Rolling Marvel Cinematic Universe thread (+ a poll: Classic or Dud?)

Richard Nixon in Days of Future Past might be the breakout villain everyone was hoping for.

the enterprise is notable for its audacity and scale, but in general I don't really care. I've seen a handful and they were okay, nothing I would really want to watch more than once.

sic otm in general

If they made an Adam Warlock movie, then I might go full fanboy.

It would take an uncommonly stylish Creeper, Silver Surfer, Namor, Ghost Rider, Man-Thing or Dr Strange film for me to get excited. That old Catwoman script with her fighting superheroes in a beach town sounded fun but also like a negative parody of superheroes which DC probably wouldn't appreciate. Maybe Swamp Thing, Sandman, Metamorpho, Shade The Changing Man.

Maybe great films based on DC and Marvel stuff would annoy me more because I'd rather talented people focus on new ideas.

dunno if this is still happening but it could be cool

Rumors in November 2012 suggested that Guillermo del Toro was working on a Justice League Dark film titled Heaven Sent. It would feature Deadman, the Spectre, Swamp Thing, Constantine, the Phantom Stranger, Zatanna, Zatara, Sargon the Sorcerer, and Etrigan the Demon.[28] Del Toro later confirmed in January 2013 that he is working on such a movie, with the working title, Dark Universe, and is hiring a screenwriter for the film. Del Toro revealed Swamp Thing, Constantine, The Spectre, Deadman, Zatanna and Zatara were characters in the story.

I heard about that a couple of years ago and it does sound quite exciting (damn them) but I assumed it was just another thing heaped on the pile of things he's optioned but will never do. I'm genuinely worried he'll end up doing far more adaptations and remakes than original films (looking forward to Crimson Peak), but of all the adaptations/remakes, Dan Simmons' Drood sounds the most promising. He seems to have his heart set firmly on Frankenstein but I just can't get excited about that.

I do think that all the fan-service crap Marvel is beholden to really constrains and limits what's possible with this material.

What would be possible otherwise?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7f/Howard_the_Duck_(1986).jpg/220px-Howard_the_Duck_(1986).jpg

Dare to dream the impossible dream.

I know, can't bite the hand that feeds

but it's not really that hard to imagine alternatives is it? keeping everything tied into a single continuity unique or unusual takes on characters

Another thing that would revert me to geekish excitement is a film starring Fin Fang Foom, Groot, Gargantus, Grogg, Rommbu, Gorgolla, Goom, Orrgo, Shagg, Scarecrow etc.

It'd be extremely unlikely but if it did happen there'd be no excuse for no money to Kirby's family. Because those monsters are about as Kirby as it gets.

DC should make a Fourth World film and pay the Kirby estate, just to fuck with Marvel (also it would rule).

xp I seriously do wonder, though. I feel like the shared universe is actually giving us more opportunities to see stuff like Ant-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy that wouldn't have happened otherwise. Whether they'll be good, I don't know, but they can't be worse than Elektra or Ghost Rider at their general competence level now.

I can see what you mean if there was something floating around like an adaptation of more serious/non-superhero stuff like Preacher, Y: The Last Man, Sandman, and so on, but nothing is coming to mind in the MU (lol thanks for reminding me of Howard the Duck - I had no idea it was even a Marvel comic for years after the fact).

aldo: Are DC and Kirby's estate on good terms? I wonder if the family was paid for their use in (for example) the various DCAU series

I'd say Marvel, quite justifiably, doesn't care what hardcore comics fans want to see tbh. They can't make blockbuster money off the 5,000 people who buy a non-X/Spider-Man/Avengers-related graphic novel.

yeah these films are consistent if nothing else

at the same time, wouldn't it be cool if there was room for non-continuity pitches, like, say a heist movie starring MU supervillains

xp

Are DC and Kirby's estate on good terms? I wonder if the family was paid for their use in (for example) the various DCAU series

they're definitely on better terms than Marvel and the Kirby estate (but I'll defer to the more knowledgable sic here)

one of those DCAU episodes was dedicated to Jack fwiw

and they clearly (affectionately) modeled Dan Turpin after him in the Superman TAS. man that was a great show.

