Gotham S03E04 Review: Mayor Cobblepot

Gotham, Season 3, Episode 4: New Day Rising

We wrap up last episode's Mad Hatter arc, which ended with Alice accidentally being killed during the shoot-out that ensured between Mad Hatter's his army of Tweedles and the Gordon-Bullock team. The big plot of the episode is Gordon trying to shake off the constant suicidal drives that Mad Hatter had awakened within him, all the while Mad Hatter has hired an army of Tweedledee/Tweedledum wrestler dudes to help bust his sister out. And, yeah, the incest subtext is all but confirmed here.

There's a bit of an exhaustive moment with Gordon and Leslie, where old wounds get dug up, but I suppose it went as well as it could've, and Gordon ends up closing that particular book by attempting to move on. But I did like how the show at least addressed the character change that Gordon's struggling with, and how Barnes, Bullock and Leslie all take different approaches to try and shake Gordon out of his borderline suicidal emo funk. It's okay for what it did. 

The B-plots had Cobblepot become mayor! Butch tries to bribe everyone, while Nygma wants to help Cobblepot see what he truly wants -- to become mayor and be accepted by the people of Gotham honestly, instead of hedging his bets with bribes and not really knowing how it turned out. It's a sweet moment for both Cobblepot and you cheer for the dude when he wins. It's a very fun little villain relationship, and I liked it. I don't know what else to say about it, to be honest -- a lot of this episode felt like that. Things happen, they aren't bad, but they just happen. 

The Clone Wars is just exhausting, though, mostly because I don't care. Selina figures out that Five isn't really Bruce because of the super-strength and because he knows very little, and some nonsense about a kiss and about finding his own place in the world. Bruce and Alfred catches up, and Five says some banality before going off... but, of course, it's not the end of Evil Bruce Wayne because he gets captured by Catherine of the Court of Owls. Ugh. I don't particularly care for this part of the plot. 

Oh, and Barnes gets hit by Alice's blood. Well, here's hoping Barnes gets to be more relevant other than being the authoritative figure that argues with Gordon and gets shown up because plot armour. It's a dumb development -- simple normal blood in a crime scene usually gets quarantined and cleaned up quickly, and this is like, zombie plague blood or whatever. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Dumfree and Deever Tweed are known as the villains Tweedledum and Tweedledee in the comics, though here the Tweeds are expanded to have five members. Tweedledum and Tweedledee are, of course, two of Mad Hatter's most common henchmen and have been recurring characters throughout Batman's lore. 

Agents of SHIELD S04E03 Review: Hate Crime

Agents of SHIELD, Season 4, Episode 3: Uprising

We take a break from the ghostbusters plotline to go back to some Inhuman plotting, in a way that feels like an organic extension of season three's development whilst not retreading the same ground. At the end of the episode, SHIELD reveals itself to the world as being up and running, and we get to see yet another Politically Powerful Enemy, one Senator Nadeer, who is determined to paint the Inhumans as monsters hiding within us to murder all normal humans, because her... husband? Brother? Died in a failed terrigenesis process.

The plot is simple enough, a group (later revealed to be the Watchdogs, a group that Quake's hunting for the past two episodes) uses a super-powerful EMP pulse to shut down cities, pretending to be the Inhuman Resistance fighting back against the humans government and making threats, while actually sending their people to kill the actual Inhumans, who aren't doing anything wrong. Jeffrey sends in Coulson, Fitz and Mack into one of these blackout zones, and they had to improvise in taking down the Watchdogs and reversing the blackouts. With Yo-Yo's help, it's a laughable task where we get a combination of Flash and Batman with the scenes flashing back and forth from total blackness to the aftermaths of Yo-Yo's zooming in and out. It all ties in nicely with Jeffrey revealing to the world that SHIELD is back and it's one of the good guys now. 

We get some much, much-needed screentime with Yo-Yo that shows her socializing with her friends and complaining about high heels and whatnot, trapped in ground zero while the Watchdogs arrive to murder her. SHIELD shows up for some much-needed backup, but her good friend that joked with her throughout the opening scene is terrified to death of Yo-Yo. Mack also has some beef with Yo-Yo, though it's less about her being an Inhuman and more of her betrayal of SHIELD and his trust. And Gabe Reyes' reaction to Quake and telling her that she's 'bad people' show that, yeah, SHIELD may have won this battle, but the damage is done -- people distrust the Inhumans. If not for their power, for the preconception that associating oneself with them is not a good thing.

Quake and Ghost Rider, meanwhile, continue their B-plot investigation regarding the Momentum Energy Lab, though they make a pit stop to save Gabe from a bunch of jackass thugs who want to steal Gabe's wheelchair. Because there's a special kind of dickery that does that. It is a pretty awesome scene that focuses more on fisticuffs than earthquake shockwaves and hellfire chains, but it's still awesome. Gabe witnesses Quake using her power, and puts two and two together. And while Ghost Rider goes off to get some supplies, we get the confrontation above. Quake leaves for the moment, though I'm sure it won't be a permanent thing. Robbie is an interesting character, and as someone who isn't familiar with this version of Ghost Rider, it's nice to peel back the layers behind Robbie Reyes, the man who is bound to the spirit of vengeance, who wants nothing more to do with it and be free of "it", as Robbie keeps calling the Ghost Rider.

