Schmoedown Awards

Posted on January 27, 2018 by Doc

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There will be spoilers in this article for the 2017 Movie Trivia Schmoedown Awards Show so if you have not yet seen it, please give yourself a treat, go watch it, and then come back.

One of the most consistently entertaining program on YouTube is the Movie Trivia Schmoedown, on Collider Video. The brainchild for the series came from creators Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis, known collectively as The Schmoes. They have created a movie trivia league using the backstage concepts and storylines like that of the WWE and UFC.

The show is currently in its off season with season five scheduled to begin on Friday, February 2nd with a triple threat number one contenders match between Rachel Cushing, JTE and Mike Kalinowski for the right to take on Movie Trivia Schmoedown Champion Samm Levine.

But that is in the future. Today, Collider dropped a video dedicated to the past, the past year that is. They gave us an awards show, the 2017 Movie Trivia Schmoedown Awards.

Modok A list of categories were voted on by members of the Movie Trivia Schmoedown Facebook page. I am unsure if this was the sole voting or if there were more included.

The show was a spoof on the award shows as well. There were some pre-show interviews with several of the competitors and presenters. Collider writer and on-screen personality, Perri Nemiroff handling the interviews. The highlight was clearly the hat shaped like a hand worn by Grae Drake from team Modok, who presented an award later in the show.

babycarrots It started with a monologue from host Mark Ellis, and he roasted several of the competitors with his funny zings. Ellis is a stand up comedian who has great timing and a sharp wit and his monologue was vastly entertaining…almost as entertaining as the orange suit he was wearing. The audience was filled with a large group of the members of the league as well as some notable podcasters and actors.

They presented a series of awards through the 2 and a half + hour show. Those awards include the following:

Singles Entrance of the Year: Rachel “The Crusher” Cushing, “Lord of the Rings”

Team Entrance of the Year: The Wolves of Steel, “It movie”

Innergeekdom/Star Wars Player of the Year: Jason “Justice” Inman

Upset of the Year: Late to the Party defeated Critically Acclaimed.

Podcast/Aftershow of the Year: Schmoedown Rundown

Manager of the Year: Tom Dagnino of the Lion’s Den

Heel Team of the Year: Team Action

Team Babyface of the Year: Above the Line

Heel of the Year: Tom Dagnino

Babyface of the Year: Rachel “The Crusher” Cushing

The Yodi Award: Mark “Yodi” Reilly

Celebrity Match of the Year: The It Losers Club match

Rookie Team of the Year: Above the Line

Singles Rookie of the Year: Rachel “The Crusher” Cushing

Comeback Player of the Year: JTE

Moment of the Year: Marc Andreyko cleared the table at the Free 4 All.

Match of the Year: Sam Witwer vs. Ken Napzok, Star Wars Iron Man Match

Team of the Year: The Patriots

Singles Player of the Year: Samm Levine

Overall Player of the Year: Samm Levine

Thoughts:

Rachel Cushing was a highlight of the night for sure. Everybody expected her to win the Rookie of the Year, because she was clearly the standout of the group (heck Lon Harris was in the category with only one game played). However, she also won the singles entrance of the year and the Babyface of the Year. According to the presenter Ken Napzok, “the term ‘babyface’ comes from the great American art form of professional wrestling. It is a term that describes the people that connect with the audience, that inspire the audience, that chase their dreams and chase down gold.” Rachel cemented this position late in 2017 napzok when Napzok himself turned on her and left her to face the team of Blofeld’s Cat by herself. The Crusher nearly pulled the upset in the handicap match. That match took Rachel to another level. She is not yet a champion, but I cannot believe that she won’t hold some championship in 2018.

inmemorum They ran an In Memoriam section, again as a spoof of the award show. This section is presented by Screen Junkie Hal Rudnick, dressed in black. Rudnick was hilarious here, talking about the things we will never hear about again… including no one talking about their podcasts, uploading spoiler free reviews, getting their opinions on a still photograph, and whose Loot Crate mash up Tees we’ll never see again. They then rolled a clip video featuring mainly teams that have been broken up (Megapowers, Etc, Six Degrees, Nerd Watch), teams who have changed their team name (Modok, IGN), and other fun things such as JTE’s Losing Streak, Fantasy Updates, Finstock, the old wheel and ending with the Dark Universe. Solute those fallen warriors!

jaywash Jay Washington presenting the Moment of the Year (with Stacy Howard), after losing several awards himself showed his talent at the mike. A former pro wrestler, Jay Washington is very comfortable doing the promos, and this was one of the best speaking moments of the show. Jay has slowly began getting more air time and he is delivering entertainment each time. Jay Washington could be one of the break out stars of the next year because he knows how to create, sustain and develop a character.

nocomeback JTE was full of vinegar this year. After he won the Comeback Player of the Year Award, he threw it down to the ground, claiming that the award would only remind him of the bad year. He said that all his losses were really close and that he was not a loser. Following this, JTE was as arrogant as you could be when the Patriots won the Team of the Year. As JTE said, “We sammlevinesingleplayer won, big f***ing surprise.” JTE was then announced by “The Outlaw” John Rocha as the winner of the Singles Player of the Year, but (spoofing the La La Land incident from last year) it was actually Samm Levine who won. Then, when Samm Levine won the Overall Player of the Year, JTE raged about the unfairness of the situation.

realwildberries The Wildberries made some great appearances in the awards show. This fairly new team looks to be a huge team in the upcoming year. Here, they presented the celebrity match of the year (The It Losers Club) and they spent several minutes yelling about everything. They were really funny and these two seem to really be embracing these characters.

KoMissMovies There are some moments here that are being teased for season five. You can see some of the new characters (such as Lon Harris) beginning to see some screen time. Perhaps the biggest storyline was hinted at with Mike “K.O.” Kalinowski and “Miss Movies” Brianne Chandler arriving together after leaving the Schmoedown Spectacular 2 together. There was nothing new presented, but it is clear this will be a major storyline moving forward.

dagnino Oh, and Tom Dagnino is gold. Evil gold, but gold, nonetheless.

The Movie Trivia Schmoedown continues to increase its brand and improve each year. 2018 looks to be the best year yet. Congrats to the entire crew over at Collider for presenting such an intriguing and enjoyable program.

yodiaward

SPOILERS-The Last Jedi

Posted on December 16, 2017 by Doc

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I had written a movie review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and I found it pretty difficult because I did not want to spoil anything. There are reviews that were released prior to the film being released (hello Variety) that told too much about the twists and the story. I did not want any part of that. So it made the review difficult.

However, now, with the specific title of this piece including the big word -SPOILERS- I decided to write my thoughts about the movie with full impunity.

Image result for Luke and Leia I want to start with my favorite scene in this movie, which was the face-to-“face” meeting between Leia and Luke. When Luke arrived to see Leia, they spoke, Leia made a joke about her hair and it was as if these two characters had been together since day one. Luke gave a kiss on the forehead to his sister before heading out to confront her son/his nephew. It was meant to show Luke saying “goodbye” to Leia before he met his end. However at this point, a year after the loss of our beloved Princess, it played more like Mark Hamill getting a chance to say goodbye to Carrie Fisher. I know that is not what the scene was meant to do, since Carrie Fisher survived the filming of this movie, but with her devastating untimely passing, it brought on a different layer. And it was so beautiful.

Some people have complained about the new powers that the Jedis seem to have gained that have never been their before, but that does not bother me in the slightest. We do not know the powers that a Jedi can muster, and, just because we had not seen it happen before, doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have done it. The Force projection ability certainly seemed to be one that was going to take its tole on the Jedi and, thus, made sense as to why it is something that has not been used. Meanwhile, it was used extremely well to further the connection between Rey and Kylo and perfectly at the end to have Luke face off with Kylo.

Speaking of that fight at the end, I LOVED it. The way Luke was “trolling” his nephew during that whole encounter was just tremendous. I did not see it coming, but, if you look back, there are hints here. For example, Luke, when walking on the salt planet surface, did not make the red marks that everyone else made, including Kylo. When Luke walked out of the barrage of cannon fire unharmed, I thought to myself, wait, how did he do that? I was extremely pleased by the answer. Plus, the end of the scene, when Force projection Luke disappeared, he gave the line “See ya around, kid,” to Kylo, just like Han Solo, sticking it to the young Ben Solo once more. It was a perfect end to that confrontation.

I was not as huge of a fan of the storyline involving Poe. There was a running plot thread that seemed to be trying to teach Poe a lesson of not being such a “jump in an X-Wing and blow stuff up” guy and, instead, be more of a leader. The first time I saw The Last Jedi, that storyline bugged me a bit, but it was better in the second viewing. The problem was, so much of the troubles that happened aboard the ship came directly from this attempt to teach Poe how to be a leader that it was hardly worth it. Had Laura Dern just told Poe that she had a plan and had given him a heads up about it, nothing would have come from it. Poe would not have mutinied. Finn and Rose would not have headed off to find a Master Code breaker to sneak aboard the Star Destroyer, they would have never met up with DJ (Benicio Del Toro), and the First Order would never have gotten wind of their plan because DJ would not have given them up. Because she refused to trust Poe, one of the greatest pilots in the Rebellion, nearly the entire Rebellion had been blown up before they ever got to the planet’s surface. Leia had criticized Poe for not turning around at the beginning of the movie when he wanted to try to finish the plan to blow up the Dreadnought and had told him that the loss was too great, but doesn’t that same philosophy include her old friend Laura Dern?

I have to say as well that despite being one of my favorite parts of The Force Awakens, I was not a fan of BB-8 in this movie. I thought the droid lost most of its charisma and humor and was replaced by a killing machine.

One thing I really loved was how the film took two of the biggest, most debated mysteries among the Star Wars fans and gave answers to them that were anything but memorable. The first one was “Who is Snope?” That was made perfectly irrelevant after the Supreme Leader was cut in half by the lightsaber. Who was he really? It did not matter in the story. The second one was “Who are Rey’s parents?” It turns out that Rey’s parents were nobodies, drunkards who had sold her off as a child. I was very pleased at this twist considering how much everyone debated about Rey’s parents (Obi-Wan, Han and Leia, Luke etc). The fact that they were nobodies (from Nowhere, as Rey had said herself earlier in the film) means that anybody can become a special person, someone at one with the Force. It did not just have to be a Skywalker or a descendant of a Jedi. It kind of took away that clubhouse that the Jedis had owned for so long. I loved that.

Image result for boy looking to stars in Last Jedi I think I did mention this in the main review, but I hated the trip to Crait. It was the biggest waste of time in the entire film, and it was also the point when I was originally watching it that I thought to myself, “Is this going to be it?” I had a moment when I thought that maybe the Last Jedi would underwhelm me as some other movies have done. Fortunately, the film picks up BIG time after this, but the entire sequence on Crait could have been cut out. That included everything with DJ, whom I really disliked. The coincidence alone was hard to handle, as Finn and Rose, who had come to Crait in search of a Master Code Breaker (directed there in a wasted cameo from Maz Kanata), wound up getting arrested and thrown into a prison cell with… you guessed it… a thief who could help them anyway. I thought maybe this was the guy Maz was referring to, but they made it clear that he was not.

The only redeeming part of the entire trip to Crait was the final shot of the film. The final shot with the young boy and his broom looking toward the sky, much like the young Luke did so many years prior, was a beautiful ending to the film. The boy also had used the Force to grab his broom (something I hadn’t noticed on the first viewing). The boy was wearing the Resistance ring given to him by Rose. That was the only good thing to come out of the entire sequence on Crait.

I loved just about everything involving Kylo Renn, Rey and Luke Skywalker. These were easily the most entertaining arcs of the film. Mark Hamill was just amazing as his iconic character. However, he was not playing the Luke Skywalker that we were used to seeing. This Luke Skywalker was a broken, sad, battered man who had hidden himself away to die because of his ultimate failure in training Kylo Renn. Hamill, who had publicly criticized some of the choices about Luke, brought his best work in years, if not ever. You could see the pain, anger and anguish in every word or look. And yet, he still broke back into the old Luke when he first saw R2-D2, his old friend.

One of Luke’s best scenes came with the film’s best cameo. We got to see Yoda, as a Force Ghost, show up to give Luke one more lesson. This was puppet Yoda from Empire, not the pristine Yoda from the prequels, and the way this Yoda carried himself was wonderful. The return of Frank Oz to voice the iconic green character was another treat. The dynamic between Luke and Yoda brought you right back to the days of Empire Strikes Back and Dagobah.

I also did not mind the end of the road for Luke Skywalker. When he died on the island planet, I was sad, but the idea that he went out with purpose and peace is a good way to go. He does not end up being violently killed by anyone. Instead, he decides that it is just time. Of course, one could argue that the Force projection is what was eventually what led to his death, and that would be alright with me too. My guess is that we see Force Ghost Luke in the final Episode IX.

Rian Johnson does an incredible job of setting up our story for the future of the franchise, I sure hope that JJ Abrams is able to take some of the ideas that Johnson began with and create a satisfactory conclusion to the Skywalker saga.

