Who is Jessica Jones?
Marvel Studios was quite successful with the Netflix series, Daredevil. So much, that it left fans eagerly awaiting more, which is a pretty big deal when the original film version had most fans run screaming in terror. While Marvel has confirmed a second season along with some interesting characters from the comics taking part. However, the second season of Daredevil will not be the next Marvel Studios and Netflix collaboration. The next big collaborated event for the two entertainment giants will be Jessica Jones slated for this December. This character will be new to the non-comic book fans, but her presence is a big deal.
Why is she a big deal? She will be the first featured super-powered heroine for Marvel Studios. Her success and failure might very well change what Marvel Studios will create next where female superheroes are concerned. I am specifying “featured” meaning she is not a part of a main ensemble cast like Black Widow for Avengers and Gamora for Guardians of the Galaxy or a supporting character like Scarlet Witch and Lady Sif. Even Earthquake has to be considered as a part of an ensemble cast, even though storylines for Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. have been pretty focused on her character. Jessica Jones will be a television variant that isn’t exactly going to be on network television and won’t have the big screen treatment. Regardless of this, her success will probably impact Marvel Studios upcoming silver screen venture, Captain Marvel.
Why will she impact this? Well, that is because Hollywood tends to have an established view of television series or feature films that feature female superheroes. They back their beliefs up by using such film atrocities as Catwoman and Elektra. Hollywood has a belief that female superhero movies would make terrible projects, because the before mentioned films came to be horrible investments. What they seem to be missing is that those films were not horrible because a female happened to be the feature, no they were horrible, because they were actually horribly made films.
That being said, let’s give you a little comic book insight of who Jessica Jones is. Currently, I have no idea how they are going to develop her story and what exactly they may leave behind or take from the comic book versions, but a little insight wouldn’t hurt. In the comics, Jessica Jones was in a car accident with her family leaving her as the only survivor. She came into contact with chemicals during this accident which eventually led to her abilities. Random fact, Jessica actually went to high school with Peter Parker, Spider-Man. This fact is played with a little in various moments in the comics, but not enough to make it a necessary plot line that will be put into the show. But hey, Sony and Marvel Studios are friends now, so you never know. She eventually decides to don some tights and venture into the superhero business, also dying her hair pink and calling herself Jewel.
I know the series is going to take place after she decides to leave the life of a superhero behind, which will be interesting to see what they utilize as the reason. In the comics, Jessica had an awful and terrifying encounter with the very sadistic, Purple Man. He used her against her will in various ways with his mind control, so much so, that it took Jean Grey of the X-Men to help her regain herself and live again. I know that all of those details cannot be used in the series, especially Jean Grey, but I wonder how far and matching they will take her and Purple Man’s relationship. As a woman, it is a pretty disgusting. This, in the comics, is what makes her give up her superhero life and become a private investigator. She is still super-powered, but she drops the Jewel identity and anything related to it, including the hair color and tights.
The general show premise is currently similar to the above in a vague way. Jessica will have dealt with something drastic to end her superhero career and uses her new investigation business to help put herself back together as well as find other extraordinary people. The Purple Man will be playing quite the role in the series, but it is suggested that Jessica will know him already and be dealing with past issues, whether they be the same ones that ended her stint as a superhero in the comics.
I eagerly await to see how Krysten Ritter does in this role. This will be the first time I see her tackling a role like this. My previous experience with her has been seeing her play the goofy best friend or one of her better known roles as the very “bitch” from Don’t Trust the B…… in Apartment 23. Since I have no other reason, but to trust Marvel Studios at this point, this will be exciting to see. Of course, a lot of whovians are really excited to see David Tennant, as am I, but this won’t be the lovable Doctor. If they go adult like Daredevil, I imagine will see something more reminiscent of Barty Crouch Jr, except more controlled and hella sadistic with a bit of masochism for seasoning.
Other interesting points to know about this show is that it will take place in Hell’s Kitchen. Yes, as in Daredevil’s Hell’s Kitchen. I am not going to say that the characters will physically mix between the two shows, but I imagine that there will be a lot of mentioning at the very least. Cameos are still not a complete dismissal. For those that may not know, Marvel Studios, contracted with Netflix to do 5 shows with the following four, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, becoming the final show of the Defenders. While I personally didn’t see any Jessica Jones or Luke Cage connections in Daredevil, they did start dropping seeds for the upcoming Iron Fist. Pretty much everything the drug boss, Madame Gao, was and was involved with screamed Iron Fist. Luke Cage will be a part of the Jessica Jones series as Jessica will be a part of his. This is pretty expected from a comic book lover perspective. The two are very much together in the comics.
