I was really plotzed by the credits teasers and I forgot a thing.
I thought the first sequence that was Mysterio vs Spider-Man was outstanding. On par with the reality bending that happened in Doctor Strange and that Thanos v Strange fight.
And speaking of credit teasers: HOLY SHIRTBALLS, BATMAN. JK SIMMONS IS STILL JJJ. Now nerds are really going to try and tie all the Spiders-Man together which is the only detraction. BUT LOOK. JK SIMMONS PLAYING THE ROLE HE WAS BORN TO PLAY. You know, besides all the roles he plays.
I watched Captain Marvel this weekend. I liked it a lot, especially the 90s look and sound, plus Annette Bening.
I totally get the complaints about how over-powered she ended up. When she won the day by punching out an entire space armada, I was like come on. It was silly and fun and ridiculous and over the top in the moment, and I couldn't help but be like "hell yeah, girl! You fuckin punch out that space armada!" But then afterward, you're left with the typical over-powered superhero problem, which is that you have to hide them away or otherwise incapacitate them during the other in-universe stories or else shit is too one-sided. I've seen Endgame, so I've already seen the whole "she's busy doing other stuff until exactly when we need her in the final battle" move. It didn't even matter that I didn't know anything about her, it was like, "oh her thing is she's ridiculously powerful and guaranteed to win? That's why we haven't seen her before now. Got it."
I really loved the shape-shifters, and anything to do with them impersonating someone else. "Like we did in Havana" was such an awesome spy-movie move, twice.
I liked how because women weren't allowed to fly in combat, they were consigned to work as test pilots, which is why they got to fly the coolest, most advanced tech in the fleet.
I'm ambivalent about the retcon on how Fury lost his eye. Part of me thinks it's cute, and the other part of me is like, come on guys. If we're not going to take this seriously, why even bother having an MCU?
On the one hand, I really wanna see Black Widow, but I also know that a streaming release is fraught with peril for the industry right now. Especially for one this big. Not sure what is Disney going to do with the entire slate of Phase 4 movies. For now, everything is pushed back due to production delays, but they will be deep into post-production pretty soon.
And then these movies will need to be released at some point.
Not the biggest concern during these end-times, but I get so tired of existential worry.
On the one hand, I really wanna see Black Widow, but I also know that a streaming release is fraught with peril for the industry right now. Especially for one this big. Not sure what is Disney going to do with the entire slate of Phase 4 movies. For now, everything is pushed back due to production delays, but they will be deep into post-production pretty soon.
And then these movies will need to be released at some point.
Not the biggest concern during these end-times, but I get so tired of existential worry.
I saw Harley Quinn on your list of things to watch, have you tried any of the new cartoon? It is fucking fabulous. so we could talk about it, it's at least a genre cartoon.
(I know that belongs in a different thread)
also on a general marvel note, es and I just finished watching the spiderman cartoon from the 90s on disney+ and it was really good. they do a bunch of flashbacks using clips from earlier shows and at times the show is stupid, but they have continuity and make a pretty fleshed out marvel universe. we really liked the show alot if you haven't watched it.
Yeah, the Spider-Man cartoon was great. They had mentioned it in this podcast I was listening to, they said some stuff about "a Spider-Man cartoon from the 90s", and there were like 4 options on Disney+, but the others were from the 80s and 2000s, so easy enough to find. They do these long, 14-episode arcs like Neogenic Nightmare and Sins of the Father, and they have guests all the time like Dr. Strange, Blade, the X-Men, Fantastic 4, Iron Man, Daredevil, Captain America. The final five-episode arc is the Secret Wars and it gets into multiverse territory and I am totally here for it. We binged that shit over maybe a week.
So anyway, these podcasts...
I spent the last 22 or so weeks following along with Post Show Recaps' Everything is Super, a Marvel Cinematic rewatch podcast. The timing was notable in that they got to Black Panther right after CB passed away, and they did a really nice treatment of that. They have since finished the MCU, and they are filling the weeks before WandaVision by covering non-MCU Spider-Man stuff, so that's the context the cartoon came up.
In another bit of convenient timing, right as PSR was wrapping up their rewatch, Binge Mode fired up theirs. We are up to The Avengers on that one. I think the guys in the PSR podcast have the stronger comics books bona fides, but the Binge Mode folks get way more deeper and thorough in the research and background stuff, so I'm excited about getting their take, too. I've gone full nerd with this quarantine.