We get a lead because Robbie's uncle is jailed in prison, and previously worked in Momentum Energy Lab. Robbie is convinced that his uncle is innocent, and Robbie is of the opinion that if he can clear his uncle's name, get vengeance for his uncle, he will be free of "it". This particular plotline is the most divorced of the whole blackout thing, beyond the setting and the association of Gabe's dislike of Quake. Though, to be fair, Gabe thinks Robbie's nightly activities are like drug dealing or illegal racing, so.

Meanwhile, May, who's seeing everyone dying around him, is about to die in 24 hours. Simmons and Coulson are livid at being kept in the dark, but Jeffrey quickly shows up and tells Coulson everything he wants to know... and points out that Coulson is so irrational about his little family-team that he would disobey orders to get there, leaving him unavailable for a crisis if it strikes. And it did! I... really like Jeffrey, actually. He's nowhere as unlikable as the main cast makes him out to be, he's just not as gung-ho as Coulson, but he's completely reasonable and just wants what is best for the team. Coulson grudgingly goes off to save the world, while Simmons teams up with dr. Radcliffe to help May. We get a fun moment with a version of Tony Stark's super-awesome hand-wavy hologram where Radcliffe and Simmons discover that May's brain is being hyper-stimulated with fear and causing her body's adrenaline to be produced non-stop, eventually causing death.

Radcliffe's idea is to force a 'hard reset' by killing May and bringing her back to life, so of course the blackout hits right the second before May is supposed to be jumpstarted back to life. It's a bit of an obvious thing that May's going to return to life, and probably the weakest of the three main plots in this episode, though it does involve Radcliffe talking to AIDA like a daughter or something and apparently taking AIDA's power source to supply the electrical jolts to bring May back to life.

What else is thre to say? The scripting is pretty awesome. From the visceral but not gory descriptions about Quake's bones snapping when she uses her powers, to Fitz's absolute exasperation that Coulson and Mack has no idea of basic rudimentary science like making a compass, to Radcliffe's snarking, to Robbie's well-acted speeches about redemption... it's the kind of script that keeps you engaged in what is arguably a minor filler plot. 

It's a solid episode, with a pretty cool story-weaving that all seamlessly integrate the multiple plotlines that are going on in SHIELD -- Watchdogs, Inhumans, Ghost Rider, SHIELD going public, May being affected by the ghost touch, Radcliffe's robot daughter -- so while it's not spectacular, it's a very well-crafted 40 minutes of superhero television.

Luke Cage S01E13 Review: The Free and the Jailed

Luke Cage, Season 1, Episode 13: You Know My Steez

Yeah we get a small chunk of the episode devoted to little Carl and little Willis learning how to box, about how the two are nice best buddies who got each other's backs, going off to fight some dude that bullied Carl. It came definitely too late in the story to have any real meaningful impact other than a weak attempt at juxtaposition between the punching in the past and the present. There's no real buildup to the relationship that Luke and Willis used to have as children, just Luke saying that "we were buddies as kids". There's no buildup between the tension of Willis being a bastard who's unloved by his biological father. There's just this flashback. And I think that's the biggest problem with Diamondback. Fleshed out properly, he would have been a good villain, a deeply personal one, but here it really felt like we could've squeezed in more exploration about who Diamondback really is as a person beyond the rambling rant to Boone. 

There's a definite feel of trashing the set. We destroyed Harlem's Paradise two episodes ago, and now it's Pops' barbershop that got wrecked. After all the effort that Luke and Bobby went to restore it and get it back to their property, and the obvious meaning that it has for the local residents of Harlem, it's a bit heartbreaking, honestly. Diamondback notes that his Hammer-tech suit makes him an equal with Luke, and, well, Diamondback is just full-on offense and laying down attacks to Luke, who's barely fighting back.

In the chaos, Mariah is actually the most interesting piece of the puzzle. Having lost their folder and leverage over Luke in their hurried escape from two superpowered humans who both hate their guts, Mariah decides to take her own initiative and rescue herself the only way she can. She calls up Thembi, the reporter that roasted her earlier in the season, wanting to spin the story of her arrest in a way that's beneficial to her.

Luke and Diamondback's fight ends up going to the streets, witnessed by a lot of residents of Harlem, among them Lonnie (yay!) and Avengers Bootleg DVD dude, who's videotaping the whole shit. And it's definitely taking cheesiness and corniness to a whole new level. Claire leading the residents of Harlem in chanting Luke's name to show their support for the hero? Heartwarming. The crowd going "oooooooh" at every single punch like it's two kids in a schoolyard? Or the action taking a pause so one of the bystanders can go "man you gonna let that dude talk shit about your mother?" That's annoying. And honestly a bit disappointing, too, since the fight all amounted to just boring ol' fisticuffs. There is a bit where the ESU is ready to shoot Luke with Judas bullets the moment they have a clear shot, but with the crowd nearby that's obviously not going to happen.

