Month: October 2018

Character Of The Month: November 2018: Bullseye

Ben DeSanti

Hello, and welcome once again to the Blog Of Hell’s Kitchen. This week, we have a Character Of The Month article about Bullseye, the man that never misses, and Daredevil’s biggest arch-nemesis behind Kingpin. Bullseye has appeared in live-action before and was played by Colin Farrell in 2003’s Daredevil, and will be played in live-action again by Wilson Bethel in the upcoming third season Netflix’s Marvel’s Daredevil, which is set to debut to Netflix users worldwide on October 19th. As per usual, this article will only go over the featured character’s history from the comics, and not what they’ve done in other film and television projects. So, without further ado, let’s get to it.

Bullseye, whose real name is actually never stated in the comics, was born and raised in The Bronx and lived with his brother and abusive father. His brother’s favorite hobby growing up was playing with rifles, so Bullseye picked it as well, and became an expert shot. His brother once tried to shoot and kill their father who was in the house while the boys were practicing their shot outside, but he was unsuccessful, and Bullseye was removed from the household shortly after. He was placed in a foster home and became a star baseball pitcher in high school. He ended up playing in the major leagues, and near the end of a perfect game he was pitching, he was mocked by an opposing player, and instead of completing the game, he purposely hit the player in the head, and killed him. He was convicted of manslaughter because of the incident and earned the nickname Bullseye because of it.

After he left prison, he was hired by the National Security Agency to train Contras in Nicaragua, who he led to take over a landing strip by Colombian cocaine manufacturers as a staging area. Bullseye set up his translator to masquerade as the true leader of the Contras to set up a meeting with several crime organizations like the Russian Mafia and the Yakuza, take their money, and then leave the translator to handle the wrath of the various organizations he screwed over. However, before he was able to take the money, Frank Castle, The Punisher, showed up to the landing strip and killed of the crime bosses, including the translator. Bullseye engaged in a fight with Castle, but lost, and was barely escaped his grasp, and the DEA showed up. Bullseye became an informant for the DEA, and he was assigned to infiltrate Kingpin’s organization. Soon he went rogue and fled, made himself a costume, and became one of the top assassins in the world.

Alright, guys, thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed. If you want to see more of Bullseye, go check out Marvel’s Daredevil Season 3, which will be available to Netflix users on October 19th. Please remember to come back Friday for my review on Marvel’s Daredevil Season 3. Once again, thank you for reading, and remember, have a nerdy day.

Daredevil Season 3 Theories

Ben DeSanti

Hello, and welcome once again to another edition of my Theories series. If you read the title, you should already know this article is on Daredevil Season 3, which releases on Netflix worldwide this Friday, October 19th. The 13 episode season is set to return stars Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/ Daredevil, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, and bring in two new main cast members in Wilson Bethel as Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter/ Bullseye and Jay Ali as Ray Nadeem. Before I start, I just want to say there are MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL MARVEL NETFLIX SHOWS, so proceed with caution. Anyways, let’s get into it.

First, I believe that the majority of Season Three is going to be based on the Born Again storyline from the comics. If you don’t know, Born Again is a 1986 storyline from the mind of The Dark Knight Returns writer Frank Miller, and is probably one of the darkest Daredevil stories out there, if not the darkest. The main plot of the story revolves around Karen Page, who long ago left Nelson & Murdock to pursue an acting career, has become a heroin addict, and has sold Daredevil’s true identity of Matt Murdock for a dose of heroin, and Kingpin begins to rip apart Matt’s life by, among other things, freezing his financial assets by pulling strings at the IRS, having the bank foreclose on Matt’s apartment, and paying off a corrupt cop testify that Matt bribed a witness to perjure themselves on the stand in order to win a case. It’s a fantastic story about a good person being pushed to the limits, and I think it would translate very well to television.

