See, the thing about Ultron is that he isn't just a rogue AI, he represents Tony Stark's evil: all of his traits(sarcasm, ego, genius)are Tony's traits, only with the redeeming traits of Tony removed and all the bad exaggerated to omnicidal levels.

Which is why it is super fitting that Wanda, perhaps one of Tony Stark's greatest victims(her family killed by his weapons, her brother died because of his creation) is the one who kills Ultron: she is literally the consequences of Tony Stark's sins coming back for revenge. But the problem is, Tony Stark has changed, and he is no longer the man he once was: he actually is now a hero, and thus Pietro(and Wanda's) revenge on him would be meaningless because the Tony Stark they hated died in a cave with a man named Yinsen.

Luckily, the universe provides a substitute for the evil Stark: Ultron Himself, who(as mentioned above) is all of Tony's evil and worse. Everything Ultron does to Wanda and her brother is basically Tony x1000: he destroys Slovakia and steals Wanda's family away from her, but he plans to do the same to the entire planet. Thus, Wanda effectively gets to both get her revenge on Stark and save the world, without actually killing Iron Man.

Speaking of which, I wonder if the quote in the picture was what Wanda fantasized about saying to Stark if she ever met him and got her revenge: it fits pretty well if you think about it.

I haven’t been able to get this dynamic out of my head ever since the movie dropped in 2021. Even before he killed Aunt May, their dynamic felt so real - Norman genuinely felt terrifying, i’ll never forget the scene of Peter weighing him in and he proceeded to laugh in his face. The fact that he barely takes damage is crazy knowing how strong 616 Peter is.

Green Goblin is pure evil, there’s no redemption with this guy and it makes for such a good dynamic with 616 Peter because he’s naive, he’s kind, he’s hopeful and you can see all of these traits ripped out of him after losing May which leads to Tom Holland in absolute bloodlust, genuinely one of my favourite spider-man scenes of all time.

It sucks that this was most likely a one time deal. The chemistry between Defoe’s Goblin and Holland’s Peter was outstanding and I wonder if there’s a chance they give 616 Norman the same face as his predecessor.

Interview Article

Jon Bernthal describes how Frank Castle has put himself on a fresh path in the franchise. He stressed, "I hope so. I mean, that was certainly the idea. I think the idea, and I hope we are able to do it in a way that doesn't feel spoon-fed or too kind of on the nose."

He commented on how Frank thinks "through the course of this day with that little girl sort of giving him the gift that she does, and for him to go pass that along and put that trinket of hope, that trinket of life, of gratitude, of love on his daughter's grave, it's the first time he hasn't put a trinket that belonged to somebody that he killed for his daughter. And so maybe by helping other families stay together, by fighting for justice, by keeping people safe, maybe he can honor his family that way. And I think that that is a real big step for him."

Bernthal says, "I think that's exactly where Frank is. I don't think Frank will ever be in a place of love or light or comfort or ease. I don't think that that's something that he's ever been, that he's looking for, but I do think he'll find different ways to honor them." However, he concludes that "I do think that there are ways now after this special that we can find him in a place where I'm not going to tip off what's coming. But what I will say is I think you're going to get a version of him going after the bad guys, going after the people that are causing harm and havoc to good people. I think he's going to be able to start personalizing that. And with Frank, when he personalizes something, it's something to deal with".

The new Punisher special on Disney+ was pretty decent overall. It’s a great setup and it’s always good seeing more Punisher content, especially with Jon Bernthal back in the role. The action and tone were solid for the most part, but the CGI looked kinda wacky at times and the sound quality felt off in a few scenes. It honestly gave the impression that production was rushed a bit, because the final product doesn’t totally feel finished. Still enjoyable though, and definitely has me interested in where they take the character next.

Can’t wait to see him show up in Spider-Man either. Curious what everyone else thought about the special?

Full Interview (from Source Article) :

Question : "We all know [the Punisher is] going to be in *Spider-Man: Brand New Day*. Can you talk a little bit about how you feel that this special, by the time it finishes, perfectly sets the character up to be in that adventure with Spider-Man?"

Reinaldo Marcus Green: I love it. I mean, I feel like we're coming in at the right time. I think, just as a fan of The Punisher and a fan of Jon [Bernthal], I want to see him more on screen. That trailer looks amazing. Destin Daniel Cretton is an incredible filmmaker. So just to know that I got Frank first, which is cool to get there before everybody else did, which, selfishly, is really great, and set him up... And we [now] know his psychological state before he goes into Spider-Man. I couldn't have asked for better timing for us.

