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Welcome to the main discussion thread for the Marvel Cinematic Universe! This pinned post is here to establish some basic guidelines. All of the Media Forum rules still apply.

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    Original post 
Since Thor and now Captain America came out this year, I wanted to get what Tropers thought of the concept and execution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general. Personally I love the idea and wonder why this idea hasn't been seriously tried before. It sorta seems to me like the DCAU in movie form (And well, ummm, with Marvel), and really 'gets' the comic book feel of a shared universe while not being completely alienating.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#29426: Mar 17th 2015 at 8:34:58 PM

They could also call it Marvel: Civil War if they really want to. I think Marvel has enough brand recognition that they can sell one of these movies without slapping Avengers or Captain America on it.

comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#29427: Mar 17th 2015 at 8:40:28 PM

Again, per Word of God, Cap is still the main character. It makes sense to call it Captain America. Calling it Avengers or just Civil War implies the narrative focus is spread around to the team as a whole, which I don't think is going to be the case.

While that may be true I'm having a hard time seeing how the Zemo, Crossbones, and Bucky aspects of the plot will mesh with the Civil War parts without cluttering the narrative.

Well that's why they pay writers to write. We have no idea how it's going to go down because we have very little plot info so far.

edited 17th Mar '15 8:42:20 PM by comicwriter

Anomalocaris20 from Sagittarius A* Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: Love blinded me (with science!)
#29428: Mar 17th 2015 at 8:42:19 PM

So then why don't we call the Avengers films "Iron Man: The Avengers"?

I'll be here all week, folks!

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#29429: Mar 17th 2015 at 8:42:40 PM

Because that's a complete exaggeration?

edited 17th Mar '15 8:43:06 PM by comicwriter

Mukora Uniocular from a place Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs
Uniocular
#29430: Mar 17th 2015 at 8:42:52 PM

We've only really had, what, two movies since Agents of SHIELD started? One of which was set in space. It's kinda hard to tell how much they really plan to integrate from it.

I'm really interested to see how the Inhuman stuff pays off.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."
GethKnight Since: Apr, 2010
#29431: Mar 17th 2015 at 8:46:25 PM

I thought they weren't going to integrate it. That way they don't have to force people to watch Agents of SHIELD.

Anomalocaris20 from Sagittarius A* Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: Love blinded me (with science!)
#29432: Mar 17th 2015 at 8:47:44 PM

[up][up][up]'Tis just a joke.

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#29433: Mar 17th 2015 at 8:52:11 PM

They've mentioned in the past not wanting to put the SHIELD characters on TV because of potential Continuity Lock-Out so I imagine that's still the case. Even with the Inhumans plot, so far most of the characters introduced seem to be Canon Foreigners rather than the people who are likely to be in the movie.

The Netflix shows could go either way but from the way they're talking about it they want to make them more their own thing. I would like Daredevil to cameo in Civil War though.

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#29434: Mar 17th 2015 at 8:52:23 PM

Comicwriter: I'm arguing he shouldn't be the main character. I think it would work better if Cap deals with his personal drama in his own movie and Civil War is reserved for Iron Man and Cap butting heads.

HisInfernalMajesty Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
#29435: Mar 17th 2015 at 8:56:05 PM

I wouldn't mind being forced to watch the Netflix shows. I have more faith in them than I do in Age of Ultron. But I have little to no interest in watching a superspy show about discount X-Men.

I would prefer Civil War be treated like an ensemble piece rather than home in on Cap and be titled as such, but that's just me. I prefer ensemble stories in general, which is probably why Guardians is my current favorite of the MCU.

I feel like it'd be a better idea to wait until Black Panther and Spider-Man get solo movies (with their plots happening at the same time as Ultron) along with Daredevil's first season (as a prequel to Ultron) and then do an ensemble Civil War movie so we don't have to introduce them as a Spotlight-Stealing Squad for a Captain America movie - but rather appear as natural additions to a third Avengers film. Or Marvel-in-general film. Whatever.

"A king has no friends. Only subjects and enemies."
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#29436: Mar 17th 2015 at 8:58:22 PM

[up][up]There's no reason the two ideas are incompatible, especially if Bucky plays some part in the tension.

