From 1977 to 1993, noted crime writer Max Allan Collins was writing stories “ripped from the headlines” in the Dick Tracy comic strip. Some of Collins’ proposed stories were too racy for the average daily newspaper, so Collins took this as an opportunity to introduce the stories in the pages of Ms. Tree, a series published then by Eclipse. A year ago, I reviewed a new collection of classic Ms. Tree stories from the 1980s, penned twenty years before Jessica Jones, written by Collins and illustrated by artist Terry Beatty—Ms. Tree: One Mean Mother. Ms. Michael Tree is the 6-foot tall, 9 mm pistol-toting private eye with a clever homonym name, referred to as the “female Mike Hammer” in the stories written by the man who would take over the character from Mickey Spillane. She borrows something real and gritty from Erle Stanley Gardner’s detective Bertha Cool and her brand of sleuthing, certainly unique for the 1980s. The Hard Case Crime imprint of Titan Comics is publishing the second volume of Ms. Tree stories next month, five more stories from the dark corners of big city life, inMs. Tree: Skeleton in the Closet. Classic Collins crime tales in the comics are like his 21st century crime novels–they do not disappoint.
We scuffled. He had a gun. So did I. I’m alive. He’s dead.
Twenty years before Jessica Jones, there was Ms. Tree, writer Max Allan Collins and artist Terry Beatty′s 1980s private eye with the clever homonym name. Her husband a cop, killed by the head of a crime family, she sought her revenge and went to jail for it. Now she’s back and the killer’s sister is looking to get her own revenge. A private detective running her own agency, she finds her son has fallen in love with the niece of his father’s killer, the daughter of the woman who is now reaching out to her. That’s where readers meet Ms. Tree in the first chapter of Ms. Tree: One Mean Mother, a new collection of classic stories that will bring readers unfamiliar with Ms. Tree’s exploits current as she’s embroiled in her never-ending conflict with the Muerta crime family. The 268 pages play out like a crime TV series, like Magnum, p.i. or Simon & Simon, maybe with some Rockford Files thrown in thanks to Collins’ ever-present noir style.
Ms. Tree is her own character. She doesn’t have the quirks and antics of progenitors like Erle Stanley Gardner’s Bertha Cool or the meticulous process of a Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher. But she does have the edginess we’d later see with Veronica Mars and Jessica Jones. She’s a bit older, and because of Terry Beatty’s classic artistic style (reminiscent of Crime Does Not Pay and Dick Tracy), you may just wonder if she’s going to duck behind the curtains and emerge with a Miss Fury catsuit at some point. Drawn by Beatty like a V.I. Warshawski era Kathleen Turner, she’s also not Jackie Brown–this woman plays by the rules, but the aura of her agency has that feel of Max Cherry’s agency in Elmore Leonard’s story.
With a style (in both writing and artwork) like Mike Grell’s Green Arrow, Collins populates his story with a variety of supporting characters like you’d find in the world of his Quarry series. Characters like her friend on the police force Rafe Valer, and her colleague Dan Green, who has a hook for a hand in a call-out to J.J. Armes, the famous real-life detective in the 1970s (who had two hooks for hands). The first book in this series, Ms. Tree: One Mean Mother, includes reprints of the stories Gift of Death, Drop Dead Handsome, The Family Way, Maternity Leave, and One Mean Mother, with an appendix featuring Collins discussing why Ms. Tree hasn’t made it to the small or big screen, and a related tie-in short story with a more modern take on the character (and without the pictures), Inconvenience Store. Ms. Tree was featured in an earlier Hard Case Crime novel by Collins, Deadly Beloved. In this volume Ms. Tree reads like it must have been the inspiration for Marge Gunderson’s storyline in Fargo, and the final seasons of In Plain Sight’s Mary Shannon.
Take a look at Beatty’s use of color, 1980s style, in these excerpts from the book:
Comic book fans saw an unprecedented 13 television series based in the Marvel Comics universe since Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 2013. Of those the six best produced of these landed on Netflix, beginning with Daredevil and Jessica Jones. You’ll not likely find two people who can agree on which was best. My #1 goes to Luke Cage, which went beyond the typical superhero turf to show a completely unique two seasons of stories. I thought Daredevil offered nothing new, and The Punisher turned a ho-hum character into something exciting thanks primarily to the performance of actor Jon Bernthal. The team-up The Defenders just couldn’t find chemistry between its members, and the best part of Iron Fist was Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing and appearances by Simone Missick’s Misty Knight and Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple. Which brings us to the third and final season of Jessica Jones, the last of Netflix’s trip through the Marvel characters at least for the foreseeable future.
