GHOST WRITES

Tag: marvel

  • The Doomsday Project

    The Doomsday Project

     – Doomsday is coming-

    In exactly one year from now – 365 days – 8760 hours – 525600 minutes – The MCU will come to some sort of grand conclusion. Wrapping up the last quarter century of cinematic superhero films into an extravaganza blockbuster. Yet there have been many bumps in the road on this long journey that the MCU has taken us on. It’s safe to say that, after many cinematic duds – both financial and critical – and television shows that failed to gather audiences in a substantial way, the MCU isn’t standing on as-solid-a-foundation as it did when they had their previous big event with Infinity War and Endgame. I’ll be the first to say that I am the opposite of excited for Doomsday, both because of the lackluster build up to it as well as everything else we know about the film, yet I feel there are parts of this grand tapestry that work very well. Some of the pieces that are and have been in play for the last 7 years are incredibly fun and exciting and could lead to some very satisfying world-building – yet it’s just not working, is it!?

    That’s what “Project Doomsday” is. A series of articles in which I try to remold “The Sacred Timeline” into something more palpable, something more exciting and engaging then what we have now. How? Well it’s simple really: just rewrite half a decade of film-making in a year’s time. 

    Okay not really, I won’t be delivering like 12 whole screenplays about a bunch of movies I don’t really care about: this is more an exercise in improving. In using the knowledge I have off this universe, the comics, the entire Marvel world and smashing it together to hopefully deliver a version of this story that makes people more excited to see it all culminate in Doomsday and Secret Wars. That’s also where the limitations of this challenge come into play. I’m not doing a fanfiction thing. Don’t expect me to be like: “I hate She Hulk! What if She-Hulk was actually Iron Man 4 and in Iron Man 4 no one is WOKE and all the ladies are sexy!” – if you want that then go write your own stuff, I’m sure it’ll be wonderful buddy! No, I’m really trying to keep Phase 4-through-6 intact, I won’t take out any movies or shows from the already existing line-up and I’ll try not to add a billion-trillion extra shows and films (I might add one or two but that’s an idea for later). I will use what is there and just shift it into something else. 

    I will change a lot about those movies though. Yes, I’ll try to keep most of them intact, I don’t really want to completely overhaul these stories but I’ll definitely change them in substantial ways. Most of the casts of these films will remain the same, A lot of the story beats will remain the same and endings are mostly already set in stone given what I need to work towards, but things will be different. To give you a little hint as to my first project: My version of “The Marvels” will NOT feature any body-swapping quantum-band hijinks – nor will it feature Nick Fury in a substantial role, but it will of course feature all the titular Marvels (I won’t give away too much else though).

    I also won’t be changing ALL of the projects released in the last 7 years. Realistically speaking I’ll only be overhauling like 20 percent of what’s there (especially since phase 4-6 features something around 35 projects, which is quite frankly ridiculous) but I will be overhauling some of the major films released. If you’re expecting me to really dig into “Echo” or “Moon Knight” you can set those expectations a little lower. These projects are largely inconsequential to the already predetermined roadmap leading to Doomsday and will not be any more important in my version. That does not mean that I’ll be tackling every major hit the MCU has had either – Thunderbolts fans can rest soundly knowing I don’t see any reason to change what is already there. 

    This brings me to my final point: Don’t read too much into this, please. I am doing this for fun, I’m doing this because it’s simple and low-stakes and if I mess up I won’t accidentally flush 200 million of Mickey Mouse’s hard earned dollars down the drain. Filmmaking is hard and hindsight is 2020. Of course my job is a million times easier than what Feige and his compatriots have had to do post Endgame – I don’t envy them at all (Maybe I envy them a little bit). I just think I can do something fun with what is there and I wanna show people that work.

    Establishing the Timeline:

    I wanna make sure everyone knows our jumping off point, You’ll need to know what is and isn’t canon as we go into the project. First off, the most obvious point to make: Everything released pre-Endgame is canon, that includes Endgame. The Infinity Saga is off-limits. The first few Phase 4 releases are also largely off-limits. Wandavision, Falcon and Winter Soldier, Black Widow as well as the first season of Loki will need to be almost completely intact for this to work. The set-up in those shows are too important for the future of this Saga to fuck with- if I did we’d be getting a completely different story and that is not what I’m trying to do. 