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Nightcrawler

Image | Posted on November 10, 2017 by Doc

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MCU Timeline

Posted on November 2, 2017 by Doc

Source: http://collider.com/mcu-timeline-explained/#infinity-stones-celestials-frost-giants

Before the Universe Began:

Six singularities existed: Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Time, Soul
Dark Elves arose from the darkness before traveling to the Nine Realms to rule over them all from Svartalfheim, the Dark World.

After the Universe Began:

Cosmic Entities Death, Entropy, Infinity, and Eternity created the Infinity Stones from these singularities.
Elders of the Universe: The Collector and the Grandmaster come into being.

Several Million Years Ago:

Ego the Living Planet comes into being as a Celestial, a member of a powerful, primordial race.

Thousands of Years Ago:

Asgardian, Kree, and Human civilizations emerge.
Kree experiments on Earth give rise to Inhumans whose genetic abilities are triggered by Terrigen Mist, causing Terrigenesis.
Agamotto founds the Masters of the Mystic Arts and constructs three sanctuaries on Earth.

2988 BCE

Convergence, or the alignment of the Nine Realms of Yggdrasil, occurs. This happens once every 5,000 years.
First Battle of Svartalfheim: Malekith leads the Dark Elves in an attempt to destroy the Nine Realms using the Aether (Reality Stone). The Asgardian army, led by Odin’s father Bor, defeat Malekith and secure the Aether, hiding it away.
Some time later, Odin and his firstborn Hela, acting as his executioner, wage war across the Nine Realms, conquering them all. When Hela’s ambition grows too great, their forces battle against each other and many Valkyries are killed in the combat. Odin, victorious, seals Hela away in a prison and banishers her memory from history.

965 CE:

Battle of Tønsberg: Jotunheim’s Frost Giants invade Tøsberg, Norway in an attempt to conquer Midgard, a.k.a. Earth.
Battle of Jotunheim: Odin leads the Asgardian army against the Frost Giants to defend Midgard. Odin also discovers an abandoned Jotunheim infant, adopting him, and raising him alongside his own son Thor with the given name, Loki.
Odin negotiates a truce with the Frost Giant king, Lufey.

1014 CE:

Kree and Nova Empires fight a war that lasts thousands of years.

1197 CE:

A defector from Asgard’s Berserker Army flees to Earth and breaks his strength-enhancing weapon–the Berserker Staff–into three pieces which he hides across Europe.

1342 CE:

The Ancient One is born.

1409 CE:

Odin hides the Tesseract in Tønsberg, Norway.

1413 CE:

Lorelei enslaves hundreds of men across the Nine Realms by enthralling them before being defeated by Sif and being imprisoned in Asgard’s dungeons.

1839 CE:

Members of HYDRA meet to determine who among them will pass through the Kree Monolith.

1876 CE:

Ulysses Klaue’s great-grandfather is killed by Wakanda’s Black Panther

1901:

The Council of Nine orchestrates the assassination of President McKinley.

1906:

The Council’s headquarters The Arena Club is founded.

1914:

July 28th – World War I begins.

1917:

March 10th – James Buchanan “Bucky’ Barnes is born.
August 15th – Howard Stark is born.

1918:

May 8th – Joseph Rogers dies while fighting in the war with the 107th as a consequence of a mustard gas attack. He received a posthumous Purple Heart.
July 4th – Steve Rogers is born.
November 11th – World War I ends.

1921:

April 9th – Margaret “Peggy” Carter is born.

1929:

October 24th – Council member Thomas Gloucester orchestrates the Wall Street Crash.

1930:

January 10th – Dr. Abraham Erskine begins experimentation on a Super Soldier Serum.
September 6th – Steve Rogers meets Bucky Barnes in New York City.

1933:

Johann Schmidt begins searching for the Tesseract.

1936:

October 15th – Sarah Rogers dies of tuberculosis.

1937:

April 24th – Dottie Underwood and other Soviet girls train to become master assassins in the Red Room program.

1939:

September 1st – World War II begins.
September 30th – Howard Star founds Stark Industries.

1940:

August 7th
- Peggy Carter calls off her wedding and enlists in the British counter-intelligence and security agency, MI5.
October
- Peggy Carter becomes an advisor to American agency Strategic Scientific Reserve.
November 11th
- Johann Schmidt injects himself with the Super Soldier Serum, transforming him into the Red Skull.
December 24th
- Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers enlist while visiting New York City’s U.S. Recruiting and Induction Center, but Steve is designated 4F and rejected. He tries four more times in four different cities but meets the same fate each time.
December 25th
- Led by Dr. Erskine along with Howard Stark, Peggy Carter, and Colonel Chester Phillips, the Strategic Scientific Reserve’s Project Rebirth chamber is completed and ready to transform volunteers into super-soldiers.

1942:

March 3rd
- Red Skull discovers and secures the Tesseract.
August
- HYDRA General Warner Reinhardt’s team, tasked with discovering more artifacts related to the Tesseract, find the corpse of a blue-skinned extraterrestrial, a Kree soldier they dub G.H.

1943:

June 14th
- Steve Rogers is recruited by Dr. Erskine for Project Rebirth.
June 22nd
- Steve Rogers is successfully transformed through the use of the super-soldier serum. However, Dr. Erskine is assassinated by HYDRA operative, Heinz Kruger.
June 23rd
- Steve Rogers refuses to be kept in a lab as a research specimen and goes on a USO tour instead as Captain America.
November 3rd
- Captain America leads an assault on a HYDRA facility in Austria to liberate Dum Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones, Jim Morita, James Montgomery Falsworth, Jacques Dernier, Bucky, and the rest of the 107th, some of whom will form the Howling Commandos.
November 5th
- Howard Stark’s research of HYDRA’s mysterious power source leads him down the path to developing a New Element. Tony Stark later completes this research to improve upon his arc reactor.

1944:

June – General John McGinnis’ soldiers raid Howard Starks lab and steal his research along with Midnight Oil, a combat drug originally designed to keep its users awake and alert, but which had the side effect of causing the user to go mad.

1945:

January
- The Howling Commandos capture Arnim Zola but Bucky Barnes falls from the HYDRA train in the process and is presumed dead.
January
- Werner Reinhardt discovers the “Obelisk”, a Kree Diviner used to contain Terrigen Crystals which would release Terrigen Mist upon exposure.
March 4th
- Captain America and the Howling Commandos defeat Red Skull, who uses the Tesseract and subsequently vanishes, never to be seen again. Captain America crashes the HYDRA plane Valkyrie off the coast of Greenland and is presumed dead.
- Reinhardt tests the Obelisk on an unwilling Chinese woman named Jiaying. She survived the experiment but was locked up in a cage while Reinhardt moved his base of operations upon hearing of Red Skull’s presumed death.
May 7th
- Soldiers encounter a mysterious phenomenon known as Zero Matter or the Darkforce while on the battlefields of Europe.
May 21st
- Reinhardt is interrogated by Peggy Carter and sentenced to life imprisonment, despite him attempting to share information on the Obelisk and Kree.
September 2nd – World War II ends.

1946:

April
- Howard Stark is tried by the United States Congress to determine whether or not he’s a traitor when some of his inventions show up for sale on the black market. Stark flees the country, believing he will be convicted, and tasks his butler Edwin Jarvis with assisting Peggy Carter on her mission. He becomes the SSR’s most-wanted target.
April 16th
- Soviet scientist Anton Vanko tells Carter and Jarvis that Roxxon is the only company with the means of weaponizing Stark’s dangerous chemical compound, Nitramene. The Roxxon Refinery explodes that same night.

1947:

The Cold War begins.
July 11th – Peggy Carter arrives in Los Angeles where an exonerated Howard Stark has opened up a new estate and started a motion picture company.

1948:

An unidentified Iron Fist is caught on film by the Chinese Government while defending a secret passage into K’un-Lun from soldiers who had become lost in the jungle.
September – Howard Stark and Peggy Carter plan to form S.H.I.E.L.D., which they launch in January of 1949.

1949:

Zola, now recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D., begins to rebuild HYDRA from within the agency. He and former HYDRA agents track down Bucky Barnes, who had survived his fall and was in the custody of Soviet authorities. Bucky’s memory is wiped and modified, as is his body; he’d lost an arm but was outfitted with a metal prosthetic. HYDRA kept Bucky cryogenically frozen, thawed out only when needed as the elite assassin, Winter Soldier.

1951:

December 21st – Nick Fury is born.

1953:

June 21st – Peggy Carter is interviewed about her experiences with Captain America during World War II.

1954:

January 1st – The year-long Stark Exposition kicks off.

1955:

February 15th – Yondu Udonta is sold into Kree slavery as an infant.

1959:

April 25th – The Winter Soldier conducts an operation, as documented by the KGB.

1960:

September – Meredith Quill is born.

1962:

Vietnam War begins, orchestrated by HYDRA.
August 10th – Midtown School of Science and Technology is founded. (Peter Parker will later attend.)
October 14th – 28th – Cuban Missile Crisis, manipulated by HYDRA.

1963:

March 13th – Anton Vanko defects to the U.S. to develop Arc Reactor technology with Howard Stark as part of The Unity Project.
November 22nd – The assassination of President John F. Kennedy is orchestrated by HYDRA and carried out by the Winter Soldier.

1964:

January 1st – Stark World Exposition held alongside the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York City.
July 8th – Phil Coulson is born.
October 12th – Trevor Slattery performs his first theatrical role as Boatswain #1 in William Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest.’

1967:

October 17th – Anton Vanko is accused of espionage, deported as a spy, and exiled to Siberia for 20 years. Howard Stark assumes full credit for the Arc Reactor technology. Obadiah Stane convinces Stark to once again focus his efforts on weapons technology.

1968:

February 15th – Anton Vanko’s son Ivan is born.
October 8th – James Rupert Rhodes is born.

1969:

December 18th – Bruce Banner is born.

1970:

May 29th – Tony Stark is born.

1971:

January 7th – Clinton “Clint” Barton is born.

1972:

Arnim Zola dies of a terminal illness, but his consciousness is uploaded into a computer system in a S.H.I.E.L.D. bunker in Camp Lehigh, New Jersey.

1973:

November 8th – A young Wilson Fisk kills his father with a hammer to stop him from beating Wilson’s mother, Marlene. Wilson and his mother cut up the body and dump it into the river over a few days. Marlene soon sends Wilson to live on a farm with his relatives.

1974:

April 1st – The last Stark World Exposition until 2011. Howard Stark’s video advertising the expo cleverly disguises a clue to perfecting the Arc Reactor technology, one which only his son Tony Stark will recognize.

1975:

April 2nd – Yondu Udonta is freed from Kree slavery by Stakar Ogord and becomes a Ravager. Yondu goes against the code by working for Ego and delivering children gathered from across the universe to Ego’s planet.
April 30th – Vietname War ends.

1976:

July – Misty Knight is born.

1978:

September 23rd – Sam Wilson is born.
September 24th – Howard Stark unveils his Arc Reactor technology but does not explore the tech’s profitability.
November 7th – Ego comes to Earth to plant a seedling and falls in love with Meredith Quill. He leaves on December 23rd, but returns multiple times over the months ahead.

1980:

Hope Van Dyne is born.
October 27th – Peter Quill is born.

1984:

April 7th – Hank Pym uses his Ant-Man suit to test his EMP communication device by shrinking down to the size of Bullet Ants.
October 22nd – Natasha Romanoff is born.

1985:

November – Matt Murdock is born.

1987:

January – Anton Vanko returns from Siberian exile.
April 2nd – Thanos kills Gamora and Nebula’s families, and then adopts them as his daughters. They become skilled assassins and fighters under Ronan the Accuser.
May 28th – During a training scenario, Gamora tosses Nebula over a cliff, injuring her to the point that she requires cybernetic augmentations which disappoint her adopted father.
July – Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne try to disarm a Soviet ICBM as Ant-Man and the Wasp. Janet presumably dies after turning off her suit’s regulator in order to shrink down small enough to enter the missile and disable it, though she may be lost in the quantum realm.
August 19th – Leo Fitz is born.
September 11th – Jemma Simmons is born.

1988:

July 2nd – Daisy Johnson is born.
November 10th – Meredith Quill dies and Peter is abducted by Yondu’s Ravagers under orders from Ego.

1989:

March – Reinhardt is set free by Alexander Pierce and returns to Austria to resume experimentation on Jiaying, using his discoveries to restore his own youth.
June – Hank Pym resigns from S.H.I.E.L.D. upon discovering that the organization attempted to replicate his size-changing technology.

1990:

March 17th – John Garrett becomes the first test subject for HYDRA’s Project Deathlok after becoming mortally wounded by an IED in Sarajevo.

1991:

April 1st – Danny Rand is born.
December 16th – Howard and Maria Stark assassinated by the Winter Soldier. Obadiah Stane assumes interim CEO duties of Stark Industries.
December 25th – Soviet Union dissolved and the Cold War ends.

