Marvel’s much-anticipated Netflix series are set to launch later this year and we finally have a date for their first show, “Daredevil.”

Over at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour, Netflix announced during their press conference that all 13 episodes of “Daredevil” are set to drop on Friday, April 10. Because Netflix doesn’t have to worry about silly things like ad revenue and ratings, per se, they are always kind enough to release all the episodes in a series season at once, much to the delight of binge-watching geeks everywhere.

“Daredevil” stars relatively-unknown Charlie Cox as the titular character as well as Vincent D’Onofrio, Rosario Dawson and Deborah Ann Woll. “Daredevil” is the first of the Marvel series that are being developed for Netflix and will be followed with “AKA Jessica Jones”, “Luke Cage”, “Iron Fist”, and “The Defenders.” 

AGENT CARTER (8 out of 10) Action-drama airing Tuesday evenings on ABC, based on characters from Marvel’s Cinematic Universe; Episode 1.1 written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, directed by Louis D’Esposito; 1.2 written by Eric Pearson, directed by Joseph Russo; Starring Hayley Atwell, James D’Arcy, Chad Michael Murray, Enver Gjokaj, Shea Whigham, Kyle Bornheimer, Dominic Cooper. Guest starring James Frain, Costa Ronin as Anton Vanko, James Urbaniak, and Ray Wise.   

Marvel’s Agent Carter is amazing. As much as I’m missing “Agents of SHIELD,” this is, in so many ways, so much better. Agent Carter successfully blends elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with other successful shows like “Mad Men.” While it oozes the cool of being a 1940s period piece, it also has the modern fun of a good spy show.

The first two episodes center around Agent Carter (Hayley Atwell, reprising her role from “Captain America: The First Avenger” and the “Agent Carter” one-shot) and her work as the newly formed SSR (the progenitor for SHIELD). Unfortunately, she is treated as more of a secretary than the bad-ass agent we know she is. Sexism abounds as she tries to make it in the “man’s world” she conquered already during the war but now faces anew as everyone returns back from it.

Meanwhile, Howard Stark is called before Congress under investigation for possibly letting some high tech inventions get into the wrong hands. And it seems hamming it up in front of Congress is likely a genetic trait among Stark men. When Stark disappears, the SSR begins investigating, suspecting him of treason.

Agent Carter knows better, eventually reuniting with her old war colleague. Stark confides in her that some of his tech has been stolen, and it is, unfortunately, the worst and most destructive of his ideas that are now in the open. He asks Carter to be his woman on the inside of SSR to help recover the tech and clear his name.

To aid her, Stark lends Agent Carter his butler, Jarvis, and the two spend the better part of the first two episodes tracking down one particularly nasty formula, a few spoonfuls of which would be capable of creating an explosion able to level entire city blocks.

But enough plot– how is it?

It’s just awesome. The best part is the witty, snappy dialogue. There’s a lot of comedy in here, which plays well to the cast’s strengths.

This cast is great, too. From nerd favorites like Enver Gjokaj (Victor from Dollhouse– and who, coincidentally, had a small role in Avengers as an NYPD cop) and gifted comedians like Kyle Bornheimer (She’s Out of My League, Traffic Light, Worst Week), this cast is fun and versatile. My only hangup is with Chad Michael Murray, who plays alpha agent Jack Thompson with all the douchebaginess only capable of. . .well, Chad Michael Murray. So, perfect casting, maybe?

But the shining star here is Atwell. First of all, she’s gorgeous, and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees. She also gets to play secret agent a lot here, meaning costume changes, accents, and characters. She’s also great at just inhabiting the role of Agent Carter, even when fighting against the little injustices like a rude diner customer who harasses his waitress. 

There’s also a lot of sadness. She’s definitely carrying around some survivors’ guilt, and she interprets her actions as being the cause of people around her getting killed. This leads her to trying to isolate herself emotionally, which would be boring for a tv show, except that she keeps getting pulled back out because, well, someone’s got to save the world.