The fight ends in a very disappointing way, like this is a Shonen Anime or something. There's some corny "I don't feed it hate" thing where Luke just passively takes the hits, weakening the suit, and then punching Diamondback really hard. Okay, when Diamondback was talking about the wrath of god and shit, he's definitely being metaphorical. And how does a suit even feed on hate? This is Hammer industries body armour, not some mystical enchanted armour imported from Asgard or something.

There's another moment where Luke isn't running anymore and is just staying voluntarily in NYPD, where they explain stuff to the police. It's a bit silly explaining the whole viral 'Luke throws a policeman' scene because the context still doesn't justify Luke throwing the dude a half a block away, but eh. There's a long, long speech about how Luke is a superhero and stuff. And yeah, I get that his big character conflict throughout the season was whether he should be a superhero, but did they need to craft that long of a speech? That said, it's still a lot more awesome than the fight that preceded it, and Luke Cage has the subtlety of a super-strong fist breaking down a brick wall, so I don't really have a problem with this bit.

It's just, y'know, Luke giving a long speech isn't as interesting as Mariah's wonderful, wonderful acting as she delivers a sob story about how she's so scared, about how this Diamond Jack dude threatens her to say that it's Luke Cage to the public. Misty shows off her detective skills, gloating to a suddenly shocked Mariah that, y'know, Misty Knight's Sherlock scans have revealed inconsistencies and rattles out just how Cottonmouth died. They even have a witness to prove it.

But Misty lost her phone during the scuffle (and she only notices now?), which was picked up by Shades, who tricked Candace into going out before Misty is ready for her. And in the middle of Misty's monologue to Mariah, she's interrupted by other policemen that, yeah, they found Candace's body, shot to death by Shades. And Mariah walks off scot-free since a dead person's testimony ain't worth shit, especially since Candace even admitted to taking money from Mariah, while all Misty has to show for her work is a dead civilian she failed to protect, and an admonishment for Priscilla for not trusting the system enough to recruit the NYPD for Candace's protection.

While Mariah walks away free as a lark, though, we get a pretty cool contrast where the hero of the story, Luke Cage, is confronted by the Seagate police right before 'making coffee' with Claire, who gets ready to arrest Carl Lucas. Misty, Claire and Priscilla are very ready to defend Luke, but Luke is done running and lets himself be arrested voluntarily because he's innocent and the truth will come out eventually.

The show's ending is very nicely bittersweet. Mariah, the villain, is free to restore Harlem's Paradise. Luke, the hero, gets arrested for something he didn't do, while Bobby is left to tidy up the wreckage of Pops' barbershop. There is, of course, hope and the promise of vengeance. Bobby found the files left behind by Shades that can prove Luke's innocence, and Claire promises to get the best lawyer (y'know, the blind one) to free Luke. Misty, dressed in a dress that looks like her comic book garb, remain watchful of Mariah and Shades as they celebrate in their throne in Harlem's Paradise. Claire picks up self-defense classes... okay? On the other hand... Burnstein, equipped with the infromation from Reva's drive, has access to Diamondback's unconscious form...

Overall the actual conclusion between Luke and Diamondback is very underwhelming, but the post-battle results are excellent. The surprising downer ending and where all the characters end up are all well done, and while I still think the season's very choppy in its second half, Mariah Dillard is absolutely well done and I would definitely watch the shit of a second season starring her in all her villainous glory. There's also plenty of setup for the Defenders, and with Claire having picked up her ticket to, well, literally the cast of Iron Fist, she's definitely going to be the one to bring together Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and maybe Misty Knight to form the Defenders. That's cool to look forward too, and hopefully that'll have better pacing than this series. 

Luke Cage S01E12 Review: Pimp Stormtrooper

Luke Cage, Season 1, Episode 12: Soliloquy of Chaos

With two episodes left, this really felt like just herding the cast into a final confrontation between Luke Cage and Diamondback while having the Power Man regain the trust and love of the good people of Harlem, which, while not unexpected, felt... lacking of surprises. And honestly, after the whole exchange where Diamondback shoots Luke with a Judas missile, it ends up kind of... well, not being unexciting, of course, because seeing Luke Cage take down armies of gangsters is always fun to watch, but it is getting predictable. Add that to all my previous problems that Diamondback is kind of a boring villain, and the Luke/Willis drama really felt shoehorned in during the final stretch, and the plot just doesn't really get sustained that well.

So the big cliffhanger from last episode where Luke gets arrested gets immediately revoked. Misty pretends to act like Luke's guilty, but Luke himself ends up freeing himself and running away to finish things with Diamondback. One of the cops (who I don't think we've seen before) holds Luke up at gunpoint, but the conversation is one of trust. The media might've been eating up the viral Luke-beats-cops video, but all the good that Luke did throughout the early parts of the season did not go forgotten and this cop 'lost sight' of the chase. I really wished we've seen Luke save this cop before during episodes 5-6, though.

