DCEU Blog - Wonder Twins Go, World Needs Heroes And More

It's been a busy month and with The Batman finally releasing this week and review embargoes about to be lifted, it's an interesting time for DC fans everywhere.

Early in February, DC/WB released a trailer titled The World Needs Heroes showing new clips from The Batman, The Flash, Black Adam and Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom, confirming that all four movies will release in 2022.

More scoopers have been confirming that Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa and even Henry Cavill appear in The Flash movie. Jason Momoa and Ezra Miller recently appeared in the first season of Peacemaker.

Constantine: The House Of Mystery, which sees Matt Ryan reprising the role in animated form will be released on May 3rd. 

Matt Reeves has also confirmed to the absolute shock of no one that a sequel for The Batman is currently in development.  

Black Adam scribe Adam Sztykiel will write and direct a Wonder Twins movie for HBO Max.

Zack Snyder's Justice League is up for a fan favourite Oscar nod. You can vote for the scene where The Flash runs through time.

An upcoming episode of Superman And Lois will see Jonathan Kent (Jordan Elsass) don a Superboy look. The second season is currently airing on the CW.

Michael Keaton has been spotted on set filming for the Batgirl movie. A recent report has suggested that the movie will get a December release on HBO Max.

An addition on IMDb Pro has suggested that a Nightwing movie may be in development. Take that one with a pinch of salt though.

UK viewers will be able to see the current seasons of both Legends Of Tomorrow and The Flash on SkyMax from March 22nd. Edit: It may be April instead.

Titans fourth season have added Joseph Morgan, Franka Potente and Lisa Ambalavanar to the cast. They will play Brother Blood, Mother Mayhem and Jinx respectively.

Doom Patrol will add the character of Casey Brinke, the heroine also known as Space Case. Casting has yet to be confirmed.

The CW are going ahead with Gotham Knights and the main roster will comprise of Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown, Tiffany Fox, Julia Pennyworth, Harper Row and her brother, Cullen. The pilot should begin filming later next month.

That's a round up of this month's stuff. Let's see what next month brings.

My Review of Legends Of Tomorrow's 7x12: "Too Legit To Quit"

 

Written by Morgan Faust And Leah Poulliot

Directed by Sudz Sutherland

Gideon (to the Legends): "We are all retiring."

Okay, while I'm definitely certain that any day now the CW are going to confirm this show for an eighth season, this episode very much felt like the beginning of the end for the Legends. Or more likely a false ending as Evil Gideon really cannot be trusted at all.

Anyways the Legends had to use Evil Gideon's services in order to save the Good Gideon and as a result, the latter made a deal with her bad self. The Legends would retire and live out their lives away from one another while both Gideons would keep an eye on the timeline instead. Of course, Evil Gideon wouldn't be satisfied with that.

With Gary being somewhat of a hindrance, it wasn't too much of a shocker that he'd get ejected into the time stream while our Gideon had made her own reckless decisions in order to prevent the Legends from reneging on the deal they had made with Evil Gideon. However neither had banked on sparking a new determination in Gwyn to save his lover.

I knew it was a little too good to be true when Gideon stopped Ava and Zari's plans to rescue Alun (Tom Forbes) and when Gwyn realised that he was an android, it was obvious what was going to happen next. Given that Alun's death has been revealed to be a fixed point, it's hard to tell what will happen with Gwyn after next week's finale. Will he accept that fate cannot be changed or perhaps have his own changed for the worst? 

As for the futures in questions, we certainly got some interesting things to ponder. Shippers must have been happy with Sara and Ava winding up with a daughter and they themselves seemed excited by the prospects. Personally I would've liked Ava to have had her own Only Murders In The Building style podcast but this kind of works too.

Of course with Nate penning a book, Behrad becoming a children's entertainer, Astra for president, Spooner setting up a mental health centre with her mother and Gwyn getting a cottage in Wales, Zari found herself less satisfied with her prospective fate. It also influenced her decision to save Alun and there was a lovely scene between both her and Nate on the nature of heroism.

