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Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is barreling toward its finale, but in the penultimate episode, we got more of the mystery surrounding the Stranger, and the strange white cloaked cultists chasing him. On today’s Nerdist News, Matt Caron breaks down episode 7, as well as shares theories about who these Grim Shadies might be and what they mean for Middle-earth.
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The post Lord of the Rings Theory: What Does the Cult Want With the Stranger? (Nerdist News) appeared first on Nerdist.
I spent countless hours in my younger days wandering the aisles of Blockbuster. I miss those days. The very act of choosing a movie was something to do. That’s why I find it slightly unsettling the streaming site that helped put the video rental chain out of business will now have its own show about that company. It’s like someone stealing all your clothes and then renting them back to you. But if you’re going to have the gall to do that, you might as well do it in style. Or, in this case, with an awesome cast. And the new trailer for Netflix’s Blockbuster definitely has that.
Look, if you’re young, I get it. You don’t understand why any of us would be nostalgic for putting on clothes and going to a store only to potentially find out the movie you want is unavailable. (Not to mention the scourge of late fees.) But I promise, that was way better than scrolling through infinite streaming options at home. And if this show captures even a little bit of why, it’ll be a fun watch. The trailer for Blockbuster certainly has us anticipating more.
The premise and the show’s stars should also make for a good time. Here’s Blockbuster‘s official synopsis from Netflix:
Timmy Yoon (Randall Park) is an analog dreamer in a 5G world. He’s spent his entire adult life dedicated to his first love, movies — a passion that’s kept him at his first and only job, managing his hometown Blockbuster Video.
Then Timmy is alarmed to learn that his store is officially the last Blockbuster in America. He now has no choice but to take action to stay open and keep his friends employed. Timmy and his staff quickly come to realize that being home to the last Blockbuster might actually be exactly what their community needs to rekindle the human connections they lost to the digital age. It also unexpectedly reunites him with his long-time crush Eliza (Melissa Fumero), who’s recently come back to work for him. Will this battle to preserve the past be the push Timmy needs to step into the present? His employees can only hope so.
Hard to go wrong with Park and Fumero as your leads. But when you add in J.B. Smoove, it might actually be impossible.
Of course, the irony is that if you want to see Blockbuster, you’ll have to stay home and watch it on Netflix. The ten-episode first season comes to the streaming site on November 3. But I might wander around my house for an hour before watching. That way, it feels more authentic.
The post Netflix’s BLOCKBUSTER Opens for Business in Star-Studded Trailer appeared first on Nerdist.
Daredevil is famous for his deadly and serious villains. Kingpin, the Hand, Bullseye, Typhoid Mary, Elektra. The list goes on. But those characters came after his gritty reboot in the ‘80s from Frank Miller, which set the course for the character from that point forward. Before that, in the Silver and Bronze Age of comics, the Man Without Fear had some very silly villains. We met one of them, Man-Bull, in She-Hulk’s seventh episode. And now, they have introduced us to another: the amphibian costumed Leap-Frog. But is the ridiculous character a TV invention, or is he from the comics? Well, not only did Leap-Frog originate in the pages of Marvel Comics, but Stan Lee co-created him. Let’s look back at Leap-Frog’s comic book history.
Leap-Frog’s Comic Book Origins
Stan Lee and artist Gene Colan created Leap-Frog, and he first appeared in Daredevil #25-26 back in 1967. Vincent Patilio was a scientist and novelty toy inventor who found little fame and success in his chosen field. So, he turned to a life of crime to make himself rich. Clad in a head-to-toe frog costume, Patilio’s suit contained electrical coils on the soles of each of his two flippers, allowing him to leap great distances up to 60 feet high or 100 feet long. A backpack contained Patilio’s power source, which he activated with buttons in his gloves. Taking the name Leap-Frog, he fought Matt Murdock in one of his earliest adventures.
Leap-Frog did not exactly become one of Daredevil’s star rogues after that. The hero of Hell’s Kitchen thoroughly kicked his butt on a few occasions. Ultimately, it was Iron Man who put Leap-Frog away for several years, after the foe had joined with a group of other villains. And for the most part, Marvel writers forgot about this silly character. When he finally got out of prison, he went back home to his wife and son.
