Who's Ready for Secret Warriors?

Hafa Adai! Welcome to Chamorro Cinema, I'm Island Boy Manuel and in continuing with this series on Superhero TV, I'm gonna break down all you need to know about the Secret Warriors when they premiere on my second favorite superhero show, Marvel's Agents of Shield.

Even though it's one of my favorites now, in the beginning of Agents of SHIELD (AOS), I wasn't entirely sold on the spy drama. It seemed to be to mired down in a freak-of-the-week formula and it didn't have enough ties to the MCU.  It really wasn't until the Winter Soldier that this show really seemed to find its place and began to set itself up as somewhere Marvel could invest time on the conflicts that they couldn't spend in the films.

Most of the Hydra fallout was covered in AOS; they set up who the Inhumans are before they hit the big screen. We also saw the seeds of the Civil War being sown - when the show had two different versions of Shield with two different views on dealing with supers.

Now we are going to see how Coulson deals with super powered threats because the world of AOS is about to get weirder...since Season 2 ended with Terrigen crystals tainting a supply of fish oil, the official synopsis tells us that new threats will arise because of "... the spread of Terrigen, an alien substance that unlocks superhuman abilities in select individuals; the emergence of new Inhumans who cannot yet control nor understand their powers.."

We know that this season will debut the Secret Warriors. In the comics The Secret Warriors were created by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, and are a team of super powered agents led by Daisy Johnson (Quake).

In Season 2, it was discovered that Skye was actually Daisy Johnson, the daughter of Cal Zabo (Johnson)... so it's a no-brainer that she will lead this new team in finding and either assisting or confronting these new Inhumans.

The roster of the Secret Warriors includes Daisy and Nick Fury (throughout her numerous comic appearances she has always been a close ally and confidant of Nick Fury...with Skye filling that role on TV, all of that trust and history has been transferred to Phil Coulson, so expect him to replace Fury in any comic storylines they might adapt). It also contains Alexander Aaron (Phobos), Sebastian Druid (Druid), Yo-Yo Rodriguez (Slingshot), J.T. Slade (Hellfire),  and Jerry Sledge (Stonewall).

Phobos

In the comics, Phobos is the son of Ares. He has the power to instill fear and can see the future to some extent. I doubt that we will see a true to the comics version of this character, but WHAT IF he was the bastard child of Dr. Elliot Randolph. We know doctor Randolph has a penchant for the ladies and Asgardians are the closest to gods that we've seen in the MCU. So WHAT IF he fathered a son and due to his past experience as wielding a Berserker Staff, he passes some of the mind altering effects of the staff to his son...it's a stretch but it could happen.

Druid

Sebastian is the son of Doctor Druid and he uses magic. In the comics,  Fury put Druid in the care of John Garrett to get him in shape and train him. For the show it's unlikely that a psycho like Garrett would have had contact with Druid and not made him a Hydra asset...but WHAT IF Garrett was his S.O. and he caught on to the fact that Garrett and Ward were dirty so after being left for dead by Ward in Asia (Marvel is not using Tibet to appease the Chinese market) he comes in contact with Stephen Strange, who trains him to unlock his potential.

Slingshot

Yo-Yo Rodriguez can run at superhuman speed and bounce back to the point where she began running... so I guess that comes in handy...unless the bad guys just wait for you to bounce back...but anyway. Television loves speedsters so it will be a nice counter balance to DC's the Flash...and T.V. could always use another strong female character. The nice part about adapting this character is that she can be retconned into being an Inhuman rather easily.

Hellfire

J.T. Slade is tied really close to Ghost Rider...he's the son of Sam Elliot, the horse back Ghost Rider from the first film. He can charge things with literal Hell Fire. He eventually dies after it is revealed he is a Hydra
Agent. With Marvel getting the rights back to Ghost Rider it's possible they could introduce J.T., but I don't think it will happen. They have Lincoln Campbell to fill the elemental spot on the roster, just replace fire with electricity and it keeps things from getting too complicated origin wise.

Stonewall

Jerry Sledge is the son of Crusher Creel, who is bailed out of jail by Daisy Johnson. He can grow and has superhuman strength and can change the properties of his skin to stone or metal or just about anything. I think we've already seen this character. I think that they will say that Crusher Creel from the premiere of Season 2 is actually Jerry and he inherited the name "Crusher" from his dad. I think that's why he was never presented as an all out evil character and that Daisy will get him out of whatever prison Talbott has him locked up in. This cleans up the fact that Crusher fought Daredevil's dad a long ass time ago and appears so young in AOS.

