Tag: U.S. Agent

Posted on in Features

SPOILERS: ‘Black Widow’ Has A New Take On Taskmaster & The Future Of Yelena In The MCU

***WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BLACK WIDOW***

Black Widow has been a film that took a decade to get to the big screen as there had been a previous incarnation at Lionsgate with David Hayter (X-Men, Watchmen) attached to write and direct, but because of various superhero films flopping including the other Lionsgate/Marvel collaboration, the R-rated Punisher: War Zone from 2008.

Ultimately, Marvel Studios circled-back with Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland taking the director’s chair, someone that had to be convinced to take the gig and other contenders such as Eternals’ Chloe Zhao being considered. The film launched on Disney+ and theaters yesterday, as with previous Marvel films it seems like it’ll be extremely successful.

The film is sort of a closed loop for Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff since she dies in Avengers: Endgame and will likely stay dead, although, the studio could develop a run of reversing character deaths when it suits them via The Multiverse, but this could increasingly dull post-Loki and resurrection of Gamora in Avengers: Endgame.

However, Black Widow does introduce us to two characters that will likely have a bigger role to play moving forward. That would be Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova (already confirmed for the Hawkeye series) and the mysterious MCU version of Marvel Comics villain Taskmaster.

Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster

While it started to become obvious that Taskmaster was indeed going to be woman (Mason being a red herring from the jump) within the suit/mask because promotional materials (Taskmaster’s lack of crotch bulge on posters was a dead give away), however, it seemed like it was still a surprise that it turned out to be Dreykov’s (Ray Winstone) adult daughter Antonia surviving a bomb and altered with technology to become a perfect mimic. She’s revealed to be played by Quantum of Solace actress Olga Kurylenko.

Gender-swapping Anthony Masters from the comics, isn’t the real problem I have with this casting choice or the big screen version of the character.

I’m personally confused about going with Antonia, mainly, because she was supposed to be a child when Natasha assassinated her and father. However, my biggest problem is that actress Olga Kurylenko is clearly not younger than Scarlett Johansson and is actually almost five years older than her, turning 42 later in the year. Making the the reveal more puzzling for people like myself who understand the age difference between the two actresses goes in the wrong direction.

Retconning both their deaths undercuts Natasha Romanoff’s history as a ruthless deadly assassin, softening her image which sort of does a disservice to that hardened backstory. It’s also unnecessary since the character is dead and had redeemed herself multiple times in previous films.

We’ll likely see Taskmaster return at some point, likely part of the Thunderbolts team that is slowly being assembled. Hopefully, future projects will give us better action scenes with her because Black Widow didn’t do a great job there and felt a bit generic.

Speaking of Thunderbolts, the end credit scene features Julia-Louis Dreyfus’ Contessa Valentina Allegra de La Fontaine meeting up with Yelena to give her a new mission, to take out Clint Barton. This likely explains her involvement with the Hawkeye series and would suggest she won’t start out as a friend.

We previously saw Val recruit John Walker’s U.S. Agent at the end of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, it’ll be curious if Thunderbolts are getting their own project or being assembled to be unleashed as future antagonists like in upcoming movies like Captain American 4.

Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova was the biggest highlight for me in Black Widow and while the solo film wasn’t my favorite because the pre-release hype for the action was a huge let down when the final film didn’t have a lot of memorable action sequences, most felt more cartoony if anything because of the overuse of digital effects for a grounded character like Romanoff. It’ll be nice to have some real stakes with future Black Widow sequels led by Yelena’s incarnation of the character.

We’ll have to wait and see how Marvel will use these characters.

Posted on in Features

The ‘Armor Wars’ Series Could Help Setup ‘Captain America 4’

*WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER*

Yesterday, saw Marvel Studios release the finale for Falcon & Winter Soldier and cemented that Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson has moved from the Falcon persona to taking on the Captain America mantle from Steve Rogers. It was also reported that the studio isn’t wasting any time and has assigned screenwriters for Captain America 4 with Falcon’s Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson said to be working on a script.

I’m getting a strong feeling that Don Cheadle’s War Machine series Armor Wars could plant seeds for this upcoming Captain American sequel alongside the film’s potential threat. If you remember we saw Don Cheadle appear as Rhodey in the first episode of Falcon & Winter Soldier when Wilson donates the shield to the Smithsonian exhibit. I don’t think it was an accident that the two shared a moment in that first episode as Falcon and Armor Wars might be connected leading up to the events in Captain America 4.