A good sign of how Diamondback is deteriorating as a main villain is how his subordinates are acting. While Kingpin is also guilty of running an organization where several of his allies turn on him, with Kingpin it's a clear showing that Kingpin was truly in a position of power, and the traitors see it as a very dangerous decision to even think of turning their backs on him, and even then only because they think Kingpin's objectivity is compromised. With Diamondback, we've got Mariah and Shades already openly questioning Diamondback and talking shit about his irrational obsession and obstinate decision-making... that's actually a fair bit worse than the emotion-fueled missteps that Cottonmouth makes. Turk isn't afraid of Diamondback, and neither are Domingo and his men. With all the buildup that Diamondback is this super-elite ultra-mysterious dude who's supposed to eclipse Cottonmouth in competence, it again makes me wonder why he's a threat to Harlem.

Then again, the climax seems to just be building up to a more personal confrontation between Diamondback and Luke, so yeah. There's a fun bit where in Shades' absence after his delightful takedown by Claire and Misty, Zip takes over as Diamondback's right-hand man and tries to emulate Shades' style by wearing sunglasses and shit, but gets absolutely shat on by Diamondback randomly choking him half to death. For no real reason at all, beyond saying his own mind and trying to be Shades. Turk Barrett makes an unexpected return and actually shows absolutely no fear at Diamondback, acts as something of an equal partner. It's a bit hilarious that someone that's normally the universe's punching bag like Turk gets a lot more respect than poor Zip. Turk also leaves Zip with the sage advice that he's nothing but Diamondback's bitch.

Domingo's crew, meanwhile, wants to deal with Diamondback in a more permanent fashion and decides to gun for him as an army. It's just a shame that Diamondback has one last weapon that was never, ever foreshadowed before this, what he calls the wrath of god or something... which is a powered suit. That, well, I'm sorry, really could've been done better. I like the touch of the snake-belly-scale-esque inner shirt, but poor Diamondback's look really felt like bad cosplay. It's not quite as bad as Supergirl's Red Tornado (and nothing can be worse that that, I think) but, I dunno, when other shows that air around the same time have special effects on the level of Agents of SHIELD's Ghost Rider, this is just borderline embarrassing.

We just to Priscilla and Misty's attempts to interrogate Shades, who just replies with fifteen different ways to say "lawyer", which is the most hilarious thing imaginable, and another showing of how inefficient the police is. And between Luke and Scarfe's monologues about how working within the system doesn't solve anything when dealing with lawyer-protected people like Shades and Mariah, we're starting to see Misty Knight's staunch duty to the badge start to crumble here and there. Misty has a bit more success talking to Candace, though she elects to hide her with Claire's awesome mom and not trusting the police to be able to protect her from Mariah Dillard's agents. It's a bit obvious, again, that the coincidence that Claire just happens to talk to the one person that can clear Luke's name in terms of murder.

Mariah, meanwhile, is absolutely pissed off that Harlem's Paradise was fucked up all to hell during the fight last episode. She might tell Cottonmouth to sell the club, but she respects the legacy of her family and what the place represents, and I think it's one among many strings that show to her (and the audience) that Diamondback is out of control. Mariah's assistant, Alex, who really deserved a lot more screentime, tells Mariah to rebuild the club as her thing instead of trying to emulate Mama Mabel or Cottonmouth, and Mariah takes it to heart in regards to her role as the villain of the show. I honestly would've liked to see a version of the show where the second half of it had Mariah and Shades as the two main antagonists instead of focusing on the one-note Diamondback, honestly. She's such an interesting character.

Luke's running around Harlem, and he sees a robbery in action. He's pissed off that he has to break cover to do it, but he stops it anyway because he's a hero. And then we get, like, a full four or five minutes of the dude that Luke Cage saved talking on air and rapping and rapping and on and on about Luke Cage and, yeah, I get that. I get that the public might not believe that Luke's evil and killing people, and the argument that he wouldn't have stopped and saved the robbery if he's truly on the run. But did you need to spend so much time on that? The other dude's probably a cameo that's lost on me, so I don't know. I did feel this part to be a bit of a drag, though all the random people in Harlem wearing bullet-riddled black hoodies to help protect their hero is a very awesome bit. Putting aside the logistics of how they exactly got the same brand of hoodie and put bullet holes in it, it's a very cool and short moment that should've been enough without cutting back and forth to some dude rapping in a recording studio about how Luke Cage's the man.

Luke sets up a meeting with Turk, and after a moment where Turk apologizes for feeding Cottonmouth's organization the information since he didn't know there's going to be a shootdown because Pops' barber shop is like Switzerland in all these gang wars. After getting information from Turk, Luke picks the dude up and dumps him in a garbage dumpster and crumples the exit to punish him until morning, which is darkly hilarious as all hell. Turk just can't catch a break, can he?