All-in-all I'm pretty excited about seeing these characters come to life on the screen. But let me know what you think in the comments below. You can also follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Keep it locked right here to Chamorro Cinema for more NERDTASTIC NEWS with an ISLAND VIEW!

Thanks for reading! PEACE!

First look at CBS' Supergirl TV show

Up in the Sky! It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's DC Trying to Beat Marvel with a Female led Series!

Hafa Adai! Welcome to Chamorro Cinema where we talk about all the NERDTASTIC NEWS with an ISLAND VIEW.

The fall is coming up quick and with that comes a new generation of comic book television shows. Last week we talked about ARROW and this week we're giving you the low down on Supergirl.

On the show, Melissa Benoist (Glee) is playing the titular super heroine. She lives in National City as Ally McBeal's Cat Grant's Assistant. In the comics Kara Zor-El is sent by her parents to earth to be raised by her cousin Kal-El (Superman). They had survived the explosion of Krypton but the land under their domed city, Argo, became Kryptonite and they all died slowly of radiation poisoning. When she first arrives on earth she becomes an orphan and adopts the identity of Linda Lee. She hides here blond hair under a brunette wig and secretly assists Superman while avoiding being adopted. Eventually she is adopted by Engineer/Rocket Scientist Fred and Edna Danvers and after a few months was finally announced to the rest of DC Universe. She is then killed off in Infinite Crisis, before returning in all her glory a few years later.

The cast includes quite a few DC heroes and villains infact she works with a few...

Cat Grant, played by Calista Flockhart... playing Maryl Streep's character in Devil Wears Prada.

 In the comics, Cat is a trashy gossip columnist for the Daily Planet who is always portrayed as creeping on Clark. Later she becomes more like the the J. Jonah Jameson to Kara's Spider-man.

On the Show she is Rupert Murdoch! The head of CatCo, a media conglomerate and generally an all around master of the universe type.

Her son is Carter Grant (Levi Miller) and he is described as, "sensitive, shy and has a crush on
Supergirl". In the comics his name is Adam and he is kidnapped and killed by the Toyman.

Jeremy Jordan as Winslow "Winn" Schott. In the comics, Winslow is the first iteration of Toyman.

He is more nuisance than supervillian but after Crisis he becomes more sinister. He has a psychotic break and kills Cat Grants son Adam (Later we find out it was his son, the Dollmaker, that actually killed Adam).

In the show he's a tech expert who works alongside Kara at CatCo. No word on whether or not we will see him talking to "Mother" or any of his darker tendencies. This is great material for a drama, but I think its too dark for the show CBS is making. Also Winn is far too young to have a son on the show.

Jimmy Olsen (Mehcad Brooks), leaves the Daily Planet to become art director of a media conglomerate. That's totally logical right? Go from local newspaper photographer to art director of a massive media company...Any way he's the love interest for Kara.
He was previously involved with Lois Lane's sister Lucy (Jenna Dewan-Tatum). In the comics, Jimmy is the plucky young photographer that serves as the readers idealistic proxy.

Instead of A.R.G.U.S. and Amanda Waller we are getting the Department of Extra-Normal Operations (DEO), headed by Hank Henshaw (David Harewood). Hank Henshaw is most know for being the cyborg superman during the reign of Supermen storyline. This is the most surprising character on the show thus far. The fact that DC is giving them such a recognizable villain to use, and that they are changing his origin so much is a testament to how much they trust CBS with these characters.

Kara's earthly and Kryptonian family is represented by Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers (a character unique to the show) who works for Hank at the DOE. In the trailer she appears to be a best friend type character to Kara, but if you look closely at the flashback sequence she appears to be looking out the window at Kara and Superman with contempt/jealousy...could she be manipulating Kara for her own benefit?






Laura Benanti as Alura Zor-El (Kara's birth mother). Alura Zor-El is going to be getting the Russell Crowe treatment and will function as Kara's guide into the world of Spaulding inspired superheroing. We recently saw this actress as Sadie on Nashville - so between her, Melissa Benoit (Glee) and Jeremy Jordan (Smash) we could have a musical episode for sure...it could guest star the other Glee alumn Grant Gustin from the Flash.

