn't quite now how impactful the CEO of a company taking responsibility and being caught on camera would be. Regardless of the trickery involved in taking a video of it, the other board executives decides to, well settle it out of court in order to save their reputation. They're at least not cartoonishly evil bastards but are sensible businessmen and businesswomen. Joy initially goes for a similar 'settle this out of court', but during the actual meeting she backs up Ward.

Ward's motives, on the other hand? It's partially motivated by his need to take down Danny a peg, as well as out of spite for his father, who tells him to 'follow Joy's lead' with a text message, revealing that Ward's every move is being monitored. That scene with him flipping off the room is absolutely hilarious!

And, well, Ward ends up hitting rock bottom after so many cock-ups, and while his reliance and addiction to what I'm assuming are painkillers is one thing, the little pack that Danny leaves on his desk intrigues him, and he hops up on it. He's all conked out when Joy confronts him, and very, very nearly reveals that Harold's alive... but only manages to pull off a couple cryptic and easily-passed-off-as-drug-caused "he's always listening..."

Colleen Wing doesn't get to do much, other than a brief nice scene of both her and Danny showcasing their katana and nun-chuck skills, but we do get acknowledgement that her fighting ring career was caused by bloodlust more than actual need. It's a little jarring that she's quite a fair bit more bubbly and flirty in this episode, after spending the previous four being cold and practical, but it's definitely a change for the better.

So yeah, strongest episode so far, and easily Danny Rand's more powerful and well-done performance as well. The Hand and the Meachum plotlines are moving along pretty well, which is nice. And the Iron Fist finally decides to take the fight to the Hand, now that he's absolutely sure that it exists and is operating. By, um, selling drugs. 

Whatever the case, this is starting to at least be somewhat enjoyable to watch. So yay for that.

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Madame Gao was a relatively major villain in Daredevil's first season and had a brief role in Daredevil's second season. Unless I'm mis-remembering things, she doesn't seem to be explicitly allied with Nobu's Hand forces. She also ran a drug smuggling ring in the first season of Daredevil.
• Claire Temple originated in Daredevil, and has been a recurring major character in Daredevil and Luke Cage, as well as having a brief supporting role in Jessica Jones. She saw brochures for Colleen Wing's self-defense class at the end of Luke Cage. Claire references her encounter with the Hand in Daredevil's second season, her co-worker's death, the usage of kidnapped and brainwashed children to control powerful parents, the assault on the hospital and its subsequent cover-up, as well as her superhero hijinks magnet.

One Piece 860 Review: Guests

One Piece, Chapter 860: 10:00, Opening of the Banquet

Nothing really much happened in this chapter, yet at the same time a crapton of new characters get introduced. One Piece likes to introduce a lot of characters in one go (the Supernovas, the gladiators of Dressrossa, Doflamingo's underlings) only for it to take some time until they become relevant, so many some or all of these will be future allies and/or enemies? Half of the chapter is just the party guests arriving, and the other half is some flashbacks that we could really just infer.

Basically, Pekoms is left tied to a rock (but with food and water) while Aladdin -- or Aladine, as his name is apparently spelled -- leaves with the rest of the Sun Pirates. Aladine has a brief flashback to when Jinbe decides to leave the Sun Pirates after talking to Pekoms. Jinbe notes how he's going to betray Big Mom with a rebellion, and apparently he chickened out of the roulette because the numbers apparently represent the amount of comrades that'll be sacrificed alongside him. So dishonourable rebellion it is! Again, a bit weird that it was put off for so long as a cliffhanger only to resolve in an anticlimax, but eh. Jinbe makes it clear that his joining the Straw Hats isn't an "if", but a "when", and so the Sun Pirates leave on good terms. Brief mentions of the Fishman Kingdom is made, but all that came out of it is Aladine going 'eh, don't worry about it'. 

We get a brief glimpse of the Germa leaders, but we then cut away to a group of the 'Underworld Kings', which are six people: "God of Fortune" Du Feld, the Loan Shark King, who's a huge mob boss guy chomping on a cigar. Stussi, the Red Light District Queen, who's just a lady. Drug Peclo, the Great Undertaker, who's a fat dude with a creepy clown mask, a lion's mane, a military outfit and a huge sickle. "Big News" Morgans, the president of the world economy newspaper, who's a big-ass bird man. "The Concealer" Ciberson, the warehouse businessman, who's like a skinnier, creepier, old version of Baron Tamago. "Deep Current" Umit, the Shipping King, who actually looks like a normal pirate, which is a rarity in this manga about pirates. 

They don't like each other, it seems. Perospero creates a pretty giant stairwell to bring the guests up, and he gives candy to kids. Capone Bege acts like a glorified doorman, arguing with a crazy-looking dude, the organ trader Jigra, who insists that he received an invitation... last time... but was unable to attend, because it was his mother's funeral. Before he can finish his sentence, he got shot in the forehead! The bullet didn't get through, but jeez. 

This metal-looking cool-dude with way too many ruffles on his leather jacket tells Capone about how the crazy dude's about to give an anecdote about how his father was killed by Big Mom and his head sent to him as punishment for missing her tea party. Apparently he's the third Sweet Commander, Charlotte Katakuri, and he tosses jellybean bullets like coins, and his Observation Haki is so powerful that he can see into the future. Not the kind of guy you want around when you're going to assassinate someone, that's for sure. Also his bounty is 1 billion, which is higher than even Jack, who IIRC was the highest we've seen so far. 

The remainder of the chapter is just the Underworld Kings arriving on the tea party, with Smoothie squeezing giraffes and women to provide refreshment. Just because. And Big Mom shows up to welcome everyone. The sheer amount of two-page spreads makes it feel a lot shorter, so it does feel a bit m'eh, but at least we do get the scale of the party.