This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

So, the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer has arrived, finally giving us our first proper look at Jake Gyllenhall’s Mysterio. And while he seems to be playing a friend to Tom Holland’s Peter Parker (“He’s like Iron Man and Thor rolled into one!” his classmates enthuse), we’re not quite sold – Mysterio’s comic-book background suggests he’ll wind up being much more of a foe.

Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio, is one of Spider-Man’s oldest and most iconic arch-enemies. He’s a Hollywood stuntman and FX technician who becomes disillusioned with the industry, and so decides to put his skills to good use as a supervillain instead.

Ahead of the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home this summer, here’s everything you need to know about the sequel’s most prominent new character: from his comic-book origins and villainous pursuits to his previous flirtations with the big screen and how he could fit into this particular Spiderverse.

He and Spidey go way back

Ol’ fishbowl made his first appearance in 1964’s The Amazing Spider-Man #13 in a story called “The Menace Of Mysterio”. Much like our fleeting glimpse of Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio in the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer, Beck introduces himself as a hero. After framing Spidey for a spate of robberies – and even convincing Peter Parker himself that he might have developed a subconscious dark side – Mysterio vows to take down the webslinger on behalf of New York City. It’s not long before he’s revealed as the real villain, though, kickstarting a long-running conflict between the two. Basically, Mysterio is not one to be trusted.

He’s got a few tricks up his sleeve

Beck might not be gifted in the superpowered sense, but that hasn’t stopped him from throwing down with Spidey and other heroes over the years. His stage combat training makes him a skilled fighter, while his background in special effects and illusions helped him to engineer an innovative (and natty looking) super-suit, concealing tech such as holographic projectors, sonar tracking and hallucinogenic chemical weapons. Oh, and he does a mean (in both senses of the word) sideline in hypnosis, too. You don’t want this guy messing with your mind...

He’s no stranger to nefarious schemes

Don’t trust Gyllenhaal’s nice-guy act in the trailer, which sees him siding with Spidey to take on the monstrous Elementals. In the comics, Mysterio has hatched more than a few evil plots – most of which involve using illusions and mental trickery to manipulate and try to kill Spider-Man. He was a founding member of supervillain team the Sinister Six, and even had a major run-in with Daredevil (in Kevin Smith’s “Guardian Devil” arc) in which he played a key role in the death of Karen Page. Don’t be surprised if Spider-Man: Far From Home’s fantastic beasts have a lot to do with Beck’s scheming.

He’s nearly been on the big screen already

If Sam Raimi had had his way (and Spider-Man 3 hadn’t spiralled into the big-budget mess that stalled his Spidey franchise), it’s likely that Mysterio would have been one of the antagonists – alongside the Vulture – in the ultimately abandoned Spider-Man 4. It’s no secret that Raimi was a big fan of the Silver Age Spidey villains – hence his sympathetic takes on the likes of Green Goblin, Doc Ock and Sandman, and his...well, the less said about Venom the better.

Illustrator Jeffrey Henderson unveiled Mysterio’s planned involvement through some beautiful early concept art, while it was heavily rumored that Raimi favourite Bruce Campbell (who had cameoed in each of the previous installments, and that concept art would seem to indicate this was indeed the case) would wear the fishbowl helmet in the film. “It would’ve been one absolutely kick-ass movie,” Henderson revealed. “We all really wanted to help Sam take Spider-Man 4 to another level so he could end the series on a high note.”

He’s a perfect fit for this Spiderverse

Thematically, Beck as a villain fits comfortably within the world of Holland’s Spidey and the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which Earth-bound threats are escalating just as fast as those from outer space. Take Michael Keaton’s Vulture, the main antagonist in Spider-Man: Homecoming– a hard-working average Joe who’s fallen on hard times and adopts fantastical technology to enact revenge against a society that idolises the Avengers. It seems like Spider-Man: Far From Home could see Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio build on this concept and take it to the next level.

Spider-Man: Far From Home opens on July 5, 2019. The full schedule of upcoming Marvel movies can be found here.

This Superman article contains spoilers for the latest issue. The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity

Before I ask my first question, Brian Michael Bendis says it for me: “Why?” Why age-up Jon Kent, aka Superboy, in this week's Superman #7? And then there’s the follow-up question: Is this the real Jonathan Samuel Kent?

Although the second question is slightly more complicated given Superboy’s backstory, Bendis’ answer is simple. This is still Jon Kent.

“Yes … it’s him. It is real. It’s really happening.”

The super son -- absent from Superman comics since Bendis sent him packing on a cosmic road trip with a resurrected Jor-El in The Man of Steel weekly miniseries last year -- returned in a surprising fashion at the end of Superman #6. In Superman#7, readers learn years have passed for Jon even though he has only been gone from Earth for three weeks. In the time away, Jon has become a super young man, and Lois and Clark have missed out on pivotal moments in their son’s life. But the reunited Kents don’t have long to catch up because Superboy warns his parents that Grandpa Jor-El is insane and needs to be stopped.

read more: Blizzard Had to Convince DC That Superman Kicks

In the following interview, Bendis talks to us about Jon’s return in “The Unity Saga” arc, how it is going to impact the DCU, the ways in which his absence has changed him, what adventures he has been on in the stars, and, simply, “why” the writer decided to do this to the young Kent.

Den of Geek: My first question is …

Brian Michael Bendis: Why?

Well, yeah.

This is a Superman family adventure. This is a Superman family crisis. This is the kind of stuff that would only happen to Superman, but I think does reflect what a lot of parents and a lot of families go through which is, “Stuff happens that we don't expect and you deal with it.” There's a Superman version of that, and this is it. It really is about how the family's going to deal with something they didn't see coming. It is about vivid emotions of parenting and being a kid.

I think a lot of people are wondering, is this the real Jon Kent? We all expect Superboy-Prime.

My instinct as a storyteller is to not tell you if it's real or not real because I want you all to discover it in the story. But on the same notion, I know that a lot of these characters come with a little bit of that baggage of, “Could it be a reboot or evil from another dimension?” It's not, it's him. It's real. It's really happening. I'm breaking my rule of telling people that because I want them to actually enjoy it for what it is and not worry about the other stuff.

read more: Richard Donner and the Importance of Superman: The Movie

What is Jon’s story arc here?

He's about 17. He has not been artificially aged. He lived all the years he's been away. We spend a lot of that time developing and telling that story, so I'm going let that play out in book by the beautiful Brandon Peterson. That's the story Jonathan's come to tell his father, where he's been, what's happening, and what they need to do next. It is big, and it's different and, for Jon, it's very exciting. I mean ... He was raised by two of the best people ever and then he had the old trial by fire as far as puberty went. He really had to do it on his own. He really became his own person, so we're going to meet that person.

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And how well did those Ma and Pa Kent and Superman values hold up?

So many people are worrying he's turning into like an evil, homicidal maniac who’s going to go Injustice on everybody. That is not the case. This is the story about two parents who work hard to instill values in their son and then when push came to shove, those values not only held, but inspired him to do better and get home.

How do you view this as a Superman story?

When we hear his story about what Jon has been through, and how impossible it is, and how many opportunities he had to betray his core values, and never did, I think people are going to see that it is the most honoring of the Superman legacy of any story I'll tell. It is a brand-new story. It allows the family to deal with each other in a completely different level, but it also gets to show Lois and Clark what kind of parents they were and are, and may I say, beyond Jon's quest, which is quite enormous, this is something for Superman that -- This hurts.

read more: Superman Movies Ranked

About Jon’s time away, will you be revealing what he went through in flashbacks, or are we moving straight into, "Jor-El is insane and we have to go after him"?

Well, we're doing both. I couldn't even imagine how unfair it would be not to show the audience. I couldn't imagine any fan not wanting to have a dramatic recounting of where they've been and what they've done. So, in every issue, for the next four issues, Brandon Peterson will be illustrating the flashbacks and dealing with the highlights of where they've been.

Going back to how this hurts Superman, he experienced only three weeks but missed these formative years in his son’s life...

It is going stay with them for a while. Both Superman and Lois lost a few years of their kid's life and it really hurts. Any parent can tell you. Any person in the family gets that. Can you imagine just losing years, and then having to regain that connection, and regain everything, and re-understand each other? It allows the family dynamic to really deal with each other in a new way, but hopefully in a spectacularly healthy way. But boy, for Lois and Clark, this is just a devastating loss that they will be dealing with together for a long time.

As it is, it seems like Superman carries around a lot of guilt.

That guilt part is something that people don't always associate with Clark, but he has a great deal of it. Just that feeling of responsibility; it’s enormous, and he's now looking right in the face of either his biggest failure or his biggest triumph. He has to decide which of those ... When I started writing it as a parent, is that it was easy to tap into the emotions of what it would feel like. I have four kids, and if you miss any little thing, you feel so frustrated. Missing years of something can be devastating to Lois and Clark, and it's going to change their perspective on things as well.

read more: Why Kevin Smith's Superman Lives Was Ahead of Its Time

This young man has been gone so long and is a different person than the child who left. Will you explore how these relationship dynamics have changed?

Doesn't that sound like every family? When we talk about Superman's relatability, this is the kind of story that can be told with his family, and his dynamic that reflects what a lot of families go through. People change and people must reevaluate the relationships going on.

It sounds like you’re drawing a lot from parental experience with this story.

All my kids are different ages, and I look at my teenage daughter, and we have an amazing relationship. I'm immensely proud of it. When she was little, it was a completely silly relationship. She was the goofiest little girl, and she made me laugh all day long. Now our relationship is like creative, and intelligent, and philosophical. We have a lot of very deep conversations, so I think about the difference in our relationship. It's enormous, and if I had to skip a few years, I would dream that evolution, I would be thrown. I would have to reevaluate everything about how I speak to her. Telling a story like that seems oh so exciting.

Even though the Kent family principles have held with Jon, how is he a different Superboy, super man, than his father?

He's immensely proud of himself for getting home. He kind of shows you what kind of Superman he is, and then he's going to describe that in the flashbacks. Jon and Clark/Kal are going to head back out into the cosmos to deal with Grandpa. And just because he's been through a lot, he's still a teenager and he's still going through things, so he's not fully baked as a human being yet. He's still in process. If anything, Clark gets to come in just as he's getting really interesting and try to do be the father that he needs to be for him. You're going to find out what kind of man Jon is becoming.

read more: What Went Wrong with Superman Returns

Speaking of Grandpa Jor-El, he must be dealt with, but doesn’t Kal-El already have a lot on his plate with Zod, Rogol Zaar, etc.?

Kal-El has a lot to deal with on his end, right? This is a family crisis. "What did Dad do? Why did he do it, and what do we do now?" These are very big questions that we'll have a big answer in the next few issues of Superman and lead to, may I say, an enormous story. I've been telling people this saga builds and builds, and I think now you can see this extra piece of Jon, and where Jon and Superman are going must go deal with what happened with Jor-El. You can kind of see how big the story could get.

Are we approaching a culmination of all your Superman stories so far?

Yeah, we got Jor-El, we got Rogol Zaar, we have the conspiracy around Krypton. This is all wrapped around that as well, so all of these plots that have been started since the very first pages of Man of Steel #1 are all going to be trickling together towards the big finale of “Unity Saga,” which is not the end of my Superman run, but it's the end of my first very, very large story. That will then set a table for Superman and Lois and Jon that's another status quo change that's going to really define what they do going forward. We're right at the beginning of the next big Superman status quo change.

And Jon plays heavily into that?

Absolutely. Jon is in every single issue.

Changing Jon this way will affect the entire continuity. Will we get to see a little bit of those ripple effects, including how things will look between him and his formerly older buddy Damian Wayne?

First of all, not a little bit. Out of all the ripple effects, the only reason to do something like this is to feel the ripple effects so we can have those dramatic moments between the characters that we never thought we'd see. They get to really experience each other in a new, exciting way. So, yes to all of that, and it won't be little. It'll be enormous.

Aaron Sagers is a freelance contributor. Read more of his work here.

Even though The Punisher is now the star of his own Netflix series, let's not forget that Frank Castle has been building bodycounts for over forty years. He’s starred in many fantastic storylines and has become one of the more iconic heroes in Marvel history.

He’s had several movies, a handful of video games (including one of the best arcade brawlers ever), cartoon appearances, and more. He’s taken up the mantle of Captain America, been a black man, became an angel, became a Frankenstein, befriended Archie Andrews, and even killed Gwar.

Okay, they were called “Warg,” but same thing.

The thing every Punisher writer – especially Garth Ennis – always has to push is how unflappable and badass Frank is. He’s the coolest guy ever and punks out everyone in his way. When he does lose, he at least goes down with his dignity, whether it’s via losing a knock-down-drag-out fight with Daredevil or simply refusing to fight back against Captain America. His pride has almost as much plot armor as he does.

Still, there are some times where Frank Castle gets clowned and looks like a fool. Moments that he’d choose not to remember. Here are 15 of those moments...

TAKING BAD ADVICE

Amazing Spider-Man #129 (1974)

Gerry Conway and Ross Andru

Frank’s first appearance is a wonderful debut. He’s tricked into going after Spider-Man, thinking him to be a criminal. They fight a couple times, things get relatively smoothed out, and they go their separate ways with Frank focusing on THE WAR.

read more: The Punisher Season 2 Review

It’s just...man. Nobody’s perfect and we’re all susceptible to misinformation, but look at that guy. Look at the Jackal. Imagine that guy trying to convince you that Spider-Man is a bad guy who needs to be murdered. Imagine taking his word at face value without questioning how you’re getting your intel from St. Patrick’s Day Gollum.

You dropped the ball, Frank.

SUDDEN HULK FIGHT

Incredible Hulk #395 (1992)

Peter David and Dale Keown

In at least two alternate realities, Frank’s been able to actually kill the Hulk. One time he snuck up on him while he was asleep in Banner form and the other time he shot him through the eye with an arrow tipped with one of Wolverine’s claws. In terms of main continuity, Frank’s first meeting with the gamma giant didn’t go so well.

read more: How The Punisher Season 2 Brings Jigsaw To Life

Hulk, in his Banner-minded phase, returned to his old alter-ego of Mr. Fixit, the Las Vegas bodyguard. The Punisher was in town, after the same threat, but heard rumors of the legendary Mr. Fixit and figured he was probably worth shooting down. Frank isn’t about wasted motion.

When they finally clashed, Frank opened fire and was a bit surprised that Fixit’s “body armor” could withstand his bullets. He kept upping the ante on his weaponry until flinging a grenade at him. One of Hulk’s buddies knocked it back and it certainly would have blown Frank to kingdom come had the Hulk not snatched it out of the air and stared him down.

Too bad we can’t see things from Hulk’s point of view. I’m sure Frank’s expression was priceless.

Anyway, Hulk then proceeded to knock him out with a flick of a finger.

STAY OUT OF GOTHAM

Punisher/Batman: Deadly Knights (1994)

Chuck Dixon and John Romita Jr.

The Punisher has crossed paths with Batman a handful of times during Marvel/DC crossovers. In the '90s, they had two team-up stories. One was actually about Frank working with the Jean-Paul Valley version of Batman and later coming to blows with him. Frank got the best of EXXXTREME Batman and found himself admitting – almost as if realizing it was an editorial mandate – that he did it via cheating.

read more: The Punisher and the Question of Gun Violence in America

The follow-up story had Bruce Wayne back as Batman as the two of them went up against the alliance of the Joker and Jigsaw. While Batman took down Jigsaw, Frank cornered Joker with intent to put a bullet in his brain. Batman stopped him and let the Joker run off into the distance. He was letting the worst criminal free, but he wasn't letting him die.

Frank, understandably, dropped his gun and punched Batman in the face.