Jessica Jones started out promising, and that was no small feat considering the superhero was more anti-hero than the typical Marvel story. Actor Krysten Ritter knew her character from her first episode, and in three seasons never veered from the moody, angry detective we first met in 2015. Unfortunately, in three seasons the character never changed, unless even more moody, angry, and alone is enough. The first season worked because Jones had to face a particularly unique and vile villain in David Tennant′s Kilgrave. As he’s done with this year’s Good Omens, Tennant’s energy and intensity tends to elevate even the most bland material. Season 2 of Jessica Jones had another interesting villain as Jones’ biological mother, played by Janet McTeer. The third season? It lacked a compelling villain at all, with Jeremy Bobb playing a Law & Order villain-of-the-week transplant fans were stuck with for an entire season (Bobb’s played guest Law & Order characters four times). The actual villain was the one lurking the entire time, Carrie-Anne Moss′s dying lawyer and Jones’ former comrade in sleuthing, Jeri Hogarth. Despite the talent of the actors, the story arc this season was flat. The series begged for episodic tales, and instead it dragged what could have been a single episode story. It’s Netflix ending on a sour note, and confirms new creators are needed to salvage what could be a great group of characters on the small screen.
The saving grace for the entire series, and the only reason to invest your time for all three seasons, is that it launched the character Hellcat. Just like Jessica Jones introduced Mike Colter’s Luke Cage (who returns briefly to bookend the series) and Daredevil launched The Punisher, something bigger and better than the title hero arrived. Upstaging the star, no character had a greater character arc than Rachael Taylor′s “messed-up” child star Patsy, grown up into Trish Walker, a human with powers, known as Hellcat in the comics and in the show’s credits. The writers knew they had something good, showing her struggle to help her sister in the second season to become an equal during season three. But they bungled it. Trish was loyal to her sister, trying to do what every good superhero character tries–to create good for people and try not to get corrupted. But the show tripped into the common superhero trap–superheroes, at least these superheroes, can’t cross the line of the law for any reason and kill the bad guy. In this case, even if a serial killer continues to murder relentlessly, and even if the cops have practically given up trying to catch him, and the legal system has failed. So how many opportunities are presented and skipped over by the characters? A dozen? And the result by Jones failing to let Trish act is–surprise–more dead bodies. If Jessica Jones, the character, is about anything, isn’t it getting dirty to take down bad guys? So why give her series this stale Superman/Batman/Green Arrow, etc. Boy Scout story? The question of whether superheroes can ever kill is as overdone in the genre as origin stories, and completely unsatisfying as the only dilemma here. Yet through it all Taylor as Trish/Hellcat was fantastic stuff.
Instead of what has been done at past panels at San Diego Comic-Con–having a panel for each or just a few major projects–Marvel Studios exec Kevin Feige was on-hand to get several announcements out the door and as many key cast members in and out of his single panel as possible. For the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase IV, that means tying in Disney’s (pay) streaming service with the movies. The big takeaway? New logos are pretty much all there is so far to share, plus key casting and timing announcements. And although the last Phase had some changes along the way, it looks as if these ten projects will round out the entirety of Marvel over the next few years. The biggest frustration for fans of the X-Men and Fantastic Four is why nobody at Marvel has been getting a head start on these two massively popular teams of characters–money is definitely going to be left on the table for the duration of Phase IV by pushing out these projects. Why aren’t these Priority #1 with someone at Disney in light of the long lead-time the corporation had for the Fox acquisition?
The new time table is straightforward: Black Widow movie (May 1, 2020), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV series (Fall 2020), Eternals movie (November 6, 2020), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings movie (February 12, 2021), WandaVision TV series (Spring 2021), LokiTV series (Spring 2021), Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessmovie (May 7, 2021), What If…?animated series (Summer 2021), HawkeyeTV series (Fall 2021), and Thor: Love and Thundermovie (November 5, 2021). The most eagerly awaited film after this year’s Avengers: Endgame was the hinted-at Guardians of the Galaxy/Thor or Asgardians of the Galaxy team-up movie, but Marvel still has not confirmed that project, unless it’s tied into the 2021 film. Also relegated to “in development” status: Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and the next Tom Holland Spider-Man movie (Spider-Man is Iron Man’s replacement, right?). Silence seems to confirm the death of the Marvel Netflix universe of Luke Cage,The Punisher, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist, and maybe even Disney+ projects Runaways, Ghost Rider, and Helstrom. FX’s Legion was already announced as canceled, and we lost track of how many times The New Mutants movie has been pushed back. Even bigger unknowns are the next Ant-Man and The Wasp, which had Hank Pym actor Michael Douglas already discussing it as a prequel, and if anyone is thinking about Prince Namor the Submariner, nobody is talking. It begs the question: Does Disney have too much to handle now?
