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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.
  • 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.

    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

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#111801: Oct 24th 2019 at 8:26:08 PM

Personally I think it went really downhill when Joss Whedon wrote for it. But then again, I'm admittedly biased — I kind of hate Whedon and his writing.

Disgusted, but not surprised
HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#111802: Oct 24th 2019 at 8:28:43 PM

I think that's ok. It seems everyone hates Whedon now.

One Strip! One Strip!
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#111803: Oct 24th 2019 at 8:30:35 PM

Joss Whedon’s arc is particularly probably my least favorite

Although he did have Molly punch Punisher so hard that something probably ruptured. So it had that going for it

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#111804: Oct 24th 2019 at 8:31:23 PM

Yeah, I liked that bit too. But then, I'm also biased there — I hate the Punisher.

Disgusted, but not surprised
slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#111805: Oct 24th 2019 at 8:35:10 PM

What goes on in Runaways again?

Like all I got is they battle their evil parents who amusingly comprise every villain archetype from wizards to time travelers to mad scientists, brought in an alien, & went back in time to the 40's or something at one point to get a new member.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#111806: Oct 24th 2019 at 8:36:37 PM

Wander aimlessly in search of a point after their parents exploded, mostly fight third tier villains and snark about how suck the older generations are

Edited by Bocaj on Oct 24th 2019 at 11:38:11 AM

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#111807: Oct 24th 2019 at 8:40:43 PM

They've also had to deal with messes left behind by their parents, such as the children of the Nephilim they saved the world from earlier with one of them performing a Heel–Face Turn and joining them and Molly's already mentioned Mad Scientist grandmother.

But yeah, they're mostly just kind of aimless and looking for meaning while trying to stick together as a Family of Choice.

Edited by M84 on Oct 24th 2019 at 11:42:55 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised
alliterator Since: Jan, 2001
#111808: Oct 24th 2019 at 8:48:02 PM

It's why they cancelled the Netflix shows.
Except Marvel didn't cancel the Netflix shows, Netflix cancelled the Netflix shows. Mainly because they were pissed due to Disney+.

It's why they cancelled Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Except Agents of SHIELD wasn't cancelled, the showrunners decided to end it themselves. They were offered a seventh season and said, "Sure, but this one will be the last one."

It's why the Ghost Rider spinoff suddenly isn't happening.
I don't know why Ghost Rider was cancelled, but I doubt it was because they wanted to consolidate the shows, simply because they would have also cancelled Helstrom at the same time, which they didn't. Helstrom is all cast and set to go forward.

And now it's come for the Hulu shows.
I mean, there is only one Hulu show, Runaways. Cloak & Dagger was on Freeform.

What goes on in Runaways again?
It's funny, because the current Runaways comic by Rainbow Rowell basically asks that question: now that our parents are gone, what do we actually do? Do we just try living our lives? Do we try to be superheroes? Basically: how, as children, do we raise ourselves? (It's a really good book.)

Edited by alliterator on Oct 24th 2019 at 8:48:28 AM

windleopard from Nigeria Since: Nov, 2014 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
#111809: Oct 24th 2019 at 10:12:33 PM

The Ultimate universe was dumb in so many ways. That's something better left buried or only mentioned by people with poor sense of humor.

In fairness, it also gave us black Nick Fury, Hawkeye’s new costume, Falcon’s outfit and Miles Morales.

Never mind that the Runaways actual record as heroes wasn't that great (though when they did win they won big — they did save humanity from being wiped out by nephilim). They were at least self-aware of this: their motto is "try not to die".
Why am I surprised that Marvel universe has Nephilim?

Re: Gert's attitude on power and responsibility, I get the feeling from Peter's response that maybe we weren't supposed to take it all that seriously. She is after all a pretty cynical teenager.

Still, a world where Captain America doesn't immediately do all he can to help make sure these kids are well taken care of is not the world I know.

In fairness, has Steve ever really been good at anything other than beating up super villains? IIRC, they couldn't even prove these kids' parents were super villains.

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#111810: Oct 24th 2019 at 11:17:25 PM

He's good at punching supervillains and being super inspirational.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#111811: Oct 24th 2019 at 11:19:07 PM

A soldier is only good for fighting.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#111812: Oct 24th 2019 at 11:22:58 PM

It helps that the Pride operated on the West Coast (they live in Malibu) — most of the superheroes operate in NYC.

There was probably also some weird magic bullshit going on thanks to their deal with the Gibborim that granted them 25 years of prosperity.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#111813: Oct 24th 2019 at 11:26:30 PM

Whether or not Steve is good for anything except fighting, the existence of the second arc of Runaways demands that you accept without hesitation that Steve would be told by the son of a supervillain that he's going to go live with his aunt and the only contact information is a PO Box and just accept that at face value and go 'righto off you go' without checking to see if said aunt a) is willing and able to take up a teenager, b) exists.

Because she didn't exist.

Runaways is awful at interacting with the rest of the Marvel universe.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#111814: Oct 24th 2019 at 11:43:59 PM

The rest of the Marvel verse more or less juggles an Idiot Ball whenever the Runaways are involved.

