Marvel Movie Review: The Punisher - One Last Kill [2026]

The Punisher: One Last Kill

This one is a 'Marvel presents' feature that is meant to bridge the gap between Daredevil: Born Again's first season and Spider-Man: Brand New Day*, because the Punisher appears in one, and then in the next, completely skipping out on all the crisis happening in Daredevil's second season. 

*I actually have Brand New Day reviewed maybe a month or so after its release, but the file actually got corrupted and I haven't had the energy to redo it.  both it and VisionQuest reviews should start hopefully in late November / early December.

And... well, you're not getting much in terms of answers beyond a vague handwave of what he is doing. Which is a bit annoying for people who want more internationality between Marvel projects, but especially since Jon Bernthal's Punisher is easily one of the best things about Daredevil: Born Again and the Netflix-originated side of the MCU in general. 

Running just shy of an hour, The Punisher: One Last Kill does take its time to build up to the gratuitous gore and violence that you'd expect from an R-rated Punisher feature. And don't get me wrong, I am here for all the violence and action and gore in a Punisher flick. I'm happy about that, and for the fifteen to twenty minutes or so when Frank Castle finally stops moping, gets into full Punisher mode and start blasting, it was fun. 

The buildup to it is... a bit odd, and suspect. Jon Bernthal is a great actor, of course, but it is really strange. The movie shows Frank breaking down, but seem quite intent on pushing and making certain scenes feel like non-sequiturs if you haven't watched the Netflix shows. Moments with Frank's daughter could be handwaved as being 'universally' understandable, but the 'one penny, two penny' references, the sudden cameo of the ghosts of Curtis Hoyle and the hallucination of Karen Page, are all brought up... while nothing is mentioned about the AVTF and of Frank's escape from the AVTF compound. It feels just odd, coming straight to Frank being morose, suicidal, and ready to end everything from his crusade to his life. 

The plot is simple, of course. Frank almost gives up, doesn't, and one survivor of his old massacres from The Punisher's first season, Ma Gnucci, puts up a massive contract that sends a lot of the assholes living in the shithole part of town that Frank has found himself in. Frank initially doesn't care, but when his neighbours and the local shopkeepers -- particularly those with children -- get threatened, Frank finds the Punisher within himself. He goes around shooting and killing everyone, ultimately chooses to save people than to end Ma Gnucci, and ends the movie in the skull suit again. I just described the 45 minutes of the movie. The Gnucci plot is paper-thin, and honestly isn't quite resolved so much as they ran out of extras for Frank Castle to murder. 

It's just that... it's really not that much substance. The acting is great when Jon gets to act, and the action is pretty cool for what it is, but ultimately the movie is just a bit of a slog to get through. Now I appreciate that this is one of the few times that the MCU has experimented with pathos towards how horrible the world is and there is no optimism beyond, well, punishing the criminals. It's just not the most interesting in terms of either characterization or plot. For as well-done that Frank's breakdown was acted out, the buildup was lacking and if we're being honest it's not nothing we haven't seen before in the Netflix show or even the Born Again follow-up. 

With almost 20 minutes to build up to the non-stop action that caps off the second half of the movie, it is frankly quite surprising how little content we get. There are some attempts at trying to poke at some themes, at how Ma Gnucci's loss might parallel Frank's, or something about the mistreatment of veterans, but the plot threads are more or less introduced and not really brought up beyond that. 

I appreciate the effort, and I did enjoy the action, but this honestly isn't something I'm likely to revisit or really even recommend since other than the action scene there isn't much to it. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Gnucci crime family actually appeared among Frank's victims in episode 1 of The Punisher, season 1, but the matriarch of the family (who was the main antagonist in the comics) was conspicuously missing. 
• Frank's ally Curtis Hoyle was last seen in Netflix's The Punisher season 2, still alive on the last reckoning. Frank's family and the gravesite; the last argument Frank had with his daughter Lisa, and the One-Penny-Two-Penny madness mantra were all introduced in The Punisher. 
• While only named 'Barry' on-screen once, Ma Gnucci's bodyguard was identified by producers as being short for Barracuda, one of Punisher's major antagonists in the MAX continuity. 

Marvel Zombies S01E04 Review: World War Z

Marvel Zombies, Episode 4

And finally, we end the first season of Marvel Zombies with... a bit of a leap in tone and story themes. Which I'll go on record here as not being a big fan of. I don't dislike it as much as I did the final season of What If, but I felt like for a show that fired on all cylinders for the first 3 episodes, this one just felt... so off.

The first part of it is just a continuation of the excellent (if simple, for the genre) twist that Earth is quarantined by the military government Nova Corps, who is willing to vaporize the survivors if it means quarantining the virus to Earth. We get a brief space dogfight sequence until the good guys' spaceship blows up. Kamala summons a Noor-construct sphere to protect everyone on re-entry, long enough for the Kamar-Taj magicians to teleport them to safety. 

And our ever-expanding cast of characters are now gathered together with Spider-Man, Ant-Man, and a group of minor Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness characters like Rintrah the minotaur. And... the rather odd decision to add a bunch of new background characters like the London Master who would later get a dedicated action scene without being a proper character from the MCU? In such a tight show, this is a bit surprising. 

We get the very random shoehorning of a plot point that I really felt could have been delivered last episode when we are doing a recap/tie-in, and it's not even a plot point that I felt was necessary, nor is it thematic to the MCU. The Magicians of Kamar-Taj ended up approaching Bruce Banner (who... survived his encounter with Scarlet Witch's hordes in What If, I guess) who turned into the Hulk, and somehow, something-something, absorbs the infinity energy to become 'Infinity Hulk' to anchor the energy. 

It's really random, and it's not like 'Infinity Hulk' actually has a personality, being reduced to essentially an avatar of the energies. This really does feel like something they could've tied to some other character or plot device that we've already been introduced. It just feels random. But it's essentially just a setup for a superhero-movie-Act-3 beatdown, because Scarlet Witch is bringing her massive horde to kill Infinity Hulk and take that energy for her own presumably nefarious reasons. 

We get a bit of a conversation between Kamala and Shang-Chi, probably the only two members of the group to come out of the first 3 episodes with much of a character development. It's a typical 'hope in the darkness' superhero speech which feels nice in the bleak setting. They are joined with Valkyrie, Blade-Knight, Katy, Spider-Man, Ant-Man and the magicians as they prepare for battle. 

And then we get superhero madness. Gathering in the ruins of Paris, Scarlet Witch sends her zombie horde at Infinity Hulk. We get a wink-wink-nudge as Infinity Hulk destroys the Abomination zombie, before a giant horde of zombies start swarming in, including some 'special' ones like the Atlantean zombies, the Asgardian zombies and the Pym-particle-enlarged zombies. Again, seeing the zombie hordes is cool but I just didn't really care about the Infinity Hulk, or the whole 'anchor of the world' thing. 

The survivors arrive through the portals and we get a couple of nice cameos, I suppose, like the battles with zombie Hawkeye, and the zombie original Ant-Man-and-the-Wasp duo. Which... you'd think they would try to do more with Scott Lang being among the survivors, but they really didn't? Thankfully, there's a bit more in terms of having people fight zombified versions of their friends. After a conversation where Wanda tries to get into Kamala's mind again, Wanda brings out the zombie versions of people who died in this season. Because of course they show up. Zombified versions of Red Guardian, Yelena Belova and Melina Vostokoff attack Kamala; the giant Wasp (Hope) is unleashed upon Spider-Man and Ant-Man; and Shang-Chi and Katy have to deal with... Jimmy Woo and Death Dealer.

Which I would dismiss as being meaningless, but they did some cool bits with Jimmy and Death Dealer actually just being a jumble of corpse parts held together by magic. 

Oh, Thor also died offscreen and arrives, killing the Masters of Magic. And one by one, our heroes die. Valkyrie gets killed by Okoye and Blade is vaporized by Thor. The other heroes are immobilized and are at danger at dying, and while Infinity Hulk takes out Thor, this gives an opening for Wanda to zip in and take out the Hulk and steal the energy. And then Kamala jumps in, and gets brought into a conversation with Wanda, who promises to 'fix everything'. 

And I guess that's the big thing, where the zombie horde invasion gets utterly successful. The scenes are chaotic enough that I wasn't sure if Shang-Chi and Katy are even dead or not, but enough of Kamala's friends die in this episode that she ends up succumbing to Wanda's offer. 

And then big explosion of retcon-illusion magic erupts, a combination of Kamala and Wanda's differing kinds of magic, and Kamala ends up transported to what appears to be the normal world where she's drinking boba and stuff. And as she goes off with her besties Kate Bishop and Riri Williams... reality glitches, as Kamala begins to see the zombified world beyond her 'illusion', seeing a surviving Ironheart yell at her that 'everything is fake'. 

