Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 28

Something wicked this way comes.

Last time on My Hero Academia Izuku began training with All Might’s old trainer, Gran Torino. While as eccentric as The Symbol of Peace, Gran Torino proves to be an excellent teacher. He helps Izuku figure out a method to better use One For All, developing the Kaioken… er, One For All Full Cowling. He and Gran Torino were about to spar again when the credit’s roll. At the same time, Iida has been spending his Internship hunting Stain. Stain, meanwhile, was getting an offer from Shigaraki to join the League of Villains, which he was about to reject with a pair of swords. Let’s get to it

We open with Izuku and Gran Torino about to spar. This time, Torino adds a time limit. Izuku has three minutes to hit him. Torino starts leaping around at high speed again, circling Izuku and striking whenever the young man’s back is turned. Torino hits with enough speed and force to keep Izuku from getting enough focus to use his new technique. Izuku dives under a couch, and uses the time while he’s out of sight to power up. He launches at Torino and nearly gets a hit, but Torino is able to dodge. Time runs out, but he isn’t getting bummed out by this. He runs out to buy more weird fish pastries for Torino.

With the other students, Uraraka is learning some martial arts from Gunhead, Tetsutetsu and Kirishima are getting yelled at by Fourth Kind, Best Jeanist is doing his best to fix Bakugo’s personality and style his hair, and Yaoyorozu and Kendo are still being used as extras in their mentor’s commercial. Funny how Uraraka is the one having the best time, isn’t it?

I feel like he should be singing nursery rhymes or something.
The silence and lack of movement is much more unsettling.

All Might, meanwhile, is meeting with his friend Detective Tsukauchi. Over tea, Tsukauchi tells All Might about what they’ve learned about Noumu. After a few weeks of intense interrogation, they learned that the damn thing is incapable of speech, and since being separated from Shigaraki seems to be braindead for all intents and purposes. After doing a DNA test, they learned that Noumu had been a low-level thug for hire. And, more interestingly, he seemed to have four other people’s DNA mixed in with his own. The going theory is that forcibly adding DNA and powers to him basically fried his brain. Tsukauchi thinks that the only way Noumu could exist is if there was someone who’s Quirk is to give Quirks to others. All Might instantly knows who made Noumu, and it seems to shake him to the core. He shifts into his hero form and says “he’s back.” How ominous.

Wow, this is pre-transformation Noumu.
How'd those lips turn into a Beak?

Back with the villains, things have taken an interesting turn. Kurogiri seems to be laying paralyzed on the counter of his bar, and Shigaraki is pinned to the ground with Stain’s knifes pressed to his neck. Stain starts spouting insanity about purging the world of heroes of all the fake glory seekers out there. He does point out that unless Shigaraki gains conviction and a cause, he’ll always be a nobody. So good advice mixed in with crazy. Despite the position, Shigaraki is able to grab the knife and disintegrates the knife before it can touch the hand over his face. Stain decides to backdown, claiming his attack was a test to see about Shigaraki’s conviction. Turns out he does hate Shigaraki and feels like their end goals are diametrically opposed, but thinks they want the same endgame, to destroy the hero system. And he’s willing to work with that, if only temporarily. Shigaraki tells Stain to piss off, because the man has the emotional development of a ten-year-old. Kurogiri tries to convince Shigaraki to reconsider, and Stain wants to get back to Hosu to get to cleansing. This seems to give Shigaraki an idea.

In Hosu, Iida is going over what he knows about Stain. The villain’s pattern is to attack at least four heroes in a given area before moving on to a new city or district. Tensei was the first hit in Hosu. Iida swears to stop him. Shortly thereafter, Manual tells Iida that he’d figured out why Iida came to intern under him. He basically tells Iida that hunting Stain will not end well. Iida nods, but is clearly not going to listen, cause ya know, crippled sibling.

After a few days of training, Izuku has hit the point where he can keep up with Torino. He’s not winning, but isn’t getting wrecked every time they spar. After their most recent match, Torino tells Izuku that they’re going out on patrol. Why? Because if Izuku keeps fighting Torino, he’ll just master fighting Torino. Which is kind of silly. Izuku gets in costume and they go on patrol. They aren’t patrolling in Torino’s area, because the crime rate is too low. They’re going to Tokyo.

With the bad guys, Shigaraki, Kurogiri and Stain arrive in Hosu. Stain runs off to ‘purify’ the term hero. And by that, I mean he’s going to murder folks who save lives but commit the sin of liking being recognized on the street. See, it sounds really insane when you drop words like Purify and Cleansing and call a spade a spade. Shigaraki wants to prove that he’s more important then Stain. Again, ten-year-old. To do so, he summons a trio of Noumu’s and releases them. Oh dear.

Izuku and Torino are on route to Tokyo. Since they were going to travel through Hosu, Izuku tries to text Iida, but his buddy hasn’t responded. Which Izuku immediately notes as weird as Iida is the sort to always answer texts within five minutes of receiving them. While mulling over his friends change in attitude, one of the Noumu busts into their train, slamming a hero it’d been fighting into the train as well. Torino, being a badass, tells Izuku to stay back, leaps around and slams into the monster. Looking out through the hole the Noumu made, Izuku saw Hosu literally start burning. Ho damn!

It's official, don't mess with old men involved with Gran Torinos.
Eastwood will use himself to frame you for murder, Sorahiko
will kick you in the face.

The biggest Noumu, a black monstrosity that looks a lot like the original, just minus the beak and eyes, is causing massive property damage while the local heroes rush in to stop it. Manual and Iida run in to help contain the Noumu. At least initially. Iida looks down an alley just in time to see Stain nabbing a hero… how lucky. Maybe, we’ll see how the fight goes for him.

Iida interrupts Stain’s latest attack on a hero called Native. Japanese guy dressed like a Native American… hm… anyway, Iida interrupts Stain mid monologue. The villain knocks Iida’s helmet off during a short scuffle and loses interest in fighting him the moment he sees Iida is so young. He tries to give Iida a chance to walk away, as he’s not interested in killing non-heroes. Which just pisses Iida off even more. In a fury, he claims his brother’s codename of Ingenium and swears that he’ll bring Stain down. Oh dear. And that’s where the episode ends. Damn it.

The reveal about the history of the original Noumu was intriguing. I mean, he’s a duck billed psycho monster, but to find that he was originally a normal dude is kind of jarring. I can’t be the only who thought that Noumu might be a test tube creation. The fact there’s someone out there is able to forcibly turn a smalltime criminal into something that can go fist to fist with All Might is kind of scary. I’m trying to decide if three Noumus or Stain is worse for Hosu. The Noumu are probably going to cause the most property damage, but considering their basically braindead nature, all it’ll take is a few smart and powerful heroes to stop them. Stain, on the other hand, has proven to be both cunning, stealthy and vicious, so odds are he’ll take out at least one hero tonight without much effort. If in the chaos he decides to seize the opportunity to kill a few others, that could very well have much greater damage to the world’s moral. Just saying. The two groups together will probably wreck the whole town, if a few high-quality heroes don’t come in.  Iida coming across Stain feels like a good thing, as well as a bad thing. On the one hand, seeing the man that crippled his brother and ended his career is exactly the motivation that Iida needed to take up the name Ingenium. On the other, he’s about to fight the guy that nearly murdered the last Ingenium, a hero that had around a decade of experience on the job instead of just a week. There’s a pretty massive difference in age between Tensei and Tenya, just a random FYI. When watching this episode the first time I was curious to see if Iida’s fury would prove to be an asset to his fight or a detriment, but I’ll go into that next time. Needless to say, this fight between Ingenium and Stain is going to be one to remember. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 27

Izuku is about to be trained by an eccentric weirdo. So... business as usual for the green haired young man.

Last time on My Hero Academia our young heroes chose their hero codenames and began their week-long internships. In both cases, some look promising, some look troubling, and some look down right odd. If you haven’t been paying attention, Izuku totally falls into the third category for his internship. Oh, and he chose his hero name, Deku. Making it clear to anyone who’d heard his conversation with Uraraka (besides Uraraka) that first week that her opinion bears an insane amount of weight with him. Hint hint, subtle hint. His hero mentor, a retired UA Teacher and former mentor of All Might, is named Gran Torino. Izuku walks into Torino’s office to see him face down in a buddle of red liquid. Don’t worry, he just tripped into his lunch. Oh, this is going to be weird. Oh, and Iida is on his way to Hosu City, the site of the assault on his brother. That’s probably not a good thing.