1993:

May 5th – Ivan Vanko receives 15-year prison sentence for selling Soviet-era weapons grade plutonium to Pakistan.
October – While attempting to save a bystander from being hit by a truck, Matt Murdock is doused in hazardous chemicals. He loses his sight, but his other senses become enhanced.

1994:

February – Jack Murdock is assassinated for failing to throw a boxing match.
May – Stick introduces himself to Matt Murdock at the St. Agnes Orphanage, offering to train him.

1995:

May 5th – Bruce Banner and Betty Ross begin dating as undergraduate students at Harvard.
July 24th – Natasha Romanoff joins Russia’s covert espionage program, emerging three years later as the Black Widow.

1996:

June 6th – Stick was also training another pupil, Elektra. Rather than following orders to kill her once it became clear that she was the latest incarnation of the Black Sky, Stick placed her with a wealthy adoptive family in Greece for her own safety.

1997:

April – In attempting to reconcile the death of his wife Adria, Kaecillius is brought to Kamar-Taj by Karl Mordo and meets with The Ancient One, joining the Masters of the Mystic Arts.

1998:

January 27th – Nick Fury sends Clint Barton to eliminate Natasha Romanoff in Russia, seeing her as a threat to global security. Instead, she’s given a chance to join S.H.I.E.L.D., which she takes.

1999:

July – Jessica Jones is the sole survivor of a car crash during a family road trip. Chemicals spilled during the crash grant Jessica Jones her abilities.
December 31st – Tony Stark travels to Bern, Switzerland for a New Year’s Eve party where he meets Maya Hansen and Ho Yinsen. Disabled scientist Aldrich Killian requests funding from Stark for his think tank Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), but is rudely rebuffed. Hansen later reveals her work on the Extremis virus to Stark.

2000:

January 3rd – A rejected Killian accepts a jilted Hansen into A.I.M. where they work on Extremis together.

2001:

June 28th – Under HYDRA’s influence, NASA sends astronauts through the Monolith to survey the planet on the other side.
September 12th – Frank Castle enlists in the Marine Corps following the September 11th attacks.
September 13th – General Thaddeus Ross starts the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project through the U.S. Armed Forces in order to replicate Project Rebirth.

2003:

March 20th – Iraq War begins, orchestrated by HYDRA.
August 29th – Matt Murdock meets his college roommate, Foggy Nelson.

2005:

February 25th – Bruce Banner joins the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project under false pretenses of Thaddeus Ross and earnest convictions of Betty Ross.
April 16th – Testing his experiment on himself, Bruce Banner is exposed to a combination of Gamma radiation and Betty’s formula derived from Dr. Erskine’s super-soldier serum, accidentally becoming the Hulk.
April 19th – Learning that the Army wants to use him as a weapon, Banner runs, starting a six-year chase across the globe.

2006:

November 14th – Microsoft releases the Zune 30. Peter Quill later obtains one.

2007:

January 3rd – S.H.I.E.L.D. assists Thaddeus Ross in the quest to bring down the Hulk until 2011. Stark also provides Humvee-mounted sonic cannons.
October 31st – Aldrich Killian injects himself with the Extremis virus, healing his disabilities and allowing him to walk without a cane.

2008:

February 19th – Killian exposes willing subjects, mostly seriously injured military veterans, to Extremis. Those who survive heal and regrow lost limbs.
May 15th – S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Melinda May earns her nickname “The Cavalry” during the Rescue in Bahrain.

2009:

December 18th – Nick Fury places Phil Coulson in charge of Project T.A.H.I.T.I. with the aim of using the Kree corpse to potentially revive a fallen Avenger.

2010:

January 12th
- Tony Stark demonstrates his Accelerated Wave Explosion (A.W.E.) weaponry to the U.S. Armed Forces.
January 24th
- Christine Everhart is kicked out of the Stark Mansion by Pepper Potts after a one-night stand; she later becomes an anchor for WHIH World News. Later, during a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan, Tony Stark is kidnapped by the Ten Rings, who are working for Obadiah Stane.
January 25th
- Under Fury’s orders, Phil Coulson questions Obadiah Stane as to whether or not Stark could have sold weapons to terrorists. Fury refuses Coulson’s request to go search for Stark himself.
April 21st
- Project T.A.H.I.T.I. test subjects go insane and are given new memories to cope with the effects of the trauma.
April 26th
- Stark and fellow captive Ho Yinsen, who saves Stark’s life multiple times, construct Tony’s Mark I suit of armor, allowing him to escape; Yinsen does not survive. Stark’s first flight as Iron Man is picked up by S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar and Nick Fury contacts the U.S. Department of Defense with the intel.
July 16th
- Having returned to the U.S., after pulling out of the weapons business and cancelling all military contracts, Stark turns his attention to his Arc Reactor and Iron Man tech.
October 24th
- Pepper Potts and Phil Coulson discover the Iron Monger Armor and Stark uses his Mark III armor to battle the power-hungry Stane, who dies in an explosion of the industrial Arc Reactor.
October 25th
- Stark publicly claims his new nickname as Iron Man, rejecting S.H.I.E.L.D.’s cover story; he’s later approached by Nick Fury to join the “Avengers Initiative.” That same day, Anton Ivanko dies and his son Ivan vows to take revenge on Stark by developing his own powered-armor tech.
November 17th
- Emil Blonsky and his team track Bruce Banner to South America

2011:

April 23rd
- Tony Stark appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Weaponized Suit Defense Program Hearings.
May 22nd
- Natalia Rushman, a.k.a. Natasha Romanoff, joins Stark Industries as Tony’s new personal assistant, on Fury’s orders.
May 24th
- Ivan Vanko crashes the Circuit de Monaco, battling Tony Stark, who equips his lightweight Mark V armor and defeats Vanko’s Whiplash tech.
May 30th
- While Fury confines Tony Stark to house arrest after helping to slow his palladium poisoning, Rhodes delivers the stolen Mark II armor to the military, where it’s upgraded by Justin Hammer.
- At the same time, Jane Foster and Erik Selvig monitor strange atmospheric disturbances in New Mexico, landing them on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar.
- Meanwhile, Thor’s coronation is interrupted by the Frost Giants breaking into Odin’s treasure room; the Asgardian quickly brings the battle to Jotunheim before Odin puts a stop to it.
May 31st
- Iron Man, War Machine, Black Widow, and Happy Hogan defeat the Hammer Drones when Vanko hacks them to attack the Stark Expo. During this battle, a young boy (now confirmed to be Peter Parker) stands up to a Hammer Drone, assisted by Iron Man himself.
- Coulson arrives in New Mexico and Thor crashes to Earth while Bruce Banner arrives at Culver University.
June 1st
- Odin enters Odinsleep and Loki begins to move against his brother when his true parentage is revealed.
- Romanoff begins spying on Banner while Blonsky receives an unauthorized dose of enhancement serum.
June 2nd
- Sif and the Warriors Three arrive on Earth with the Destroyer following them on Loki’s orders. It attacks S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and citizens at Puente Antiguo, but Thor proves himself worthy and, with his powers restored, defeats it.
- Later that day, Thor and Loki duel at the Rainbow Bridge. Thor destroys the Bifrost Bridge to prevent Loki from destroying Jotunheim, but that restricts Thor to Asgard and sends Loki into space. After a time, he arrived at the asteroid-strewn area known as Sanctuary, presided over by Thanos.
- An enhanced Blonsky battles the Hulk on Culver University’s campus while Romanoff reports her findings to Fury.
- Stark accepts an advisory role with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers Initiative.
June 4th
- Blonsky mutates into Abomination when injected with products derived from Banner’s blood. Hulk defeats the Abomination after a destructive battle in Harlem.
- Samuel Sterns, who attempted to cure Banner, ends up mutating due to exposure to Banner’s blood. Romanoff finds him and takes him into custody.
June 5th
- Fury receives the necessary funds to study the Tesseract and launch the Avengers Initiative.
June 7th
- Fury approaches Selvig with an offer to join S.H.I.E.L.D. in an advisory role, while the first “Mandarin bombing” occurs.
June 9th
- Tony Stark approaches Ross with a plan to put a team together, inquiring about Blonsky. His attitude rubs Ross the wrong way and the General refuses to release the Abomination, thus fulfilling Coulson and Agent Sitwell’s plan to keep Blonsky imprisoned.
November 13th
- The second “Mandarin bombing” occurs.

2012:

January 11th
- Aldrich Killian hires Trevor Slattery to pose as the terrorist known as the Mandarin in order to provide a cover for his explosive Extremis side effects which continue to make the news as “suicide bombings.”
April 15th
- S.H.I.E.L.D. continues research on Vanko’s “Whiplash” technology, the Tesseract, Samuel Sterns’ mutation, Jane Foster’s Nine Realms theory, and manage to thaw out a recently recovered Steve Rogers. The Darkhold also comes to their attention.
April 22nd
- The Fifth Street Locos shoot up Eli Morrow’s car, which Robbie and Gabe Reyes had recently stolen. The car flips and Robbie is killed while Gabe is paralyzed. The Ghost Rider appears and saves Gabe’s life as well as Robbie’s, though the later is transformed into the new Ghost Rider.
May 1st
- Loki, aided by Thanos and The Other, uses the Tesseract energy to teleport him to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility where he steals the Tesseract and controls the minds of Selvig and Hawkeye. Heimdall alerts Thor and Odin of Loki’s arrival on Earth.
- Meanwhile, Romanoff is undercover and interrogating weapons-dealer Georgi Luchkov; her mission is cut short by a call from Coulson, telling her Hawkeye’s been compromised.
May 3rd
- Thor arrives back on Earth thanks to Odin’s use of dark energy to transport him. He has a brief skirmish with Iron Man and Captain America that ends with the agreement to take Loki into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.
May 4th
- Loki manages to escape captivity aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier when his mind-controlled agents take it over and the Hulk goes on a rampage. Phil Coulson is killed in the process.
- The Battle proceeds to New York where Loki opens a wormhole to allow the invading Chitauri army to swarm into the city. The Avengers unite, defeat Loki, and manage to prevent a missile from wiping out New York City. The invasion is ended and the Tesseract is reclaimed; Thor takes it to Asgard for safe keeping.
- Many media outlets and private citizens record video of the invasion that show off both the heroic and destructive effects of the battle, in which the mother of Audrey Eastman and the mother of Ellen Nadeer and Vijay Nadeer died.
May 6th
- The cleanup from the Battle of New York begins. Citizens begin to gather bits and pieces of the alien tech, taking it either as trophies or for other purposes. To prevent this, Tony Stark and the federal government reformed the U.S. Department of Damage Control, Spider-Man: Homecoming spoiler: which puts private salvage contractors like Adrian Toomes out of business. Toomes, however, takes this opportunity to pilfer more alien technology and put it to criminal purposes.
May 9th
- Phil Coulson is resurrected at the Guest House, though the painful process has the agent begging the surgeons to let him die and necessitating the implantation of false memories, like Tahiti.
July 10th
- Scott Lang is fired from Vistacorp for fixing what he believed was a code error that was illegally overcharging customers.
July 12th
- Lang then breaks into Vistacorp Headquarters to return $4 million of the ill-gotten money to customers. He also breaks into his former boss’ mansion to steal his possessions and drive his car into the pool.
July 13th
- Lang is arrested and sentenced to five years in San Quentin.
August 19th
- A fourth “Mandarin bombing” occurs.
December 18th
- The fifth “Mandarin bombing” occurs. Tony Stark tests his Mark XLII armor as his Iron Legion project causes friction between him and Pepper.
December 19th
- The Mandarin bombs both Ali Al Salem Air Base and the TCL Chinese Theater, which explodes when Jack Taggert succumbs to Extremis’ effects. Happy Hogan is caught in the blast but survives.
December 22nd
- Stark’s mansion is destroyed by the Mandarin.
December 25th
- After discovering Killian’s plan, Stark and his Iron Legion save an Extremis-infected Pepper Potts (who didn’t need much saving after all) while Rhodes rescues the kidnapped President.
December 27th
- Pepper’s Extremis effects are neutralized while Stark has the last of the shrapnel near his heart surgically removed, throwing the old, obsolete Arc Reactor into the sea. Stark has the Iron Legion destroyed.

2013:

January 30th
- Carl Lucas is set up by Willis Stryker and sentenced to Seagate Prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
February 15th
- Carl Lucas meets his therapist, Reva Connors.
August
- Matt Murdock turns down permanent positions at law firm Landman and Zack, but also commits his first act of vigilantism by beating up his child-abusing neighbor.
August 5th
- Carl Lucas undergoes an experiment at Seagate Prison that grants him super-strength and impenetrable skin, allowing him to break out of prison that same night. Reva meets him at a motel and they continue their relationship, though he now goes by Luke Cage.
September 8th
- Nick Fury gives Coulson command of the Bus.
September 9th
- Centipede Project test subject Michael Peterson saves a woman from an exploded building, earning the moniker “Hooded Hero.” A day later, he’s apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who hope to stabilize his Extremis virus that comprised the Centipede serum.

