Author: Katie Faust

Let’s Talk: Secret Wars

Let's Talk

Now that MoM is over, it’s time to start thinking ahead. Maybe very far ahead.

I think the biggest fan moment in MoM wasn’t the cameos or the mention of Earth 616. It actually came at the end of the film and at that moment those versed in the comics and those who only watch the films (both still mean you’re a Marvel fan, I promise) were separated. This took place when the word Incursion was uttered by Clea in the end credit scene. And ever since, if you have been anywhere on the internet, then you know the words of Secret Wars have been being thrown around. You might not have any clue what that is or you might be an expert, but either way, MoM opened the door to all discussions relating to it. We are here to give some of the less comic-versed people some background on Secret Wars, why we think we are heading there, and what the effects might be. But before I get into all of that, make sure to listen to our full explanation and thoughts in our latest podcast episode by either clicking the button below to find your listening platform of choice or hitting the link to start listening right now.

the podcast

Let me start by saying that Secret Wars technically has two different runs. This means that Marvel will likely cherry-pick from both but we are a firm believer that they will rely most heavily on the 2015 version. So while Secret Wars is a pretty out-there comic line as it has many different offshoots, the main quick summary is that Earth 616 pretty much hits another universe (an Incursion) and they destroy each other, leaving fragments of each of them behind in one universe. This is a very short version, but there isn’t really a way for me to explain this using names that will make a lot of sense because I don’t want to overwhelm people. So instead of trying to explain and confuse people, check out the Marvel Database that I linked that gives a summary of what happens in Secret Wars.

So why did everyone suddenly start talking about Secret Wars? As I said earlier, Secret Wars is caused by an Incursion that Earth 616 is a part of (higher stakes for our universe). When Clea came out of her little portal and said she needed Strange’s help to stop the Incursion, many believed this was a direct reference to the Incursion being the one that causes Earth 616’s downfall. And it would make sense why Clea summoned our Dr. Strange directly since it is his universe that is smacking into another, along with the fact he may have slightly caused it. I also don’t think it makes sense to give Dr. Strange another film (Dr. Strange 3) when it would have to involve an Incursion due to this set up. It would essentially make a third Dr. Strange film a stepping stone to a path that we simply don’t need. This means we have to assume his next appearance would be elsewhere, specifically in a story in which he plays a major role (which he does in Secret Wars).

When you boil everything down from Secret Wars, this storyline is basically a Fantastic Four story, Doom vs Reed Richards style. So I think we can confidently say that we need the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom in order to see Secret Wars play out. But no worries because if you think seeing John Krasinski on our screen during MoM was ironic or a fan favor then you’re dead wrong. First off, the Illuminati has various members and Marvel was taking their pick of them when deciding who would show up in MoM. So why’d they choose to show us Reed over maybe an Iron Man or a Black Panther? From the perspective we took it, it comes across that they were confirming who would be playing our Reed Richards in the upcoming Fantastic Four film that is slated to come in the next few years. Another important story that plays a role is Dr. Strange (here’s the major connection), as he helps Dr. Doom try and stop the Incursion from killing everyone and then becomes his main man in the new world that Doom oversees. I don’t think I need to go too deeply into this one, as MoM made it pretty clear how important Strange is in this storyline.

Next, Spiderman actually plays a pretty large role and even takes on the symbiote suit for the first time in Battleworld. And well isn’t that interesting, since we see that Venom left a little gift for Peter in his universe before popping back to the Venomverse. I think this would be a super cool way to have Tom’s Peter become Venom, since we have gotten the original version already done back in Tobey’s era. Lastly, Black Panther is also a fairly large role in Secret Wars and unfortuntely I would have probably stood behind this more when Chadwick was alive. I am intrigued to see how they pick up that franchise, so for now I am going to table whether I think we will see our Black Panther be as prominent as he should be in the Secret Wars story.

I want to wrap this up with the fact that there are quite a few people we could see come out of Secret Wars, including characters who could be comic book accurate to the storyline and those who Marvel will take artistic license to bring in. The first person that would be fairly accurate to the story to get would be Miles Morales. I am a strong supporter of the possibility of getting him out of Secret Wars, since I think a lot of people keep asking when we are finally going to get him in the MCU. I also think this might be how Marvel brings in the Mutants. This one would certainly be more of an artistic license to Marvel, but I believe it could help them bring the Mutants in without overcomplicating the Mutant’s storyline. Especially because up until now, the only ‘Mutants’ we had were Pietro and Wanda. Mutants are not something that would just fly under the radar in the current MCU timeline as you already have all these other heroes doing things out in the open. I will mention now, though, that Secret Wars is eventually resolved and leaves most people back in their original universe. I do believe this will be used to put the MCU back to its regular programming, but in the comics Miles is allowed to go to Earth 616, so if we do get him we will get to keep him. I wouldn’t be surprised if Marvel let us keep quite a few people we might get, but who knows.

So this was just a little blurb about Secret Wars, as it is currently our best lead for where the MCU is going and helps to tie in that very sticky point of the Multiverse that we keep running so close to but never quite hitting. I hope this was at least a little bit informational and fun for you to read as we come off another quiet week from Marvel. Not to worry! We have plenty coming up and will have a super busy summer. And you know us, if Marvel is busy then that means we are busy. This week, we dropped our birthday podcast, discussing some of our favorite moments from the past year and where our podcast is going in year two and we wrap up this week with our Ms. Marvel predictions. I know it seems crazy, but we are in fact in the next era of Marvel starting next week with Ms. Marvel on Wednesday, so keep up with the content, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Secret Wars”, Marvel Database

MoM Reactions Pt. 2: Into the End Credit Scene

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

So you have watched Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and you’re now wondering: “What now?”

If you’re like us, then you wanted more of the Multiverse in MoM and that end credit scene really got you fired up. And naturally, we didn’t have two hours to talk about this in our first reaction episode, so we saved some of the really big MCU important topics for a whole different episode. So here you are, you’ve wandered here and we are going to break down the Multiverse and the end credit scene, along with some thoughts on why we think Secret Wars is coming. If you haven’t listened to our podcast episode detailing everything, make sure to either click the button below to find your listening platform of choice or follow the link to begin listening.

the podcast

So we were supposed to be in the MADNESS of the Multiverse, right? Can’t say I felt that way. Something I noticed the longer the film went on was the immense lack of Multiverse we were actually getting. Not including Earth 616 (give me a second to get to that), we really only visited two other Multiverses. That blew my mind, since I expected some absolute mind-boggling universes to be presented to us and instead we had two. They were cool and all but I just felt a huge lack of Multiversal madness. The best scene was truly Strange and America falling through the different universes, as I felt the chaos of all of it. As we will get to in a second, and was mentioned a little in the Reactions Part 1 blog post, the craziness of the Multiverse seems to have actually been pushed to the next Dr. Strange film (or even further).