So yeah, that's a lot. The zombie superhero fight at the end is fine, I suppose, although I must admit that I found it probably the most boring of the four final-part-of-the-episode fights in the four Marvel Zombies episodes. Still didn't like the Infinity Hulk twist, and I really did feel like they kept too many characters to the end; when focusing on just showing Shang-Chi and/or Blade dying as a 'fallen mentor' to Kamala would have been more effective than the chaos we had. Wanda trying to enact a planet-wide WandaVision reality warp is an interesting concept, but one that felt a bit rushed. With each of the Marvel Zombies episodes having been relatively mood-based and paced slowly, the hectic, madcap dash of this last episode was not the most inspiring thing to watch... and whether it's an optimistic ending or not, I honestly rather wished that the first season ended with something that's not such an obvious 'look at the new status quo' cliffhanger. I had fun with this -- more than What If or YFNSM -- but I definitely am not the biggest fan of the ending. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• In the Sacred Timeline...
• The Nova Corps and their 'shield' ships would primarily be seen in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. They were last mentioned in Infinity War after Thanos's forces tore them apart prior to the movie to get the Power Stone. Evidently, they survived here. 
• This isn't the first time Wanda warps reality to hide a truth she refuses to accept, albeit this is on a much larger scale -- the idyllic town of Westview being warped by her chaos magic is the plot of WandaVision. 
• In What If... Zombies?
• In perhaps one of the bigger confusing plot threads, Bruce Banner was last seen in What If... Zombies finally transforming into the Hulk to fight Zombie Wanda and giving the other members of the resistance time to escape. That he somehow survived, got magical runes etched onto him by Kamar-Taj magicians, and intercepted the infinity stone shockwave is a bit odd. 
• Zombie Hank (Ant-Man I) and Zombie Janet (Wasp I) were the ones that spread the zombie plague in What If... Zombies?. They were only seen in flashback and were unaccounted for as zombies... until now. 
• Zombie Wasp, Hope van Dyne, was one of the main characters in What If... Zombies? until her death as after gigantifying. She acted as a mentor for this dimension's Spider-Man, explaining why Spider-Man joins Scott in having such a strong reaction to her. 
• The boy with the red scarf that Kamala looks at the end of the episode is Kamran, one of the main antagonists of Ms. Marvel and her love interest in that show. 

Marvel Zombies S01E03 Review: The Last of Us

Marvel Zombies, Episode 3

This episode goes on another, different trope common in zombie apocalypse fiction, which I like a bit less than the previous two entries... but it's still a pretty solid one. 

We do start off with a continuity nod to the ending of the What If? episode that spawned this mini-series. Which... would be very confusing to a lot of newcomers here, especially those that didn't realize that one specific episode of one season of an anthology series led to this miniseries. It's this kind of super-continuity-loop that makes comic books so inaccessible, people!

But yeah. We start off with an epilogue of the team consisting of Spider-Man, Black Panther and Ant-Man's head arriving on Wakanda to see it overrun with zombified Thanos. With the passing of Chadwick Boseman being less recent, they decided to animate Black Panther's last stand against Thanos... although the character is silent throughout the whole fight. Seeing that this happens within the events of Avengers: Infinity War, the arrival of Thor, Groot and Rocket Raccoon is also shown -- although Thanos swiftly kills the two Guardians, maims Thor, and Black Panther ends up having to do a heroic sacrifice to drop Thanos into an energy reactor. This creates a giant cloud that the episode will later reveal to be the cause of lack of communications between Earth and any space allies. 

Spider-Man and Ant-Man's head survive this and are rescued by the cast of Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness, with the rest of the magical cast granting them asylum. Spider-Man's recap is interrupted as the magicians note that Wanda Maximoff, the Queen of the Dead, is moving her zombie horde and that conflict is imminent. Which is a setup for the 'main' plot of this zombie survival show. 

We then cut to the main cast, Team Kamala, as they rise up from the escape pod. Red Guardian mourns the death of his daughter from last episode, but Kamala manages to talk Red Guardian from doing anything drastic in his grief. It's all inspiring and everything, though arguably Red Guardian's exit later on this episode does nullify this moment somewhat. I do appreciate them trying to inject some pathos with these alternate-universe characters, though. 

The main trope here is finding a civilization settlement, Walking Dead style, that has embraced the zombie madness or are infected by it. Things seem to be fine for a while as our group arrives in New Asgard. The community has closed itself off from the rest of the world, and Valkyrie bars the way in until Khonshu appears out of Blade/Moon Knight's body and begins a conversation. It... it really raises some questions about the nature of gods and whatnot that Ragnarok and especially Love and Thunder turned into kind of a joke, but technically it does make sense that Khonshu would know the Asgardians. And it's a nice continuation of the gag that no one there 'gets' the whole Khonshu gimmick. 

The Asgardians are in a massive feast, but King Thor is morose and brooding in his throne. Red Guardian joins the Asgardians for the feast, mourning Yelena; while Kamala, Shang-Chi and the others discuss matters with Valkyrie. Valkyrie is reluctant to lend them a spaceship, going on an uncharacteristic 'Asgard needs no others' spiel. The tension builds up a bit, however, as Valkyrie notes that the feast given to them was supplied by the 'Queen of Sokovia'... Wanda Maximoff. 

Realizing what's going on, with Kamala having shared her creepy Wanda vision-dreams with the rest of the group, they begin to get ready for hostilities. Wanda, like her 'scion' Okoye, notes that her powers had allowed her to retain her human mind even after zombification, and again starts talking about how they can save the world... but needs the power that Kamala is hoarding. All this false niceties is built up nicely between Valkyrie and Scarlet Witch...

And then the illusion fades away as the Asgardians are revealed to have been feasting on zombie flesh. Apparently Valkyrie wasn't working under Wanda and was genuinely duped into a false treaty, but it's too late as all the other finger-eating Asgardians get infected with the virus. And one by one, Baron Zemo, Jimmy Woo and Death Dealer fall to the zombies. Jimmy has a bit of a running gag throughout all these episodes about him being the loud happy 'friend' to the silent, quiet and voiceless Death Dealer which... I didn't really find all that funny. It was a nice attempt, I guess? 

Red Guardian retreats with the rest of the group, and there was a bit where he was trying to hide the fact that he ate zombie flesh, but ultimately confesses to Kamala about his fuckery and stays behind to very briefly hold the line. I felt like this moment could have been done a bit better, or could have been given to another character -- it felt like an odd whiplash for Alexei to go from having half the episode be about mourning his dead daughter, and the second half just dying like a punk to a mistake. And even if the point was to be cruel, I felt that the proverbial knife could've been twisted a lot deeper. 

Wanda uses her magic powers to hold on to Valkyrie's spaceship as the group tries to get in, but suddenly the silent, traumatized King Thor stirs and begins to attack. This was a pretty cool moment, and probably one of the better mini-character-arcs in this elseworld as it builds up on Thor's failure in the prologue. And a different kind of failure to the depression he experienced in the Endgame timeskip. Thor urges the survivors to escape, leaving Kamala with one last inspiring speech about how she's an Avenger now. 

With Thor holding off Scarlet Witch, our heroes make it away into orbit, beyond the cloud of 'infinity energy' that has suffused the atmosphere. Kamala activates the transmitter, trying to reach out to the Nova Corps -- the 'space police' from Guardians of the Galaxy that might be able to help them. Shang-Chi gives Kamala a bit of an inspiring speech about how they are giving Earth and humanity a shot. The Nova Corps appear, a bit too fast... and as communications is established, the excellent twist is revealed: Nova Corps knows that Earth is zombified, and is quarantining Earth to make sure the zombie plague is contained there. 

That's a great cliffhanger, and I felt like it's a great twist that makes sense for the universe. This episode feels like it has probably the most continuity with the original What If one-shot, but also with the greater MCU as a whole. I wasn't the biggest fan of some aspects of it like Asgardia's portrayal or Red Guardian's death; and if we're being honest I kind of wished that if we lost characters that it would be a bit more meaningful (Jimmy, Death Dealer and Zemo went out with little fanfare) but overall I did enjoy this episode a fair bit. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• In the Sacred Timeline...
• The opening scene of this episode features the epic entrance of Rocket Raccoon, Groot and Thor wielding Stormbreaker near the climax of Avengers: Infinity War. However, it ends a lot more poorly for our heroes this time around. Just like his sacred timeline counterpart, Thor's first hit on Thanos with the Stormbreaker did not go for the head. 
• Spider-Man and Ant-Man have been rescued by the supporting cast of Kamar-Taj, specifically the group of characters from Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, including Rintrah the minotaur and Sara Wolfe. 
• New Asgard in the sacred timeline would have been established between Infinity War and Endgame, but the cause of Thor's malaise and the tone that New Asgard has is wildly different.
  
• While not implicitly stated, the Asgardians knew of other god pantheons in Thor: Love and Thunder. The gathering of the gods seen in that movie does feature some Egyptian gods, so it stands to reason that Khonshu and the Asgardians would at least be somewhat familiar with each other. 
• In What If... Zombies?
• The opening scene of this episode takes place immediately after the final scene of the original What If... Zombies? episode, with Spider-Man, Black Panther and the head of Ant-Man facing off against a zombified Thanos in Wakanda; and showing the aftermath of that fight. 
• It perhaps bears repeating, but Dr. Strange and Wong have both perished and turned into zombies in What If... Zombies?, explaining their absence here. 
• Zemo is the character with the strongest reaction to the idea that Sokovia has a queen -- since Zemo himself is Sokovian, and would know. 