September 18th
- Agent Grant Ward begins training Skye to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
September 27th
- Jessica Jones is forced to wear a sandwich costume for her job at a bad sandwich shop and manages to save a kid from being hit by a car.
September 28th
- Carl Lucas marries Reva Connors
September 29th
- Kilgrave places Jessica Jones under his mind control, a kidnapping that lasts for months.
October 15th
- Frank Castle receives his medal of honor for his service as a marine in Afghanistan

November 9th
- The Convergence begins.
November 11th
- Thor leads the Asgardians in the Battle of Vanaheim and defeats the Marauders. Thor then heads to Earth to locate Jane Foster who has become infected with the power of the Aether. Thor brings Jane to Asgard for treatment, against his father’s wishes, but the reappearance of the Aether itself awakens Malekith and his army from a 5,000 year slumber.
November 12th
- Malekith and Algrim kill Thor’s mother, Frigga. Against his father’s wishes yet again, Thor plots to free Loki in order to find a way to defeat the Dark Elves and take his revenge.
November 14th
- While Loki uses his magic to trick Odin into claiming the throne, Thor and his human allies defeat Malekith and the Dark Elves at the Battle of Greenwich.
November 16th
- Thor refuses the throne of Asgard from Odin (who’s actually Loki in disguise) and chooses to remain on Earth, while Sif and Volstagg meet the Collector to deliver the Aether to him for safe keeping. Unbeknownst to them, he then tasks Gamora with finding the Orb in order to collect more Infinity Stones.
December 5th
- Michael Peterson awakes after suffering horrific injuries to find himself missing a leg, but now sporting a Backscatter X-Ray Eye implant, and under the employ of the Clairvoyant.
December 18th
- Ten Rings agent Jackson Norris infiltrates Seagate Prison and kidnaps Trevor Slattery to deliver him to the real Mandarin.

2014:

January 20th
- Under Kilgrave’s control, Jessica Jones kills Reva Connors.
January 23rd
- Jessica Jones escapes Kilgrave’s control following a car accident, presuming him dead. Kilgrave survives, however, and forces Jack Denton to donate his kidneys which Dr. David Kurata transplants into Kilgrave without anesthesia.
February 6th
- Coulson discovers the Kree body in the Guest House, which is destroyed after Skye is healed of her gunshot wounds.
February 12th
- Lorelei arrives on Earth and is followed by Sif, on Odin/Loki’s orders, who attempts to apprehend her.
February 19th
- Sif and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. defeat Lorelei and Sif returns to Asgard.
March 31st
- Phil Coulson and other agents discuss possible identities of the entity known as the Clairvoyant.
- Steve Rogers meets Sam Wilson during a morning run in Washington, D.C. (On your left.)
- Captain America and Black Widow lead S.H.I.E.L.D.’s STRIKE team in retaking the Lemurian Star and rescuing hostages; Captain America fights and defeats Batroc the Leaper while Black Widow downloads information from the ship’s computers.
April 1st
- Steve Rogers confronts Nick Fury about the espionage and learns of Project Insight. He later visits an ailing Peggy Carter and attends Sam Wilson’s counseling session.
- Nick Fury is attacked by the Winter Soldier. Captain America pursues the assassin while Agent 13 / Sharon Carter gets Fury to a hospital, where he appears to die while undergoing surgery.
April 2nd
- Captain America is attacked by members of STRIKE and goes on the run with Black Widow. Together they learn the truth of the Winter Soldier’s history and of HYDRA’s existence within S.H.I.E.L.D. before the Camp Lehigh bunker is destroyed.
April 4th
- Captain America, Black Widow, and the Falcon take on the members of HYDRA who have infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., including the high-ranking Alexander Pierce. Along with the not-actually-dead Nick Fury and Maria Hill, they take out the three helicarriers HYDRA had planned to use to neutralize over 715,000 potential threats to their organization.
- After a brutal fight that damages the Triskelion, the Winter Soldier begins to remember his past as Bucky Barnes and pulls an unconscious Captain America from the Potomac River.
- With HYDRA’s infiltration exposed to the public, a series of battles take place between the double agents and the S.H.I.E.L.D. faithful before the agency itself is labeled a terrorist organization by the federal government.
April 9th
- Coulson and his agents defeat John Garrett.
- Fury appoints Coulson as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and grants him the Toolbox which points him to their new facility, the Playground.
April 11th
- Wolfgang von Strucker assures his HYDRA personnel that their work will continue despite recent events. He observes Pietro and Wanda Maximoff practicing their “miraculous” abilities.
July 31st
- The Kree and Nova Empires sign a peace treaty, ending the long war between them. Ronan the Accuser refuses to submit to the terms and is labeled a terrorist.

August 1st
- Star-Lord travels solo to Morag to take possession of the Orb, but is attacked by Korath the Pursuer and Sakaaran mercenaries.
- Quill flees and informs Yondu that he’s breaking off from the ravagers, which results in a bounty placed on Quill’s head.
- Ronan sends Gamora after Quill and the Orb.
August 2nd
- After Gamora attacks Quill and steals the orb, and once Rocket Raccoon and Groot attempt to capture Quill in order to claim the bounty, they’re all apprehended by Nova Corps and imprisoned at the Kyln.
- In the prison, they meet Drax the Destroyer who attempts to kill Gamora as vengeance for the death of his wife and daughter at Ronan’s hands. They work together to escape the Kyln the following day, but are now pursued by Ronan and Nebula.
- At Knowhere, the group learns of the Orb’s power from the Collector, but the Infinity Stone it contains soon falls into Ronan’s hands. Ronan betrays Thanos, with Nebula at his side, and uses the stone for himself.
August 4th
- The Ravagers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Nova Corps worth together to defeat Ronan.
- The Infinity Stone is given to Nova Corps for protection.
September 10th
- Nebula is apprehended by the Sovereign while attempting to steal Anulax Batteries.
September 19th
- Brock Rumlow awakens from his coma, attacks his nurse, and escapes the hospital.
October 17th
- The Guardians of the Galaxy are hired by Ayesha of the Sovereign to defeat the battery-eating Abilisk. Their reward for doing so is the release of Nebula.
- Rocket Raccoon steals some of the Anulax Batteries, leading to a skirmish with the Sovereign fleet.
- Ego saves them from destruction and introduces himself (and Mantis) to them when they crash-land on the planet Berhert.
- On Contraxia, Yondu’s expulsion from the Ravagers for child trafficking is publicly restated by Stakar Ogord. Ayesha arrives and hires Yondu to capture the Guardians.
October 19th
- Yondu, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Kraglin kill the mutineers and escape the Eclector.
- Gamora, Drax and Nebula learn of Ego’s plan from Mantis, just as Peter Quill hears it from Ego himself. Quill uses his access to Celestial power to battle his father while the other Guardians manage to destroy the heart of Ego’s power.
- Yondu sacrifices himself in order to save Quill. He receives a traditional Ravagers funeral, restoring honor to his memory. Stakar reunites with his former teammates Charlie-27, Aleta Ogord, Mainframe, and Krugarr.
October 25th
- Adam Warlock is created by Ayesha as the perfect weapon to take down the Guardians.

2015:

January 11th
- Bobbi Morse rescues an undercover Jemma Simmons from the HYDRA Laboratories.
January 12th
- Matt Murdock, having recently confessed his sins and begged pardon for his future activities, decides to become a force for good in Hell’s Kitchen, becoming the vigilante, Daredevil. He saves three women from being kidnapped by Turk Barrett and his men.
January 13th
- Karen Page is accused of killing Daniel Fisher. Murdock and Nelson are hired to defend her.
January 18th
- Badly injured, Daredevil is tended to by Claire Temple for the first time. He later survives a brutal battle in order to rescue a kidnapped boy.
January 30th
- Daredevil and Stick attack Nobu Yoshioka’s men while they are receiving delivery of the Black Sky, a young boy. Daredevil prevents Stick from killing the boy, but only temporarily.
February 2nd
- Wilson Fisk publicly announces his intention to rid Hell’s Kitchen of the criminal element, sabotaging Murdock and Ben Urich’s plans to expose the mobster.
February 4th
- After barely surviving a duel against Yoshioka, daredevil narrowly escapes death at the hands of Wilson Fisk.
- Foggy Nelson learns of Daredevil’s identity while Claire Temple patches him up, once again.
February 8th
- Daredevil encounters Madame Gao while infiltrating the Steel Serpent drug manufacturing and distribution warehouse.
- Ben Urich is assassinated by Fisk.
February 14th
- After being arrested by the FBI, Wilson Fisk’s men free him, but Daredevil (in his new suit from Melvin Potter) duels Fisk in Hell’s Kitchen, and defeats him. Fisk is apprehended by the NYPD.
March 7th
- An attack on the United Nations Headquarters is carried out by HYDRA operatives claiming to be operating under the orders of S.H.I.E.L.D.
March 10th
- Jessica Jones takes a case tracking down the missing Hope Shlottman.
- Jones meets local bar owner Luke Cage and the two have a one-night stand, but Jones quickly leaves when she sees Reva Connors’ picture in his apartment.
March 11th
- Jones finds Hope and rescues her, but since Hope was under the influence of Kilgrave, she shoots her own parents.
March 12th
- Jones starts to investigate Kilgrave’s activity once again, inspired by the radio show of her adopted sister, Trish Walker.
March 14th
- A brawl at Luke’s bar reveals to Luke Cage and Jessica Jones that each other have powers.
March 29th
- Jessica Jones, Trish Walker, and Will Simpsons successfully subdue Kilgrave, but he’s freed by his bodyguards.
March 31st
- The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. battle HYDRA agents in Kree City, where Skye and Raina’s Inhuman abilities are revealed by Terrigen Mist. Antoine Triplett dies in the process.
April 3rd
- Frank Castle finishes his last tour of duty and heads home to New York City.
April 4th
- Castle and his family are caught in a mob firefight in Central Park. He survives with only a gunshot to his hand, but his wife and daughter are killed.
April 8th
- Kilgrave attempts to win Jessica Jones’ affections by purchasing her childhood home and showing her tapes of his own childhood in which his unethical parents experimented on him.
- Jones manages to drug Kilgrave and escape both his bodyguards and those who want to kill him.
April 13th
- Under Kilgrave’s thrall, Luke Cage destroys his own bar. Jessica Jones comes to his rescue, but the two soon fight since Luke is still under Kilgrave’s influence.
April 15th
- Now resistant to Kilgrave’s powers, Jessica Jones tricks the mind-controlling villain into letting his guard down. She snaps his neck, killing him. Jones is then taken to prison but is soon freed by Jeri Hogarth.
April 28th
- The Avengers assemble to raid HYDRA’s main research base in Sokovia. They interact with the twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff but manage to succeed in their mission to liberate the Scepter and take Wolfgang von Strucker into custody, ending the War on HYDRA.
- They return to Avengers Tower where Tony Stark and Bruce Banner discover an artificial intelligence hidden within the Scepter, which they opt to use for Stark’s peacekeeping Ultron Program.
May 2nd
- During a celebratory party at Avengers Tower, Ultron becomes sentient, determines that the human race is volatile and self-destructive, and attempts to destroy J.A.R.V.I.S. before forming a body for itself out of parts of Stark’s new Iron Legion suits.