Before I can really talk about the implications of everything and where we may or may not see the Multiverse go, I want to dive into that critical end credit scene. No, I’m not talking about the guy who finally stopped hitting himself because I can acknowledge that that definitely annoyed some fans and I’m not here to do that. I’m talking about the introduction of Clea and the name dropping of a possible Incursion. For one, if you aren’t familiar with Clea, she actually ends up being Strange’s wife in the comics and comes from the Dark Dimension. She’s going to be pretty cool and was likely introduced here as this film really covered Strange moving on from Christine finally. On top of this, if you didn’t get her comment about an Incursion taking place, essentially she is saying that two (or more) universes are colliding, where only one may survive or they both might destroy each other. And this time around, I think the stakes for Earth 616 are much higher, as we are likely going to see our universe be part of the Incursion. I say this like it isn’t stating the obvious mainly because Taylor and I both had thought we would have some high stakes in MoM, but in reality Earth 616 was honestly sorta chilling.

So what the heck are we supposed to expect now? I have answers and it might stress you out or might make your day. I truly couldn’t tell you which it’ll be. But where we are now likely preparing to go is Secret Wars. We will have more information explaining Secret Wars and how we are getting there in our episode coming out this week, but for now I can say that the speculation for this storyline has hit an all time high. This is due to the fact that Secret Wars comes from an Incursion taking place which essentially combines universes and eventually forms a place called Battleworld. There’s a lot more to that but I am giving you the most simplified version at the moment. If you need an idea picturing this, kinda think of Pangea. Or look at the image I have provided for you as some help.

Image: “Battleworld Map”, Marvel Database

Now you understand my whole Pangea comment? Great, moving along. So this is where we might go and this means we are in for quite a ride. I think many of us expected there to be some high stakes in MoM, and while we didn’t really feel that, it definitely served as a stepping stone and explanation film. It was giving us what the Multiverse was like so when they explode our minds with Secret Wars we aren’t completely lost (or at least let’s hope not). This being said, we are likely going to see small things relating to the Multiverse in upcoming works, but I don’t think we need to expect more than hints. For one, the next few films and shows shouldn’t relate to Multiversal things and two, at this point the Multiverse is open and poop will hit the fan in the right films.

All of this being said, we may finally have a direction for the next few phases of the MCU, which is something I think many fans have been waiting anxiously for. I really would like to think this is something we can truly stand behind to help us understand some of the content and their connectedness moving forward. And we aren’t stopping with the Multiverse, as we have three back-to-back works coming out this summer that are likely unrelated to the Multiverse at all. As for us, stay tuned for our next episode discussing Secret Wars and how that storyline might work, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Dr. Strange and Clea MoM”, Matt McGloin, CosmicBook

MoM Reactions Pt.1

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

The Madness has ended…or has it?

After months of waiting and so much hype, Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has come and gone just like everything else (crying internally). It feels almost impossible for another huge movie blockbuster from Marvel to have happened and we all are just forced to move on from it. It’s actually quite rude that they even ask us to. And now we might have to wait even longer for answers? Unacceptable Marvel, you’re killing me here. But I want to get into MoM right away because I actually can’t gush about it the way I thought I would. I mean, I gushed about it more going into it than coming out and that’s saying something. I will say, everything aside, this is, of course, our opinions on the films and you are as welcome to your own, whether they agree or disagree with ours. I say this because there seems to be quite a bit of disconnect on how people feel about this film, so for our fully explained thoughts, click the button below to find your listening platform of choice or follow the link to start listening.

the podcast

For those who follow us regularly, you know I am a huge Wanda fan and that I was going into this film ready for destruction. Well, I would say I certainly got that from my girl Wanda. But overall, I have to say the film didn’t particularly do anything for me. As I was watching, I felt that I just was waiting and waiting for something more to happen and it just never did. Wanda was a scene-stealer, which I was fine with, but I just felt disconnected from the events of the film. I didn’t walk out shocked or on a high from the film, I walked out surprised that that is what I waited 5 months for. Trust me, it pains me to say it, but Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness simply didn’t do it for me. They sacrificed strong storytelling for the action and you could tell, as the pacing felt off the entire time. We had near to no exposition to lay it all out for us making the transition from the first act to the second wonky. But I won’t harp on my general feelings without giving a full explanation to all of you, so let’s get into it.

As I mentioned, I am a Wanda girl and was going to root for her no matter what. But unfortunately, while Elizabeth Olsen did an amazing job portraying the evil Scarlet Witch, the writing was still a little off. Once again, we have fallen victim to the people involved in the film not doing their homework, and lord could you tell. Wanda finished WandaVision doing the right thing and still being a hero, and while the Darkhold did get a hold of her, we only had 30 seconds to make assumptions that she was going down a dark path. Then suddenly she is pure evil, willing to kill a child to get to her own, even though they never really existed in our universe. WandaVision was about healing, especially from her grief over Vision, yet that was continuously a point for her in this film as well. I’m not saying I didn’t mind her being evil, but we never really saw the descent into it, so it felt jarring. The whole film I wanted to root for her but couldn’t feel my Wanda (see what I did there), yet it’s true, I didn’t feel her she felt like this random bad guy, no different than any other Marvel film. I won’t say she wasn’t still a sympathetic villain, but she didn’t for a second feel like the Wanda we know and love.

I will 100% get into the cameo business, but I want to address that many who liked the film a lot argue that those who don’t like it felt the way they did because people had too high of expectations, particularly in the cameo area. I want to say I had expectations related to NWH and I know Taylor can agree to this. Obviously, with this film coming out after NWH and Dr. Strange being in the film we all expected it to be a follow-up, directly coming after the events of NWH. Even the trailers (which I will also get to) portrayed that our universe was in jeopardy because of Strange’s actions in NWH. But then this factor felt extremely left out in this film and it seemed that everything Strange did in NWH didn’t affect just about anything. The Multiverse seemed fine and they used America essentially as a scapegoat for Strange traveling through the Multiverse. I will say, both Taylor and I expected our universe to be falling apart and for the stakes to feel a whole lot higher than they did in a film regarding the Multiverse.

I said I would address it and here it is. Simply put, the trailers completely ruined this film in my opinion. Far too much was released ahead of time, essentially giving us the entire plot. I knew at almost any given scene how it would play out because of the trailers. They also exposed way too many of the cameos and this is why I bring it up. For those of you who read the predictions post for MoM, you know I said almost verbatim that if they were giving us this much in the trailers, then the movie itself had to have so much more. I think that was a fair assumption to make, the only problem being that that wasn’t true at all. They gave us everything, including Captain Carter, Maria as Captain Marvel, and comic accurate Professor X all in the trailers, and then there were only two more genuinely shocking cameos. As I said, the plot became predictable as well because of what was released in the trailers, and honestly, it sort of just sucked because I was really only shocked a few times.