Marvel Zombies S01E02 Review: Resident Evil

Marvel Zombies, Episode 2

This second episode is another fun, relatively self-contained one. I do like that most of the Marvel Zombies episodes do feel like standalone entries in like a zombie movie series. This one goes for the trope of a remote, dangerous military/scientific base that is supposed to be safe, but ends up being overrun by zombies. 

But before that, we start off with another group of more neglected MCU characters, with Shang-Chi, his love interest Katy and Agent Jimmy Woo from Ant-Man ending up running around in San Francisco during ground zero. Because Pym Laboratories is there, we also get to see a bunch of giant zombies lumbering around, a nice nod to, again, the fact that this is taking place in a superhero universe. There is some rushing of moments, but as an origin story it does kind of make sense. In this version of the continuity, Wenwu / the Mandarin decides to make his move early, rescuing his son and ultimately dying in a sacrifice to save his son. This moment really did go a bit too fast and knowing what we do of Wenwu from the Shang-Chi movie this feels rather abrupt of a death... but it is an origin story for this depiction of Shang-Chi. 

With the Ten Rings wrapped around his arm to prevent the zombie infection from spreading, Shang-Chi ends up doing a bit of a resistance. Smash cut to five years later, where they are in a Mad Max esque biker gang, with Wenwu's minion Death Dealer silently following them. Just for the sake of additional wacky-comic-book-hijinks, they fight Skrull bikers. Which... okay? Sure. Also, Katy gets partial custody of five of the ten rings. Again, sure. It's alternate-universe stuff, even in the comics these alternate universes tend to do things different for the sake of being different. 

All of this is nice and rapidly-paced, though, which does hurt the setup a little. But ultimately Team Shang-Chi arrive in a location called the City on the Sea, which is one of those Walking Dead style safe havens. Shang-Chi's team has been gathering resources like cows to be let into the community, and this is around the time that Team Kamala from the first episode shows up. The two groups almost get into a fight over Shang-Chi's zombified arm, but the leader of the City on the Sea show up... and it's Baron Zemo, alongside his bodyguard John Walker. ('USAgent' Walker is probably the most OOC one in this show, because working for Zemo doesn't really fit either his Falcon-era or Thunderbolts-era personalities)

Baron Zemo doesn't like superheroes, but he'll let them into his City... which is actually a repurposed version of the Raft. It's actually a clever bit, I've seen some zombie movies (well, mostly the Resident Evil movie adaptations) where a water-based base is a safe haven from the land-locked zombies. There's a brief moment as the two teams finally have a chance to relax from all the zombie-running they have been doing, and they kind of get to know each other. Or, well, mostly it's just Shang-Chi that talks to Team Kamala, since Katy and Woo are comic relief and Death Dealer's entirely silent. There's a bit of a ship-tease between Yelena and Shang-Chi and whatnot, all moments that don't really matter in the long run but also makes these characters feel like an incarnation of their MCU characters instead of just a bunch of dead-people-walking. Team Kamala catch Shang-Chi up on their plan to get the plot device into space, and the next step is to reach New Asgard to get a spaceship. Shang-Chi is sympathetic but only wishes them luck. 

Turns out, though, that an underwater base is really only useful in a 'normal' zombie apocalypse world, and not a 'superhero world' zombie apocalypse world. The zombie plague has reached the Atlanteans (or, well, Talokans in the MCU, I suppose) and these zombified underwater-people attempt to breach the Raft. The Raft itself was constructed to stop the strongest metahuman villains, so they are relatively safe other than the constant thumping on the walls. Baron Zemo confides in Walker that this is the main reason he allowed the heroes in, as insurance against the zombie Atlanteans. 

Of course, there aren't just zombie fish-people, but zombie superhero fish-people. Okoye's presence as the main pursuer and minion of the Scarlet Witch is pretty neat as her horde reaches the harbour, and then Okoye awakens... Namor. Speaking of Scarlet Witch, her powers have grown far enough that it's infecting Kamala Khan's dreams, identifying her for some sinister reason. Blade ends up acting as a combination of an older mentor and someone who knows the more magical side of things to Kamala, which is neat. 

Namor starts to attack, however, and the Raft goes into red-lights crisis lockdown mode. Baron Zemo's definition of 'insurance' doesn't actually mean having the superheroes there to fight Namor, however, but to... launch Team Kamala's cells out of the Raft as bait. That is... that is so hilariously impractical! I love it. It's so dumb. Shang-Chi's group is horrified at this and realize that Baron Zemo is evil. Namor zeroes in on Kamala and attacks her group, but Kamala's forcefield powers protect them and the battle ends up with them being pushed back into the Raft. 

Namor and the Atlanteans start slaughtering everyone in the Raft, and the great usage of dark lighting combined with the blaring klaxons and red lights is pretty atmospheric for the carnage. A nice nod to the MCU as well as Namor is temporarily halted with the same Hulk containment unit from The Avengers. And just like that containment unit, it fails to do anything but delay Namor. 

Baron Zemo runs around as the typical 'quisling in power' seen so much in these zombie stories, shutting down doors behind him and delaying our heroes. Yelena gets a bit of a spotlight here as she forces Zemo to tell her about the manual override for the life pods, and goes deeper into the Raft to activate it. Meanwhile, Namor's rampage slowly dwindles down the group of survivors, killing Shang-Chi's unique-model resistance members and John Walker. Ultimately, Kamala manages to take down Namor, shoving a forcefield fist into the fish-man's mouth and blowing it up. 

However, as the survivors enter the lifepod, Red Guardian realizes that Yelena has not returned yet. Again, it's a rather simple moment when someone stays behind because they have already been infected. Pretty good animation particularly on Red Guardian's part as a grieving father mourning her daughter being left behind -- nowhere as good as the same character's performance in Thunderbolts when a similar scene happens, but it does act as a nice cap-off to the episode as Alexei grieves, and Yelena stoically pours a drink while waiting for the zombie horde to breach the doorway to her control room. 

This episode is probably my favourite one in the season. It is admittedly me really liking the setting of a high-tech base being overrun, but the darker lighting and the blaring lights really do make best use of the otherwise not-my-favourite animation style. The Yelena/Alexei moment was done well, and I do like the showcases of Shang-Chi and Zemo's respective groups showing how other parts of the world have taken to the zombie apocalypse.

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• In the Sacred Timeline...
• The events of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings would have happened post-Endgame, but I suppose it isn't too far of a stretch that Shang and Katy would be still (or already) working as hotel valets five years before that movie. 
• It isn't too much of a stretch either to think that Wenwu and his Ten Rings organization would be keeping an eye on Shang-Chi. 
• Jimmy Woo would chronologically be last seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp. The Shang-Chi and Ant-Man movies actually both take place partially in San Francisco, so it makes sense that they'd meet up. 
• The events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the character development of Baron Zemo and John Walker/USAgent, would have happened after Endgame. Clearly things went a bit differently here, with Zemo somehow taking control of the Raft, but also setting up base near a bunch of shipping containers like he did in Falcon. 
• Namor and the renamed Atlanteans would have only made contact with the surface world in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but apparently the zombie plague reaches the depths of the oceans as well. 
• The Skrull biker gang are trying to steal the cows that Shang-Chi's group is transporting. One of the more memed older Fantastic Four stories involves Reed Richards transforming a group of Skrulls into cows as punishment. 

Marvel Zombies S01E01 Review: Dawn of the Dead

Marvel Zombies, Episode 1

I watched Marvel Zombies as it came out, but for some reason I didn't do a review for it. In my mind, I thought I did a full season review, but.... but I apparently never actually posted it? As I slowly catch up to the MCU projects I've missed doing reviews for, I suppose I could talk a bit about Marvel Zombies... and I decided to save it for the Halloween month! 

Marvel Zombies takes place after one of the episodes of Marvel's What If, which is a Marvel Zombies episode. And we start off with a somewhat chipper trio of younger heroes -- Ms. Marvel, Ironheart and Hawkeye II. They are supposed to be leading the 'young Avengers' that never really materialized at the moment of writing, but it's nice to see them doing something here. Oh, they also have FRIDAY, piloting an empty Iron Man suit. 

And the beginning gives us a simple 'people surviving in a zombie apocalypse and making do', with some minor battles against zombie Hawkeye. Or, well, zombie Clint. Whose fate was left ambiguous during the What If episode, which otherwise accounts for most of the earlier Avengers. The dialogue and dynamic here isn't anything to particularly write home about, but it's also a zombie movie and characters in zombie movies tend to be pretty economical in being reduced to simple traits. Kamala's the optimistic one, Riri's the pessimistic one, and Kate plays the straight-man against both of them. 

Riri finds out that an item they scavenged from a corpse in a Quinjet is some kind of Ant-Man-shrunken-down plot device, an Intergalactic Transmitter that is part of 'Project Life-Shot', which could contact help from space if they could travel to a SHIELD base. With our survivors introduced and our plot premise set up, our heroes head off to travel! 