This extends to supervillains too — the Runaways once utterly stomped the Wrecking Crew. And the Wrecking Crew aren't normally supposed to be pushovers.

Disgusted, but not surprised
windleopard from Nigeria Since: Nov, 2014 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
#111815: Oct 25th 2019 at 12:13:51 AM

And the Wrecking Crew aren't normally supposed to be pushovers.

They aren't?

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#111816: Oct 25th 2019 at 12:20:23 AM

They used to be a legit threat being Thor villains. Though nowadays they are more or less punching bags.

It helps to remember that their powers are Asgardian in nature. The Wrecker in particular is a Physical God at full strength.

Edited by M84 on Oct 26th 2019 at 3:23:44 AM

Disgusted, but not surprised
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#111817: Oct 25th 2019 at 12:51:27 AM

The Wrecking Crew will never be in the MCU for the same reason no-one cares about Green Lantern's Earth-based Rogues Gallery: if you have an awesome space character, people want to see them having awesome space adventures, not fighting randos on Earth who other Earth-based characters could deal with.

Although, now that I say that, it would be really funny to have Thor: Love and Thunder start off with Thor fighting the Wrecking Crew in a Cold Open.

On the topic of "C/D-List villains we'll likely never see in the MCU", I always wanted to see Hammer and Anvil show up as Hulk villains. Given that we're never getting another Hulk movie, their prospects are grim, but maybe they'll show up in the She-Hulk show.

unknowing from somewhere.. Since: Mar, 2014
#111818: Oct 25th 2019 at 1:02:12 AM

[up]Considering how you call it about saarkar being used in ragnarok, there is a posibiliy of them apperaing.

Also, there is a posbility of moving transplating rouge gallery to other heroes.

I mean considering they use the "Im piss at tony stark but I will settle for Spiderman", let just use whatever remaing tony stark villian in a spiderman movie and seal the deal them.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Brandon Deadly Vu! from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
Deadly Vu!
#111819: Oct 25th 2019 at 1:04:44 AM

New meme I'm seeing (in regards to Scorcese and others chastising the Marvel films) is showing dead filmmakers saying they hate the Marvel films too.

The funniest one to me is Orson Welles (given he made Citizen Kane which is often touted as one of the best films ever made, and he didn't like it much.)

Edited by Brandon on Oct 25th 2019 at 1:05:07 AM

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alliterator Since: Jan, 2001
#111820: Oct 25th 2019 at 1:06:50 AM

Actually, my favorite thing from all of these "let's ask famous directors what they think of MCU movies" is Pedro Almodovar saying that they need to be more sexy.

PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#111821: Oct 25th 2019 at 1:14:51 AM

[up][up][up]Hey, maybe I can go 2 for 2 on predicting Taika-directed Thor movies. As you said, I did totally call that they would have an Abridged version of Planet Hulk in Ragnarok.

They could transplant Hammer and Anvil to be villains of some other hero, but now that I think about it, they could actually work fairly well in a She-Hulk show. Their seminal story is about the two of them working together to break out of prison, and since She-Hulk is a lawyer, the writers could connect the two, maybe Jennifer was responsible for one of them being in prison.

Although, since we know Liv Tyler might be returning, maybe the villain of She-Hulk is going to be Betty as Red She-Hulk. Eh, there's enough room in a TV show for more than one villain. Hammer and Anvil can be the starter villains with Red She-Hulk as the main villain.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Oct 25th 2019 at 1:16:55 AM

Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
alliterator Since: Jan, 2001
#111823: Oct 25th 2019 at 1:18:33 AM

[up][up] I mean, the Absorbing Man was a Thor villain and they successfully transplanted him into Agents of SHIELD.

Although, since we know Liv Tyler might be returning, maybe the villain of She-Hulk is going to be Betty as Red She-Hulk
If they do that, I would go for the Red Harpy instead. And then I would want them to make an Immortal Hulk series. (Probably not on Disney+, though, because it would be horror.)

Edited by alliterator on Oct 25th 2019 at 1:21:04 AM

windleopard from Nigeria Since: Nov, 2014 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
#111824: Oct 25th 2019 at 1:24:18 AM

I could see the Wrecking Crew appearing in one of the Disney+ shows like She-Hulk or Ms Marvel.

PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#111825: Oct 25th 2019 at 1:30:59 AM

[up][up]That's fair. They could do that kind of thing again. Usually, the movies try to focus on the iconic villains of that hero's Rogues Gallery, though.

Another Hulk villain (a B-lister this time) I've wanted to see in the MCU for a long time is Zzzax. There's just something visually striking about a huge humanoid goliath made out of electricity, especially since it started life as an electricity monster but eventually gained human-level intelligence by absorbing the electromagnetic fields inside human brains.

There's such potential there for a subverted tragic monster, in that it kills people to gain intelligence, but after becoming sapient and learning about morals and ethics, consciously decides to keep killing people anyways because it likes the feeling of getting smarter.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Oct 25th 2019 at 1:31:38 AM


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