From Leap-Frog the Villain, to Frog-Man the Hero
It was at this point that his son Eugene Patilio took up the Leap-Frog costume. Not to become a villain, but to become a superhero instead. He thought using his dad’s inventions to fight crime might change his family’s fortunes. The younger Patilio changed his name from Leap-Frog to the somehow less imaginative Frog-Man.
In an effort to ease his financial problems, the elder Patilio pretended to be a villain again, and went undercover in the criminal gang of the villain White Rabbit. But his son, as Frog-Man, was trying to take down the White Rabbit gang, not realizing that dear old dad was undercover in the organization. This led to much confusion, but ultimately they worked it all out. Patilio didn’t want his son adventuring as Frog- Man anymore, but he didn’t listen to him. He tried out to be a member of the Defenders, back when several original X-Men were part of the team. He had a few adventures with Spider-Man as well.
But Frog-Man simply never made it into the big leagues, despite several attempts. Still, he was seen as important enough by the Skrull Empire to replace him with a doppelganger during the events of the Secret Invasion, although that led to a long readjustment period once they returned him to Earth. Perhaps one of Eugene’s most embarrassing moments came when Kraven the Hunter captured him and placed him in a zoo for supervillains with animal motifs. And yet, Frog-Man soldiered on, hoping to one day be recognized as a legit superhero—or at least make up for the criminal past of his father.
The MCU’s Leap-Frog
For his MCU debut on She-Hulk, Leap-Frog was fairly comics-accurate. When his suit malfunctioned (due to his own stupidity), he went to Jennifer Walters for legal representation. Just like in the comics, he goes by Eugene Patilio. And also just like in the comics, he’s not very good at being a hero. The show mentioned his rich and powerful father, who we didn’t see on camera during the episode.
Eugene having a rich dad was a deviation from the comics, as the senior Patilio was anything but wealthy. But it sounds like he had some kind of notable career before his son did, which tracks with the comics. By making Leap-Frog a villain at the end, they definitely combined him with his father. Will we ever see Leap-Frog again in the MCU? He definitely holds a grudge against She-Hulk now, and Daredevil as well. Maybe he will try to reinvent himself as Jen’s arch-nemesis. Good luck with that, Eugene.
The post The Comics History of SHE-HULK’s Leap-Frog Explained appeared first on Nerdist.
Over the last five episodes, She-Hulk has taken delight in introducing some of the Marvel Universe’s most deep-cut characters. This week is no different. In episode six, we join Jen as she attends a close friend’s wedding. It’s all fun and games until the final moments of the episode. It’s here we get a hint that a darker plan is in place, and Jen’s new wedding bud may be a part of it. While Jen is having fun at the wedding, Nikki and Mallory discover a nightmarish online cesspool called the Intelligencia, which likely rang a bell for Marvel Comics fans. Who are these new villains to the MCU fold? Let’s break down the end of episode six, Marvel’s Intelligencia villains, and what they want with She-Hulk.
Who Is the Intelligencia in Marvel Comics?
First introduced in 2009’s Fall of the Hulks: Alpha #1, Marvel’s Intelligencia began as an organization for supervillains to share their nefarious information. We see that core of the Intelligencia reimagined in a very contemporary way in this episode of She-Hulk. Jeff Parker and Paul Pelletier created the to, essentially, give the Hulk his own supervillain antagonist team. And what a team it was. There have been many notable members of Marvel’s comic book Intelligencia. Doctor Doom, M.O.D.O.K.—who we know will appear in Quantumania—Chameleon, and even deeper cut villains like Awesome Android, Egghead, Wizard, Trapster, and the Red Ghost all appeared as part of the villainous group. Soon the Intelligencia evolved from an information-sharing network to actual evil plotting and scheming.
The Intelligencia’s most dastardly plan—one that feels very relevant to their appearance in She-Hulk—was revealed in 2010’s Hulk #23. There readers learned the Intelligencia were behind the creation of Red Hulk. So it’s very likely that whatever we’re seeing here could lead to that eventuality. Interestingly, in She-Hulk‘s eighth episode, Jennifer Walters mentions a Red Hulk in an aside to the audience. She discusses the possibility of a finale twist and offers that it could be, “There’s another Hulk, but this one is red.” We will have to wait and see if that’s some She-Hulk foreshadowing to do with the Intelligencia.
How Did She-Hulk Change the Intelligencia?