- Ultron introduces himself to the Avengers and uses the Iron Legion drones to attack them. They defeat the drones and Thor destroys Ultron’s body, but his AI inhabits a remaining suit and flees with the Scepter.
- Ultron flies to the Sokovia base and builds an army of drones to control. He also wins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff to his cause since they seek vengeance on Tony Stark due to the death of their parents in an attack which used Stark weaponry.
- Ultron also assassinates Wolfang von Strucker.
May 3rd
- The Avengers attempt to prevent Ultron from securing vibranium from Ulysses Klaue (who loses an arm due to an angry Ultron) in South Africa, but are stymied by Wanda’s mind-altering powers.
- Hulk goes on a rampage in Johannesburg due to these visions and Tony Stark summons the Hulkbuster armor to defeat him after a lengthy battle.
- The team goes into hiding after this terrifying and destructive public display while Thor goes off in search of answers to his own visions, leading him to discover the existence of the Infinity Stones and the Scepter’s Mind Stone.
May 5th
- The Avengers, joined by the Maximoff twins who have learned of Ultron’s true plans to destroy the human race, arrive in Seoul, South Korea to stop Ultron from completing his vibranium body. They secure the robot body, but lose Romanoff to Ultron.
- Stark and Banner attempt to upload the remaining J.A.R.V.I.S. program into the synthetic body which houses the mind stone in its forehead. With Thor’s assistance, Vision is born. He proves his worthiness by lifting Mjølnir and handing it to Thor before siding with the Avengers against Ultron.
- Stark uploads a new A.I. named F.R.I.D.A.Y. into his Mark XLV armor.
May 6th
- The Avengers head to Sokovia for a final showdown against Ultron and to rescue Black Widow, while S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrive to evacuate citizens of the now-floating city.
- Pietro Maximoff sacrifices himself to save Hawkeye and a young Sokovian boy.
- Hulk tosses Ultron from the hijacked Quinjet, but then sets the autopilot for an unknown destination to keep from endangering the team anymore. For two years, Banner remains in Hulk form, winding up on the planet Sakaar and battling in gladiatorial combat as the Grandmaster’s champion.
- Wanda Maximoff rips out Ultron’s core and Vision destroys the final Ultron sentry containing the insane A.I.
- The Avengers prevent an extinction-level event that would have been caused by Sokovia crashing to Earth, but the son of Miriam Sharpe and Helmut Zemo’s family die in the battle.
May 8th
- The New Avengers Facility breaks ground in New York.
- Jonathan Pangborn heads to Kamar-Taj to find a cure for his injuries.
May 9th
- Thanos retrieves his Infinity Gauntlet, sans Infinity Stones, and vows, “I’ll do it myself.”
- Coulson loses his hand during the retaking of the Illiad.
- Terrigen Crystals dissolve in the world’s oceans and make their way into fish oil pills …
May 16th
- Jemma Simmons is swallowed up by the Monolith and winds up on an alien planet known as Maveth.
May 28th
- The New Avengers facility officially opens (in record time), but Hawkeye returns to his wife and newborn son, Stark appears to retire, Banner is AWOL, and Thor is pursuing answers to his visions on Asgard. Captain America and Black Widow prepare to train the New Avengers: Vision, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, and War Machine.
June 1st
- Luke Cage starts working at Pop’s Barber Shop.
July 13th
- Senate hearings for Sokovia relief efforts begin.
July 16th
- Stark Industries announce new scholarships.
July 17th
- Scott Lang is released from prison and gets a job at Baskin-Robbins.
- Darren Cross presents his Yellowjacket suit during a meeting with Pym Technologies and other companies while also privately revealing to Hank Pym that he knows of his past as Ant-Man. Pym plans to put a stop to Cross’ efforts.
July 20th
- Scott Lang is fired from Baskin-Robbins and kicked out of his daughter’s birthday party. He signs on to a heist job.
July 23rd
- Having successfully pulled of the heist, Lang tries on the suit he found in the home’s safe. He tries it out, shrinking him down to size and hearing Hank Pym’s voice in the suit.
- When Lang tries to return the suit, he’s arrested and sent back to prison. Here he meets Pym in person for the first time and learns that the older man orchestrated the whole heist. An ant delivers the Ant-Man suit to Lang on Pym’s behalf, allowing him to escape prison.
July 29th
- Lang masters the suit’s abilities and combat training thanks to assistance from Pym and Hope van Dyne.
July 30th
- Lang battles Falcon at the New Avengers facility and manages to steal a device that will help him to liberate the Yellowjacket suit.
July 31st
- Lang infiltrates Pym Technologies HQ and battles Cross, who dons the Yellowjacket suit. The battle continues at Lang’s ex-wife’s house in his daughter’s bedroom where Cross is defeated. His plans to sell his tech to HYDRA are foiled when Cross is killed by Lang shrinking into the Quantum Realm to destroy the suit.
- Lang figures out a way to emerge from the Quantum Realm, but forgets it upon his sudden enlargement.
August 4th
- Hank Pym presents Hope van Dyne with a new Wasp suit.
August 23rd
- Groot is now “adolescent” in maturity level and size, making Peter Quill appreciate how tough Yondu’s role as guardian really was.
October 21st
- Members of the Dogs of Hell biker gang are killed by a mysterious attacker.
October 28th
- Gunfire tears apart the Burren Club where the Kitchen Irish were meeting. Only Grotto survives.
- Frank Castle attempts to finish his hit on Grotto, but the man is saved by Karen Page. Daredevil intervenes but is concussed and wounded during a rooftop fight.
October 29th
- Castle goes after Grotto again but is once again foiled by Daredevil. However, Castle is able to take Daredevil hostage in the process.
- Daredevil escapes his chains but Castle kills Grotto anyway and forces Daredevil to fight against the Dogs of Hell biker gang in order to flee.
November 1st
- The Kitchen Irish kidnap and torture Castle, now known as the Punisher.
- Daredevil learns of Castle’s family during a conversation in St. Michael’s Cemetery.
- Elektra Natchios returns asking for Matt Murdock’s help.
November 2nd
- Daredevil and Elektra defeat the Yakuza who ambush them at Elektra’s penthouse.
November 5th
- Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider.
November 14th
- Peter Parker decides to use his new abilities to protect people as Spider-Man.
November 15th
- Luke Cage defends Connie and Jin Lin from thugs attempting to extort them, though he busts up Genghis Connie’s in the fight.
November 16th
- Pop’s Barber Shop is shot up and Pops dies.
November 17th
- Frank Castle is imprisoned on Ryker’s Island and wastes no time in attempting to kill Dutton after getting the information that he needed from him. Double-crossed by Wilson Fisk, Castle also manages to kill all of Dutton’s allies before being subdued by prison guards. He soon escapes prison.
- Daredevil investigates a Hand facility in which children are being drained of their blood. He discovers that Yoshioka is still alive.
- Luke Cage smashes his way through the Crispus Attucks complex and steals the ill-gotten money.
- Cottonmouth blows up Genghis Connie’s but fails to kill Luke Cage in the process.
November 18th
- The Hand attack Metro-General Hospital and retrieve the children they had been draining of blood.
November 21st
- Sam Wilson searches for Ant-Man and hears stories about Spider-Man in the process.
- Daredevil and Elektra take on the vast numbers of the Hand and are assisted by Punisher and Stick. Elektra dies in the battle, however.
November 27th
- A monstrous Inhuman known as Lash arrives, one of many new Inhumans transformed by the Terrigen Mist.
November 29th
- After 4,722 hours, Simmons is finally rescued from Maveth and returns to Earth.
November 30th
- Mariah Dillard kills Cottonmouth.
- Willis Stryker, a.k.a. Diamondback, wounds Luke Cage with a Judas Bullet.
December 3rd
- Luke Cage duels Diamondback (now in his power s
- - uit) through the streets of Harlem.
  - Luke Cage is arrested for his escape from Seagate Prison, though Claire Temple mentions a lawyer she knows who might help him.
- December 23rd
  - Elektra’s funeral is held. Nelson and Murdock close their tab at Josie’s Bar.
- December 24th
  - Frank Castle returns home and burns it to the ground, but not before retrieving a disc labeled “Micro.”
- December 25th
  - Matt Murdock reveals his identity as Daredevil to Karen Page.
  - Elektra is revealed to be the next incarnation of Black Sky.

2016:

January 22nd
- A disillusioned Kaecilius confronts the Ancient One
January 24th
- Coulson presumably kills Ward during a fight on Maveth.
- Ward’s corpse is reanimated by It, the parasitic Inhuman also known as Hive and Alveus.
February 28th
- Kaecilius forms the Zealots and rebels against the Ancient One with the aim of performing rituals found in the Book of Cagliostro.
March 16th
- The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. covertly order drinks for Lance Hunter and Bobbi Morse at a bar as part of a “spy’s goodbye.”
May 1st
- Kaecilius and the Zealots break into the Kamar-Taj library, decapitate the librarian, and steal pages from the Book of Cagliostro. The Ancient One pursues them as they hop through portals to London, trapping them in the Mirror Dimension, but is unable to prevent Kaecilius’ escape.
May 3rd
- Video surfaces of Spider-Man preventing a car from crashing into a bus.
- Thaddeus Ross becomes Secretary of State.
- Crossbones, a.k.a. Brock Rumlow, assaults the Institute for Infectious Disease in Lagos, Nigeria in order to steal a biological weapon. Captain America, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow stop him.
- Crossbones detonates a suicide bomb, but the blast is contained by Scarlet Witch. Unfortunately, the explosion also damages a building and kills civilians, including Wakandan aid relief workers.
- Tony Stark’s M.I.T. speech ends with him being approached by Miriam Sharpe, a grieving mother who blames him for her son’s death in Sokovia.
- The UN releases the Sokovia Accords following deliberation over the attack in Lagos.
May 5th
- Stark signs the Sokovia Accords, registering him under the control of the federal government. He believes control and restriction of the Avengers will prevent needless destruction and death.
May 6th
- Doctor Stephen Strange survives a terrible car crash, but his hands are irreparably damaged.
June 4th
- Peggy Carter dies peacefully in her sleep.
June 5th
- Wakandan king T’Chaka publicly supports the Sokovia Accords.
- The Avengers are given three days to sign the accords or they will be forced to resign. Romanoff, Rhodes, and Vision side with Stark, while Wilson and Maximoff disagree and side with Rogers.
- Helmut Zero tortures a HYDRA agent for information regarding the trigger words used to manipulate the Winter Soldier.
June 8th
- Sharon Carter delivers a eulogy at Peggy Carter’s funeral in London, revealing that she’s Peggy’s niece.
- Romanoff meets T’Challa, son of T’Chaka, during the signing of the accords in Vienna, but are interrupted by a terrorist bombing orchestrated by Helmut Zemo. T’Chaka dies in the blast and Zemo flees to Berlin.
- Jeffrey Mace is caught on camera during the bombing and is inadvertently labeled a hero by the media.
- Bucky Barnes is blamed for the bombing. T’Challa, a.k.a. Black Panther, swears vengeance on him, while Rogers and Wilson head to Bucharest to reach the Winter Soldier first.
June 9th
- War Machine arrests Captain America, Black Panther, and the Winter Soldier in Bucharest after a tense battle. They arrive at the Joint Counter-Terrorist Centre along with Sam Wilson.
- Helmut Zemo infiltrates the facility and triggers the Winter Soldier, forcing him to divulge the details of a secret mission and the HYDRA Siberian Facility where he was held. He then orders the Winter Soldier to attack Rogers, Sharon Carter, Black Widow, and even the Black Panther before fleeing.
- Upon recapturing Bucky, Captain American learns that Zemo likely plans to thaw out the other Winter Soldiers. Rogers calls on Hawkeye and recruits Ant-Man for help. Hawkeye breaks Scarlet Witch out of the New Avengers compound to join the team; she uses her powers to subdue Vision temporarily.
- Stark and Black Widow, meanwhile, call in Black Panther, War Machine, and Spider-Man, whom Stark gifts a scholarship and a new costume.
June 10th
- The battle at Flughafen Leipzig-Halle airport occurs between the heroes with Captain America, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, and Winter Soldier taking on Iron Man, War Machine, Vision, Spider-Man, Black Widow, and Black Panther.
- The airport is substantially damaged in the battle and War Machine becomes paralyzed from a fall. Captain America and Winter Soldier manage to escape and fly to Siberia to defeat Zemo thanks to Black Widow switching sides. Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and Ant-Man are arrested.
- Stark is alerted to Zemo’s frame-up, learns of his own mistake, and visits the imprisoned Avengers to learn of Captain America’s plan to stop the villain from Falcon, promising to go to Siberia as an ally. Black Panther covertly tracks Iron Man on his journey to seek revenge on the Winter Soldier.
- At the HYDRA facility, Captain America, Winter Soldier, and Iron Man temporarily put their differences aside to defeat Zemo, but they discover that the remaining Winter Soldiers have all been killed by Zemo. He reveals his plan to tear the Avengers apart due to their role in the death of his family. Black Panther overhears this, and withdraws from the impending battle. He later spares Zemo’s life and prevents him from committing suicide so that he can head to prison.
- Zemo reveals the Winter Soldier’s hand in the death of Stark’s parents and Iron Man attacks both Bucky and Captain America. Winter Soldier’s metal arm is lost and Iron Man’s Arc Reactor is damaged, making his armor useless. Captain America leaves his shield behind since it was created by Stark’s father and “he doesn’t deserve it” as Stark says.
- T’Challa delivers Zemo to the Joint Counter-Terrorist Centre in Berlin, accompanied by Rogers and Barnes who fly with him to Wakanda.
- Everett Ross taunts the imprisoned Zemo.
June 11th
- Lash attacks Hive and frees Daisy Johnson from his sway.
June 12th
- Peter Parker is returned home from Berlin by Tony Stark, in time for school.
- Barnes volunteers to be frozen again until his mind-control can be completely purged.
June 16th
- Stark arrives at the New Avengers facility and assists Rhodes in his physical therapy.
- A letter from Rogers apologizes for everything that happened between them and a phone gives Stark access to Rogers and his team should the need arise.
- Rogers frees his imprisoned teammates from the Raft. Ross informs Stark, who simply puts the Secretary of State on hold.
June 22nd
- Daisy leaves S.H.I.E.L.D. and becomes the vigilante known as Quake.
September 10th
- After numerous failed surgeries, Stephen Strange meets with Joseph Pangborn and learns of the mystical Kamar-Taj. He spends the last of his funds to travel to Nepal.
September 12th
- Strange is eventually admitted into Kamar-Taj where he meets Karl Mordo and the Ancient One and begins his training in the mystical arts.
September 17th
- Jeffrey Mace goes through the Project Patriot program to improve public perception of the Inhuman race.
September 21st
- Jeffrey Mace becomes director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
September 23rd
- Peter Parker ditches the Midtown High School Homecoming dance in order to take down the Vulture, a.k.a. Adrian Toomes.
September 25th
- Man or Mandarin: The Trevor Slattery Story airs on TV
September 26th
- Kaecilius and his Zealots successfully contact Dormammu.
October 21st
- Stephen Strange’s training continues. The Ancient One deposits him on Mount Everest to force his ability to use the Sling Ring.
December 11th
- Dr. Holden Radcliffe brings his artificial intelligence Aida to life using a Life-Model Decoy body.