There are also lots of little things to look forward to, specifically hidden Marvel Easter Eggs for those paying attention. Anton Vanko shows up in the first episode, as does Ray Wise as the head of the Roxxon Corporation, and James Urbaniak (Doc Venture from The Venture Brothers) shows up as a Roxxon scientist. Don’t blink or you’ll miss them all!

And, as an added treat, there’s a Captain America radio hour that keeps playing in the background of much of the second episode. It’s really funny to listen to their melodrama, especially as it’s often interspersed with actual SSR mayhem.

This show is fun and warrants repeat viewing. If you have this on your DVR, watch it now, and make this a part of your weekly tv viewing from here out.

I give both episodes an 8 out of 10, maybe with the first episode creeping towards a 9 and the second slouching closer to a 7. But as a whole, even amidst dozens of other comic-inspired genre TV shows, this is one of the best and you should be watching it.

Marvel has been doing a brilliant job teasing the “Ant-Man” trailer, and the final result was a lot of fun! Mixing equal parts exposition, action and a wry sense of humor, it definitely piqued my interest and made me even more excited for the movie to come out!

In a tease that will surely be an micro-sized Internet sensation, Marvel has released a tiny 18 second teaser for their upcoming summer blockbuster “Ant Man”.  The teaser has some fun at the viewer’s expense as the video is only appropriate viewing if you’re the size of an ant. Not to be too much of a tease though, Marvel lets the viewers know that they will get an enhanced experience when the trailer debuts at human scale during the two hour premier of Marvel’s “Agent Carter” January 6^th.

So, without further ado, check out the tiny trailer below. Just don’t squint too much and try to use the big screen instead of your mobile.

This week on Saturday Morning Cartoon we’re leaving the hallowed halls of the 80s and 90s for the distant future of 2008 when Marvel Studios gave us the short lived-

“The Spectacular Spider-Man” episode 1.1, “Survival of the Fittest” (8 out of 10); Starring Josh Keaton, Dee Bradley Baker, Lacey Chabert, John DiMaggio, Robert Englund, Deborah Strang, and Alan Rachins; Written by Greg Weisman; Based on characters created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko; Directed by Victor Cook.

This incarnation of Spider-Man skirts the origin story, alluding to the spider bite happening during a school field trip to the laboratory of Dr. Connors last year, and gets right into the action. Peter has spent the summer honing his skills and is now returning as a Junior to Midtown High.

When Peter thwarts a jewel heist by Flint Marko he unknowingly confirms his existence to an unknown entity who sends The Enforcers to deal with him. In the meantime Peter returns home for his last night of summer before returning to school in the morning.

Meanwhile Aunt May talks with a friend about the financial hardships she is facing since the death of Uncle Ben and a beak-nosed man confronts an Oscorp scientist about stolen magnetic flight technology.

Peter makes his way to school feeling rejuvenated with his new spider abilities and confident that this year things will be different. He approaches a girl but she rejects his advances resulting in Flash pushing him around and stealing his lunch, so much for things being different.

While Peter may not be very well liked at school, he is becoming increasingly popular with The Enforcers and the anonymous voice who gives orders in no uncertain terms to kill Spider-Man. Later at school, Peter is offered an internship with Dr. Connors, he accepts, thinking this will be the solution to he and Aunt May’s money problems. He goes to visit the Osborne’s when The Vulture appears swooping away with Norman into the sky. Peter sends Harry to call the police and makes chase.

Peter soon finds he may have bitten off more than he can chew when he finds himself between The Vulture and The Enforcers.

In a single episode “Spectacular Spider-Man” is able to introduce viewers to many of the core characters, set the stage for Peter’s every day woes in addition to his super problems. We’re introduced to two sets of villains, Gwen Stacey, Harry and Norman Osborne, Eddie Brock, Dr. Connors, and J. Jonah Jameson. The storytelling is tight, the pacing is fluid, and the Peter maintains his signature sense of humor with some pretty decent jokes.