Again, this whole setup, particularly with the pretty peppy (if bland) dialogue, does lull you into a rather tame sense of security. The road trip takes them to see some of the sights of the zombie-blasted wasteland that the USA has been turned into... until they arrive into a cataclysmic location where two god-like zombies are fighting... Captain Marvel and the Eternal Ikaris. The fight of two Superman-esque superheroes have blown up holes through mountains and have created a perpetual storm, which is a very moody location and probably one of my favourite parts of this series -- that zombified superheroes that retain their powers will cause some pretty cool levels of devastation. 

And as our heroes lose their van and go on foot... the realities of being in a zombie survival show kicks in as Kate Bishop is brutally, swiftly and suddenly atomized by a blast from the warring Captain Marvel and Ikaris above, reduced to a skeleton. This genuinely did surprise me, but it also made me believe that I'm going to watch a proper zombie show instead of just invincible, plot armoured heroes  Kamala's desperation as she loses her allies one by one is well-portrayed. Riri gets bitten and stays behind to distract Zombie Captain Marvel and Zombie Ikaris, while FRIDAY takes Kamala off to safety. And just to twist the knife in further, once Kamala is safe, FRIDAY flies back to help Riri... with no allusions to whether either of them will survive. But it's a nice character moment as FRIDAY is implied to have not been able to die alongside Iron Man. Little details like this. 

Kamala is rescued by an unexpected character... Blade. Who, at this point, has not properly appeared in the MCU, unless you are counting the alternate-universe Blade from Wolverine vs. Deadpool. But this isn't just Blade, this is Blade with the powers of the Moon Knight. As cool as the visuals are and as cool as Mahershala Ali is.... "Blade Knight" is kind of underused, particularly since we don't really explore either side of his superpowers beyond doing cool sword stuff. But I guess being cool is the whole point of his presence in this show. 

Blade and Kamala go off to Ohio, and Blade gives a bit of a recap on how he was chosen by Khonshu after the previous avatar was lost during the zombie outbreak. They find the SHIELD base surrounded by a seemingly docile zombie horde, and enter to meet the group from Black Widow -- Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, Melina Vostokoff and a bunch of nameless Widows. 

Melina, being the resident science person, explains that they can't use the transmitter because the planet's atmosphere is filled with interference after the 'battle in Wakanda' (which we saw glimpses of in the original What If episode). However, that discussion is interrupted when a horde of zombies comes up. This is an army led by Zombie Okoye, last seen facing off against Zombie Scarlet Witch and turned into her "scion", her leader of her troops. 

Zombie Okoye unleashes a horde of zombies upon the compound, giving us our third-act fight scene. This zombie horde has Hawkeye (who Okoye collected earlier this episode), Captain America, Abomination and Ghost. And I really like this random cherry-picking of Marvel characters that hasn't shown up in the original one-shot. 

The resulting zombie fight is pretty neat as we get some match-ups, with Red Guardian managing to finally fight and defeat the zombified Captain America, who sneaks in through the vent. Zombie Ghost gets to show off a really cool sequence of using her phasing abilities to kill the nameless Widows, when her live-action counterpart doesn't really use her powers in a creative fashion in Thunderbolts.

Again, in typical 'dwindling crew' situation, Melina uses the Red Dust to try and hold off the zombie horde, sealing away the rest of her allies... but Okoye, empowered by Scarlet Witch's powers, is too powerful and kills Melina. Ghost manages to chase the group through the bulwarks, but gets awesomely sliced up by Blade in a quick but brutal encounter. 

Kamala, Blade, Yelena and Red Guardian manage to then escape the facility after bringing down a tunnel to escape Zombie Abomination, and the journey is on as the little zombie survivor group continues on to try and save the world. 

I really like Marvel Zombies because unlike the later seasons of What If, it really felt like it was made by people who wanted to make jokes about the MCU, yes, but also cared to write authentic alternate-universe versions of the characters with some bathos and some depth to it. Moments like FRIDAY deciding to fly back and die with Riri; or the way that the Widow family reacted to each other, are all nice little moments that aren't like, going to make you tear up or anything, but done well to make me invested. The animation is also crisp, and being set in the dark with a lot more down-to-earth abilities makes the fight scenes at the end (with everything involving Ghost in particular), again, way more impressive than anything in What If's later seasons. 

I really did enjoy the opening episodes of this series a fair bit, despite -- or rather, probably because -- it is meant to be a standalone one-shot.

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• So here is where I try to untangle time 'alternate universe' shenanigans, because I'm a geek and I do this as a hobby. The events of the What If... Zombies? episode takes place relatively concurrently with Avengers: Infinity War, which we can tell from the arrival of the Black Order at the beginning of the episode, and Zombie Thanos attacking Wakanda as the final scene. This miniseries takes place approximately 5 years later, placing it after the Endgame timeskip...
• In the Sacred Timeline...
• The events of Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever which led to the superhero origins of Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye II and Ironheart would have taken place post-Infinity-War, but the episode gives a handwave that Kamala's grandmother sent her the magical bracelet earlier; Kate Bishop survived and trained on her own thanks to her mother Eleanor's paranoia, and Riri just happened to scavenge Iron Man's armour after the events of What If... Zombies. 
• Captain Marvel would have been summoned to earth from space by Nick Fury in Avengers: Infinity War. We don't know exactly how it happened, but apparently she got infected regardless. 
• Ikaris and the rest of the Eternals would still be in hiding during all this time. Since a vast majority of Earth's population was turned into zombies, it's likely that the events of Eternals did not happen since the Celestial wouldn't awaken if humanity hasn't advanced enough.
• Blade has not appeared in the mainline MCU projects yet, but Moon Knight would have taken place post-Endgame. Clearly, something happened to Khonshu's traditional host(s), leading to him being associated with Blade instead. 
• The events of Black Widow would have taken place before Infinity War, explaining why Red Guardian, Yelena Belova, Melina Vostokoff and the rest of the liberated Widows would still be gathered together instead of scattering over time. 
• Abomination would still be in prison after the events of Incredible Hulk, and probably got infected at some point afterwards. 
• Ghost would still be on the run after Ant-Man and the Wasp, and again, probably succumbed to the zombie plague. 
• In What If... Zombies?
• Iron Man was one of the first zombies seen in What If... Zombies?, where he was decapitated and dealt with by Wasp. Riri notes that she salvaged the armour afterwards, since 'no one was using it'. 
• Zombie Hawkeye was among the zombies that attacked the cast of What If... Zombies in the train station, but was left behind and never dealt with. He's apparently wandered off to this street. 
• Okoye was last seen among the resistance fighting against zombie Scarlet Witch. She was last seen surrounded by Scarlet Witch's magic before being killed, and apparently left enough of an impression for Wanda to resurrect her as a scion. 

Daredevil: Born Again S02E08 Review: Kingfall

Daredevil, Born Again, Season 2, Episode 8: The Southern Cross

Okay, that's an... all right ending? It's not as epic as episode 7's big Daredevil and Kingpin fight. And mostly, I think, is that once again, like any big Marvel project, they see the need to inject a massive big epic action showpiece. Which really ends up bringing in some huge logic leaps, at least from how I reacted to it. 

Basically, I felt like the courtroom scene was neat. Again, not sure if it makes sense legally or not, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief that Matthew Murdock revealing that he is Daredevil and how he could corroborate the evidence from the dead sailor guy from the Northern Star is a very cool moment. The tense dialogue between Matt and Wilson; Matt's huge speech as people yell out 'overruled' and 'sustained'... pretty nice performances. Kingpin gets to give a speech; Heather and Karen get to trade some barbs as well, and Hochberg is a fun, smarmy antagonist. And of course, the "I'm Daredevil" moment, followed up by him doing wacky billy-club stunts in the courtroom. It's a great moment, and a nice bit of Matt using Kingpin's own pride and machinations against him. 

The ending is also something that, in a vacuum, I like -- Matthew Murdock won the trial and saved Karen, but his revelation as Daredevil ended him in jail. Meanwhile, Kingpin failed to humiliate Karen and lost his mayorship, but took a deal from the government and lives a peaceful life in exile... but he's alone, looking at the beach. Love is a prison he never expected to be trapped in without Vanessa. 

But inserting a gratuitous action scene in the middle, with very explicit scenes of Kingpin finally letting loose and murdering protestors -- extremely violently, too! -- between those scenes? And Daredevil making Kingpin accept the government deal... in front of an angry mob? And Wilson, who's spent the lat three episodes refusing to accept reason over revenge... agrees, what the heck? I felt like none of these scenes really worked logically, and I felt like that kind of ruined the finale a bit. 

The season has been building up to the discussion of Daredevil's mercy and what he shows to Kingpin and Bullseye, but... it's just weird. Matt forgives Kingpin and that's a good thing for Matt's moral compass, but it's just so weird that Matt doesn't see this as Wilson crossing over a massive line -- a massive line made up by the blood of a couple dozen random protesting youths he just leaped across. Even if he's all about due procedure, what about those brand-new deaths? What about the deaths of Daniel Blake, Commissioner Gallo, Hector Ayala, and all the people that the AVTF brutalized? Again, there is a way to keep Kingpin alive for another season and still say something about the themes of the show, but this one is just a bit muddled. 

