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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
The thing is when it watched Iron Man, I thought it was an okay movie. Really solid, but to me, the pacing was slightly off, and I felt that they could have made more with Raz and with the connection between Tony and Stane. I mean the whole thing was a giant betrayal, but the fact is never really adressed in the movie, nor in any of the sequels. I also felt that the character change of Tony wasn't really a character change and more a matter of seeing the truth. The Tony before Afghanistan wasn't okay with selling weapons under his hand either. He wouldn't have been okay with his weapons being used by terrorists. It is less that he decides that his "who holds the biggest stick brings peace" is wrong and more that he decides "I can't trust anyone with the stick, so I better hold it myself".
With Captain America though, I was blown away how well they handled the difficult topic. How they managed to cut the character Captain America from the propaganda machinery so that Captain America no longer is the Superhero which stands for the great and allmighty America, but what America should be, the ideals it once tried to reach but never did. And I can totally get behind that. I think those a great ideals. At the same time, Steve become more than just a personification of those ideals, he became a character who constantly struggles against a world, in which those ideals are more or less forgotten.
So not only can I root fully for Captain America (and I am talking about a character I positively hated for his overblown patriotism beforehand), he also has a complexity I consider very relatable.
I can inderstand though, why some people might feel more attached to the Iron Man movie. But if I look at the two franchises, the Captain America one is definitly the stronger - even if they ruin the third movie. Because the first movie is so different from the second one, but both feel like they fit together perfectly. While with the Iron Man movies, it feels a little bit like they did the same movie three times. Each time Tony struggles with emotional problems, with his abilities to form relationship, encounters a villain with whom he has some sort of personal connection related to his past and everytime he updates the suit so that he can use the newest model just in time to rescue everyone. Wtih Captain America the first one is a period piece and war movie about a man dedicated to do his part in the war until he becomes a tragic hero, while the second one is a political thriller about a soldier who is tired of war and has trouble to adjust to his new life.
So here's a thought about how the Cap movies and Avengers movie were written: It speaks both as a positive to the writing of the Cap movies, but a negative on Avengers, that there was little character change or development beyond Iron Man at the end. One could watch the two Cap films back to back, and skip Avengers, and couldn't they not miss anything?The only thing you miss is that you don't see anything about the other Supers. Even Black Widow gets enough of a reintroduction in Cap 2's opening that you don't need to know what she's like in Iron Man 2 or Avengers.
Steve didn't have much of a personality in The Avengers. I actually count it a bit as Early-Installment Weirdness because they didn't seem to have his characterization or fighting style down until Winter Soldier.
I chalk that up to the movie being written before First Avenger was out.
Lord of Lore's list of future villains he wants to see in the MCU:
- Thor
- Enchantress: Has worked with Loki before(at one point while he ruled Asgard). If we are lucky she might get Thor to forget Jane.
- Cul: Look, I really want to see a big snake fight Thor.
- Hela: Anti-villain with great interactions with Loki, Thor and pretty much all other Asgardians.
- The Disir:-is cut into a million pieces before the words can leave my mouth-
- Iron Man
- Recorder 451: Remove the "secret origin" of Tony and you have a good cosmic based threat that Tony could probably defeat without the other Avengers.
- Lancelot: Tony has the best suit, she is the best pilot. If there ever was a real Armor War in the MCU Alexandra would be my pick as the rival who switches sides in the last act to help defeat the evil Roxxon/A.I.M/The Circle/Other evil companies and persons who would take part in such a event.
- Count Nefaria: Look, I really want Madame Masque.
- Hawkeye
- Only has a contract for the next two Avengers movies so I'm not going to bother with him.
- Black Widow
- No solo movie so I'll wait on her.
- Hulk
- No solo movie but I would enjoy seeing Hulk fight Red Hulk or the Leader if he ever got another movie.
- Captain America
- Probably dying before Cap 4 so I'll just put down M.O.D.O.K as a villain I want to see later after Bucky takes over.
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Adam Magus: Look, we know they are bringing in Warlock. Bring in the Universal Church of Truth and you have a source of mooks that the weaker Guardians can fight while Peter/Gamora deal with Magus.
- The Supreme Intelligence of the Kree: The Kree need a good man behind the man and the SI can easily be adapted into the real power on Hala.
- Lord Mar-Vell: Might as well go full stop and make Mar-Vell a villain seeking eternal life after finding out he has space!cancer. Have his daughter oppose him and you have a good reason to add Phyla to the team.
- Doctor Strange
- Mephisto: Yo. Best demon lord.
- The Fear Lords: Adapt the Journey Into Mystery arc with them but replace Kid!Loki with Strange or I don't know. I like them and would like to see what the MCU can do with one or more of them.
- Umar: Probably Strange's best female villain.
- Black Panther
- All the good ones have already been stated.
- Ant-Man
- Doom! No wait.
- Ultron! No wait.
- His own personal demons!(look, Lang/Pym doesn't have that many good personal villains)
- Captain Marvel
- Yon-Rogg: Kree, friend of Ronan, the one who ended up giving Carol her powers, her first major enemy after becoming Captain Marvel...This guy has a lot of things that make him a good starter villain for Carol.
- Moonstone: Good power set and a typical "same power as the hero but evil" villain like Iron Monger, Red Skull, Loki and Abomination. Helps that she is connected to the Kree.
- The Brood belongs to Fox, right? Maybe J'son without the connection to Peter?
- Avengers
- Immortus/Kang the Conqueror: If you are only going to do 1 time travel movie in the entire MCU, bring in the big guns.
- The Masters of Evil: I think we've talked about them before.
- The Void: Could take Ultron's place in the Masters. I mostly want to see him since the biggest mistake with Sentry/Void was that he got too many origins and a movie only has time for one.
I removed all the villains that we are pretty sure are going to show up in the next movies and some that we've already talked about a lot.
I was kind of bored.
Deathbird
and Dr. Minerva
would both be good Captain Marvel villains.
I'm sure we'll see Klaw in Black Panther since he's all but confirmed for AOU but at the same time I'd like to see Man-Ape as well, but I'm sure Marvel wants to avoid the Unfortunate Implications.
They're just going to keep doing Doom and Galactus over and over again. Why do they have to hog all the fun stuff
A Secret Invasion movie could be awesome
Forever liveblogging the AvengersA pirate skull.
Or
A shape shifting alien race that want to take over Earth because. Also got into fights with the Kree a bunch.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersIt's possible. Disney owns the rights to Pirates.
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.Nefaria could be an interesting villain moving forward. With superhumans and comparable tech now really starting to becoming a thing in the MCU, a guy who's role is controlling the inevitable international superhuman weapons trade and making organized crime syndicate out of supervillains sounds really neat. And since he's more of a general Marvel villain, he could easily fight pretty much anybody - he could be in a tv show or a movie, and his niche makes it easy for him to be either a supporting or a major antagonist.

I too view Iron Man 1 as the better film compared to Thor 1 and Captain America: The First Avenger.