Batman responded by claiming that, “I let you have that one because you probably think I deserved it.” As childish as that sounded, Batman backed up the claim by easily catching the next punch, throwing the Punisher into a pile of boxes, and telling him to get out of his city or else he’d be going to Arkham.

Frank sulked off, claiming that Batman and the Joker deserve each other.

WOLVERINE’S COMEBACK

Wolverine #186 (2003)

Frank Tieri and Terry Dodson

Ugh. Just because I’m writing this list doesn’t mean that I think every entry is actually good or well done. For instance, this one.

Garth Ennis, who is a fantastic writer much of the time, has a tendency to write stories about how a military-trained antihero badass is able to humiliate and outright destroy any and all tights-wearing superhero pretty boys. It happened a LOT with the Punisher and Wolverine tended to be a regular target. This included a team-up in Punisher’s book that ended with a fight where Punisher shot Wolverine in the balls, blew his face clean off with a shotgun, ran him over with a steamroller, and then left him there. Ennis just savaged him there.

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But turnabout’s fair play and at the time, Frank Tieri was writing Wolverine’s comic. He decided to respond to Ennis by having Wolverine get his win back. Now, bringing in Tieri to counter Ennis is like bringing William Hung to a rap battle and it already started off a bit petty with the bullshit claim in the recap that Wolverine tends to beat up the Punisher more often than not. Uh huh.

The entire issue was dedicated to a fight between Castle and Logan in an empty mall and it’s actually a fun and great-looking battle. The two humorously beat the crap out of each other and tossed insults until Wolverine won out by tossing Frank through a window.

Then, with Frank motionless on the cracked sidewalk, Wolverine proceeded to discover – much to Frank’s sudden embarrassment – that some magazines of dudes in speedos had fallen out of the Punisher’s bag. Despite Frank’s desperate claim that they were just suspects (a reference to Murder by Death) Wolverine made fun of him and left him to be taken in by the authorities.

Seriously, Tieri’s best comeback to the excessive steamroller beatdown was, “Yeah, but...but the Punisher’s totally gay! So there!”

BATMAN RETURNS

JLA/Avengers #1 (2003)

Kurt Busiek and George Perez

JLA/Avengers was the final Marvel/DC crossover before the two companies turned their backs on each other for good. The comic treated it as the first meeting between worlds, so when the Justice League looked through the Marvel universe, it was a bit eye-opening for them. Green Lantern and Aquaman saw the horrors of Dr. Doom’s rule in Latveria. Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman saw the ruins of Genosha. Superman saw the aftermath of a Hulk rampage.

read more: The Punisher and the Question of Gun Violence in America

In each instance, Batman told them to stay the course and NOT interfere.

Then he and Plastic Man saw the Punisher gun down drug dealers in New York City. Batman decided to go against his own advice. According to Plastic Man on the next page, Batman spent twenty minutes beating the crap out of the Punisher, just to save the lives of those criminals.

I'LL BE DAMNED. VAMPIRES.

Marvel Team-Up #8 (2005)

Robert Kirkman and Jeff Johnson

The first meeting between the Punisher and Blade was sort of adorable in terms of how in-over-his-head Frank was. The two watched a mob deal go down below. Blade, an admirer of the Punisher, tried to explain that one of the parties was made of vampires. Blade explained that he too is a half-breed vampire and is essentially to vampires what the Punisher is to criminals. While Blade was pretty jazzed to be on a rooftop with Frank, Frank was a bit too close-minded.

Vampires? Don’t be ridiculous. Blade was probably just a violent nutjob, no better than the mobsters below. Frank even shot him in the back to very little effect. Blade shrugged it off and Frank figured it was merely Kevlar. Blade spent minutes trying to explain who he was to Frank’s unbelieving ears.

read more: Complete Guide to Marvel Easter Eggs in The Punisher Season 1

Then the vampires started feasting on the human mobsters. Blade’s targets took out Frank’s targets. All the while, Frank just glared wide-eyed and shocked at the carnage. He finally broke the silence to ask Blade if he wanted help. Blade simply smiled and jumped off the rooftop.

“No. I got this.”

BLEEDING HEART PUNISHER

Wha...Huh? (2005)

Mark Millar and Jim Mahfood

There have been a handful of joke What If stories done based on turning the Punisher concept on its head. One time he was a stern figure who made the Blob go to sleep without dinner while Dr. Doom had to sit in the corner and think about what he did. One time his family survived instead and became a family of gun-toting sociopaths.

In Wha...Huh? Mark Millar got to do a two-page story where Frank ranted in his narration about the rich owning the poor, sweat shops, and how hurtful such labels as “criminals” are to people who live without privilege. All while watching an old lady get stomped on by two armed gang members. Frank tried to see eye-to-eye with them, but then suffered from a literal bleeding heart as they opened fire on him.

Frank died, feeling bad that these poor youths would have murder on their souls for the rest of their lives.

PRIMITIVE SCREW-HEAD

Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness #2 (2007)

John Layman and Fabiano Neves

Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness had Ash Williams tossed into the ill-fated Marvel side-universe while shit went down. Zombie Sentry infected the Avengers and the Zombie Avengers went on to devour anyone in sight while spreading the virus. Amongst the early madness, Ash came across the Punisher, who seemed kind of dismissive about the whole apocalypse going on.

Proving himself a bit too close-minded from his lack of humanity, Frank proceeded to gun down a collection of mafia-based villains even after Kingpin explained that they needed to work together to survive the zombie outbreak. He even chose to ignore the plight of Thunderball, who despite being a villain, was shown to be a buddy of Ash’s.

With a wave of zombified heroes and villains coming at him, Frank told Ash to stand to the side and toss him a loaded gun when commanded. Ash figured he had enough of Captain Kill-Happy and ran off to do his own thing.

Frank didn’t notice this until running out of ammo. He was swarmed and infected immediately.

SHE’S A LITTLE RUNAWAY

Runaways #26 (2007)

Joss Whedon and Michael Ryan

Joss Whedon openly hates the Punisher and here we get to see that play out in a comic.

The Runaways went to New York to meet with the Kingpin under the guise of a criminal syndicate. The underaged team was cornered by the Punisher, who had no qualms with shooting teenagers, admitting it wouldn’t be the first time. As he argued with Chase and pointed a gun at him, Molly – a mutant tween with super strength – surprised Frank with a punch to the gut.

While Frank underestimated the Runaways, Molly overestimated Frank and figured he had powers himself. Instead, he stood there, paralyzed in pain with only his military willpower keeping him standing as he declared to himself that a soldier doesn’t fall. All the while, Molly pleaded for the others to forgive her, though they each had their own opinion on whether or not to be proud of her actions.

Several issues later, as the arc finished up, Frank was shown to STILL be struggling to remain on his feet.

LOSE YOURSELF

Eminem/The Punisher (2009)

Fred Van Lente and Salvador Larocca

For some reason I may never understand, there was a Punisher/Eminem team-up comic that involved them taking on Barracuda. On his way to take down Barracuda (who Eminem grew up with), Frank shot up Eminem’s entire entourage. Soon after, Eminem beat Frank down with a pistol and unloaded it into Frank’s chest.

Turned out Barracuda was hired by the Parents Music Council to assassinate Eminem. Through a little indirect teamwork, Frank and Eminem were able to defeat Barracuda and seemingly kill him with a chainsaw. Then Frank abandoned Eminem on top of a sheet of ice over a frozen lake and offered to go kill the Parents Music Council for hiring Barracuda.

Yeah, you may have stood tall at the end, but you still got punked out by the Real Slim Shady. That’s on your permanent record, man.

SPIDER-LOVE

Punisher Annual #1 (2009)

Rick Remender and Jason Pearson

Early on in Rick Remender’s Punisherrun, the Hood resurrected a bunch of dead supervillains and gave them an ultimatum: either they killed the Punisher within 30 days or his magic would wear off and they would go back to being dead. Two of those villains included Letha and Lascivious, a pair of female wrestlers/villains who were killed by Scourge back in the day. Letha was granted the power to make people aggressive and Lascivious could make people fall in love.

Their powers failed to work on Frank due to his emotional emptiness. Luckily, when Spider-Man entered the fray, Letha was able to set him off and make him want to murder Frank. Punisher vs. Spider-Man wasn’t a new concept, nor was mind-controlled hero vs. hero. In the end, it didn’t work out and it returned to the old trope of Spider-Man going, “I’m not going to let you kill them!” while Frank rolled his eyes.

That’s when Lascivious figured to make Spider-Man fall in love with Frank and never let him go. While Frank was very, very uncomfortable with what was going on, the two wrestler ladies escaped and remained as free as their ass cheeks.

While Frank certainly had a bad time, he got it better than Spider-Man. Without getting into it, Spider-Man may have had sex with a Doc Ock tentacle in broad daylight.

DEADPOOL’S PUPPET

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe #4 (2012)

Cullen Bunn and Dalibor Talajic

There was a miniseries called Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe which...that’s actually pretty self-explanatory. An alternate universe version of Deadpool became aware of his fictional status, went violently insane, and decided to take out every hero and villain over four issues. It wasn’t very good.

Deadpool killing the Punisher was the cover image for the final issue and it made sense. Frank already starred in Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe back in the '90s. It was like a passing of the torch.

As the fourth issue began, various villains were shown mindlessly committing a mass suicide. Punisher took advantage of the madness by sniping Deadpool through a window and rushing to the scene before he could regenerate. Instead, Frank found the dead body of the Puppet Master dressed up like Deadpool.

Deadpool appeared behind Frank with one of the Puppet Master’s voodoo dolls with a tiny skull insignia on the chest. Helpless to stop himself, Frank was compelled to put his own pistol to his head and pull the trigger.

Afterwards, Deadpool bragged about being better at “killing the Marvel Universe” by using a Puppet Master doll of Galactus to cause some damage on a cosmic scale.

AND MORE DEADPOOL

Uncanny X-Force #29 (2012)

Rick Remender and Julian Totino Tedesco

Uncanny X-Force was about a team that would go around killing threats to mutantkind before they could act first. Deadpool was somehow the conscience of the group. In one adventure, they ended up decades into the future, where the world was run by X-Force in a Minority Reportsense. If anyone was even thinking about committing a violent crime, X-Force would hunt them down.

One member of the future team was an elderly Frank Castle. At one point he warned Deadpool (present version) about an incident that would start a huge war. Rather than come up with any other kind of way out of it, Frank told him to kill Daken, kill the kid version of Apocalypse, and kill the never-before-mentioned son of Archangel. Deadpool groaned at this advice and proceeded to make fun of all this kid-killing.

Then it got personal.

“Look, for what it’s worth, I always hated you. You are a boring, two-dimensional, self-serious relic from the ‘70s. Oh, and Chuck Bronson called – he wants everything he ever did back.”

Frank angrily pulled a gun on him and Deadpool was able to stop him by pointing out the kind of havoc that would cause through history.

ANGEL MEMORIES

Thunderbolts #22 (2014)

Charles Soule and Carlo Barberi

I easily could’ve made this list into just “dumb Punisher stories” because “Punisher was in a dumb story” means he theoretically should be embarrassed. But it doesn’t really work like that because usually characters don’t admit that they’re in a bad story and if they do, it’s after the fact. It’s not like in Grounded, Superman was all, “Man, this is the stupidest shit ever. I miss fighting Zod.”

Even though the brief status quo in the '90s where Frank Castle was reborn as an angel who went around shooting demons was indeed silly, at the time, Frank acted completely on-board with it because the guy writing it at the time thought it was super cool. Granted, once it was passed on to the next writer, Garth Ennis quickly buried the entire concept while going back to “mortal who shoots mortal criminals” storyline.

Years later, Frank joined the Thunderbolts. In one story, Frank fought the unstoppable goddess Mercy and got beaten by her so badly that his body was mangled beyond medical hope. The rest of the team returned from an adventure in Hell (which involved screwing over Mephisto in a legal agreement) and realized that there was nothing they could do to help him.

Said Hell adventure involved Deadpool sneaking into Heaven to steal an angel feather to go with his new pimp hat. Don’t ask. The feather reached out and healed Frank completely.

None could understand it. Deadpool pointed out that it was like the angel feather recognized Frank and wanted to be with him. Almost like there was some kind of history between Frank and angels.

Frank simply grumbled, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

DON’T MOCK THE SHOCKER

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #17 (2014)

Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber

Superior Foes built up the Shocker as a big loser in the villain community and...well, he pretty much is. His name is Shocker. You can’t live that down no matter how cool your costume looks.

In the final issue of the series, the various mob factions in New York were converging for a big battle for supremacy. Like a moth to light, the Punisher made his way there (and may have stopped for a cronut after hearing good things from his Uber driver) to wipe out the whole lot of them.

Instead, the Shocker arrived, in a Shocker version of the Spider-Mobile, while yelling, “DON’T MOCK THE SHOCKER!” If you’re wondering, that was a direct reference to the bizarre, kid-friendly Spidey Super Stories comic from the '70s.

Shocker then used his gauntlets to blast the Punisher off into the distance before bringing unity to the NYC underworld.

There isn’t a single part of that scenario that didn’t hurt Frank.

Like everyone, Frank Castle isn’t perfect. No matter how badass and serious he’s supposed to be, he can’t be the best of the best in every single situation. Even the ultimate soldier has to stumble now and then. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you get disrespected. But you keep on with your mission and hold your head high because at the end of the day, you still have dignity to your name.

Yes. Exactly. This guy knows what's up.

Gavin Jasper has his fingers crossed for Franken-Castle in Daredevil season 3. Follow him on Twitter!

In a brilliant bit of casting, Dune has found its Reverend Mother Mohiam in the form of Oscar-nominated actor, Charlotte Rampling. For those familiar with the Frank Herbert sci-fi classic that may be unfamiliar with Rampling's award-worthy role in 45 Years, it’s probably enough to see her image at the top of this article to realize how perfect the French actor will be for the role of the Emperor’s Truthsayer. Legendary Pictures will produce Dune with famed director Denis Villeneuve at the helm.

The role of the Reverend Mother is a key one in Dune, as the character is the head of the matriarchal Bene Gesserit religion which tests young protagonist Paul Atreides to see if he may be their long-sought Kwisatz Haderach, the messiah figure her order seeks to breed and control. The mantra that has become famous from the Herbert novels and the multiple adaptations includes the recognizable, “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.” Siân Phillips played the Reverend Mother in the 1984 film, whereas Zuzana Geislerová played the role in the 2000 miniseries on the Sci Fi Channel.

The announcement of Rampling’s casting now sits alongside other exciting additions such as Dave Bautista, Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, and Stellan Skarsgard. Dune has built plenty of buzz with its cast news even though filming has not begun on the film. Speculation is that Villeneuve will wisely choose to break the daunting first novel into several parts to honor the epic nature of the story, something which the Lynch film famously failed to do and which Jodorowsky sadly was never able to attempt.

Further Reading: Dune: New Movie Several Years Away

Dune tells the story of warring nobility on a desert planet known as Arrakis whose sole export is a rare spice that gives its users greatly enhanced mental powers, to oversimplify it. The project will begin filming on location in Budapest and Jordan this spring, according to THR. The release date is estimated to be sometime in 2021.

Michael Ahr is a writer, reviewer, and podcaster here at Den of Geek; you can check out his work here or follow him on Twitter (@mikescifi). He co-hosts our Sci Fi Fidelity podcast and voices much of our video content.

Anne Hathaway has signed on to star in Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of The Witches. 

At this time, it's being reported that Hathaway will play the role of Miss Ernst or the "Grand High Witch." This role was previously played by Angelica Houston in the 1990 adaptation of the Roald Dahl story. That adaptation was directed by Nicolas Roeg (The Man Who Fell to Earth, Don't Look Now). At this time, there is no word regarding who will be playing the other major roles in the upcoming adaptation. 