I’m familiar with every “Spider-Man” animated series going back to the sixties and to my mind “Spectacular” is the undiscovered and underappreciated gem of the lot. Critics and those close to the source material seemed to agree, but the masses didn’t show and the series was ultimately cancelled after 26 episodes had been produced, out of the planned 65. The final blow came with the announcement of “Ultimate Spider-Man” in 2012.

Season three of “Spectacular Spider-Man” would have seen the introduction of Carnage, and while I have quite enjoyed “Ultimate” so far, I can’t help but wonder where this series could have gone if it had been given the chance. 

Yesterday a German LEGO catalog was released that showcased the six “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” sets that will be coming this spring. With the movie coming in May, expect these to be hitting store shelves in April. 2012’s wave of LEGO sets included all of the major characters and some key vehicles; there were also some noticeable absences, like Nick Fury (or Agent Coulson)(or Maria Hill) and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, but overall it was a solid wave. This one seems to be more of the same. Without knowing exactly what’s going to be going down in “Age of Ultron,” I’m not sure if these include spoilers or not, but they don’t seem to give away anything that wasn’t already seen in the trailer.  Either way, you’ve been warned.

Here’s what we’ve got–the translations might be rough considering they’re from the German catalog, but you get the idea. 

Iron Man vs Ultron: Iron Man Mark 45, Ultron Drone Officer, Ultron Drone

Duel with Hydra: Thor, Hawkeye, Hydra Henchman

Hulkbuster Rescue Mission: Hulk, Ultron Prime, Iron Man Mark 43, Scarlet Witch

The Avengers Quinjet Chase: Captain America, Vision, Black Widow, Ultimate Ultron, Iron Man Mark 43

Attack on Avengers Tower: Iron Man Mark 45, Thor, Iron Legion Drones (2x), Ultron

Burglary at the Hydra Fortress: Quicksilver, Hydra Henchman, Baron Von Strucker, Hulk, Captain America

So that’s that. The prices in the catalog are in euros, but those usually are converted 1:1 into dollars, screwing the Europeans (and the Australians even worse, poor bastards). To buy all six sets you’d be laying out about $280. Let’s say you just wanted to get all of the Avengers — Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Vision, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Welp, you’ll have to buy every set except for the smallest (Iron Man vs. Ultron) and Attack on Avengers Tower. Which would drop your total to around $200. More reasonable, but still. LEGO loves spreading out a team across several expensive sets, which is why I still don’t have all five Guardians of the Galaxy. They also ensured Black Widow would be the rarest Avenger, only including her in the most expensive set…just like they did in 2012. 

All that whining aside, this looks like a great way to represent the action, the characters, vehicles and set pieces in the movie. That Avengers Tower is especially sexy, and the Hulkbuster suit is just begging to come home with me. I won’t buy all of these sets, but those two are sure bets. And that Quinjet is damn sexy…and I love Baron Von Strucker…and…

Time to sell more plasma. 

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 2.10 “What They Become” (7 out of 10) Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

Though I enjoyed that opening scene that threw us right into the action with a quinjet in mid-nosedive, the image inevitably came to represent the episode’s trajectory. It might have to do with being a mid-season finale of sorts—it’s understandable for the showrunners to withhold their big guns for the second half of the season—but tonight’s episode felt strangely lopsided.

Spoilers ahead!

Awkward Family Stuff

After a long build up, Skye (Chloe Bennet) comes face to face with her father Cal (Kyle MacLachlan). As Ward (Brett Dalton) was instrumental in this reunion, it’s important to consider his relationship with Skye—anywho, it’s all kind of weird. I liked seeing Cal’s plan take shape—he’s still got some serious issues, but the idea that he was the monster that Whitehall (Reed Diamond) created was pretty cool. The problem with this whole scenario is that, at the end of the day, Cal’s still a psycho. Based on the way the reunion scene was written, it was hard to tell whether the writers wanted the audience to sympathize with Cal or not. He’s got a terribly tragic story, and you get the sense that he cares about Skye—but he’s done some terrible things for the sake of revenge, and that’s tough to get over. And what’s up with Kyle MacLachlan? I typically like him as an actor—huge fan of “Twin Peaks” and his other projects with David Lynch—but man is he swinging for the fences with his interpretation of Cal’s character. As a result, his performace comes across as cartoonishly evil, which is a bit jarring because if his realistically evil deeds. Swing and a miss, K-Mac.