- We just got the title card for this episode as well as a lot of references to past characters on this show. 

- Astra's impression of Spooner was pretty funny, even if the real,one nearly got sent out of the airlock by Evil Gideon.

- While this episode talked about audible lips in Zari's future, we also had three kissing scenes in this one. Sara/Ava, Behrad/Astra and Gwyn/Alun.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off. Gideon visited 1916 offscreen during her initial attempt to rescue Alun.

Too Legit To Quit under different circumstances definitely could've been the groundwork for a series finale but given that this show's very likely coming back for another and Evil Gideon might not be totally honest in what she was showing, I think it's safe to say that Legends and retirement won't be going hand in hand just yet. A good thing as I'm not ready for this show to end either.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Superman And Lois 2x05: "Girl .... You'll Be A Woman, Soon"

 

Written by Rina Mimoun And Adam Mallinger

Directed by Diana Valentine

Bizarro (to Superman): "Ally Allston will destroy everything you love. Your friends, your family. She'll destroy everything unless you kill her first."

There we have to, our true villain of this season. I assumed Doomsday, then Bizarro but nope it's Ally Allston who has been revealed as the real Big Bad of the season and this episode revealed a bit more about her and the danger that she will bring.

First of all her ascension gimmick very much turned out to be true. She's in tune with the bizarro world and had zero problems in drugging Chrissy where the latter met the opposite version of herself. On the plus side, while Ally might have been telling he truth, it was also enough to bring Chrissy back to Team Lois, so at least those two are on the same page with one another.

This episode also revealed that Bizarro himself isn't a villain at all, just more someone willing to cross lines that Superman himself will not. Bizarro's desperate to save both his own world as well as this one and Ally poses a danger to both worlds. At some point, both Superman and Bizarro will have to team up, especially given that Ally has become a bigger danger in Bizarro's word and seems to be heading the same way with this one too.

Moving away with from the Ally side of things this week, we also had a lot of focus on the Cushing family this week and in particular, the events of Sarah's quinceanera. What should've been a nice night for Sarah somewhat got marred by the fact that she learned about Kyle's affair with Tonya and walked out of the father and daughter dance before Lana managed to save some public face.

The affair plot definitely feels like a story for the sake of story and it might have been more interesting had we seen this play out in a far less rushed than it did. Still though, the episode gave a lot of great scenes with Sarah, Lana and Kyle and we even got to meet the latter's mother and learn a bit more about the Cushing family history.

Last but not least, Jonathan let his own jealousy of Jordan get the better of him during those training scenes with the latter and Sam but lying to his brother than he now has powers definitely won't end well. Jonathan's story definitely has been one of the weaker storylines this season, although I'm looking forward to upcoming episodes where he'll don a certain comic look. 

- Kyle's family were actually called Cortez and Sarah was taking back the surname as part of her quinceanera. 

- Not surprised that Anderson wouldn't give Superman the pendant back. How many pendants are they as we know Ally has one too?

- Although being mentioned and given Lois's banana muffins, both John and Natalie sat out this episode. We did get to see Lara though interrogating Bizarro in the Fortress of Solitude.

- Chronology: We had a 1979 flashback in Metropolis which saw a young Ally Allston taking on her father's legacy.

Girl .... You'll Be A Woman, Soon definitely delivered on both Bizarro and Ally Allston and the Cushing subplot was pretty strong overall too. Saying that, I do want to start getting glimpses of this other world than having characters describe it and hopefully that'll be happening soon.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Peacemaker - Season 1 (2022)

 

Written by James Gunn

Directed by James Gunn (eps 1-3, 6 and 8), Jody Hill (ep 4), Rosemary Rodriguez (ep 5) and Brad Anderson (ep 7)

Peacemaker: "Eat peace, motherfucker!"