I am looking forward to December, but I really hope Jessica is a win. A loss at this point in the game is going to hurt and support previous opinions, especially where Marvel Studios stands. We need a win for female superheroes.
Wish List Friday
It's going to be art for a minute kids. I am seriously searching. I like this minimalist piece.
Wish List Friday
Oooooh, still on my art kick. I like this one too!
Wish List Friday
So I am on a hunt for art. I don't really have anything up in my apartment outside of a Star Wars clock. I have a Captain Marvel poster that is on deck as soon as I get a frame. I need more life in my life so to speak. This is pretty damn fantastic as well.
Wish List Friday
This would go over my couch so damn fast, it is not funny. This is truly badass! And you Comic Relief, you need to become my friend. I am in awe of your art.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
The X-Men are back and in the future facing a threat that has them and their fellow mutants on the brink of extinction as well as humanity. Having tried every means to stop this threat, they are left with only one option. They need to send someone back in time to stop the event that lead to this outcome before it ever happens and give them all a better future that they can not only fight for but live in. Wolverine becomes the obvious volunteer due to his mutant ability. Not only does he have the task of stopping the event, but he has to help Charles Xavier find the man that Charles once was and become the man that Wolverine knows. Oh, Wolverine also has to convince both Xavier and Magneto to play nice, so that they can both help Wolverine fix the future. That shouldn’t be too hard.
I wouldn’t be the first to admit that I had reservations for this movie as the release date began to creep closer and closer. Fox’s record hasn’t been exactly solid since X-Men: Last Stand. The third installment fell victim to entirely way too much going on. The movie would have probably been pretty decent if they had focused on either the mutant cure plot or the Phoenix plot separately. Unfortunately, just like Spider-Man 3, there were too many faces thrown at the audience without a whole lot of reasoning of why they were there except to fill seats of eager fans to see them. If this was the purpose, Fox, you could have at least stayed decently true to the character, *coughs* Psylocke *coughs*. Why have them in there at all if you are going to butcher them? The Phoenix storyline was clearly the B storyline, but took up most of the movie to explain and make believable, while the A storyline quickly went from the humans are utilizing the cure as a weapon to war at factory to save all mutant kind.
So that movie left a bad taste in the mouths of fans, and it was believed that a new X-Men movie would never happen. We were only to look forward to some Wolverine movies maybe. Then along came X-Men: First Class. It actually took me awhile to fully appreciate this movie. I was very excited to see a new X-Men movie and knew the concept would be very interesting. I just had too many issues with continuity littered all over the film. I’m not even talking about in comparison to the comics. I expect that. This film did not entirely fit into the established timeline of film franchise. After watching it a few more times, I accepted it as a reboot in a way and its own timeline. I became very okay with the concept and thoroughly enjoyed it as well as some of the fantastic acting they managed to snag for the film. Michael Fassbender is inspiring as Magneto.
Then Fox announced that not only were they going to do another Wolverine movie, but they were going to take on one of the biggest storylines in the X-Men comic history, and pull the cast from the original movies and First Class to make it. Now Fox was going to merge the two worlds. The not so awesome reception of the third X-Men movie and either two Wolverine movies was proof enough that Fox had the high probability of screwing this bad boy up.
I am thankful to report that the movie was actually pretty good. As much as it was fantastic seeing Ian McKellon and Patrick Stewart acting as our favorite professor and villain, there is just this amazing quality that James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender bring to Professor X and Magneto that is just a true joy to witness. It was awesome seeing some old faces and new ones and having them blend together as a whole. I saw that some other fan blog reported this film being the apology for the third X-Men movie, and I’m going to have to agree. It was really fun and engaging, until the end where it got slightly iffy.
The end left us with a lot to think about, because we are shown with the ending that the past definitely changed…a lot. I wasn’t looking to be baby fed the missing fifty years, but a couple of things would have at least established whether or not key points were changed, especially when we as the audience were given certain tidbits. If this was to be the last ever X-Men franchise movie to ever be made concerning this film universe, I would have no problem with how it ended. We would then simply be given the happy ending with no need to explain, because there won’t be another movie. Unfortunately, since it has already been announced that more will be made, I have a problem. My biggest is with the effect that this film has on Wolverine’s origin story and what has made him his character. They don’t tell us whether Logan continues his years in the same manner before. It wouldn’t have necessarily been too much of an issue, if they hadn’t chosen to end the film with the scene that they did.