Izuku Midoriya, finally looking the part of a hero.
Mostly. He still needs to loose the ear-hair-things on the cowl.

The episode proper opens to Gran Torino explaining his little slip and just generally acting senile. He keeps asking Izuku what his name is, despite Izuku answering more then once. Thinking that maybe the old man is nuts, Izuku plans to call All Might and tell him that his former master might need to be put out to pasture. Much to his shock, while Izuku’s back was turned, Torino stole Izuku’s costume case and starts rifling through it. Before Izuku can tell him off, Torino tells Izuku to come at him with a full OFA Smash. When he makes that demand, though, he sounds completely focused and much more threatening than he had before. But then immediately starts talking like he’s senile again. How odd. Izuku tries to tell the wacky old man that he doesn’t have time to play around as he needs to get stronger fast. Much to Izuku’s shock, Torino starts rocketing around the room, jumping from ceiling to floor to wall and back again. While perched on the wall, he basically tells Izuku that he’d been reckless with his powers during the Sports Festival and that Toshi (All Might) despite all his amazing qualities is fumbling as a teacher. It’s at this point that Izuku realizes that Gran Torino has a dual persona like All Might, a goofy idiot and a serious fighter, and that All Might probably learned that trick from Torino. Izuku agrees to show Torino what he’s got.

Before fighting, Izuku decides to don his costume. It’s the first time he’s seen the dang thing since his fight with Bakugo in the first season. To his surprise, the clothing company that repaired it took it upon themselves to give the suit some much needed upgrades. Which is good. No offense to Izuku’s mother, her original design was filled with love, but a hero costume needs to be a bit more intimidating. They reinforced his joints, and swapped out the creepy smile faceguard for one made of metal. He looks less like a creepy Donny Darko bunny and more like a Battle Bunny. There is still room for improvement, but massive steps forward have been made. Izuku and Gran Torino face off. Despite Izuku’s best attempts, Torino is just too fast for him to track with his eyes. Torino accidently smashes his own microwave while leaping around. Izuku comes close when he figures out Torino’s strategy of attacking at Izuku’s back, but still misses. Torino pins him to the ground. Torino tells Izuku that his biggest flaw is that his idolization of All Might is keeping him from reaching his potential. That Izuku thinks “One For All is more special than it really is.” He tells Izuku to think that over while they get some lunch.

In Hosu City, Iida is on patrol with his mentor, Manual. Iida is clearly only half paying attention as Manual tries to mentor and explain the importance of patrol. He’s scanning the area for Stain. The obsession he has with Stain is going to get dangerous.

I'd bet Kurogiri is thinking something like "I'm honestly
impressed it took this long to draw weapons."

Speaking of Stain, the villain is beginning his interview with Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and their mysterious master. He’s just a blank tv screen with the words “Audio Only” across the screen. Shigaraki is pretty up front with his desire to use Stain’s notoriety to boost the street cred of the League of Villains. Stain, though, is unimpressed. He tells the assembled villains that while he hates the corrupt heroes, he hates villains like them even more. He draws his blades and prepares to attack.

Back with Izuku, he’s thinking over what Torino said while his mentor is getting them food. He has an epiphany and realizes that he’s been treating his powers like his finishing move. Instead of using OFA like the Kamehameha in a DBZ fighting game, he needs to figure out how to infuse OFA into the basic punches. Does that make sense? In more basic terms, in a lot of fighting games, you have to hit a series of buttons in the right sequence to use a final, much more powerful blow. Like A A B A B B to fire off an energy blast. Izuku has been treating one for all like that energy blast, when he should be turning it into the basic A’s and B’s of the combo. Does that make more sense? Sure. Torino, who’d been listening from outside, smiles and notes that this new kid is smarter then Toshi had been.

We get a quick look at some of the other students during their internships. Bakugo’s mentor Best Jeanist tells the angry young man that he doesn’t particularly like Bakugo and will be spending the week whipping Bakugo into shape and working on his anger issues. Kirishima and the similarly powered Tetsutetsu are working with the same mentor, a gangster looking fella named Fourth Kind. Fourth Kind is also planning to whip them into shape. Uraraka is on foot patrol with Gunhead, who explains why heroes do stuff like that. Yaoyurozu and a Class B student named Kendo are basically being used as extras in their mentor’s, Uwabami’s, commercial. Jiro is working with Deatharms, Mineta is being used as Mt. Lady’s janitor, and Tsu is working with a group of marines. We’ll be going over Tsu’s internship at greater length at a later date. Shoto, meanwhile, is at Endeavor’s agency. He’d decided that, personal history and their baggage aside, the only better hero he could learn from is All Might. And since that’s off the table his dad is his best option. He still thinks Endeavor is a bastard, but he’s willing to learn. Good on ya, Shoto.

George, George, George of the Jungle, strong as man can be.
Watch out for that tree!

That night, while Gran Torino slept, Izuku snuck out to do some personal training. His plan is to use OFA to quickly jump up the sides of the alley beside Gran Torino’s building. The idea is that quickly switching from using OFA on just his legs to his legs and arms in rapid bursts will help him figure out how to cycle the power better throughout his body. Unfortunately, he can’t get the timing down right and spends most of the night George of the Jungle-ing himself. Is that too obscure a reference? Think Tarzan if the king of the apes was insanely clumsy and always ran into trees while swinging on vines.

The next morning, a frustrated Izuku has a talk with Gran Torino. Torino explained that part of the reason All Might can’t help Izuku like he should is because All Might is trying to train Izuku like Torino trained him. The problem was that Toshinori was a natural user of OFA and didn’t need to have some of the more complex techniques explained to him. Torino basically just spent his time teaching All Might how to take hits. And that he did it using his full strength, due to a promise he’d made to his friend, the previous OFA wielder.

Smart money is on Old Man with Mad Hops over Green
Glowing Kid.

Their conversation is interrupted by an Amozan delivery… real subtle guys. It’s a replacement microwave for the one Torino smashed yesterday. To celebrate their progress, Torino tells Izuku to heat up some fish shaped frozen pastries. Yeah, I don’t get it either. Must be a Japan thing. Izuku does so, but Torino nearly cracks his teeth on the food. Turns out, the food is still frozen on the inside because the plate Izuku used was too big and the food couldn’t turn in the microwave. This causes Izuku to have another epiphany. That’s what he needs to do, to instead of focusing OFA on whatever part he needs in the moment (legs, feet, arms, etc.) he needs to cycle the power around and through his entire body. Or, using Izuku’s egg in the microwave analogy, he needs to turn it to spread the heat. He tries it, first getting OFA’s power lines to crisscross over his body before pushing it farther into a glowing aura that covers his whole body. Guess Izuku just invented the Kaioken. The two decide to spar again just before the credit’s roll.

Start digression. For those who’ve never seen Dragonball Z, the Kaioken is an ability that protagonist Son Goku learns early on. Using the technique engulfs the user in a glowing red aura, which gives them a massive boost in strength and speed, but runs the risk of over taxing the body and causing massive damage if used incorrectly. Use the technique at the wrong time can cause muscle tears or broken bones, that sort of thing. And, as I read the manga first and that was in black and white, the colored aura that engulfs Izuku looks like the same shade as Goku’s. Even though the Kaioken is red in the anime and Izuku’s Full Cowling technique is green. Considering the popularity of Dragonball Z, I like to think of the similarities as a fond homage to the long running anime. Digression over.

Gran Torino is a very… interesting mentor. Like his own student, he’s equal parts a goof and super intense depending on the mood of the room. As I read the manga first, I read Torino’s voice in a manner similar to Clint Eastwood, so hearing is dubbed voice was a little jarring. But that’s the nittest of the personal picks. I enjoyed seeing Izuku start to get the handle on his powers. Sure, his thought process to get to developing the Full Cowling was… very Izuku, but that is part of his charm. And if thinking about an egg in the microwave lets him function as a Strongman-type hero, more power to him. This marks the end of Izuku literally always breaking his bones whenever he uses his powers, and marks the beginning of him actually learning to use his powers effectively. Sure, he will still occasionally do something stupid and end up breaking something, but it’ll be the exception instead of the rule. The meeting between Stain and Shigaraki went about as well as I’d expect. What? A sociopath meets another sociopath, of course weapons would be drawn. The meeting between this monster and the group of monsters is the start of something... wicked. So yeah, very good episode. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 26

Internships are hard enough without the risk of being assaulted by superpowered criminals. Just saying.