Bullseye's freedom didn't just last for the subdued moment of saving the governor, either. He walks up, slaughters a contingent of AVTF trying to masquerade as him (ironic, considering Bullseye pretended to be Daredevil in season 3), and instead of taking a shot at Matt as he walks out of the courtroom, Bullseye tries to kill Kingpin... and kills Buck instead? Or at least wounds him that he gets some tender scenes later with Wilson and Heather. Did he die? We didn't get the confirmation. 

Speaking of Buck, Kingpin's little supporting cast... really ended up not doing quite as much, as it seems like they're out. Sheila just kind of disappears this season, and ends up being the one sane person that ends up entirely unscathed. Buck is (maybe?) dead. Blake is dead. Heather throat-chops the asshole DA Hochberg, and later ends up donning the Muse mask properly at the end of the episode. Eh. After how much we built them up across the last two seasons, it really is kind of disappointing. 

There are also a bunch of stuff with BB Urich, who ends up also unmasking herself as the Anti-Kingpin videomaker. This led to the gathering of the aforementioned army of protestors wearing Daredevil masks. Mostly it's just an excuse to have Brett Mahoney, Angela del Toro and a bunch of others gather in front of the courtroom. The AVTF storyline also ends very blandly as expected. Powell is a hammy but one-dimensional character, and when he gets to be too much of a jackass, Cole punches him out and lets the protestors in. 

(That is a very unconvincing heel-face-turn from Cole, by the way, regarding how he reacted to the Hector order... I really wished there was a bit more obviousness that Saunders' fake death two episodes ago bothered him. There's also nothing about the forgiveness theme between Angela and Cole, which surprises me and makes Angela feel even more like a gratuitous comic-book-character cameo). 

There are some other characters that are wrapped up in this episode as well. Jessica Jones ends up sticking around throughout the entirety of this episode, even long enough in court to actually interact with Kingpin, steal the local booze, and do some superstrength people-tossing. Jessica ends up going home to Danielle in Alias Investigations. Also, Luke Cage comes back! Mr. Charles (or 'Mr. Robinson', as he calls himself now) got a new attack dog, and that attack dog is Bullseye.

(Mr. Charles is, by the way, another character that was kind of disappointing and really didn't do much after hamming it up so much. I really wished that he either contributed more to Kingpin's downfall, or properly interacting with Jessica, or if you want to make it a Thunderbolts tie-in be more blatant about it...)

Again... I don't know. I felt like this season finale wasn't terrible, but it was definitely clunky. I felt like it would've been a lot more poetic if Matt/Wilson had the huge fistfight in episode 6, and a huge wordfight in this final episode. Maybe switch them around if Marvel really demands an action-packed finale. Maybe have Matt fight Bullseye or something. A lot of the themes about forgiveness and mercy really do end up muddled a lot, and a lot of the side characters really ended up not doing much. The huge long-term 'conspiracy thread' of Mayor Fisk being in cahoots with the government and the Red Port/Northern Star also didn't end up amounting to much, which is another slight disappointment. Ditto for the 'voice of the people', which took up so much space in the first two episodes, and was abandoned until now BB comes out and rallies a whole army of protestors. It would've been a lot more authentic if this was done a bit better, a bit more gradual, and maybe in place of some of the less interesting supporting characters. 

Again... I did enjoy watching these episodes. But there definitely is a sad step-down in terms of narrative consistency compared to the previous season. I don't know how much attempts to mirror and/or distance itself from real-life American politics has affected the writing here, and that might be fair on the portrayal of Mayor Kingpin or the AVTF... but there really are a lot of parts of this season that didn't work as well as it should. Oh well.

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Luke Cage appears after last being seen at the conclusion of his own show, which left at a cliffhanger; and then having a brief cameo in Jessica Jones's final episode.
• Mitchell Ellison makes a return after last being seen in Daredevil season 3, although his name was glimpsed in BB's phone earlier this season. The office that he gives BB was the one used by Ben Urich in season 1. 
• Speaking of old sets, Jessica Jones revisits the set of Alias Investigations, albeit having renovated it to being more baby-friendly. 
• Fisk begins a speech with 'when I was a boy', which is a phrase he repeats a couple of times throughout the original Daredevil when discussing his past. 
• In the comics, Daredevil did go to prison after his identity was leaked, in the "Devil in Cell-Block D" story arc. 
• In the comics, Bullseye has worked for the government several times -- once as a nanite-controlled villain under Iron Man in Civil War, and more well-known as the 'Hawkeye' of Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers/Thunderbolts team. 

Daredevil: Born Again S02E07 Review: The Trial of Karen Page

Daredevil, Born Again, Season 2, Episode 7: The Hateful Darkness

So this episode is an... interesting one. The trial of Karen Page is an interesting one. Again, as I've emphasized throughout all the different Daredevil episodes, I don't have much in terms of knowledge or interest in courtroom drama, but the performances of the actors tend to be able to elevate it and make it interesting. And this episode has part of Karen's trial under the anti-vigilante laws, which is... all right. Kirsten McDuffie and mean DA Hochberg get to trade barbs, but it only really gets interesting when Matthew Murdock decides to enter the courtroom as a co-counsel. I don't know if this is a valid legal strategy, but it sure looks cool. Again, having the climax of the season be Wilson trying to bring down Karen Page and break her through the law system is an interesting one. We also start off with a rare scene in this series of Kingpin and Karen interacting with each other, leading to a brief choke-hold but otherwise a relatively civil one. 

The trial itself is... it's whatever. Presumably we'll get more excitement next episode. Apparently, the cameras rolling and it being public means that there's a proper jury of public opinion (but the Swordsman trial was also broadcasted live, so I dunno). Oh, and the AVTF -- in full uniform -- try to straight-up assassinate Matt, Kirsten and Cherry in the parking lot. That's gotta be dumb. 

A less... well-built-up story is the Daredevil/Bullseye connection. Daredevil ends up trying to forgive Bullseye and lets him go. Which... uh... there's a huge jump from not murdering him in cold blood and letting him loose, isn't there? He's still a murderer? Matt talks a bit about how there's a good thing that Bullseye can do, and in this episode it's protecting the Governor from Wilson Fisk's assassin. (His one lone ninja assassin... the governor didn't warrant Buck, apparently). While I did enjoy the other stuff in we had from previous episodes with Bullseye and Daredevil, this encounter felt muted. 

As the court trial is going on and Matt undoubtedly runs around to gather evidence and build a case, we get a bunch of side-plots going around. After being built up across the entire season, the Daniel Blake / BB Urich storyline finally gets a conclusion. Blake almost goes through with bringing BB to get killed mafia-style by Buck Cashman. His morals get in the way at the last minute, and he gives a USB to BB before telling her to disappear. He meets up with Buck anyway, and actually gets killed for his trouble. 

BB herself has been such a reactive character, which is the big problem with this plotline, really. But Daniel Blake's actor does manage to deliver quite a great performance in the last couple of episodes. It's just such a shame that this ultimately doesn't really connect emotionally with the Daredevil/Kingpin plot, but it's well-performed if nothing else. I'm quite happy that this is over, frankly. 

Jessica Jones also gets a couple of scenes. She confronts Mr. Charles about sending troops to her house, and Mr. Charles gets away unbroken because he's also Luke Cage's government handler. Thanks to the previous episode, though, Mr. Charles and the government has pulled out their support of Fisk and Jessica gives this message to Matt... before buggering away from the show. Again, I really wished that the episode 6 and 7 Jessica Jones cameos were wrapped up together cause this just feels so off and weird. 

Officer Brett Mahoney also gets a welcome cameo as the police officer protecting Karen. This is a much more subdued -- and honestly, sensible -- cameo than Jessica's, which really goes back and forth between her wanting to help and just buggering off every episode mid-point. 

Heather, who has been a bit of a nothingburger this episode other than the slow and obvious buildup that she's going to be Muse II, gets a face-to-face scene with Karen. Karen does ham it up quite a bit in this encounter, and I love that. I still think Karen needs a bit more focus than just arguing with Matt as the Frank Castle surrogate, but this conversation with Heather is a neat (if forced 'our original love interest is the better one' shipping bit) conversation that shows off why Karen's a major supporting character. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Recurring police officer Brett Mahoney was last seen in The Punisher, season 2. He's gotten a promotion since! 
• Again, the establishing shots of New York show off the Thunderbolts' Watchtower. 
• In addition to Foggy's murder, Father Lantom and Ray Nadeem's murders on Bullseye's hands on Daredevil Season 3 are brought up by Matt.
• In addition to bringing up Karen's killing of James Wesley, her flashback episode and Kevin was brought up by Heather.

Daredevil: Born Again S02E06 Review: AKA The Defenders

Daredevil, Born Again, Season 2, Episode 6: Requiem

This episode is a bit of a mixed bag compared to the previous one. We're setting up a three-episode escalation and conclusion after Vanessa's death, and to that end, actually having the Daredevil moral dilemma pushed front and foremost is amazing. 