After the whole lawyer bit, Shades gets freed by, well, Diamondback's lawyers, but he has no idea what's going on. Zip leads Shades up an elevator and it looks for all the world like a setup for Zip to kill Shades. I mean, Shades has been defeated last episode, it would be a karmic death for trying to evade justice with lawyers and whatnot, and his narrative role as the Palpatine to Mariah's Anakin has been filled. But after a moment where Zip really feels like he has Shades bang on rights, Shades manages to struggle and kill all of Zip's buddies in a surprisingly cool moment of competence. Not being able to fight against a dude with bulletproof skin per se, Shades' physical ability hasn't been shown off a lot beyond kicking a wounded Luke in the prison, but this is awesome. Zip claims that he's only running Diamondback's orders, but Shades just shoots Zip dead. Pretty cool moment for Shades, that's for sure.

Mariah, meanwhile, is called by Diamondback, who wants out of the political game. There's a creepy moment when Diamondback reveals that he's already in Mariah's house while calling her, and basically demands her full cooperation in exchange for money to restore her club and give donations, and Diamondback's speeches about being the cold wind that'll occasionally show up in Harlem even after his business with Luke's concluded tells Mariah that, well, Diamondback's never going to let her go. Mariah herself isn't as helpless as Diamondback thought, though. She's sending Alex to shadow where Candace is being kept, and when she meets up with Shades, they decide to recruit Luke Cage with promises of documents about Luke's old life as Carl Lucas, which may very well exonerate the man. They also decide to frame Diamondback as Cottonmouth's murderer, since they're smart enough to know that the lies about Luke Cage being the murderer didn't stick. It's a cool moment where they basically pick the lesser evil. Yes, Luke hates the two of them, but at least Luke isn't an unstable dude trying to kill them or threatening to kill them and quoting bible phrases and twisting them to suit his insane mentality. There's a moment where Shades compares Mariah to Cornell, noting that, yeah, Cottonmouth never had the innate talent to twist events and adapt to them the way Mariah can.

While Diamondback fights an army of angry Puerto Rican gangsters led by Domingo, he only survives by virtue of plot armour. That's a lot of bullets he evaded. He uses his 'wrath' suit, but we (and Luke) only see the aftermath, where only Domingo survives, barely. There's a brief meetup between Luke and Misty, and then all the good guys meet up with Mariah and Shades in 'Switzerland', Pops' shop. There's a bit of a standoff between Misty, who has beef with both Mariah and Shades, but before they can really agree (Luke looks sorely tempted), Diamondback shows up in his armour.

Which Bobby describes, very accurately, as the Pimp Stormtrooper. And as Luke and Diamondback clash, finally physical equals, Bobby Fish shouts out loud angrily at the two rampaging superhumans that he just fixed the shop up, man, couldn't they have taken things outside? I love Bobby. Why isn't he in the show more? But it's overall a bit of a setup for a pretty bog-standard finale between Luke and Diamondback, and it's a definite shame that Mariah wasn't used as the series villain, really.


Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• STAN LEE cameo! Well, a photo of Stan Lee on the side of the shop that was being robbed.

Pokemon Sun & Moon: Arceus Lite, Kung Fu Dragons and Rainbow Goop

Bling Dragon

Oh hey look a new trailer! Pokemon Sun and Moon is coming out next month, holy shit, time flies so much! I really didn't realize that it's so soon. I'm not sure how I'll be covering Sun and Moon in this blog -- my old Let's Plays and Playthroughs generally don't seem to be that popular and it's a bit of a pain in the ass to talk about. We'll see. Maybe I'll just do a couple of posts that cover the plot and gameplay and stuff? Pokemon posts are very popular, and I absolutely love the franchise to death, so I will be talking about it, rest assured.

Now, new stuff! Coro-Coro magazine leaked on Thursday, and a trailer yesterday. We've got a couple of new characters -- who, at this point, I don't really care about. I'll reserve my judgment for them for when I actually meet them in the game. Have to say, though, that the graphics for their kahuna arenas or whatever look fancy as hell.

We get the evolution of Type: Null, which is... Silvally. Which is a very underwhelming name. I expected something more... technical, a name that sounds more like an evolution of an artificial Pokemon called Type: Null. Basically Type: Null breaks his mask when you impress him with the power of FRIENDSHIP and evolves into Silvally, revealing a cat-like sphinx head. Also its fur gets a slightly lighter shade. It's a bit of a small change, but apparently this allows him access to the RKS System ability (Ar-kay-es, y'know, Arceus? Guess we know the proper pronunciation of the name now) that, well, is basically Arceus Lite. He changes type depending on the held item, and he's even got a mini-Judgment move whose type is similar to the type he is at the moment. It's a cool concept, that's for sure. I personally always thought Arceus's gimmick is a bit underwhelming and thus I don't really care that much for Silvally, but I always like it when there's such a huge backstory surrounding a Pokemon. Design-wise it's this pretty neat-looking chimera. Not one of my favourites in Generation VII, but I'm sure he'll grow on me.