As I stated back in September, we’re going to be switching back to My Hero Academia for December. For those who don’t remember or never knew, I work as a mailman for my day job and December is easily the busiest month of the year for the US Post Office. Just in the last week of November I was putting in 10-hour days, and that’s before all those sales start going into effect. So, my free time is going to be somewhat limited until the New Year. It’s a lot easier to pump out summaries and reviews for a half hour show then an hour one, hence the changeover. We’ll get back to Jessica Jones by the first of the year, I promise.

This was going to be posted last week, but I was in a minor car accident a week ago Sunday. I was 100% fine, but my car has been in the shop since then. The kicker was I was on my way to my own birthday party. Happy birthday to me. Sigh.

I'm picturing Papa Bakugo just hanging his head in his hands
and sighing when he saw this.

Last time on My Hero Academia, the champion of the UA sports festival was decided. Katsuki Bakugo was able to ring out Shoto Todoroki in order to claim victory. He’d be happier about it, if Shoto had come at him full force. But, unfortunately, the young man was still feeling conflicted about using his fire power so he didn’t give the fight his 110% like Bakugo wanted. An infuriated Bakugo tried force the fight to go on, but he was eventually stopped, muzzled and forced to accept an award. Not joking about the muzzling, why does the school have a muzzle for students? Anyway, afterwards, the students enjoy a little time off, with some reuniting with family for the first time in a while like Uraraka and Shoto, and Iida visited his severely injured elder brother. He’d been assaulted in the line of duty by a serial killer named Stain, and while he survived, he was crippled. Sort of a bittersweet note to end on, if I’m being honest.

We pick back up again with Izuku returning to UA just after the sports festival. It seems that after that Icy, flaming, bone shattering brawl, people have started taking notice of him and are treating the young man like a minor local celebrity. Which isn’t so bad, the kid deserves some credit. Out on the street he passed Iida, whom he hadn’t seen since the sports festival. His friend is putting on a brave face, but is also remaining tight lipped about what happened to his brother, keeping our green haired hero at an emotional arms-length.  In class, all of the students are celebrating their own levels of new-found popularity. Seems like everyone walked away from the Sports Festival with a new spring in their step, aside from Iida.

Once again, I love that these two have been besties for decades.

Aizawa comes in and is now bandage free, much to the students’ shock. Turns out he’d been more or less fine after being healed, but Recovery Girl insisted on some extra coverage until the first day back to regular classes. He now has a sizeable scar under his right eye, but is otherwise fine. Which is impressive considering his skull was literally driven into the ground by a colossal monster. He tells the students that it’s time for them to pick codenames. Woo! What? Picking a name that’s both accurate to their powers and intimidating is like half the fun of being a superhero. Midnight comes in to oversee the name choices while Aizawa naps. Apparently, he’s not that good with picking names. We’re shown a flashback where teenage Present Mic picked his name and he just sort of rolled with it. Those guys really have been besties forever, and I love it.

Almost all the students pick accurate and fun codenames, like Tsu picking Froppy, Uraraka choosing Uravity, and Kirishima selecting Red Riot. That last one was an homage to his own personal All Might, Crimson Riot, so yeah, Kirishima is a fan boy too. There are a few hick ups, like Ashido initially going for Alien Queen, but it being reject as being a reference to the James Cameron Aliens monster. Considering this show is taking place about eighty to a hundred years in the future, that’s some impressive film knowledge. She bounces back with the simpler Pinkie. Bakugo has a lot of difficulty as his choices of King Explosion Murder and Lord Explosion Murder are immediately rejected. Apparently, this is a joke that didn’t translate well, as in the Japanese his choice in the Japanese characters of the names made both names really clever puns. But yeah, he isn’t allowed to take either. Shoto chooses to just go by his given name, as does Iida. Iida was tempted to use Ingenium, as his elder brother had asked Iida to take up that mantle given the fact he’d been crippled, but he chickens out. Izuku’s terrible case of the flashbacks flares up and he remembers coming up with hero names with his mom. They were all riffs on All Might, which is a name that he couldn’t justify using yet. They were all also terrible, as they were names made by a four-year-old, just saying. He goes with Deku, as he feels like turning that mean nickname into the name of a hero. And if anyone in class is paying attention, it’s a clear sign that he really values Uraraka’s opinion. Hint hint, subtle hint.

After the names had been chosen, Aizawa wakes up and explains about the internships that the students will be partaking in. They are one-week training internships where they will be working with licensed heroes to gain some on-the-job experiences. This is something that isn’t normally done until the second year, but given their showing during the Sports Festival and the USJ attack, it’s looking like the pros want to see what this new crop can do. Many of the students received personal invites from existing heroes, with Shoto and Bakugo getting more individually then the rest of the class combined. Students who didn’t get offers get to pick from a pool of heroes that just want to train young people. Oddly, Izuku didn’t get a single offer. The going theory that the class has is that most potential mentors might have been freaked out by his finger breaking tactics while fighting Shoto. I’d say that that just shows true grit, but what do I know?

While all of that had been going on, Cementoss in the teacher’s lounge received an email from another pro looking for an intern. All Might, who was chilling in the lounge as well, is quite surprised to hear it’s for Izuku, and then down right horrified to hear who sent it.

Some of the students had already made decisions who they’d want to intern under. Mineta is going to work under Mt. Lady. Oh really, the perv wants to work for the size manipulating woman that isn’t above using sex appeal to get what she wants? I’m freaking shocked. No, the real surprise is that Uraraka is going to intern under Gunhead, a fighting hero. For those who don’t remember, Uraraka had always expressed a desire to be a more disaster relief rescue hero then a combat specialist. She says that while rescue work is the goal, after fighting Bakugo, she realized it might be a good idea to be a bit more well rounded in terms of her skills. Good on her for realizing that it helps to know how to punch people, regardless of specialty. Shoto notes that his father made an official request to train him, and Iida looks like he picked a mentor as well.

Oh no, Iida's been practicing his murder face.

As class ends for the day, All Might slides in and ask Izuku to come with him for a moment. In a dark hallway, looking incredibly uncomfortable, All Might reveals that Izuku did get an offer. The hero in question is named Gran Torino. He’s a former UA teacher, having taught for a year when All Might was still training. He was also something of a mentor for All Might, and a good friend of All Might’s original master, the previous One For All holder. And, it seems, All Might is completely terrified of this man. While shaking and stammering, he hands Izuku the contact info and directions to Gran Torino’s agency.

Around the same time as that encounter, Aizawa is going over the list of internship choices that some students had already turned in. He’s quite shocked to see that Iida had only one name on his list, a very minor hero operating out of Hosu City. Crap. Why crap? Well, as Future Narrator Izuku explains, he and the rest of the world got the scoop about Ingenium’s maiming on the news a little after the Sports Festival. He’s been attacked in Hosu City by Stain. Stain is the moniker given to that villain I mentioned earlier, who is attacking and killing professional heroes. He’d personally murdered 17 heroes and crippled 23 others before this point. Number 24 being Tensei Iida aka Ingenium. In Hosu. Where Iida is going. Yeah, that’s why crap.

The day the internships are set to begin, the students meet Aizawa at the train station with their gear. After they’re dismissed to take their trains to their Agency, Izuku and Uraraka briefly follow Iida. They try to get Iida to open up to them about what happened to his brother, but he politely tells them nothing is wrong and he’s fine. You know, those standard lies people say after a tragic incident. Future Narrator Izuku laments the fact that he didn’t push Iida more to lean on him, as Iida walks off with murder in his eyes. Double crap.

I wonder how many more of these kind of scares Izuku's
poor heart can take.

In a post credit scene, we’re shown Izuku riding his train to meet Gran Torino. As he walks to Torino’s agency, he muses about never having heard of the hero, but knowing that he intimidated All Might he must be incredibly impressive. He opens the door to see a dead old man laying atop a pile of blood… or so he thinks. No, the old man is fine, he just slipped on his lunch… I guess. This is going to get weird.

One of the things I really like to see in this series, and others, is when minor characters get important character arcs. The minor character I this case being Tenya Iida. Iida’s vendetta against Stain is an all-consuming hatred that is going to affect his personality, personal life, and his future as a hero. It’s hard to be a good hero when you want to murder a guy. Just saying. I also like the concept of the internships. If being a superhero was a government job, the of course they’d want a LOT of street time training along with schooling. I am again calling BS on Izuku getting no other offers, but then this kid’s shtick is getting the short end of the stick. Gran Torino’s reveal is kind of amazing, as how many mentors are you likely to meet facedown in their lunch? Despite this… goofy intro, Gran Torino is going to be a very important trainer to young Midoriya. A fun start to a new arc.