    As my articles go on over the next few months I’ll be updating what is and isn’t canon as these projects go on. To streamline this I’ll be updating this handy little timeline in every article as well:

    You’ll find similar timelines in each article to kind of give you a sense of what has and hasn’t happened. Some shows and films won’t get complete overhauls but I will change aspects of them so things mesh better with my new canon, if that happens you’ll see a little “CANON NOTE” where I’ll explain the details of what changes. 

    I think those are all the rules. I hope so at least. If more rules pop up i’m sure everyone will figure it out. You can expect part 1 of this project to be released before the end of this year. With that said: 

    In exactly 364 days from now – 8759 hours – 525594 minutes –  Doomsday will arrive.

    (I thought of this ticking clock idea two weeks ago and then Marvel Studios decided to copy me actually!)

  • Amalgam-Tober Day 16: Phobia

    Amalgam-Tober Day 16: Phobia

    Phobia is another obvious one, but that doesn’t make him any less fun. Mysterio and Scarecrow both teeter on being silly or incredibly menacing depending on the story, both characters who play with their enemies’ fear and cast visages to haunt them. 

    Quentin Crane is a washed up Horror movie director who has been relegated to making terrible B-Movies. Fed up with his life and career, Quentin decides it’s time for a change – not to himself, but to the horror movie industry. Using his love for special effects and a knack for chemistry (he’s been making smoke bombs ever since high school for his student films), Quentin makes a strange substance that, when inhaled, would create horrific hallucinations, instill a deathly sense of dread and send chills down the spine of everyone who as much as sniffed it. 

    One night, during the premiere of his latest schlocky slasher, Quentin pumps the substance through the cinema vents, hoping to create a new sort of horror experience. And horrific it is, perhaps the dosis was too high, perhaps the substance was faulty to begin with, but as the movie goes on the audience slowly loses their minds. Most of the moviegoers ended up not surviving the experience, clawing their eyes out of their heads or jumping from the balcony during the second act. 

    Quentin, now one of the biggest mass murderers of all time, goes on the run, and with half of the superhero community after him decides to don a killer outfit and become a real super villain: Phobia!

    Obviously a Mysterio amalgamation needs the fishbowl, don’t do Mysterio if you don’t do the fishbowl I say! But I changed the usual smoke pattern inside into something more sinister and gave it those cool respirators that Scarecrow usually has attached to his mask. The costume is straight forward; taking inspiration from that raggedy old look usually associated with Scarecrow and kind of melding that with the Mysterio cape and gauntlets. 

    Thanks for checking out today’s post!

  • Amalgam-Tober Day 15: Eclipse

    Amalgam-Tober Day 15: Eclipse

    As I stated on day 2, the idea for this project started when I got to drawing The Polka-Spot Man and more ideas came flooding in soon thereafter – yet the idea to draw the Polka-Spot Man came from a different place; Comicpop. The youtube channel run by Sal has discussed the amalgam Universe many times but his episode of the Elseworlds exchange where they created their own Amalgam Characters was so much fun that I started doing it too. All of these have been original ideas from me so far, but to honor that original episode that started it all I bring you: Eclipse – an Amalgam of Moon Knight and Jason Todd’s Red Hood. Now before I get into everything I do need to explain that while the idea stems from Sal, the rest of this is solely my own doing, including design and backstory.

    Naming these guys can either be the biggest pain in the ass or an absolute joy, and Eclipse turned out to be the latter. My brain literally just went: “Red Hood + Moon Knight= Red Moon? Red Moon = Lunar Eclipse, that’s too long so shorten it to Eclipse!”. It really is that simple. From there on the design followed, starting with the small logo on his chest. I inverted the usual crescent moon that Moon Knight usually sports and added an additional moon resembling the process of an eclipse.

    Moon Knight has had a lot of different costumes over the years and I toyed with the idea of making this a look inspired by the Mr.Knight suit or a more mystical suit that would tie into his origins but decided that keeping that tactical aspect from the Red Hood costume would be the best way to go. That’s why I chose to go with that more tactical black and white Moon Knight suit often attributed to Jake Lockley, but replacing the pants with something more military looking and obviously recoloring that cape. He needed a Red Hood… Duh! 