Though it’s not too difficult to pass for a good actor in these reunion scenes considering MacLachlan’s oddly comical performance, Chloe Bennet does a solid job in these scenes. She’s fully embraced Skye’s newfound confidence as a SHIELD agent, which is something that her character desperately needed in the first season.

The Nosedive

The second half of the episode suffered from a case of unrequited epicness. We have Coulson (Clark Gregg) leading a team into Whitehall’s allegedly well-fortified mansion only to be confronted with a moronic security detail that, when you consider HYDRA’s resources, should have been packing more than a few pistols. I hate to be that guy who’s all, “Pfah. Like that would really happen,” but I just couldn’t help it tonight. SHIELD pretty much walked right in, leaving Whitehall wide open to a shot in the back from Coulson. It’s tough to buy considering the fact that Whitehall had the means to cheat death and everything.

With all of this family drama and mansion-invading taking place, the episode left little time to shed light on the mystery city that has been on my mind for weeks—save a few confusing tidbits. There are a lot of questions that go unanswered, but rather than nitpicking through that mess, let’s focus on those final few moments, because what the hell was that?

Skye, despite figuring out that her father wanted her to take the Diviner into the city for some nefarious purpose, openly refuses to play along. This is odd because the moment she sees that Raina (Ruth Negga) has skipped off with the Diviner, Skye follows. Raina activates the Diviner, which turns her, Skye, and Tripp (B.J. Britt) into beef jerky. At first, it appears that it’s just killed them all, but then Skye explodes out of the shell, evidently gaining the powers of slow-motion. It’s a confusing scene—largely due to its editing. I think Raina may have sprouted skin spikes and had her eyes turn yellow, but she is mysteriously absent during Skye’s realization that Tripp is actually dead. This scene, coupled with an equally confusing epilogue in which we see a guy without eyes messing around with his own Diviner, left me a bit unsatisfied.

Verdict

While this episode wasn’t horrible as a whole, there were some detours that threw its mid-season finale mojo off a bit. Given the show’s format, I think it’s better served with smaller storyarcs. These grandiose stories about mysterious alien cities and immortal Nazi scientists start to feel long-winded after eight or so episodes.

The show is back in March, but in the meantime you can catch the many adventures of Agent Carter (Hayley Atwell) during SHIELD’s timeslot.

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 2.9 “Ye Who Enter Here” (8 out of 10) Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

In case the ominous title doesn’t give it away, SHIELD takes some abuse during this episode. We also get an official name drop regarding that mysterious blue dead guy that supplied Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Skye (Chloe Bennet) with the goo that saved their lives—which might have caused me to squee just a little bit (SPOILER: the name rhymes with “squee.”)

Other, less stupidly-revealed spoilers ahead.

Skye’s Weird Dream

As much as I wanted to gloss over the episode’s opening scene, it’s hard not to pick apart a dream sequence to try and figure out how it relates to the story so far. Perhaps the most heavy-handed image in this scene is that of Coulson and May (Ming-Na Wen) talking cryptically about making sacrifices while carrying a baby. It’s clear that she’s accepted Coulson and May as surrogate parents, given the fact that her mother was tortured to death and her father may or may not be a full-fledged supervillain. This whole moment hearkened back to the rebellious teen version of Skye that we had in season one—which was my least favorite version of her.

I’m still wondering about the music box. The fact that it turned Skye to stone made me think that it was some kind of place holder for the Diviner, so perhaps Skye is having memories of the Diviner as some kind of childhood toy? Or maybe this is some foreshadowing regarding her inevitable confrontation with her father. I guess it could just be a messed up music box, too. I don’t know Skye’s life.

