https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoTz3tA_Ogg
I liked the NF DareDevil, although I thought his martial arts and the fight sequences generally were pretty underwhelming. This (Luke Cage) looks like something of an improvement from what we see in the teaser, so I'm psyched for watching this in September.
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"TRUST ME."
Thanks, Gluke! I love that Luke Cage trailer!
Just of curiosity--why were you underwhelmed by the fight sequences in Daredevil? In general, they were relatively more practical and less fanciful than you often see on TV or in movies, and officially Daredevil has no superhuman powers on a purely physical level.
He does have vastly superhuman senses--including sense of balance, coordination, and proprioception, etc.--and he's learned some boxing and was half-trained by a "ninja". But he's not supposed to be anywhere near, say, Captain America in base physical attributes such as strength, speed, toughness, or regeneration. Much less anywhere near Luke Cage, who is at very least 100 times tougher and stronger than him with at least three times his regeneration.
Thematically, Daredevil is really not supposed to "own", he's supposed to struggle on a relatively human level. Very "street level". And that's not coming from me, that's from his creator, Stan Lee.
Did you not like how relatively non-superhuman he is, or was it that the fight choreography was not realistic enough?
What would you have liked to have seen different? More fanciful? Or more practical? Or something else?
Just curious.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
DareDevil is meant to be an expert martial artist in multiple disciplines, but in the show he mostly comes off as an experienced brawler, he seems no faster than the street thugs he fights and we don't see much gymnastic or athletic ability or real ninjistu, IMO.
"TRUST ME."
Ok, I see. That makes sense. You and I had different expectations. We definitely think of DD differently. I read the comics growing up and he was the very definition of "street level" back then. Maybe it's changed, but the show was pretty true to old-school DD--especially when he was first starting out.
Even now Marvel's official site has him listed as Olympic level but not superhuman with a boxing/Japanese arts hybrid style of fighting. He has a 3 in Speed and a 2 in Strength on their grid, which is low compared to, say, Cap, Black Panther, Iron Fist, etc. And that's about how I remembered him from the comics.
His thing was always how much more aware he was than others and how he used it to his advantage, not how unbeatable he was. Actually, it was often more how well he took a beating and still came back.
Regardless, I'm excited too about all the Netfix stuff coming out, it's a great time to be a Superhero fan!
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
You know, this is something I really like about Marvel's writing. Outside of a few outliers, the heroes are all relatively low-key outside of world-stopping events and rare instances (such as Galactus). DC sort of makes everybody comparable to superman; even Batman has a combat power of "always prepared with exactly what he needs". They don't seem to grasp power levels nearly as well as Marvel. Street level heroes rub shoulders with much more impactful heroes even when it doesn't make a ton of sense.
Marvel though? Their writing shoes being a hero as being a struggle. The X-men, Daredevil, Spider-man, even Deadpool are all pretty powerful, but they have to struggle against superior odds. Superman's story, meanwhile, isn't about the struggle for success - it's about the struggle to deal with people who take issue with the fact that he's an alien; that he succeeds in physical confrontations is a given. Except for all the crap they throw at him that magically bypasses his superiority, which is another thing I hate.
Bluh. Yeah, I prefer Marvel's writing, and I really loved Daredevil, so I'm very much looking forward to Luke Cage
An infinite number of tries doesn't mean that any one of those tries will succeed. I could flip an infinite number of pennies an infinite number of times and, barring genuine randomness, they will never come up "Waffles".
The thing I liked about Luke too--and about Marvel in general back in the day--was that he could handle getting shot by normal gunfire without serious harm, but it freaking HURT! It really pissed him off when people shot him because it stung like a sunofabiatch. And armor piercing bullets would kill him as easy as a normal bullet would kill a normal person.
I thought that was such a genius power level between "one bullet and I'm dead" and "bullets, pfft, please!" These days, it seems every hero is totally invulnerable to bullets in one way or another--either bullets are trivially slow (which is actually a very high power level if you think about it) or they're trivially weak (same thing--very high power level).
DD was awesome because he could survive and hold his own on a good day vs even a skilled gun-wielding opponent (like Punisher), and Luke was bad ass because he could actually freaking take a bullet and keep coming--but it left a mark!
I love the new Luke Cage trailer, but I'd actually be happier if he was cussing, raising his arm to protect his eyes, and getting really pissed off because all the arseholes shooting at him.
In the old days, that sh** HURT!
Maybe these days people just prefer nigh-unbeatable heroes better, but, to me, that's ultimately less "heroic".
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
There's one other "bullet trivializing power" as it happens, and that'd be regeneration. Even a low-grade healing fact can make bullets a nonissue (if painful), which makes it a much better setup for street heroes in my opinion. They still don't want to get hit - particularly since a bullet in the brain might still actually kill them - And they also don't have to deal with weeks of downtime due to injuries.
An infinite number of tries doesn't mean that any one of those tries will succeed. I could flip an infinite number of pennies an infinite number of times and, barring genuine randomness, they will never come up "Waffles".
I admit I'm not that big on DD, but most of my knowledge of him comes from Frank Miller's treatment, with an emphasis on ninjitsu and the harsher aspects he is now often associated with. I know his history began much more lightheartedly. I was kind of expecting the DD series to therefor be a martial arts show rather than plain action, but it's mostly the latter.
I thought that Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin was the best thing about the show - some reviewers have said theywent overboard in making him sympathetic, but I thought it was simply a good way to explain his motivations. He's now the best villain in the MCU, IMO, so I really hope they use him in the future Spider-movies.
I also have mixed feelings over the Netflix Punisher. He's my favourite Marvel character, but here I felt they DID go overboard in making him sympathetic, presumably to emphasis that he is not just a villain compared to DD, and in this show he seems too tragic and too vulnerable. Bad things happen, and he reacts to them, impulsively. I say this as, similar to DD, I've read all his Garth Ennis series, and in those he generally comes off as a tactical genius compared to his enemies, he plans everything ahead as he would in a military campaign, he's a lot cooler and colder. Maybe we will see him develop in that way during this show.
"TRUST ME."
I'd agree with that. Marvel seems to focus on the hero character's limitations, while DC seems more about their potential. Marvel also devotes more to the heroe's personality in characterization, while in DC they are broader and more philosophical: the heroes embody concepts, everything they do revolves around that, and they are committed to not deviating. When they do deviate from it, it's a big deal, usually very bad, and some crises will ensure before they return to normal, or they will acknowledge their weakness and there'll be consequences arising from that. DC characters are alos undeniably hokier than their Marvel counterparts, and more disparate. Remember some of them date back to the 1940s, and they never had a Stan Lee to organize the same level of consistency that Marvel has.
I also think the situation is reversed when it comes to their villains. DC devoted more complexity and characterization to their bad guys than Marvel generally does, while the DC rogues are also partly defined by their limitations.
"TRUST ME."
Miller did get way more "ninja-y" with DD--which he also did with Wolvie and most of the lower-level heroes he wrote for. Which was good too, just in a different way.
I agree about Kingpin and Punisher, but as far as Frank Castle goes, they seem to be prepping to make him go south hard and fast, which could fix things.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)