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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
I didn't know Selvig was showing up. If he is, Ragnarok makes me rather wary of his chances of living through the film. That movie made it very clear that going forward Marvel is interested in wiping away Thor's previous supporting cast in favor of whatever new guard they decide to introduce.
Though wouldn't it be grand if they adapted Lady Thor in this continuity as Darcy?
edited 29th Mar '18 3:41:33 PM by KnownUnknown
Look, there are two horse Thors.
And a car that is Spider-Man.
The elevator's time is nigh.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersIt's been a while, I'll admit, but IIRC, Ultimate Thor was basically normal Thor but with a bigger hammer and also he was a hippie. Which is a really weird direction for Thor, given that in the original mythos, he's basically the Kratos of Norse mythology. He's a bloodthirsty warrior who picks fights with unfathomable horrors for no reason. A thing being larger than him is reason enough for him to slay it.
Mythical Thor has an ongoing feud with Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent - a snake so large that it wraps around the entire planet - that exists solely because it's really big and scary so, consequentially, Thor won't stop messing with it. He's on a quest to prove the size of his...hammer..by fighting all the things.
So the Ultimate comics looked at this and were like, "Clearly, this man would be a peace-loving anti-authority activist. Nothing says Thor like giving speeches on the importance of pulling out of the Iraq war and combatting climate change."
There was a bit of an arc revolving around whether he's really the Norse God of Thunder or just some delusional maniac. But that got wrapped up pretty quickly. Then the second series tried to reopen the question again and it was pretty dumb.
The second series also gave us the aforementioned Hawkeye and Black Widow bits.
EDIT: Also, the Ultimate comics changed the name of the Avengers team to being "the Ultimates", which is a really stupid name. It did not get less stupid when an "Ultimates" team was created for the 616, either.
edited 29th Mar '18 4:14:08 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I think it's important whenever discussing Marvel Thor to think of him less as Mythological Thor and more as Mythological Baldur. Because he's The Messiah, the heir of Odin, and a hero who learned humility as well as a love for humanity which transcends even his father.
Making him a counterculture mythological hero makes sense from that angle. Besides, for the most part, he's also a guy who may or may not be insane.
edited 29th Mar '18 4:25:47 PM by CharlesPhipps
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.The Hulk is a weird character in that writers want him to be this unstoppable rage monster powered by pure violent, bloody fury. But they also want him to be a morally upstanding hero. So, like, he smashes and wrecks things indiscriminately and regularly gets into fights with other superheroes, but also he never hurts anyone that doesn't deserve it.
Cannibal Hulk, like Captain Racist, was an ill-conceived attempt at "real"-ing up the Hulk by stripping out the narrative fiat that prohibits him from ever doing anything too untoward while he's throwing rage-fueled violence tantrums.
edited 29th Mar '18 5:12:42 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.The Ultimates was ultimatesly a bunch of potentially interesting ideas that were Millared up
Forever liveblogging the AvengersOne thing I like with Thor Ragnarok is that although it kind of glosses over the many people Hulk killed in the arena, it gives us a Hulk who can communicate well, has complex feelings, and can even form friendships, but is shitty at being a decent person as a natural consequence of feeling constant anger, and knows this, even though he's reluctant to admit it. Which is also why although he hates to admit it, he needs to (at least sometimes) be Banner, who can do those things.
The Hulk is a weird character in that writers want him to be this unstoppable rage monster powered by pure violent, bloody fury. But they also want him to be a morally upstanding hero. So, like, he smashes and wrecks things indiscriminately and regularly gets into fights with other superheroes, but also he never hurts anyone that doesn't deserve it.
There's a disconnect between those who are fans of the Hulk and those who know his in-universe reputation. The Hulk is basically the original Mutant and Hero with Bad Publicity. The thing is the Hulk is he's naturally a grumpy and ugly monster with a bad attitude but he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He'll even be nice to people who treat him nice but because he's huge and big, everyone treats him like shit and he's angry and scary back at them.
He doesn't actually rampage, though. He gets blamed for fighting all the villains and people who come after him, though, and not having the good grace to die when the military is trying to kill him.
Ultimate Hulk is basically everything General Ross thought he was.
edited 29th Mar '18 5:27:51 PM by CharlesPhipps
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.I'm beginning to think I didn't appreciate Ang Lee Hulk enough.
.... I still like TIH though, and all of you are wrong.
One Strip! One Strip!Ang Lee Hulk has some great ideas, but it falls on its face on every single one of them and is thoroughly boring to boot. Incredible Hulk inspires to do much less, but it follows through on what it wants to. The fight scenes are great and the villain actually has a character arc, which is much more than the utter snoozefest of Ang Lee's Hulk. The only good thing about that film is the musical score, which doesn't even fit a Hulk movie.
As for the Hulk, when you've got a guy powered by rage it's very difficult if not outright impossible to see him as a hero.
Given he's angry because people are being abused, treating him like crap, and treating other people like crap—I don't see why. Then again, the 70s show was all about a really calm guy Walking the Earth and seeing local injustice.
Comic Hulk is more, "The Juggernaut is destroying the town, Hulk gets mad, people blame Hulk for destroying town."
edited 30th Mar '18 6:38:26 AM by CharlesPhipps
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.The first clip of Infinity War has been released online.
It's on Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy, but y'know, spoilers and all that.
Infinity War trailer but everybody is Deadpool
. It's a fan parody, but it got a laugh outta me.
So, let's talk Phase One for a bit.
I don't really think there's a coherent story to Phase One as a whole. It's not the story of how SHIELD was formed. It's not the story of the emergence of superheroes (and villains) in the MCU. It's not the story of Earth's introduction to the rest of the galaxy. It's just a series of individual, occasionally intersecting stories. That's not a bad thing necessarily, although it would have been cool if they had managed to craft one overarching narrative out of the individual stories.
Ranking the movies from best to worst, I would go with Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America, The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk. The Iron Man movies win out purely on the strength of their acting. Robert Downey Jr does a fantastic job as both Tony Stark and Iron Man, and the supporting actors (particularly Jeff Bridges in Iron Man and Don Cheadle in Iron Man 2) were also excellent. Captain America was good, but Chris Evans doesn't quite reach that level. The Avengers we just talked about pretty extensively, and The Incredible Hulk was largely silly, empty action scenes.
Honestly, I'm not really the idea of "Phase One" really means anything? It's not like Phase 2 goes in a wildly different direction or anything. It's another Iron Man movie, another Thor movie, another Captain America movie, and another Avengers movie (plus Guardians of the Galaxy, which is largely standalone, and Ant Man, which I actually don't know anything about). Maybe it's just a production thing? "Phase One" is as far as they planned out when they started the MCU up to begin with, then "Phase Two" is the second block they planned out, etc? But if that's the case, it's gotten a lot of public attention. Maybe it's just fandom being fandom and blowing up a relatively minor, internal thing into something it was never intended to be.
We'll see, anyway. The only two MCU movies I've seen before that I haven't rewatched yet are Iron Man 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy, and both of those are in Phase Two, so they're next up. Maybe I'll be able to see a more coherent theme in Phase One after I finish Phase Two.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.I think Phase One was basically just a proof of concept. They wanted to see if this whole shared superhero universe could work out. If it hadn't been a huge success they'd have released sequels to some of their heroes and ended it with another Avengers movie. But then Avengers became a smash hit and they decided to get more ambitious. I think Guardians being successful too is what convinced them to keep going. That was the first big sign they could take an obscure property and make it huge.

To be frank I don't give a flying f... which version of a character is currently popular in the comics the important question is always what fits the mcu