    All of this ties back to his origin: Back in the day, Jason Spector was a young criminal often on the run from the law, yet it’s when he steals a certain someone’s tires his story really begins. The skills he puts on display during his criminal acts impresses the Caped Crusader so much that he takes him under his wing. Getting the training he needs to become a superhero sidekick, Jason manages to overcome some of his troubled upbringing and reshape the skills he learned on the streets into something more heroic. But being a hero comes with a lot of downsides, and suffering traumatic event after traumatic event his volatile side kicks back up again, culminating in a violent confrontation with his father’s biggest enemy – one he does not survive. 

    It’s then that his father’s oldest enemy, The Moon Demon Khon-Al-Ghul, retrieves Jason’s body for his most nefarious plan yet. Submerging Jason in the healing Lunar waters of Arabia, Khon-Al-Ghul thinks he’s reviving Jason to turn him into a soldier for his own League of Assassins. But out from the bubbling crystal blue water comes a man forever changed, not just Jason anymore. The emotional trauma of his past mixed with the physical trauma of his violent death and subsequent resurrection has split Jason’s psyche into bits and pieces, creating three distinct personalities inside his system, all fighting for control. His youthful spirit remains within the Alter I dub “The Boy”, always steering Jason into more problems and mischief – from causing random property damage in the streets of Gotham to purposely killing low-life thugs to teach them a lesson, this Alter doesn’t understand the gravity of his actions and is not concerned with consequences. The Sidekick, Jason’s second Alter, is the exact opposite. He’s trained to be better and serves as Jason’s moral compass for good. The sidekick makes sure to cause no damage to the innocent, always makes sure that apprehended drug money ends up in places where it’s needed and desperately resists whenever murder is on Jason’s mind. Usually though: it’s the Eclipse that takes the wheel, an Alter completely engulfed with rage and revenge. He’s the one that came out of the water, he’s the one who’s set off on this journey for revenge and he’s the one who’s going to kill whoever stands in his way. 

    For a while I wanted to design all three of the Alters for this post, but I quickly realized that would be too much work for one day. That said, the final piece does feature Khon-Al-Ghul, a mix of Khonshu and Ra’s-Al-Ghul, making day 15 a double Amalgam day!

  • Amalgam-Tober Day 7: Harley “The Clown” Wilson

    Amalgam-Tober Day 7: Harley “The Clown” Wilson

    It took me a weird amount of time to come up with this one, seeing as the idea seems so obvious now that I have. Both crazy, both lethal, a shared love for black and red color schemes with a knack for clownery and a complete dominance over 2016’s pop culture landscape (seriously how many Harley Quinn and Deadpool costumes were sold in 2016? One billion? Two?) – Deadpool and Harley are a perfect amalgamation. Both of them also never really had a fair shot during the original Amalgam Universe, yeah they do have amalgam versions of themselves, but neither had yet to be as immensely popular as they are now. 

    The design for this one was maybe the easiest time I’ve had with one of these while also coming out the cleanest. The two costumes already compliment each other so well it felt hard to mess up. I tried out some more action poses, especially trying to incorporate a big mallet into the final piece but it quickly became clear to me that I wanted this to be precise, clear and clean. 

    For a character biography I don’t have anything super clever. Harley Wilson, a young woman who wants to follow her fathers footsteps and join the army, is forced to become a government psychiatrist, treating soldiers and POWs alike when she doesn’t get accepted into the army for being “too weak”. Jealous and envious of her clients, she becomes enamored with two of the most brutal soldiers who’ve ever lived; Logan Wayne and Creed Quinn. She slowly loses herself in this obsession and, with inside knowledge of the government’s now-disbanded Weapon X program, obtains a vial of both their blood and injects it into herself – giving her great healing abilities. 

    Now, with her obsession of the two men at an all time high and her powers finally giving her the power to do anything she’s ever wanted. She tracks the two men down and tries to befriend them, knowing full well they’re now mortal enemies. This is where I want to mirror some of their main-line-continuity counterparts; Darkclaw is completely irked by her, in the same vein that Logan is irked by Wade – But The Hyena is smitten by the attention and kind of takes her under his wing like Joker does Harley. This also creates a fun dynamic where Hyena has this sidekick with him that – while sharing his obsession for Darkclaw – does not share his bloodlust, and will always avoid killing Darkclaw if Hyena gets too close (I also imagine that sort of ends in a similar way that the mainline Harley and Joker ends with her becoming more of her own character and splitting from Hyena).

