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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
I think the Thunderbolts could be a cross between the original idea and the more Suicide Squad-esqe direction. Where they are supervillains working for the government, but rather then being a secret team they would be public figures, just with superhero guises to disguise their true identities.
Hail Vox Populi!My guess with the Thunderbolts has always been that they're going to be the government's attempt to manufacture a new public team of Avengers, outright replacing the officially-sanctioned Avengers as the supposed "new generation". Then the Young Avengers are going to fight the Thunderbolts over who gets to claim that title as the "next generation" of Avengers.
I'd like there to be more than one Thunderbolts movie. The first movie should play the superhero thing painfully straight. Have them all be portrayed as legit brand new superheroes who do genuinely heroic things for the whole movie...
Right up to the last few minutes when they reveal their real costumes and real agenda as a bunch of villains who plan to exploit their new Villain with Good Publicity status for nefarious ends.
And then have a "<name> will return" screen, but instead of "The Thunderbolts will Return" it will read "The Masters of Evil will Return".
Edited by M84 on Jul 28th 2022 at 4:06:07 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedAn interesting bit, both Hawkeye and Luke Cage do have major roles in the Thunderbolts comics.
Clint was a member of the original team and was a major reason towards the members redeeming himself through being a virtuous leader to contrast Zemo's bullshit.
And Luke Cage was the handler for the Suicide Squad-era Thunderbolts, being basically the Rick Flag of the team who cares for the convicts and tries to help them go straight.
So thats some fun possibilities.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."See, I like that campy "make fun of superhero names" humor that the MCU does, but I have the soul of a ten year old.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Some of it works if it fits the character doing it, but it can and often does come off as insecure more than anything ("we're a serious big-budget movie for a mass audience, can you believe this dumb comic book shit?"), and MCU writing is... not consistent enough to navigate that.
Edited by Chortleous on Jul 28th 2022 at 8:34:34 AM
Yeah, as a fan of the Fast and Furious franchise (as well as the aforementioned Sonic the Hedgehog films), I love it when ridiculous fantasy media has the nerve to be completely sincere and heartwarming about its balls-out nonsense. I wish the MCU had that kind of courage.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I don't know if I'd equate the MCU's fondness for (weak and admittedly overused) gags about the silly names of characters involved for a lack of belief in the sincerity of the material. I think by and large the MCU has actually shown a relatively thorough, roll-with-the-punches acceptance of a lot of comic book absurdity. A lot of the MCU's formula of success relies on pre-emptively acknowledging something is absurd before proceeding to roll with it in some earnestness anyway.
They should consider dropping (or at least minimizing) this song-and-dance, but at the same pace I think the suggestions of Doctor Doom specifically arriving so he do a verbal Take That! against it feels a tad too ham-fisted.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."This sort of thing is where I get annoyed at certain critiques of the MCU. We know it's going to be quippy and irreverent. That's been established for decades now. So why are people still bothered by it?
It's like owning a cat for ten years and still complaining about the shedding. Sure, maybe it's part of the usual social song-and-dance from cat owners, like background noise, but as a serious concern it falls flat.
Edited by Fighteer on Jul 28th 2022 at 10:10:16 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Things evolve and change, otherwise they grow stale. It's not unreasonable for people to expect more change and variety from the MCU, I'd say, and this joke is directly part of that whole shindig.
It's part of the looming problem of the MCU that in some sense the irreverent humour approach is showing signs of some exhaustion. No one in sane mind is expecting the MCU to just do a complete 180 and become a Abel Ferrara movie (nor it should) but change and variety is good. Winter Soldier and Black Panther, two of the most acclaimed MCU entries, are notorious for their more solemn and straitlaced approach.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."Personally I wouldn’t want the MCU to become wholly solemn and straight laced. Variety is the spice of life
Forever liveblogging the AvengersI guess it operates on a spectrum. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is probably going to be using that serious tone, while Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 will be comedic. I'd expect Captain America: New World Order to also be more serious.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
x5 I agree with that. I can understand people rolling their eyes a bit, especially if its a particularly recurring bit (can we please STOP having characters who find out magic is real getting hung up on the fact magic is real?), but its not as though EVERY movie goes all in on the lampshading gags. I think there's a fair amount of variance.
People tend to get hung up on things that bug them instead of letting the full picture be.. well, full.
Edited by diddyknux on Jul 28th 2022 at 10:11:52 AM
Yeah, the "your real name sounds like a superhero identity" joke has been made multiple times and it never stops thinking that it's funny. Your mileage may vary, but I absolutely love it, and it goes far beyond the MCU.
For example, Ryan George's Pitch Meeting
for Face/Off gets a lot of mileage out of the absurd character names.
Edited by Fighteer on Jul 28th 2022 at 11:33:32 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"The best name gag the MCU did was still in the first Doctor Strange film.
- Kaecillius: How long have you been at Kamar-Taj, mister...?
- Strange: "Doctor".
- Kaecillius: "Mister Doctor"?
- Strange: ...It's "Strange".
- Kaecillius: Maybe. Who am I to judge?
My pet peeve is that the trailers for these films always spoil the name jokes. I guess the one above is an exception since it's an extended bit of dialog.
Edited by Fighteer on Jul 28th 2022 at 11:37:18 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"While I think that under more than one director/writer, the MCU has jokes that detract from emotional sincerity, I don't see an issue with having at least one joke about Doom's name.
The issue would be more with having Doom start ranting and raving in response and the characters/movie not taking him at all seriously.
I thought the jokes about Doctor Strange's name in his own movie and in Infinity War were quite amusing.
And I think it seems intuitive to have some lampshading of when characters have unusual predictive names (like Strange and Doom). Or similarly to note the frequency of alliterative names.
Edit - Also, not superheroes, but the humor with Doom and Strange kind of reminds me of (always funny) jokes in British media (i.e. Lord Peter Wimsey) about people with the name Death or D'eath who insist that it's pronounced de-ath. Because it is a real thing for people to have cool names like that.
Speaking of British media, I'm also thinking of how in the various Inspector Morgan media, there's a running joke of the head cops having these meaningful or ironic last names - Bright, Strange, and Moody.
Edited by Hodor2 on Jul 28th 2022 at 8:46:49 AM
I absolutely agree that there must be at least a couple of jokes at the expense of Doom's name. It's just hanging out there because of how ridiculous it sounds. Having Doom immediately pulverize the person making the joke is the obvious subversion.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Thank you.
EDIT: Incredible, the worst page-topper of all time.
Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jul 27th 2022 at 11:41:00 AM