2017:

March 2nd
- Cellphone video captures Ghost Rider driving away in the Hell Charger.
March 3rd
- Strange learns of the power of the Eye of Agamotto as Kaecilius and his Zealots destroy the London Sanctum and those defending it. Strange becomes trapped in the Sanctum Sanctorum and defends it as best he can, assisted by the Cloak of Levitation and artifacts like the Rotunda of Gateways, the Brazier of Bom’Galiath, and the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak.
- Strange is wounded and travels to Metro-General Hospital so that Christine Palmer can save his life while he gives her direction (and duels the Zealot Lucian) from the astral plane.
- Returning to the Sanctum Sanctorum, he’s granted the position of protector of the Sanctum by the Ancient One, but when he challenges her on the topic of pulling energy from the Dark Dimension, she flees.
- Kaecilius returns to finish the job and Strange pulls everyone into the Mirror Dimension. The Ancient One saves Strange and Mordo, but suffers a mortal wound in the process.
- Despite getting the Ancient One to the hospital, she dies, but not before warning Strange of the dangers of Dormammu.
March 4th
- The battle at the Hong Kong sanctum goes poorly until Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto to reverse time, save the Sanctum’s Masters from death, and undo the destruction to the city. Kaecilius breaks free of the spell and manages to summon Dormammu’s Dark Dimension anyway since it is “beyond time.’
- Strange travels into the Dark Dimension and creates a time loop that eventually forces Dormammu to bargain with the sorcerer after many, many, many deaths.
- Strange ends the loop only after Dormammu banishes himself from Earth along with Kaecilius and the Zealots, who he transforms into Mindless Ones and pulls into the Dark Dimension.
- Mordo leaves the Masters of the Mystic Arts, disillusioned by The Ancient One’s reveal.
- Strange returns the Eye of Agamotto to Kamar-Taj before taking up his role as protector of the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York.
March 16th
- Ghost Rider sightings increase and the people of Los Angeles regard him as a vigilante.
March 19th
- Quake and Ghost Rider duel in the junkyard.
April 4th
- Ghost Rider frees Eli Morrow from South Ridge Penitentiary, but loses him when his rage takes over and he kills Santino Noguera of the Fifth Street Locos.
April 12th
- Melinda May is replaced with a Life-Model Decoy as part of Aida’s plans.
April 13th
- Aida is beheaded, but another version of Aida talks with Radcliffe at their home, where it’s revealed that the first Aida had been programmed to steal the Darkhold.
April 16th
- May keeps attempting to escape the Framework simulation, which soon includes Kitsworth, Coulson, Fitz, Simmons, Mackenzie, Johnson and Rodriguez.
- The Framework features an alternate history that ranges from HYDRA’s founding in 400 CE to Skye and Ward’s relationship in the late April, 2017.
May 12th
- Robbie Reyes transfers the Ghost Rider power to Coulson who makes a deal with the Spirit of Vengeance in exchange for killing Aida.
- Mackenzie and Rodriguez finally decide to leave the simulation, waking up on Zephyr One.
- Ghost Rider uses his Hellfire Chain to open a portal to Hell and return the Darkhold there.
- Holden Radcliffe is forced to remain in the Framework, both vanishing upon deletion.
- Coulson’s team enjoys a celebratory dinner, but are apprehended by a mysterious man who wields a device that freezes them.
September 8th
- Karl Mordo pays a visit to Jonathan Pangborn and removes his powers, claiming that there are already too many sorcerers in the world.
Fall
- Coulson awakens and looks out the window … onto outer space.
- Thor visits Doctor Strange requesting assistance in finding Odin. Strange agrees, on the condition that Thor and Loki immediately return to Asgard once Odin is located.

Two Years after the Battle of Sokovia: The Events of Thor: Ragnarok

Spoilers ahead for Thor: Ragnarok if you haven’t seen it yet!

In search of the Infinity Stones, Thor seeks out (and is captured by) the fire demon Surtur in the realm of Muspelheim. Surtur is destined to bring about Ragnarok–the destruction of Asgard–but not just yet since Thor defeats him and takes his crown as a trophy.
Loki, meanwhile, has been enjoying his disguise as Odin for years now, but Thor puts a stop to that party when he returns home to Asgard. The brothers are reunited in their quest to find their father, Odin, and with the assistance of Doctor Strange, they travel to Norway to say farewell to their dying father.
With Odin’s death comes the release of Hela, the banished Goddess of Death, form her millennia-long imprisonment. The first clash between Hela and her brothers ends with her destruction of Mjolnir and their flight to the bifrost bridge.
Hela continues to Asgard, the source of her power, and destroys the army opposing her (led by Hogun) while resurrecting her own army of the dead (including the giant wolf Fenris) and appointing the reluctant, traitorous Skurge as her executioner.
Thor and Loki both wind up on the garbage planet Sakaar, though at different times: Loki has been there long enough to weasel his way into the good graces of the planet’s ruler, the Grandmaster. Thor, however, is captured by an Asgardian Valkyrie mercenary nicknamed Scrapper 142 and thrown into the fighting pit where he faces off against the arena’s champion, Hulk.
Having survived the fight and escaped captivity with the help of Valkyrie (and Loki, at least temporarily), Thor is able to restore Banner to his human form thanks to a video recording from Natasha stored in the Quinjet archive. After two years as the Hulk, Banner returns, though he’s concerned that he’ll never be able to do so again should the Hulk be allowed to come out just one more time.
When Thor, Banner, and Valkyrie arrive on Asgard, Hela’s forces are about to decimate the rebellious Heimdall and the Asgardians he’s protecting. Banner becomes the Hulk (after a painful fall down to the Rainbow Bridge) and battles Hela’s resurrected Fenris Wolf and the undead forces led by Skurge.
Thor and Valkyrie battle Hela, though the God of Thunder loses an eye in this effort. His resultant vision of Odin channels untapped power into Thor and he’s able to rejoin the fight.
Meanwhile, a revolution on Sakaar, led in part by the Kronan known as Korg and the planet’s insectoid native known as Miek before they headed to Asgard to rescue the realm’s inhabitants, defeated the Grandmaster, who is last seen attempting to win favor with the victors.
Loki and the surviving gladiators, including Korg and Miek, arrive on Asgard to act as a lifeboat to rescue the Asgardian citizens. Skurge sacrifices himself to save his fellow Asgardians in a redemptive final act. While Thor, Hulk, and Valkyrie distract Hela, Loki liberates the crown of Surtur (possibly swiping the tesseract in the process) and summons the fire demon using the Eternal Flame, the only entity who can bring about Ragnarok and defeat Hela, at the price of the destruction of Asgard.
Having escaped aboard a spaceship, an eyepatch-sporting Thor assumes the role of Ruler of Asgard and takes his throne, flanked by Heimdall, Valkyrie, Loki, Korg, and Hulk. Their plan is to head to Earth/Midgard and attempt to rebuild Asgard, perhaps in Norway. However, a massive spacecraft suddenly looms above their ship…

*This timeline will be updated as new MCU movies and TV shows air.

Screen Junkies Controversy

Posted on October 8, 2017 by Doc

Image result for andy signore

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to write about this, but I decided that the issue was too important to ignore.

Andy Signore, the creator of Honest Trailers and one of the driving forces behind Screen Junkies, has been suspended by Screen Junkies’ parent company Defy Media this past Friday for reported sexual harassment. Several women have come forward over the last few days claiming that Signore harassed them, which included one woman who claimed that Sigmore tried to sexually assault her.

April Dawn claimed on Twitter that Signore attempted to sexually assault her and tried to keep her quiet by threatening to fire her boyfriend, Screen Junkies’ employee Josh Tapia (known as JTE).

In a statement, Defy Media said: “We at Defy Media have no tolerance for harassment or retaliation of any kind. We have been conducting a thorough investigation into allegations made against Andy Signore and are preparing to respond to those allegations and take appropriate action. Given the additional statements that were made [Friday], we feel it is necessary to suspend Andy’s employment while we continue our investigation. We will take all necessary action once the investigation is fully complete.”

This was a difficult story to hear. I am a fan of Screen Junkies and their content. I have been watching Movie Fights for over two years now, and I was a subscriber to their attempted streaming service. I have followed them to YouTube after that service ended. Andy Signore was the judge on the Movie Fights show and that is how I was introduced to him, before I knew of his power behind the scenes. I did not always agree with Signore in his judgment on the show, but I always respected his opinions.

Then this news broke.

Reading tweets from other employees of Screen Junkies was heartbreaking. Dan Murrell, Roth Cornet , Lon Harris, Billy “Business” Patterson, Spencer Gilbert, and Joe Starr all had tweets that reflected their shock and disgust over the allegations. Some of them went as far as saying they would not return to work until something was done. We also saw tweets from Screen Junkies guests such as Scott Mantz, Roger Barr, Steven Rocha, Josh Macuga weighed in with their thoughts.

I had missed the Movie Fights show Thursday night and I watched it today. It featured Andy as a judge with Murrell on the panel against JTE. It was surreal. Watching the show, I couldn’t help but think about how this was recorded live the night before the story broke on Friday and how awkward some of this must have been. Plus, it is very possible that this was the final Movie Fights appearance for Signore.

What does all of this mean for Screen Junkies? I have enjoyed their work for many years now, but how will this affect them? I hope the channel can survive this controversy.

However, there is no room in the world for this type of behavior. You are innocent until proven guilty, but it sounds as if the evidence is pretty damning. No woman should be trivialized or assaulted, physically or verbally, by a man under any circumstances, though someone using their position of power to lord over them is even worse.

I want to state that I respect these women for their bravery and their honesty coming forward to tell their stories. Too many times in our society, the victims are seen as the villains and are criticized or attacked. That is unfair, but it is a sad truth of the world we live in. These women have been supported by many, including Dan Murrell, who wrote on Twitter that “I hear you and I believe you.”

I can’t imagine what these men and women are feeling. It is a tough situation. We, as fans, feel like we know these people whom we watch and connect. This is a reminder that these people are still truly strangers to us, no matter how much we feel like we know them. It is impossible to know them fully from just their on-screen persona.

To anyone who feels as if they are being victimized, don’t take it. Speak up. Come forward. It is the only way it can get better.

As for the Screen Junkies, I will continue to support your work because I am not going to hold Andy Signore’s alleged impropriety against you. That would not be fair.

I love live tweeting during Movie Fights Live or TV Fights Live and one of my favorite things is when either Dan Murrell or Billy Business reads one of my tweets from the Embrace Your Geekness account. I hope that this new does not finish that enjoyment, but I am happy that these women may get their justice as well.

Site News

Posted on August 6, 2017 by Doc

Just wanted to touch on some things…

EYGHoF

Most importantly, the ballot for the 2017 EYG Hall of Fame is up and active on the front page of the website. We have a good list of potential HoF inductees again this year with people like Steve Irwin, Stephen King, Josh Gates, and Billy Nye, characters such as King Kong, The Joker, Dick Tracy, Iron Man, C3PO/R2D2, BB-8, and Frankenstein’s Monster, movies and TV shows including The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Wizard of Oz, Game of Thrones, The Six Million Dollar Man, Jeopardy and SNL, and other various items including the flux capacitor (from Back to the Future), Starlog Magazine, Mad Magazine, ghosts, Barbie, NASA, the Rubik’s Cube and YouTube. Your votes do count and you may vote as many times as you would like until the poll ends on September 19th (Talk Like A Pirate Day). I only ask that you vote responsibly. Do not just sit and vote over and over again to unbalance the poll. You want to vote multiple times…please do so. Just keep it in mind to be reasonable.

I am trying to continue to write the “classic” reviews but I do not want to just do reviews of all my favorite former films. That was why I did Batman and Robin. I want to try and space out those all-time greats (Princess Bride, Raiders, Star Wars, etc) so it doesn’t just look like the best of the best. Any suggestions? Next week, Bonnie and Clyde will be shown at Cinemark and I might make my way to see and review that one. The Princess Bride is going to be shown in October at Cinemark, so I will probably hold off with that film until then. If you haven’t guessed, The Princess Bride is my favorite film of all time.

I’m hoping to get to Detroit either tomorrow or early next week. School will be starting up again very soon, so the time available is going to shorten. I have a lot of curriculum to get ready for school as well.