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Viewer Log: Jessica Jones ep 18

Oh no, Jessica is in jail. Again.

Last time on Jessica Jones, it was good news, bad new sort of day for Jessica and her crew. For good news, Jessica is able to get her Super to drop his vendetta against her, and they’re able to track down a former nurse that worked for IGH. For the bad, Pryce Cheng hired a guy to steal all her research in a hope to find dirt on her. And to make things worse, Not-Hansen attacked the thief, rips him to pieces, steals the research, and leaves the scene for Jessica to take the blame. So yeah, not a great situation.

We open to Jessica in lock up. She’s cooling her heels and trying to mentally prep herself on her next move. She reasons that Not-Hansen probably didn’t internally plan on killing someone and framing Jessica, it was just an unintentional benefit to the situation. While Jessica is musing, Not-Hansen burns the IGN files and her blood covered clothes. Back at the prison, Jeri is brought in to consult. At the moment their only real option is to play ball and let the cops know what they know. Why? Because if they find anything and that she’d kept it from them, she goes right to jail for 18 months. Parole is a pain, no? Jessica tries to pressure Jeri into getting her out of jail, but Jeri leaves in a huff.

Back with Trish, she’d gotten bailed out by her harpy. I mean her mother. Yes, mother. Anyway, she seems to be crashing after Simpson’s super strength inhaler starts wearing off. Dorothy Walker does her best to distract her daughter from worrying about her best friend by letting her know a network wants to interview her. Trish, who is uncharacteristically unsuspicious of her mother, goes along with it. Considering all Trish does for Jessica, I think we can let her indulge in some selfishness just once.

It's like watching that tigress with the piglets that replaced her cubs.
I don't THINK there will be an issue, but if one occurs there's
nothing you can do about it.

We’re shown a day at Not-Hansen’s house. She seems to have a rather nice house in suburbia, complete with a baby grand piano. She begins to play, but is interrupted by a neighbor stopping by. Said neighbor compliments her on her playing, and asks to sit and listen as it’s the only thing that’s been able to calm her infant son in days. Not-Hansen gets to hold the baby for a moment, which feels really tense, before trying to play again. Something about their presence causes Not-Hansen to start messing up, which causes the baby to start freaking out. The neighbor leaves, and in her fury Not-Hansen shatters her piano.

Jessica uses her phone call to call Malcolm and get the low down. All of their research is gone, but they still have Inez. So, it’s not all bad. She tells Malcolm to keep an eye on her until this gets sorted out. A short time later Jessica is interviewed by the cops. She decides to play ball and let the cops know all about what happened to her with IGH. She even gives them a picture of Not-Hansen and tells them that she also has powers.

Think they realize those handcuffs may as well be made of
rubber bands in terms of their effectiveness to slow her down?

Back with Malcolm, he starts quizzing Inez about what happened at IGH. He’d found a picture of the other nurse that Not-Hansen killed the night Inez’s back was nearly broken. Apparently, the other nurse, Luanne McClure, had her death covered up and pinned on a janitor, David Kawecki.

The cops come back in. After Jessica’s testimony, they found security cam footage of a woman landing hard in front of her building. The woman is clearly Not-Hansen, so they decide to let her go. While one of the cops is hesitant to believe Jessica, the other offers his support. The detective, Costa, gives her his card and offers his help. Apparently, he was at the station when Kilgrave came in last season and forced them all to put their guns to their heads to get Jessica out. Since she but Kilgrave down, he believes she’s on the up and up. Jessica leaves the station, and ask Jeri’s help in hiding Inez. Before they can get the details worked out, Pryce Cheng storms over and starts berating Jessica. Wait… so you believe that she murdered your buddy, and your plan is to scream at her to prove she’s a murder? I’m starting to think Pryce is dumb.

At Jessica’s apartment, she is filled in on what Malcolm found out about Luanne’s murder and the frame up. Apparently, David Kawecki is a simpleton. Literally, like he has the mental capacity of a ten-year-old. Kind of hard to believe he intentionally killed anyone. Jessica wants to interview him, but he’s being held in a maximum-security mental health prison. No one goes in without the proper security pass. Jessica is going to figure that out, and sends Malcolm to drop off Inez with Jeri. After stopping Inez from stealing his computer, by threatening to use her as bait for Not-Hansen if Inez runs, Malcolm gets her to Jeri’s.

Jessica goes to see Oscar. It’s a good thing that the two have worked out their issues, as Jessica needs a favor. Remember, the Super just got out of jail for forgery and he was Really good. He agrees to help, he just needs three hours and a photo. As she leaves her apartment complex, Jessica gets a call from Griffin, telling her to get to Trish ASAP as she’s in trouble. Oh no.

Trish and her mother make it to her interview just before Jessica. Thankfully, this isn’t a ‘someone is going to die’ emergency, it’s a ‘be here for a special moment’ emergency. Yeah, there is no interview, Griffin is just surprise proposing to Trish. Things are awkward between Jessica and Trish initially, but Jessica does congratulate her friend before leaving. A moment later, Trish pulls Griffin aside as they need to talk.

Jessica returns to Oscar’s place to get the ID. His son, Vido, and his mother try to convince Jessica to stay for dinner, but our intrepid PI is on a time crunch.

Not-Hansen burns the wreckage of her piano. Given the suburb she lives in, I’m shocked no one has asked about the bonfires she keeps having. Just saying. And, at the same time, Jeri and Inez have a conversation. The jaded form nurse refuses to believe that Jeri is doing this out of the kindness in her heart. Which is true. Jeri wants to know about IGH, specifically it’s experiments. Oh dear, it’s Kilgrave all over again.

Wow, she really just looks like a rando in a lab coat.
Oscar deserves an award for his forgeries.

 Jessica is able to break into the prison psych ward to see David. As soon as she sees him… hey, it’s the world’s heaviest man from The Greatest Showman. What? I like musicals and Hugh Jackman, so sue me. Anyway, David spends his days sitting in his cell drawing pictures. Jessica interviews him. It’s clear that his confession had been rehearsed. She starts poking holes in his story until he shuts down and tells her to leave. Jessica, noticing his drawing, asks about Octopuses, the subject of his drawings. The dude is a cephalo-fan, telling her all kinds of fun facts about the sea creatures. He learned all this stuff from Dr. Karl, who used to take him to the aquarium to watch the octopuses during his lunch break. How interesting.

Back with Trish, we learn that she broke it off with Griffin. Dorothy, being the lackluster parent that she is, starts berating Trish for calling off the engagement. Trish explains that she couldn’t marry Griffin as she was more interested in being Griffin, the world-famous reporter and globe trotter, then being with Griffin. Dorothy keeps yelling, claiming that she gave Max sexual favors to get her story. This causes Trish to snap, slapping her mother. Dorothy storms off in a huff. Good riddance. But then Trish takes another hit on the super-strength inhaler. Shoot.

Jessica, at the aquarium, calls Detective Costa and gives him the 411 on what she’d learned thus far. She spends the next two days staking out the aquarium looking for doctor Karl. She finds the good doctor, as he meets Not-Hansen. The two kiss and enjoy the attractions for a minute before seeing Jessica. Not-Hansen shatters the aquarium tank glass to help them escape. The episode ends as the glass shatters. Crap.

Well, that was a rough couple of days. Considering the two smooched, I think it’s safe to say that Karl and Not-Hansen are in cahoots. Curious if Karl is using her to hide his old project, or keep his current research hidden. I’m calling it right now, not having read any spoilers or summaries, Jeri is going to try to use IGH’s Gene editing research to cure her ALS. And, like using Kilgrave to try to get her ex-wife to finalize their divorce, this is going to blow up in her, and Jessica’s, face. I hope that Trish doesn’t start spiraling back into substance abuse. This season has established that she’d abused a lot of drugs in the past, and I think few could compare to a drug that makes you super strong. I’d be more concerned about her mother leaving, if Dorothy had a single good characteristic to her. Abusive parents are terrible, just terrible. I’m curious to see where this goes.  

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: Jessica Jones ep 17

It's a hair-raising endeavor.

