Superheroes!

Kyriakos said:
Cavill is cool, but maybe he was getting a bit old for the role - I suppose Superman doesn't age in the comics?
Click to expand...
He does, but slower. There've been middle-aged versions of Superman in the comics and shows. Back in the day, when the Justice Society was re-introduced as being from "Earth 2", the Golden Age heroes were made out to be middle-aged, including Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman. The Earth-2 Superman was often characterized visually with "salt n' pepper" hair, or a little grey at the temples, to distinguish him from the Earth-1 Superman, who was 2-3 decades younger (unlike The Flash or Green Lantern, the Silver Age Superman had pretty much the same costume as the Golden Age Superman). In the current CW show Superman & Lois, Clark and Lois have been married for years and have two teenaged sons. The actor who plays dad Clark is only 35 irl, several years younger than the actress who plays mom Lois, and only 14 & 16 years older than the actors who play his sons (and he has a bit of a 'baby-face' too, which makes him look even a little younger than that).
 
Wow, this has been a really bad year for the MCU. I was going back over my lists of movies & shows I've seen, trying to put together a top-5 or top-10, and I think the only MCU project from 2022 that even gets into my Top 20 is going to be She-Hulk, which I think is somewhere around 16-18 in my list of shows this year.

But of course I'm a mark, so I'm still looking forward to some of the stuff they've got lined up for 2023. :lol: They really do need to get it together, though.
 
I think I posted this here once before, years ago, but I stumbled over it again recently, and it's pretty fun. Someone made a 007-style opening credits sequence for a Black Widow movie, several years before the actual Black Widow movie.

It doesn't look like one of the fake trailers that people assemble out of footage taken from other films (some of which are outstanding). I think the creator may've done the animation themselves. It's a little over-long, some of the shots linger maybe a second too long. And if this was for a Disney+ series instead of a feature film, it'd need to be cut by 2/3rds.

  • The red-on-black color scheme is fitting.
  • I love the spider slowly crawling across the screen.
  • As Scarlett Johansson's name appears, the character's hourglass logo seems to morph out of what I would swear is meant to be a silhouette of Johansson's waistline.
  • Hydra logo. I think The Winter Soldier came out before this video was posted to YouTube, which maybe suggests this movie would include a revival of the group, in some form.
  • Rosamund Pike's name is onscreen with the Hydra logo. I wonder if the creator of the video envisioned her playing Viper/Madame Hydra as the main villain.
  • I had to Google Samuli Edelman, who I'd never heard of before. He's a Finnish actor. Onscreen with his name is a silhouette of a man with a round, Captain America-style shield with a big, red star. Maybe they were envisioning him playing Red Guardian? I can't remember if Red Guardian was linked with Natasha in the MCU before the 2021 movie came out.
  • Clark Gregg and Ming-Na Wen feature in the credits, indicating an Agents of SHIELD crossover. I'm not looking it up right now, but this might've been before AoS really went crazy with the time-jumps and everything that fully disconnected it from the MCU.
  • Big, red Hammer-and-Sickle, suggesting Natasha's roots aren't merely in Russia, but in the Soviet Union. This would be similar to an idea I had, that Natasha was a product of a Soviet attempt to create a "super-soldier" serum, and was actually much older than she looked.
  • I like that they put the stunt supervisor in the main credits. James Young did the fight choreography for The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame, Black Widow and The Gray Man, and I doubt anybody knows his name.
  • Sniper-scope crosshairs first on the American flag, then on a politician speaking at a podium, suggesting some kind of plot against the US government.
  • A nice touch: A very brief silhouette of the classic, sleeker, "spandex"-style Black Widow costume from the comics, with the long hair, side-by-side with the silhouette of the more rugged, body-armor-style costume Johansson wears in the movies.
  • Written & directed by Brad Bird. I think Bird's only live-action film was Tomorrowland, which I thought was just okay. Perhaps the creator of this video envisions this movie being an animated feature, but I would be disappointed by that. My first choice for a proper Black Widow movie, perhaps in the MCU's Phase Two, would've been the Russos.
 
Laurana Kanan said:
New Quantumania trailer. If you've seen the spoiler from an upcoming Funko Pop you'll notice a quick appearance of M.O.D.O.K.

Click to expand...
I'm avoiding the trailers now that I'm locked in. Looking forward to this one. (Although I think I was pretty stoked about Multiverse of Madness around this time last year, so... :blush: )
 
New 1920s based Batman animated joint, loosely based on 'The Doom that came to Sarnath'

("The Doom That Came to Sarnath" (1920) is a fantasy short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. It is written in a mythic/fantasy style and is associated with his Dream Cycle. It was first published in The Scot, a Scottish amateur fiction magazine, in June 1920)


Inspired by the comic book series by Mike Mignola, Richard Pace and Troy Nixey, BATMAN: THE DOOM THAT CAME TO GOTHAM is a 1920s-based tale that finds explorer Bruce Wayne accidentally unleashing an ancient evil, expediting his return to Gotham City after a two-decade hiatus. The logic/science-driven Batman must battle Lovecraftian supernatural forces threatening the sheer existence of Gotham, along the way being aided and confronted by reimagined versions of his well-known allies and enemies, including Green Arrow, Ra’s al Ghul, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Two-Face, James Gordon and Bruce’s beloved wards. Prepare for a mystical, often terrifying Batman adventure unlike any other.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
After Marvel Phase IV, which was underwhelming IMO at best, I am not hopeful for Phase V. Especially as it revolves around Kang & the Multiverse, a character & a concept I have never liked.