I will say, one of the biggest shocks for me was those kill scenes cause they were off the wall. I didn’t expect my girl Wanda to just go off like that, completely murdering the Illuminati as if it was no one’s business. Not to mention, Lizzie has come out and said that the Wanda whose body the Scarlet Witch was using actually held back her power slightly, so the actual Scarlet Witch could have done a whole lot more damage than what we already saw. And of course, I can’t not talk about how much I love the Captain Carter kill cause we all know I don’t like her for various reasons. I definitely rooted her on for that one specifically.

But now we wait for another Dr. Strange film, huh? I think what the end credit did was perfect for what it needed to, but it did make this film like a Part 1 to a very important Part 2. For those of you who have seen Harry Potter, it feels a lot like Deathly Hallows Part 1, when the entire film works to set up the second one, and yes there’s some action but it didn’t really solve anything because it is getting us to a second, more important film. But now we have it, the Incursion is happening, Clea is here, and our Strange is being corrupted by the Darkhold that he has stored in his photographic memory. But I won’t go too deeply into this thought just yet, as we have a whole episode coming to talk more about the Multiverse aspect of this episode, this very important end credit scene, and why we think Secret Wars is being set up.

With all this being said, make sure to keep an eye out for our upcoming episode and corresponding blog post. I want to reiterate that the movie isn’t hated, just certainly not one of my favorite films for various reasons, as just explained. I am really hoping Dr. Strange 3 can give us a lot more of that multiversal action, as I was really looking forward to it here and didn’t get as much as I hoped. But moving forward, we will continue to cover the Multiverse and MoM leading up to our one year of being a podcast! Tune it for that very exciting episode in early June as well, where we will do some looking back on the past year and talk about some of the cool things to come in year two. While I don’t know your thoughts on MoM, I will still say in some way or another, that Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, JenniferJoy, Bullfrag

MoonKnight Episode 6

MoonKnight

Not one, not two, but THREE superheroes in one episode?

Whether you can believe it or not, the end to MoonKnight has arrived. It was one of, if not the shortest series finale we have gotten up to date, but it was sure jam packed with things. I would say it had its’ highs and lows, although it appears we may be setting up for a second season of MoonKnight in the future, which I definitely count as a high. I will get into some of our thoughts in one moment, but to hear all of them, make sure to click the button below to find your podcast listening platform of choice or hit the link below to start listening.

the podcast

I think starting with the most heartwarming (uh, literally) part of this episode is most important. For those who listened to our episode 5 thoughts, you know I felt Steven didn’t necessarily need to come back because he served a purpose for Marc to put his trauma behind him and let it go. That by no way means I wanted him to not come back, I just knew that if he didn’t it was alright. But I think Steven did his job almost too well and Marc knew he needed Steven with him and accepted him as a part of him. I thought that Marc coming back for Steven was what really showed Marc’s character growth and I won’t say I wasn’t happy that Steven came back. I will say the show wanted to give me a heartattack when it appeared only one of them made it through the doorway, but other than that it felt more complete to have them back together rather than only Marc returning. On the basis of DID, I think it did an amazing job at showcasing the need for acceptance and integration of the alters, as Marc was never going to be fully alterless. Him and Steven are now a team, which we see later on, and I think the journey to get there was both hilarious and heartwarming (again, literally).

So naturally I have to give us credit where credit is due, and that is that we accurately did predict that Layla would be the one to free Khonshu. Logically it made a lot of sense, since Marc and Steven were a little too busy being dead. Yet, Layla becoming an avatar herself and being a superhero was definitely not on my bingo card for the series finale. There was nothing wrong with it for me, as she looked amazing, but it did throw me off that she came out swinging as a hero when we had so little of MoonKnight himself. I think that would be my only main complaint from the finale because I felt we didn’t get enough of our main hero before we had them sharing the screen. But by no means is that me being disappointed in what we got because I truly loved the look and I do actually hope she decides to stay Tawaret’s avatar in the future. It would give us one of the best power couples (now that Wanda and Vision are off the table).

I have to honestly give MoonKnight the best fight scene in all the shows and rank it very high in general to all the fight scenes in movies as well (and that means a lot cause I’m a Bucky fan). I think between regular MoonKnight and Layla it would have already been awesome, but the newfound ability of switching at hyper speed between Steven and Marc, and therefore Mr. Knight and MoonKnight, made it just top tier. They both looked absolutely amazing during the fight and it left me wanting so much more of it. Of course, then we also had Ammit and Khonshu fighting behind on the horizon, which I think added even more to the depth and meaning of the fight. It didn’t just feel like a fist fight, you could feel how important it was and that both sides felt that they were doing the right thing. I think stylistically it was amazing and I would love to see more of the fighting in future MoonKnight works, especially now that Steven has established his ability to fight as well. On top of this, now that we have Jake (which I will address in one second), I would really enjoy seeing the three switching around in the middle of fights and seeing the full extent of MoonKnight’s powers.

I know you are all waiting for me to talk about this so I am going to just cut to the most important part of this episode and it wasn’t even in the actual episode (end credit scene). The time officially came and we got our man Jake Lockley. I know you all are aware there have been hints to Jake before, but the hint they gave us during the fight scene where Marc and Steven both black out then come through pulling an ax from Harrow’s head just gave me chills. I think we can confirm our theory that Jake is definetly more gung ho and is willing to do what he has to do, no matter how it comes about. It doesn’t make him evil, just very determined with very little holding him back from his tasks, unlike Marc especially. It makes me very very excited to meet him fully in future works.

Yet now that we have Jake, where does this set up MoonKnight in the future? For one, I think Jake will own a dark suit, as he has that darker persona in the show. And I believe 100% that we will get another season of MoonKnight before seeing him hit the big screen. This being said, the next season will be the journey of Jake and his life with Marc and Steven. It is definitely going to be shocking to watch, since as of right now Marc and Steven think they are done with Khonshu and Jake clearly isn’t. They also have an idea that there is someone else, so it should be interesting to see how the story is told to explain why they just sorta moved on from it at the end of this episode. Marc and Steven both know they blacked out, so it feels a little weird that they just glossed over it, as both of them know what it is like to black out because another alter takes control. It does just make me more ready to see another season and build this character even more.

Before we wrap up here, I want to address Khoshu and his relationship with Marc and all of his alters. When we first meet this relationship, Marc very clearly resents him for making him become his toy. Steven, I might argue, hates him even more, as he has the outsider’s perspective on how Khonshu just uses Marc and manipulated him into servitude. During this episode, we see the two of them strike a deal with Khonshu that after taking down Harrow, their servitude is done and they are free. Obviously, this only semi works as Khonshu then takes advantage of Marc’s DID and enlists Jake to be his avatar. But this leaves some questions that I need answers to, such as how does Jake feel about working with Khonshu? Does Jake have any knowledge of Marc/Steven to draw from or is he completely separated right now? And I think the most important question is will Jake be the key to eventually being MoonKnight without Khonshu? For reference, in the comics it does become possible for MoonKnight to exist without Khonshu, and I would have to imagine we are heading there since Khonshu can’t keep finding alters to manipulate. Not to mention, right now 2 out of 3 alters don’t particularly like Khonshu, so in order to have the full hero, Khonshu will have to go. Once again, they are setting it up perfectly for a second season.