    This is one of my favorites I’ve done just because it’s so perfectly simple. The design and the backstory just came out in one go and I really enjoy that. Thanks for reading and hope you come back for tomorrow’s entry.

  • Amalgam-Tober Day 6: The Knight Without Fear

    Amalgam-Tober Day 6: The Knight Without Fear

    I made a promise to myself when I started this project that I’d try to include as many “new” characters as possible in these amalgams. I wanted to focus on those that didn’t even exist yet when the original Amalgam Universe was born. What I didn’t realize was that I was going to include characters this new. But after reading the freshly released “One Cold Day In Hell” by Charles Soule and Steve Mcniven, the inspiration was hard to ignore. 

    I have been really struggling with Amalgamizing (is that a word? It is now!) Batman and Daredevil. The two just belong together, they just… fit. They are pieces of the same puzzle. You’ve probably seen the many posts comparing the two and how they should swap names since bats are blind and use echo location similar to Daredevil and Batman is just a guy jumping around rooftops so he should be a Daredevil yadda yadda yadda – and no matter how baseline that idea might be, it is kind of fun to explore. But it all just felt a little too obvious. I needed an angle, and after reading “One Cold Day In Hell”, I had my angle.

    “CDIH” – as I will now be referring to it as – is a Dark Knight Returns pastiche. The old hero returns for a final outing, inspiring the next generation alongside a young girl. There is obviously more to either story but it boils down to the same thing and both books do it very well. So, as an homage to an homage, I pushed together two of the most iconic pieces of Frank Miller imagery and Steve McNiven’s tweaked Daredevil design and created today’s AmalgamTober entry.

    I started off the design with a much more frail looking figure akin to Matt’s appearance in “CDIH” but quickly realized that I was just drawing Daredevil with a bat on his chest. Thus I switched to that more bulky and square Old Man Bruce design, it needed an extra element to drive home that this is Matt and Bruce together and not just a weird Daredevil design. An unintentional comparison that this color scheme and design evokes is that of the original Batman designs drawn up by Bob Kane, who shared a similar red suit and big belt. Now I’m not a big fan of Bob Kane, so don’t take this as an endorsement, but I did sort of lean into it as a fun nod.

    Finally I also added the blindfold around his eyes. I always enjoy a Daredevil design that forgoes the eyes on his helmet, it adds to the whole blind justice angle that makes the character interesting as well as making him just generally stand out among his many, MANY, peers. It adds a level of fluidity to the piece that I like, not to mention that I couldn’t get the angle of the eyes right and just kind of gave up!

    I hope you enjoy today’s piece and I hope you check out “Daredevil: Cold Day In Hell” – which I assume will be collected early next year in trade?

  • Amalgam-Tober Day 5: The Absolute Immortal Mindfucker

    Amalgam-Tober Day 5: The Absolute Immortal Mindfucker

    A rare three-way-multi-dimensional Amalgam, The Absolute Martian Mindfucker is an amalgamation of The Hulk, Martian Manhunter and his Absolute counterpart. When I started off this amalgam, I wasn’t planning on touching on the Absolute version of the character. I had originally started off just combining Bruce Banner and J’onn J’onzz; the transforming that both characters can do, while juxtaposing the involuntary and grotesque nature of The Hulk with the voluntary and often more “cool” nature of Martian Manhunter really attracted me to this combination but then when I started thinking about backstory more pieces fell into place and I realised just how perfectly this could work.

    An alien, whose homeworld has been destroyed, is sent out into space as a last ditch effort of survival. On his search for a habitable world he finds Earth, a planet entirely similar to his original home world, including a little spot beaming with the exact radiation that made his home so fertile. Once landed, he finds a barren land of orange sand and dead shrubs, with the only signs of intelligent life being the man-made towers of steel, echoing a strange noise – a countdown. Confused by the new sounds and sights surrounding him, it takes the Martian a few moments to realize there’s a strange creature running at him. Bruce Banner, a human man who holds life sacred so much he’s willing to sacrifice himself to save this alien life-form . The man screams something in a language alien to the martian before pushing him down to the ground as a blast of green light and smoke rips past them. Both of their senses erupt, their bodies are torn to shreds and remade on the spot as gamma radiation courses through their bodies – they change. 