Coulson and the City

It’s easy to get lulled into a sense of security with Coulson briefing his team about their upcoming objectives. While he splits the team in half—one half to go with him to find the entrance to the mystery city that everyone’s talking about, the other to track down Raina and bring her in—he calls the shots with the dry confidence that we’ve come to expect from SHIELD’s director.

This section of the show started off slowly, but prettily—Adrianne Palicki strolling through the streets of Puerto Rico is remarkably easy to watch—only to devolve into something both nightmarish and tragic. The local legends surrounding the entrance to the city built a good amount of apprehension and uncertainty, which offered a satisfyingly freaky scene in which Mac (Henry Simmons) becomes host to some ancient beast and starts throwing his teammates into things. The interaction between Mac and Fitz (Iain DeCaestecker) was especially hard to watch as Fitz had to muster up the guts to shoot the person who has become his closest friend (he doesn’t though. Morse electrocutes Mac in the nick of time).

All in all, the Coulson stuff was decent. I liked seeing this well-laid plan completely blow up in SHEILD’s face. That kind of thing doesn’t happen too often, and it served to establish the “Empire Strikes Back” tone of the episode.

Raina Plus Koenig Times Two

Raina (Ruth Negga) has become an interesting character this season. Her time spent on the run from SHIELD and HYDRA has established her as a bit of a wild card, and it’s a role that suits her character. Tonight, May’s detachment was assigned to bring Raina in for safekeeping, which is going fine until Skye lets slip that Whitehall is looking for someone who can touch the Diviner without getting disintegrated (Raina can do that). Sure, you can blame Ward (Brett Dalton) for figuring out how to hack the SHIELD tracker that was implanted inside Raina, but I blame Skye for the sudden HYDRA intervention on their quinjet.

The most entertaining moments of this storyarc come from the agents Koenig (Patton Oswalt), who may or may not be clones from a classified SHIELD experiment. Either way, it’s fun to see Oswalt play off of himself, and he does a good job of switching between geek and badass. Raina’s scenes with Skye are also intense. Even though Raina might be manipulating Skye, she’s gotten some kind of ball rolling within Skye’s mind with all her talk about “special” humans and being “worthy” to enter this underground city. She also reveals that the dead blue alien on ice with SHIELD is part of the Kree, an alien race that features heavily in the Marvel universe.

This excited me very much. So far, the Marvel cinematic universe hasn’t really gotten in touch with the Kree, and I would be totally down with their inclusion on SHIELD.

The final scenes of the episode end badly for our special agents. Ward takes Raina and Skye with him during an aerial assault on SHIELD’s quinjet, and there’s nothing anyone can really do about it—but, when we see Whitehall (Reed Diamond) at the end of the episode, he curses Ward for not destroying the quinjet entirely. My theory is that Ward is in fact acting as a double double agent so he can reunite Skye with her father and let the two of them take revenge on Whitehall.

Verdict

As weird as this feels to say, it’s nice to see SHIELD get knocked around a bit. The show was making Coulson’s team feel a bit too invincible—they were almost literally everywhere they needed to be at exactly the right time this season. The supporting cast remains stellar as always, with the standouts being Oswalt and Nick Blood, upon whom I’ve been nursing a steady man-crush. I’m not a fan of the stuff between Jemma (Elizabeth Henstridge) and Fitz, though. It is very awkward to tell someone you love them right before you get jettisoned out of an airplane and nearly drown together, but it might be time to give it a rest between those two.

Only one more episode before the winter hiatus! Things are happening!

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 2.8 “The Things We Bury” (7 out of 10) Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

This season’s primary acts of villainy have revolved around Daniel Whitehall (Reed Diamond), Skye’s father (Kyle MacLachlan) and the Obelisk/Diviner. Up to this point, the narrative has been pushing us towards an inevitable showdown between Coulson’s good guys and Whitehall’s bad guys. However, due to the events that took place tonight, things are about to get way more complicated than that.