After they bought Fox, they had a pretty obvious "next Thanos" lined up: Galactus. They already introduced Celestials - just make him a Celestial. He doesn't even need to start off by threatening Earth - they could have multiple post-credits scenes where: the Kree, the new Skrull homeworld Captain Marvel found (offscreen even), Fury, Nova Corps (& introduce Nova) - they talk about it happening, & maybe we get a glimpse of Galactus, like we did with Thanos. Maybe start by having him eat Thanos's "retirement planet" (attracted to it by the 2nd Gauntlet use? then later Earth, 'cause of the 1st Gauntlet use?) or even just have him eat Titan in a post-credit scene so no one is even affected but we already know about it.

Then, introduce the Fantastic Four. Then mutants here & there in more post-credit scenes (you can do both - existing movies have two post-credit scenes often). It seems so easy. But they fumbled the ball & wasted nearly 3 years on... bleh, I don't even know & now I don't trust them anymore. Phase IV was so... mundane, & just useless*, & didn't move the overall story of the world forward, which should have been the focus, IMO. Start, sure slowly, but at least start moving the momentum forward to the Next Big Event. And if it's Kang? I just don't care. Galactus >>>>> Kang.

*except for Yelena - I :love: Yelena
 
RobAnybody said:
After Marvel Phase IV, which was underwhelming IMO at best, I am not hopeful for Phase V. Especially as it revolves around Kang & the Multiverse, a character & a concept I have never liked.

After they bought Fox, they had a pretty obvious "next Thanos" lined up: Galactus. They already introduced Celestials - just make him a Celestial. He doesn't even need to start off by threatening Earth - they could have multiple post-credits scenes where: the Kree, the new Skrull homeworld Captain Marvel found (offscreen even), Fury, Nova Corps (& introduce Nova) - they talk about it happening, & maybe we get a glimpse of Galactus, like we did with Thanos. Maybe start by having him eat Thanos's "retirement planet" (attracted to it by the 2nd Gauntlet use? then later Earth, 'cause of the 1st Gauntlet use?) or even just have him eat Titan in a post-credit scene so no one is even affected but we already know about it.

Then, introduce the Fantastic Four. Then mutants here & there in more post-credit scenes (you can do both - existing movies have two post-credit scenes often). It seems so easy. But they fumbled the ball & wasted nearly 3 years on... bleh, I don't even know & now I don't trust them anymore. Phase IV was so... mundane, & just useless*, & didn't move the overall story of the world forward, which should have been the focus, IMO. Start, sure slowly, but at least start moving the momentum forward to the Next Big Event. And if it's Kang? I just don't care. Galactus >>>>> Kang.

*except for Yelena - I :love: Yelena
Click to expand...
I'm glad the MCU didn't try to immediately replicate the success of the Infinity Saga. I feel that Galactus, specifically, would be too much, too soon. Kang might also be, but it seems like we're pot-committed now, so I'm just going to cross my fingers. Jonathan Majors is great casting, so that's promising.

I liked that Phase IV introduced new characters and did stories that weren't connected to other things. That said, I thought a lot of it was unsatisfying. Spider-Man: No Way Home was the best of the bunch. WandaVision, Loki, Falcon, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Doctor Strange, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, What If..? and Werewolf by Night all had things I liked, and in most cases I'd like to see more. Eternals, Moon Knight and Thor: Love & Thunder were the near-total failures, for me. (I still haven't seen The Guardians Holiday Special or Wakanda Forever.) I agree with the general criticism that Phase IV wasn't the strongest, that seems to be the consensus opinion, but I hope the lesson Feige & Co draw isn't that everything they produce needs to be a chapter in a larger, ongoing story.

As for Phase V, I'm currently choosing to be optimistic. I'm looking forward to Quantumania in February, and Secret Invasion, which doesn't have a specific release date yet, but is penciled in for "early 2023." I'm not looking too far beyond that, although I do have season 2 of Loki metaphorically circled on my calendar (again, no release date beyond "mid-2023").

I :love: Yelena, too. If I were in charge, there'd be a Hawkeye & The Black Widow in the works.
 