Jangmo-o, whose name I will never pronounce right, evolves into Hakamo-o and then into Kommo-o. The two evolutions are Dragon-Fighting, and practically everyone is calling this out as the Pseudo-Legendary. It sure looks the pattern, weak and cute-looking little dragon dude turns into a badass. Kommo-o looks very fancy and maybe the slightest bit overdesigned, but honestly it fits into the whole tribal warrior look they're going for him. The gray/white/yellow paint scheme works very well in highlighting enough details to make him look complex without making him overtly painful to look at. It's this race of dragons that want to protect the world from darkness -- a common theme in both Silvally's bio and Kommo-o's bio -- and a lot of emphasis is put on its powerful scales. A bit strange that it's not Dragon/Steel, which is my guess from what Jangmo-o looks like. It's Dragon/Fighting, which unless my brain is farting, is a brand-new type combination. Not my favourite design, but it looks cool for sure.

Cutiefly evolves into Ribombee, which is a cute little bug fairy. We've seen Ribombee before in previous trailers, but never its name. Cool to see her finally get a name. I find it cute, and a pretty fun addition to the game. I don't have much to say about this evolution line, but I like it! It's important to make feel expansive by having many evolutionary lines and Ribombee definitely is a nice addition. You see, Pokemon, I think, need a balance between four main design types: cool, cute, pretty and weird. And this particular batch certainly has all four, with Kommo'o and Silvally being cool, Ribombee being cute, Tsareena being pretty and Alolan Muk being freakin' weird.

Bounsweet evolves into Steenee and then into Tsareena, who are... okay, I guess? Steenee is adorable, this little cheery girl that's just happy and smiling with fruit-hair, but Tsareena looks weird. The absolutely tiny torso and the huge balloon waist and giant Mega Scizor legs makes it a bit of a strange design, and it just feels like a disproportionate version of Liligant. So I more or less like Bounsweet and Steenee, but Tsareena just looks weird. I think an opportunity is missed by not making it Grass/Fighting... her signature move is a kick! I dunno. Not to impressed with Tsareena, but again I don't really hate her.

Your poop after eating a
rainbow popsicle

And then Alolan Grimer and Muk. Grimer is green with yellow lipstick and two goofy teeth, but Muk is this hardcore thing with spikes and claws all over, and he looks like he's absorbed a rainbow-flavoured popsicle or a paint accident! His artwork just makes him look weird, but in-game? I really like how the colours actually pulsate and melt down his body. It probably wouldn't be how I design an alternate version of Muk, but both Grimer and Muk are Poison-Dark now... and I actually like Muk. I dunno, I think it's his weird claw spike things, and the fact that he looks like an oil spill, a clever (if weird) little design decision. Grimer looks way too goofy for me, though.

Overall, though, this batch is more 'hit' than 'miss' for me, and the existence of more evolutionary lines is a nice little bonus.

Luke Cage S01E11 Review: The People of Harlem vs Luke Cage

Luke Cage, Season 1, Episode 11: Now You're Mine

Well, after the clunkiness of episode 10, this one is a fun and very energetic one, at least. It's just full-on action as we trash the set of Harlem's Paradise, with the good guys and bad guys on a faceoff against each other in the club, with a hostage situation and Diamondback's unhinged insanity and the offscreen threat of Mariah Dillard campaigning the arming of the policemen with her Judas bullets.

And the biggest problem that really keeps this episode and really the second half of this series to reach a really satisfying conflict is Diamondback as the villain. Yes, it is interesting that he's someone with close and personal ties to Luke's mysterious past, but we were introdumped this last episode so it doesn't quite have the same impact of learning about, say, other personal antagonists Elektra or Killgrave over the course of half a season and the entire season respectively. Plus other than his penchant to threaten his subordinates and a real love to quote bible verses and just be crazy, Diamondback really doesn't feel like a villain. He would've fit fine as like just an episodic hammy villain if this was a villain-of-the-week style series, but one of the biggest strengths of Daredevil and Jessica Jones are their very powerful and well-crafted villains in Kingpin, Killgrave and Punisher (not so much Nobu). The thing is, Diamondback didn't really feel like that big of a step-up from Cottonmouth, not without anything really, to threaten Luke with. Yeah he's got the Judas missile... which immediately is revealed to have only one shot left. So yeah.

Anyway, I'm harping on a bit too much on why Diamondback is a bit of a one-dimensional entity. Shades (who actually would've been a far better antagonist -- it would make sense if he suddenly revealed himself to be Diamondback, having shown up very early on and actually having an interesting personality) even points out that Diamondback is being irrational, which is quickly shut down with "obey me or I shoot you"... so why does Shades still follow the dude and not just put a bullet hole in his head? Jeez.

Anyway, Diamondback uses the confusion to make up a cover story of Luke Cage holding the club patrons (including Claire) prisoner, while a wounded Misty has her hand tourniqueted by Luke and hidden in a basement that he knows from his days of working as Cottonmouth's dishwasher. Luke quickly gives Misty the cliff-notes version of the whole history between him and Diamondback, so he, Claire and Misty are working together.