Following the title character's abrasive introduction in The Suicide Squad and the somewhat antagonistic role he had in that film, I'd be lying if I said that I was eagerly anticipating his HBO Max series but over the course of eight episodes, I soon became a convert to both the idea of this show and it's less character.

Last time Peacemaker (John Cena) was seen, he was in a coma, courtesy of Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and as punishment for disobeying her, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) put him in the care of Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and John Economos (Steve Agee) in order to either help save the world to make him into a future patsy. The show does present both options for Christopher Smith upon waking from his coma.

Saddled with a team also comprising happy go lucky psychopath, Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), first team leader Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) and new recruit, Leota  Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), the latter revealed to be Waller's daughter very early on, Peacemaker finds himself going up against the Butterflies as they have their own plans for humanity that are not as black and white as their first appear to be.

For a group of antagonists, they're an interesting bunch, able to possess humans, which we see them do with various characters such as Detective Sophie Song (Annie Chang), who became a host body for their leader Goff. Murn himself was later to be revealed as a rogue member of the race, opposed to their plan and overall as a character got a rather nice character arc, even if he didn't quite make it to the finale.

The main characters definitely have some strong arc and there's none stronger than the title character himself. We see Christopher Smith openly question his militant stance for peace while his relationship with his racist father, Auggie Smith/White Dragon (Robert Patrick) undoubtedly motivated a lot of his behaviour. Ultimately while Peacemaker can be set in his ways as a person, his experiences throughout this first season alone start to shape him into being a better person, so there might be hope for him yet.

Then there's Leota herself, who for the most part tried to see the good in Peacemaker and formed a rather believable friendship with him while struggling to get out of her mother's shadow and maintain her marriage to her wife, Keeya (Elizabeth Ludlow). She's easily one of the best characters on the show and also the one who truly brought about the downfall of both the Butterflies and Task Force X.

As for Emilia Harcourt, she started the season being openly hostile to everyone, only to truly step up as a leader by the finale. Vigilante and Economos aren't quite as developed as the others but both characters do have their moments and the more said about Peacemaker's pet eagle, Eagly, the better. As for Judomaster (Nhut Le), there's potential with the character and hopefully the second season will explore that as he's likely to encounter the gang yet again.

- The episodes are A Whole New Whirled, Best Friends For Never, Better Goff Dead, The Choad Less Traveled, Monkey Dory, Murn After Reading, Stop Dragon My Heart Around and It's Cow Or Never.

- The Justice League were referenced several times and in the finale we got to see to both Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Flash (Ezra Miller) with body doubles standing in for Superman and Wonder Woman.

- The penultimate episode implied that Peacemaker himself  was bisexual, which genuinely surprised me. We can thank John Cena for that development.

-  Like with many shows, this one had flashbacks of Christopher's childhood and accidental killing of his brother, Keith.

- The title sequence might be one of the best ones seen in a DC production with Wig Wam's Do You Wanna Taste It being a catchy theme tune for the series.

- Chronology: Five months following the events of The Suicide Squad. 

Peacemaker's first season was something that I had very moderate expectations about and it was a show that turned out to be far better than expected. James Gunn had his fans with The Suicide Squad but this for me was even better. A true testament in giving a character a second chance with fantastic results. I will definitely watching the second season. 

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Catwoman: Hunted (2022)

 

Written by Greg Weisman

Directed by Shinsuke Terasawa

Catwoman: "You know I appreciate the classics but I like to move with the times."

I have to admit that when I saw the first trailer for this animated, my expectations were not exceptionally high for this. Catwoman's a fan favourite character with many iterations out there. In terms of animation, she's not been always as utilised well so I was cautious about what this solo/team p movie would bring. To my pleasant surprise, a lot in the best way.

Donning a classic look, Catwoman (Elizabeth Gillies) decided to crash a party hosted by Barbara Minerva (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) in order to steal the cat's eye emerald. By doing this, Selina quickly put a target on her back, courtesy of Leviathan as both Blavk Mask (Jonathan Banks) and Tobias Whale (Keith David) gave chase, only for Catwoman to soon encounter, Batwoman (Stephanie Beatriz) and soon the pair of them are forced to work together.