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#29437: Mar 17th 2015 at 9:05:55 PM

It could work but juggling too many plotlines is usually a recipe for disaster when it comes to superhero movies.

HisInfernalMajesty Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
#29438: Mar 17th 2015 at 9:10:25 PM

See: Spiderman 3

edited 17th Mar '15 9:10:36 PM by HisInfernalMajesty

"A king has no friends. Only subjects and enemies."
Mukora Uniocular from a place Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs
Uniocular
#29439: Mar 17th 2015 at 9:17:32 PM

You mean the only good Raimi Spider-Man movie?

Personally, I'm really interested to see how Age of Ultron pulls all this off. Because there's a lot of shit going on. If it works here, I'll have no worries about Civil War.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#29440: Mar 17th 2015 at 9:18:31 PM

Spider-Man 3 had a lot of problems, and a lot of them go back to introducing too many brand new characters in a movie that didn't have the benefit of a shared universe.

The difference here is we're going into this with most of the characters already introduced so save for the new characters like Black Panther and Baron Zemo, you don't need to devote large chunks of screentime to introducing them or explaining their origins.

edited 17th Mar '15 9:19:30 PM by comicwriter

LDragon2 Since: Dec, 2011
#29441: Mar 17th 2015 at 9:19:20 PM

I have high hopes for AOU and even Ant Man personally speaking.

The one I'm most worried about is Doctor Strange, since the director they chose has, quite frankly, a dismal track record, not unlike the directors chosen for Marvel films in the early 2000s that weren't Singer or Raimi.

HisInfernalMajesty Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
#29442: Mar 17th 2015 at 9:25:45 PM

Thinking about it, I'd like a Villain Episode in the MCU at some point. Maybe Venom or somebody; he seems like the most logical choice but there's a better option out there, I feel.

"A king has no friends. Only subjects and enemies."
Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#29443: Mar 17th 2015 at 9:27:49 PM

[up][up]Worrisome, but not too worrisome, in my opinion. Remember that Jon Favreau had a major flop to his name and James Gunn started out in Troma films.

deathpigeon Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: One True Dodecahedron
#29444: Mar 17th 2015 at 10:06:19 PM

@WhoWho: All accounts I've seen say that the Avengers movie is not the first example of the Avengers and that Ant-Man and the Wasp were the founding members of the Avengers in the 60s.

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#29445: Mar 18th 2015 at 12:59:55 AM

Thor: The Dark world didn't really impact Ao S all that much aside from the Lorelei episode, but The Winter Soldier did, big time. Even The Avengers had some long lasting effects. Marvel doesn't want that watching the show becomes a requirement for watching the movies, but there are nevertheless intersections. And they have canon foreigners as well as actual comic book characters.

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#29446: Mar 18th 2015 at 7:31:18 AM

I believe it was officially stated that they don't plan on directly linking the Netflix series to the movies, also for Continuity Lock-Out reasons. There might be some nods to the Avengers here and there, since the problems in Hell's Kitchen are the result of the attack on New York, but nothing super in-depth.

lackofsense Since: Jan, 2013
#29447: Mar 18th 2015 at 8:36:58 AM

My problem with Spider-man 3 is multi fold but it begins with tying Sandman to uncle Ben's murder and it spirals up from there.

Whowho Since: May, 2012
#29448: Mar 18th 2015 at 8:58:06 AM

MARVEL has proven before it's really good at doing multiple forces reacting to the same over arching status quo independently and interlinked.

For example during Dark Reign you could understand the story just be reading one book line, because all of them showed different ways that Big Bad Norman Osborn got increasingly over his head. You didn't need to read Siege to understand why he lost his job, but you could if you wanted to enrich the narrative.

That should be doable with TV plots running parallel to Movie plots.

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#29449: Mar 18th 2015 at 9:12:03 AM

Exactly...I so often read that Marvel's unwillingness to let the TV shows influence the movies too much shows a lack of "commitment", but I think it is smart. It is enough to know that the stories happen in the same universe and that sometimes big events have a big impact...and big events naturally belong on the big and not the small screen.

VeryMelon Since: Jul, 2011 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#29450: Mar 18th 2015 at 9:42:57 AM

Marvel's doing what they're doing for the better.


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