Third and finally, still going off my theory that I believe that Season 3 will be based on the Born Again storyline, I think that FBI Agent Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter, who later becomes Bullseye and impersonates Daredevil to tarnish his image, will end up being the police officer that frames Matt for bribing a witness to perjure themselves on the stand in order to win a case. I think that if Dex were to be the one that frames Matt, it would give Kingpin a reason to hire him as the one who impersonates Daredevil. In support of this theory, there would be no reason for the writers of this season to make the character who frames Matt to not have some sort of connection to him, as it wouldn’t further any characters except Matt in an emotional arc. On top of that, the only existing corrupt cop that would possibly frame Matt that we know of is Rafael Scarfe, but he was killed all the way back during Luke Cage Season 1.

Third and finally, still going off my theory that I believe that Season 3 will be based on the Born Again storyline, I also think that the biggest twist involved in Born Again will also be included in Season 3, the twist being that Karen Page is killed by Bullseye. In Born Again, Bullseye killed Karen on orders from Kingpin to try and truly break Matt’s spirit and force him to snap and kill Bullseye, ultimately making him a bad person. It would be absolutely fantastic to see this actually carried out on the show, as Marvel’s Netflix shows have never truly killed off a major character for more than 15 minutes of screen time, and it would be a comic-accurate exit for Deborah Ann Woll, and she could still reappear in later seasons in flashback and hallucination sequences.

Alright, thank you so much for reading. Please, remember to tune in next Friday for my Character of the Month article for November 2018 on Bullseye. Thank you again for reading, and remember, have a nerdy day.

Venom Review

Ben DeSanti

Hello, and welcome once again to another one of my reviews. If you read the title, you should already know this article is on Venom, which released to United States theatrical audiences last Friday, October 5th. The 1-hour-and-52-minute movie is set to star Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom, Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake, Scott Haze as Roland Treece, Reid Scott as Dr. Dan Lewis, Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady, Jenny Slate as Dora Skirth, and Ron Cephas Jones as Eddie’s boss, Jack. Before I start, I just want to say there are POTENTIAL MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL SONY MARVEL MOVIES, so proceed with caution. Anyways, let’s get into it.

First, let’s talk about the theories I put forward in my Theories article for this season. In that article, I predicted that:

  1. Woody Harrelson is playing Cletus Kasady/ Carnage.
  2. Scott Haze is playing Cletus Kasady/ Carnage.
  3. Jenny Slate is actually playing Agony.

First, it was indeed revealed that Woody Harrelson will be playing Cletus Kasady/ Carnage in a mid-credits scene, so that’s one for me. Second, with Harrelson confirmed to be playing Carnage, it, in turn, disproved that Scott Haze is playing Carnage, so no points for me on this count. Finally, Jenny Slate turned out to not be secretly playing Agony, so that brings my final count to 1-for-3.

Now, this is the time where I would normally talk about my favorite character, who was Eddie Brock, by the way. However, this time I want to talk a little bit about some of the negative criticism that Venom has been getting in the last few weeks, specifically about the writing in the movie. Now, I understand that for a movie with a 100 million dollar budget, the script is generally expected to be at least half-decent, and personally, I think the script was mostly okay, save for a few cheesy lines and awkward interactions. With all that considered though, critics and audiences alike have been just ripping the script to shreds, specifically a couple jokes that Venom makes. They’ve all been saying that “Venom is a bloodthirsty alien, he doesn’t make jokes.”, but that’s just not the case within the context of the movie. Venom calls himself a loser on his homeworld, so why wouldn’t he be able to crack a couple jokes.

When all is said and done, I give Venom 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Alright, guys, that has been my time, thank you so much for reading. Remember to come back next Friday for my Theories on Marvel’s Daredevil Season Three. Alright, thanks again for reading, and remember, have a nerdy day.

Vemon Theories

Ben DeSanti

Hello, and welcome once again to another edition of my Theories series. If you read the title, you should already know this article is on Venom, which releases to United States theatrical audiences this Friday, October 5th. The reportedly 1-hour-and-52-minute movie is set to star Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom, Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake, with Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Woody Harrelson, Jenny Slate, and Ron Cephas Jones in undisclosed roles. Before I start, I just want to say there are POTENTIAL MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL SONY MARVEL MOVIES, so proceed with caution. Anyways, let’s get into it.