The argument between Matt and Karen -- emotionally charged and with the show not really doubling down on either side of the argument too much -- is well done. Karen does acknowledge how killing Wesley all the way back in Daredevil's first season is still haunting her, but she doesn't regret it because it was self-defense and it protected them. Karen went quite close to pulling that trigger next to Bullseye's head in this episode, and Bullseye isn't even unwilling to let Karen go through it under his 'balance the scales' mania. There's a great yelling-discussion from Matt's end about how this is the one line that separates them from monsters like Bullseye... something that Karen wonders if they haven't crossed over it already.

It's the eternal argument, and it's something that I felt is quite similar to Matt and Foggy's discussion in the flashback last episode about how much does context matters. The fact that Bullseye is an unrepentant psychopath that killed Foggy is probably as relevant of a context as if their drug-dealing client gets into prison he'll get shanked. But of course, it wouldn't be a Daredevil story if Matt makes all the smartest choices instead of the most angsty one. 

The Kingpin, meanwhile, is having a lot of his plans crumble. Protesters outside, Mr. Charles making deals to replace the unstable mayor, and of course Vanessa's death. This ultimately culminates in a confrontation between Daredevil and Kingpin, and the choreography is pretty great as far as these things go, with a nice mix of Daredevil's agility compared to Kingpin's brute strength.

This fight takes place partially in front of the Rabbit in the Snowstorm painting, with blood splattering on the painting and Kingpin throwing Daredevil through the painting at one point. There's a great brief shot of Kingpin looking up at the painting with melancholy for a brief moment, before continuing with the fight, a nice showcase of just how much grief-driven and rage-driven he is now after Vanessa's death. 

Daredevil also comes with a rather unconventional request to Kingpin, that they... that they just stop and both leave New York after everyone else that they have both lost. 

Of course, Kingpin isn't in a listening mood, and actively mocks Daredevil for his unwillingness to do the difficult choices (i.e. kill him), mirroring what Karen mentioned earlier to Bullseye. Daredevil may have won the fight, but as Kingpin points out -- Daredevil can't arrest Kingpin, and would not kill Kingpin, so how is he going to stop him? That's an interesting thing to end the confrontation on. 

There are some side-plots, the most interesting and the one spotlighted by a lot of media being Jessica Jones's big return... which amounts to a great introduction and a bit of a sidequest before she disappears from the episode. That was a bit annoying. Them also slapping Jessica with a bit of a 'her superpowers disappear every now and then because reasons' is also quite lazy and out of nowhere, and while I appreciate that they want to keep down the 'street' level mentality of this show, Jessica's super-strength isn't exactly that big of a game-changer. We did get to see her brutalize the men sent to harass her -- and a cameo by Danielle Cage (that's Dani, right?) and the brief hints that the government has been trying to get her and presumably Luke to work under them. 

It really would've been much better to slot this a bit earlier in the season when it's not so hectic, is what I'm saying. 

Karen, Angela and Soledad also later end up showing up at an anti-Kingpin protest. Among the AVTF, there's a bit of a conflict as Powell figures out that Saunders is the agent that helped out Daredevil a couple of while back. As the conflict escalates, Powell shoots Saunders (much to the horror of Cole, the dude that was retconned to not have died and hasn't done much since then) and uses his death as an excuse to go weapons-free against the protesters. The episode's cliffhanger is him holding Karen at gunpoint. 

Blake and BB's plot goes into a bit of an overdrive, as much as I can get excited about these side-characters. Again, performances are great (especially Blake) but I can't really say that I care since they've really been mostly removed from Kingpin now -- it's just Buck that's dealing with them. They finally confront each other about the spying, and grown to care about each other a bit too much. 

There's also a bizarre subplot of Heather hallucinating Muse and trying to strangle Buck. I... I don't care about Heather, honestly; I'm assuming that this season is going to end with Heather embracing the Muse mask and while it's obvious, Heather's kind of just there. Oh, and the Governor seems to be intent on putting Sheila as the replacement for Kingpin, which is... okay, neat. 

Again, the focus on Matt, Wilson, and to a lesser extent Karen and Bullseye does really make this episode a lot more exciting than the first half of this season for sure, and the huge confrontation is most certainly welcome. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• 
  Danielle Cage, the daughter of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, make an appearance in this episode. While this episode tries to drag out the mystery, it's rather obvious for those aware of Danielle in the comics.
• Jessica notes that the government has been recruiting superhumans for black ops, something that we see in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Thunderbolts*. 
• With this reference highly implied to be Luke Cage, it would fit since Luke worked for the government leading one of the incarnations of the Thunderbolts at one point; as well as being part of Nick Fury's Secret War (which had Nick Fury send superheroes as black ops agents to different countries). 
  
• Mitchell Ellison, who's listed in BB Urich's phone, is Ben Urich's boss in Daredevil season 1; and made sporadic appearances throughout season 2 and 3.  
• Kingpin punching through a brick wall, then reacting in pain, was previously done in the MCU in Daredevil season 3 during the Bullseye fight. 
• The slow-motion shot of Daredevil kneeing Fisk in the face after restraining him with the billy clubs is a reference to the Inhyuk Lee cover of Devil's Reign #1. 

Daredevil: Born Again S02E05 Review: The King's Tears

Daredevil, Born Again, Season 2, Episode 5: Grand Design

This is a great episode. 

Part of it is due to the obvious 'nostalgia bait' of the original Netflix Daredevil cast returning in a flashback, and we get Foggy Nelson and (unexpectedly) James Wesley back. I recognize the obvious fanservice for what it is, but it also works a lot in context of this episode. 

The episode goes around different characters and different time periods, but let's go through them one at a time, since technically not a whole ton happened. In the present day stuff, Vanessa becomes lucid for a while before dying; Matt and Dex evade the AVTF; while Buck and Blake have a bit of a mafia moment. But the way the present-day stories tied to each other and to the flashbacks really did work in making this a really good character focus for our characters. 

Vincent D'Onofrio is one of the best castings that elevated Kingpin so much during the original run of Daredevil and all of his subsequent appearances (by and far being the strongest actor in Hawkeye and Echo as well) and the present-day scenes with him babbling with joy at Vanessa's brief moment of lucidity, his rage at the nurse, and his utter distraught expression at the end of the episode is amazingly acted. You really do feel sorry for Wilson Fisk -- regardless of the handling of Vanessa's writing in this season, the show has been quite consistent at portraying Wilson's love and care for Vanessa. 

And for a moment, it does seem that Vanessa's back -- a little changed, a little loopy -- but she's back and I would like to highlight, again, how amazing that performance is as Wilson Fisk drops all of his mask and just asks what he can do for Vanessa. All of that disappears by the end of the episode, of course, as Vanessa eventually succumbs to her wounds. 

On the flashback side of things, we get to see a bit of a reinterpretation of Vanessa's original meeting with Wilson. Vanessa's meeting with Wilson was a combination of both characters' ruthless pragmatism as well as their own longing in life. There is always something about that painting that strikes both of their hearts, and Vanessa even mentions to her old boss that this painting will 'speak' to someone. But they're both ruthless businessmen as well, with this episode having Vanessa reveal that... yes, she likes that art piece but she also ripped off Wilson a whole ton for it. Meanwhile Wilson also does like the art, but went there to diversify and move money into different forms under James Wesley's suggestions. That's neat.

In a way, too, this helps to reconcile the sometimes-inconsistent portrayal of Vanessa over Daredevil and Born Again, incorporating how Vanessa could be the 'normal person in Wilson's life' as well as the more ruthless 'co-conspirator' she would be portrayed as under different writers. 

Meanwhile, Daredevil and Bullseye are running around town, avoiding the AVTF members. Bullseye continues to rant about how he's just balancing the scales, and I think stops short of telling Daredevil that Vanessa deserved it for ordering the hit on Foggy... but Daredevil cuts him off there -- he's not willing to justify Vanessa's death as anything but murder, and notes that it's the same reason why he's trying so hard to save the murderer of his best friend. Whether it's to make up for the past crimes of seriously attempting to kill Bullseye last season, or Matt's own way to balance the scales, it's a neat enough nod to the character's mindset. 

Of course, not everyone agrees with Matt -- least of all Karen, who is less than impressed that Matt brought Foggy's killer to their base. 

Foggy himself appears very prominently in Matt's side of this episode's flashback. The two burgeoning 'avocados at law' get to muck around as young lawyers with huge ambitions. Ah, we were all there, once. Their client, this time, is Lionel -- an asshole that used to bully Foggy. Lionel is scared shitless about going to prison, noting that the mysterious organization that he crossed will have him killed within 24 hours. There was an argument between Matt and Foggy later on, where Matt argues that Lionel is a drug dealer and deserves the punishment... but Foggy counters by listing the fact that Lionel was screwed by the system; and more importantly, now that they know the punishment won't be fair, that knowledge precludes them to ask. 

Again, the ethics of this argument could be debated over and over, but ultimately Foggy takes things into his own hands. Taking the money out of the pile that he and Matt have been saving up to open their own firm, Foggy gives Lionel a second chance to get out and do something with his life. 