This adaptation of The Witches seems to finally be on the right path after a few setbacks. Guillermo Del Toro was originally set to adapt the story, but he stepped away from the project. The reasons why aren't entirely clear, but it's believed that Del Toro simply had too much on his plate and wouldn't be able to give the project his full attention. He's now producing the film alongside Alfonso Cuaron. 

Of course, it's hard to complain about Robert Zemeckis getting the job. While Zemeckis' work over the last decade or so has been decidedly hit and miss, he still brings an undeniable amount of talent and experience to the table.

The question now is whether or not Zemeckis is going to be able to live up to the weirdness of the 1990 original that has helped it live in infamy over the years. The Witches may have been billed as a children's film, but its grotesque effects and generally mean nature ensured that no young viewer who saw the movie will ever be able to forget it. Indeed, the infamous horror of the original made many fans of that adaptation excited by the possibility of Guillermo Del Toro choosing to direct this upcoming project himself. 

In any case, everyone who signs on to this project (including Anne Hathaway) is going to have some big shoes to fill. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

This Deadly Class review contains spoilers.

Deadly Class Season 1 Episode 1

The Deadly Class premiere is difficult to judge. Like any show, it should be evaluated on its own merits in terms of the kind of story it’s trying to tell and the type of fan it’s supposed to appeal to. As an adaptation, it brings the Rick Remender/Wesley Craig Image comic to life in spectacular fashion, and it is as about as successful as anyone could hope — no surprise given the original writer and artist are attached to the project. But as a tale unto itself, it’s a bit uneven, yo-yoing between Master Lin’s profound motivation for establishing King’s Dominion, the school for assassins around which the series centers, and the students’ unapologetic stereotypes and predictable bluster.

That’s not to say the ensemble of teenage assassins in Deadly Class isn’t delightful — it is! As comic book exaggerations of brooding angst, they capture our imagination and invite us to learn more. When Marcus Lopez, a homeless nihilist with a tragic past played by Benjamin Wadsworth, is recruited to join the secret school for the deadly arts, his initial cynical refusal is refreshing, reminding us that King’s Dominion isn’t anything like Hogwarts. Likewise, the fact that a kiss from Saya  (Lana Condor) changes his mind makes sense for a lonely drifter like Marcus, even though he is told quite early on that Master Lin, the head of the school played wonderfully by Benedict Wong, brooks no disobedience, drugs, or sex.

Further Reading: Can Syfy Perfect the Art of a Killer Adaptation?

Maria, the sugar-skull-faced Mexican beauty with the bladed fans played by María Gabriela de Faría, assures Marcus that there are ways around that last one, and right away viewers know that part of the drama will center around classmate infatuations, not surprising or unwelcome in a drama of this sort. However, the manner in which the various gangs size Marcus up leading to a minor social infraction blown out of proportion by the leader of Soto Vatos, just as Maria is trying to recruit the Nicaraguan newcomer, seems like a tenuous faux pas to hang a murderous vendetta on.

In fact, the pettiness of the students’ cliques feels at odds with Master Lin’s stated goal for his assassins school: “to give peasants the power to overthrow their corrupt masters.” While Lin is clearly rationalizing the nobility of revenge because of the death of his own wife and daughter, we soak up his aphorisms with relish, trying to give the Dixie mob, the Hessians, and the Kuroki Syndicate the same charm as Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Lin realizes that we, like Marcus, may worry about right and wrong, but when he says, “Once you shed your fear, you’ll find that strength is better than weakness,” we’re eager for Marcus to make that journey of discovery to give it all a deeper meaning.

In that sense, the social Darwinism is only disconcerting because of the simplistic motivations it ascribes to most of the school’s attendees. It’s hard to care about caricatures. That’s why Luke Tennie’s Willie enters the scene like a breath of fresh air. As the leader of the Final World Order gang, he latches onto Marcus as his lab partner for AP Black Arts, in which they must kill someone who deserves to die. In addition to the inarguably relatable and humorous debate over Flaming Carrot and Uncanny X-Men, Willie is the first character to admit his vulnerability when he tells Marcus he’s secretly a pacifist. That confession is so much more interesting than anything the other would-be assassins had to say.

That includes Marcus’ own assertion that he’s going to kill President Reagan because he cut funding to mental health, allowing a released suicidal schizophrenic to jump from a tower onto his parents, killing them both. The fact that he is willing to kill homeless bully Rory, unlike Willie, gives us a glimmer of his deadly potential as does his schoolyard defiance of Chico, head of Soto Vatos, but in the end our picture of Marcus is colored by the mystery of what he did at the boys’ home and the loneliness that pulls him towards Maria while he pines after Saya. It all makes him more confusing than complex.

More: Deadly Class Preview: Inside the Mind of an Assassin

But then again, it’s only the pilot! We shouldn’t expect all of the character development to happen in the first episode of Deadly Class. If future storylines find a clear focus for Marcus and back off on the exaggerated jailhouse feel of the school, we have plenty of characters that will bring viewers back for more. Hopefully the show will capitalize on its unique premise (Henry Rollins and Erica Cerra as teachers were perfect!) and make its antiheroes into people we want to root for.

Keep up with all of the news and reviews for Deadly Class here!

Michael Ahr is a writer, reviewer, and podcaster here at Den of Geek; you can check out his work here or follow him on Twitter (@mikescifi). He co-hosts our Sci Fi Fidelity podcast and voices much of our video content.

You ever see a list of the top Punisher villains? Probably not, because, thanks to the skill and dedication of Frank Castle, most Punisher villains tend to die very quickly in really horrible ways. It’s difficult to maintain a functioning rogues gallery when your whole mission involves blasting them into bad guy McNuggets at every oportunity.

There are some exceptions, however, the most notable of which is Billy "Jigsaw" Russo. Last season, Punisher’s arch nemesis Billy Russo had his visage horrifically carved up in the season finale, and he returns in The Punisher season 2 as a very different take on Jigsaw. His entry to the world of the sadly dwindling Marvel Netflix series of shows should be memorable and potentially violent.

Played by Ben Barnes, TV’s Jigsaw is very different than the comic book Jigsaw, but despite that, it is still fascinating to look at Jigsaw’s history to find hints and clues of what might be coming in the second season of Marvel’s Punisher. So let’s look book at some must read Jigsaw stories of the past and find out how this horrid killer has survived the Punisher’s war for so long.

The First Appearance:

The Amazing Spider-Man #162 (1976) 

As you can see from the above, Jigsaw was co-created by the great Len Wein, the writer who also happened to co-create Wolverine and Swamp Thing, and the legendary artist Ross Andru. In this issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, a sniper is loose in New York City and the police believe the marksman killer to be the Punisher. This case leads Punisher into a conflict with both Spidey and another Wein co-creation, the mutant Nightcrawler. When it becomes clear the Punisher is being framed, superhero, gun crazy vigilante, and X-Man all team up to find the sniper.

read more: The Punisher Comics Reading Order

You can probably guess that the sniper was none other than Jigsaw who was out for revenge because the Punisher hideously scarred the murderous madman by smashing his face through a plate glass window. Sound familiar? Jigsaw was a walking, killing, raging reminder that the Punisher’s methods had consequences. And look, it took three legendary Marvel heroes to bring down Jigsaw in his first appearance, so the legacy of Jigsaw gets off to a blazing start!

The Origin

Punisher Year One (1995) 

Jigsaw’s origin is revealed in 1995’s Punisher Year One series. In this hidden gem of a mid-90s series (see not all of the '90s sucked, kids), Jigsaw’s dark origin plays out as writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (co-creators of the modern Guardians of the Galaxy) introduce Billy “The Beaut” Russo. Billy is assigned by his mob bosses to assassinate Frank Castle after the gangland slaying that left Castle’s family dead. Russo plants a bomb in Castle’s home, but Frank does what he always does, he survives, and goes after Russo.

Read our spoiler free review of The Punisher Season 2 here!

Castle tracks “The Beaut” and in their first confrontation, readers see the fabled plate glass window spot that Wein and Andru teased in Jigsaw’s Amazing Spider-Man debut. Castle smashes Billy’s handsome features into the window essentially turning “The Beaut” into rotten hamburger. Punisher Year One combines the origins of the Punisher and Jigsaw, essentially narratively linking the two arch foes forever, much like the Netflix series does.

A Deal with the Devil

Punisher #35-40, 55-56 (1990-1991)

In these hard hitting issues of The Punisher, Jigsaw teams up with a faux holy man drug lord named The Rev. The Rev has the powers to heal and finally cures Jigsaw’s mincemeat visage. That doesn’t make Jigsaw any less deadly as he continues to be obsessed with killing Frank Castle. The once again handsome Billy Russo goes after the Punisher and ends up getting himself killed.

read more: The Punisher and the Question of Gun Violence in America

Not wanting to lose his special little guy, The Rev makes a deal with the demonic entity known as Belasco to resurrect Russo (for those not in the know, Belasco is a one armed literal devil who is primarily a foe of the New Mutants and the X-Men). Russo goes after the Punisher again, but during a jungle battle, Castle gleefully tears apart Russo’s face. Who says Frank doesn’t have any hobbies? 

If You Can’t Beat Him, Become Him

Punisher v3, #4 (1996) 

Jigsaw’s obsession with taking down Frank Castle grows so deeply rooted, that when Frank Castle is arrested and seemingly executed, Jigsaw becomes embittered and begins murdering everyone involved with the Punisher’s demise. Donning a mockery of Castle’s Punisher gear, Jigsaw begins murdering all witnesses to the Castle execution.

read more: What to Expect From The Punisher Season 2

It turns out the Punisher wasn’t actually dead so Punisher and his sometimes pal Daredevil team up to bring down Jigsaw. Jigsaw is absolutely overjoyed when he sees the Punisher is still alive. A weird cat, that Jigsaw.

That Time He Beats Up Tigra and Films It

New Avengers #35 (2007) 

Wait, what? Jigsaw has been a puke inducing foe to many heroes of the Marvel Universe. In this particular tale, a story that will make you scrape your skin off with lye soap just to feel clean, Tigra prevents Jigsaw from robbing a bank. Humiliated, Jigsaw turns to the so-called Kingpin of Super Criminals, the mystically powered Hood, for revenge. The Hood and Jigsaw attack Tigra in her own apartment. As the Hood pistol whips and humiliates Tigra, Jigsaw films the whole thing. This leads to an alliance with the Hood and an attack on the Avengers.

The Punisher Season 2 Villain Explained: Who is John Pilgrim?

Jigsaw stoops low enough to try and snipe the infant daughter of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Thankfully, Spidey shows up and prevents this heinous act. But, jeez, poor Tigra. This non-Punisher appearance in New Avengers serves to solidify Jigsaw as one of the biggest scumbags in the Marvel Universe.

Seeing Double

Punisher: In the Blood #1–5 (2010-2011)

Here, Jigsaw teams up with a similarly scarred dick named Stuart Clarke. Together, Russo and Clarke become the Jigsaw Brothers and hire the HYDRA hitwoman named Lady Gorgon to impersonate Punisher’s long dead wife Maria. Of course, being the ultimate scumbag, Jigsaw betrays and murders Clarke and is seemingly killed by the Punisher while Jigsaw fights the skull-chested vigilante atop Jigsaw’s burning HQ. 

MAXimum Carnage

The Punisher v7, #61–65 (2008)

The mature reader world of Punisher MAX is notorious for copious amounts of violence and gore. So you know when Jigsaw, the ultimate Punisher foe, shows up, things get turned up to the (dons sunglasses, looks into camera) max ("yeahhhhhhhhhh!"). In this storyline, Jigsaw is a drug lord that kidnaps women and children from nearby border towns to use as disposable slave labor in his meth lab. The families turn to Punisher for help.

Jigsaw tries to drive the Punisher insane by fooling the vigilante into believing he accidently shot one of the children. Punisher is forced to perform an autopsy on the murdered child and finds that the bullet didn't come from his weapon. Needless to say, Frank is not happy and takes the fight to Jigsaw, burns the drug lab, frees the captive, and seemingly kills Jigsaw. Of course, like a horribly, horribly scarred penny, Jigsaw returns again and again to push the Punisher, an anti-hero already at the edge of sanity, even further over the edge.

The Punisher season 2 arrives on Netflix on Jan. 18.

The major works of John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R.) Tolkien were adapted in an epic manner in contemporary film by director Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and, years later, in The Hobbit Trilogy, with grandiose (allegedly exorbitant) television series plans in the works over at Amazon Studios. Yet, an upcoming biopic will cover another story connected to the influential author, namely his own life story.

While the biopic, titled Tolkien, stayed in the pipeline for a few years, things finally came together with director Dome Karukoski, who helmed this movie about the mind that made Middle Earth, which is headlined by Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins.

Tolkien Release Date

Tolkien has ventured there and back again to finally set its release date for May 10.

Deadline reported the date news.

Tolkien Story

Tolkien explores the circumstances that shaped Tolkien into becoming the author of the world's most famous fantasy novels. The film will show how the marriage of young Tolkien to Edith Bratt was interrupted in 1914 by World War I. After deliberation, Tolkien enlisted, experiencing four years of the world-altering global conflagration. The experiences would become the inspiration for Tolkien’s conception of 1937’s The Hobbit; a mythology he would expand exponentially with 1954-1955’s The Lord of the Rings novel trilogy, along with several supplemental Middle-earth-based stories, many of which would be published posthumously under the editorial stewardship of his son Christopher.

Tolkien certainly has compelling source material to utilize in telling the iconic author's story, which was wrought in not only war, but a quirky romance. Moreover, it will be interesting for fans, both casual and passionate, to witness the events that drove a certain young second lieutenant in the British Army to conjure the magical, ethereal, quasi-medieval world of Middle-earth and weave the intricate details of its sprawling mythology.

Tolkien Cast

Nicholas Hoult took the biopic's title role as one the 20th century's most celebrated authors, J.R.R. Tolkien. While Hoult has become a perennial blockbuster actor, playing Hank McCoy/Beast in the current X-Men films and was a catchphrase-coining standout in 2015’s apocalyptic franchise revival Mad Max: Fury Road, this prospective role in Tolkien won’t even be his first experience playing a famous author, having played the role of the reclusive J.D. Salinger in September’s Rebel in the Rye. While he fielded an uncredited role reprisal as Beast in Deadpool 2 last year, he'll be back properly in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which is set for June.

Lily Collins will play Edith Bratt, the love of Tolkien's life. She was a central figure in his life during the horrors of the First World War and would eventually become his wife, who in turn inspired Tolkien to create the graceful elvin characters of Middle-earth, including Arwen, the character played by Liv Tyler in Peter Jackson's adaptation of Lord of the Rings.

Colm Meaney plays a crucial figure in the life of J.R.R. in Father Francis Xavier Morgan. An overseer of the Birmingham Oratory, Morgan was frequently cited in Tolkien’s memoirs as a profoundly influential figure in his life, specifically when it came to charity and forgiveness amidst the darkest of circumstances; themes that are reflected in his Middle Earth novels.

Meaney, a veteran Irish actor, has seen and done it all on the screen and stage. Yet, he is best known to genre fans from the Star Trek television franchise as (transporter) Chief Miles O’Brien, first recurring on Star Trek: The Next Generation (starting in the pilot,) and later crossing over to the main cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; a role that, astoundingly, lasted 12 years (1987-1999,) uninterrupted. He recently appeared on TNT’s young Shakespeare series, Will, as impresario James Burbage. He also fielded a lengthy, fact-based, 2011-2016 run as the shady, yet enigmatic railroad entrepreneur, Thomas Durant, on AMC's Hell on Wheels.