    This is where my original plan for this character started to diverge. I was planning on taking Martian Manhunter’s origin – Where J’onn meets a kind earth scientist who passes away due to shock from the whole ordeal – and sort of interject Bruce Banner’s origin in the middle of it. Bruce would save J’onn like he did Rick Jones in the original story but die in the process instead of turning into the Hulk. J’onn would then take his place and become Bruce Banner. But then why was there a Hulk? I tried out designs for a skinnier hulk that resembled a Martian (Heavily inspired by Darwyn Cooke’s Martian design from “New Frontier”) but they all came out looking incredibly dull. Not being an Amalgam of anyone but more-so an entirely new character in some iterations while looking too much like J’onn and not enough like Hulk in others. 

    That’s where Absolute Martian Manhunter comes in. I realized that literally merging the two characters, instead of one becoming the other, would work much better for what I wanted to do. The idea that this Martian would essentially take over Bruce’s body really appealed to me, but instead of being this mental presence guiding Bruce like the Absolute version does to John, my version actually physically takes over when he needs to. It also helps that the Absolute Martian Manhunter has a few physical characteristics that are much easier to smush together with the iconography of the Hulk.

    Which brings me to the Immortal parts of this character. Beyond the body horror elements that I implemented, I also want to use some of the motivation from Al Ewing’s time on the character. Ewing imbued the mythos of the green giant with a thick layer of environmentalism – putting the character on a crusade against all those in power who oppose his mission to save the earth. This is the last piece of the puzzle that is the “Absolute Immortal Mindfucker”. With the entire death of his home planet burned in his psyche, the Martian inside Bruce grows increasingly angry at the state of humanity and how careless they are with their planet. Not only does this add a really interesting layer to this character, it also creates that similar tension between Bruce and his inner personality (being the Martian in this iteration instead of the Hulk) that has defined the Hulk mythos. 

    It took a lot of retrofitting but I’m really happy with the final result. Getting to adapt a more recent creation like Absolute Martian Manhunter is exactly why I so enjoy doing these and I highly recommend reading Deniz Camp’s and Javier Rodriguez’ book if you haven’t done so already! (as well as Immortal Hulk – duh!). Thank you for reading and I hope you check back here tomorrow!

  • Amalgam-Tober Day 4: Blue-Spider (Jaime Morales)

    Amalgam-Tober Day 4: Blue-Spider (Jaime Morales)

    Now this is the real reason I combined Peter Parker and Ted Kord for yesterday’s Amalgam. While those two ultimately fit together very well, putting their legacies together fits even more perfectly. Jaime Reyes’ Blue Beetle and Miles Morales’ Spider-Man are incredibly similar characters. Both young men who stumble on their bug-related-powers by accident, both bilingual, who use their love for anime to make big awesome swords. 

    While this is a Miles and Jaime Amalgamation first, I do also want to take some parts of Peter Parker’s Spider-Man mythology and mix that into the history of the Blue Spider-Scarab. Mainly I want to take the whole Ezekiel Sims character and kind of turn him into this universe’s Dan Garrett (The Original – Original Blue Beetle). Here’s the mythical history of the Blue Spider-Scarab; Years prior to the first boom of meta-humans, an interstellar race of super-engineers created the Spider as a weapon – a suit that functions both for the Offensive side of combat as it does the Defensive. But when a battle sends the weapon hurdling towards earth, a man finds it and gains the powers of a spider. Battling lowlife thugs and gangsters in the shadows of his city, The Blue-Spider tries to do his best in his battle against evil, but in an age without supervillains, this first Blue-Spider’s career does not go on for long, going down in myth after removing the Spider-Scarab from his body. Yet, the myth is enough to inspire people years down the line; A group of scientists try to recreate the Spider using a synthetic formula injected into a real life spider. But when the Spider escapes and ends up biting a young Ted Parker, Ted reignites the Blue-Spider moniker and dons his very own blue suit.

    Years down the line, Ted, now a mega successful inventor who runs Parker Industries to fund his superhero career, is visited by the original Blue-Spider, who tells him all about the original Spider. But Ted’s investigation is cut short when the Spider-Scarab is stolen from his office. 