Claire gets a very good showing that's simultaneously awesome and still realistic, unlike the cartoonishly Mary Sue "I can do everything science because I'm a nurse" last episode. She quickly gains the trust of Candace, the hostess who gave a false testimony and caused Luke to be suspected for the Cottonmouth murder, and fakes an emergency with her going into diabetic shock, whacks the head of the thug that supervises her as she goes for medical supplies, and meets up with Misty and Luke.

Meanwhile, Boone is captured by Diamondback, who gives no shit about negotiations or whatever. He pours his heart out to Boone in one of the introdumpiest scenes regarding Diamondback, which is basically more of the same old same old. He quote the bible all the time. He want to be noticed by daddy, who only cares for his legitimate son... despite said legitimate son actually being good buddies with him. Diamondback tells Boone about how he and Luke jacked a car one time and how Luke ended up going to the marines while Willis was thrown into jail, nearly killed, and didn't get to meet his mother before she died. And then this long random introdump to Boone, who isn't even a character we've seen more than two short scenes, gets killed by a power glove punch.

Oh, and while all of this is going on, we get the very cool return of ADA Blake Tower, who notes that after the whole Punisher business over in Daredevil, he's trying his hardest to stop super Judas bullets from ending on the street. It's a cool cameo that is very standalone as Tower notes how Mariah is (off-screen) lobbying hard to get the Judas bullets approved.

Everything kind of unravels for the bad guys, as Shades recognizes Candace (who miraculously survives the fight!), while Luke Cage just unleashes all his power as he takes down all the goons in a very cool action scene. Diamondback dumping Boone's corpse causes Priscilla to send in the death squad, while simultaneously Shades tracks down Claire and ends up being taken out in a very cool moment by Claire and Misty. After a brief fight, Diamondback manages to escape with Zip, while Luke Cage gets surrounded by the policemen death squad and gets arrested. Misty begs Priscilla to let him go, but while Priscilla isn't quite General Ross Thunderbolt level of shoot-first-ask-questions-later, she's going to want to take Luke Cage to the police station to testify and itnerrogate.


Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Blake Tower appeared in Daredevil's second season, and references several events that happened in said season, name-dropping Punisher. 

Luke Cage S01E10 Review: Hypercompetent Batman Nurse

Luke Cage, Season 1, Episode 10: Take It Personal

While I don't expect show makers to know the intricacies of dealing with a medical emergency, as someone who works in a medical profession I honestly would appreciate not being so utterly daft that it sounds like the whole medical scene is written by a five-year-old. I mean, yeah, the sci-fi super-elastic-super-tough abalone cells are something that doesn't exist in real life and I can buy the whole weirdness of having to use superheated acid mixed with saline solutions to soften it to undergo the operation. I get that, I mean, this is the superhero genre. But apparently, Claire Temple, who despite being a nurse, somehow knows a lot, lot more about the elasticity of Luke's sci-fi cells that she's only making guesswork about more than the doctor who actually designed the experiment in the first place? And dropping live wires into an acid pool to jump-start someone's heart and saying how it's some "follow your instinct" shit? It's laughably dumb, and the super-confident way that Claire says it makes it look like she's like a bad parody of Batman. She can suddenly do the operation while dr Burnstein only wrings his hand in the background, and apparently two Jericho missiles that explode into a cloud of shrapnel leaves only two or three pieces that can be removed in two minutes with the delicacy of picking up a peanut with a tweezer. I get that Claire is one of the main characters, and putting her in a moment of importance is good for her character development, but this one is just kind of, well, dumb.

Add that to shoehorning Claire as Luke's love interest, which kind of worries me since Claire started off her career as Daredevil's love interest and if comic canon is any indication Luke/Jessica is the official pairing, so if Claire ends up snogging with Iron Fist in his show it'll kind of be an unfortunate bit where Claire just goes from diddling one superhero to the next.

Diamondback, meanwhile meets up with Mariah in a secret hidey-hole and she's been kind of rising in the ranks, though not relatively willingly. There's a bit of a talk on 'black fear' on Diamondback's part, and he's going full in with Mariah's plan to sell guns. And we get this scene of a nice, old policeman called Albini that the show emphasizes is nice by having him go around talking to random people in he street and buying socks for his wife. And Diamondback goes around with a power glove and punches the poor dude in the chest to death. And he walks away with his hood waving his hand in the air shouting "I'm Luke Cage!" It's... something hammy that I'd expect out of a Silver Age comic and would feel right at home if this had a lighter tone like Flash or Agents of SHIELD, but doesn't exactly fit the tone of the show. I laughed my ass off at that scene and love it for its wacky hamminess, but that's probably not the intent of that scene.