I am so excited for It in September. I hope that I am not disappointed in the film. The trailers have looked just tremendous. It is right near the top of my most anticipated remaining films of the year. I would say that Thor: Ragnarok is number one right now and It is probably number two. Others include Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Justice League, Annabelle: Creation, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Battle of the Sexes, Blade Runner 2049,.

I am not looking forward to Flatliners. That reboot just looks dumb and unnecessary. Maybe I am wrong.

I love the Gong Show. It’s just surreal fun with some of the silliest to stupidest things you’ll ever see on TV. Last year, I loved ABC’s reboot of the Match Game and this year, The Gong Show.

I am a Dodger fan and as of my writing today, they have won 43 of their last 50 games. That is just insane. I also just about peed myself when they made the big deal at the trading deadline and brought in Yu Darvish. It was like the head office is all-in as well. The Dodgers have not won the World Series since 1988, the year of Orel Hershsier and Kirk Gibson’s home run. I will never forget that home run moment. One of the greatest baseball moments in my life.

Okay, that will do it. Remember, cast those votes for the EYG Hall of Fame. Every vote matters.

2017 Emmy Nominations

Posted on July 13, 2017 by Doc

Drama Series
“Better Call Saul” (AMC)
“The Crown” (Netflix)
“The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu)
“House of Cards” (Netflix)
“Stranger Things” (Netflix)
“This Is Us” (NBC)
“Westworld” (HBO)

Comedy Series
“Atlanta” (FX)
“Black-ish” (ABC)
“Master of None” (Netflix)
“Modern Family” (ABC)
“Silicon Valley” (HBO)
“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (Netflix)
“Veep” (HBO)

Drama Actress
Viola Davis (“How to Get Away with Murder”)
Claire Foy (“The Crown”)
Elisabeth Moss (“The Handmaid’s Tale”)
Keri Russell (“The Americans”)
Evan Rachel Wood (“Westworld”)
Robin Wright (“House of Cards”)

Drama Actor
Sterling K. Brown (“This Is Us”)
Anthony Hopkins (“Westworld”)
Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”)
Matthew Rhys (“The Americans”)
Liev Schreiber (“Ray Donovan”)
Kevin Spacey (“House of Cards”)
Milo Ventimiglia (“This Is Us”)

Comedy Actor
Anthony Anderson (“Black-ish”)
Aziz Ansari (“Master of None”)
Zach Galifianakis (“Baskets”)
Donald Glover (“Atlanta”)
William H. Macy (“Shameless”)
Jeffrey Tambor (“Transparent”)

Comedy Actress
Pamela Adlon (“Better Things”)
Tracee Ellis-Ross (“black-ish”)
Jane Fonda (“Grace and Frankie”)
Lily Tomlin (“Grace and Frankie”)
Allison Janney (“Mom”)
Ellie Kemper (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”)

Limited Series
“Big Little Lies” (HBO)
“Fargo” (FX)
“Feud: Bette and Joan” (FX)
“The Night Of” (HBO)
“Genius” (National Geographic)

Limited Series Actor
Riz Ahmed (“The Night Of”)
Benedict Cumberbatch (“Sherlock: The Lying Detective”)
Robert De Niro (“The Wizard of Lies”)
Ewan McGregor (“Fargo”)
Geoffrey Rush (“Genius”)
John Turturro (“The Night Of”)

Limited Series Actress
Carrie Coon (“Fargo”)
Felicity Huffman (“American Crime”)
Nicole Kidman (“Big Little Lies”)
Jessica Lange (“Feud”)
Susan Sarandon (“Feud”)
Reese Witherspoon (“Big Little Lies”)

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
John Lithgow (“The Crown”)
Jonathan Banks (“Better Call Saul”)
Mandy Patinkin (“Homeland”)
Michael Kelly (“House of Cards”)
David Harbour (“Stranger Things”)
Ron Cephas Jones (“This Is Us”)
Jeffrey Wright (“Westworld”)

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Ann Dowde (“The Handmaid’s Tale”)
Samira Wiley (“The Handmaid’s Tale”)
Uzo Aduba (“Orange Is the New Black”)
Millie Bobby Brown (“Stranger Things”)
Chrissy Metz (“This Is Us”)
Thandie Newton (“Westworld”)

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin (“Saturday Night Live”)
Louie Anderson (“Baskets”)
Ty Burrell (“Modern Family”)
Tituss Burgess (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”)
Tony Hale (“Veep”)
Matt Walsh (“Veep”)

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”)
Vanessa Beyer (“Saturday Night Live”)
Leslie Jones (“Saturday Night Live”)
Anna Chlumsky (“Veep”)
Judith Light (“Transparent”)
Katheryn Hahn (“Transparent”)

Variety Talk Series
“Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” (TBS)
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (ABC)
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (HBO)
“Late Late Show With James Corden” (CBS)
“Real Time With Bill Maher” (HBO)

Reality Competition
“The Amazing Race” (CBS)
“American Ninja Warrior” (NBC)
“Project Runway” (Lifetime)
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” (vh1)
“Top Chef” (Bravo)
“The Voice” (NBC)

Television Movie
“Black Mirror: San Junipero”
“Dolly Parton’s Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love”
“The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks”
“Sherlock: The Lying Detective (Masterpiece)”
“The Wizard Of Lies”

Variety Sketch Series
“Billy On The Street” (truTV)
“Documentary Now!” (IFC)
“Drunk History” (Comedy Central)
“Portlandia” (IFC)
“Saturday Night Live” (NBC)
“Tracey Ullman’s Show” (HBO)

Structured Reality Program
“Antiques Roadshow” (PBS)
“Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” (Food Network)
“Fixer Upper” (HGTV)
“Lip Sync Battle” (Spike TV)
“Shark Tank” (ABC)
“Who Do You Think You Are” (TLC)

Unstructured Reality Program
“Born This Way” (A&E)
“Deadliest Catch” (Discovery Channel)
“Gaycation With Ellen Page” (Viceland)
“Intervention” (A&E)
“RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked” (YouTube)
“United Shades Of America: With W. Kamau Bell” (CNN)

Host for a Reality/Reality-Competition Program
Alec Baldwin (“Match Game”)
W. Kamau Bell (“United Shades Of America With W. Kamau Bell)
RuPaul Charles (“RuPaul’s Drag Race)
Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn (“Project Runway)
Gordon Ramsay (“MasterChef Junior)
Martha Stewart & Snoop Dogg (“Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party”)

Directing for a Comedy Series
Donald Glover (“Atlanta”)
Jamie Babbit (“Silicon Valley”)
Morgan Sackett (“Veep”)
David Mandel (“Veep”)
Dale Stern (“Veep”)

Directing for a Drama Series
Vince Gilligan (“Better Call Saul”)
Stephen Daldry (“The Crown”)
Reed Morano (“The Handmaid’s Tale”)
Kate Dennis (“The Handmaid’s Tale”)
Lesli Linka Glatter (“Homeland”)
The Duffer Brothers (“Stranger Things”)
Jonathan Nolan (“Westworld”)

Directing for a Variety Series
Derek Waters & Jeremy Konner (“Drunk History”)
Andy Fisher (Jimmy Kimmel Live”)
Paul Pennolino (“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”)
Jim Hoskinson (“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”)
Don Roy King (“Saturday Night Live”)

Directing for a Variety Special
Paul Pennolino (“Full Frontal with Samantha Bee Presents Not The White House Correspondents’ Dinner”)
Glenn Weiss (“The Oscars”)
Jim Hiskinson (“Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night Democracy’s Series Finale: Who’s Going to Clean Up This S—?”)
Jerry Foley (“Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best is Yet to Come”)

Directing for a Nonfiction Program
Alexis Bloom & Fisher Stevens (“Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds”)
Ezra Edelman (“O.J.: Made in America”)
Fredi Devas (“Planet Earth II”)
Elizabeth White (“Planet Earth II”)
Ava DuVernay (“13th”)

Writing for a Comedy Series
Donald Glover (“Atlanta”)
Stephen Glover (“Atlanta”)
Aziz Ansari & Lena Waithe (“Master of None”)
Alec Berg (“Silicon Valley”)
Billy Kimball (“Veep”)
David Mandel (“Veep”)

Writing for a Drama Series
Joe Weisberg & Joel Fields (“The Americans”)
Gordon Smith (“Better Call Saul”)
Peter Morgan (“The Crown”)
Bruce Miller (“The Handmaid’s Tale”)
The Duffer Brothers (“Stranger Things”)
Lisa Joy & Jonathan Nolan (“Westworld”)

Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Drama
David E. Kelley (“Big Little Lies”)
Charlie Brooker (“Black Mirror: San Junipero”)
Noah Hawley (“Fargo”)
Ryan Murphy (“Feud: Bette and Joan”)
Jaffe Cohen, Michael, Michael Zam & Ryan Murphy (“Feud: Bette and Joan”)
Richard Price & Steven Zaillian (“The Night Of”)

Writing for a Variety Series
“Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” (TBS)
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” (HBO)
“Late Night with Seth Meyers” (NBC)
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS)
“Saturday Night Live” (NBC)

Writing for a Variety Special
“Full Frontal with Samantha Bee Presents Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” (TBS)
“Louis C.K. 2017” (Netflix)
“Sarah Silverman: A Speck of Dust” (Netflix)
“Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night Democracy’s Series Finale: Who’s Going to Clean Up This S—?” (Showtime)
“70th Annual Tony Awards” (CBS)

Writing for a Nonfiction Program
Brian McGinn (“Amanda Knox”)
Anthony Bourdain (“Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown”)
Mark Monroe (“The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years”)
Prashanth Venkataramanujam, CeCe Pleasants, Sanden Totten, Mike Drucker & Flora Lichtman (“Bill Nye Saves the World”)
Ava DuVernay & Spencer Averick (“13th”)

Versus Superdraft debate

Image | Posted on July 10, 2017 by Doc

debate

Versus Superdraft

Image | Posted on July 7, 2017 by Doc

smugglers

Stan Lee Cameos Connected

Posted on May 6, 2017 by Doc

The following blog post contains minor SPOILERS for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Proceed with caution if you have yet to see that movie.

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In the latest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, we have our next cameo from Stan Lee, the co-creator of so many of the classic Marvel characters such as Spider-man, the Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange, X-Men to name a few.

Image result for stan lee watcher guardians Because of his stature, Stan Lee has made many cameos, most of them humorous, in Marvel movies over the years. In fact, there are only a few Marvel movies featuring Marvel characters that Stan has not had a cameo in.

Fans have had fun speculating over the years that Stan’s cameos were more than just a nod to a classic man who provided us with decades of entertainment. In fact, one specific fan theory suggested that Stan Lee was playing the same character in all of his appearances. The said that Lee was playing a Watcher.

The Watcher is a character that was co-created by Stan Lee (along with Jack Kirby) who is a member of an intergalatic race of giants who record the history of multiverses by observing what would happen while never getting involved. In Marvel Comics, we meet Uatu the Watcher in the pages of the Fantastic Four, who was not very good at staying out of the action.

And now,Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige has conformed the theory. The following clip is from a story at http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/marvel-kevin-feige-stan-lee-cameo-guardians-of-the-galaxy-2-a7707101.html

Speaking at a Guardians press junket, Feige said, according to ScreenRant: “Yes, we always thought it would be fun. Stan Lee clearly exists, you know, above and apart from the reality of all the films.

“So the notion that he could be sitting there on a cosmic pit stop during the jump gate sequence in Guardians was something very fun – James had that idea and we shot that cameo and loved it so much, you know, you see it a couple of times in the movie.

“It wasn’t in for a long time and we put it back in towards the end of the process where he references that time he was a Federal Express agent – we thought it would be fun to put that in there because that really says, so wait a minute, he’s this same character who’s popped up in all these films.”

Image result for stan lee watcher guardians vol. 2 Now, technically, Stan is only seen with Watchers and he is in a space suit, so it is possible that he is not actually a Watcher as much as an assistant or an informant (whihc is how he is actually credited in the end credits of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

But think about this for a minute. What does this mean? Stan Lee has had cameos outside of the MCU. He was in the first X-Men film. He was in the Tim Story Fantastic Four movies. He was in Deadpool. The first Hulk. He was in the original Spider-man movies as well as the Amazing Spider-man movies.

All these films could meant that, regardless of studio, we now have a Marvel Movie Multiverse.

Imagine. Sony. FOX. Universal. Marvel Studios. Disney. All connected by one man. Just like in the comics, the Marvel Movie Multiverse has endless alternate realities including several versions of the same characters.

Marvel Comics used to publish a series called What If where the Uatu the Watcher would tell a tale of an alternate reality involving Marvel characters. It seems as if the movies and tv shows from The Trial of the Incredible Hulk to Big Hero 6 to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 may be in the same situation.

Stan Lee has already shot his cameos for Thor:Ragnanok, Spider-man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity Wars so we have several Stan Lee cameos to look forward to. Let’s get Stan into Legion!

Excelsior!