Craig Roberts plays a character named Sam, a close friend of J.R.R.’s who served with the would-be Middle Earth-maker during the horrific, trench-trapped experiences of World War I. Of course, the name Sam will certainly raise flags for fans of Tolkien’s work, since, by no coincidence, it is the shortened name of Frodo’s unflinchingly loyal companion, Samwise Gamgee, in The Lord of the Rings, a character portrayed in director Peter Jackson's film trilogy to iconic, pathos-packed perfection by Sean Astin.

Roberts, a Welsh actor, is coming off a recently-completed run on the Amazon comedy series Red Oaks, with appearances in films such as The Fundamentals of Caring, 22 Jump Street, Neighbors, Submarine and The First Time. Interestingly, Tolkien will facilitate an onscreen reunion, since Roberts appeared opposite star Nicholas Hoult in the 2015 musical comedy film Kill Your Friends.

Tolkien Crew

Dome Karukoski will direct Tolkien, working off a script by David Gleeson (The Front Line, Cowboys & Angels) and actor-turned-writer Stephen Beresford (Pride). The Finnish director Karukoski is known for films from his home country such as 2017’s Tom of Finland, 2014’s The Grump and 2010’s Lapland Odyssey. With that creative crew set into place, casting for Tolkien is reportedly starting under the auspices of production company Chernin Entertainment at the behest of Fox Searchlight.

This, coupled with the rumblings about prospective star Nicholas Hoult was the first major movement on the J.R.R. Tolkien biopic endeavor since last fall, when the same trade reported that the project – then-titled Middle Earth– had tapped James Strong (Broadchurch, Downton Abbey) to direct, working off a script by a burgeoning screenwriter Angus Fletcher. However, the premise of the project in its current form as Tolkien seems to be the same, chronicling the author’s youthful experiences in which friendships, love, and an outcast status at school all lead to the horrors of the trenches in the First World War.

Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.

On January 9, Serial Box launched their newest title: a science fiction drama set in a war-and-disaster-torn future Japan. Ninth Step Station, created by Malka Older with a writing team that includes Fran Wilde, Jacqueline Koyanagi, and Curtis C. Chen, is part cop drama and part political thriller, pushed along with a solid dose of weird science fiction. New "episodes" are released every Wednesday.

In Ninth Step Station's version of 2033 Tokyo, sci-fi elements like body modification (cosmetic and weirdly functional, like cybernetic eyes that privately access digital information and infrared vision) and sleeves that work like tablets, cell phones, and ID rolled into one, are commonplace. 

Our future is filled with wars and disasters that haven’t happened, but, in reading Ninth Step Station, it’s easy to imagine that they could and: an earthquake could rock Tokyo, and an invasion of Japan by China could leave parts of the nation contested. In fact, the future feels so immediate, the characters so relatable, that it’s easy, despite the weird tech, to forget that Ninth Step Station is science fiction at all.

That being said, it’s always clear that Ninth Step Station is set in a dystopia. And, in that, along with its overarching sense of two oddly-paired investigators trying to get to the bottom of a crime, it shares a common lineage with another recent speculative fiction work that uses alternate, dystopian Japan to tell its story: Peter Tieryas’s United States of Japan.

I’ve raved aboutTieryas’s 2018 title Mecha Samurai Empire, and the novel inspired me to catch up on Tieryas’s previous book set in the world: a Man in the High Castle-esque setting in which Japan and Germany won World War II and carved up the United States between them, and now face each other in a cold war.

While Mecha Samurai Empire shows a brighter vision of the future of the United States of Japan, United States of Japan, set only a few years earlier, spends more time in the corrupt aspects of the setting, reveling in the dystopia. Although United States of Japan takes place in an alternate 1988, it feels like a future: people carry tablet-like porticals, drive electric cars, and indulge in body modifications (such as a flesh-phone, used by couriers for the ultimate in secure connections).

While both the novel and the serial exist independent of each other, reading them in tandem creates an interesting subtext about power, trust, and truth—and because Ninth Step Station’s season has just started, it’s worth picking up United States of Japan while waiting for new episodes.

United States of Japan: A Japan in Power

United States of Japan opens with the liberation of one of the Japanese internment camps in 1948. The mistreated Japanese-Americans (and other Americans suspected of Japanese-sympathies) are thrilled to be freed—but there’s little rosy shine on the Japanese Empire when they realize almost immediately that there will be no freedom of speech. To criticize the Emperor means death.

Fast forward forty years: the George Washingtons are the last American hold-outs, rebelling from their base in a destroyed San Diego. Beniko Ishimura, a censor of video games, becomes involved in the investigation of the death of Claire Mutsuraga, daughter of General Mutsuraga, formerly Ben’s commanding officer and currently suspected of creating a wildly popular and scandalously anti-USJ game, USA.

Akiko Tsukino, a member of the Tokko, or Japan’s secret police, treats Ben alternately like a suspect and an asset—until a turn of the tables puts them both on the run from the Japanese authorities. They have to find General Mutsuraga to clear their names—and for other, hidden reasons that don’t become clear until the narrative’s climax.

United States of Japan isn’t an easy novel to read. The setting is grim, the violence is graphic, and the fear of stepping out of line vivid even for members of the secret police. It’s also utterly brilliant. Tieryas’s narration takes care never to reveal too much at once, so that while the narrators always feel trustworthy, it’s also clear that they’re never revealing their full hand—not to the world, and not to the readers. The novel revolves around the concept of sacrifice, and the ultimate conclusion is powerful enough that it will stick with readers well beyond when they’ve finished the book.

And of course, in the middle of all of the twisting narratives that drive closer and closer to the truth, there’s amazingly cool tech, from the video games to the weird body modifications to the occasional appearance of mecha. United States of Japan doesn’t create a picture of a place I’d like to visit, the way Mecha Samurai Empire did, but it created a story I had to continue reading, because I needed the puzzle pieces to click into place.

Read United States of Japan

Ninth Step Station: A Japan at the Mercy of Enemies and Allies

Ninth Step Station puts a futuristic Japan in exactly the opposite position of power: rather than being an empire that occupies large portions of the world, Japan is torn, parts occupied by China, and its government is only barely functional. The nation has never recovered from the earthquake that made it vulnerable to invasion. And while the world is at peace—for now—there’s no telling what small spark could set that fragile peace ablaze.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police force is working with a limited budget and a fraction of the resources they used to have—their facial recognition and fingerprint databases were fractured by the earthquake and much of their data never recovered. But, despite the limited resources, Detective Miyako Koreda is anything but thrilled to hear that she’s being paired with a US peacekeeper, Emma Higashi, as her new partner.

Essentially on loan to the local police, Emma’s not exactly thrilled with the assignment, either—she’s nominally working with the Tokyo police to improve the allied-US’s understanding of Tokyo, but she wonders if part of her position isn’t meant to keep her eyes on her allies, as well as their enemies. Despite their reluctant team up, Miyako and Emma end up complimenting each other well, and as the serial (which I’ve read in an advance format) progresses, they solve a number of cases, including several murders and a kidnapping.

Further reading: The Best Online Serial Fiction You Should Be Reading

While the core story of each episode would fit well as a developing buddy-cop drama on television, with all the right tropes and cues, it’s the ongoing world-building and political intrigue that keeps the story fascinating. Emma and Miyako are both compelling characters, and—reminiscent of the narration in United States of Japan—while the readers think they know them both well enough to sense their motives, the suspicions they have of each other may leave readers wondering if their loyalties are really clear. When Emma is told that there’s a leak to China in the police force, she’s forced to wonder if that leak could be her partner. And when Miyako comes into information that would be relevant to US interests, the fact that she keeps it to herself may further undermine their relationship.

All this is set against a backdrop of drones, cool personal tech, and a weird black market of body shops—as well as a mysterious resistance with motives that aren’t clear. Are they rebelling against China’s occupation alone, or is there a part of their own national government they’d like to bring down? Watching the story unfold involves some of the same puzzle-piece placing that makes United States of Japan so good, and may leave readers wondering just who to root for.

Despite their differences, both United States of Japan and Ninth Step Station give a strong sense of Japanese literary heritage (in the eyes of this non-Japanese, long-time manga-reading reviewer). And though the timelines are completely different, the atmosphere of the worlds, the uses of innovative technology, and the questions they pose make them excellent complements to one another. 

Alana Joli Abbott writes about books for Den of Geek. Read more of her work here.

Good news, Shadowhunters fans! The Freeform series is back for Season 3... even if it's currently on midseason hiatus.

Read more about the Shadowhunters cancellation here.

Shadowhunters Season 3 Return Date

Shadowhunterswill return for Season 3B on February 25th, 2019. Next up? Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 11, titled "Lost Souls." 

Shadowhunters Season 3 Episode 11 Trailer

Check out this sneak peek for "Lost Souls"...

Here's the full episode synopsis...

"In the emotional midseason premiere, everyone is dealing with the loss of Clary and are trying to move on best they can. Unbeknownst to them, the Shadowhunters face a new level of evil that they can’t even imagine with the arrival of Jonathan Morgenstern (Luke Baines), the true form of Clary’s brother.

With the loss of Clary after Lilith’s apartment exploded, Alec, Isabelle and Jace try to come to terms with what has happened. Glad to have their brother back, Alec and Isabelle are still worried about Jace, who is taking the actions of The Owl very hard. Magnus is also mourning the loss of his magic and finds himself in a new position – having to rely on others for help.

Meanwhile, Maia tries to help a devastated Simon who has lost his family and his best friend. But unknown to everyone, Clary is alive and finds herself in a new and dangerous predicament."

Shadowhunters Season 3 Episode Guide

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 1: On Infernal Ground

Secrets abound as the Shadowhunters and Downworlders attempt to return to normal following Valentine's death; Clary struggles with keeping her secret about Raziel's wish; Lilith sets a plan in motion as Simon spends time in the Seelie Court.

Original air date: 3/20/18

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 2: The Powers That Be

The Warlocks’ magic is becoming corrupted by a demonic presence while Izzy and Luke try to track down more information on the recent series of possessions.

Original air date: 3/27/18

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 3: What Lies Beneath

The Shadowhunters try to track down the new imposing threat, while Jace has a suspicion that Jonathan is back and behind the mundane attacks. Simon tries to figure out what The Seelie Queen did to him during his time in the glade. Alec decides to host a Lightwood family dinner at Magnus’ house after a surprising visit from Maryse.

Original air date: 4/3/18

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 4: Thy Soul Instructed

Jace becomes concerned about his mental state and turns to Luke for information on his family's past; Clary and Izzy go after a rogue vampire; Simon hunts for a new apartment.

Original air date: 4/10/18

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 5: Stronger Than Heaven

Jace tries to learn who is out to get Simon; Clary turns to Luke to find a way to help Jace; Alec worries about the future of his relationship after learning more about Magnus' romantic past.

Original air date: 4/17/18

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 6: A Window Into an Empty Room

Clary teams up with Magnus to investigate a recent demon attack; Simon is stunned when he is visited by someone he thought he would never see again; Izzy worries about dinner with her family and a special guest; Luke reaches out to Maryse.

Original air date: 4/24/18

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 7: Salt in the Wound

With the Owl's identity revealed, Alec, Isabelle, and Clary head to Alicante to try and find a way to stop him. Luke and Simon team up to track Lilith's latest possible victim. Maia reflects on her past.

Original air date: 5/1/18

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 8: A Walk Into Darkness

Magnus, Alec and Isabelle try to reach Jace inside The Owl, but even as powerful as Magnus is, can he help the Lightwoods retrieve their brother from his demon prison? Maia and Jordan join Simon on the hunt for Lilith, while Luke tries to find a way to get to Clary.

Original air date: 5/8/18

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 9: Familia Ante Omnia

Clary faces down an old foe in an attempt to find answers about Lilith’s plan. Alec and Magnus turn to Lorenzo Rey for help, while Lilith finds a new ally. Luke must choose between his pack and his family, as Simon is forced to deal with his past.

Original air date: 5/15/18

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 10: Erchomai

The team scrambles to find a way to put a stop to Lilith's plan; Simon makes a heartbreaking choice with Isabelle's help; Magnus reconnects with a powerful person from his past.

Original air date: 5/22/18

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 11: Lost Souls

In the emotional midseason premiere, everyone is dealing with the loss of Clary and are trying to move on best they can. Unbeknownst to them, the Shadowhunters face a new level of evil that they can’t even imagine with the arrival of Jonathan Morgenstern (Luke Baines), the true form of Clary’s brother.

With the loss of Clary after Lilith’s apartment exploded, Alec, Isabelle and Jace try to come to terms with what has happened. Glad to have their brother back, Alec and Isabelle are still worried about Jace, who is taking the actions of The Owl very hard. Magnus is also mourning the loss of his magic and finds himself in a new position – having to rely on others for help.

Meanwhile, Maia tries to help a devastated Simon who has lost his family and his best friend. But unknown to everyone, Clary is alive and finds herself in a new and dangerous predicament.

Original air date: 2/25/19

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 12: Original Sin

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 13: Beati Bellicosi

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 14: A Kiss From a Rose

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 15: To the Night Children

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 16: Stay With Me

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 17: Heavenly Fire

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 18: The Beast Within

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 19: Aku Cinta Kamu

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 20: City of Glass

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 21: Alliance

Shadowhunters Season 3, Episode 22: All Good Things

Shadowhunters Season 3 Release Date

Shadowhunters Season 3 hit Freefrom on Tuesday, March 20th at 8 p.m. ET. The season will have 20 episodes.

Shadowhunters Season 3 Trailer

Shadowhunters debuted a trailer for Season 3 at NYCC, complete with some Jace/Clary action, Simon and the Seelie Queen, and Magnus adjusting to his new life. Check it out...

Shadowhunters Season 3 Cast

Arrow's Anna Hopkins will join the Shadowhunters Season 3 cast as Lilth. The role is recurring.

Also joining the Shadowhunters team is Hamilton's Javier Muñoz. Muñoz will appear as one of Magnus' warlock rivals.

Season 2 showrunners Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer will be staying on as showrunners for the third season, along with executive producers McG, Michael Reisz, Matt Hastings, Mary Viola, Martin Moszkowicz and Robert Kulzer.

To tell you the truth, until recently, I was kind of over Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I got on board with the series late, binge-watching my then-roommate’s box sets to catch up in time to watch the final season air.

There are so many moments from that show that really show what a television series can be—and the series is still frequently regarded as one of the most influentialand important shows of modern television. When the show concluded in 2003, I was satisfied with the ending. I watched some of the last season of Angel and dabbled in reading the Dark Horse comics for a bit (Season 8 had some very cool moments), but I found my interest waning.

further reading: Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Revisiting 4 Halloween Episodes

Buffy had been at its best, I felt, as a high school story, and even though there are some amazing episodes from later seasons, something about losing that teen flavor to adult darkness put a damper on my enthusiasm. This context is part of the reason why, reading Slayer, Kiersten White’s new YA novel set in the Dark Horse continuity of the original series, everything is shiny and new. White grabs onto the Buffy mythology I knew and loved, tweaks it, and starts in on the saga of the Last Slayer: Nina Jamison-Smythe, daughter of Buffy’s first Watcher.

If you followed all seven television seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you know that Buffy changed the game: instead of only one girl in all the world being chosen as the Slayer, Buffy and Willow enable a host of Potential Slayers to be called. It’s with that gigantic team of Slayers that Buffy is able to defeat the First Evil and, once again, save the world.

In the comics that followed, during Season 8, Buffy chooses to destroy the source of all magic in the world (the Seed of Wonder) rather than allow a mass-invasion of the world from the demonic realms. The act saves the world, but also leaves the planet a little less beautiful: according to Willow, “There hasn't been a decent song, movie or book, since we lost the seed!”

It’s only by chance—or prophesied fate—that Nina Jamison-Smythe, one of the few members of Watcher families to have survived the attack on Watcher headquarters during Season Seven’s “Never Leave Me," becomes a Slayer.  