EgonSpengler said:
I'm avoiding the trailers now that I'm locked in. Looking forward to this one. (Although I think I was pretty stoked about Multiverse of Madness around this time last year, so... :blush: )
Click to expand...
EgonSpengler said:
Wow, this has been a really bad year for the MCU. I was going back over my lists of movies & shows I've seen, trying to put together a top-5 or top-10, and I think the only MCU project from 2022 that even gets into my Top 20 is going to be She-Hulk, which I think is somewhere around 16-18 in my list of shows this year.

But of course I'm a mark, so I'm still looking forward to some of the stuff they've got lined up for 2023. :lol: They really do need to get it together, though.
Click to expand...

I'm looking forward to Quantumania too :D (and Quantumania Two, too.. see what I did there?;))

As for 2022 (Oops I did it again!:p):

Multiverse of Madness was fine, c'mon. Nothing is going to live up to the original Infinity Stones storyline.

Also... Wakanda Forever was excellent.

Ms Marvel was also OK, not great, but much better than I expected.

She Hulk was decent, once you realized/accepted that it was a pure sitcom and nothing more.

I only watched one episode of Moon Knight, and gave up. I wasn't intrigued by what I saw, but I can't render a final verdict on it.

Love and Thunder was garbage, just a mess of a film... way too silly in the beginning and took too long to settle down and become a proper superhero film.

No Way Home - Now I know this technically came out Xmas 2021, so its technically not a 2022 film, but... it may as well have been a 2022 film, since it came out at the very end of the year... and it was awesome... so I'm counting it.

I actually watched the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special... Yes I watched it with my kids, fight me :p... It was a perfectly respectable holiday special. The Star Wars one set the bar so low, that I don't think anyone else could trip over it at this point. :lol:
 
Last edited:
Sommerswerd said:
Multiverse of Madness was fine, c'mon.
Click to expand...
Yes, it was fine. Parts of it were good, even. I thought that was the one that was going to move the larger story forward, following up on what Loki and No Way Home started, and it didn't. Right now, we seem to have 3 different versions of the multiverse coexisting in the MCU, and I want/need those to be tied together somehow. I'm both hopeful that Quantumania will do that and nervous that it won't.
Sommerswerd said:
I only watched one episode of Moon Knight, and gave up. I wasn't intrigued by what I saw, but I can't render a final verdict on it.
Click to expand...
You didn't miss anything.

No, wait, you missed this song, which I think is pretty cool: "El Melouk" by Ahmed Saad, w/ 3enba and Double Zuksh.


There, now you're all caught up on Moon Knight.

Sommerswerd said:
No Way Home - Now I know this technically came out Xmas 2021, so its technically not a 2022 film, but... it may as well have been a 2022 film, since it came out at the very end of the year... and it was awesome... so I'm counting it.
Click to expand...
Close enough. It's part of Phase IV.
 
EgonSpengler said:
Yes, it was fine. Parts of it were good, even. I thought that was the one that was going to move the larger story forward, following up on what Loki and No Way Home started, and it didn't. Right now, we seem to have 3 different versions of the multiverse coexisting in the MCU, and I want/need those to be tied together somehow. I'm both hopeful that Quantumania will do that and nervous that it won't.
Click to expand...
I think I mentioned this before, but I finally finished watching the What If series a while ago and I wish I had watched it before watching Multiverse of Madness, because, while I agree with you that MoM didn't do enough to tie into Loki, the references to the concepts and characters of What If were undeniable. No Way Home is similarly enhanced by having seen Spiderverse, along with all the prior Spidey reboots, of course...

For better or worse, I am liking that the MCU is at least trying to keep things tied along some common threads... as I've said before, the whole "multiverse" concept, in an-of-itself, was a clever little hack that they are using to pay dividends in that regard, but they are not using it as much, or as well as they could/should.
 
EgonSpengler said:
No, wait, you missed this song, which I think is pretty cool: "El Melouk" by Ahmed Saad, w/ 3enba and Double Zuksh.


There, now you're all caught up on Moon Knight.
Click to expand...
That song is dope BTW. I was curious enough to look up the translation... pretty standard "We da best" ensemble rap stuff, but the beat is fi-yah.
 
Clubber Lang said:
Billy Batson is back -


Click to expand...
I remember enjoying the first one, so I'll probably watch this eventually. Whether I see it in a theater will probably be an impulsive decision on the day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

stfoskey12
How White and Nerdy are you?
2 3 4
Replies
61
Views
3K
H4run
H4run
Bonyduck Campersang
Lovecraft and Friends (if any)
Replies
13
Views
386
Kyriakos
Kyriakos
Birdjaguar
Entertainment News and Opinion
2
Replies
25
Views
1K
Birdjaguar
Birdjaguar
Valka D'Ur
All Things Harry Potter
3 4 5
Replies
86
Views
10K
Broken_Erika
Broken_Erika
PDX Firefly
  • Sticky
Millennia | Future Ages & Update 0
Replies
0
Views
528
PDX Firefly
PDX Firefly
Top Bottom