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2017 Oscar Nominations

Posted on January 25, 2017 by Doc

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BEST PICTURE
Arrival
Fences
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Lion
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight

BEST DIRECTOR
Denis Villeneuve, Arrival
Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge
Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight

BEST ACTOR
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
Ryan Gosling, La La Land
Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington, Fences

BEST ACTRESS
Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Ruth Negga, Loving
Natalie Portman, Jackie
Emma Stone, La La Land
Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Dev Patel, Lion
Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Viola Davis, Fences
Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Nicole Kidman, Lion
Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Hell or High Water
La La Land
The Lobster
Manchester by the Sea
20th Century Women

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Arrival
Fences
Hidden Figures
Lion
Moonlight

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Arrival
La La Land
Lion
Moonlight
Silence

BEST FILM EDITING
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
La La Land
Moonlight

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Deepwater Horizon
Doctor Strange
The Jungle Book
Kubo and the Two Strings
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Arrival
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Hail, Caesar!
La La Land
Passengers

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Allied
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Florence Foster Jenkins
Jackie
La La Land

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
A Man Called Ove
Star Trek Beyond
Suicide Squad

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Jackie
La La Land
Lion
Moonlight
Passengers

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” La La Land
“Can’t Stop the Feeling,” Trolls
“City of Stars,” La La Land
“The Empty Chair,” Jim: The James Foley Story
“How Far I’ll Go,” Moana

BEST SOUND EDITING
Arrival
Deepwater Horizon
Hacksaw Ridge
La La Land
Sully

BEST SOUND MIXING
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
La La Land
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
My Life as a Zucchini
The Red Turtle
Zootopia

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Fire at Sea
I Am Not Your Negro
Life, Animated
O.J.: Made in America
13th

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Land of Mine
A Man Called Ove
The Salesman
Tanna
Toni Erdmann

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Extremis
4.1 Miles
Joe’s Violin
Watani: My Homeland
The White Helmets

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
Ennemis Entreniers
La Femme et le TGV
Silent Nights
Sing
Timecode

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Blind Vaysha
Borrowed Time
Pear Cider and Cigarettes
Pearl
Piper

Vanity Fair features in-depth reporting, gripping narratives, and world-class photography, plus heaping doses of Oscar-blogging, royal-watching, and assorted guilty pleasures.

Golden Globe winners

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Doc

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Movies

Best Motion Picture – Drama

“Hacksaw Ridge”

“Hell or High Water”

“Lion”

“Manchester by the Sea”

“Moonlight” *WINNER

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

“20th Century Women”

“Deadpool”

“Florence Foster Jenkins”

“La La Land” *WINNER

“Sing Street”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

Amy Adams – “Arrival”

Jessica Chastain – “Miss Sloane”

Isabelle Huppert – “Elle” *WINNER

Ruth Negga – “Loving”

Natalie Portman – “Jackie”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
Casey Affleck – “Manchester by the Sea” *WINNER

Joel Edgerton – “Loving”

Andrew Garfield – “Hacksaw Ridge”

Viggo Mortensen – “Captain Fantastic”

Denzel Washington – “Fences”

Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Colin Farrell – “The Lobster”

Ryan Gosling – “La La Land” *WINNER

Hugh Grant – “Florence Foster Jenkins”

Jonah Hill – “War Dogs”

Ryan Reynolds – “Deadpool”

Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Annette Bening – “20th Century Women:

Lily Collins – “Rules Don’t Apply”

Hailee Steinfeld – “The Edge of Seventeen”

Emma Stone – “La La Land” *WINNER

Meryl Streep – “Florence Foster Jenkins”

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

Mahershala Ali – “Moonlight”

Jeff Bridges – “Hell or High Water”

Simon Helberg – “Florence Foster Jenkins”

Dev Patel – “Lion”

Aaron Taylor-Johnson – “Nocturnal Animals” *WINNER

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Viola Davis – “Fences” *WINNER

Naomie Harris – “Moonlight

Nicole Kidman – “Lion”

Octavia Spencer – “Hidden Figures”

Michelle Williams – “Manchester by the Sea”

Best Animated Feature Film

“Kubo and the Two Strings”

“Moana”

“My Life as a Zucchini’

“Sing”

“Zootopia” *WINNER

Best Director

Damien Chazelle – “La La Land” *WINNER

Tom Ford – “Nocturnal Animals”

Mel Gibson – “Hacksaw Ridge”

Barry Jenkins – “Moonlight”

Kenneth Lonergan – “Manchester by the Sea”

Best Screenplay

Damien Chazelle – “La La Land” *WINNER

Tom Ford – “Nocturnal Animals”

Barry Jenkins – “Moonlight”

Kenneth Lonergan “Manchester by the Sea”

Taylor Sheridan – “Hell or High Water”

Best Original Score

“Moonlight”

“La La Land” *WINNER

“Arrival”

“Lion”

“Hidden Figures”

Best Original Song

“Can’t Stop the Feeling” – “Trolls”

“City of Stars” – “La La Land” *WINNER

“Faith” – “Sing”

“Gold” – “Gold”

“How Far I’ll Go” – “Moana”

Best Foreign Language Film

“Divines” – (France)

“Elle” – (France) *WINNER

“Neruda” – (Chile)

“The Salesman” – (Iran/France)

“Toni Erdmann” – (Germany)

Best TV series – Drama

“The Crown” *WINNER

“Game Of Thrones”

“Stranger Things”

“This Is Us”

“Westworld”

Best performance by an Actor in a TV series – Drama

Rami Malek – “Mr. Robot”

Bob Odenkirk – “Better Call Saul”

Matthew Rhys – “The Americans”

Liev Schreiber – “Ray Donovan”

Billy Bob Thornton – “Goliath” *WINNER

Best performance by Actress in a TV series – Drama

Caitriona Balfe – “Outlander”

Claire Foy – “The Crown” *WINNER

Keri Russell – “The Americans”

Winona Ryder – “Stranger Things”

Evan Rachel Wood – “Westworld”

Best TV series – Musical or Comedy

“Atlanta” *WINNER

“black-ish”

“Mozart In The Jungle”

“Transparent”

“Veep”

Best performance by an Actor in a TV series — Musical or Comedy

Anthony Anderson – “black-ish”

Gael Garcia Bernal – “Mozart in the Jungle”

Donald Glover – “Atlanta” *WINNER

Nick Nolte – “Graves”

Jeffrey Tambor – “Transparent”

Best performance by an Actress in a TV series – Musical or Comedy

Rachel Bloom – “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”

Julia Louis-Dreyfus – “Veep”

Sarah Jessica Parker – “Divorce”

Issa Rae – “Insecure”

Gina Rodriguez – “Jane the Virgin”

Tracee Ellis Ross -“black-ish” *WINNER

Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

“American Crime”

“The Dresser”

“The Night Manager”

“The Night Of”

“The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” *WINNER

Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Riz Ahmed – “The Night Of”

Bryan Cranston – “All The Way”

Tom Hiddleston – “The Night Manager” *WINNER

John Turturro – “The Night Of”

Courtney B Vance – “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Olivia Colman – “The Night Manager” *WINNER

Lena Heady – “Game Of Thrones”

Chrissy Metz – “This is Us”

Mandy Moore – “This is Us”

Thandie Newton – “Westworld”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Sterling K Brown – “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”

Hugh Laurie – “The Night Manager” *WINNER

John Lithgow – “The Crown”

Christian Slater – “Mr. Robot”

John Travolta – “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Felicity Huffman – “American Crime”

Riley Keough – “The Girlfriend Experience”

Sarah Paulson – “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” *WINNER

Charlotte Rampling – “London Spy”

Kerry Washington- “Confirmation”

Vision and Marvel Comics

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Doc

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I had not collected Vision, the 2015-16 comic created by by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles, when it originally came out. I purchased the first issue, but I did not give it much of a chance. I have a lot of Marvel Comics that I get a month and a Vision series where he created a nuclear family did not interest me.

I had heard positive things about the series, but also heard it was ending with issue #12, so there was no reason to give it a try.

However, after it ended, particularly since Viv Vision is involved in the new Champions series which I am collecting, I did purchase the graphic novel compilation volume one and two of the series and gave it a read,.

Wow.

Image result for vision marvel new series The Vision series read as an old maxi-series might have read, having a beginning, middle and end. It was as compelling of a series as you could ever expect a group of robots to be involved in. These characters were fully fleshed out and you felt these events that the characters go through. Without spoilers, there were some of the most emotional moments in comics contained in the pages of Vision.

This makes me wonder why Marvel can’t do this more often.

Understand, I am a huge Marvel mark. I collect multiple Marvel titles a month. I am unapologetically a Marvel fan. Still, there is no denying that the company gets themselves in ruts.

We wind up with way too many comics involving Deadpool, Inhumans, Avengers, Spider-man (yes I love Spider-man…still), Wolverine. It is like once a character shows some success, they feel the need to drive it into the ground.

How many different Deadpool series are going right now? There is Deadpool, Spider-man/Deadpool, Deadpool & the Mercs for Money, Deadpool the Duck, Gwenpool, Deadpool: Too Soon, Spider-man/Deadpool Monsters Unleashed, and Uncanny Avengers. There would probably be even more Spider-man series out. And forget about the number of Avengers.

Image result for dr strange comics jason aaron There are currently three Doctor Strange series out as well. I loved the Jason Aaron run on Dr. Strange, but that should not mean that suddenly the Sorcerer Supreme needs to be in more than that one title.

To me, this oversaturation is a huge problem for Marvel. I am so tired of seeing the same characters each month in multiple books that I don’t read several of the titles I buy.

Image result for moon knight Plus, then series that are completely original and brilliant get lost in the muck. Vision was a transcendent series. Mockingbird last 8 issues but it was my favorite comic series of 2016 by far. Moon Knight has been doing some remarkably original stuff. Mosaic is a brand new series that shows promise (even though he is just another Inhuman).

These series do not receive the chance they need when they have tons of other Spider-Deadpool-Avengers-Inhumans-X properties taking up space on the comic rack.

Marvel has been struggling in the comic market lately as well. DC Comics has been dominant lately with their Rebirth reboot and had 8 of the 10 spots in comics sold last month.

What I wouldn’t give for an original super hero story from Marvel. How about a new character who is not either an Inhuman, or a different version of a classic hero (Sam Wilson as Captain America, Ms. Marvel, female Thor, Miles Morales, two different Iron Man characters etc). Someone who is not brooding, someone who has a secret identity, someone who is not an agent for SHIELD etc.

Or taking an established character and creating an interesting and well-developed story with those characters (like Mockingbird, Moon Knight, Dr Strange) without letting that series die a death stuck between Deadpool and Inhuman books.

I want a more variety from Marvel. Great Lakes Avengers is a great new series that is a lot of fun. How long will that last? Hellcat, Mosaic, Moon Knight, Daredevil, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur that are original and that I enjoy every month. Still Mockingbird gets 8 issues and is cancelled. Vision gets 12 issues. Nighthawk gets 6 issues.

I wish there was some changes in Marvel Comics because they have a great group of heroes that could really revitalize the company.

2017 Most Anticipated

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Doc

With all of the lists for 2016 done, it is time to look forward and see what 2017 has in store for us.

On TV, there is the upcoming Inhumans on ABC. You would think that we would have some casting news soon.

But there is nothing on TV that I am looking forward to more than Showtime’s Twin Peaks. Since the day where Killer Bob stared back at Agent Cooper in the bathroom mirror, I wanted to know what was going to happen. Now, we will know.

As for movies….

Here is my top ten most anticipated films of 2017.

#10. Leg Batman Movie. This looks so fun.

#9. Justice League. Always wonder about a DC movie.

#8. War for the Planet of the Apes. The trailer looks fabulous.

#7. Logan. The trailer is genius. I am still a little scared of this. If the movie lives up to the trailer, then I am excited.

#6. Wonder Woman. I hope DC can get this one right. It looks good so far.

#5. Star Wars Episode VIII. Luke Skywalker & Renn.

#4. Kong: Skull Island. Kong looks massive!

#3. Thor: Ragnarok. Thor and Hulk in a buddy movie? I’m in!

#2. Spider-man: Homecoming. What looks like it could be the best Spider-man movie yet. Spidey in high school and Tom Holland in the role could be spectacular.

#1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Baby Groot. Mantis. Ego the Living Planet. More fun from Marvel cosmic!

I’m Dreaming of a Loot Crate Christmas

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Doc

I always do a theme for the Christmas Tree. I started this tradition a few years back with my Spider-Man tree. I have done a WWE tree, a Star Wars tree, and a Lord of the Rings tree. But I must say that I struggled with the concept for this year’s tree. Nothing was popping into my head. I thought about a Marvel tree, but I was not feeling that one. I did not want to do something like I did with Star Wars last year where I went out and spent a mint getting ornaments for the tree. I was flummoxed.

And then it hit me. One of my favorite things this year has been Loot Crate. I even have a little song I sing when the Loot Crate box arrives at the house. I can actually remember a couple of times when seeing the black box took a bad day and made it so much better.

So, the 2016 EYG Geek Christmas Tree is in honor of Loot Crate.