Helen Slater and Dean Cain as Kara's foster parents Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers. I'm not sure why they changed the names of her foster parents...but hey they are changing things left and right so what's one more thing. The coolest part about this casting is that Helen Slater played Supergirl in the 1980's and Dean Cain was superman in the 1990's.



Okay now that that's out of the way...I am concerned about this show. It feels like someone wrote a script adapting The Devil Wears Prada and then had to take that script and change it into a Supergirl story.

The trailer looks good, it just looks like there are lots of tonal shifts that seem haphazardly thrown together. There looks like a decrease in quality as well between the "Felicity" style portions and the portions featuring the DOE. I hope that when the show premieres these sections are more seamlessly stitched together with the dramatic elements.

I'm also worried about the sheer number of people who know her secret identity by the end of the trailer. We lose some of the potential drama of balancing both superhero and personal lives if the support system is too large.

That's what I think, but I want to know what you think about the upcoming Supergirl TV show. Leave me a comment below. You can also follow me on Twitter @manuelmendiola and check out Chamorro Cinema on YouTube.

Thanks for reading. 

Peace!

Top Things that make this Marvel Fanboy want to suit up for Team Arrow this season...

Hafa Adai! 

With Arrow Season 4 rapidly approaching I thought why not fill you in on the TOP REASONS I'm fixing to  tune into the CW's flagship super hero series this fall. Welcome to Chamorro Cinema, I'm Island Boy Manuel and today I'm talking Arrow.... 

Oliver's NeW Suit

As these shows keep getting bigger, the pressure is on to keep in step with the big screen big brothers and Marvel updates their character costumes with each film so why should the DCtvU be any different.

The new Arrow suit is much more of what we expect from a cinematic superhero costume ever since Bryan Singer brought X-Men kicking and screaming into the world.

It is still very tactical...where his original costume was long-sleeved and looked more like it was hobbled together at your local thrift shop, this suit is leathery, has shoulder pads, is more form-fitting and has that kick ass pair of gauntlets and arm straps that pull it more in line with the NEW 52 version of the character. In fact, the major differences are in the color, the belt buckle, and that brownish-green Arrow's bandoliers are on his shoulders instead of his hips

I like the look...he'll fit in more with the other members of the Legends of Tomorrow. I love that they are stepping out of the dark and gritty world that Nolan made and starting to embrace some of the lighter, more fantastic elements of comics.

Behold....The New Arrow Cave

Speaking of fantastic...how awesome does the Arrow Cave look this season? Given that only two people in all of Starling haven't been alerted to the fact that Oliver Queen moonlights as a masked vigilante it was time to get a bigger cave. In the foreground we see the large conference table (hopefully it will be chock full of supers by the end of the season) and as we look deeper on the left side, there are at least five costumes and a station displaying readings and bio feedback, in the far back we see a car and motorcycle, but these look more like personal vehicles, and Felicity has a massive work station in the center full of displays and monitors. This new set looks to bring a much larger sense of scale to the show and puts it on par with "Star Labs" on The Flash or "the Bus" on Agents of Shield.  

A Slew of New Stars are Coming to Starling

Four new characters have been announced for Season 4.

The one I'm most excited about is Mister Terrific, played by Echo Kellum (Ben and Kate).

In the comics, Mr. Terrific is actually Michael Holt (on Arrow he will be Curtis). He is a multi-millionaire that owned a company called Cyberwear (on the TV show he'll be an employee of Palmer Technologies), an Olympic decathlete, and after becoming a superhero decides to take on the mantle of Mister Terrific, a silver age hero whom he idolizes. I'm not sure about the reason for the name change, but I get the reason for making him work at Palmer Technologies. If he were to be another rich tech genius that just happened to show up in Starling City and become a super hero with a high tech suit, well there would be too many similarities to Brandon Routh's Ray Palmer; and as pissy as we comic book geeks can get about keeping in line with the comics, we are not the majority of Arrow's viewers. It sounds like we will get to see him suit up by the end of this season (I'm holding out hope to see Diggle (David Ramsey) in his own costume as well).

Jimmy Akingbola will portray Reiter,  an alternate take on Baron Blitzkrieg.