Last time on Jessica Jones, it seems like Miss Jones has come upon her greatest challenge yet. After searching for a lead on IGH for several days, Jessica found a Dr. Hansen, who might have answers. Or so she thought. Turns out that the woman she’d met was not Dr. Hansen, as a skull they’d found was identified as the good doctor. The mystery woman and Jessica throw down, with the woman proving stronger then Jessica but the mysterious woman ends up running.

We open to Jessica taking part in her court appointed anger management. She’s obviously testy, but isn’t allowed to leave until the fella in charge signs a form. When Jessica is forced to share, she verbally describes her rather messed up history up to this point, visibly getting angrier until she shatters the bouncy ball she was forced to use while sharing. She storms off after getting her formed signed.

Jessica returns to her apartment, berates Malcolm for letting Trish out of her apartment the previous day, and starts looking over the one good picture they got of Not-Hansen. Despite a rather… vocal argument she can hear from Super Oscar’s apartment, Jessica is able notice Not-Hansen is wearing a wig. She calls up Trish, who is putting out the fire that Jessica created when she claimed Trish and her boyfriend had broken up, and asks if she’d noticed. Trish hadn’t, which makes her believe it was made of natural human hair. Which is good, because there are only three shops in town that sell the stuff. She had to wear a human hair wig when she was basically Hana Montana, FYI, that’s why she knew. The pseudo-sisters agree to meet at the first store.

Apparently, all you need to do to get someone to stop hating you
is to save their kid. Who knew?

While that was going on, Oscar’s son Vido comes over. The kid clearly didn’t want to stick around while his parents screamed at each other. He does the little kid thing, quizzing Jessica about her powers and the like, you know, being annoying. Jessica goes to tell his parents where he is. While her back is turned, Vido climbs onto the window sill and jokes about Jessica saving him. He slips out, Jessica runs over and grabs him. The parents come in, misunderstand what happened, storm off in a huff, and Oscar rather angrily announces Jessica is out in 25 days. Oh fun.

Meanwhile, Jeri is interrupted in her search for alternative treatments to her ALS by Pryce Cheng. He’s angry that Jeri is trying to get him to drop his case against Jessica. Jeri tries to warn him that nothing good comes from messing with Jessica, but the jack hole isn’t listening. He tells her he’s hiring a new firm and storms out.

Jessica and Trish find the wig store, and actually found the store the Not-Hansen frequents on their first stop. Woo. After bribing the owner, they learn that the mystery woman pays in cash and the owner thinks its due to chemo. So… kind of a dead end. Or is it? The new train of thought is that if Not-Hansen has cancer, IGH was probably paying her medical bills. Jessica and Trish agree that they need her MetroGeneral file. Trish reveals the video Malcolm took of her and Max, and her plan to use the director’s pull at the hospital to get the file. The two women put the squeeze on Max, which involves Jessica literally punching through the hood of his car, and get the files.

While going through the files, Jessica gets a call from Jeri. She’s pressuring Jessica to find dirt on her partners, Chao and Benowitz, to get them to back off on forcing Jeri out. Unfortunately, anything remotely like dirt she can find can be explained away as client gifts. Jeri to tells her to keep digging. Jessica hangs up, but is interrupted in her searching by Oscar dropping in. The Super tells her that Vido explained what happened. Wanting to apologize for being a dick the last few days, he brought her some whiskey and tells her that he’d torn up her eviction notice.

Back at Trish’s, after having some intimate time with Griffin, Trish leaves to take a shower. Griffin gets a mystery call. He tells the caller “she doesn’t know anything. Let’s keep it that way.” Considering that this is coming after Trish claimed Griffin was the first not crappy guy she’d dated, that’s real dark.

How dare you ask a former Red Ranger to spy for you Pryce
Cheng? How dare you?!?

Oscar and Jessica boned over whiskey. He admits he doesn’t have issues with enhanced Humans, per say. In actuality, since he’d just gotten out of prison, he was just really skittish about being around anyone that might even have a chance at screwing up his post-prison life. The two outcasts start making out, damn Jessica works fast, but Oscar backs down and leaves. Apparently going from hating someone to sucking face was a bit too drastic of a turn for him.

The next day, Malcolm confronts Jessica as she leaves. He lets her know that Pryce Cheng had offered him a job in exchange for dirt on her. Jessica tries to blow him off, but Malcolm has had enough. He Get’s in Gear (Power Rangers Reference) and demands that Jessica start treating him like an actual assistant (think Watson to Holmes more then guy who gets coffee) and 25% of her case income. She agrees to 20% before leaving.

Jeri meanwhile attempts to force her doctor into getting her some… less then legal drugs for her ALS treatment. The doctor is hesitant, so Jeri storms off.  

At Trish’s, the sort-of sisters learn that IGH only payed for three people’s medical bills at MetroGeneral; hers, Whizzer’s, and Inez Green. Considering the fact Whizzer is dead and Jessica is Jessica, they assume Inez is Not-Hansen. They look her up, and discover that the woman is currently homeless and the general area she frequents. They head out, Trish bringing a high powered taser she nabbed from Will Simpson’s stuff to knock Not-Hansen out, and his super-power inhaler.

They find Inez’s hangout, but not Inez. They split up, with Jessica getting jumped when alone. Jessica knocks her down, discovering that Inez is in fact not Not-Hansen. Trish, who missed that part, takes a hit from Simpson’s inhaler, runs over and tasers the woman. Well, crap.

Back at Jessica’s apartment, somebody breaks in and nabs all over her info on her IGH case. Malcolm, who brought his latest Lady of the Evening over to look for booze, interrupt the thief but the dude slips out before Malcolm spots him.

Back with Jessica, they revive Inez and get her story. Turns out, the now homeless woman worked for IGH as a nurse. Not-Hansen, interestingly, is a former patient of that groups’ procedure. The mystery woman had a hell of a tempter and strength to match, as she really screwed up Inez’s back during an incident and murdered another nurse. Jessica and Trish agree to that they need to look after her, in case Not-Hansen wants her dead too.

On no, Jessica is getting arrested again. Who'd have believed that?

We learn that the thief is a friend of Pryce Cheng. Cheng had paid him to steal Jessica’s stuff in an attempt to find dirt on her. Not sure how stealing her active case files would result in anything other then Jessica screwing up his other shoulder, but hey, that’s just me. Unfortunately for Pryce’s buddy, Not-Hansen attacks him and all but rips him to pieces while Pryce listens impotently.  Jessica, Trish and Inez arrive a short time later. The police, finding a dead man outside a known super-human with anger issues’ address and I’m sure ‘testimony’ from Cheng, assume the worst and arrest Jessica. They arrest Trish too as she comes at them irate. Turns out superhero steroids can give ya anger issues. Who knew?

Hm… Is this the second or third murder Jessica is being falsely accused of? Third, I think. Shame that. I wonder if that was Not-Hansen’s intention, or if she’d simply killed Cheng’s friend because he had the IGH stuff and the frame up was a coincidence. Either way, Jessica’s situation just got more complicated. I glossed over it in this episode, but Malcolm is seen with several different women in this episode, presumably from dating apps he’s frequented. Not sure if he’s trying to make up for the time he’d lost while being Kilgrave’s coked up spy or if he’s replacing drugs with sex, but either way isn’t super good for Malcolm. Over doing any vice is dangerous. The bit with Griffin is interesting. Odds are he’s either connected to IGH or is cheating on Trish. Since this is a superhero show, it’s probably both. What? Writers like doubling up on betrayals. I’m interested to see how Jessica is going to square off against Not-Hansen, and what the mysterious woman’s deal is. Does she work for IGH, or is she killing people sniffing them out for her own ends? Hopefully I’ll find out more soon.

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Comic Super Star: Stan Lee

On November 12^th, 2018, we lost a storyteller. When you get right down to it, that’s what Stan Lee was. A storyteller of grand and flamboyant proportions. I considered him to be one of my personal heroes, and his passing is saddening. Granted, the man was in his mid-90s and a widower to his wife of 70 years, so I had assumed this was coming, but it still hurts. An individual as vibrant, as charismatic, as timeless as Stan Lee… you just kind of assume he’ll keep going on forever. In order to process… no, celebrate his well lived life, I feel like I should gush a little about him. And the moment that changed how the world viewed superheroes.  

He finished his Cameo on Earth...