Along with the other surviving Watchers, Nina and her twin, Artemis, are in hiding in Ireland, where they watch, and wait, for a day when the Slayers will need the Watcher’s Council again. Not inclined toward the violence so prevalent in their world, Nina has trained to be the medic for the remaining Watchers. Her mother is distant, and her twin so capable that Nina is always in someone’s shadow. But, on the day the Seed of Wonder is destroyed, a demon attack on the Watchers results in Nina’s secret Slayer Potential turning her into a full-fledged Slayer—the last Potential to be activated before all magic is lost to the world.

While Nina navigates what it means to be a Slayer—and deals with her own hatred for Buffy, the girl who got her father killed and the reason that there are now so many Slayers—she also deals with her own conflicting nature. When she encounters a demon who seems to need help, she’s not sure whether to be a medic or a Slayer. And when helping that demon leads her into further intrigue that may shape the fate of the Watchers, and her family, forever, Nina takes agency of her actions, becoming responsible for her own choices—even when she’s not sure she’d making the right ones.

Because I wasn’t sure how much I’d enjoy jumping back into the Buffyverse, starting from a point of view character who hated Buffy was just enough outside of my expectations that I was able to throw away my doubts. Nina’s a compelling narrator, and her sixteen-year-old point of view, complete with a crush on a boy who might be exactly right—or wrong—for her and a tempestuous relationship with the sister she always thought was her closest ally in the world, took me back to those early seasons of Buffy, before she’d died the second time and the world felt bleak.

Nina can see the beauty in the world, and the hope, and others see her as a light in the darkness. She’s exactly the reentry point I needed, and she’ll be a fantastic starting character to bring new readers into the world. (The cameos from Faith and Buffy end up being delightful, as well, and White nails the voices of each of those characters with flare.)

Of course, new readers may also be starting from a comics launching point: Along with White’s novel, January also saw the first issue of the rebooted Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic from BOOM! Studios. (Disney’s Fox purchase led to a loss of the comics license for Dark Horse, making Season 12 the final canon season of the original storyline.) The new series essentially retells the same story as the original, but with a 2019 beginning setting instead of 1997. (The Issue 1 cover shows Buffy wielding two weapons: stake and cell phone.)

Add the comic to the news that a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer series is in the works (whether as a reboot or as a sequel series, which remains a bit unclear), and it’s possible that the Buffyverse is prime to have a whole new audience.

Further reading: Writing an Oral History of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

If the television show goes in the direction of introducing a new heroine, Slayer shows that there are plenty of stories to tell in the Buffyverse that center on characters beyond the original Buffy. That Nina may be at the center of a prophecy—and that she faces down one apocalypse while the original Scoobies are off handling another one on the other side of the world—shows that there can be more than one Slayer saving the world.

But even if the new series goes in an entirely different direction, it will be a delight to see where Slayer goes with its sequels, and Nina’s adventures may just make her the Slayer to follow.

Alana Joli Abbott writes about books for Den of Geek. Read more of her work here.

This article consists of nothing but The Punisher Season 2 spoilers.

While the Netflix arm of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has always been happy to take some liberties with their respective area of the shared continuity, The Punisher Season 2 really seems to take that idea and run with it. Not only does it refrain from making any direct references to any major shared moments in either the main MCU or the Netflix corner of the universe (no Infinity War aftermath to be found here folks, as if that were a surprise) it also keeps a healthy distance from a good deal of its comics history.

Naturally, that doesn't mean there are no comic book easter eggs and nods to be found, but this season takes its inspiration and really runs with it, plucking a handful of Punisher story deep cuts and character names and adapting them into something completely new for the live action universe. Here's everything we managed to find on a first viewing. If you spotted anything else, let us know down in the comments or on Twitter, and if it checks out, we'll update this until it's the most comprehensive The Punisher Season 2 resource around!

The Punisher Season 2 Episode 1: Roadhouse Blues

"While driving through Michigan, Frank stops for a beer at a roadside bar. But staying out of trouble has never been his strong suit."

- The band at the bar is playing "The Outsider" by Shooter Jennings, which is a little on-the-nose for Frank's mental state. Look, no one ever claimed The Punisher was subtle.

- Frank still goes by "Pete," as in Peter Castiglione, a pseudonym he's used several times over in the show that stems from his comic book history. It stems from Frank's original Italian family name, which was later Americanized to Castle.

We have more info on the old Castiglione name right here.

- Unlike many of the other new characters in this season, Amy Bendix is actually rooted in the comics. First appearing in Punisher: War Zone #24 back in 1994, Amy's been overhauled to fit her new role for the small screen.

Aged up and transformed into a "street-wise grifter," Amy's comic book counterpart was a little girl who spotted Frank escaping from one of his murder scenes, only to swear to him she'd keep his secret. Later, he even helped her recover her dollhouse. Aw.

- This episode introduces John Pilgrim, season two's main antagonist who was developed specifically for the show. He is a Christian fundamentalist turned murderer with a strict code of ethics he is willing to kill for -- but his desire to track down Amy is a major mystery.

While he's not specifically based on any one Marvel villain, he clearly draws inspiration from Mennonite, a villain who first appeared in Punisher MAX #3 in 2010.

Read more about John Pilgrim here.

- Agent Madani, who you'll hopefully remember from season one, has recovered fully from her brutal gunshot to the head, care of Billy Russo -- who she obviously has not forgiven. Despite being physically in perfect health, it would seem Madani's mental state is slipping, and badly, as she's fixated herself like a laser on Billy and turned to alcohol to numb the pain.

- Speaking of, Billy Russo is still very much hospitalized after his final encounter with Frank last season. The weird plastic mask is thanks to Frank smashing his face through glass a few times over -- and for theatricality, I guess. Art therapy, maybe.

The Punisher Season 2 Episode 2: Fight or Flight

"Frank and a reluctant Rachel go on the run as a menacing adversary gives chase. Meanwhile, Madani pays Russo an unwelcome visit."

- Wondering what's going on with Billy? Apparently so is Billy. He has no memory of his last encounter with Frank or anything that happened in his life after his stint in the military. If that sounds a little too convenient to you, Agent Madani thinks so, too.

- Billy's doctor, Dr. Dumont, however, is very much on the side of her patient. Dumont isn't based on anyone from the comics, specifically, but is definitely someone to keep an eye on as the season plays out, especially given her affinity and sympathy for Billy.

- Dumont's advice and treatment for Billy's memory recovery is for him to "put together the jigsaw," an obvious nod to Billy's comics based codename: Jigsaw. Though over in the comics Billy's nickname was a lot more on-the-nose -- he got thanks to his "jigsaw-like" facial scarring. Though the MCU's Billy also has a pretty messed up face, you can only make someone like Ben Barnes so ugly before you just have to give up, I guess.

We have more info on what Jigsaw was like in the Punisher comics right here.

Frank is still driving around in his, uh, "signature" van which not only featured in the first season of the show but is actually a bizarre sort of tradition for his comic book counterpart.

Dating all the way back to the debut of Frank's "War Journal," in Giant-Sized Spider-Man #4, Frank's had an affinity for tooling around in clunky looking vans, sometimes they're even known as "Battle Vans" just to make them extra on brand.

The Punisher Season 2 Episode 3: Trouble the Water

"As Pilgrim's past comes into focus, Frank and Rachel find themselves in police custody, where they're anywhere but safe."

- While we still don't have much info about John Pilgrim's history, we get our first clue here in the form of some very old, mostly removed tattoos of Nazi and white supremacist iconography. In case you couldn't already tell, this dude isn't a great person.

- Netflix MCU mainstay Sergeant Brett Mahoney is back for this season! He's been around for a while in just about every Marvel streaming show, and has a comic book history all his own, since he was introduced in Marvel Comics Presents #1 back in 2007.

read more: Why Playing The Punisher is Sacred to Jon Bernthal

- Hopefully you don't need me reminding you of Frank's past but he gets called a "jarhead" in this episode as a reference to his time as a Marine.

- One of the officers calls Frank out as a western hero who rides into town but is secretly the devil, which isn't a reference to a specific western movie, but a trope used throughout the genre. Frank as the black hat, lone gunman archetype is a pretty foundational element of the Punisher character across all mediums.

The Punisher Season 2 Episode 4: Scar Tissue

"Rachel recalls the night everything changed and lets Frank in on the truth about her name. Russo sits down with a face from his childhood."

- If you're totally in the dark vis-a-vis Frank and Russo's bad blood, you might want to refresh yourself on the totality of season one. This version of their story was invented for the MCU specifically, but it involves Russo being the man behind the gun that killed Frank's family. Yikes.

- Remember Curtis Hoyle? Another major player from season one is back in this episode, and he's Frank's old military buddy who runs a support group for vets. It's difficult to tell since he's usually wearing long pants but Curtis lost his leg while he was serving and was discharged. That's why he rarely helps Frank in actual combat.

- What is it with MCU bad guys and baseball? Billy's history is linked to a love of baseball just like Daredevil season 3 antagonist Ben "Dex" Poindexter, aka Bullseye. This probably just a coincidence rather than an intentional thematic link, but still, you have to admit it's pretty funny.

- Speaking of Billy's tragic past, this episode is loaded with quick little refreshers and call backs to season one, like the Ray Of Hope Group Home where Billy grew up.
We start to see the first inklings of Frank actually taking Amy under his wing here, which might not be a callback to any specific comic book plot, but it's actually not the first time Frank's taken on a sort of "sidekick" with a similar backstory.

read more: How The Punisher Season 2 Brings Jigsaw to Life

This trajectory for Amy's story seems to have been at least partially inspired by Rachel Cole who first appeared in The Punisher #1 back in 2011, who was motivated by the loss of her own family to join Frank's crusade temporarily.

- You can spot MCU network powerhouse WHIH at one point in the episode, too.

The Punisher Season 2 Episode 5: One-Eyed Jacks

"It's not a trap if you know it's coming: That's Frank's philosophy. Madani opens up and Pilgrim plans to visit an unholy land."

- Welcome back to Netflix MCU veteran Turk Barrett, who is long suffering as always. You'll recognize him from just about every streaming Marvel show, where he's usually getting beat on by the good (and bad) guys for one reason or another, even after he mostly gave up his life up crime. In the comics, Turk occasionally goes by Stilt-Man (no really) and has even temporarily held an Infinity Stone, so his life is pretty wild no matter what universe he's in.

read more - The Punisher and the Bloody Legacy of Marvel's First Superhero Movie

- More season one call backs, this time to Curt's support group for veterans, which played a pretty major role in the events of last season. It's basically exactly what it says on the tin: a group therapy session for vets who are having trouble fitting back into daily life.

- Is it possible that Frank Castle is such a rube he doesn't understand that three card monte is a sucker's game? Seriously?

- Frank getting brutalized by (and in turn brutalizing) a whole gym full of Russians is faintly reminiscent of the classic Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon Punisher fight with "The Russian" in their first arc on the book, "Welcome Back, Frank." That was adapted into the very best scene in the Thomas Jane Punisher movie, with Kevin Nash as "The Russian."

Episodes 6-9

Unless we missed something, these episodes are all Marvel reference free! Hit us up on Twitter if you managed to catch something and we'll update this as we go!

The Punisher Season 2 Episode 10: The Dark Hearts of Men

"As Madani and Krista debate who's worth saving, Frank prepares to storm Russo's territory. A brutal encounter pushes Pilgrim back into old habits."

- This episode uses a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son," a favorite anthem of the Vietnam era. This particular incarnation of Frank has obviously been modernized, but in his original debut back in 1974, the Punisher was a veteran of Vietnam.

The Punisher Season 2 Episode 11: The Abyss

"Amy rushes to protect Frank, who lies defenseless in a hospital. Pilgrim gets some crushing news, and Karen Page calls in a favor."

- Hey, it's Karen Page! Fans will recognize her from all over the Netflix MCU (not to mention Marvel comics) but specifically as one of Frank's earliest and most trusted, er, associates, from his debut in Daredevilseason 2. Karen is representing Nelson and Murdock, which was newly reformed at the end of Daredevil season 3 with Karen as an official partner.

Episodes 12 and 13

Like six through nine, we didn't catch any overt references to other Marvel moments in these episodes, but if you did, let us know in the comments or on Twitter. We have an explanation of all of the various implications of that ending right here, though.

This Young Justice: Outsiders review contains spoilers.

Young Justice Season 3 Episode 8

"Triptych" is exactly what the title implies: three adjacent stories that tell one bigger tale. It plays a little loose with the passage of time, but it also moves the ball further down the field than any episode yet this season and looks at the overarching story of Young Justice: Outsidersfrom a different angle, expanding the world in interesting ways.

The three stories are fairly straightforward: Nightwing and his Outsiders get a lead on where to find more information about Brion's sister and the League, so they head for a Detroit airport hangar where Shade, Live Wire, and Mist are waiting for their teammate, Cheshire, to get sewn up after taking a bullet at Star Labs, where they were stealing something Reach-related. The Outsiders handle them pretty easily, but it's a great example of their newfound team combat dynamic. They're tight and well structured, and the episode pairs each Outsider off with a solid foil - Black Lightning and Live Wire is an obvious one that will pay off later this season; Nightwing and Mist get some cool fights in against each other; and Halo develops a new aura that lights Shade on fire. Meanwhile, Tigress confronts her sister and gets a little intel before yelling at her for being a terrible mom. It's poignant and not a little frustrating to see Cheshire, someone who's otherwise so competent and fearless, turn into a coward at the thought of seeing her child.

read more - Young Justice: Outsiders Episode 7 Review

We then jump to the Bat Fam in Gotham - Tim Drake Robin, Spoiler, Arrowette and Orphan (!) are on patrol tailing the Mad Hatter. They turn away for a second, and when they turn back, Cassandra is cutting Tetch in half to reveal Clayface. A fight ensues and ends up back wth the real Hatter, where they find Tetch switching his M.O. from mind control hats to mind control nanites, which he's shooting into captured metahumans. They can't really do much before the building is blown.

Then we cut to a prisoner transport in Star City. Brick and someone else are being transferred to Belle Reve, but Sportsmaster and Abra Kadabra show up to break him out. Unfortunately for them, the drivers are Shazam and Flash in disguise. Sportsmaster gets away with the mysterious prisoner, while Kadabra and Brick are captured by the Justice League.

Then all three stories come together. It turns out all three teams - Nightwing's Outsiders, Batman's ex Leaguers, and the Justice League - are working together to tackle the meta trafficking problem from different angles, and that all three villain events were linked together, just time flipped. The mysterious prisoner Sportsmaster freed was Shade, who was being injected with Hatter's nanites and stealing the Reach artifact in Detroit. They were all employed by shell companies of Stagg Industries, and the Reach artifact is some kind of "metahuman failsafe." There's a bit of arguing about what they'll have to do if somebody catches on that they're working together, but this argument is a little bit silly in light of the fact that three of the people in it are one person whose death was faked so that the other could be more deeply embedded in the supervillain organization while the third almost blew the whole thing with her telepathy.

Regardless, we're almost halfway there now, and Young Justice: Outsiders started things rolling downhill with this episode. It's fun, fast and full of action, and it made me even more excited for what's next.

Outsider Trading Tips

- Shade and Live Wire are here for the first time, but I think Mist was in Season 1, and I'm pretty sure she's actually Secret from the Young Justicecomic. Peter David co-created her in the comic, so him writing the episode makes it more likely to be the case.

- If you're watching this, it means you have DC Universe so go read James Robinson's Starmanright now. Even if you didn't like Shade, who's a main-ish characater in that comic. It's amazing.

- Silas Stone is researching the Reach failsafe, so don't be surprised when Cyborg shows up filthy with Reach tech later this season.

- Doctor Moon, who works on Cheshire, is an expert brain surgeon and torturer in the comics. He first appeared in a Denny O'Neil Batmanbook.