Namely because Julia Pennyworth (Lauren Cohen) and King Faraday (Jonathan Frakes) make Catwoman an offer she can't refuse and as the movie developed, it also turned out that Catwoman had her own personal agenda for targeting Barbara Minerva. It's funny how things tend to line up, isn't it?

Having both Catwoman and Batwoman form an unlikely pair (minus the "faux" sexual tension) along with the former's cat, Isis definitely made for an entertaining movie. The bucketing, slight flirting and competitiveness along with the two working together to take out both Cheshire (Kelly Hu) and Nosferata (Zehra Fazal) was definitely a highlight of this particular feature.

Of course the big highlight was Selina's motives for going after Leviathan and the set up of a future confrontation with Talia Al Ghul (Zahra Fazal) as well as a genuinely engaging fight between Catwoman and Minerva in her true form as the Cheetah. That along with a Solomon Grundy (Steve Blum) and this movie definitely doesn't lack in the action sequences. 

As for Selina, with this being her movie, it made sense that everything would end up going her way, even if it took a while for her plans to come to fruition. Then again, Selina did prove herself to be the expert at playing both the long game and those who underestimated her throughout. She might be a jewel thief but she's also got a bigger cause as well.

- The anime style worked better here than I expected it to and aside from the costume party, I'm actually impressed this movie didn't have a Batman appearance.

- There was brief arc back in 2015, which explored Catwoman's bisexuality, so I guess the flirting with Batwoman might have been an allusion to that.

- The anime Lupin III was an influence for this, according to producers.

- Location wise we had Spain, Shanghai, Paris and the English Channel.

Catwoman: Hunted turned out to be a delightfully entertaining romp and the sort of story that would be perfect as a live action vehicle for the lovable cat burglar. Elizabeth Gillies did a terrific job as Catwoman and I enjoyed the character's hi-jinks throughout.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Money Isn't Everything

Took the month of January off from these sort of blogs but any more, I will try to make them monthly affairs going forwards. Anyways, a look at stuff I've been watching recently.

And Just Like That: It's been an undeniably divisive return for the ladies of New York (minus Samantha) but at least it's been discussion worthy to a point. With Charlotte mostly relegated to comedy mishaps and stuff involving her children, it's been Carrie and Miranda getting the dramatic stuff with mixed results. Carrie's  had hip problems, apartment problems, neighbour problems and finding the right place to scatter Big's ashes. She's also gained a solo podcast and a new love interest. Miranda also gained a new love interest in Che, thus breaking up her marriage to Steve and losing a bit of her former self. I'm all for Miranda discovering herself but Che was the wrong character to do this with. At least Seema proved to be a strong addition to the series. Will it gets seconds? Who knows.

Batwoman: Ah, this season has been surprisingly strong for the most part. What hasn't worked in my opinion has been Ryan's family, especially Marquis, who is a very poor version of this show's attempt of a Joker baddie while Jada still hasn't really clicked as character either. What has clicked was the Poison Ivy arc (short as it was and convenient in exiting Renee Montoya) along with the sisterly bond between Mary and Alice and Luke finally syncing with his Batwing suit. Even the Ryan and Sophie pairing, despite being a tad contrived has worked better than expected. Hopefully these last two episodes can end the season on a good note.

Dexter: New Blood: I think this show has managed to strike a record for coming up with a finale more polarising and controversial than the original one it did. To me, that's crazy because what we got in 2013 was a terrible way to end the show while we got in 2022 while not entirely perfect, at least made more thematic sense. Harrison being the one to kill his own father after Dexter's whole web of lies came crashing down felt oddly right. This limited series didn't fully recapture the heights of the original series glory days but it definitely made up for it's original ending.