Marvel will put the mid-tier and oddball stuff in TV pitches.

Every month is a new single-character series from Marvel (I'm getting in 50 copies of the All-New Doop series tomorrow, pretty sure I over-ordered), in part I'd guess it's orders from Disney/Marvel Studios to test the waters.

Not sure about Kirby in particular, but DC aren't any better in general as Al Plastino's recent death showed.

There's a Doop series now? Wow.

Thor IV: Thor Is Not Dead
Thor V: Asgard Is for Real

I was thinking about this earlier, how it's a small miracle that by and large these movies are not terrible. Things they have to contend with:

1) decades of comic stories/mythology/continuity
2) several interlocking films and their shared mythology/continuity
3) The devil's bargain that is Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking
4) the prospect of several more films continuing plots/characters set in motion
5) A hunk of major characters owned or permanently leased or however it works to other studios
6) Hyper-nerd, detail-minded fans who, who knows, maybe could kill one of these movies, if they could resist.

That's a lot of juggling to do, a lot of constraints. The addition of Quicksilver/Scarlet Witch to the next Avengers as (maybe? likely?) non-mutants in a world without Magneto and/or mutants, might be the biggest muddling yet to the canon, which ironically, in the name of convenience, could make things even more convoluted.

Is there really a Doop series in the making, or was that a joke? Because I would so watch it, especially if all of his lines were incomprehensible.

Marvel wouldn't have the rights to Doop anyway seeing as he's a mutant

Speaking of Howard The Duck, there is quite a few screen DC and Marvel properties that nobody talks about anymore... Nick Fury (Hasselhoff), 90s Fantastic Four (I think this was filmed without the creators knowing it was never going to be released but I'm sure it was eventually released), an old cheap Dr Strange film, 70s Spiderman, Japanese Spiderman, Supergirl, Swamp Thing on tv and film, Man-Thing, I'm sure there is more (animation doesn't count)

Those all take place in different, stand-alone universes.

The addition of Quicksilver/Scarlet Witch to the next Avengers as (maybe? likely?) non-mutants in a world without Magneto and/or mutants, might be the biggest muddling yet to the canon

IIRC Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver being mutants wasn't really a big thing for years after they debuted in The Avengers comic. This was before mutants became a hot commodity, so they weren't really connected to the X-Men, and even the fact that Magneto was their father was retcon that happened years after their introduction. I'd say even today they're still considered to be more "Avengers characters" than "mutant characters".

That's true, the Magneto reveal came later. Though of course Quicksilver is in the new X-Men movie, one assumes as a mutant.

Seriously, though, that's something I like about these things. All these characters have been drawn and written so many different people, over the years, in different ways, different titles, through different storylines, that it's kind of neat to see the movies approach them in a similarly constantly reinventing manner.

Also, the stinger at the end of Winter Soldier seemed to hint that in the movie universe they were genetically engineered by HYDRA, i.e. not the same sort of mutants as the X-Men.

(xpost)

I think that sometimes giving the hard-core fans what they want is often a terrible idea. You'd maybe get what is sometimes referred to as "jacking off over a longbox" (continuity fetishism). That has to be my favourite comics term I've heard. Another is "Swamp Thing envy" (people trying to redefine a character in a major way that doesn't just stop at fresh reinvention).

If one has to do these characters, I think reinvention is the best way to go but what "Swamp Thing envy" criticizes is calculated attempts at making the new interpretation becoming the dominant version or something looked on as an important version.

And to be honest, Scarlet Witch has one of the least feasibly "mutant" powers in the Marvel comics... It was her mutated genes that made he a magician?

It was only topped by Longshot's power: it was his genetical mutation that allowed him to always have luck on his side... Because that's what genes do.

Is there really a Doop series in the making, or was that a joke? Because I would so watch it, especially if all of his lines were incomprehensible.