As a beginning Disney’s Marvel side seems to be taking a lead from its Star Wars division, with its offerings targeting a mix of fans old, new, and in-between. For the fans of the MCU so far you have plenty, a Black Widow (presumably prequel) and Thor movie as bookends for Phase IV, and TV series to keep alive Falcon, Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Loki, Doctor Strange, and Hawkeye. For new audiences (and possibly much older comic book readers) there is Shang-Chi and the Eternals to get to know, along with the announcement that Luke Cage’s Mahershala Ali will be playing Blade in a reboot movie at the beginning of Phase V, the vampire hunter who, like Spider-Man, has already seen an entire series of movies outside of the MCU.
The details are an eclectic mix of things you might want, things you didn’t know you want, and things you won’t know what to make of:
In the world of the dark superhero universe you start with Alan Moore’s Watchmen and The Killing Joke, and you might pick up Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Brad Meltzer’s Identity Crisis, Mark Millar’s Old Man Logan, Garth Ennis’s Crossed, and if you go back a bit further you might pick up Jim Starlin’s Batman: A Death in the Family. And you take another look at Tim Burton making Batman movies. You also might stumble over Garth Ennis’s The Boys and Brian Michael Bendis’s Jessica Jones. These last two comics are making their way to your television this summer, first with the return of Marvel’s Jessica Jones for its third season on Netflix as the swan song for all its Marvel series, and then Amazon Prime is stepping in with an adaptation of Ennis’s The Boys, dark in every other way that Jessica Jones isn’t. Those are in addition to Brightburn, a movie written by the live-action superhero guru Gunn brothers about a kid with Superman powers who doesn’t use them for good. Meaning lots of bloody gore and violence. It’s still in theaters.
Our first trailer is for the final season of Marvel’s Jessica Jones. Should it be a surprise that everything seems exactly as it was in the last season? Is it enough that Krysten Ritter′s anti-hero conquers her demons one at a time? Viewers want to cheer her on, to do anything to get happy in a dark and dreary real-life New York, but without development of her character beyond returning to the bottle and self-inflicted pain, we’re left to turn to other characters. Thankfully that left her adopted sister Trish, played by Rachael Taylor, as last season’s real hero to root for. But does Jeremy Bobb(Russian Doll) have a chance at filling in as next villain as Foolkiller after David Tennant’s performance as Kilgrave? And why another new guy for Jones, bringing in Benjamin Walker (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) instead of Luke Cage or The Punisher?
The Boysis a different kind of dark, but in many ways it’s just another effort to do what Alan Moore did with Watchmen–deconstruct superheroes until they are only recognizable because of the capes and costumes. So think of the depraved nature of Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass, but add a multiplier. Or if Watchmen was a normal school day, The Boys is Watchmen where the teenage kids take over. The kids in this case include Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg as producers, so expect plenty of “adult language” aka expletives, and their typical brand of raunch and bodily fluids. Is there a chance of some subtlety or nuance with these guys behind the series, or can we hope for something closer to Superbad? The more promising elements in the trailer are found in the costumes (by Iron Man costume designer Laura Jean Shannon, Titans’ designer Joyce Schure, and Doom Patrol’s designer Carrie Grace) and the cast, including pop culture icon Karl Urban (Thor: Ragnarok, Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, Judge Dredd, Xena: Warrior Princess) and Erin Moriarty, who also starred on season one of Jessica Jones,Elizabeth Shue (The Karate Kid, Leaving Las Vegas), and Jennifer Esposito(Spin City, NCIS).