 In case you are curious, I’m using Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee, Peter David and Colleen Doran as my source. I suggest checking it out if you have any interest in the life story of a comic book icon. My personal favorite anecdote in it being the stressful plane ride Stan took from New York to Reno. See, his soon-to-be wife, Joan, was in Reno to finalize her divorce from her first husband. Suffering from an irrational fear that someone might swoop in and take the love of his life the moment she became available, Stan booked a flight to Reno in order to marry her as soon as possible. Unfortunately, he asked for the fastest route to Reno, not the most direct. After several layovers, he arrived in Reno and got his girl. Considering they were together from 1947 until her death in 2017, I say he was right to rush to her.

 Also, while the names might not be accurate to the time period, I’m going to be referring DC and Marvel by their modern names. It’s easier on the noodle.

In the late fifties and early sixties, comic book superheroes were on the rise again. After nearly being shelved forever due to the complex and bizarre rules of the Comic Code Authority, new life had been breathed into the genre with the revival of The Flash, and the birth of the first iteration of the Justice League. Impressed by the dollar figures that DC comics was pulling in, Marvel Comics Founder Martin Goodman tasked Stan Lee with producing a Superhero team that could rake in the fans, and cash, like the Flash and other DC characters. But, and here’s the thing that made me do a double take the first time reading it, Stan Lee wasn’t sure he WANTED to do it.

According to his Memoirs, Stan had burnt out on what he felt were the simplistic stories and the completely unrelatable characters of superheroes. He was worried that if he went along with Goodman’s plan, he’d basically be churning out the same repetitive generic stories that he had been forced to do since the inception of the CCA. The story goes that he’d been complaining about this to his wife and expressed a desire to quit and try something new, when she offered a different solution. Basically, she told him to just write the kind of stories and characters that he wanted to. You think DC heroes are unrelatable? Then write some heroes with actual personal problems. You think the stories are too simplistic, and don’t deal with real world issues? Then write a few stories that do. Her argument was, if his new ideas sell well, great, keep doing it. And if they completely tank, then Stan might be fired but at least he tried to do something new rather then just giving up.

If I ever get access to a time machine, I’m going back to the 1960s and shake Joan Lee’s hand and thank her.

Spurred on by his wife and with the help of fellow Comic Legend, Jack Kirby, Stan created that first team. Using an old school Marvel Hero, The Human Torch, as a bit of scaffolding, Lee and Kirby created an entirely new Human Torch, and a team of very human heroes to work along side him. Boom, Fantastic Four. From there, Stan Lee spear headed the creation of the original Marvel Universe. And, unlike the larger then life heroes of DC, there were characters that were designed to be all too human. Even the one that’s literally a Norse God. Stan’s heroes not only saved the day, but also dealt with issues that plague most people in one form or another. They battled things like inner demons (Iron Man’s alcoholism, Bruce Banner’s inner monster), prejudice (The Thing, The X-Men), and all the hardships of just growing up (Spider-Man). And the rest, as they say, is history.

The only way Stan Lee could tell his story
right was as a comic.

I believe the first time I ever came across the name Stan Lee was during the series finale of Spider-Man (1994). In that final episode, after helping to save the multiverse from an insane Spider-Carnage hellbent on destroying all of creation, Spider-Man makes a few stops on his way back to his own reality. One stop is to the home dimension of a powerless Spider-Man, whom was just an actor picked up by accident while Spider-Man’s allies Madame Web and The Beyonder formed their original team of Web Warriors. Once there, Peter pops in on Stan’s office, and takes the silver fox web-swinging as thanks for creating a version of him. Considering I was only eight or nine at the time, you can forgive me for not completely understanding who it was Spider-Man was swinging around with. Not the most interesting discovery of one’s idol, but hey, what can you do? It’s from that early show, and with some encouragement from my Marvel fan of an older brother, that I came to love the characters of Marvel and DC.

I don’t think it’s a stretch of the imagination to say that we, especially I, myself, do owe a great deal of to Stan Lee. Without him, and the incredibly talented but underrated artists and other writers of Marvel like Jack Kirby and Steven Ditko, Superheroes would probably have remained something only young children enjoy. Instead, we live in an age where many a superhero is a household name, with major films and tv shows backing them. While the stories remain fantastic and implausible, the men and women who live the adventures described are about as real as fictional characters can be, with virtues and faults like anyone else. All of which can be traced back to one writer deciding to do something different. I never had the pleasure of meeting Stan Lee. That’s something that I regret, but there’s no use crying over spilt milk. I can do my best to honor the late, great Stan Lee as best I can. To Stan, wherever you are, thank you for all of the stories. Thank you for all of the heroes. Thank you for all of the laughs and tears, the smiles and frowns, the highs and the lows. Thank you for living such an Amazing, Fantastic, and Incredible life.

Viewer Log: Jessica Jones ep 16

Can't decide if threats on one's life or one's New York apartment feels scarier.

Trish: Remember when we could hangout without committing
felonies?"
Jessica: ... No, not really.

Last time on Jessica Jones the team gets desperate to find a lead on IGH and its mysterious killer. Jessica investigates Dr. Kozlov, only to find he’s incredibly dead. Meanwhile, Trish’s attempt to use a former pervy director of hers to get more IGH’s information. Guy donates heavily to the hospital that Jessica was sent to, she was trying to use his clout there for info. Things don’t go so well and she runs off to reclaim her composure. She get’s tracked by former lover and other IGH test subject Will Simpson. She captures Simpson before Jessica joins them. Simpson reveals he’d been stalking her to protect from IGH’s wetworks agent, just before said agent arrives. He offers to protect the women to help them escape, but is killed in the confrontation. Turns out, the creature was hunting him, not Trish.

We open to Jessica and Trish standing on a beach. Jessica explains that it’s a small beach that she and her family used to visit when on vacation. It’s private enough that Jessica considered killing herself there after the rest of the Jones’ died. They dumped Simpson’s body there, since Jessica would be in all kinds of trouble if she was caught with yet another body. Which really says something about her decision-making skills, now doesn’t it? They ditch Simpson’s truck, but Trish takes Simpson’s bag of weaponry, including his inhaler of superhero steroid.

Trish takes Jessica to a hypnotherapist in an attempt to clear up her memories regarding IGH that she’s blocked. Jessica tries for a minute, maybe two, but quickly says screw it. She leaves and takes Trish’s files on IGH with her to read over herself. She leaves Trish with a very angry Griffin that stopped by. Oo, would not want to be Trish right now.

Jeri has a private meeting with the other partners at her firm. They’ve found out that Jeri has ALS and are attempting to forcibly buy her out. Jeri isn’t interested, and tells them to screw off. Both partners leave, but they do have a clause in their contract that lets them remove Jeri for medical reasons. They tell her to go quietly or they’ll force her out. FYI the assumption is that they’re forcing the issue to hopefully end the lawsuit that Jeri’s former assistant filed against her and the firm. A short time later Foggy Nelson comes in and offers to help Jeri with her case against the other partners, but she screams at him to leave her alone. How dare you, Jeri Hogarth, shout at the nicest character from Daredevil?

Malcolm meets Jessica as she gets home, revealing that she’s being evicted. Apparently, it’s illegal to run a business out of residential building. I’m wondering why this didn’t come up in the time that Jessica was living here… Anyway, Jessica goes to confront her Super, Oscar Arocho, about him forcing her out. Jessica is her usual “charming” self, which doesn’t sway Oscar. Oscar tells her she’s got 30 days.

Back at Trish’s apartment, she and Griffin are having a heated argument about her questionable decisions of the last few days. Griffin reveals that, as he is a famous warzone reported, his last girlfriend left him because she was tired of constantly worrying. And that him staying at home worrying about Trish must be karmic retribution. She admits that she’s worried that IGH might target him to get to her, and asks him to stay away while they deal with IGH. He needs time to think things out.

Jessica starts going through the files Trish found. She finds at least four other people issued Death Certificates in connection to IGH. She sets up a crime board thing with all the info she’s gathered but doesn’t seem to make heads or tails of the info once arranged. She heads to bed, where she promptly has a nightmare. She’s hooked up to a Whiskey intravenous drip and brother-ashes are falling from the sky. And when she gets up, she’s attacked by the “Meat Monster” from her memories of IGH. She wakes up as Malcolm shouts for her. He reveals that he found dirt on Super Oscar. Turns out, he did time for forgery. Malcolm also reveals the old super was a super guy and that firing him and replacing him seems odd. She sends Malcolm to talk to the Landlord and see if they can work something out.

Sorry Trinity, I still can't bring myself to feel sorry for ya.