In the past couple of months:
Black Widow
She-Hulk
Ghost Rider
Silver Surfer
Ms. Marvel (doesn't really count in the same way, I guess)
Iron Patriot
Punisher

Upcoming:
Elektra
Daredevil
Hulk

It was only topped by Longshot's power: it was his genetical mutation that allowed him to always have luck on his side... Because that's what genes do.

― Tuomas, Monday, April 7, 2014 3:54 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

IRL, only the papercut of of a radioactive playing card.

re: kirby i read somewhere that the dolph lundgren he-man movie was a tribute to 4th world

I loved Howard the Duck when I was a kid, and saw it again much later and thought it was hilarious and awesome. I don't really understand the hate, it is quite possibly a better movie than Return of the Jedi.

The He-Man movie was great fun, but had pretty much NOTHING to do w the cartoon/toys and pretty much killed He-Man for me. It was a super entertaining late-era Star Wars ripoff tho.

Really looking forward to Dr. Strange. I loved the Avengers, but two of the members were basically just every day normal human spies. Give me more cosmic stuff and I'll be there (the military stuff in Iron Man and Captain America kinda keep me away from those movies).

in the new film about Jodorowsky's Dune, they make a quick (but convincing) argument that mobius' work on that failed film informed the look and feel of Masters of the Universe

I weep and yearn for a day when I can be excited by comics industry again.

You can’t get excited by an industry including Self Made Hero and Blank Slate and Nobrow and Oily and Retrofit and D&Q and Fanta and March and Hyperbole And A Half (never mind the printing quality, feel the bookstore penetration) and Study Group and Stephenson’s Image, and Dark Horse supporting full-colour Evan Dorkin and reviving Shaolin Cowboy, and Humanoids and Dunbier and Copra and Koyama and Floating World and Desert Island and TCAF and SPX and Thought Bubble and Octopus Pie and Smut Peddler and the Inkstuds tour and only four months since Picturebox published?

Are DC and Kirby's estate on good terms?

cf my Diane Nelson ref

um, what?

Rolling Marvel Cinematic Universe thread (+ a poll: Classic or Dud?)

I get you. Didn't know that, though I had heard that about Levitz.

There is certainly good stuff being published but I'm extremely jaded and fickle about comics but I don't think my relatively narrow taste is the problem. The fact that Fantagraphics were recently in trouble was some of the worst news ever. In recent years I did get into some great stuff (Frantisek Skala, Jeremy Bastian, Kentaro Miura, Carlos Nine, Dave Cooper, Patrick McEown, Jonny Negron, Nicolas Dr Crecy) but nothing has really blown me away in all aspects, in a long time. Always something good and interesting but rarely anything to get giddy about in the way that books, music, film and tv have several things a year to salivate over; the best you can usually hope for is some interesting drawings. Maybe if you can speak several languages and go around the world buying.

Really looking forward to Dr. Strange. I loved the Avengers, but two of the members were basically just every day normal human spies. Give me more cosmic stuff and I'll be there (the military stuff in Iron Man and Captain America kinda keep me away from those movies).

Joss Whedon has said this is one reason he wanted Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, because he realized the Avengers were dominated by "punchy powers."

That sounds good! One of the worst recent trends in superhero comics is the "superheroes act like soldiers/cops" macho vibe spearheaded by Bendis, and this seems to have bled into the movies as well. If I want to watch cops I'll watch a regular cop show, superhero stories should have cosmic shenanigans and weirdo characters.

Well Classic or Dud they making bank
http://www.slashfilm.com/marvel-cinematic-universe-box-office/

classic all around. best thing to happen to movies since wes anderson.

chris ware's hawkeye would be great as a silent movie directed by kathryn bigelow with nothing but a ragtime soundtrack and some tasteful explosions.

That sounds good! One of the worst recent trends in superhero comics is the "superheroes act like soldiers/cops" macho vibe spearheaded by Bendis, and this seems to have bled into the movies as well. If I want to watch cops I'll watch a regular cop show, superhero stories should have cosmic shenanigans and weirdo characters.

And why doesn’t Batman dance anymore? Remember the Batusi?