Armor Wars will see James Rhodes crackdown on a wave of Stark technology getting into the black market and allows him to interact with a heap of Iron Man villains that likely wouldn’t have made the cut in feature films. Baddies such as Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and others could finally get their live-action adaption alongside other canon-fodder characters. There could also be a link towards the introduction of Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, who will be leading her own series Ironheart.

Armor Wars’ villains could be familiar faces with Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer, who featured predominately in the comic book the show is based on and if I had to guess could easily step-in for Norman Osborn in the Dark Avengers. You might remember that he turned War Machine into Iron Patriot for Iron Man 2, the armor was used by Osborn and briefly by Sharon Carter in the comics. I wouldn’t be shocked if Hammer is recruited into the Thunderbolts potentially combining Dark Avengers with Thunderbolts into a single entity. Traditionally, Baron Zemo is the leader but there are been multiple incarnations and the MCU does it’s own thing.

Speaking of Carter, it was revealed in Falcon & Winter Soldier that she was the mysterious arms dealer The Power Broker and is now going to use her newly returned access to government weapons programs for her benefit. There is a good shot that Sharon and Justin might join forces to get their hands on Stark’s armor tech.

Zemo crushed The Power Broker’s attempt to recreate the super-soldier serum and could attempt to help take-out villains that want to get their hands on Stark’s armor tech as well. At the end of Falcon, we see Zemo’s butler killing a batch of Flag Smashers that were heading to The Raft, suggesting that he’s still dangerous even behind bars.

We currently don’t know what Marvel is planning to do with Captain America 4, but it’s worth noting that the last installment, Captain America: Civil War, was essentially an Avengers event. There is a good chance that with Falcon & Winter Soldier out of the way they can now give Sam Wilson a massive blockbuster as he takes over the Captain America franchise.

One of the main attributes of the Captain America films is that Steve Rogers has fellow superheroes working alongside him with Bucky/Peggy Carter/The Howling Commandos in Captain America: The First Avenger, Black Widow/Falcon/Nick Fury in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Bucky/Falcon/Scarlet Witch/Hawkeye/Ant-Man/Sharon Carter in Captain America: Civil War. Seeing Rhodey and Sam further develop their relationship or even partner up in the future wouldn’t be surprising given their military backgrounds and both taking on superhero mantles.

Could the next Captain America film also become some Avengers event movie like Civil War?

A new Avengers roster is being assembled before our eyes by Marvel with Sam Wilson becoming Captain America, Rhodey is essentially taking up the Iron Man mantle from Tony Stark, Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster aka Lady Thor, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova becoming Black Widow, Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk, a new yet-to-be announced Black Panther for the sequel shooting this summer, Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye, and Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres taking Sam’s spot as Falcon. How this might intersect with plans for the Young Avengers and Thunderbolts remains to be seen.

Armor Wars dropping hints for the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers to appear in future films like Captain America 4 could be great way to have things escalate for Sam’s first film as the new Cap and sort of amp things up in comparison to the Disney+ show.

John Walker becomes U.S. Agent

Wyatt Russell’s John Walker becoming U.S. Agent remains a bit of mystery if he’s going to be part of the MCU’s version of Thunderbolts or will become a pawn of The Serpent Society (faux title for Captain America 3), Zola, and the Mandarin’s Ten Rings. It likely comes down to the intentions of his new boss Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Julia was originally supposed to appear first as Val in Black Widow before the pandemic delayed the film’s release from May 2020 to July 2021. There are already suggestions that she’ll have some connection to Yelena joining the Thunderbolts but that needs to be confirmed. It’s confirmed that Florence Pugh is reprising the role in the Hawkeye series that could also have links to Thunderbolts.

Walker could return for Armor Wars as he teamed-up with The Jury and that group could be replaced with whoever ends up getting bootleg Stark-tech, potentially Val and Justin Hammer. I’d personally like to see The Serpent Society because they would make an excellent surrogate for a modern version of HYDRA and give Sam plenty of villains to battle for the next couple of years.

Thunderbolt Ross might become a very important figure in the very near future and there is a possibility he might appear in Armor Wars given that Rhodey could be activated under Ross’ supervision.

It could be interesting to see the new Avengers going head-to-head against a competing team like the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers, who would likely be made up multiple villains selected by Thunderbolt Ross at The Raft. Ross himself is a member of a recent version of the team as Red Hulk, a character aspect that could be explored in the She-Hulk series. He’s always been lurking behind the scenes as a government stooge and helped create the Abomination. Having Ross spearheading Thunderbolts as his namesake would make a lot of sense and it’s starting to feel like Phase 4 is leading up to the two teams clashing on the big screen.