I've been rewatching a lot of the movies themselves, too. Not necessarily all of them and not necessarily in order, but here and there. I played Into the Spider-Verse for Mom over Thanksgiving. She had never heard of it but thought it was great. I really want to watch Homecoming, but that's not on any of the services I have. I think Starz has literally all of the Spider-Man movies except that one.
When the big pause button of 2020 was hit right after the end of the Infinity Saga, I wasn't sure if Marvel Studios would stay on track. And not like it was a top concern of mine in the following months, but I did feel that even I was losing interest in the MCU.
But with all the recent announcements and trailers, all my concerns are gone. At the risk of being an overly emotional nerdboi, it feels like hope again. I know I know, it's just movies. But this year has a been a real gut punch what with a year long unemployment, COVID, Trump, BLM protest summer, Trump, the elections, Trump and also Trump. So despite retreating into the City of Heroes on a daily basis, I still felt less than heroic of late.
I don't know if you know this about me but I love superheroes. They inspire me, they make me hopeful and they absolutely bring me joy. The anticipation for new superhero content is a thrilling feeling right now. I really just can't even.
I'm probably most looking forward to Wandavision, it feels like it's really taking a chance at being something different, yet familiar. Marvel is being super smart by building on the universe they created over the last 10 years and expanding it with reality bending, multiverses and time travel. Several of the new series will involve these things, including Loki and What If? But, Wandavision feels the most visionary.
I mentioned "Loki" earlier and the recent trailer confirmed that the Time Variance Authority will be a major plot element. I've loved the TVA ever since it debuted in the Simonson run on "Thor". I've always been a sucker for things that serve as jumping off points for infinite stories. It's what drives almost all of the heroes I create in City of Heroes. "Loki" looks really solid, plenty of action and time jumping. I suppose it might end up a lot like "Legends of Tomorrow" but with a little more serious tone.
I'm probably most hesitant about "What If", I'm not sold on the animation style from what I've seen. And even in the comics, the "What If" stories were very inconsistent in terms of quality.
Oh yeah, there's also "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" which feels to be the most MCU of all the new series. And surprisingly because of that, it's the one that I have nothing to say about. It looks good.
I was feeling largely burnt out by the MCU. I'm not happy that it was a pandemic, but I'm glad we got something of a break.
I don't have the Plus or the Max so I'll initially miss those releases. I do love the initial aesthetic of WandaVision - old tv shows being the basis for new stories.
And as interesting as the rest of the Marvel stuff is, I'm really only waiting for One Thing.
Oh and I started to watch "Stargirl". I was seriously burnt out on CW superheroes and quite "Arrow", "The Flash", "Supergirl", "Black Lightning" and "Legends" altogether and didn't even start "Batwoman".
It was too much and yet not enough all at the same time.
But, it's been a while and "Stargirl" had a different feel. I'm enjoying it so far, love the Golden Age characters. Although the time-feel is kinda wonky because they're Golden Age-esque, but were actually active just ten years before present day. So wonky.
Still, it's fun, the heroes are bright, happy and not at all grimdark. The scale is still pretty small, no global policing organizations, no world-conquering plots. I think that's what I like most right now.
I think I read somewhere that Disney is putting out something like 10 Marvel shows and 10 Star Wars shows in the next few years. That feels like it will just oversaturate the market and make me less likely to watch in the end.
But then I'm really, really enjoying The SIDEQUEST Mandalorian. If most or all of the shows are of that quality...
How I wish I liked the movie more than I did. It was so disappointingly bad, not because I expected so much, it was just simply bad at a very basic script level.
I didn't have an issue with the direction, acting, cinematography or even the music. But the story, script and dialogue was just lazy, sloppy and utterly without nuance or subtlety. Even allowing for the lowered expectations of a "comic book movie", this was bad.
I like the actors. I like the characters. I really wanted to like this movie, but it's just blah. I mean I watched it to the end, but one of the worst DC movies and that's saying something.
I never thought I would say this, but Pedro Pascal was not good. He had squat of value to work with, but yikes.
I am through episode 5 (same as everybody who is watching them as they come out). I'm making myself crazy with youtubes and podcasts, so I am familiar with all the theories, and I am here for some of them.
Spoiler for episode 4. Not a real spoiler, just a mild casting spoiler, which some may still choose to avoid (in which case why are you on the internet and in this thread when the episode is over a week old? Good luck with that):
I am loving Randall Park and Kat Dennings reprising their MCU roles. I ship the hell out of them, I don't know why. They have great chemistry, but they are both the kind of people who have great chemistry with everybody, so I guess it could just be a ship of proximity. But that "adorable" misunderstanding about the potato chips? Totes adorable.