(This happens right at the same time that Kingpin and Wesley send their hitman Buck Cashman, who's retconned to be one of Kingpin's enforcers and a nice little tie-in for one of the many side-characters introduced last season.)

But more importantly, Foggy's optimism -- regardless of whether you agree with it or not -- is something that's clearly struck a chord in Matt as he interacts with Bullseye. Even if Bullseye did kill Foggy. It's an interesting decision for the show to explore this storyline, and while I'm not fully convinced that it will be wrapped up in a manner that satisfies everyone, it does help to bring a wrinkle and some explanation as to why Daredevil isn't beating up Bullseye and leaving him for dead. 

Meanwhile, in the C-plot, Daniel Blake gets confronted by BB Urich and under the price of a hug, ends up blabbing about Vanessa's condition to her. It's... it's a bit silly and after episode 3, Blake surely realizes fully that the (very dangerous) leak is BB, isn't he? But he dose so anyway, and BB leaks it to the media. Buck comes in and we get a bit of a tense sequence where he makes it appear as if he's going to take Blake out to a forest and shoot him; but instead gets him to help dispose of another body. The tension is palpable, and well-done, even if I don't really care about Blake all that much as a character the acting between the two characters are excellent.

Still, the highlight of the episode is still Kingpin and D'Onofrio's acting throughout scenes both past and present. Curious to see how this will develop as Born Again's second season zooms to its final three episodes. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The events of the flashbacks all lead to Wilson and Vanessa's initial meeting in 'Rabbit in a Snowstorm'.
• James "Owl" Wesley makes a surprising return in the flashback, having only been seen as a major supporting character in Daredevil season 1, where he was killed. In addition, the status quo of how the criminals describe the Kingpin in hushed tones, almost as like an urban legend, fits with the pre-Daredevil-season-1 status quo as well where Kingpin works through a lot of intermediaries.
• The specific word Daredevil uses for someone who can help, 'nurse', is a clear reference to Claire Temple, a.k.a. Night Nurse. 
• Bullseye lampshades that he should have died after being thrown off the roof by Matt. Daredevil season 3 did end with Bullseye receiving an operation that gave him a version of his comic-book counterpart's adamantium skeleton (changed to 'cogmium'), but I'm not sure if Bullseye even knew about this. 

Daredevil: Born Again S02E04 Review: Boxing Match of the Century

Daredevil, Born Again, Season 2, Episode 4: Gloves Off

At the rough mid-way point of Born Again's second season, we finally get a confrontation between the lead characters. And it's... it's a bit sad, really, that it took so long to reach this point. The show has been spinning its wheels so much with less interesting characters and I'm continually surprised to be reminded that each of these episodes are 50 minutes long. 

But after being awkwardly set up and disappearing, we start off this episode with a fantastic Bullseye killing spree of Taskforce minions in a diner. Love that whole sequence as Bullseye sits down to order a milkshake, fools the Taskforce into coming, and then just uses cutlery and at one point a lobster claw to brutally take down the goons. Still not sure about how 'look so realistic' his balaclava supervillain outfit looks, but I love this interpretation of Bullseye's craziness. MCU's take on Bullseye changes him from being a psychopath who kills 'just because' into someone who sees a warped version of the world due to a combination of trauma, psychological disorders and evil people pushing him in different directions. He's still undoubtedly not sympathetic, but it does make him so much more interesting than a lot of other villains I've seen lately in superhero TV. 

The minor sequence of Bullseye going through his daily life also pays off rather well. Matt goes on his own investigation, tracking down the very specific coin back to his church (which was the random scene in episode 2) and detectives his way to where Bullseye is hiding. And despite the showcase of 'Tom' bonding and being nice to the old neighbour with the cat, Bullseye doesn't hesitate to hold her hostage with a gun while yelling stuff about how he's "the hero" and how he's going to balance the scales of Foggy's death with "one good deed". 

This is a very cool reorientation of Bullseye and a proper spotlight for him not dissimilar to the one Punisher received around the mid-way point of Born Again's first season. The wacky props like lobster claws, lunch trays and Walkman CD's being used in the fights that Bullseye does against his opponents makes it extra fun. 

Meanwhile, the Kingpin takes literal center stage as he sets up a trap for Bullseye that he can't resist by making a huge boxing match. We get some buildup to this and a nice sequence of brutality as Kingpin beats up his opponent (who's just some random guy) while the crowd cheers around him. It's a nice little setpiece. And after spending so much of this season just either sitting around giving orders or trading barbs with Mr. Charles, it feels like a nice release for Kingpin as well as he's allowed to indulge in some physical brutality. 

Oh, and Mr. Charles finally makes a reappearance after the first episode, doing another confrontation of Kingpin over the whole smuggling business. Charles tries to make Kingpin feel small by noting what a tiny part of the world he's controlling, but Kingpin refuses to be intimidated and his main goon Buck Cashman murders Mr. Charles's two bodyguards before Kingpin walks out of the meeting. That was cool as well. 

But the boxing match is, of course, the main highlight. Kingpin tries to send away Vanessa for her safety, but Vanessa refuses. I... I would've really loved this more if the previous two episodes actually highlighted Vanessa and Wilson's relationship a lot more. Instead, she gets a nightmare and tries to ship two minor characters together and just feels so unfocused. Really, instead of Angela, BB or Blake, you'd think that Vanessa Fisk should've gotten the spotlight episode early on in the season -- especially considering what happens at the end of this episode. 

Vanessa's unexpected arrival in the boxing match triggers a fervour in Kingpin as he accelerates his brutality over his boxing opponent, but also a panic as he's expecting Bullseye to arrive. Vanessa does have a bit of a motive discussion in this episode, talking about how she wants to be Wilson's partner, and manages to talk down the Governor in a short scene. It's a nice rereailment after last episode focuses way too long on their marriage counseling, but it also comes at a bit too little, too late. 

That said, Bullseye's attack on the boxing match is fantastic. The fight between Bullseye and the Taskforce as he launches stuff into the crowd, and when Daredevil comes intent on... saving everyone? Vanessa and Fisk both have their moments of pulling out a gun at Bullseye. But ultimately, Bullseye throws one of those tacky glass souvenirs, and despite Kingpin blocking it, the glass item shatters and a huge piece pierces Vanessa's temple. Daredevil and Bullseye manage to escape with the AVTF in hot pursuit, but Kingpin is left at the end of the episode cradling a bleeding, dying Vanessa. 

(The show did spare Cherry for seemingly no reason, but Vanessa's death looked pretty final -- and, all right, I did take a peek to see if it sticks)

It's definitely a massive escalation and a surprising one, and a great one because I actually care a lot more about the Daredevil/Kingpin/Bullseye conflict. I do feel that there are some weaknesses here, of course -- Vanessa's lack of buildup, and maybe we could've had more scenes devoted to Matt's struggle on his stance about killing/sparing Bullseye and/or Kingpin. But that was pretty great to look at. 

Other stuff happen in the background of this episode, too, which I felt are the right amount of times to be dedicated to a lot of these more minor characters instead of the meandering we've gotten in the first 3 episodes. Kirsten gets her office harassed by AVTF goons, and the frustration leads her to accept Karen's offer to help Christofi. Blake and BB are present but aren't taking up precious screentime. Jack Duquesne/Swordsman exits the resistance after handwaving and giving some resources to Matt and Karen, so there's one less character to look out for. Angela is intent on sticking around and being the new White Tiger. Angela helps to smuggle some plot devices around to BB. Buck is sent away by Kingpin on a mission to kill Christofi, plugging up that loose thread. 

There's a world where any of these less interesting storylines are given entire episodes on their own to develop, but I am happy that they're all sped-run in the background here. It does really help to add to the chaos of everything that's going on in the boxing match for sure. 

But of course, the main spotlight of this show is the confrontation between the three primary movers of the show. It's a nice breath of refreshing air after the show twiddled its thumbs so much in the first couple of episodes. With some plot threads resolved and some slammed shut, I look forward to what the second half of the season has to offer. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Just like Bullseye's spotlight episode in season 3 of the original Daredevil show, this episode opens with a sequence of Dex going through his morning routine. 
• Fogwell's gym being associated with Matt's dad is brought up.
• The shot of Vanessa falling mirrors the shot of her being poisoned (less brutally) in Daredevil season 1. In this episode, Vanessa also makes a fuss about being 'sent away' for her own protection, similar to season 1. 
  
• Vanessa Fisk does die in the comics, but died due to terminal illness (and after launching a villainous scheme of her own against Daredevil), and in a much more hostile relationship against Wilson.

Daredevil: Born Again S02E03 Review: Trial of the Swordsman

Daredevil, Born Again, Season 2, Episode 3: The Scales & the Sword

Yeah, this feels like it probably should've been the big bombastic moment at the end of the premiere of the season, or at least the second episode. After a fair amount of meandering, "The Scales and the Sword" kind of... goes through with the Jack Duquesne trial. And while I do appreciate Duquesne's actor hamming it up with his commentary of the sequence, it just feels... quite one-sided. Which I suppose is the whole point of the kangaroo trial, but considering how long it took us to get here, it really did feel like we could've gotten here in a lot faster. The other Daredevil seasons do take their time with the trials, but they actually took the effort to go through some attempt at making up defenses and discuss legal strategies. Which I don't pretend to understand... but if the narrative for this season calls for a sham, kangaroo trial that the lawyer doesn't have time to prepare for, why not just rush through this trial and get it over with in the first episode? 