One final thing that I will add is that the reason I keep saying a second season makes sense is that characters in the shows so far have not gotten their own films. The closest we have gotten has been Wanda, who of course is playing a very different role in MoM than where we saw her in WandaVision and it isn’t her film directly. I doubt that they are going to make a film directly for MoonKnight to continue his character development when another season will work just fine. I completely endorse the idea that the first time we will see MoonKnight on the big screen will be in some sort of team-up work, which is a little bit in the future from where we are currently in the MCU. All of this being said, this brings us to the end of our MoonKnight coverage. Of course, we are still covering MoM, so keep an eye out on all things related to that and then we will be on a small content freeze as we wait for Ms. Marvel to debut in June. But don’t worry, there’s still plenty for us to talk about, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “MoonKnight Episode 6”, Sarah Aubin, Movie Fone

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Official Predictions

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

The time has officially arrived to unleash the Madness.

Whether you can believe it or not, Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is here and we are hyped. Of course, if you have been following us you know we have been talking about it quite a bit, both in relation to other shows and also in its’ own episodes. This is quite a moment, as this is the only film to have had two (semi) predictions episodes come prior to our official predictions episode, so for the sake of making it easy, I have dropped the links to both of our earlier episodes covering the first two trailer drops. This latest episode picks up from there, talking about some more theories that we have leftover going into all of this. I do want to let you know that the day AFTER we recorded this episode, another huge TV spot left us with more information, so this blog post will include some of the theories and thoughts that came from that as well. If you’re ready to go into Madness, click the button below or listen to all three of the podcasts linked.

the podcast

Since we spent most of our newest episode discussing it, I want to start off talking about Wanda and her fate in this film. By this I mean, is she going to be a good guy or a bad guy. Now, we did discuss this before, but the newer trailers are painting her to possibly now be a good guy (as the first few weren’t looking too hot). Here’s our take: Wanda won’t be evil when Strange shows up for help, but I think she will realize what he is asking means the Multiverse is open and can be used for her to find her children. I don’t think she is going into this a villain, however, I do think she will seek her opportunity to find her kids and if that places her on the wrong side I don’t think she will care. I also think she will help Strange with his Multiversal problem until her helping him no longer helps her agenda. This is why I think we see some scenes where she appears to be fighting with him and others where it seems she is obliterating the good guys (y’all know exactly what scene I’m talking about). We also now have gotten a scene of her storming into the Illuminati and wreaking havoc, so I think it is safe to say Wanda is a mother who will do absolutely whatever it takes to get her children back, no matter who stands in her way.

Now Mordo’s involvement in this film has been discussed before, but now we see that he is involved with the Illuminati. This doesn’t really surprise me, since the Illuminati acts as special beings police essentially and Mordo really hates magic users. Strange being forced to see them/captured isn’t all that shocking since he sorta destroyed the universe and allowed for the Multiverse to create chaos. I think the biggest thing that threw me off was Mordo’s involvement in this film altogether. We obviously knew he was set up for a villain role in another Dr. Strange film, but this movie is so congested with chaos that I was really shocked they had him in this one. I’m going to be intrigued to see if this will be the end of Mordo and if he will act as the main “big bad”, if you will, of this film. He doesn’t have a ton of screen time in the trailers, which obviously indicates near to nothing, but it still means that there is so much else going on already in the trailers that I feel the movie might end up the same way. My best bet is Wanda will possibly stop Mordo, since I think there’s an element to where she needs Strange’s help, so him being captured doesn’t exactly help her.

So a huge TV spot spoiler was the scenes of Captain Carter making her appearance. I don’t think this fully surprised people, since we also see Evil Strange from the What If? series as well. I think what suprised a lot of us was that we got this confirmation at all. We knew What If? was going to play a role (and if you haven’t watched it literally go watch it NOW), but the role seems to have increased drastically. If they are willing to show Captain Carter, then what else should we be expecting to see from that series? I am 100% hinting at the possibity of seeing Ultron Vision, which would be literally so amazing and terrifying I think I would cry. But the entire series is up for grabs and we now have to be prepared to see any of the What If? scenerios, including zombies as well.

As I said, the biggest shock to Marvel from the fans was Captain Carter’s cameo, since it left many fans asking: Who are the big cameos then? If they’re willing to show us that, then there are some major cameos making their way, even bigger than we anticipated. So who the heck are they? Can we expect the X-Men? I’m betting if we get any X-Men (minus Professor X since he is confirmed) it would be either Quicksilver or Wolverine. Quicksilver for the sake of Wanda, but Wolverine for the final fairwell to Hugh Jackman in that role. Friendly reminder de-aging technology is possible, so we could see him at any point in his film journey. Are we going to see old friends? I would be shocked if we didn’t. I’m thinking some people who we won’t ever see again, like Cap, Iron Man, or Nat. If we consider the What If? series, then we have to consider that they took one Natasha out of one story and put her in another, so it is possible that we could see something similar (please, I’m begging). But I think the cameo I would absolutely love the most would be the Human Torch played by Chris Evans. There’s just something about having Cap back not as Cap that would be both hilarious and satisfying. But like I said, if we saw Captain Carter already, then the cameos that are going to happen have to be HUGE.

Let’s discuss our end credit scene predictions, since those are going to be a mess. Taylor and I essentially have reached the conclusion that because we have not a clue what will happen in this film, predicting end credit scenes is close to impossible. But we do have some thoughts. I’m going with one of the end credit scenes being related to Wanda, as there has been a lot of talk about her getting her own film(s). I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a little end credit scene setting this up in some way or setting up something for her kid’s future. But I think the shock factor end credit scene, the one that will leave the audience screaming, crying, or throwing up is going to be a full introduction to the next big group, aka the new X-men (or old?) or the new Fantastic Four (or old?). I put the old ones in only for the sake that what would leave the audience really shocked would be seeing the older groups, just like seeing our Spider-Men. But, for the sake of an end credit and the setting up of another film or show, introducing the next generation of either of these groups would make the most sense.

I hate to bring up what I am about to bring up, but since we are talking about end credit scenes, I want to share a thought Taylor and I both included as a possible end credit scene. This would be THE shock factor, the end credit scene that would leave us talking more than Venom licking a little Tom Spidey on a TV screen. And that would be the introduction or mega hint to the man (or demon?) himself: Mephisto. I know I just caused a major uproar and I am so sorry since I know we have quite literally been talking about Mephisto since WandaVision. But for those of you that are familiar with the comics, Mephisto plays a HUGE role in essentially most of the storylines we have been seeing and some of the ones predicted to come our way. This is so important to us to try and prove my guy is coming, so I’m linking here a link to his comic book appearances and summaries of them for all of you to do some light reading and understand the roles he could be playing.