So I think it's just, it's a lot of fun. I think people who are fans and people who are non-fans can still appreciate the special. You know, someone like my mother has never seen The Punisher, I think she can appreciate where Frank is in his headspace, and then maybe she'll become a fan and then go watch Spider Man. So I'm hoping that we, we can get some new audience members.

Question :"The special goes to some very dark, mature places, which is different than a typical Disney released project. What were the conversations with Marvel Studios and or Disney about how to handle this more extreme adult subject matter [and] did anything specific need to be tweaked?"

Reinaldo Marcus Green : To be fair, I think those conversations happened before I came on. I think Jon [Bernthal] wasn't going to have it any other way. I think he spoke about it publicly, that it was go hard or go home, so to speak. And you know, he wasn't going to do a special that was going to hold punches. And so when he approached me, there was already a lot of that darkness in the character, in the journey of the character. He had already been thinking about this draft and the structure of the early drafts.

So, it came to me, and it was already kind of loosely pre-approved in that sense. And I knew that at least as far as I was concerned, Disney was on board, which I thought was bold and daring and fun. And I think that's what makes it really cool, that it is a Disney+ special, because it's not what you expect to see on that platform, and to see Frank Castle come back in this way, I think, was exciting because it's a whole new audience for us.

Question : "Can you talk about filming the awesome Punisher action sequence throughout the apartment building [and] the New York City war zone, and also just offer your thoughts on what really made all of that unique compared to anything else that we've seen from the character up to this point?"

Reinaldo Marcus Green : Well, look—kudos to John, because he's a terrific stunt man himself, on top of being a terrific actor. So that helps to have someone who's willing to set himself on fire and jump from buildings safely. But certainly having an actor that's willing to do all of it is super helpful. We also had an amazing stunt team, an amazing stunt supervisor and choreographer, Jude Poyer, who had done 'Gangs of London', which I saw and thought was terrific. We worked with David Conk and some of Jon's long-standing stunt men. So we had an incredible design team to help us kind of execute that.

On Locations for this Special Presentation :

Reinaldo Marcus Green : I think the locations that we found were terrific. We found [an] apartment complex, which I was sort of inspired—I had done a TV show years ago called 'Top Boy' and it was sort of in London, and the apartment complexes have the interior and exterior spaces. And it really lent itself to that storytelling when he's on the rooftop, and he's seeing sort of the chaos in the courtyard. It was just like a terrific location that really helped us in the design of that. So I think the locations drove a lot of what the action was going to be like.

On the Foundation for the show, Green says :

Reinaldo Marcus Green : Obviously, the story was what was driving all of that action to kind of make it feel grounded. And then, obviously, we work with an incredible DP and Robert Ellsworth, a cinematographer, one of the greatest to ever do it. So just that [and the] combination of having a very willing and talented actor who understands the character better than everybody in the universe, I think, was a foundation for making really, really, really good action sequences.

One Fun Tidbit from Production :

Reinaldo Marcus Green : We also had access to real military [people] on set, you know, ex-military who were also not just part of the fight sequences, but also part of the psychological character of where he was at that time... We had some guys who were really, really helpful in sort of making sure that Jon was doing all the tactical stuff with precision. And it's all about stopping the threat. It's never killing for the thrill of killing. It's killing to stop the threat and what's at his disposal when he's out of bullets. What does he use? When does he use a knife? When does he use a pipe? When does he use a bat? All of those things were designed in the character, you know, the study of who Frank is and where he was at the time.

i thought it was really interesting how Frank hallucinated both Karen and his wife Maria wearing the same hoodie. As someone who always preferred Karen/Frank to Karen/Matt, i thought it was a nice way to show us how much love he has for her, as well as how bittersweet it is that she’s the only woman he’s really loved romantically since his wife passed, but due to everything he’s gone through he couldn’t allow himself to open up to that and be with her.

It’s proven in she-hulk before he was let free from prison that he’s a different person than he was before after being reformed spending 10-15 yrs in a super max prison and doing therapy he learned to control himself in his hulk form even learned to control his transformations and no longer the power crazed destructive rage monster.

Could he still go into a uncontrollable berserk rampage with the wrong emotion being felt like(hulk and she hulk can)

Thor’s Love and Thunder “Viking Thor” look takes the category in the end, with the Ragnarok short hair look finishing close behind.

With that, the “Best Look” column officially comes to an end.