Lesser of Two Evils

Let’s start with Whitehall. We learn that he has maintained his dapper, middle-aged appearance by surgically exploiting a woman who could touch the Obelisk without turning into beef jerky—thus his fascination with the alien artifact. Though I typically don’t mind it when I figure out a twist ending, I couldn’t help but feel that the big reveal of tonight’s episode was a little too easy to peg. Anyone who has been watching the show could tell you that a mysterious woman who is immune to the Obelisk’s destructo-powers is going to end up being Skye’s mom, and if that’s the case, Skye’s dad isn’t working for Whitehall in order to form a hostile co-venture for world domination—he’s looking for a bit of sweet revenge. 

Though Whitehall’s origin story was a lot like that of Sebastian Shaw in “X-Men: First Class,” it was interesting to see his relationship to HYDRA and how years of imprisonment within a SHIELD facility has only made him tougher. In addition to having a decent German accent, Reed Diamond has done a solid job at making Whitehall come across as the ultimate death-cheating, white-collar villain. Kyle MacLachlan’s acting does seem a little over the top—especially when he’s in mad scientist mode—but oddly enough, I don’t hate it. Over the course of the show, the bad guys have usually been clean-cut, monologue-spewing businessmen. Skye’s father is the complete opposite. Not only are his motivations shrouded in mystery, but he seems to be really enjoying himself. 

The Good Guys…and Ward

While Skye’s father and Whitehall are machinating, things are actually a bit slow concerning Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his team. After a convoluted plan to break into an Australian base ends with Tripp (B.J. Britt) getting shot, Coulson does come face to face with Skye’s father again—it’s a relatively creepy scene as he threatens to let Tripp bleed out to cover his escape.  The buildup for this espionage mission was entertaining, but the actual execution of the plan was a bit anticlimactic.

The best moment for our heroes comes once again from Agent “Mockingbird” Morse (Adrianne Palicki) and her questionable interrogation tactics. She hacks through Mr. Bakshi’s (Simon Kassianides) mental defenses without even breaking a sweat, eventually resulting in Bakshi’s ingestion of a cyanide pill. As Bakshi killed himself right after threatening to reveal what Morse had to do to infiltrate HYDRA, the audience is left with some questions about her true intentions. Was it just a miscalculation? Or was Morse trying to keep a secret buried? And what happens when Hunter (Nick Blood) calls her on it? Van sex. That’s what happens. That Morse…she’s a sly one.

Our friend Ward (Brett Dalton) did some backsliding on my like-o-meter tonight. The subplot with his politician brother (Tim DeKay) was surprisingly weak considering the levels of mistrust that the audience has for both of them. Up until tonight, we didn’t know which of the Ward brothers to trust, and I was hoping that the conclusion of this fraternal conflict would have a more satisfying ending—and one that maybe didn’t end with Ward setting fire to the rest of his family. It goes to support Ward’s evolution as an independent, equal-opportunity bad guy, and he still might have a few tricks up his sleeve, but the whole thing left a bad taste somehow.

Verdict

Tonight’s episode set a lot of future events up. We learned more about Skye’s past, more about what the Obelisk/Diviner is, and we have an engaging endpoint in figuring out what the deal is with this madness-inducing city. The downside of the setup is that our supporting characters weren’t left with much to do. Regardless, the show is still making vast improvements as far as writing and acting go—and I’m still trying to unravel what this city might be, so it’s got me mentally checked in even when the show’s not on. Until next week, friends!

Disney’s upcoming “Big Hero 6” is one of our most anticipated films of the season, and if early buzz is any indication, it’s going to live up to those expectations.

We’ve been given a good number of advance screening passes for Wednesday, November 5 at 7 PM at Jordan Commons in Sandy, Utah, and we want you to come see it with us! Each person can download up to four (4) passes, so they can take the entire family, but they are only available on a first come, first serve basis, so I would recommend reserving them as soon as possible.

The theater is also likely overbooked, so you’ll want to show up early to redeem your passes for actual tickets. If you have any questions, feel free to contact the theater directly, and they will fill you in on their redemption rules.

Click here to grab your tickets!

Can’t wait to see you all there!