Jessica returns to the IGH building. She looks through the building, finding a creepy hallway she’d been thinking about. She opens the door, but just finds a pretty much empty room. There are a few old tables and chairs but nothing important. She double checks the door and finds a name that had been engraved on it. Dr. Leslie Hansen. She meets up with Trish, and the two go to find Hansen. They were able to track Hansen down using her student loan payment info. She sends her bills to a rent-controlled apartment, which Jessica is adamant that no one would ever give up. The ladies make it up to the apartment to find it clean. As in, it's empty of anything other then the furniture. They get the explanation from an ex Machina… I mean a random noisy neighbor that tells them the old tenant moved out last week and that he recalled her bringing boxes down to the basement. They rush down to the basement to find that the building’s incinerator had recently been fired. Apparently, those things retain heat for days. Jessica sticks her head in, hoping to find a lead, but instead finds a head… another head. Obviously a little freaked out, they nab the head and take it to a coroner they know. Maury Tuttlebomb is bribed by Trish with the promises of fine cuisine to fast track the mystery head file, which Jessica created really fast while Maury was spacing out in the next room. Go team.

They return to their respective abodes. Jessica tries to focus and pick up more memories from IGH, but just can’t get there. It especially doesn’t help when Malcolm comes back. He’s rather peeved that Jessica sent him to be man-candy for their very gay landlord to try and get her way. Which, ya know, is fair. He mentions that it didn’t work because the Oscar had did ‘good work’ for the Landlord and that the LL’s Cambodian boyfriend finally got his green card and is on his way to the states. This tips off Jessica, who forces a pluming issue and calls Oscar to come fix it. While the Super-intendant works, the Super-hero breaks into his apartment… she openly admits she’s not the best person. She’s momentarily distracted by Oscar’s son, but distracts the kid long enough to find something. Oscar comes in and is rather upset that she broke into his house. She drops the bomb that she knows what he did for the Landlord. Pretty simple train of logic, Oscar when to jail for Forgery, the Landlord’s boyfriend finally got a green card after a long wait, and now the Landlord won’t hear a word against Oscar; Oscar forged the papers for Landlord’s boyfriend and got the Super job as payment. Oscar says screw off, and Jessica storms out. She really is her own worst enemy.

Around the same time, Trish is watching Robert’s video where he offered to come onto her show. She’s so absorbed that she nearly kills Griffin when he arrives unexpectantly. The two make up, which is good, but Griffin ends up downloading a copy of the video while Trish isn’t paying attention, which is a little suspicious.

 Later on, Jeri stops by Jessica’s place. She admits that she’d hired Pryce Cheng to try and get her to work with Jeri again, and that she’s now repping Cheng on his personal lawsuit against Jessica. Why? Because she’s desperate to get Jessica to help. She explains about her ALS and that her partners are using that to force her out because of that embarrassing lawsuit with her former office hoe. Sorry, sorry, that is harsh, but a not inaccurate statement. Anyway, while the severance pay would be substantial, Jeri is quite adamite that the work is all that’s keeping her sane, so she’d rather not lose it. Jessica tells her that everyone has dirt, it’s just a matter of knowing where to look.

On Trish Talk, Trish tries something a little nutty. She creates a fake segment ‘honoring unsung heroes’ or some such, and asks her fans to tell her about one such individual, Leslie Hansen. She wants to hear any personal stories or anecdotes people have on the former ER doctor. Shockingly, one of the first calls she gets is from Hansen herself. Later, she tries to convince Jessica that her going to meet Hansen alone (one of the doctor’s demands) is not the stupid idea it sounds. Jessica, who’s too sober to deal with this, fakes a tip to the local paparazzi about Trish and Griffin being on the outs. Can’t very well have a clandestined meeting when a bunch of noisy pricks following you, now can ya? She calls Malcolm in to keep an eye of Trish and goes to the meeting herself.

You know, after fighting a Ninja Cult and a mind controlling
Brit, you'd think she'd stop being surprised by things like a
middle aged woman scaling a tall building in thirty seconds.

Jessica meets Dr. Hansen at her favorite bar and almost instantly starts putting the squeeze on her. Jessica claims the good doctor used her position as an ER doctor to funnel hopeless cases to IGH to use in their (probably) highly illegal experiments. Hansen get’s defensive, claiming IGH were the good guys but, shockingly, Jessica isn’t buying it.

Malcolm stops by Trish’s place. Trish intitially tries to shoo him away, as her apartment is quite secure, but gets a call from Maury before she can. Turns out, the head they found was positively IDed as Dr. Leslie Hansen. Realizing that Jessica is probably in trouble, what with being in a meeting with the not-doc, she get’s Malcolm to help her evade the paparazzi and meet up with Jessica. He basically walked out with a camera and told them to go to Griffin’s place. Well, that was easy.

At the bar, Not-Hansen explained that the IGH experiments were about using gene editing to help combat diseases. And explains superpowers were an… unusual side effect that happened to a few folks that were brought in for the treatment. She insists Jessica be grateful, as the then teenager died on the table and was only revived via the treatment. When Jessica tries to use her strength to scare Not-Hansen, Not-Hansen shows off super human strength of her own. The two get into a fight as Not-Hansen tries to escape. The super gets away, but Jessica was able to get a few pics of her. How? The one paparazzi that followed Trish and Malcolm to the bar hoping to get a scoop. Who knew those little parasites could be useful?

Well, that escalated quickly. This Not-Hansen that was introduced raises a fair number of questions. Well, maybe not raises but makes me want to reiterate a few. Why is IGH cleaning house? Is Not-Hansen killing traitorous staff? Or has someone pointed her at people like Kozlov and Hansen for another reason? I suppose a new one is why a minion that was just praising IGH’s good works killing their people in the first place? Seems very odd. Given the strength, speed and jumping capability Not-Hansen showed off, I’m now wondering if physical enhancement type powers were IGH’s main focus of research (Not-Hansen’s comments being taken with a pound of salt) or it’s a coincidence that just two of their physical enhancement type experiments crossed paths like this. Regardless, the plot thickens. I was a little disappointed that Simpson got an off-camera deep sea burial and recap rather then an actual funeral of some kind. Sure, the dude made a lot of bad choices last season, but he was still their friend once and died trying to protect them. Least they could have done was have the actor on for a little cameo appearance before they dumped the body, all I’m saying. I’m not sure how I feel about the super-human racism subplot going on between Jessica and Oscar. It just feels weird to see a white woman accusing a Hispanic man of prejudice. Like, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that’s happened at least once in the course of human history, but it still feels weird. That being said, I still prefer this subplot to the creepy twins from last season. <Shudder>. I hope that the rest of the season can keep this tension up. It’d be a shame if things started to flounder now that it's getting good.  

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Viewer Log: Jessica Jones ep 15

Who killed Robert "The Whizzer" Frank?

Last time on Jessica Jones, things haven’t been going well for our superpowered detective. As her best friend and adoptive sister Trish Walker looks into the mysterious IGH that gave Jessica her powers, she was approached by a crazy man looking for protection. Said crazy guy, Robert Frank aka The Whizzer, claims to be a speedster created by IGH and was looking for Jessica’s help to protect him. It’s revealed that Whizzer is if fact a speedster, and that someone was after him, as he was killed by collapsing scaffolding. Not a great way to start a week, is it Jessica?

We open on Jessica drowning her sorrows in a bottle of whiskey. Apparently seeing the facility and remembering some of the IGH experiments messed her up bad. After a few more shots, a failed call to talk with Trish, and a less then satisfying rendezvous with a random drunk, Jessica tries to get back to work. She calls Malcolm, who’d been on research duty. The recovered druggy had discovered that the building was leased to Dr. Kozlov, which comes as a shock to nobody. He’s given the new task of finding Kozlov’s home address. While he does that, he’s texted by someone named Annette. How odd.

Huh, searching a dead man's house during his funeral, I
wonder if this is a career low for JJ?

Jessica takes a taxi out to the burbs. Using her superstrength to leap Kozlov’s fence, she slowly approaches the house. Her guard is up because there are guys in black everywhere. Turns out, there’s a reason for that, other than the obvious “hired muscle” scenario. No, turns out, Kozlov died in a car accident and the men in black are mourners. Well… crap. The funeral itself causes Trish to flashback to her family’s funeral, and the crappy advice Dorothy Walker gave to her to at least act sad. She also hears an amputee vet singing Kozlov’s praises. Apparently, when he’s not kidnapping people to perform unethical performance enhancing experiments on them, Doc Kozlov was a real swell guy, checking up on patients and the like.