There is some nice bits with Kirsten as she tries her best to help Duquesne in a trial that's clearly rigged against her. She gets to call out Heather early on in the episode, but otherwise her blindfolded journey through the AVTF prison just serves to let Daredevil 'work with' the descriptions and get into the prison to stage the jailbreak. I'm... I'm not convinced that Kirsten is sensitive enough to provide Daredevil with all the descriptions, but sure. (This episode is also particularly clunky with exposition. Matt and Karen wants to destroy the weapons in Red Hook... but Matt interrogates Kirsten about Duquesne. So Matt infiltrates the evil base seemingly to rescue Duquesne... but then Matt and Karen later act as if freeing the prisoners was an unexpected development?)

The actual jailbreak is entertaining, with Daredevil being joined with Jack "Swordsman" Duquesne as they beat up AVTF agents and make liberal use of baton weapons, but even for a superhero show, it is rather odd that there's only so few prisoners of the AVTF raids. Enough to pile into a car. Sure, maybe Matt didn't free everyone, but considering only Daredevil and Swordsman had the vigilante abilities to fight back against trained, armed soldiers, it feels like we're stretching the credibility a bit. 

Angela del Toro and her White Tiger amulet also show up randomly (and unexplainedly) with a vague 'I can help', apparently having done stuff offscreen? Karen lets her, and while she gets to free her aunt and slash some tires, it feels shoehorned -- either show us the new White Tiger actually be a badass fledgling vigilante, or keep her elsewhere. Her inclusion just felt odd. 

I did like the callback to the Mr. Charles discussion with Kingpin in the first episode, however, where Kingpin gets the 'foreign workers' on the Northern Star and then orders the ship to be blown up, killing all the witnesses and pinning the crime on the evil vigilante Daredevil. That was neat. If only it happened in closer proximity to the foreshadowing. (Where is Mr. Charles, by the way?)

On the villain side... we see a lot more meandering, really. Vanessa just feels airy, and she feels so off compared to the more intelligent and ruthless character we're more used to. Even if she's paranoid or scared, she's not really showing it. Heather continues to be an asshole, but she gets to trade barbs with Kirsten instead so I suppose that's a bit different? Buck gets to go through a discussion of Kingpin's little 'kingdom', which I felt, again, would've worked a bit better earlier on before we've spent two episodes in the season giving so much focus on Blake. Vanessa's also... shipping Buck and Heather? Which feels so random and unnecessary, and feels like not something she'd think about considering the whole Bullseye situation. 

Blake continues to a bit more focus, this time trying to look for blackmail information on the Mayor (who I think is a new character) that's coming down hard on the legalities of the Northern Star's sinking. Again... not very interesting. BB Urich goes live with another TikTok meme-wacky Fisk parody, which has to count at self-indulgent at this point. 

The Punisher is noted to be absent in the show, and... and I really don't understand why. I get that he has his own mini-movie or whatever planned, but to just handwave him aside without at least a cameo? Karen, for a moment, seems like she's entertaining filling Frank Castle's role in the series -- which would be a neat development that wouldn't even be out-of-character for her -- but we just don't get much development, again, from either of these characters. 

I'm not sure if Officer Saunders is going to be relevant as one of the few anti-Powell, anti-Kingpin members in the task force, but I've already complained a bit about the side-character overload. Bit of a shame. Born Again's first season did a great job focusing on different characters and themes, but this one just seems intent on jumping around and dragging its characters all over. (No Bullseye either in this episode, disappearing just as he gets a bit of focus.)

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner: 

• Matt and Karen's interrogation of Taskforce Officer Saunders has callbacks to previous interrogation scenes in the Daredevil show -- the 'unhappy man' threat is a callback to season 1, episode 2; Karen and Daredevil doing an interrogation aided with Daredevil's lie-detection powers is a callback to season 3, episode 6. (Thanks, internet!)
• Angela del Toro, of course, succeeded her uncle Hector in the comics as well as the second White Tiger. Comics!Angela was a lot older than her MCU version, though. 

Daredevil: Born Again S02E02 Review: Bull's Eye

Daredevil: Born Again, Season 2, Episode 2: Shoot the Moon

I thought the episode opened up in a rather splendid fashion, ratcheting up a fair bit of tension. Bullseye is back and we get to see him be a wildcard in-between Kingpin and his taskforce; as well as Matt's 'resistance' allies. What seemed to be another taskforce-vs-good-cops standoff regarding the hospitalized Cherry ends up being unexpectedly brutal as Bullseye does that cool elevator moment, complete with an actual (sadly overmodernized) supervillain suit.

On the other side, Kingpin pushing up the hunt for Daredevil while also making a brilliant manhunt for Matt Murdock -- framing him as a poor blind hero who is a victim of Daredevil and someone that he wants found due to saving his life in the previous season -- was also fantastic. We... don't really get any of these cool threads followed up in the second half of the episode, which just kind of meanders around with the side characters until we land at the requisite fight scene. 

Some of these are entertaining, of course. Vanessa Fisk (and Wilson too, to a lesser degree) having paranoia about Bullseye and having conversations about legacy and escaping New York is nice. The action scene at the end of the episode is neat, too. The AVTF try and arrest Josie, leading to Daredevil fighting them as they breach the bar and find out Matt and Karen's little hidey-hole. I do like the close-quarters combat of Daredevil ziplining and beating up the two AVTF members that entered all the way to the basement, particularly the bit where he jumpscares the taskforce members with the gun (that he wasn't going to use). This action scene leads to the cliffhanger of the episode showing that Karen actually subdued a task force member for interrogation. 

But I must admit that the secondary cast really isn't the most exciting part of the episode, and more importantly it really does take away from Matt, Karen and Kingpin. Again... not all of them are interesting. 

Angela del Toro, the niece of the late White Tiger, ends up being caught smack dab when AVTF members come in and arrest some thieves, the store owner that pulled a gun on them, and Angela's aunt for 'assaulting an officer'. The unfairness and the power abuse is clearly shown well, and it's a nice contrast to the word-on-the-street interviews with random civilians who talk about how good the Fisk regime is to New York. This leads to Angela going off to Kirsten and finding her uncle's superhero amulet, which presumably will lead to White Tiger II in the upcoming episodes. That's neat, I guess, if I didn't feel that the show has too many characters, many of whom are struggling for airtime. 

Blake gets into a confrontation with Kingpin, and manages to weasel his way out of suffering the same fate as the overeager boxing coach in the episode's earlier scenes. His fooling around with BB has caused a data leak and Kingpin is really not liking it. The confrontation between BB and Blake is very muted and I must confess I don't find either character particularly engaging. The reveal that BB is also producing the 'fake Kingpin parody' propaganda isn't a huge surprise, either. 

Both Blake and Sheila (who's kind of protecting Blake? Sort of?) get implicit warnings from Fisk, who shows off the reports of Gallo's unfortunate death. I do find Sheila to be a fair bit more engaging and I like that she's kind of protecting the overeager puppy that is Blake... but again, all of this is coming at the expense of potentially more interesting storylines. 

The titular 'shoot the moon' comes from Taskforce goon Powell, who gets a couple of scenes establishing how much he hates vigilantes (and hates them even more after Bullseye kills two of his men that were clearly trying to arrest/murder/brutalize Cherry). We also get Cole from Born Again season one, who inexplicably survived Matt's apartment blowing up to kingdom come with some scars. Not sure if he's going to be particularly relevant. 

Meanwhile, up until the end of the episode, Matt and Karen kind of just do some vague investigating that doesn't really add up to much. Karen's frustrated that they can't do more (hence her capturing a Taskforce member at the end of the episode) and... Kingpin prepares for a gala and they're paranoid because of Bullseye, but nothing really happens in this episode. 

(It also doesn't help that most of the other side-characters spotlighted last episode -- Duquesne, Heather, Mr. Charles, the missing sailor Christofi -- essentially disappear in this one)

Again, I get the need of a setup episode, but considering how Daredevil: Born Again's greatest strength has been in Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk (and sometimes Karen) even as it builds a world around the two main characters. Honestly, it is quite baffling that we haven't really given either of the leads any particular huge moments or character spotlights two episodes into the second season. I wouldn't have minded if Karen, Bullseye or Vanessa had been given the spotlight to build them up a bit, but the focus has been so scattershot and it's even harder when I sit down and have to review the episodes and I have to sit down and really think about what has happened in the episode that's notable. Still enjoying myself, but I'm waiting for something actually interesting to happen. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Bullseye looks for Sister Maggie, who was last seen in Daredevil's third season before the channel hop from Netflix to Disney+. Maggie's on a sabbatical to Rome, apparently. 
• Kingpin in His Gym is a trope named after Kingpin's comic-book incarnation, and this is certainly a demonstration of the trope as Kingpin trains in boxing and ends up maiming his coach.