Pam And Tommy: Is there anyone not watching this limited series? Last week Hulu/Disney+ dropped the first three episodes and it made for some interesting viewing. Needless to say both Lily James and Sebastian Stan absolutely nail it as Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee and they're ably supported by Seth Rogen, Nick Offerman and Taylor Schilling. These episodes provide quite the education into the title characters turbulent relationship as well as the role that Ran Gauthier played in their sex tape being leaked. Lily James herself has completely disappeared into the role and the 90's soundtrack, I just love. As for Tommy's talking penis in the second episode. Um. 

The Gilded Age: Julian Fellowes is a writer who found his comfort zone a long time ago and has never stepped out of it since. That might sound harsh but can you tell me if it's untrue? Fortunately for Fellowes, his comfort zone continues to be very much appreciated and while this show feels too familiar and comparisons to Downton Abbey are completely justified, the first two episodes were enjoyable. It's beautifully shot, the cast are excellent with Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon being obvious standouts. There's even a closeted gay love story in between fabulous costumes, old versus new money discoveries and a young female protagonist in Marion trying to make her way in an ever changing world. It's also performed well enough to quickly earn itself a second season.

• Nyle DiMarco will play a graduate student in the upcoming reboot of Queer As Folk.
• National Treasure for Disney+ has found it's lead star in Catherine Zeta Jones.
• The CW have ordered pilots for Gotham Knights, The Winchesters, Walker: Independence and a female led Zorro reboot.
• Aubrey Plaza, Michael Imperioli, F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hollander, Adam DiMarco and Haley Lu Richardson will make up the main cast of the second season of The White Lotus with Jennifer Coolidge also returning.
• Murray Bartlett will be appearing in both The Last Of Us and the second season of Only Murders In The Building.
• Legends Of Tomorrow has added Donald Faison as a fame hungry mystery character for it's seventh season finale. If the show gets picked up for an eighth season, the character will likely be a regular.
• The L Word: Generation Q has been renewed for a third season by Showtime.
• Euphoria has also been renewed for a third season by HBO. The show is currently having a record ratings boost.
• The second season of Bridgerton will be released on Netflix from March 25th.
• Arielle Kebbel will appear in an upcoming arc of 911 as a character named Lucy. 
• Moon Knight will premiere on Disney+ from March 30th.
• The Lords Of The Rings: The Power Of The Rings will premiere on Amazon from September 2nd.

My Review of Legends Of Tomorrow's 7x11: "Rage Against The Machines"

 

Written by Mark Bruner And Mercedes Valle

Directed by Jes Macallan

Zari (re Android Legends): "We really are our own worst enemies."

As we head into the final stretch, it was time for the Legends and their Android doubles to meet up and boy, did this episode have fun with that idea. Possibly too much fun with it, but that's no bad thing. This episode had so much in it's favour.

I have to give Nick Zano a shoutout for his comedic timing because he had clearly had way too much fun in playing up Android Nate's toxicity and capped with an Arnold Schwarzenegger accent made the character's scenes even more priceless. It also made the character's final fate more interesting as a certain promise that Sara made Thawne was nicely capped off as well.

Sara had hoped that she could reason with the Android Legends but them killing Thawne and even her put Gwyn in a leadership role that he excelled at. It was fantastic to see the character in his element, using his military knowledge to bring about the downfall of the Android Legends. After this episode, I'm starting to think that Gwyn might be sticking around after all.

Watching the team working together to take out the other Legends was fantastic. Spooner turned her double and Gary in each other, Gary sent the Ava and Astra doubles into hell after Behrad gave them a lethal dose while Astra killed the Behrad double as did Zari with her double and Gideon tricked the Sars and Nate ones into their own destructions. Then another fate befall Android Nate.

However while it seemed like things were working out for the Legends, something had to go wrong. Ending the episode had Gideon stabbed by a toasted Android Astra and this was only moments after the real one said she was proud of Gideon. I guess we did need that cliff hanger moment as the show took a break for the Winter Olympics.