- A Tim Drake/Arrowette/Spoiler/Cassandra Cain team is pretty much my ideal Bat-adjacent comic. What a time to be alive.

- Tim's Robin outfit here is one of my favorites. It's like a cross between his RIP era costume and Damian's Robin look, filtered through Young Justice's design sensibility. It's great.

- In case this is your first experience with him, Abra Kadabra's "Magic" is actualy just 64th century science. He's a time traveller who wants to use the greatest superpower of all to make himself rich: compound interest. He was created by Broome and Infantino as a Flash villain in 1962.

- Simon Stagg is typically a Metamorpho foil, but he's offed pretty quickly here. I bet Metamorpho shows up down the road though. He does have some history with the Outsiders in the comics. He was created alongside Metamorpho in 1965 by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon.

Keep up with all our Young Justice: Outsiders news and reviews right here.

Prepare yourselves, Rebel scum. The elite squadron of TIE Fighters known as "Shadow Wing" is coming for you.

Marvel has announced that it will be launching a five-issue comic miniseries called Star Wars: TIE Fighter. As the name suggests, TIE Fighter will tell the story of the end of Galactic Rebellion from the Empire's point of view. Because after all, from some people's point of view, the Jedi are evil. TIE Fighter will follow an elite squadron of TIE Fighter pilots known as "Shadow Wing" who rush to protect the collapsing Empire's interests following the end of the Galactic Civil War in Return of the Jedi. 

Star Wars: TIE Fighter will be written Jody Houser, who is no stranger to the Star Wars comic canon, having written Star Wars: Thrawnand several issues of Star Wars: Age of Republic. The first issue in the series will be released in April of this year. Here is a look at the cover.

Star Wars: TIE Fighter will actually be part of what Marvel is referring to as a crossover event. On June 11, roughly two months after the release of TIE Fighter, Del Ray Books will be releasing Alphabet Squadron, the first book in a planned trilogy about a famed Rebel squadron set in the same time period as TIE Fighter. Alphabet Squadron will be written by Alexander Freed.

Fans will be able to experience the fall of the Empire from the Empire's point of view and then do so again from the Rebellion's point of view. Choose your side wisely. 

read more: Star Wars Streaming Guide

This Star Wars crossover event is just the next component in what has already been a busy past few months for the Star Wars and Marvel partnership. Following the dubious cancellation of Chuck Wendig's Star Wars: Shadow of Vader, Marvel went ahead and greenlit a similar series called Star Wars: Vader - Dark Visions. That is set to launch in March. 

Looks like the Empire is going to get a considerable head start in the war for readers' hearts and minds.

Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek and TCA member. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad

If you asked a room full of people "What New 52 launch book do you miss the most?" I'm the guy shouting "OMAC" before the rest of their room can turn their heads in puzzlement. Dan DiDio is a pretty fun writer who, Dick Grayson blood feud aside, can mimic the styles of a lot of different, great DC eras and gently update them for modern sensibilities.

Sideways is like a Spider-Man relaunch set in the Image Revolution and soaked with Dark Multiverse DC continuity. There are a lot of ingredients to add to the bowl with that, but DiDio and Kenneth Rocafort, co-creators of the book, are up to the task. 

The way Sideways revels in recent DC cosmology is pretty great, too. I'm an easy Grant Morrison mark, so putting the Seven Soldiers and man-of-the-people New 52 Superman in here is extremely good targeting (and follows on from the recent annual, which we discussed here), but it works because of the tone of the book and Derek's powers. Man, Seven Soldiers was really good.

This first wave of post-Dark Knights books is wrapping up, and Sideways and The Terrifics have been the highlights. However, Sideways is the one that is succeeding in part on the strength of its place in the broader DC universe. Dark Star Sciences is a new evil super-science crew that might be connected to another group of bad guys in a world where you can never have enough two-timing evil super-science crews, and as mentioned above, Derek is digging deep into mid-aughts DC comics for assistance on missions to the Dark Multiverse.

Here's what DC has to say about the latest issue:

SIDEWAYS #12 art and cover by KENNETH ROCAFORT
written by DAN DiDIO
Trapped at mysterious Dark Star Sciences, Sideways learns how Leto has been following him all along, as well as her plans for the Dark Multiverse as an endless energy source to be mined—and his powers are her way in. Sideways goes over the edge and breaks free, battling Bolt again in the process. Will Derek’s quest for vengeance for his mother’s death lead to a rift he can’t escape or control?

Rocafort is unbelievable, by the way. His work on Ultimates was beautiful, career-making stuff that made the occasionally impenetrably zany Al Ewing's scripts shine. Here, he's building a world out of the chaos of Dark Nights that is incredibly detailed and energetic. He lays out pages really well - look at the stuff going on outside the panel borders in the preview pages below and imagine this story without that. It wouldn't be nearly as effective.

Check out these preview pages...

For more on Sideways, frontways, backways, upways, downways or outways, or to watch me inadvertently morph into a children's book again, stick with Den of Geek!

The comparisons between The Wild Stormand The Authorityare obvious and pretty easy to make. I mean, Warren Ellis wrote both of them and he's basically putting the Authority (the team) back together in this book. But I'm not entirely sure that comparison is the right one. Certainly not when you're looking for something in Ellis's back catalogue to compare it to.

Before I got my hands on a preview copy of The Wild Storm #19, I would have said the best analogue would be Planetary but meaner. After checking this issue out, though, I'm not sure I'd stick with the "but meaner" qualifier.

There is a page at the end that potentially turns the tone of the book on its head, from something dirty and rough, full of back-and-forth black ops where the goal is spite and annihilation, to something almost hopeful and optimistic. We'll see how it plays out. I'm most definitely hanging around for the end.

It's not a direct one to one comparison. Planetary was an homage to comics and nerd culture. Every issue early on was a love note to a different piece - Godzilla, John Woo movies, the Fantastic Four, Green Lanterns, etc. The Wild Storm is not that.

Planetary was also a story we came into the middle of, a world with a secret history of superheroes that was peeled open one layer at a time. It was beautiful, with crystal clear storytelling from John Cassaday at his peak, and fundamentally hopeful. Barely an issue went by without Elijah Snow, the main character of the book and one of many Ellis stand ins to show up over the years, expressing his awe at how incredible the world is. With this issue, I think The Wild Storm gets there. This world that Ellis is building from scratch is rich and layered, and we only see those layers when it serves the story he's telling about Angie. The secret history gets teased out even further by Jenny Sparks here, and it's bonkers. This book is regularly at the top of my pull list when it drops.

Here's what DC has to say about the issue.

THE WILD STORM #19 written by WARREN ELLIS
art and cover by JON DAVIS-HUNT
variant cover by MARLEY ZARCONE
Beginning the fourth story arc of THE WILD STORM. Jenny Mei Sparks has been around for over a century. She’s seen a lot of things. Enough bad stuff that she took 20 years off to get drunk. And now she’s back, and she has a plan. The problem is that other people have plans, too, and one of them is about reducing the population of Earth by around 90 percent.

Now check out these preview pages!

For more on The Wild Storm as it wraps up its initial run, stick with Den of Geek!

"Well, if you’re so cosmic you’ll know why," John Lennon explained to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as the final two Beatles left his Ashram before fulfilling their Transcendental Meditation regimen. "And he gave me a look like ‘I’ll kill you, you bastard,'” Lennon told Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone in December 1970, which was later published as the book Lennon Remembers. Inner peace is as much a bitch as karma, which bites the asses of rock stars and gurus alike. The Maharishi was accused of sexual misconduct during the Beatles' sojourn to India for enlightenment, a journey which may have culminated in the band teaming with the Beach Boys in spreading the movement. But it darkened Lennon's vibes so bad he banged out the holy rocking roller "Sexy Sadie."

Of course, Lennon's original version called the enlightened one a "cunt" and a "twat," and asked "who the fuck do you think you are?" until George Harrison, who was the real reason the pair were making a hasty exit due to production commitments for a Ravi Shankar film, suggested a better rhyme scheme. And a much hotter title. "Sexy Sadie" from The Beatles ("White") album preceded "How Do You Sleep?" as one of Lennon's signature tunes of personality bashing, and gave murderess Susan Atkins her signature alias.

read more: John Lennon's 'How Do You Sleep?' Footage Reveals Unrest

Lennon has a reputation of taking his personal frustrations out in rhyme and chord scheme to produce classic sides of sarcastic acoustics with melodies that get caught in your head. He could turn a bad mood into a great song. He woke up angry at Paul McCartney one morning and had George Harrison doing slide leads by the afternoon to produce "How Do You Sleep?" for his otherwise peaceable Imagine album. He flipped the bird at rich groupies after a bad one-night stand in "Norwegian Wood" from The Beatles'Rubber Soul. He slapped Peter Fonda for ruining a good trip in "She Said, She Said" from Revolver. After about nine revelations, Lennon wanted to wipe the grin off the face of the giggling guru.

Harrison and McCartney have gone on to publicly apologize to the Maharishi. Pattie Boyd, then-wife to Harrison and perennial rock muse, intimated Lennon wanted to leave the ashram to be with Yoko Ono. "Everybody's Got Something to Hide, Except for Me and My Monkey," Lennon sang. Come on. Peace is such a joy.

The Latest and Greatest of the All

The Beatles brought Indian spirituality to everyday awareness. Harrison was already heavily influenced by Hindu thought, opened by his reverence for the sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. For the iconic cover of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, Harrison suggested the band include images of Paramahansa Yogananda, the author of the 1946 book Autobiography of a Yogi who introduced westerners to Kriya Yoga through his Yogoda Satsanga Society of India and Self-Realization Fellowship; Shyama Charan Lahiri, known as Yogiraj and Kashi Baba; Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, a Kriya yogi, Vedic astrologer and Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads scholar, considered to be the "Incarnation of Wisdom." The Beatles also included Mahātmā Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the civilly disobedient leader of the Indian independence movement, known as the Father of the India.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was born Mahesh Prasad Varma on January 12, 1917, in the Panduka area of Raipur, India. He studied physics at Allahabad University, and became a disciple of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, or Guru Deva, in 1939 until Saraswati's death in 1953. In 1955, Maharishi began to teach a meditation technique called Transcendental Deep Meditation, later shortened to Transcendental Meditation. He began the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in 1957 in Madras, India. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi became known in the United States in 1959. Funded by a $100,000 donation from American heiress Doris Duke, the Maharishi’s ashram was built in 1963, covering 14 acres of forest.

Pattie Harrison heard the Maharishi was giving a series of talks at the London Hilton on August 24, 1967, and George got them front row seats. They brought along Lennon, McCartney, and Jane Asher because "we always seemed to do everything together," Harrison said in The Beatles Anthology. Starr's wife Maureen had given birth to their son Jason on August 19, 1967, and didn't know they were continuing on to Wales until after the trip was booked.

On August 26, The Beatles, along with the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, and Donovan left London's Euston Station for Bangor, north Wales for a Transcendental Meditation seminar. Lennon's wife Cynthia was held back by a security guard who thought she was a fan after she couldn't keep up with the frantic Beatle-cartoon pace the band learned through years of touring. The Beatles spent two nights in Bangor, sleeping with the other students in a rented schoolroom. The band figured maybe the Maharishi could give them what LSD couldn't, and what banana skins no longer provided for Donovan, and held a press conference saying so. 

Tragedy struck when their manager, Brian Epstein died of an overdose of the barbiturate Carbitral, mixed with alcohol, in the locked bedroom of his London home on August 27, 1967. Epstein had purchased the Saville Theatre in London and was promoting a series of Sunday concerts. On the day he died he was promoting two shows by Jimi Hendrix. Epstein was supposed to meet up with the band after the August Bank Holiday. The band was told of Epstein's death by Peter Brown. They credited meditation for helping them withstand their grief. They cut their visit short, and planned to go on a full retreat after they could clear their schedules.

The Road to Rishikesh

The Beatles traveled to Rishikesh, India, in February 1968 to take part in a meditation course at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's retreat. George and Pattie Harrison, her sister Jenny, and John and Cynthia Lennon, and Mal Evans, the Beatles’ longtime roadie and personal assistant, arrived on February 16. Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Ringo Starr, and his wife Maureen came on the 19th. Rishikesh is situated where the Ganges river flows out of the Himalayas into the plains between the mountains and Delhi. Ringo brought "fifteen Sherpas carrying Heinz baked beans" because of his allergies, Harrison remembered in Anthology.

Donovan, The Beach Boys' Mike Love, along with jazz flute player Paul Horn, sometimes known as founding father of New Age music, also came. The Maharishi had taught Mike Love meditation in Paris after The Beach Boys played a UNICEF benefit. They were also joined by socialite Nancy Cooke de Herrera; Tim Simcox, an actor who appeared on Bonanza and Gunsmoke; Saturday Evening Post journalist Lewis Lapha and photographer Paul Saltzman. Actress Mia Farrow and her sister Prudence and brother John were already at the ashram. Lennon's former guru, the former TV repairman Alexis “Magic Alex” Mardas arrived weeks later. The Beatles had just gotten back from a trip to Greece where they were looking for an island they could all live together and build a recording studio.

Apple Films head Denis O’Dell stopped by the ashram to pitch The Lord of the Rings as the next Beatles movie project. He wanted John to play Gollum, Paul to play Frodo, George as Gandalf, and Ringo as Sam. O’Dell asked Lennon to read The Fellowship of the Ring, McCartney to read The Two Towers, and Harrison to read The Return of the King. Possible directors included Stanley Kubrick, Michelangelo Antonioni, and David Lean.

read more: Beatles vs. Stones and Two Unmade Stanley Kubrick Movies

Peter Brown's 1983 book The Love You Make claims the Maharishi hit on Mia Farrow, which McCartney and Harrison have since denied, and common wisdom says is a story concocted by Magic Alex. Dr. Susan Shumsky, who has been teaching meditation for 50 years, served on Maharishi’s personal staff for six years. According to her memoir Maharishi & Me: Seeking Enlightenment with the Beatles' Guru, this is merely legend.

Before The Beatles went to India, they were concerned about two things. The first was the Maharishi using them to promote himself. The other was what seemed to be his focus on money, unexpected by them in a spiritual teacher or holy man. Peter Brown's book The Love You Make asserts the Maharishi started using the Beatles without their permission. He even dropped an album as "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Beatles’ Spiritual Teacher." The Maharishi told the American Broadcasting Corporation the Beatles would appear in an upcoming ABC television special he was doing. Peter Brown told the lawyers at ABC the Beatles hadn't agreed but the Maharishi was insistent.

"In fact Peter Brown flew to Stockholm with Paul and George for the express purpose, only for the one purpose of telling him to stop talking to the TV stations, and stop promising that they would do a special for ABC," Shumsky, who was mentored by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for 22 years, tells Den of Geek. "They were angry." The Beatles were also surprised to find the Maharishi expected them to put between ten and twenty-five percent of their annual income in a Swiss bank account in his name. The fool on the hill saw more than the eyes in his head and the sun coming down, he haggled over an extra two and a half percentage points on a film the Beatles wanted no part of.

The World Was Waiting for a Lover

The book Maharishi & Me: Seeking Enlightenment with the Beatles' Guru cites witnesses saying Farrow told them he made a pass at her, and stroked her hair. She even came up with a memorable line, that she could tell a "puja from a pass." By the time Lennon remembered it for Lennon Remembers, the hullabaloo turned into a game of telephone with stories of the Maharishi "trying to rape Mia Farrow or trying to get off with Mia Farrow and a few other women, things like that." Magic Alex was the operator. The Beatles were happy writing songs in spiritual solitude. “Then everything went horribly wrong," Pattie Boyd wrote in her memoirs Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me. "Mia Farrow told John she thought Maharishi had been behaving inappropriately. I think he made a pass at her."