I still had a great time and fully recommend the movie if you are only a fan of the movies or a fan of the comics as well. It is a still a fun ride. I really only had these issues, because I am a fan of the comics and am a firm believer in continuity. If you are not, you will probably not have too many problems. The nice part about them choosing not to answer those questions that the ending left is that they still can. I just hope that they make sense and they are careful.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
When the initial reboot happened, I was pretty leery. I enjoyed the first franchise a lot, and pretended that the third of that series didn’t exist. I’m not the only one. I went in expecting something not quite up to par with what Marvel Studios was doing and was pleasantly surprised. This was a more character driven film with phenomenal acting. The best part is that we had a real Spider-Man this time. He was a smart ass that joked and laughed and didn’t know when to shutup, something Tobey MaGuire’s Spider-Man didn’t exactly fully grasp. I still love the first movies, and separate them as I do with the original Batman movies from the recent reboot.
I was pretty excited to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2, because I enjoyed the first one so much. I was a bit nervous when the previews started to come out and they revealed that not only would Spider-Man be up against the villain Electro, but two of his other big foes as well. I got nervous at this, because as much as we all try to forget Spider-Man 3, we all remember why it didn’t work. There was too much going on. I feared that the new Spider-Man movie would fall to the same fate, and for something that started out so well, that would have been a travesty.
I am happy to say that even with the proposed villain adventure we were getting from the previews, it was still a great movie. It was fun. It had the character drive that I loved from the first film, but it did have some issues, pacing being the major one. They was a lot going on in this movie, and they tended to present some aspects of the story as much bigger issues than they actually turned out to be, and the flip side of the coin is some big issues didn’t get enough focus. Being a comic book fan and knowing Spider-Man’s history, I saw a major part of the ending coming in the first ten minutes. That is to be expected. My problem with that is this plot aspect became repeatedly thrown at the audience throughout the entire movie through common and obvious foreshadowing tropes, that anyone coming in new to the Spider-Man world could have figured out in 20 minutes if they were quick or an hour if they needed more time to process.
There were other issues that I had that were probably small. Some dialogue, especially where poor Paul Giamatti was concerned was atrocious, so bad in comparison to the rest of the dialogue that it actually pulled me out of the moment of the movie. That is never a good thing. There were a few technical aspects that I really had to swallow down my pills of suspension of disbelief in order to move on. One dramatic scene was really hard. I think it had to do with the fact that my father is a retired airplane mechanic, so planes have always been in my life. I think they were going for dramatic effect, but my brother and I had to take a moment to look at each other and ask “Why the hell didn’t one just pull up and the other go down?” I guess they wanted that dramatic moment of to be memorable, and I know I’m being picky.
The other slight issue I had came from my comic book fandom, and it was with Electro. Yes, he has the ability to manipulate electricity and acts as a walking conductor himself, but the film version has Electro materializing and dematerializing at a whim as well as being able to turn himself into an a electrical current and being able to travel through anything that has one. I don’t remember those new abilities from the comics. I remember those abilities from a DC Comics character named Livewire, but definitely not from Electro. I know, I know. I’m being picky.
So what did I like. I like how they paced out the villains. That was blessing as well as a relief. The interactions of the proposed villains made sense. The focus was Electro and how he was sadly and easily manipulated. Maybe easy is not the best word. The character was on the cliff of crazy as it was, but sadly that was society’s influence. It didn’t take a whole lot for him and his misguided anger to put him in the situation that he ended up in. The other villains were used as a set up for a future movies and a constant thorn in Spider-Man’s side whether or not another film makes it out there, which I hear there will be.
I also just truly enjoyed Peter Parker’s character. His constant internal struggles of doing what is right for everyone as opposed to doing what is right by himself is a character quality that I love about him. He can joke and be funny, but he is also intelligent and loving and caring. He has had to go through so much at such a young age that people forget this. Other heroes make jabs and get annoyed by his constant blabbing and joking in the comic books, but they always forget what he’s been through. The fact that he can joke is remarkable and shows what a truly amazing character he is. It is no wonder why he is Stan Lee’s favorite.
I wholeheartedly recommend this movie, even with all of the trash I just talked about it. In the end, Spider-Man fans have seen worse and know what bad looks like. There are always bad parts of the best movies and in this case, it is easy enough to overlook. I think knowing them ahead of time will make it a little easier to look beyond.
Espionage Cosmetics
