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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.

  • This thread is for talking about the live-action films, TV shows, animated works, and related content that use the Marvel brand, currently owned by Disney.
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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

comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#60426: Jul 15th 2016 at 7:34:40 AM

It needs to be remembered Gunn grew up reading comics in the '70s, and said Mantis was one of his favorite Avengers back when he was a kid. Back then she did look more or less like she does in that concept art, and didn't become green until the 90's. (I think).

comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#60427: Jul 15th 2016 at 8:00:45 AM

They had this interesting tidbit:

The answer is a brand-new character named Mantis, an acquaintance of the Guardians played by actress Pom Klementieff (Spike Lee’s Oldboy). “She has never really experienced social interaction,” says executive producer Jonathan Schwartz. “Everything she learns about dealing with people, she learns from the Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a very weird group to learn your social intricacies from.”

Mantis may not be the only new character, according to Schwartz, who says audiences will be treated to a very different Groot from the stoic man-tree of the original 2014 film. “He doesn’t have the wisdom and experience of that Groot,” Schwartz says. “He’s a younger Groot and a more rambunctious Groot. The question is, is he the same Groot, just smaller? Or is he a different Groot that’s sprung up from the seed of the first Groot?”

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#60428: Jul 15th 2016 at 8:06:56 AM

Might be going with the thing where Mantis was raised by a secret tree cult as their Chosen One if she doesn't have much experience with socialization

Hopefully they never wiped her mind and dumped her to become a sex worker on Earth

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#60429: Jul 15th 2016 at 8:10:17 AM

I expect that the Guardians encounter her because they need help with Groot. Who knows, perhaps the current Groot is a child Groot and they now have to figure out of old Groot is still somewhere in him...like buried memories or something like that.

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#60430: Jul 15th 2016 at 8:23:05 AM

I'm assuming the antennae also came later, and that they're here mostly for visual distinction and to show she's not human.

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#60431: Jul 15th 2016 at 8:27:20 AM

I think she always had those

They didn't seem to do anything back when her powers were limited to being great at martial arts though

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#60432: Jul 15th 2016 at 8:55:31 AM

Perhaps the antennas are optional, meaning they only turn up when she needs them?

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#60433: Jul 15th 2016 at 9:03:02 AM

I'm just curious how they're going to work the name in.

  • Quill: How would you feel about joining the Guardians of the Galaxy?
  • Mantis: The what.
  • Quill: Guardians of the Galaxy. We, uh...we guard the galaxy.
  • Mantis: From what?
  • Quill: From...the galaxy.
  • Mantis: That's stupid. On whose authority are you "guarding the galaxy"? To my knowledge, we don't have a galactic U.N.
  • Quill: Well, no one's, but...I mean, we saved Xandar, that has to—
  • Nova: Excuse me, Mr. Quill?
  • Quill: What?
  • Nova: I have a Cease and Desist order here from Nova Prime. She says that Ronan sarcastically applying a label to you in an awkward, kinda forced Title Drop, doesn't actually make you a legal representative with jurisdictional authority over every planet in the known universe.
  • Quill: But that's not what—
  • Nova: Please don't make this the new "Star-Lord" thing.
  • Quill: Those ingrateful—
  • Steve Rogers: I feel your pain.

edited 15th Jul '16 9:05:28 AM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
thatindiantroper Since: Feb, 2015
#60434: Jul 15th 2016 at 9:20:16 AM

Also realistically speaking how much of the galaxy can 5 people with one ship even guard?

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#60435: Jul 15th 2016 at 9:25:41 AM

I fear they won't be that creative and instead Yondu will make a snarky comment that Quill has gotten soft due to the whole Guardian of the Galaxy business.

windleopard from Nigeria Since: Nov, 2014 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
#60436: Jul 15th 2016 at 9:49:07 AM

@Tobias Drake That's always been my issue with having this particular iteration of the team use the name. When I think "Guardians", I do not think of a pirate, an assassin, two mercenaries and a murderer.

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#60437: Jul 15th 2016 at 10:22:44 AM

Hey, this galaxy has walls and you need assholes who are not 100% dick to stand on those walls taunting and teasing

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Punisher286 Since: Jan, 2016
#60438: Jul 15th 2016 at 10:36:31 AM

There's a whole "redemption" thing going on with them as well. And it was all over the first movie as set up as well. Plus, they did succeed in saving an entire planet full of billions of people, and stopping a powerful enemy armed with an Infinity Stone. Not a bad first day on the job all things considered.

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#60439: Jul 15th 2016 at 10:57:59 AM

The comics not future version of the Guardians of the Galaxy failed to live up to their name (it was a bit out of their hand, circumstances got way over their heads and the team was mostly the middleweights of cosmic marvel)

but the idea, I think, was a group unaffiliated with any of the agenda'd entrenched cosmic political interests so they could go around preventing potential cosmic catastrophes without having to worry about getting any of those 500-lb political gorillas in gear.

