Best of Comic TV 2019: We Begin!

Best Fight Scene!

Bam, pow, zot, y’all know the drill on this one. There were a lot of very competent slug-outs, even Iron Fist managed some good fights… but somehow they became less inspiring. Maybe the John Wick films are spoiling me, I don’t know.

Honourable mention: Jane and Cliff just destroying a party of Nazis in Doom Patrol, “Puppet Patrol.” God DAMN that was satisfying. If overly reliant on digital effects.

Bronze: The Prison Riot, Arrow, “The Slabside Redemption”

What sets this one apart from the perfectly decent beats downs between Danny and Davos or Colleen and Davos on Iron Fist or Frank vs Pilgrim on Punisher, any of the brutal fights from Titans? Two things. First, Black Dynamite’s Michael Jai White as Bronze Tiger, finally kicking ass for the good guys. Second, the single tracking shot covering Tiger and Oliver Queen fighting their way up three stories of rioting prisoners.

Showmanship. That’s the edge.

(Michael Jai White does the heavy lifting in this fight, as Stephen Amell broke his hip going coast-to-coast in an independent wrestling match.)

DYN-O-MITE
DYN-O-MITE

Silver: “You up for a fist fight?” Preacher, “The Coffin”

Jesse Custer is a lethal fighter in both the comics and the TV series, but in both cases, there are two people who’ve always had an edge on him… Jody and TC, his Grandma’s top henchmen. Shortly after Jesse and Tulip pulled a fast one on them to save their pal Cassidy, Jody and TC show up for an ass-whooping… so Jesse and Tulip attempt to give them one.

This one gets its edge for TC and Tulip’s duel of improvised bathroom weapons. And the soundtrack.

Hard hitting and clever with props, that’s the Preacher guarantee.

(Look, there were a lot of good throwdowns between Jesse and either Jody or Cassidy, but there were so many cuts. They sold the emotional impact of the scenes, but lost some of the visceral thrill of the show’s best fights.)

Gold: Jailhouse Rock, Daredevil, “Blindsided”

Wouldn’t be a season featuring Daredevil if gold were going to anything but a single long shot of Matt Murdock fighting guys in a hallway. So here’s one more for the road, as Wilson Fisk arranges for a drugged Matt Murdock to have to fight for his life in a prison riot. Check out how the camera moves in order to cover switches been Charlie Cox and his stuntman, it’s clever. Or don’t, if that ruins it for you.

https://youtu.be/uxUgzyjhTDE
One last time, old friend.

Next page: A little song, a little dance, possibly including Sara Lance

Author: danny_g

Danny G, your humble host and blogger, has been working in community theatre since 1996, travelling the globe on and off since 1980, and caring more about nerd stuff than he should since before he can remember. And now he shares all of that with you.

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