I want to wrap this up with some talk on the Multiverse itself. Clearly, this film is a culminating point to what much of Phase 4 has been creating. So now the big question we have been asking is will it stay open? My best bet is no, but we will be living with the consequences of whoever comes through while it is open for a very long time. We also have received confirmation on how some of the Multiverse opening process works, so we finally found out that Loki and Sylvie’s actions and Kang’s death is what allowed Strange’s spell in NWH to go wrong. This let’s us know a little bit better of a time line and how some of that process goes together. But the Multiverse is endless and the things we could see because of it are huge. If they do choose to keep it open, which would make sense for characters like America Chavez who travels through the Multiverse, we would have literally endless storylines and possibilities. No one would stay dead, nothing would be permanent, and there will always be bad guys worse than the one before.

Well, we have come to the final end of our predictions and the next time I will talk to y’all will be after Taylor and I both have seen MoM. I am hoping everyone bought tickets, as early showings start TONIGHT and this is a huge opening weekend. I can’t lie and say I am not sitting here currently anxious about what I am walking into in a few hours. I genuinely hope everyone is super excited for what we are going to see, as this is one of the most anticipated Marvel films ever. As far as our show, we will have our (possibly) first reactions episode coming out this weekend, giving you plenty of time to watch the movie then come and catch up with us. Depending on what this film leaves us with, we may have a second reactions episode coming out next week to cover the rest of the content if this film is as crazy as we have been told it would be. So with that, get ready for some major content from us and let’s hop into the Multiverse this weekend, since Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, Christine Dinh, Marvel

MoonKnight Episode 5

MoonKnight

At least I was right about getting answers in this episode.

I think after episode 4 we were almost convinced that MoonKnight couldn’t get any crazier, but lord were we wrong. Episode 5 had me feel just about every emotion there was to feel, along with answering endless questions, some that I think we even forgot we wanted the answer to. One thing is for sure, I am shocked we are now upon the conclusion, as I feel I only just really began to understand the full extent of the show. I mean I felt that way in episodes 3 and 4 until the last ten minutes turned everything on its’ head. But now I think I have it and we are at the finale already. The win I take from all of this is that I should be going into episode 6 without questions right? I wish, but don’t worry, we have an entire episode here for your listening pleasure to really cover what we found out in this latest episode and what we still want to know. You can listen by either following the button below or clicking directly on the link!

the podcast

I think starting this blog post off with the most prominent aspect of this episode is the best tactic here since so much happened and there’s plenty to talk about. That being said, I want to talk about Marc’s childhood and especially everything that happened with his mother. I know from the very first episode we talked a little about his mom since Steven seemed to be on the phone with her often in the beginning. We knew there was a story and then Layla confirmed it in I believe episode 3. But I don’t think a single one of us thought that his mom would blame him for his brother’s death and begin to abuse him throughout his childhood. Losing a sibling is hard enough, let alone without a parent blaming you for it and changing your entire relationship with them. It is such a dark storyline that I don’t think we have really ever seen before in the MCU and is so true to things that could be happening in someone’s life right now. In the podcast, we compared the situation to that of a movie, which at the time we couldn’t recall the name of. If you are interested in watching it, the movie is called Ordinary People and it actually has a semi-similar storyline to Marcs’.

Since we are talking about the traumatic events of this episode, let’s talk about the fact we have finally gotten concrete proof about who is the one who has the alters. So we see that Marc’s brain made Steven to escape from the abuse from his mother, which goes back to what I was speaking about very early on about DID, as it is typically caused by trauma in childhood. I did think that it was pretty interesting that we didn’t really see much on how his brother’s death impacted him or the fact that he also almost died that day. Clearly his brother meant a lot to him, as they shared a love for the film that Steven’s name later came from. Regardless, one thing I did find a little weird is that Marc was 100% aware of Steven’s existence his whole life and felt that he had control over him. This does answer a question we posed a little while ago about on how Marc sort of hid from Layla his DID, but it is inaccurate that someone with DID would at all times be aware of their alters (especially in childhood). Taylor also pointed out that it was strange his parents (or his dad) never seemed to notice, but Marvel seems to be wanting us to believe Marc used Steven as an escape until their lives bled to close into each other and he lost control of that.

It wouldn’t be my blog if I didn’t talk about the fact that the therapy session with Dr. Harrow is a great way to show the main treatment for DID, which is integration of all the alters. All around, it was also just a really powerful moment, seeing Oscar Isaac play these two characters back to back and work through such moving moments. But as we speak of these two characters, we have to question if this is the end of Steven all together. Have the alters been integrated? Personally, I want to say yes, since I think Steven’s purpose was to accept Marc and allow him to understand his past is not his fault. While I adore him, I think he served his purpose for Marc’s life and bringing him back is not as needed for Marc’s character development going forward.

I want to point out something many fans have begun to point out already with other shows and films and we have now seen it in Moonknight. That something is the color purple being the color of phase 4. Now it could just be a color running throughout for the sake of continuity, however, Marvel never really just ‘does’ something just to do it. If you need a reminder on where the color purple has been seen before, I promise I have you. The first example is Agatha’s powers in WandaVision, then Zemo’s hood appears purple in TFAWS, and Loki was of course the scene between him and Sylvie plus Kang’s robe and the opening of the Multiverse. Hawkeye was obviously purple in general, then the cracks in NWH were all purple. Now we have seen it on Moonknight and the latest MoM trailer shows some purple magic as well. To give some background the color purple can signify wisdom, bravery, and spirituality and in the MCU, the color purple has usually been tied to the power stone. Where all of this could all fit in each of these works or what it could mean altogether is unknown, but try to keep your eye out for more purple as we move forward.

Another huge moment this episode is seeing the story finally unfold on Marc’s past leading up to becoming MoonKnight and how that happened. This was another big win for us, learning that the night of Layla’s dad’s murder was the same night that Marc nearly lost his life and met Khonshu. But the fact that Khonshu took advantage of a man who was ready to die puts a much darker turn to Marc’s powers. It also allows us to know why Marc seems to hate working for Khonshu so much. It is very likely that when Marc releases Khonshu, he will make a deal to continue being MoonKnight with less of an impact from Khonshu himself.

Before I reach our final point, I want to briefly discuss the concept of what is real and what isn’t. As of right now, we technically still don’t know if Marc is dead and going through an entire inner journey or has been essentially hallucinating all of this in a mental hospital. For the sake of the show and superhero, he is definetely dead and somehow about to come back to life, but it doesn’t negate that we went on quite a wild ride. I don’t know how Marc’s rebirth will work, but I want to think Layla maybe managed to free Khonshu so that Marc can heal himself. It would also help, since there is so much to resolve in this final episode and freeing Khonshu is still on that list currently.