Again, mixed success.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Punisher286 Since: Jan, 2016
#60440: Jul 15th 2016 at 11:02:03 AM

Also they're a team that brings a fairly wide variety of talents, abilities, skill-sets, POV on things, etc to the table.

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#60441: Jul 15th 2016 at 11:09:56 AM

They were oddly low-tech for cosmic heroes. A lot of blades and guns that shot bullets.

It was a carryover from the Phalanx thing but Magus soundly mocked them for it.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#60443: Jul 15th 2016 at 11:27:24 AM

Especially if they radiate cold.

But yeah, Magus was a dick to them.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#60444: Jul 15th 2016 at 11:54:26 AM

There's also the logistics issue to be had. What does "Guardians of the Galaxy" even mean?

Like, in the comics, they were based out of Knowhere and had Cosmo running mission control. IIRC, they also had a teleporter that could pop them to planets and stuff.

Right now, they're one person shy of half a dozen thugs with no clear goal or motive, none of whom has actually volunteered for any purpose that could be described as "Guarding the Galaxy".

  • Rocket: We gotta talk about this Guardians of the Galaxy thing.
  • Quill: What's to talk about? We're Guarding the Galaxy, man. That's a big deal.
  • Rocket: From what?
  • Quill: From...the galaxy.
  • Rocket: First of all, that statement hasn't gotten any less stupid than it was when you said it to Mantis. Second, I never agreed to that. I was onboard with protecting Xandar and even that was only because I got outvoted, but that's done. Xandar has the sphere, Ronan's dead, and none of us got a fat score. Fine. But you never said anything about roaming the galaxy looking for troublemakers like some kind of intergalactic vigilante group.
  • Quill: Sure, but it just seemed like the thing to do. Come on, Rocket. We're Guardians. We can protect the galaxy!
  • Rocket: Would you quit saying that? We're ain't guardians of nothing, Quill. Just because our criminal records got expunged doesn't mean they weren't longer than the development delays for Ant-Man. Drax doesn't even understand the concept of murder being wrong and everybody knows it's just a matter of time before my next felony binge. I'm really just waiting for my muscle to finish re-maturing.
  • Quill: Yeah, but—
  • Rocket: But nothing. We're bad people, Quill. We are exactly the kind of people your losers speech reflected in the trailer, before they changed it for the final release. And we can fly around finding other bad people to pick a fight with, but you know what they call it when bad people shoot up cities trying to murder other bad people? That's not heroics, it's not guarding the galaxy, it's a gang war.
  • Quill: We can at least try and stop the other bad people from hurting anyone.
  • Rocket: Yeah. Great. You get back to me just as soon as you figure out a way to not only monitor all wrongdoing in the entire f*cking universe, but to also show up faster than on-planet emergency response. I have to go water my dancing shrub.

edited 15th Jul '16 11:57:01 AM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#60445: Jul 15th 2016 at 12:29:51 PM

Do they have to be an official group? And, for that matter, can you imagine the Defenders naming themselves the Defenders with a straight face? They will most likely simply work together, and the label is more for the movie/TV show to use.

Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#60446: Jul 15th 2016 at 12:42:30 PM

I'm okay with the Guardians being the galactic equivalent of Robin Hood's Merry Men: A bunch of outlaws who go around standing up for the little guy. Not every superhero team needs to get tangled in government authorizations and whatnot, specially when it comes to space-faring societies with their pseudo-medieval societies.

edited 15th Jul '16 12:44:57 PM by Gaon

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#60447: Jul 15th 2016 at 12:53:04 PM

One thing for sure: One picture and I am already ridiculous excited for this movie again.

jakobitis Doctor of Doctorates from Somewhere, somewhen Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
Doctor of Doctorates
#60448: Jul 15th 2016 at 2:15:43 PM

[up][up] Steal from the rich, give to the poor... minus of course our little finders fee because we have to make a living somehow...

Not to mention, Quill did suggest they go off to do 'a little of both' (i.e. good and bad) at the end of the first one so whilst not perhaps '100% dicks' the percentage is probably higher than 50.

"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."
HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#60449: Jul 15th 2016 at 3:28:17 PM

You know Tobias, I can't help but notice your inclination for ruthless deconstruction of concepts.

I do however, very much enjoy it.cool

One Strip! One Strip!
JBC31187 Since: Jan, 2015
#60450: Jul 15th 2016 at 5:00:29 PM

I think it would totally be in-character for Quill to run around as the "Guardians of the Galaxy," logistics be damned. He might even believe it too.

Gamora would probably find the title ridiculous, but she would take the duties seriously. Drax would embrace it whole-heartedly. Rocket would think it's all bullshit, but it's useful bullshit, and Groot would want to help his friends.


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