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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.
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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

Beatman1 Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Gone fishin'
#112926: Nov 22nd 2019 at 12:54:13 PM

Before Richard Pryor ruined the film (and arguably his career) III was supposed to have Brainiac as the main villain.

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#112927: Nov 22nd 2019 at 12:55:27 PM

What did Richard Pryor do?

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Beatman1 Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Gone fishin'
#112928: Nov 22nd 2019 at 12:56:51 PM

[up]He campaigned to be in the movie which caused them to write it with a lot more comedy that plain and simple wasn’t funny. He wasn’t funny in the movie.

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#112929: Nov 22nd 2019 at 1:04:28 PM

Watched the clip of the woman being converted and yeah huge missed opportunity there

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
unknowing from somewhere.. Since: Mar, 2014
#112930: Nov 22nd 2019 at 1:12:56 PM

wait, the three was the one were superman have a sort of evil double and the final fight are some guys in a cave with a huge computer?.

I can see that being branianc.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Beatman1 Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Gone fishin'
alliterator Since: Jan, 2001
#112932: Nov 22nd 2019 at 1:43:27 PM

And four had Lenny Luthor and the Nuclear Man.

HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#112933: Nov 22nd 2019 at 2:31:56 PM

[up]

Eh. Jon Cryet has made up for Lenny with Supergirl season 4.

One Strip! One Strip!
Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#112934: Nov 22nd 2019 at 3:11:57 PM

Mr. Mxy, Mongul and Manchester Black haven't been used yet, so they should get around to doing that.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#112935: Nov 22nd 2019 at 3:17:52 PM

Is Manchester Black an iconic Superman villain? He fought him like the one time, in what was granted a good story. But he's not much about recurring

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#112936: Nov 22nd 2019 at 3:19:58 PM

It’s a relatively high-profile enough story.

Helps that it got made into a well-received animated feature.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
alliterator Since: Jan, 2001
#112937: Nov 22nd 2019 at 3:27:15 PM

[up][up][up]Lots of Superman villains haven't been used in the movies. Metallo, Toyman, the Eradicator, etc.

Edited by alliterator on Nov 22nd 2019 at 3:27:27 AM

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#112938: Nov 22nd 2019 at 3:28:23 PM

Mxy is my favorite Superman villain, but I’ve been resigned somewhat to not seeing him on the big screen.

Not because he’s too much, but because he’s - like - the ultimate Outside-Context Problem. He is, almost by definition, completely unrelated to anything, and Hollywood hates that (for, admittedly, understandable reasons).

Especially nowadays, when hero films series like to establish a hero’s “lane” in a way that the comics don’t as much (Iron Man’s films do corporate sharks and hi-tech weaponry, Captain America does political thrillers, Batman fights unstoppable what are essentially philosophical super terrorists, etc) doing one thing with Superman and then going “and then Mxyzptlk showed up from the 5th dimension!” is going to be a hard sell for studios. And there’s a lot of Doing In the Wizard and subtle grounding of even more fantastical characters that wouldn’t work with Mxy.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Nov 22nd 2019 at 3:28:54 AM

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#112939: Nov 22nd 2019 at 3:32:04 PM

Mxy would make a great side villain while the real villain comes into the picture

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
eligram Since: Sep, 2009 Relationship Status: In denial
#112940: Nov 22nd 2019 at 4:22:32 PM

I meam, they could sell it as needing to put Mxy in a Superman movie first to be able to adapt Emperor Joker, which no doubr would be a event movie done right, a la Civil War.

Edited by eligram on Nov 22nd 2019 at 8:23:32 AM

alliterator Since: Jan, 2001
#112941: Nov 22nd 2019 at 4:40:59 PM

God, Emperor Joker would be an amazingly surreal film, but they would never make it.

TargetmasterJoe from Velocitron Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
#112942: Nov 22nd 2019 at 5:01:51 PM

Not exactly MCU-related, but more MCU-adjacent, apparently Tim Miller left Deadpool 2 because Ryan Reynolds wanted more control.

Not sure what to make of that...

Anomalocaris20 from Sagittarius A* Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: Love blinded me (with science!)
#112943: Nov 22nd 2019 at 5:20:44 PM

Mr. Myx is all well and good but I'm still hoping the MCU one day manages to give us the Mad Jim Jaspers vs. The Fury fight on the silver screen.

Or at least Mad Jim Jaspers vs. somebody who can adapt to everything he throws out.

Edited by Anomalocaris20 on Nov 22nd 2019 at 8:29:29 AM

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!
wanderlustwarrior Role Model from Where Gods Belong Since: Jun, 2009 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
Role Model
#112944: Nov 22nd 2019 at 5:27:04 PM

So what you're saying is "He didn't ruin the film, since he wasn't even in it. The direction it went in isn't what I'd like, and he's a handy scapegoat?