Shumsky confirms the incident with the Rosemary's Baby star but says it was not the primary cause. "It was on her birthday, February 9, 1968," Shumsky tells Den of Geek. "The Maharishi would always do Puja for people that were close to him." The Puja is a ceremonial invocation of the spiritual lineage, in this case to Guru Dev, Maharishi's guru Brahmananda Saraswati. "After the Puja, he stroked her hair. That's what she reported." In Farrow's autobiography What Falls Away, she writes the Maharishi also put his "hairy arms" around her.

"That same night, she reported it to a group of people who were at a party," Shumsky says. Farrow told "my friend Ned Winn, who was the son of Keenan Winn and grandson of Ed Winn, famous actors from the 20th century, personally that the Maharishi definitely tried to get her to lie down with him. … Later on, she said in her autobiography that because of her state of mind at the time, even if Jesus Christ tried to hug her, she would have misinterpreted it."

read more: The Beatles' Help Movie is More Influential Than You Think

Like so many Beatles songs, there is a lot to interpret in the motives and mysteries we find across the universe. Deepak Chopra wrote in the Times of India in 2006 that Harrison claimed the Maharishi asked them to leave because the musicians were still doing drugs at the ashram.

"He asked them to leave because some people in their party were taking drugs and alcohol," Shumsky claims. "I believe that because it has been verified by Mike Dolan as well. Dolan was living in the room right next to Rosalyn [Bonas], and every night he would listen to Magic Alex and Rosalyn having sex, and apparently Magic Alex smuggled alcohol into the ashram. I don't know about hashish. The only hashish stories I know about is the one about Donovan and the one about John Lennon."

Ravindra, a "skin boy" or personal assistant to the Maharishi, told Dolan the guru was "'going to ask Rosalyn to leave,'" Shumsky says. "I believe that it wasn't John and George that were being asked to leave. I believe it was Rosalyn and Alex, and once they found out they all got in a big huff over it, because Maharishi had made a pass at Rosalyn, and they decided to leave. That everybody should just leave. That's what I think happened."

read more: The Beatles: In Defense of Revolution 9

Regardless of who was smoking the hashish, Alex began working his magic. "What we do know is that Rosalyn and Magic Alex told the people at the ashram, spread the news, that Maharishi had made a pass at her," Shumsky says. "I believe it's true is because I know eight women personally who Maharishi made a pass at, and either had sex with or were bidden to have sex with."

According to Lennon Remembers, John and his fellow meditators "stayed up all night discussing, was it true or not true. And when George started thinking it might be true, I thought, 'Well it must be true, 'cause if George is doubting it, there must be something in it.'"

read more - The Beatles "Happiness is a Warm Gun" Still Triggers Debate

"John threw a hissy fit.  'Come on, we're leaving,'" Boyd wrote in her memoirs Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me. "Then Magic Alex claimed that Maharishi had tried something with a girl he had befriended. I am not sure how true that was. I think Alex wanted to get John away from Rishikesh. … Perhaps John had been waiting for an excuse to leave – he wanted to be with Yoko. Whatever the truth, they left.”

Mardas remembered looking through the window of the Maharishi’s villa one night and seeing the guru hugging a teacher. Harrison was, by all accounts, "furious" at Mardas and didn't believe "a word" of the allegation. Lennon would recount the conversation in an early demo of "The Maharishi Song" he recorded at Esher, which never made The White Album. "John Lennon and I went to the Maharishi about what had happened. He asked the Maharishi to explain himself," Mardas, who died in 2017, told the New York Times in 2010. The guru turned out to be merely human.

"So we went to see Maharishi, the whole gang of us the next day charged down to his hut, his very rich-looking bungalow in the mountains," Lennon told Wenner in Rolling Stone. "And I was the spokesman – as usual, when the dirty work came, I actually had to be leader, whatever the scene was, when it came to the nitty gritty I had to do the leading. And I said, 'We're leaving.'"

The guru stopped giggling. "He said, 'I don't know why, you must tell me,'" Lennon remembered in Rolling Stone. "And I just kept saying, 'You know why'– and he gave me a look like, 'I'll kill you, bastard.' He gave me such a look, and I knew then when he looked at me, because I'd called his bluff. And I was a bit rough to him."

Harrison reminded the Maharishi he would be leaving before the course relocated to Kashmir, to film Raga, a documentary about Ravi Shankar, in the south of India. "That's when John said something like, 'Well, you're supposed to be the mystic, you should know,'" Harrison remembered in the 2000 book The Beatles Anthology. "Poor Maharishi. I remember him standing at the gate of the ashram, under an aide's umbrella, as the Beatles filed by, out of his life," Boyd wrote in Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me. "'Wait,' he cried. 'Talk to me.' But no one listened."

Run for Your Life

Perhaps the darker aspects of the divine energies were keeping an ear out. Boyd also wrote that Magic Alex was "convinced that Maharishi was evil. He kept saying, 'It's black magic.'"

"He was always intimating, and there were all his right hand men intimating that he did miracles," Lennon remembered in Rolling Stone.

Vengeful forces may have been unleashed. The entourage couldn't leave Rishikesh because their taxis kept breaking down. Lennon was deserted by the driver after his taxi got a flat. He said they waited for hours, and began to feel he didn't even want to go. Shumsky references Pete Shotton's book John Lennon: In My Life quoting Lennon as saying the Maharishi "sent out so much energy he was like a magnet, drawing me back to him. Suddenly I didn't want to go at all, but I forced myself before it was too late."

"Maharishi was incredibly magnetic, incredibly charismatic," Shumsky says. "He was the most powerful, magnetically charismatic person I've ever met. He was also the happiest person I ever met, and he was filled with this energy that you wanted to be near him all the time. That transfer of energy you just get if you're close to him, you get it by osmosis, by sitting close to him, but if he looks at you and puts his attention on you, it's amplified tremendously. You're feeling these waves of bliss and waves of love, this unconditional love, this love that you've never experienced anything like it before." This energy is much the same as a devotee might feel receiving shaktipat from the Hugging Saint or Mother Meera.

Harrison later mused the incident may have caused the dysentery he caught in Madras which was cured by some amulets Ravi Shankar gave him. Lennon's instant karma kept flowing as he confessed to his wife Cynthia all of times he slept around. In her 2005 book John, Cynthia explains that she initially viewed the India visit as a second honeymoon and this litany was a shattering end. It was a long flight.

When they landed in Delhi, Lennon and Harrison told reporters they had business in London and wouldn't appear in the Maharishi's film. Harrison jetted to Los Angeles, spent time at Ravi Shankar’s Music School and his Hollywood Bowl concert, checked out a Mamas and the Papas studio session, hung out in San Francisco, and wrote "Blue Jay Way" before flying home to London on August 9.

read more: The Beatles' Blue Jay Way Is a Hidden Masterpiece

When Lennon told McCartney about the "big scandal," he wasn't so clear on why it didn’t gel with the free loving attitudes of the swinging sixties. Lennon told McCartney the Maharishi was "just a bloody old letch just like everybody else. What the fuck, we can't go following that!,'" Paul remembered in Anthology.

The Maharishi "claimed to be Bal Brahmachari, which means 'life celibate' and he was not. Also, he encouraged his disciples to be celibate. He told his skin boys to be celibate," Shumscky explains. "He even told married people that they should have celibate marriages. I mean, he was really strong on advocating celibacy, and so people got angry because they thought that he was a hypocrite."

McCartney called the Maharishi a nice fellow the band "wasn't going out with anymore." Harrison told reporters he thought the Spiritual Regeneration Movement was "too much of an organization.""We believe in meditation, but not the Maharishi and his scene," Lennon told The Tonight Show host, Joe Garagiola on May 14. "We made a mistake. He's human like the rest of us." He added, "I don't know what level he's on, but we had a nice holiday in India and came back rested."

And with a lot of songs.

A Songwriting Retreat

The Beatles wrote "48 songs in seven weeks" during their visit to Rishikesh. “I was in a room for five days meditating,” said Lennon in The Beatles Anthology. “I wrote hundreds of songs. I couldn’t sleep and I was hallucinating like crazy, having dreams where you could smell. I’d do a few hours and they you’d trip off, three- or four-hour stretches. It was just a way of getting there, and you could go on amazing trips.”

“Songwriting came easy,” Donovan wrote in The Autobiography of Donovan. “Paul Mac never had a guitar out of his hand. He let us all get a few songs in though, and you can hear the results on the records that followed, the Beatles’ White Album, and my own The Hurdy Gurdy Man.”

Donovan showed Lennon the fingerpicking style he used on the songs "Happiness is a Warm Gun,""Julia," and a song about the sister of the future star of Rosemary's Baby. Prudence Farrow was the inspiration for the song “Dear Prudence.” Mia's sister, who went on to become a meditation instructor, spent hours alone in her room "trying to find God quicker than anyone else,” Lennon told Rolling Stone. “That was the competition in Maharishi’s camp: who was going to get cosmic first.” Lennon even bumped McCartney out of his seat on a helicopter ride because he thought the Maharishi might slip him the answer, the Holy Grail, on the sly. The Beatles weren't in a popularity contest with Jesus, who spent forty days in the desert, though they spent little over a month in Rishikesh.

In 2015, Prudence Farrow told Rolling Stone“The Beatles being there – I can honestly say – did not mean anything to me. But those two people that I met, John and George, I really liked them, and they were very much up my alley.”

“The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" came from a conversation John and Paul overheard American college graduate Richard A. Cooke III tell the Maharishi. Cook and his mother Nancy Cooke de Herrera traveled by elephant on a tiger hunt in Naintal. Richard shot and killed an elephant. The band wrote so many songs, a lot didn't make it to the "White" album, or to the Beatles catalog itself. Lennon wrote “What’s the New Mary Jane?,” “Child of Nature,” which he later reworked as “Jealous Guy” for 1971’s Imagine. McCartney wrote “Junk” and “Teddy Boy” which found a home on his 1970 solo debut McCartney. Harrison wrote “Not Guilty,” which the Beatles recorded in August 1968 but never saw the light until the 1979 solo album George Harrison, and “Circles,” which came out on Gone Troppo in 1982. Harrison also wrote “Sour Milk Sea,” which was It’s based on Vishvasara Tantra, from Tantric art. The song was recorded by Jackie Lomax for the Beatles’ Apple Records. The Beatles also recorded the song “Spiritual Regeneration” which remains unreleased.

The Song

Lennon started writing "Sexy Sadie" in the car ride from Rishikesh to Delhi. The Beatles' publicist Derek Taylor reportedly remembered Lennon scratching the lyrics onto some wood in the Apple Corps office. Maureen Starkey saved the piece, which ultimately got into the hands of a Beatles collector.

The original lyrics were far more scathing before Lennon changed the protagonist of the song to Sadie. Lennon credited the Smokey Robinson & the Miracles song “I’ve Been Good To You” for the opening line, "Look what you’ve done, You made a fool of everyone." But it could also be a sly reference to McCartney's "Fool on the Hill," which was written on Sept. 2, 1967, weeks after the band first met the guru.

The Beatles recorded a demo of “Sexy Sadie” with the final lyrics onto an Ampex four-track machine on May 29th, 1968, at George Harrison's Esher bungalow "Kinfauns." The cut catches Lennon's double-tracked acoustic guitar and vocals, with a beat held on hand percussion by Paul and Ringo. 

The Beatles first recorded “Sexy Sadie” at EMI Studios' Studio Two on July 19th, 1968 at about 7:30 p.m. John played electric guitar and sang lead vocals, Paul played organ, George was on acoustic guitar and Ringo hit the drums.  The first track improvised lyrics about Brian Epstein and his brother Clive. The band also jammed on the George Gershwin classic "Summertime," for six minutes. The Beatles recorded 21 takes of "Sexy Sadie." Take six was released on the 1996 album Anthology 3.

The band recorded 23 more takes on July 24, using none. On August 13, they recorded eight takes, John played acoustic guitar and vocals, George played an electric guitar through a rotating Leslie speaker, Paul played piano through an echo effect, and Ringo played drums.  The band used the last take, numbered 107, for the basic tracks. The instrumental fade-out was longer and featured a breakdown based on the bridge. This was edited out prior to mixing. On August 21, Lennon recorded a lead vocal and the Hammond organ. The band added bass, tambourine and two sets of backing vocals. George double-tracked the lead guitar on the ending.

"Sexy Sadie" opens with a slightly distorted piano regally inverting six measures of the song's G C F# B minor D chord progression before Ringo kicks it in with one of his impeccably timed runs. Ringo didn't take solos. He didn’t have to. His sound, the timing, the breaths, or cigarette puffs if the studio takes in the film Help! are any indication, is immediately identifiable. The spaces he puts between beats on a run are drum solos by themselves. His bass drum and McCartney's bass strings invariably extend on each other to provide a solid foundation for slippery material. They didn't learn this on retreat in India, this came from a practice as regimented as daily meditation: rehearsal and performance.

Paul McCartney jauntily rises through the spiritual promise of the chords in the bridge, G Am7 Bm7 Cmaj7, as the band gives away everything to sit at her table. The glimpse fulfillment when the chords end on the C major chords as Sadie's smile lightens everything. Only to be let down by the "latest and the greatest" through the descending chromatics of A7 G# G F#7.

read more: The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour Could Have Been a Great Prog Rock Classic

Lennon's vocals come in intimately, but not quite lovingly. He can't believe how far Sadie's foolishness has spread. The harmonies come in as he repeats himself in falsetto, creating a soft netting. We don't know the singer is laying a trap, until Lennon warns "you'll get yours yet, no matter how big you think you are," as the piano tinkles backed with a high vibrato on the guitar. By the second bridge, the harmonies are calling to Sadie, at first seductively, but it turns into a heckle. As George's guitar riff takes over for the outro musical bridge, Lennon's voice becomes taunting, more distorted guitars join in. The vocals seem to mock the giggling of the giddy guru with the head in the clouds.

The Beatles "may have given everything they owned just to sit at her table," but they delivered a tasty just desserts as the song wound up on side 3 of The White Album, cuddled between "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" and McCartney's thrasher "Helter Skelter." According to Vincent Bugliosi's book Helter Skelter, Charles Manson rechristened Susan Atkins, who he had already nicknamed Sadie Mae Glutz, as "Sexy Sadie" while the family was living at the Spahn Movie Ranch in the Santa Susana Mountains. 

The Beatles played a bit of "Sexy Sadie" on January 29th, 1969, during the Let It Be recording sessions. Ringo mentions "Sexy Sadie" in the song “Devil Woman” from his 1973 album Ringo, and the song “Drumming Is My Madness” from Stop And Smell The Roses, his album from 1981. Harrison mentions the title in his song “Simply Shady” from the 1974 album Dark Horse. The Maharishi may have been coyly lampooned as Jeremy Hillary Boob, the nowhere man in the animated film Yellow Submarine.

However big you think you are

After the Beatles left the Ashram, critics tagged them as eccentric faddists. Lennon continued to look for himself through Primal Therapy sessions with Dr. Arthur Janov, but ultimately found solace in the girl with kaleidoscope eyes, Yoko Ono. Harrison embraced Krishna Consciousness under A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, recording the mantra for the Hare Krishna movement and including it as the centerpiece of his song "My Sweet Lord." Harrison offered a public apology to the Maharishi in 1991 and gave a benefit concert for the Maharishi's Natural Law Party in 1992. The Natural Law Party asked Harrison, McCartney and Starr to run for parliament representing the party for for Liverpool in 1994.

read more: The Beatles Got Back Where They Belonged In Rooftop Swan Song

McCartney continues to quietly meditate in a dome in his home, reportedly on a round bed he got as a gift from Alice Cooper, who had gotten it from Groucho Marx. McCartney and his daughter Stella visited the Maharishi in the Netherlands in 2007. McCartney, Starr, Donovan, and Horn reunited at a concert held at New York's Radio City Music Hall to benefit the David Lynch Foundation, which pays for schools to teach Transcendental Meditation.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died in Vlodrop, Netherlands, on February 5, 2008, the 45th anniversary of the Deep Space Network. He was 91 years old. "He was a great man who worked tirelessly for the people of the world and the cause of unity," McCartney said in a statement at the time. "I will never forget the dedication that he wrote inside a book he once gave me, which read: 'radiate, bliss, consciousness' and that to me says it all. I will miss him but will always think of him with a smile."