    Cut to; Jaime Morales’ cousin gives him a strange, blue, glowing Spider “Paperweight” for his 15th birthday. Jaime’s cousin, Alfonso, works at Parker Industries as a technical consultant and being a little fed up with the job, took Ted’s Spider right from his desk, assuming it’s just some rich guy’s piece of junk. But that night, the spider grants Miles powers beyond his wildest imagination. Now, alongside Ted Parker, Jaime becomes the Blue-Spider!

    The design was pretty easy. Miles’ suit is really quite simple, with the chest Spider and Webbing being the only two things that make it a “spider” suit. Taking into account the alien-origin of the suit I decided it’d be best to use Jaime’s suit as the base and put those aforementioned elements from Miles’ suit on top of it. I changed the thick scarab on Jaime’s chest into a spider, as well as the back scarab and had the legs wrap around his body from both sides. I enlarged the beetle eyes into something more akin to the big classic Spider-Man goggles and then added a webshooter to the suit. 

    While the idea and design were pretty easy, getting the final piece out was a struggle. I could not settle on a pose or style. I had him hanging, jumping, fighting and sticking to walls but all of those poses meant I had to sacrifice necessary details of the suit. That’s why I ended up with quite the boring pose at the end. 

    Thank you for reading all of this – it’s the longest character biography I’ve given these drawings thus far – and I hope you check out tomorrow’s post as well.

  • Amalgam-Tober Day 3: Blue-Spider (Ted Parker)

    Amalgam-Tober Day 3: Blue-Spider (Ted Parker)

    When I decided to put Peter Parker together with Ted Kord I did it for a few reasons; One has to remain a mystery till a later date, one is the general bug themed nature of both characters but the more interesting reason is Steve Ditko. Many know Ditko as the creator of Spider-Man, which is without a doubt his biggest creation at Marvel, but it’s lesser known that he is also the mind behind Ted Kord’s Blue Beetle (among other characters for Charlton Comics, who all migrated to the DC Universe after the latter bought the former). I’ve always been interested in putting these characters together beyond just “They’re both evil” or “They both wear red”, and getting to mix in the real life history of comics into these is always a plus. 

    Obviously today’s piece is based on Spidey’s first appearance on the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15 (drawn by Jack “The King” Kirby funnily enough – not Ditko himself) – an idea I had when I stumbled on the Marvel Redraw account on twitter (does that mean I also amalgamated two art challenges into one?). I combined the titles of “Amazing Fantasy” and “Mystery Men Comics” (in which the original Blue Beetle debuted) but kept most of the overall cover design the same. 

    The design really came out pretty quickly; I kept the overall color scheme of Ted Kord’s suit while shifting the usual Beetle design on his chest into something more spider-like and making the eye goggles visually similar to that of Spidey’s lenses. Obviously I had to keep a little bit of webbing on the chest because it can’t be a spidey design without webs.

    Thanks for checking out today’s Amalgam and I hope you check back tomorrow for another! 

  • Amalgam-Tober Day 1: Access

    Amalgam-Tober Day 1: Access

    It’s Day One of AmalgamTober, with our first entry this month being ACCESS, the only Marvel and DC Co-Owned character that’s ever existed. Obviously it’s not ideal to start AMALGAM-tober with a character that is not an Amalgamation, but why not start my homage to the Amalgam Universe by honoring this little known anomaly!

    When I started this drawing I expected to go with a more civilian outfit – I had imagined giving him this letterman jacket with a big A on the chest. Cheesy, I know, but felt fitting for his enormous cornball energy. But after finalising my rough sketch I realized there really wasn’t that much interesting going on so I tried something more striking instead. Another idea I started with that did make it to the final piece, although it’s all a little less clear because I decided to color the whole thing in red and blue and nothing else, was the fact that Axel has Heterochromia. One of his eyes is blue while the other one is red – not just because it’s aesthetically pleasing but I also imagined it as a sort of physical representation of him being able to see into both realities. Easily hopping between dimension whenever he’s needed.