The MCU version of the Intelligencia in She-Hulk is a clickbait-style website with a dark secret. As members know, it’s actually a hateful anti-She-Hulk site. Multiple death threats, posts about the best ways to kill the hero, and other horrific posts fill its pages. While Mallory believes it’s just trolls, Nikki is far more worried. And it turns out she should be.
Is She-Hulk‘s Josh Part of the Intelligencia?
Nikki calls Jen to reveal all to her bestie. But she gets Jen’s voicemail as her friend is busy drunk eating fries with her handsome fellow wedding guest, Josh. And the biggest question after Jen’s wedding escapades is whether Josh is a part of the MCU’s Intelligencia on She-Hulk. Josh seems to know exactly what Jen wants to hear after her legal tussle with Titania last week. He’s kind, thoughtful, and most importantly, he’s a Jen fan, not a She-Hulk one. Though it does feel pretty coincidental that Josh just happens to be there with Jen in the exact right position for the pair to be watched.
Well, too coincidental turns out to be exactly right, in episode seven, we learn that Josh is, in fact, a member of the MCU’s Intelligencia on She-Hulk, and he’s up to no good. Unfortunately for Jen and She-Hulk, after slithering his way into Jen’s good graces, Josh copies her entire phone, and worse, he seems to be out for her blood. We see him directly texting the evil Intelligencia’s leader at the end of the episode. Josh seems to imply he managed to get a sample of She-Hulk’s blood for the organization. And that spells trouble.
The Evil Leader of the MCU’s Intelligencia
The final moments of She-Hulk episode six introduce us to a high-tech lab where it seems a team of scientists are very interested in Jen’s blood. Not only are they cyber-stalking her via security camera, but they are also monitoring her vitals.
We immediately discover this is connected to the She-Hulk Intelligencia site we saw as that site had a logo that featured a Hulk face—redrawn to look like Pepe the Frog—with a crown. And as we join the lab, we see that same avatar pop up under the name HulkKing. And he wants a status update from the lab. Other clues we get about the people behind the lab are the bent needle from episode three, hinting that the Wrecking Crew were employees of HulkKing and his crew. Plus, the Intelligencia have learned their lesson as they are preparing a new super needle to steal Jen’s blood. The identity of their villainous leader is currently unclear, though there are some likely options.
We’ve long wondered if Tim Blake Nelson’s Leader could be behind the mission to gain She-Hulk’s blood. That still seems likely, as he may want it to cure his own Hulk-tendencies. Plus, he was an Intelligencia member in Marvel’s comics. It could also be the original Thunderball, Dr. Elliot Franklin, perhaps sick of being a henchman. The nature of the MCU Intelligencia’s misogynistic website also opens new options for who is behind She-Hulk‘s Intelligencia. Perhaps this is nothing more than a hateful Hulk fan who wants to cure Jen, so his hero is the only Hulk? Could it be one of the men that Jen went on a date with? Or even Titania, the ultimate She-Hulk hater? As always, there is another option that would lean into some classic Marvel Comics and Hulk history.
What Is the Intelligencia’s Plan for She-Hulk and Her Blood?
If we’re thinking bigger than a hateful fan, then there are two big options. One we already touched on is that it would connect to the Leader and his need for Jen’s blood. If he wants it for selfish reasons, that could explain it, but as he’s about to feature in Captain America: New World Order. There’s another potential too. As Jen got her powers from Bruce, it means her blood includes an adapted version of the Super Soldier Serum. It seems likely that the notion of Super Soldiers will play into Captain America: New World Order, so we could be seeing that seeded.
But our bet is much closer to the Intelligencia comics canon. We think that the most likely reason they want her blood is to create another She-Hulk or Hulk… with a crimson hue. If the Intelligencia is indeed trying to create Red She-Hulk that could be a great way to reintroduce Liv Tyler as Betty Ross into the MCU. It could also be something that’s just seeded in this season and continued in future MCU projects. As we mentioned above, She-Hulk does refer to a red Hulk in episode seven. And the Intelligencia is back at the end of the episode, causing Jen to Hulk out by releasing the contents of her phone.
Whatver they’re up to, the Intelligencia are up to no good, and they are clearly the big bads behind the attempts on She-Hulk’s life and blood.
Originally published on September 22, 2022.
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