This is a huge departure from the comic character, who is a flying Baron Von Strucker combined with Cyclops. Seeing as how the original Blitzkrieg is a Nazi psychopath, I'm sure that he won't be too closely modeled after the character. 

I'm sure he'll be the leader of Shadowspire and like Damien Darhk, he will have some ties to the Legends of Tomorrow villain, Vandal Savage. He is the only new character who will potentially have super powers. Jimmy Akingbola has been doing comedic roles on the BBC for a while now so it will be fun to see what he does with this serious character.  

Parker Young will play Alex Davis, a new character that was created for the show. 

He is some sort of political consultant that works for Oliver and will be the new love interest for Thea Queen (Willa Holland). He's the standard CW type...pretty-boyish. I don't have much to say about him since he has no comic counterpart, but if Oliver has a political consultant...does that mean we could see him as mayor?

In the comics, Oliver is Mayor of Star City following infinite crisis. He is more or less a pretty corrupt Mayor; he blackmails businesses and manipulates the markets to make himself rich (all from unscrupulous companies by the way) and he does things politically to get a rise out of people.

Alexander Calvert will be playing Anarky.

Anarky in the comics is most closely associated with Batman...and since the Arrow version of Oliver Queen is a poor man's Bruce Wayne, this should be a perfect fit. He's a child prodigy that uses a ton of gadgets to make up for his lack of super powers. Described as the Moriarty to Batman's Sherlock, Anarky is not a traditional villain and even had his own series.

Anarky is a great choice for this show since he is more of an Anti-Villain. His message of social justice and anti-statism should speak to the impoverished citizens of the glades and will make an interesting counter-balance to Mayor Oliver Queen if they decide to go that route.

Rutina Wesley will be playing Liza Warner, who comic fans know as Lady Cop. 

In the comics Lady Cop is exactly that, a lady cop. She is a damn good cop and a great detective who helps out the Supers when she can. It sounds like on the show she will be a member of the anti-vigilante task force. My money is that she will start off that way, but she will have witnessed the murder of her roommates in college, and Team Arrow will eventually bring the killer to justice and her loyalty will be cemented.

Neal McDonough will be joining the cast as the villainous Damien Darhk

Neal McDonough is coming to leave his mark on the DCtvU, that's right Dum Dum Duggan himself will be going to the Darhk side. He was mentioned by Ra's Al Ghul in season 3, and should bring a different kind of villain for Oliver to take down.  In the comics, Damien Darhk is a criminal mastermind who, like Deathstroke (another Arrow mainstay), is primarily an enemy of the Teen Titans.  He is connected to the crime syndicate H.I.V.E., so it'll be interesting to see if they bring that into the show. He is a communication genius so hopefully he'll be giving Felicity a run for her money as they battle it out on the world wide interwebs. In the comics he was killed by Vandal Savage, who we know is the big bad in the upcoming Legends of Tomorrow series, so will they meet and square off on Arrow or will this character float between the different series'?

Constantine is coming back to TV Yah'll

Matt Frickin' Ryan is returning to the DCtvU as John Constantine. He will be playing the same version of the character that he portrayed on the NBC show. 

If you aren't familiar with the character...then you're part of the problem and I don't think we can be friends anymore...Just playing...John Constantine is an exorcist, demonologist, dabbler in the dark arts and all around evil arse kicker. He is one of the few comic book characters that actually ages in real time and this is important since he is dying of cancer. He is ruthless and cunning and while he is traditionally a hero he is not always the most morally scrupulous.

I loved this show and think that it was cancelled too soon. I'm sure that he will be instrumental in the episode that brings Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) back from the dead. In the comics, the supernatural and the fantastic co-mingle effortlessly and I can't see any reason they can't in the cinematic realm as well. 

There is no such thing as too much Constantine and since Mister Terrific is known for his crises of faith, it will be interesting to see how he interacts with a man who has been in the presence of angels and demons.  

There you have it comic fans, the top reasons I'm excited for the new season of Arrow. I want to know what you think, leave me a comment below. You can also follow me on the twitters @manuelmendiola or subscribe to my YouTube channel to receive even more Nerdtastic News with an Island View!

Thanks for reading! PEACE!

Official Deadpool Trailer Breakdown + Reaction