Take a look at these trailers for some of the darker edge of superheroes in genredom:
It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly two and a half years since we first met Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones in Marvel’s television universe. Although we saw her as just one of the many super-powered characters packed into Marvel’s The Defenders last year, despite all she’s been through not much has changed with the private investigator. That same angry, tough, bitter, and unhappy anti-hero is the same person we meet at the beginning and at the end of the second season of Marvel’s Jessica Jones, now appearing on Netflix. For fans of the fringe of the Marvel superhero world where little fun is to be had, Ritter’s gritty heroine stands alongside The Punisher (our favorite superhero series last year). Yet despite its heavy dramatic component, it’s very much a superhero show, providing a complete picture of the downside of possessing superhero powers created by chemicals in a lab–a key fact of life for so many Marvel creations, including The Hulk, Deadpool, Luke Cage, the Fantastic Four, the Winter Soldier, etc. For those viewers that thought Jessica Jones’s first season was the best TV had to offer, good luck comparing which is best after watching the second season.
But it’s not really Jessica who shines in Season 2 as much as the supporting characters, and the series doesn’t really reach its stride until Episode 7. The real standout for Season 2 is a new super-powered character created by the same mad scientists that created Jessica Jones, actor Janet McTeer’s new complex antagonist Alisa. Alisa is a driven, unstoppable human machine attached to a fantastic, layered core. Alisa is older and wiser and far more powerful than Jessica or anyone else we’ve seen from the Netflix Marvel realm. Two scenes with Alisa playing the piano really reveal what viewers are in for (and the cast of characters is up against). Unfortunately for Alisa and everyone that she touches, she’s been pushed to the extremes, resulting in a decisively volatile foe. As with Marvel’s Killmonger in this season’s big screen movie Black Panther, calling Alisa the villain of the show omits much about the character. A cold-blooded killer? Sure. But even the worst can still have hope for redemption, especially if what made them bad in the first place was never their fault. Or can it?
Right along with Alisa, Jessica’s step-sister Trish “Patsy” Walker–Jessica’s rather bland supporter and confidante in Season 1–really leaps into action in a breakaway performance that aims toward Linda Hamilton’s tough-as-nails heroine in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Credit the acting range required of actor Rachael Taylor this time around and a stellar character arc created for her by the writing team of Melissa Rosenberg, Jack Kenny, Aïda Mashaka Croal, Gabe Fonseca, Lisa Randolph, Jamie King, Raelle Tucker, Hillie Hicks, Jr., Jenny Klein, and Jesse Harris. Viewers may want to strangle Trish by the halfway mark in the season, but just wait–she only gets in deeper as the series progresses.
Straight from her stint last year as a member of the motley band of vigilantes in the Netflix series Marvel’s The Defenders, Krysten Ritter is bringing her brooding heroine back this week for Season 2 of Marvel’s Jessica Jones. Netflix just released 13 new posters to advertise the show, each created by a woman with a design specific to each episode, featuring directing and writing credits, the episode title, and a hint at the subject of the episode. Most feature vintage pulp novel style cover art. But don’t look too close–a few may tell you more than you want to know before you watch all 13 episodes this weekend.
Like the recent series of variants created by several artists for the first issue of Archie Comics’ Betty & Veronica and Josie and the Pussycats comic book series, the posters provide an opportunity for several creators to attack one subject from different viewpoints. These projects showcase the artists, and fans, in turn, are rewarded by being able to find new inspiration in each impression of the character–and select their own favorites.
The international comic book artists providing cover illustrations for the posters are (in order of episode) Stephanie Hans (Batwoman, Black Widow), Jen Bartel (Jem and the Holograms), Elizabeth Torque (The Mighty Captain Marvel, Elektra), Kate Niemczyk (Mockingbird), Colleen Doran (A Distant Soil, Sandman), Erica Henderson (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl), Audrey Mok (Josie and the Pussycats, Heroine Chic), Joyce Chin (Red Sonja, Vampirella, Hellcat), Jenny Frison (Wonder Woman, Revival, Xena), Amy Reeder (Madame Zanadu, Batwoman), Ema Lupacchino (Bombshells United, Supergirl, Green Lanterns), June Brigman (Power Pack, Brenda Starr, Mary Worth), and Annie Wu (Hawkeye, Black Canary).
So which is your favorite? Can you identify the logo styles or art influences that inspired each cover? If you read our reviews of pulp crime novels here at borg.com, you’ll have no problem identifying the poster for Episode 213.
It all leads into the Netflix series The Defenders coming this September.
First we met Matt “Daredevil” Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Elektra Natchios (Elodie Yung) in Daredevil, then Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Luke “Power Man” Cage (Mike Colter) in the series Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. Next month we meet the last member of Marvel’s newest incarnation of the team from the classic comic book series The Defenders. Danny Rand, the Iron Fist (played by Finn Jones) in next month’s series Iron Fist.