[down],[down][down]Ah, I see that I misread the post and drew a wrong inference from that misreading. My mistake, and I apologize for putting words in your mouth.

I do still doubt that Pryor not being very funny would really "ruin" the film, though.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Nov 22nd 2019 at 7:44:37 AM

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#112945: Nov 22nd 2019 at 5:35:45 PM

No he was in the film and he was'nt very funny in the movie

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#112946: Nov 22nd 2019 at 5:36:18 PM

[up][up]Uh, arguments about whether the film being bad is his fault aside, Pryor is in the movie. He's featured prominently on the poster, even.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Nov 22nd 2019 at 9:36:44 AM

wanderlustwarrior Role Model from Where Gods Belong Since: Jun, 2009 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
Role Model
#112947: Nov 22nd 2019 at 5:38:50 PM

I'm just skimming some stuff since the last time I'd posted, but I'm in pretty much direct agreement with Known Unknown here and here. Just like most comic fans, when I read "Alan Moore has hot take", I figure "oh dear, this might not end well", but he's not entirely wrong here, or even mostly wrong. And he's mostly right about how a lot of stunted adults take some of these heroes and villains as a power trip, especially when it's mostly about white men taking what they want or beating up who they want, while women and non-white people barely exist in a lot of those settings, particular the settings of the time he said that quote, as alliterator pointed out.
As I read through that quote, I actually went from pre-judging against it, to in agreement with a good chunk of it. I only really have issue with the fact that it diminishes those adults who actually have a hard life, and deal with it maturely, but really just need a fucking break every once in a while.

And as Known Unknown stated, just dismissing someone because they're from an older generation can easily be detrimental. I'd even call it hypocritical to make that blanket prejudging. Same with the "all rich people must be bad", "all religious people must hate X", and so on. It's an outright intellectually lazy stance that really just serves to make one feel good for not being older, or rich, or religious, etc. And I highly doubt that a lot of the people expressing that are really going to reach some magical age, or level of wealth, etc. where they can say with any integrity "stop listening to me, I'm too old", or "I need, and can fairly decide how, to give away enough money so that I'm not evil".

Hodor2 Since: Jan, 2015
#112948: Nov 22nd 2019 at 7:26:16 PM

Although I'm reflexively inclined to dismiss Moore, because he comes across as kind of a reactionary (notwithstanding his left-wing politics), but his reason for disliking the MCU/ elements of superhero media are pretty good ones.

RE Superman villains, I really loved the Superman Animated series take on Braniac as this seemingly helpful Snarky Non-Human Sidekick to Jor-El and later Superman who is actually an Omnicidal Maniac who preserves knowledge, but not people. Needless to say, this is another reason why the much-discussed quippy Ultron was a disappointment, as DCAU!Braniac really did the omnicidal robot character right.

Also, I really like the origin story of Metallo in the DCAU, and he'd be cool to see, because of he's totally screwed over by Luthor (in a great illustration of how terrible of a person Luthor is), and there's this very thin line between the karmic punishment of the smug Corben and the sympathy one feels imagining what it is like to be "alive" but without senses.

On the topic of the MCU, I have this idea in my head (please steal it, Kevin) of "borrowing" Metallo's story for Machinesmith and have him as an antagonist turned Token Evil Teammate in an Ant-Man movie. Saxon would be introduced as the sassy gay tech guy of AIM and/or some kind of Hydra splinter group, and would similarly be covertly made terminally ill so that his employers could get him to agree to upload his brain into a robotic body. The tech used would basically be a modified version of what Tony and Bruce used to create Ultron.

Edited by Hodor2 on Nov 22nd 2019 at 9:26:54 AM

wanderlustwarrior Role Model from Where Gods Belong Since: Jun, 2009 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
Role Model
#112949: Nov 22nd 2019 at 8:16:31 PM

The DCAU was truly something special. Even though I didn't watch every episode of some of the series, it was still great. And it gave reason to care about Metallo, Parasite, and other characters. It's a good source of inspiration, especially as it already took some inspiration from Marvel for some of its stories as well.

tiamkara Let’s Have the Dark Courage to Sin Tonight from Augusta, GA Since: Jul, 2012 Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
Let’s Have the Dark Courage to Sin Tonight
#112950: Nov 22nd 2019 at 9:03:18 PM

Marvel has better reality benders than DC. Fight me. Matthew Malloy, Franklin Richards, etc.

Imagine a MCU Captain Britain movie with “Mad Jim” Jaspers. Would be so cool.

“If you have a message for the devil give it to me and I’ll take it to him.”

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