Posted on in Features

SPOILERS: A New Captain America & Legacy of The Super-Soldier Program Explored In Episode 2 of ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD FOR EPISODES 1-2

Episode 1 ended with the U.S. government selecting Wyatt Russell’s John Walker as the new Captain America and in Episode 2 we see a little background on the character giving him a little bit of personality. Walker also has his own sidekick with Battlestar being confirmed. However, his existence seems to irk both Sam and Bucky as the latter is frustrated that Wilson turned down the shield letting an outsider take over Steve’s mantle which went against his wishes.

We see most of The Flash Smashers have been enhanced with the super-soldier serum and are on the run from The Power Broker, a Marvel villain that has been teased in the end credits. This might suggest the masked group might not be as villainous as they’ve been made out to be and are trying to keep themselves one step ahead of the real villain. The Power Broker threatening to kill them.

Bucky reveals to Sam that there was another secret super-soldier, Isaiah Bradley, played by Carl Lumbly and there is an assumption that Elijah Richardson was playing Isaiah’s grandson Eli Bradley aka Patriot. It’s mentioned that Bucky and Bradley came to blows during the Korean War along with the horrible revelation that he was thrown into prison to rot for 30 years. Sam is horrified that nobody knew that Bradley existed and there are overtones that Isaiah being a black man played a role to the government keeping that a secret.

Walker and Battlestar are keen to work with Bucky and Sam but the two established characters seem to be reluctant to do so. At the end of the episode our two protagonists attempt to get more answers from Zemo, who is still locked-up. Something is going to happen because we’ve seen multiple set photos and footage Zemo out in the world.

I’ll be curious to see if Walker, Zemo, and The Power Broker are connected.

I also wouldn’t be shocked to see the Bradley family has a link to Erin Kellyman’s Karli.

Posted on in Television News

SPOILERS: ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Episode 1 – New World Order

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR EPISODE 1 OF THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER

In Episode 1, we see both Sam and Bucky dealing with a world post snap and Captain America. It starts off with Wilson on a mission for the U.S. government in Africa where Batroc has hijacked a military plane and is attempting to kidnap an officer. The action sequence is the meat of the episode as the rest attempts to explore the pair grasping with their grief and responsibilities.

After saving the day, Sam returns to his family in New Orleans and attempts to help his sister Sarah get a bank loan to help their business/family home. The bank manager seems to be more interested in getting a selfie with an Avenger than giving them a loan. He’s referred to as Uncle Sam by his two nephews, which could make for a badass patriotic superhero name if Wilson decides against using Captain America or Falcon once he gets the shield.

Bucky is still dealing with his PTSD from being a brainwashed assassin for HYDRA as he has a nightmare of killing an innocent witness and it’s revealed he’s the son of an elderly Japanese man he has befriended named Yori (not aware he killed his son). The pair are getting lunch at a Japanese restaurant when Bucky is set up on a date with Miki Ishikawa’s Leah. He’s also in therapy where he’s trying to make amends and is being evasive about the nightmare to Dr. Raynor.

During a presentation at the Smithsonian, Sam Wilson makes a speech with Don Cheadle’s Rhodey in attendance as he hands over the shield and they place it in a display case in the Captain America exhibit. It’s mentioned that Steve Rogers/Captain America is “gone,” but they don’t use the words “dead” and Sam’s military cohort Joaquin Torres aka Falcon asks him if Rogers is on a base on the Moon (a nod to S.W.O.R.D./Secret Invasion?).

It’s also revealed that the group Erin Kellyman’s Kari Morgenthau is involved with is called Flag-Smashers (a nod to the Cap villain) and seemingly are upset that things changed when people are brought back to life. Torres tries to infiltrate the group in Switzerland and attempts stop one of the masked members until it’s revealed that Desmond Chiam’s Dovich is enhanced with superhuman strength. I’ll be curious if they’ve got their hands on the super-soldier serum or some black market knockoff.

We’ll likely see that Zemo is connected to the group and his purple mask may indeed be linked to Thanos as the Flagsmashers seem to have thrived post-snap.

The episode ends with Wyatt Russell’s John Walker taking over the Captain America mantle as they give him the shield that Wilson handed over as he didn’t feel like it was his to keep.