However now that the Legends have control of the other Waverider, there's the problem of the other Gideon. The trailer for the next episode made it clear that Zari's pulling the plug didn't have the desired effect. With two episodes left to go, how do you solve the problem of an evil AI?

- With Jes Macallan on directing duty for this one, it made sense that the episode sidelined Ava for most of it.

- The Legends using the singing fish, Star Wars spoilers, VRs and tablets to smoke out their doubles was highly amusing.

- Is this Thawne really dead? At least he went on a heroic note.

- Chronology: Still 1914 Sarajevo for this episode.

Rage Against The Machines did a great job in tying up the fixed point storyline and certainly gave most of the main cast a perfect chance to shine against their Android doubles. With two episodes left, I cant wait to see how this season will finish up and hopefully news on a next season renewal will happen this month.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Superman And Lois 2x04: "The Inverse Method"

 

Written by Jai Jamison And Andrew N. Wong

Directed by Melissa Hickey

Chrissy (to Ally): "Can you meet me? I want you to tell me the truth about Lois."

Last season had a clear path when it came to enemies for Superman and Lois. The former thought he had an enemy in Captain Luthor who would later turn out to be an ally in Steel while the latter's battle with Morgan Edge soon back to Superman when Edge was revealed to be his half brother.

This season the enemy playing field feels different. While Bizarro has undeniably proven to be a great physical threat to both Superman and Steel, Lois has found herself a personal and psychological threat in Ally Allston (Riya Kihlstedt). So far, she's shaping up to be a very dangerous adversary for Lois. 

In the comics, Ally Allston became a version of Parasite and the opening flashback in this episode where Lois referred to Ally as a parasite preying on vulnerable people to Lucy (Jenna Dewan) definitely seemed to be laying the ground work for a future storyline this season. Make no mistake, Ally has certainly done a number on Lucy Lane.

It's been six years since we saw the character back in the first season of Supergirl and needless to say that Lucy has become a shell of herself. Depressed at the state of her life and lingering childhood anger towards Lois, I can see why Lucy fell in Ally's dangerous trap and joined the Inverse Society. Unfortunately the lengths in which Lois has gone to save her sister have only resulted in pushing Lucy further into Ally's grasp.

However it's not just Lucy that Lois will potentially lose to Ally. Lois's relationship with Chrissy has never been on an even keel and Ally was quick to exploit that when she gave Chrissy access to Lois and Lucy's conversation. She succeeded in creating a divide between Lois and Lucy and now has managed to do the same to Lois and Chrissy. To me, Ally has definitely shown to be a far more dangerous threat than Bizarro.

Saying that, Bizarro has definitely not lacked as a baddie so far. As I pointed out earlier in the review, he's a massive physical threat to both Superman and Steel and nearly killed the latter when he wasn't killing Anderson's own Superman team. However Tag managed to survive and took Bizarro's amulet away with him, so that's another potential problem for everyone in the next episode.

As for the Cushings this week, their storyline definitely feels too detached from the main plots this season so far. Also a tiny bit too predictable with Dean trying to get dirt on Lana's family by targeting Sarah. However the reveal that Kyle might have cheated on Lana with a bartender definitely felt cliched. I don't mind the story so much, but it's definitely needs to tie in to the main stuff at some point.

- Jonathan started using the X-Kryptonite due to Candace goading him to do so with Natalie spotting something off with him. Also Sarah's friend, Denise fancies him.

- We now have a plot where Jordan will be getting trained by Sam so that he can help Clark against Bizarro. Sam should've been involved in the Lucy story this week.

- Lucy talked about seeing another version of herself during her suicide attempt. Crisis related memories or something else?

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off, also five years ago in the opening flashback scene, not to mention trips to New Carthage and Bolivia this episode.

The Inverse Method definitely added the tension this week with both Ally Allston and Bizarro causing havoc for our main players. Both are compelling villains for different reasons and both are bringing out interesting sides to the characters as well. I can see why Lucy's return has divided fans but I'm intrigued to see where tho story will go.

Rating: 8 out of 10