There's a bit in the police station where we learn that, yeah, Albini was as nice to his family and the other policemen and it drives everyone angry. Misty tries to defend Luke, but considering that she has absolutely no evidence that Luke is innocent -- and the whole 'Luke throws cops violently' video is honestly a very good reason for the NYPD to distrust Luke at this moment. And we get a bit of chaos and some chilling scenes that probably hit a bit too close to home for American viewers where policemen go around beating up black youngsters demanding to know where Luke Cage is. It's not without bad reason, of course, from the policemen's point of view they're hunting a dangerous superpowered criminal that just killed one of their own... and the show is careful enough to show both white and black policemen doing the brutality. But it's definitely being portrayed as a negative thing, with Mariah being absolutely furious that her precious Harlem is being turned upside down.

The most horrifying scene for any viewer, I think, is the sight of Lonnie, the kid who had several scenes in the first two episodes as the kid that Luke protected from the bullets. He's very awesome since his mom is a lawyer and he knows all his rights, but the one policeman that happens to be interrogating the kid -- who's like eleven years old or some shit -- was very close to Albini, who was his instructor or some shit, and absolutely brutalizes the poor kid. We don't see the deed but we see the aftermath of the kid's bloodied face and it's... well, a scene that gives a bit of a pause and definitely inspires a bit of an outrage.

I definitely understand the kid's mother when she shows up and absolutely flips out at poor chief Priscilla, and threatening to unleash a social media storm that this has to stop. It's such a shame that this is all relegated as a B-plot and used by Mariah to spin public opinion to support her, riling up support to get the policeman to... buy guns that can hunt down Luke Cage. There's a bit of a clunky change from "the policemen are beating up our kids" to "give the policemen super-guns!" And, yeah, Mariah's speech sells it while I'm watching the show -- the lady's played by a great actress -- but now that I'm writing a review it seems an odd direction to take. We get the random inclusion of Boone who at this point of watching the series I even forgot existed.

While all of this is going, Misty has a bit of a more self-centered view that's also looking at the bigger picture at the same time. She's more concerned about who attacked her instead of investigating or hunting down the big Luke Cage, and no one in the force really cares about her other than Priscilla checking in every ten minutes or so to tell her to get off her ass and hunt Luke. She discovers the name Willis Stryker, and discovers Luke Cage's Carl Lucas identity, and confronts Domingo for a bit, and honestly her scenes in this episode really felt like padding.

Luke himself, well, is involved in a bit of a nonsense bit. The Reva/Burnstein bit should've been world-shattering to him, but other than him moping for a bit it doesn't really seem to affect him. After the unexpectedly wacky and very comic book-y acid bath scene, we get this rather long-winded moment of Luke angsting, and the question of whether the goofy and helpful yet mysterious Burnstein could be trusted or not. Luke wants to know about Reva, and we get to see a series of video recordings of Reva profiling Carl Lucas from day one in the prison, and she definitely knows about the fight trials, which is part of the whole criteria for being subjected to the Wolverine experimentation. The fact should be devastating, that Reva's love and her married life with Luke might even be an act... but other than throwing a tantrum and destroying every single thing in Burnstein's lab to stop him from repeating the process, he just doesn't really do much about it.

Oh, and Burnstein still ends up getting the data anyway, so the tantrum ends up being moot. Burnstein only wants to use Luke as this hypothetical fountain of youth and sees him as nothing more than a walking experiment that is successful... but this is all kind of glossed over and I for one wouldn't mind for the Reva-betrayal bit to get explored.

Instead we just get a bit of moping near a beach, with the weird line of "I'm in love with the idea of Reva, not her specifically", and the question of trust issue on why he should trust Claire being more or less "just 'cause". And while all the mess is going on in Harlem... Luke goes on a sightseeing tour to his old church-house? Really? It's a very, very well-done shot of Luke seeing the trashed church house then quickly transform into the old church house, but it felt a bit superfluously unnecessary when Luke could've flashbacked to it near the beach or on the ride back to Harlem. 

The revelation is that, well, Carl's father, the great reverend Lucas, fucked his secretary and created Willis Stryker, the bastard child. And Luke just never really accepted or realized this. And Willis was the reason that Carl was put into Seagate Prison, taking the fall for his old best-friend-slash-bastard-brother, and even now he seems willing to take the blame for it. It's a bit irritating that a huge amount of Luke's screentime is devoted to this instead of the slightly more natural story of angsting about Reva, and the lack of flashback to the existence of an asshole overbearing father or a childhood best friend prior to Diamondback's introduction a couple episodes back. 

Luke (and Misty) end up showing at the big anti-Luke rally... for some reason, and naturally all hell breaks loose. Misty gets shot, and everyone (especially Diamondback's goons) are shooting at Luke Cage. 

It's a very clunky and uneven episode. There's a fair amount of focus on Diamondback, but not on the man himself and what makes him tick. He's still a rather disappointing and one-dimensional antagonist compared to Cottonmouth or Mariah. Misty, Claire and Luke's stories all kind of ground to a halt and are pulled in different directions that aren't as entertaining as their buildup. Misty in particular, despite having a lot of great character development last episode, felt tacked on and unnecessary in this one. So yeah, I dunno. I just didn't really feel this episode, which felt like a way to rush the plot developments of the second arc to a halt to set up the final battle in Harlem's Paradise.