    Why did I decide to draw Axel to start this challenge? I don’t know. But I do know how vital he is to my pitch for a potential new DC / Marvel Crossover. This idea has fleshed itself out more and more as I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking, living, and breathing Marvel and DC crossovers – so why not just go ahead and post it. Now I won’t post all of it at once, I need a little more time to write it all out, but I will incrementally over the coming month drop more chapters to flesh the whole thing out.

    Anyway thank you for checking out Day One of this challenge – Hope I get to see you tag along over the coming weeks because I have some really fun pieces coming up that I’m very proud of! See you tomorrow!

  • Brand New Day Could be Adapting The Craziest Punisher Story Ever

    Brand New Day Could be Adapting The Craziest Punisher Story Ever

    After many months of delays, rewrites and speculations it seems that “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is finally starting production, and with it a load of new theories about what this fourth solo-Spidey film could entail. Even though more and more set photos leak, castings are announced and Twitter leakers continue to flap their gums, the story of the MCU’s latest Spider-Man film is not becoming any clearer. So far we know shockingly little about the film besides some official casting (which have quite frankly only made this entire thing more confusing) and unofficial rumors. Truly one of the only things we know for sure is the inclusion of Frank Castle, who will be starring alongside Peter Parker in this adventure, though to what his role in the story may be remains to be seen. Yet, what if I said I had an idea – a theory that, though based on set pictures and credible rumors, seems so implausibly plausible that I couldn’t even decide if I should keep it to myself or not. A theory that, if true, could create one of the most controversial takes on these characters we’ve ever seen. Let me explain.

    This theory popped into my head like lightning. I was scrolling on Twitter reading about the leaks that were happening because of the beginning of “Brand New Day’s” shoot when the idea just appeared – it hit me like a truck… or a tank. See there had been a picture taken of this big tank, set to rampage through the fake New York City streets – and on it we see a red devil logo, adding a menacing touch to the already imposing vehicle. Many assumed that this devil is a connection to Martin Li, better known as Mister Negative, who fans have been waiting to see in live action for a while now. Following this a lot of people ran with that assumption, speculating about how and why Martin Li could be involved in the story. Yet, as plausible as that is, scooper DanielRPK did also tease that Punisher will be the one driving the vehicle – it is after all not really the style of Li and his goons to drive a huge tank like that. So why would Frank drive a tank branded by the Inner Demons? That’s the question I posed myself when I realized it.. what if it’s not Mr. Negative, what if it’s not the inner demons or anything even remotely associated with that – what if it’s The Hand!

    Do you guys remember The Hand, of course you do. The bad guys from “Daredevil” season 2 and then “The Defenders” and I guess they were also in a bunch of Iron Fist episodes. The Hand were a big deal in the MCU for a while (during the Netflix era of the MCU that is, the canon of it all still remains a little vague but I’m pretty sure it’s all MCU now… right?) so why not bring them back? “Because it doesn’t make any sense!” I hear you say – to which I can only say: “Yeah! That’s what I thought too, but maybe it does make sense!”. For starters, there is precedent in the comics for it. It was only a few years ago when Jason Aaron launched his Punisher series, in which Frank got recruited by the Hand to serve as “The Fist of The Beast” – so there is precedent to have The Hand return – this time in Frank’s world instead of Matt’s. Sure, This was a pretty controversial time for the character, loved by one half of the audience and despised by the other half, so I understand it might not seem like the most obvious of stories to adapt but there is more evidence that this whole thing could be happening. 

    We know the street level side of the MCU has up until this point been almost exclusively explored in “Daredevil: Born Again”. The show has largely been inspired by Charles Soule’s time writing the Daredevil comics but – with its season finale – is steadily morphing into something more akin to Chip Zdarsky’s books. It is during his tenure on Daredevil that Jason Aaron started writing his Punisher book, leading to a lot of crossover between the two stories. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think the creatives behind “Born Again” and this new street level saga in the MCU have read those Punisher books as well – maybe they even liked them so much they’re planning on adapting it in some way – and where better to start than a highly anticipated Spider-Man film?!