Okay, I know this is the world’s longest blog post since probably the WandaVision era, but I want to wrap it up by talking about my good man Jake. We obviously didn’t get him (or did we?) this episode, but we may have gotten a little something. Now in the podcast episode, Taylor refers to a clue about Jake and I go off on one I thought she was talking about but was totally wrong. But turns out, there was possibly a hint to Jake and to make it easy, I attached a Tiktok here to show you the scene. Now my best bet is Jake is still coming and will be the alter Marc adopts going forward. This may be our first sighting of him, which would be fitting as Steven exited this episode as well. Just some food for thought for everyone until the series finale.

As I just mentioned it, we are at the series finale of MoonKnight this week, wrapping up yet another great Marvel TV show. But we also have the much anticipated MoM premiering this week as well. Naturally, we will be covering both of these and trying to get the content out as quickly as possible so you hear all our thoughts following both of these big moments. We will have a full episode covering both and a possible second one coming next week to cover the rest of MoM (if needed, but I feel like we will) so keep an eye out as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Moonknight episode 5”, Alleef Ashaari, Kakuchopurei

MoonKnight Episode 4

MoonKnight

Well things just got weird(er).

This episode started off with us loving Steven (the bean) and living through our Egyptian phase (just me?) as they went tomb diving. But somehow we ended with a talking hippo and having Steven and Marc separated into two different beings and maybe Jake hanging out in a sarcophagus. Obviously we have a lot to talk about here, but we talk about a lot more in the full podcast episode. Click the button below to find the listening platform of your preference or listen below with the link provided.

the podcast

The episode begins exactly where episode 3 left off and we got some insight into the idea that other gods have been imprisoned like Khonshu. I know from the get-go that I immediately thought about what gives these avatars (and in turn, their respective gods/goddesses) the right to imprison others. Even if this council is the governing body of the Egyptian gods, I don’t see how they have the right to imprison other gods under a rule that seems the minority holds. Choosing not to interfere with daily human lives outside of their avatars also sounds very familiar to the issues that took place in Eternals and very well could be the conflict between gods here once again. However, I do think this way of imprisonment shows just how powerful this council can be, which should be interesting to possibly see in the future. My best bet is that when Marc (or Steven) go to unleash Khonshu, they will likely unleash the other gods, starting a war among them all. Well, maybe the war won’t happen, at least not on screen, but I do think the unleashing of Khonshu will also come with the unleashing of the other imprisoned gods.

This episode once again really showed us how smart Steven is and allowed us to see him primarily as the alter in the most control for now. I just enjoyed that Steven was being the little bean he was and was fangirling over all of the ancient Egyptian artifacts since that would pretty much have been me if I was there. As Taylor said in this podcast episode, we got a lot of different action sequences that differ a lot from what we saw with MoonKnight and gave some Indiana Jones vibes. It definitely has shifted the tone of the show and makes it feel less super-heroy, whether that is a good thing for some or not so good thing for others. I think it helps to give diversity to the show in comparison to others, especially having one of the leads be a much softer person with interests outside of being a full-fledged hero. It also highlights (and you can call me stupid for this) the importance of having someone who isn’t just going to go in with their fists flying. It’s an interesting change and I am pretty intrigued to see where episode 5 takes it, especially with that ending.

I need to momentarily rant about this and it is just for the sake of my sanity, but I have to say I am over the ‘woman messes up the plan because she gets emotional narrative’. No matter your viewpoint on anything, I’m just over that specific storyline, as I think it has been over done in shows and films in general. And it always ends with the hero getting screwed over, as it did here. I could just do without and wouldn’t mind the whole narrative being avoided, as even in this episode, it wasn’t needed. They could have had Arthur and friends come right in when Steven pulled the statue out of the mummy’s mouth, yet instead had Layla interfere with something unimportant to the current mission. I guess my biggest issue comes from the fact that Layla is painted as a very ‘deal with this later, get what needs to be done finished now’ type of person, so seeing her interfere in a place that obviously screwed up the entire plan just also seemed out of character for her.

Before we reach that ending, I want to quick give a little insight on who the hippo is. Thanks to Twitter user Turns1701e, we have been gifted the knowledge that she is the goddess Tawaret, whose realm is pregnancy and motherhood. The biggest thing here is why would she have been in the scene, of all the gods and goddesses? The simple answer is that I don’t really know, but I can certainly deliberate on it. For one, it may be possible that with Steven coming out of the sarcophogus (and a certain someone else trapped within one) could be seen as a form of birth. That Steven (and Jake) are being born as their own separate beings, therefore tying to the goddess’s power of pregnancy. She also may act as a motherly figure to Steven and Marc while they are in this strange hospital scene, in which case she could be taken rather literally to her powers. Additionally, there is the whole ‘Steven was on the phone with his mom in the beginning of the show yet we haven’t heard anything else about it’ storyline, so it could show we might get an explanation here. Lastly, we could be thinking too much into this and Marvel may have just wanted to include her in the episode for the sake of having a goddess who is depicted as a hippo, so I don’t know.

So let’s finish this blog with the biggest thing that took place in episode 4 and that was the last 10 minutes, cause what. the. heck. Obviously I mentioned a little bit of it before, but the biggest aspect of this is trying to figure out if now everything we have seen has been in Marc’s head. Of couse, logically if it was in Marc’s head we wouldn’t have a superhero on our hands, so in the long run it would technically have to be actually happening. But it also might be partially in Marc’s head and him being in a mental hospital does make sense with his condition. Then with all of this, we get another hint at a third alter that may be waiting in his own sarcophogus. It certainly is interesting, as Marc and Steven are now two separate people, which could read that we are more directly in their mind and experiencing their lives as the two of them do. Honestly, I won’t lie and say I know what is going on here, but I do know next episode is going to be crucial in getting answers about pretty much everything.

Since I brought it up, the fifth episode of MoonKnight has come out TODAY, so go right from this blog post to watch it if you haven’t seen it already and are just here for a recap. Coming up, we have the final episode of MoonKnight one day before MoM begins early showings next week. This means that as a podcast we will be having two episodes next week, one covering the MoonKnight finale and the other being probably the first of two covering MoM. We haven’t had this big of a week since NWH and Hawkeye, so get ready cause Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Moonknight episode 4”, Screenrant, Head Topics

MoonKnight Episode 3

MoonKnight

Are we about to meet Jakey boy?

The newest episode of MoonKnight has left us in a strange place, just as much as I think Steven and Marc are in a strange place, figuratively and literally. We have really been thrown into it this episode and things are definitely picking up past understanding Steven’s (Marc’s?) DID. But before I get too into why we have entered chaos (hehe), make sure you listen to our entire thoughts in our lastest podcast episode. You can listen directly by clicking the link below or click the button to find your listening platform of choice.

the podcast

Since I opened this blog post with it, I have to make sure it’s the first thing I talk about so no one gets mad at me and leaves. During our predictions episode, we provided some background on MoonKnight, including the fact that he has an additional alter named Jake Lockley. Our best theory on him is that he is here and making a slow appearance, the most obvious being the beginning of episode 3 when Marc is pursuing the men through the streets of Egypt. Steven pushes for him to stop, but Marc eventually comes back murdering one of the men. Marc tries to blame Steven, who obviously is a teddy bear and was 100% sure it wasn’t him. They both seemed confused, indicating that a possible third alter made a brief appearance without either of them knowing. So who is Jake going to be for us in the MCU?