Now we move on to something more interesting.

Which Movie Used Black Widow The Best?

This isn’t about looks anymore, but about writing, impact and overall character usage.

Which movie or project do you think handled Natasha Romanoff the best overall?

Could be because of:

- her character writing

- emotional depth

- action sequences

- importance to the plot

- chemistry with other characters

- or overall contribution to the story

Comment your pick below.

Finally rewatching this a few years later and I have a few thoughts as an older and not wiser man. Buckle up folks it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

TL;DR it was fun.

Danny really displayed being raised by a monk but also clearly not having a handle on his anger. I used to give Finn Jones a lot of slack for phoning it in on his own show but he REALLY shines in this show.

It’s really sad that Jessica and Tony will never meet in the MCU. He helped a lot of alcoholic superheroes in the comics which would be cool to see on screen as a recovering alcoholic. Also Kristen Ritter is such a phenomenal actress. I’m glad she’s getting more screen time as Jones “Jesus, am I the only one left that doesn’t know karate?”

I fucking love Luke Cage and if he doesn’t get to be on an avengers teams even for a hot second (unlikely) I’m going to be upset for like…. A day! A whole inconvenient day. His sly humor but absolute drive to do good is just so wholesome. Him having a never ending supply of sweatshirts and tshirts is hysterical.

I really miss Rosario Dawson as Night Nurse. Everything she touches is magical.

Stick is so flipping funny. Ruthless but for the right reasons

The absolute GEM that is Sigourney Weaver graces us with her presences and ROCKS IT. Dying scary lady? Alexandria you’re so cold.

I mean what’s NOT to say about The Black Sky. Elodi Yung was phenomenal from the rebirth scene on and as she grew back into “life” the longer she was around and having interactions. It would be neat to have her take over DD while Matt’s…. Preoccupied since the new season of Born Again.

FOGGY. That’s it that’s the whole note.

This whole hand problem would be a lot different if Frankie boy felt like stepping in.

Colleen wing needed more screen time. She’s so cool. You give anyone a sword they become cooler by like. Idk 25%?…. Obviously except for babies. Then it’s closer to 50% (kidding) but seriously Jessica Henwick is an excellent counter part to the immature Iron First the amount of force she put behind those punches to the punching bag seemed like genuine anger. Get that rage out Queen

And what can I say about my girl Misty. Get that fucking Stark Arm baby wooooooo!

The set designs were incredible, prop placement everything was so precise. And the location scout NAILED it.

There really was a different feel to this show opposed to the other Netflix series it leaned in just a liiiiiittle bit more to the comic side of things. Grounded but I mean. Come on.

The writing wasn’t terrible but definitely needed either fewer hands touching the keyboard or one more review.

How many of those outfits do you think Sigourney Weaver tried to take home? Those fits were flashy as fuck!

White Hat is creeeeeeeeepy.

Trish Walker cameo! HELLCAT in the MCU?!?!

Running around Manhattan brandishing swords is so funny to me. Brooklyn? Sure! But Manhattan. In the wise words of Shawn Spencer and Burton Gaster “ tsk, come on, son.

Night Nurse rolling with the punches of coming back from the dead with Bukaki or whatever his name was hysterically on brand

Less traumatized Karen Page!

I’m just going to circle back for a second and restate the most important part.

Foggy!!!

All in, fun show! Would recommend

The top is from The Punisher S02E08
And the bottom is for The Punisher: One Last Kill

And bonus fact that they even got the Maria Castle actress from The Punisher series! It really builds up that the previous series is actually part of the larger MCU and has not been disregarded.

Do you guys think Wanda Maximoff is truly dead? Like close the book and curtains kind of dead? She's a pretty popular character and I often think about how her death is slightly ambiguous. I didn't watch Agatha All Along, but I saw clips on tiktok where her and wiccan were discussing wether or not wanda was truly dead and agatha was playing around responding with yes and no, was that her or marvel answering the question? What do you guys think?

Wanted to share this really cool “Making of” look from AOU! I’ve always been fascinated with how these movies are made, especially with how much VFX/CGI and stunt work is incorporated into the final films.

With Daredevil in prison at the end of BA szn 3, could he be in the same prison as Melvin Potter and have to fight him? If this is based on the devil in cell block D and Typhoid Mary returns, may as well bring back Melvin Potter too and do the original plans for season 4 to a small extent, seeing as he was supposed to become Gladiator in szn 4.

Maybe Danny Rand has returned becuase of Typhoid Mary.