    Obviously it would also end up tying into Daredevil, but It’s not like it doesn’t fit into the narrative “Born Again” has been building. Frank obviously escapes Fisk’s detainment and I’m sure revenge is at the forefront of his mind right now but with Fisk’s mayoral influence spreading and the Anti-Vigilante task force growing in strength, Frank needs a serious upgrade to get that payback he so craves. The Hand could be that payback. He gains a serious boost in strength and abilities during his time with them – upgrades Matt’s little army cannot possible grant him. On top of that we also know Frank is not too keen on Matt’s way of doing things, so joining his Vigilante team isn’t in the cards either. Yet joining The Hand would only fuel the ferocity of his ways, he’d become the unstoppable crime-destroying force he could never be before – now aided by an unstoppable ninja army as a bonus. 

    This would need to be explored in both the second season of Born Again as well as the Punisher special Bernthal is currently filming – and from set photos and videos it doesn’t seem like mysticism is all that involved yet BUT, there is some more evidence pointing towards a return of The Hand in the near future. Look, it is quite a stretch but Elodie Yung, who portrayed Elektra in Season 2 of “Daredevil” and then returned for “The Defenders” series as well, did post an instagram picture that could hint towards a Daredevil return… really it’s only because she used a devil emoji in her caption but a lead is a lead and as a real Geek-tective I have to take into account every lead I get. “Born Again” Producer Sana Amanat also stated a desire to have the character return when the first season debuted earlier this year, saying; “One hundred percent it’s in the back of our heads. Eventually, we’ll try to figure out a bit more with that.” So we know this is something they’ve been thinking about, who knows how quickly they figured it out. 

    It could also be that the idea stemmed from the “BND” team instead, realizing Frank and The Hand neatly slotted into what they were already building. We’ve heard two substantial rumors over the course of BND’s pre-production; first off, the film would be street level, featuring many lower class villains for Peter to face off against over the course of the film. On top of that rumors indicated that Silver Samurai and Viper could also be making an appearance as a more bigger looming threat, possibly orchestrating whatever scheme Peter finds himself in. If both of these leaks turn out to be true it would serve as the metaphorical glue holding these two sides of the theory together given that the Silver Samurai and The Hand are both major players in Marvel’s Japanese organized crime world.

    I imagine it going something like this – Silver Samurai and Viper are concocting some sort of plan, I say they’re supplying the New York underworld with weapons, and Spider-Man catches wind of that some way or another. Let’s say he runs into a couple of villains like Boomerang and Scorpion sporting crazy upgraded weaponry which sets him on a path to finding out where they’re getting it from. It’s on that path that he crosses The Hand, being led by Frank. The Hand is on a crusade to rid the city of these weapons as well but classic comic book confusion will get in the way of an initial team-up (like it always does) as Punisher and Spider-Man face off against each other – both under the assumption that the other one is orchestrating this weapons-business. Obviously after a big fight breaks out (possibly the one we’re witnessing being filmed right now) the two characters team-up to thwart Silver Samurai and Viper (A team-up is something the synopsis released earlier this week backs up). 

    Who knows, this could even lead to a fun post-credits-sequence that sees Matt visiting Peter while on his friendly-neighborhood-patrol, warning him that Frank is dangerous, that his methods are wrong and that any friend of the Hand is an enemy of Daredevil – a very organic way of having the two characters meet up finally. It could even be a great slow-burn problem for Matt which he has to put on the backburner while dealing with Fisk in season 2, a problem that grows stronger and stronger everyday they are not put in their place. Zdarsky’s book actually features a ton of animosity between Frank and Matt, a dynamic I’d love to see recreated by Cox and Bernthal given just how well they’ve adapted that butting-heads relationship before.

    Now truth be told, this all doesn’t fit in together as neatly as I would like, there are still so many loose ends that need to be tied up to make this all make sense. Why is Hulk involved for instance? And where do all those other villains fit in? Or what about Jon Bernthal, he’s producing the Punisher special and I do not think he’s completely down to go in such a mystical route (even though this could be explained away by just depowering Frank compared to his comic counterpart) – let alone the fans, how would they react to such a wild departure from the Frank they know and love. Many questions still remain but I can’t deny that I kind of love this idea. I’m one of those people who appreciated what Aaron did with his Punisher book and seeing that play out in the MCU would be cool. You can’t tell me that a Sword wielding unstoppable Punisher doesn’t sound like a hell of a good time!?

    What do you think? Am I making sense? And let me know if you have any good theories about Brand New Day that you’d like to talk about. As always, give me a follow wherever you can and make sure to stick around for more articles about Marvel, Spider-Man and comics in general!