A big sticking point for us in this podcast episode is that Jake will be the bad of all bad. He is going to be the darkness that Marc holds himself back from and Steven couldn’t imagine being. In the show so far, Steven is clearly innocent (or if you know anything about Freud, similar to the Superego). We see this innocence even in his suit (Mr. Knight), as he is polished and the suit is a stark white. Marc is the middle man who balances between good and bad (Ego), never quite tipping fully either way and constantly trying to make sure he stays in line. His suit (the regular MoonKnight suit) is a dirty white, showing that he isn’t inherently good but not fully bad. But Jake might be that bad, that Id force that is purely bad even if for what is believed to be good intentions. If this holds true, I am betting we will see a dark gray or black suit for him.

One of the big moments of this episode is Khonshu’s imprisonment, which takes place as he tries to help Steven and Layla find where Arthur’s digsite is. Within this episode, we can see Khonshu beginning to earn at least partial respect for Steven, so it was a little upsetting to see him disappear at this point in their relationship. But now it is all about the fact that without Khonshu, there is no longer MoonKnight. Honestly, this holds very accurate to the Big Three’s triologies, in which they lose something important to them and have to learn to continue without it (suits, shield, and hammer if you aren’t sure what I was referring to). Obviously MoonKnight hasn’t gotten a full movie trilogy, but he is certainly facing the same struggle of being a hero without having his suit. The rest of the series will be based on this struggle, especially for Marc who is so used to utilizing suit. But I will say now, expect to see a big moment in likely the final episode in which we get a big suit up moment and have Marc AND Steven accept the true power of being MoonKnight.

I think the thing that caught my attention the most this episode was the showing of the Egyptian gods. We knew going into the show that they would play a part and discussed lightly how we have Norse and Egyptian mythology now present and confirmed in the MCU. But I don’t know if we knew what we would see exactly, not that we ever do. The meeting of the god’s avatars was an interesting way to show us that the Egyptian gods don’t believe in interferring with the everyday world other than having their alters. They essentially have faded into hiding, rather than being like Thor who is blantanty existing for people to see. Yet they still wield their power and interfere to some degree in life, just lightly. I know what struck me was the small amount, as there are many Egyptian gods that have been believed in. But then upon Khonshu’s imprisonment, it begins to appear that other gods may have suffered the same fate. The big question here for me is what allows this group to make the choices about who is imprisoned, as not all of them were present for Khonshu’s imprisonment. I hope to see more of the avatars moving forward, but right now I doubt it slightly just because of the whole ‘no god around anymore’ issue Marc is facing. I would love to see more of how the gods and their avatars play a role in everyday life, although I’m not too sure we are going to see that at this point.

Last but not least, we got the first connection to the rest of the MCU and specifically Phase 4. In an offhand comment, Madripoor is mentioned, relating to time that Layla spent there. Of course, Madripoor was introduced to us in TFAWS, and while that doesn’t mean there is a tie to that series directly, it does mean Madripoor is going to continue to be an interesting place that will play a part in Phase 4. But on top of this, it means she has a possibly sketchy past that may be important later in the series. During the same general area of the episode, a mention of Layla’s father has us thinking Marc may very much be connected to his death. He has a mercenary past and the mention of it was done just a little too suspiciously to not think he plays a part. This, coupled with her time in Madripoor, may create the final crack needed to create a rift between Marc and Layla.

Believe it or not, we are halfway through Moonknight, which seems absolutely crazy. We are hoping all of your are liking the show and are really into it. It is definetly different than what we have seen before and I think doing a more niche character is drawing people in even more. Episode 4 has aired today, so if you are just reading this now, go and watch the newest episode to see if we were right about anything (or if we were totally wrong, as we tend to be). We are coming up to two weeks of double headers, having both MoonKnight episodes and MoM related podcast episodes coming out, so be prepared for some extra content, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “MoonKnight Episode 3”, Caleb Borchers, Marvel News Desk

Morbius Reactions

Morbius

So how bad was Morbius?

If you’ve made it to the theaters in the past week or two, you know there has been quite a bit of buzz about how Morbius performed and, well, just how it was in general. And honestly, if you haven’t seen it yet, I’m sure you have been seeing it all over social media and probably trying to figure out if it’s worth going to see. I will never be an advocate of not seeing a Marvel or Marvel-adjacent film, but I will just say that maybe consider saving your money for MoM and waiting for Morbius to come out on streaming platforms. Just a small piece of advice if you haven’t seen it yet. But of course, we have watched it and are here to give you all our thoughts and feelings about the film and its’ bigger repercussions. You can catch the full podcast episode by clicking the link below, or clicking the button to find your preferred listening platform.

the podcast

I think the first thing that desperately needs to be talked about is the end credit scenes. After the film’s release, it came out that Kevin Feige had not been talked to about the end credit scenes, which I think was pretty obvious. Sony has, for better or worse (but aiming towards worse) screwed with the continuity of Marvel’s films, as they have created holes that we didn’t have until right this moment. Going into this film, we knew it would be interesting since the Vulture from Tom’s universe was already seen in the trailer. Which then became the whole of two end credit scenes, so that was already sort of annoying. But the concept that somehow Vulture came over from Tom’s universe makes no sense when Marvel explicitly said that everyone who knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man came over to Tom’s universe, not the other way around. And as Morbius showed, it seems that he is the only one that came into that universe from elsewhere. To make matters worse, Morbius confirmed that he is in the Venom-verse, which means that Venom went over to Tom’s universe too and STILL somehow Vulture came over to Morbius’. Then there’s the whole factor that when the spell was reversed Vulture didn’t return like everyone else did (or at least that we know of).

The last big issue with this is we have no confirmation that there is a Spider-Man in this universe either at the moment or coming in the future. This means Vulture teaming up with Morbius to fight Spider-Man makes nearly zero sense when Morbius has absolutely no beef with someone who he doesn’t even know. Now, of course, this means Spider-Man may make an appearance later, as either Tom’s, which would somehow mean Vulture and Morbius come to him or vice versa, or through another Spider-Man, such as Andrew or Miles Morales. The biggest reason Tom’s universe doesn’t make sense is solely because we did the Multiverse with him, and the Multiverse isn’t going to stay open forever. If anybody is going to travel anywhere, it needs to be ASAP. Could this be Andrew finally getting his third film? I literally have no clue I’m just throwing it out there for everyone. And lastly for Miles, once again, I have no clue what could happen, but like I said, this universe doesn’t have a Spidey yet (to our knowledge) so it could be really cool to introduce him here.