Not my idea, I got it from a podcast, but someone pointed out that both actors had restaurant-based sitcom roles in the 2000s (though Randall's was set in the 90s). The point is, what if something happens and they get sucked into the phenomenon just in time for the 2000s or 2010s and they have to work in a restaurant together? That would be too cute.
This show is seriously up my alley. I love shit that is all meta and fourth-wall breaky (see Deadpool, Community, etc.). A lot of times it's played for laughs (again, see Deadpool, Community), but on this show it has way more of a horror vibe a lot of the time.
Spoiler for episode 5:
When Agnes (nee Agatha? ) breaks character and starts talking to Wanda as though Agnes is an actor and Wanda is the director, I was like "THAT'S TOO CREEPY! DON'T DO THAT!" I live for that shit.
So, from what I understand, this show, Dr. Strange 2: Multiverse of Madness, and Spider-Man 3 are all supposed to be tied in together, story-line wise I guess.
On the one hand, I was like it's kind of bullshit for there to be a TV series that is required watching for MCU films, even if it's a show I was going to watch anyway. But unlike Agent Carter and Agents of Shield, WandaVision is only going to be one season, 9 episodes, maybe less than 5 hours of watching. That's only about as long as 2 movies, so I guess it's not too much to ask.
Anyway, have you see any of the casting stuff for Spider-Man 3?
Casting spoilers and theorizing only (plus carefully labeled nested tags):
From what I understand, Spider-Man 3 is going to have Tobey McGuire, and Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland. Like WTF, is the multiverse really the movie multiverse? Where you have the MCU universe (616 maybe?) and the Fox movies are a different universe, etc. That is such a comic-booky thing to do. Fucking love it again.
Real episode 5 spoiler, for real though:
When Pietro shows up at the end of episode 5, it was bey who was like "Hey, that's Quicksilver from Days of Future Past" and I was like "wtf, seriously?!" Even though I'd seen both Age of Ultron and Days of Future Past as recently as Christmas, I didn't pick up on the old switcheroo before Kat Dennings helpfully said "She recast Pietro?" Also I'd somehow managed to miss that casting news, even though it was supposedly a very poorly kept secret on the internet so lucky me.
But is it really a simple recast, or are we looking at multiverse stunt-casting already? The Fox universe seeping into the Marvel one. I'm dying. TOO META!
Spoiler for the end of Mandalorian Season 2, seriously:
I had heard something about a "Luke Skywalker at the end of Mandalorian Season 2"-style twist coming up in this show, and now I'm wondering if Pietro was it, or are we still waiting for Mephisto or somebody to show up?
I'm loving this show again. That may sound weird for a show that is only 5 episodes old. I loved the first episode, but was getting tired of the long ass set-up by the end of the third episode. Definitely part of the renewed interest is having
Randall Park and Kat Dennings join the show finally
Oh man. Oh man. Oh man. Episode 5
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign Steve
Real episode 5 spoiler, for real though:
When Pietro shows up at the end of episode 5, it was bey who was like "Hey, that's Quicksilver from Days of Future Past" and I was like "wtf, seriously?!" Even though I'd seen both Age of Ultron and Days of Future Past as recently as Christmas, I didn't pick up on the old switcheroo before Kat Dennings helpfully said "She recast Pietro?" Also I'd somehow managed to miss that casting news, even though it was supposedly a very poorly kept secret on the internet so lucky me.
But is it really a simple recast, or are we looking at multiverse stunt-casting already? The Fox universe seeping into the Marvel one. I'm dying. TOO META!
Holy shit when I saw X-Men-Quicksilver's face as I was like It's happening, it's happening! The multiverse of madness is beginning
I'm super psyched for all the craziness and already knew about the
SpidermEn casting for the next Spiderman movie
and some of the other crazy shit that might be coming.
So WandaVision ended. Then The Falcon and the Winter Soldier commenced.
I finally bit the bullet and paid $4 to rent Spider-Man Homecoming. So we watched that yesterday, followed immediately by Far From Home, which was $0 on Starz. I am still super pumped for #3, which got a name reveal that I have since forgotten, but pretty sure it also has "Home" in it. Also still pumped for Multiverse of Magic. : Is 2021 over yet?
Re: Coulson Watches You While You Sleep
WandaVision 
That would be too cute.
) breaks character and starts talking to Wanda as though Agnes is an actor and Wanda is the director, I was like "THAT'S TOO CREEPY! DON'T DO THAT!" 
I live for that shit.
Then The Falcon and the Winter Soldier commenced. 
Linear Mode