First, I think there is a huge chance that Woody Harrelson is playing Cletus Kasady/ Carnage. Harrelson, as mentioned above, has yet to officially cast in a specified role. Based on a good amount of the roles Harrelson has played in the last few years, specifically, the role of Sheriff Bill Willoughby in the award-winning film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, has shown that Harrelson would be a fantastic choice for the down-south, superpowered psychopath that is Cletus Kasady from the comics. Venom director Ruben Fleischer has also confirmed that Harrelson is contracted to appear in multiple Venom films, so he may just appear as Kasady in Venom, gain the Carnage symbiote in a post-credits scene, and appear as the main villain of a sequel, if Venom makes enough money to make Sony comfortable to make a sequel.

Second, on the off chance that Woody Harrelson isn’t playing Cletus Kasady/ Carnage, I think the only other person that could play Kasady is Scott Haze. Haze was seen of set months ago sporting a shaved head and was seen engaged in a fight with Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock while both are in human form. He’s clearly some sort of antagonist of Brock and Venom’s, as evidenced by the fight scene. He could possibly be playing a crony for Riz Ahmed’s Carlton Drake and The Life Foundation, where he could become attached to the Carnage symbiote during a lab accident. Again, that’s fairly unlikely, and most signs from major news outlets and their sources seem to point to Harrelson playing Carnage.

Third and finally, I think that Jenny Slate is playing Agony. Multiple major news outlets have said that Slate will be playing a character named Dora Skirth, a character that was created specifically for Venom. However, that’s not really a smart move on the part of Sony, so I am really hoping that they will reveal her character as that of Agony, a female symbiote that is spawned from Venom by the Life Foundation. Perhaps she gets stuck in the same accident as Scott Haze’s character, and they both get bonded to their respective symbiotes.

Alright, thank you so much for reading. Please, remember to tune in next Friday for my review of Venom. Thank you again for reading, and remember, have a nerdy day.

Featured News: September 2018

Ben DeSanti

Welcome once again to another edition of Featured News. First, we’re going to talk about some news from the set of X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Secondly, we’re going to talk about a major casting update for Birds of Prey. Finally, we’re talking about some more date announcements and movements from the X-Men Cinematic Universe. So without any further ado, let’s get into it.

First, just this last week, we got a brand new trailer for X-Men: Dark Phoenix. There was a lot going on in this trailer. There were several shots of a young Jean Grey both standing in front of Xavier’s mansion, and locked in a psychic battle with an unseen force. It also seems to look like a young Jean used her psychic powers to kill her parents by forcing their car into oncoming traffic, which would probably make sense why Jean is in a home for mutants with no family left. Weirdly enough, the release date for the movie was pushed back about 4 months from February 2019 to June 2019 almost directly after the trailer came out, so who knows if it will actually release on time. Again, X-Men: Dark Phoenix will release on June 7th, 2019.

Second, also in the last week, we’ve gotten some major news on Birds of Prey. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, of 10 Cloverfield Lane and Fargo Season 3 fame, is set to play Helena Bertinelli, also known as Huntress, and Jurnee Smollett, a relatively unknown actress, will play Dinah Drake, who is also known as Black Canary. A lot of people figured that this movie would never actually get off the ground because of the various mishaps that the DCEU has suffered through for the last few years, but these casting choices make this film seem like the real deal. Birds Of Prey is set to release on February 7th, 2020.

Third and finally, also in the last week, we were told that there would be some major shifting in release dates for the X-Men Cinematic Universe, as briefly mentioned above. It seems that X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be moved from February 14th, 2019 back to June 7th, 2019. Gambit, which previously occupied the June 7th spot, will now be moving to March 13th, 2020. Most major outlets have said these moves signal the upcoming Marvel-FOX merger, and these movies have been pushed back to after the deal is supposed to be completed to allow the new movies to take place under Marvel and FOX’s banner.

Alright, thank you so much for reading. Please, remember to tune in on Friday for my theories for Venom. Thank you again for reading, and remember, have a nerdy day.