Another personal issue for me was the messy CGI. The worst of the CGI could be seen in the super awkward slow-mo shots that maybe could’ve been cool if the CGI was based in 2022 and not the early 2000s. It just was strange and made an already ‘meh’ movie just hard to get through. I will say that I thought it was cool how they went about showing some of Morbius’ powers, such as the echolocation and his flight abilities. It allowed the audience to really jump into the powers with him and know when they were being used. But like I said, had the CGI been better, I think it could have pulled the audience in more.

The plot was a typical Sony plot, which I predicted from the get-go in our predictions episode. The best part was prior to the newest trailer release, you actually didn’t fully know the plot. Sony, in the heat of trying to give this movie additional hype, actually spoiled the plot completely, making it so there were near to no surprise moments. His best friend is the bad guy, easy to see coming, and him becoming a vampire too? Done. You weren’t going to have a Sony anti-hero movie where the hero didn’t fight a foe that was him just evil (now is the moment to think about Venom and Venom 2). Then the whole girlfriend bit? Ah, let me get to that in one second. Regardless, everything about the film was like checking plot boxes, it didn’t give anything new and certainly didn’t take the audience on a ride with it. Instead, I sat there checking my watch, praying the film would end.

I said I would get to it and I keep my word. So the girlfriend (and no I didn’t pay enough attention to remember her name) becomes a vampire. Whoopeedoo. The issue is how they introduced it as if the people behind this film really looked at it and were like, yup we need to make another. Not to mention, it was introduced the exact same way they introduced the next foe at the end of Venom 2. Once again, we love the uniqueness of the film. I’m not sure we should be looking towards a sequel, as this film didn’t do great enough on its own to warrant a second one.

Now, we go a lot more in-depth with all of these ideas in the full podcast episode, so please make sure to listen to it to really understand our thoughts and feelings. After reading this, I’m sure you’re sitting there thinking Morbius is the worst film to ever exist. And honestly, it isn’t, but as an MCU-adjacent film, it certainly falls around Incredible Hulk. But it’s okay, as we will move forward from it to an actual MCU film and probably one of the most hyped films ever: MoM. I hope everyone has gotten their tickets since it premieres in less than three weeks! Also, continue to keep up with MoonKnight as it premieres every Wednesday. With all this content, Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Morbius”, Molly Freeman, ScreenRant

MoonKnight Episode 1

MoonKnight

Steven has had a very, very bad day.

The first episode of MoonKnight has come and gone and I have to coin it as one of the best opening episodes of all the series so far. While I will obviously get deeper into the episode in a moment, I need to praise how well done the episode truly was. As watchers, we have gotten thrown into the middle of a tumultuous ride, just like Steven, who essentially embodies us right now. We have no clue what is going on, things are all over the place, and some evil cult leader is mad at us for some reason that we don’t know. It is a genius way to go about the first episode, especially of an origin story for a character that we may have less knowledge about. But of course, we say this and so much more in the full podcast episode, so make sure to listen to the entire episode either by following the link below or clicking the button to find your listening platform of choice

the podcast

To fix something I say about forty times in the podcast, the name of the evil cult leader is actually Arthur Harrow. I can now call him by his name since I don’t think I knew it and said it once in the entire podcast episode. While we usually try to come in with all of our information straight, we are learning these characters the same day all of you are, so we are trying, I promise. I was more worried about keeping all of Steven’s alters straight, but I swear now that I know his name is Arthur he will be referred to as such.

Anyway, moving forward to one of the bigger moments, we have seen how Steven, Marc, and the MoonKnight blessing are portrayed and I really like that they use the reflection in the mirror as one of the main ways to differentiate. But from the way MoonKnight is portrayed as his own voice, we have to consider his being as a complete alter ego that up until this moment was only tapped into by Marc. He talks almost like Venom does to Eddie, but Eddie does only have one person essentially inside of him, while Steven has at least two. I will say, it’s intriguing to see that Steven appears to be the main alter, as he is the one that holds a day-to-day job and seems to function in the current time the most. However, there are clear moments where Marc seems to hold up Steven’s life just for the sake of keeping him safe, so the argument could also be that Marc is the main alter. Essentially, we have been confirmed of nothing in this sector and have to wait to receive further confirmation.

I think what I liked the most is the interaction between Steven and Arthur. Arthur at the beginning is very clearly confused with Steven, as you can tell he knows his alter. However, Arthur could kill Steven at any moment but chooses not to, all because Steven himself is innocent. You see this when he goes to judge him, as the scales cannot decide which way to turn, as Marc is guilty but Steven is innocent. My thoughts, which I share in full length in the podcast episode, are that when Arthur tells Steven to embrace the Chaos, he essentially wants him to accept the ‘bad’ side of him in order to bestow proper judgment on him as a person. If he does so, the only part of him deemed innocent will no longer exist and will be a willing accomplice to his darker side’s actions.

Something Taylor and I discussed going forward into episode two is the possibility of showing episode one but from Marc’s point of view. All those moments where Steven essentially “blacks out” would be really interesting to see and understand from the other side, basically giving Marc the same introduction we got for Steven. It would be especially cool because Marc clearly has more knowledge of his DID and MoonKnight aspects, so while being thrown in with a confused Steven worked really well for episode one, having someone who can explain a little more to us would be great to fill the audience in.

As I mentioned that Marc has an understanding of MoonKnight, I also want to quickly discuss how Arthur and his team of baddies already are on MoonKnight’s radar. He clearly was already working to intercept them and mess up their plans of what sounds like bringing a goddess back fully to life. I think this is a big reason I would like to see the next episode from Marc’s point of view, as there’s further background on who Arthur is and how they initially crossed paths. Who is MoonKnight working for, if anyone? Who put him on Arthur’s path? These are things I want more of before we explore further into the current storyline.

The strength of this episode is similar to very few of the opening episodes in the other live-action shows that we have gotten so far. However, I do want to point out one small thing that bothered me slightly. As much as I love Marvel, I think we fans have learned to hold them to a pretty high standard. And even if they have a little less for their shows than their big blockbuster films, it doesn’t change that we do expect some of the simple things to be there. My only issue with MoonKnight was honestly the CGI, specifically in the car chase. I’m not entirely sure what happened, as when we see MoonKnight suiting up for the first time (obviously CGI), it looks fine, and honestly even the weird monster thing in the museum doesn’t look half bad. We’ve also seen car chases in Marvel before, so I truly have no clue how we ended up having one that just didn’t look right at almost any moment. I hope that it was a small fluke and the rest of the serious won’t be plagued by other iffy moments.

Either way, MoonKnight definitely already has been a treat for all of us hungry Marvel fans, so I’m hoping you’re all enjoying it and ready for more. Of course, we have five weeks of MoonKnight plus the hype for Multiverse of Madness, as tickets went on sale TODAY. If you haven’t gotten your tickets for opening weekend, put that on the to-do list for today, along with watching the next episode of MoonKnight that also came out this morning. Lot’s of content from Marvel, finally, so eat it all up now, cause Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “MoonKnight Episode 1”, Rachel Paige, Marvel