For the most part the Disney-backed Marvel empire has maintained quality storytelling (excluding only a few standalone character sequels along the way) since Jon Favreau and Kevin Feige lit up the franchise with Iron Man in 2008. Efforts with the networks included good efforts with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter (and a new X-Men series Legion gaining steam), but the real serial success has been seen with the Netflix series.
So who is this last member of The Defenders? Netflix sheds some light on Iron Fist in these two previews: Continue reading →
Well it’s been one long year, with plenty to do and see, plenty of good and not-so-good to read and watch, and as with last year we’re certain we reviewed more content this year than ever before. This year was a big year for borgs in TV and film, so we had some difficult decisions to make. All year long we sifted through all that Hollywood had to offer and honed in on the genre TV, films, comics, and other books we thought were worth examining. We went back and looked at it all and pulled together our picks for our annual Best of the Best list.
Today we reveal the entire list–the best genre content of 2015–with our top categories Best Sci-Fi Fix, Best Fantasy Fix, Best Superhero Fix, Best Animated Fix, and Best Borg selected regardless of medium. A dozen properties garnered multiple mentions.
We hope you agree with many of these great creations of the entertainment industries, and wish everyone a great 2016!
Best Sci-Fi Fix – Killjoys (Syfy). Surprised? Killjoys pulled together great worldbuilding, characters and actors in a year of a dozen new sci-fi shows to provide us the closest thing to the next Firefly we’ve seen in a long time.
Best Fantasy Fix – Galavant (ABC); Runner-up The Librarians (TNT). It aired early in 2015 but nothing surpassed Galavant’s medieval high adventure and all-out Princess Bride-style fun.
Best Superhero Fix –The Flash (CW). Of all the Marvel movies and TV series from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to Agent Carter and from Arrow to Supergirl, nothing had us coming back for more each week like the superhero world in The Flash.
Best Animated Fix – Star Wars Rebels (DisneyXD). Compare it to Star Wars: The Force Awakens and see if you think this animated Star Wars galaxy had an even better story and characterization, along with the return of its own group of original trilogy actors, compelling visuals and rousing music.
Best Borg – Pops (Arnold Schwarzenegger) from Terminator Genisys(Paramount). Schwarzenegger created yet another borg that could stand up against his prior successful characters from the series. A cool, moving character in a big year for borgs on screen!
Best Borg Movie – Ex Machina (DNA Films). Incredible storytelling and a small cast of talented actors provided a classic science fiction story and Oscar-worthy film about our favorite subject.
Best Borg TV Series – Humans (AMC). On television the most in-depth look at life as a borg and among borgs has never been portrayed more dramatically than on this year’s surprise sci-fi hit series from AMC.
Best Kickass Genre TV Heroine – Liv Moore (Rose McIver), iZombie(CW); Honorable Mentions: Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen), Killjoys (Syfy); Helena (Tatiana Maslany), Orphan Black (BBC)
Want to know who we picked for best villain and best comic books of the year? Take a look after the cut…
Netflix debuted the first season of Marvel’s Jessica Jones last Friday, November 20, 2015, in the same one-hour (roughly), thirteen-episode format as many of its other hit series including House of Cards and Marvel’s Daredevil. The fourth official Marvel Cinematic Universe property to hit the small screen in live-action format since the success of the first Marvel’s The Avengers movie in 2012, Jessica Jones takes the edgy, sexy, delightfully menacing feeling of Daredevil and adds in more edge, more sex, and more menace.
And the result is more awesome.
FYI, from now on, we’re going to drop the “Marvel’s …” in front of every-friggin-thing because: A) Even Matt Murdock could see the heat from the Marvel logo coming off of a flat screen, and B) We get it, we even agree, Marvel has done a fantastic job with its properties these last several years, but even us ardent fans of all things Marvel are starting to get sick of seeing that red-and-white logo plastered in front of every-friggin-thing.
Whereas the well-written Daredevil series focused on a heroic figure trying to overcome the odds and clean up the streets in the neighborhood where he grew up, Jessica Jones is almost a character out of a bad crime novel. She’s a borderline alcoholic private dick who huddles in alleys and hangs from fire escapes to get dirty pictures for the seedy, pitiful clients she gets from the law firm full of sharks she contracts out to. She lives in a run-down apartment which barely doubles as her office, she turns to the bottle when she can’t sleep and then goes out late at night, not to fight crime but to take more pictures of people at their worst so she can make more money to buy more booze.
At this point you might be asking: Where are the super powers? Where are the super villains? What is this show?