Trish meanwhile is meeting up with her soul sucking mother. Ms. Dorothy Walker is pretty much your former starlet’s mother stereotype, in case that wasn’t clear. All bad advice, judgmental snide comments about being a failure in acting, that sort of thing. After getting through some niceties, Trish cuts to the quick and asks for the home address of someone named Max.  Her mom makes it sound like he’s a guy that she had a small falling out with, keep that in mind. Dorothy tries to deflect Trish’s intrest, but she isn’t deterred. Trish demands mama Walker give it up. Dorothy relents, giving her daughter the address and the ‘advice’ to get her boyfriend Griffin to put a ring on it before her talk show hits the crapper. Got to love supportive mothers. When the mother and daughter part ways, we’re shown that Simpson is in fact following her. He takes a hit on an inhaler, which seems to clear up his bloody sclera… for some reason.

Jessica snoops through Kozlov’s office while the funeral is going on. She only sees a picture of Kozlov with an old acquaintance of hers, Will Simpson and his old squad. (I mistakenly called him Frank earlier, that’s the character he’s loosely based off of.)  The amputee soldier from earlier, Isaiah, rolls in and attacks her with a retractable baton. He didn’t bye her story about knowing the doc. Jessica, being a bruiser, brushes it off and flips him onto the ground. She wants to know what he knows about Kozlov. He keeps singing Kozlov’s praises and claims that his killer was the traitor, Will Simpson. Well isn’t that convenient?

After getting cleaned up back at her place, Jessica starts doing some research of her own. She can’t seem to find a connection between Will Simpson and Robert Frank, shocking the former solider and conspiracy nutter didn’t cross paths very often. She gives up on an internet search, and instead digs Frank’s keys from his bag and goes to check out his house. She’s stopped by a pair of cops, who are looking into Robert Frank’s death. Jessica claims she didn’t see anything, but the cops don’t seem convinced. She takes them to see her Super, who’d seen the whole thing, but he pleads ignorance. Dick. She moves onto Frank’s apartment. It looks like he was prepping for the fricking apocalypse. Other then Frank’s precious mongoose, the place is deserted. She find’s Frank’s tablet, and plays a video on it. He left a video message to somebody. In it, he explains that he’d broken his back after a stupid stunt when he was eighteen. After a stay with IGH, he was suddenly superfast. The crappy thing is that his powers are physically painful, and parodies Spider-Man’s catchphrase. With great powers comes great mental illness… Where would he have heard that? Anyway, Jessica legs it with Frank’s tablet as the cops show up.

Meanwhile, Trish tries to recruit Malcolm to help her with a secret project. He’d been enjoying an evening with, I assume, Annette, but because he’s a good guy he agrees to help. She disguises him as a production assistant before going to confront Max. Turns out, Max is the director. The two have a meeting in his trailer. He initially thinks she’s looking to get back into movies, but instead she asks for his help. She wants to use his clout with the hospital he donates to get a look at Jessica’s files and anything else pertaining to IGH. Max refuses. When he does, Trish gives him the ultimatum of “Help me, or I’ll reveal the fact you’re a predator.” He tries to turn it around on her, ‘oh you came onto me’ type bs. Hey, Maxhole, it doesn’t matter if she went full on Varsity Blues (1999) on you, (ya’ll know what scene I’m talking about) IF an underage girl hits on you, you say nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Sorry, that got really real for a second. She gives him some time to think it over. Unbeknownst to Max, Malcolm was recording the whole thing from his bathroom.

Sidenote, this is the guy that Trish’s mother acted like they’d just had a falling out. The man that abused her daughter. And she seems to know about it. If your immediate reaction in that situation isn’t “Castrate the SOB with a pair of rusty sheers” you fail as a parent.

Oh thank God, he hasn't gotten the face tattoo.
That would NOT translate well to live action.

At her apartment complex, Jessica runs into and confronts her Super about him lying about what he saw at Whizzer’s accident. He claims that he wants to stay out of it as it might affect an ongoing custody battle he’s having with his ex. Jessica thinks he’s just a powersist. You know, someone who is prejudiced against people with superpowers. In her apartment, she goes over Whizzer’s tablet. She’s finds what you might expect; comic book sites, Trish Talk, conspiracy sites… wait what was that second one? Yeah, turns out he was reach out to Trish and was willing to talk to her about IGH. Jessica realizes that if Whizzer was killed for reaching out to Trish, then Trish is probably also on the hit list.

She first goes to Trish’s apartment, but only finds a frantic Griffin. He’d started going through Trish’s research, found she was looking into highly illegal experiments conducted by shady corporate types, and since she’s not picking up her phone he’d starting to freak out. Jessica tells him to head back home, not before he mention’s Trish’s meeting with her mom, and let her search for Trish. She thumbs through Trish’s research. She finds a bunch of disturbing stuff, chief of which being a Death Certificate issued to Jessica Jones. Well that is probably one of the weirder things to find on a case. She dials up Dorothy, who basically tells Jessica to screw off. Well, her exact words were she’s “living in the present, you should try it.” Which is funny because she’s sitting in a room surrounded by memorabilia from her daughter’s TV show. From (minimum) 14 years ago.

Back at the lot, Malcolm goes to confront Max. The little prick actually thinks Malcolm is trying to rob him. He, instead, demands that Max admit to what he did to Trish. Max-hole tries to brush it off, the old “oh you just heard her side of the story” method. Malcolm, who is not a flipping idiot, get’s sick of the sleaze-ball’s sleaze-ball-ness and breaks the heifer’s nose before running off. Nice. Though I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s up for a little vigilante justice, I mean, he works for Jessica and is a former Power Ranger. Seriously, look up Eka Darville, Red Ranger for Power Rangers RPM. Trish, who’d been hiding in the backlot to regain her composure, hears a noise and goes to investigate. She find’s Simpson. She pulls a gun and shoots him when he tries to get near her, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Superhero steroids are a hell of a drug.

Huh, not how I was expecting this to turn out.

Jessica busts down Dorothy’s door, threatens her, and then get’s Trish’s location. But not before Dorothy proves once again to be an awful parent by saying she trusted her daughter’s former abuser over Jessica. Like, seriously, Dorothy sit down and shut up.  Jessica makes it to studio lot, and finds Trish… holding Simpson hostage. Well, that took a turn. Will claims that he had nothing to do with the murders, and that he’d been stalking Trish to protect her from IGH’s wetworks specialist. (wetwork = assassinations) He claims that he’d been drying out in an IGH facility for the last year, when he heard from some of the scientists that they’re going to ‘handle’ Trish. He broke out, stole an inhaler version of his old super pills, and started following her. Its at this exact moment that the IGH wetworker cut the lights to the building they were in. Simpson, once freed, takes Trish’s gun and says he’ll make sure they escape.

They hear several shots fire as they run, and then someone ran through and leaped over them to make for the exit. Realizing that the IGH assassin was after Simpson, not Trish, they go back to check on him. This thing was able to twist Simpson’s head a full 180 degrees. Not a pleasant way to go. Jessica muses that Simpson was right, it takes a monster to fight a monster, he just wasn’t the right one.

Oh, and while this is going on, Jeri Hogarth is spiraling a little after finding out she’s dying. She spends a lot of money on drugs and hookers before Pryce Chang shows up and forces her to refocus. Again, not shedding a tear.

Well, that was a jarring turn. I totally expected Will “Nuke” Simpson to be a recurring antagonist throughout this season. Was not expecting him to perform a heel face turn and then get killed in the second episode. That’s a bit of wrestling terminology I picked up over the years. A Face Wrestler is a good guy, A Heel is a bad guy, and a turn is when they shift between the two. Classic example being the Rock going from good to bad and back again. Sorry, bit of a tangent there. Simpson’s death was shocking. But, might be fitting. If he was on much longer, folks might expect him to get that American Flag Tattoo on his face that Nuke sports. I imagine that would have fallen under “looked good in comics, looks bizarrely silly in live action.” This IGH conspiracy plot is thickening. If they’re killing those likely to expose them, seems odd that they’d taken out one of their best scientists. I wonder if Kozlov was killed because he was going to expose something or because he reactivated and lost Simpson. With an evil organization, I could believe both. That all being said, having IGH’s Hound kill Simpson, one of the physically toughest guys that Jessica has come up against seemingly easily is a good way to up the ante. I’m intrigued to see how this thing connects to IGH and how soon Jessica or Trish end up on it’s hitlist. So yeah, a very good continuation.

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