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.
- While mild digressions are okay, discussion of the comic books should go in this thread
. Extended digressions may be thumped as off-topic.
- Spoilers for new releases should not be discussed without spoiler tagging for at least two weeks. Rather, each title should have a dedicated thread where that sort of conversation is held. We can mention new releases in a general sense, but please be courteous to people who don't want to be spoiled.
If you're posting tagged spoilers, make sure that the film or series is clearly identified outside the spoiler tagging. People need to know what will be spoiled before they choose to read the post.
Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
Going back to something earlier, I like that suggestion of Tony's appearance involving Peter getting thrown out of Stark Labs (I'm a bad fan- don't know what his company is called) when he tries to visit. Not to complain about something that hasn't happened yet, but really hoping they don't have it that Vulture and/or Shocker stole their tech from Tony. Both because he shouldn't be the only technical genius in the MCU and because it's part of Vulture's origin that Norman Osborne (I think someone else originally) ripped off his tech and an underused aspect of Shocker's character is that he's sort of like a Good Will Hunting style genius- but too lazy and unscrupulous to do something productive with his skills.
Actually, it would be kind of funny if Toombs did steal his tech from Stark but complained about Osborn stealing form him.
Speaking of Shocker, was looking last night at the costume in Homecoming and I really love it. I noticed this time around that it kind of looks like those yellow suits Walter and Jessie wore in Breaking Bad and the sunglasses over the mask give a bit of The Invisible Man to the look. So definitely a feel of "illicit science done out of one's basement".
I mean, I haven't read the miniseries where Blue Marvel first appeared, but if I were making a Blue Marvel story, I think I'd adapt Ewing's Mighty Avengers material and have it be a conflict between Adam and Max about bringing Kevin home.
I'd also consider utilizing Ewing's current Ultimates run - with its stuff with Anti-Man and this "cage" around reality might make for an interesting Avengers film, with Carol and T'Challa as the headliners, and Adam in a prominent supporting role. Maybe throw in Rhodey as a military liason, and have Monica be a member of the team too. Hell, maybe have it be America Chavez's debut.
Oh God! Natural light!
I wouldn't mind seeing MCU exploring the consequences, both positive and negative, of multiple superhero teams - each with their own philosophy about making the world better - existing relatively close to one another. The Ultimates would be a good place to start, especially if Fox isn't letting go of the FF rights anytime soon.
Yeah, that would be neat.
As has previously been discussed, we are fast approaching the "Ten years" estimate that Stark gave for the rest of the world catching up to his early Iron Man designs. It'll officially be ten years since that proclamation in 2020.
Former Stark employee or not, having the Tinkerer's designs by vaguely reminiscent of some kind of proto-Iron Man tech would be a cool visual method of showing how, bit by bit, the rest of the world is getting there. Maybe even have Shocker and/or the Vulture's suits powered by a rudimentary arc reactor?
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I'd really think an Iron Man: Armor Wars movie could work now, especially if they brought in Ezekial Stane as the bad guy. They could even add in Riri Williams in case Downey doesn't want to put on the suit again.
Another brilliant idea I have: Michelle Yeoh as the Mandarin.
edited 19th Sep '16 1:29:59 PM by alliterator
Get rid of the Mandarin name and/or make his backstory of him as a Mongolian guy who calls himself Temujin out of grandeur. Dunno how Chinese nationals feel like Central Asians and Mongolians but they're probably more Acceptable Targets to them, plus they're severely underrepresented in the media anyway. Or stick him in Iron Fist. I'm still pretty enamored with Known Unknown's (I think that's whose it was) idea to replace Fu Manchu since Marvel doesn't have access to the latter, and the Mandarin has been established as a character who exists within the MCU.
Um, they already revealed that there was a real Mandarin. In the one-shot "All Hail the King."
![]()
![]()
If he's some sort of grey area morally ambiguous character that would make him about as much the 'real' Mandarin as Trevor was. He's a bad guy and has been for a very long time (in universe.) The most sympathetic portrayal he could get would be a well-intentioned extremist and even that would be pushing it. Part of the big deal about the Asian market would be having a Asian character who is pretty much irredeemably and unrepentantly bad and that would not go down well.
They do a lot of things in DVD extras. Remember that time Agent Carter had a DVD extra one-shot that wound up winning her a TV series? One in which the one-shot basically never happened, exiling it from canon in its own f*cking follow-up?
They threw belligerent fans who were upset about the Mandarin twist a bone in a DVD extra. There was never a plan to do anything with it. That was intended to be Iron Man's final solo movie and, so far, there has been no indication that plans have changed in that regard.
And that's for the best, because the Mandarin they've been setting up since IM1 is arguably just as shitty as the original racist caricature would have been. Some tinpot warlord who wants to rule the Middle East with black market American weapons is quite possibly the most uninspired version of the character ever conceived.
It was a sly reference in IM1, but it made the character unfilmable by association. The only way to salvage him would be to throw out the Ten Rings terrorist cell and do something completely different with it. Which is more or less exactly what IM3 wound up doing.
edited 19th Sep '16 2:32:21 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Maybe we'll see I Want My Goddamn Mandarin become an official trope.
It seemed like a Once an Episode thing for a while where every new MCU film would have someone put some variation of "The real Mandarin will appear" in its WMG page. I'm not sure if it was people being smartasses or someone actually deluding themselves into thinking anyone at Marvel has any interest in doing that.
edited 19th Sep '16 2:57:46 PM by comicwriter
I still think our best bet for an actual Mandarin would be not in an Iron Man movie, but in a Shang Chi plot - be it a movie or a tv show. Replacing Shang Chi's public domain but still far more problematic Archnemesis Dad with the Mandarin makes a lot of sense, if nothing else but if gives us a Chinese hero to balance the Chinese villain.
edited 19th Sep '16 3:29:26 PM by KnownUnknown
@Tobias and Very Melon- That's my opinion too on the Mandarin. What was implied of him in Iron Man I and the kind of character Trevor pretended to be in Iron Man III is not really something I'm interested in seeing. At best, you're talking about basically Osama bin Laden on steroids (or I guess basically Abu Nazir from Homeland), but at worst, the character (i.e. Trevor's fake persona) is this evil non-white guy who is motivated by a hatred of goodness and freedom and is responsible for all ills. The MCU has used the "hatred of freedom" idea fairly straight (Avengers!Loki, Ronan, HYDRA) as well as the "responsible for ills" (HYDRA again), both with more nuance and less Unfortunate Implications than what a straight version of the Mandarin would imply.
Now I have expressed interest in seeing Kang appear and a lot of the aspects people like about the Mandarin (non-white; cunning; use of magitek) fit him.

Hawkeye has nonpowered wife and kids.
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!