On the day Mahesh died, the Lennon song "Across The Universe," was broadcast in space. The song itself turned 40 that day. Jai Guru Deva om.

Culture Editor Tony Sokol cut his teeth on the wire services and also wrote and produced New York City's Vampyr Theatre and the rock opera AssassiNation: We Killed JFK. Read more of his work here or find him on Twitter @tsokol.

Along with artist Bryan Hitch, writer Robert Venditti has turned DC’s Hawkman into a massive critical and sales hit. Venditti has humanized the Winged Warrior while presenting a genre bending experience that simplified the character’s convoluted history while exploring Hawkman as a hero that transcends time and space.

Recently, Venditti and artist Eddy Barrows have done the same kind of quality exploration on the Freedom Fighters. Trapped in a world ruled by a victorious Third Reich, the Freedom Fighters are an exciting collection of classic Golden Age heroes reimagined for the 21st century, led by none other than Uncle Sam himself. Freedom Fighters is an intense, disturbing, and topical book. We had the pleasure to sit down with Mr. Venditti to discuss DC's new Freedom Fighters and these classic characters’ place in the modern day DC Universe.

What led to the genesis of the new Freedom Fighters book?

That was an instance where DC approached me and said they had these characters called the Freedom Fighters and that they wanted to do a maxi-series and would I be interested. I didn’t have a familiarity with the Freedom Fighters at the time except knowing that they were set on Earth X which is an alternate history where Nazi Germany won World War II. That really appealed to me.

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At the same time, I was working on my own graphic novel for Vertigo called Six Days which is the story of a battle my uncle was involved in during the D-Day campaign. He was killed in action there. I was in the headspace of looking at the sacrifices of soldiers and civilians that led to victory in World War II. It became an opportunity to use the Freedom Fighters as a way to examine if the sacrifices weren’t enough, what would our world be like? That’s what drew me to it as well as the opportunity to do world building in the most complete sense of that term. Earth X is part of the Multiverse that we know about, but we’ve never spent a ton of time there. So, to spend twelve issues there and for me and Eddy Barrows to establish what their culture would be like and to see that this is an America that’s been an America that has been under Nazi control for 50 years. Who are the heroes? Who are the villains?

Why have so many creators returned to this semi-obscure team again and again?

I don’t know, for me, there’s something so comic book, in the most positive use of that phrase, with the Freedom Fighters. The Human Bomb, a character who can’t touch anything or it explodes. Doll Man or Doll Woman, six inch tall characters. Phantom Lady. Black Condor and Uncle Sam. What a great visual. So many cool things have been done with Uncle Sam over that character’s history. Good ideas and good core concepts always win out, and the Freedom Fighters is one of those examples.

You really utilized the Quality Comics heroes so well, up to and including evil versions of Quality’s flagship hero, Plastic Man. Can you talk about your personal history with the Quality pantheon?

In the first issue, we establish characters called the Plastic Men which are these ultimate Nazi SS agents. We took the Plastic Man mythology and reimagined it in a way that’s completely horrifying which is more shocking because Plastic Man is such a fun and comedic character. Earth X is an opportunity to do that. We can create new concepts but also look at other DC concepts in new and different ways, which we will certainly do as the series moves forward.

Can we look forward to any more Quality characters like Blackhawk or the Ray, maybe Midnight?

Some characters yes, other character, no. The Ray is a character that won’t be showing up because that character is already doing things elsewhere in the DC Universe, but there will be other things that show up. In issue two, we’ll see the Blue Tracer, if anyone remembers what that one is.

The Blue Tracer? I’m going to have to look that one up. (And I did! The Blue Tracer was a vehicle that could convert into a tank, a submarine, or a plane. It first appeared in Military Comics #1 (August 1941) and was created by Fred Guardineer. The Blue Tracer was piloted by William "Wild Bill" Dunn and "Boomerang" Jones and the fact that it’s soon to make its first appearance since the War is just awesome.)* 

It’s a Quality Comics vehicle that could go on land, in the water, or in the air. We’ll see a new version of the new Blue Tracer; we’ll see Bozo the Ironman. We have a new design for the Blue Tracer. We’ll also bring in other aspects of the DC Universe the way Grant Morrison did in Multiversity where he had Uberman and an Earth X version of Flash and Aquaman. We’ll be doing stuff like that as well.

Talk about designing the new members. There really is a nice balance of Golden Age classic and modern sensibility.

The only one we designed completely new for this series is Human Bomb because it’s a new Human Bomb. We looked at sort of the high collar bomb vest worn by bomb techs to disarm IEDs and things like that. The other characters like Phantom Lady, Black Condor, and Doll Woman all appeared in the Multiversity one shot by Grant Morrison and Jim Lee. We’re picking it up and moving forward with it.

* Editor's Note - If Marc Buxton has to look it up, trust me on this, it's obscure as hell. - Mike *

Freedom Fighters #2 is on sale Wednesday, Jan. 23.

And death has come to Netflix. Jon Bernthal's The Punisher has once again been unleashed on the world and finally, after three live action attempts, fans finally have the Frank Castle they deserve. It's about damn time, too. You would think the elegant brutal simplicity of the Punisher would have been easy for Hollywood, but no. But here we are, so let the body count begin.

But long hard roads are very familiar to the Punisher. For decades, starting in Amazing Spider-Man #129 by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, the Punisher has been trying to eradicate crime in the Marvel Universe. In the '80s and '90s, his popularity peaked and the character starred in three monthly titles, countless mini series and specials, and tons of guest spots.

In recent years, a murderers row of comic creators have lent their talents to the Punisher saga, adding to the bloody legend of Frank Castle. So without further ado, strap on the Kevlar as we present the finest and bloodiest Punisher tales of all time!

Punisher: Circle of Blood 

Before 1986, the Punisher was relegated to frequent guest roles. Now, some of these guest spots were pretty damn awesome, such as Frank Miller's use of the character in the writer's unforgettable Daredevil run, but until Steven Grant and Mike Zeck delivered the Punisher's very first solo series, he never took the top spot.

In Circle of Blood, the Punisher told the New York underworld that he had killed the Kingpin. This resulted in a bloody turf war that allowed the Punisher to rack up the body count. When things got too incendiary, Castle had to clean up his own mess.

read more: Complete Guide to Marvel Easter Eggs in The Punisher Season 2

Grant created the formula for all Punisher tales to follow while Zeck inspired visual storytelling that would guide the character for decades. And let me tell you, this bad boy still holds up to modern comic standards.

Buy The Punisher: Circle of Blood on Amazon.

Punisher: War Zone

In the early '90s, Marvel was publishing three separate Punisher titles. When Punisher: War Zone hit in 1992, you would have thought that the vigilante would have been over exposed and tired. Well, the creative team of Chuck Dixon, John Romita, and Klaus Janson proved that wrong right out of the gate.

In this unforgettable story, Frank Castle goes undercover to systematically take the mob apart from the inside. The only problem is, Frank falls in love with a mobster's daughter. Sounds like a wacky comedy, but oh dear, it wasn't. There is a body count and a half as Dixon proves why he is considered one of the greatest Punisher writers in history.

read more: The Punisher Season 2 Ending Explained

This story was sort of like The Sopranosdone Marvel style, but with Frank Castle in the picture, Paulie Walnuts wouldn't have been cracking too many jokes, he would have just been twitching in a dark alley from a high caliber slug to the guts.

Buy Punisher: War Zone on Amazon.

Welcome Back, Frank

Hey, remember when I said there never could be too much Punisher? Yeah, I lied. By the late '90s, a market glut and piss poor storytelling did what no hitman could ever do, they nearly killed the Punisher. Some of the worst Punisher dreck was published during that period. There was even a series where the Punisher became an angel! As in, an honest to goodness heaven sent angel.

read more: The Punisher and the Bloody Legacy of Marvel's First Superhero Movie

But when Preachercreators Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon introduced their take on the Punisher, fans said yes to Welcome Back, Frank. Welcome Back, Frank was a return to the Punisher's roots, a hard hitting killing spree that was as brutal as it was funny. Ennis and Dillon introduced a ton of unique characters to the Punisher mythos and reminded fans of why they fell in love with Frank Castle and his bloody knuckled world in the first place. It even featured the Punisher punching a polar bear in the face, and if that won’t sell you on Welcome Back, Frank, nothing will.

Buy The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank on Amazon.

Born and Beyond...

Let's be honest, any Punisher tales with Ennis' name attached as writer is worth your time. He is the greatest Punisher writer of all time and had a ridiculous long run with the character. When Ennis first started on the Punisher, he presented some action packed but often humorous stories. In the middle of his legendary run, Ennis turned on a dime and shifted tonal gears making his Punisher one of the grimmest and most potently violent monthly comics in Marvel history.

read more: The Punisher and the Dark Myth of the Real Life Vigilante

"Born" is an intense Vietnam War story that served as the kickoff of Ennis' second act as Punisher writer, and the stories that followed took him back to the streets of NYC. This time, though, he toned down the over-the-top violence and humor of the "Welcome Back, Frank" era in favor of more grounded, even more brutal stories that had little to do with the Marvel Universe at large. Kind of like his Netflix series.

Comics just don't get much darker than this. One story in particular, "Slavers" starts out like a typical Punisher story, but ends as Frank Castle learns the reality of human sex trafficking and vows to bring down Russian sex slavers. It's one of the most brutally honest and unflinching real world stories Marvel has ever published. If you want comics that have the flavor of the Netflix series, these are the ones to read.

Start with Punisher: The Complete Collection Volume 1 and then carry on from there!

Punisher: Enter the War Zone (2011-2012)

Famed crime and comic writer Greg Rucka's Punisher doesn't speak much, but he doesn't have to. During Garth Ennis' long run on the Punisher, Frank Castle didn't have too many interactions with the Marvel Universe. But during Rucka's time as writer, the Punisher got involved with Daredevil, Spider-Man, and the Avengers, the latter of which tried to bring Frank Castle down once and for all.

read more: The Punisher and the Secret History of Jigsaw

These stories introduced the character of Rachel Cole, a woman who used to serve under Frank Castle in the US Marines. Cole's entire wedding party, including her parents and husband, were killed in a mob hit gone wrong during. This bride of death became one of the richest supporting characters ever to appear in a Punisher comic and her time with Castle was unforgettable. Rucka basically focuses on those the Punisher influencd during his endless war and in doing so, gives readers a realistic idea of what kind of force of nature Frank Castle truly is.

Buy The Punisher: Enter the War Zone on Amazon.

This The Gifted review contains spoilers.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 13

The Giftedneeded an episode like this. After a couple of okay to fair episodes where the plot piled crap around everyone's ears, the show was running out of time on the season for anything other than wrapping up the season's story arc and drifting a little bit from their core talents. "teMpted" brought us back to where the show should be as it set up the season's endgame, and just in time.

I think the episode benefitted from a pretty tight focus. Or at least what felt tight - we have an A, a B and a C story, but we've been getting to mid-alphabet on story level a couple of times this season, so this one felt streamlined and simple by comparison. We completely cut out the Purifiers, and the Inner Circle is almost an afterthought. We are looking very narrowly at Reed trying to help Lauren fight off Andy (and the Cuckoos) attempting to entice her into the Inner Circle; Eclipse, Blink and Kate trying to save Glow from bleeding to death; and Lorna being an utterly terrible spy at Inner Circle HQ.

Lorna's spy game is the weakest part of the episode because she's just obviously awful at it. Like "How do you do, fellow kids?" bad. She's trying to suss out what the three new recruits, the Cruise Ship Maulers, are going to get up to during Reva's endgame and asking really obvious and direct questions about it before breaking into Max's room and finding blueprints for the Pentagon, the White House and the Capitol.

Her espionage incompetence would be much more frustrating if it wasn't intentional and made sense - she's not a spy and she's in over her head, and even though she's a badass with knives (and a moderately successful hacker apparently), seeing her get flustered and trip over herself trying to ingratiate to a group of murderers feels right.

Speaking of feeling right, Kate is a fantastic character when they don't have her doing crossfit in the Underground's hermitage. Glow gets shot while liberating some supplies for the Morlocks, and Blink teleports back to Underground HQ to grab Eclipse and Kate because Glow's bleeding won't stop. So Eclipse gets set up for transfusions while Kate, Blink and Erg head back to the clinic to spin up some of Marcos's blood to help with Glow's clotting.

Kate is smart, authoritative, competent, and freaking STRAPPED. The Purifiers catch them at the clinic, and there's a mutant and Momma Bear Strucker shootout where she gets a kill and Erg gets two, then they bail with the coagulant they need to save Glow.

Lauren can't keep herself awake for the entire episode despite drinking enough coffee to barely keep me awake at 5 PM, and when she falls asleep, Andy and the Cuckoos go to work on her brain, trying to convince her to join the Inner Circle. This scene is genuinely creepy and hammers home what despicable people the Cuckoos are. Eventually she bails on the safehouse, and John and Reed track her down. Reed opens up to her about his powers and their family's creepy ass music box, and he gets her to come back with them rather than defect.

"teMpted" clicked for me at the scene where they saved Glow. After weeks of crap piling on the Underground, they (and we) needed a win to prove their mission wasn't hopeless and the show wasn't pointless. This week, all the good guys were good guys and did their best to help people. When Kate and Blink were walking back into their makeshift ER as Marcos was trying to jam in an unauthorized transfusion because Glow was fading (DAMMIT that pun), I thought "this right here is what the X-Men would do." It felt right and hopeful and earned. It also helps that Marcos and Glow have better chemistry than Marcos and Lorna do.

This week's episode of The Giftedis a solid return to form and a great reminder of who the X-Men are as we round into the final couple of episodes of the season.

LOOSE GENETIC MATERIAL

-Erg gets the flashback this week, and while it was fluff to set up his eventual turn towards Kate, it was still well done. Michael Luwoye does a good job of making old and young Erg different people and helps you feel him when he is processing his girlfriend's betrayal.

-Line of the night goes to Kate for "I'm guessing you're not a pharmacist AND a post-apocalyptic pirate" to Erg, but Lorna's "I don't know, dessert pizza?" is a very close second.

-Kate and Reed tell Lauren she can't survive waking herself up every 20 minutes, but Batman survives just fine on 10 minute microsleeps a day.

-This music box is annoying. It feels way more magical than the show has admitted exists.

-Missed this last week, but the music in the music box is the Erlking by Schubert.

-The Cruise Ship Mauler plan was actually a nice little fake out. They were practicing their explosion choreography in the Inner Circle's danger room on little miniature Washington Monuments, not tiny Pentagons.

-I like how the Inner Circle's plan is to cause season 3 of Designated Survivor. Mission accomplished!

-Kate's gun is Liefeldian in how oversized it is compared to her physical presence. It's a ridiculous prop and I love it.

-The Strucker family powers metaphor got super gross this episode. I mean, they've already played the expression of their powers as something vaguely, loosely sexual, so let's add to that metaphor Lauren's dad giving her a shot to suppress her powers. That scene was like watching that documentary on purity balls again.

-Next episode: Looks like a ton is about to happen, actually. Keep it here in two weeks for more of Den of Geek's coverage of The Gifted!