MCU Discussion Thread (Contains Spoilers)

[Special K]

Thor 4 ended all of my interest in the MCU. Phase 4 is so unfocused and I can't see anything saving it.

[Paul]

9 hours ago, TD_LFC said:

Hey Kevin Feige, we need that connecting thread to latch on to right about now, the MCU is lacking that bit of focus and direction of where it's heading and building up to in phase 4 and beyond.

 

The first three phases were catapulted into the stratosphere by one line in the first film "I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative" everyone knew what was happening and where we were headed from that point.

Excellent point. 

[Paul]

8 hours ago, TD_LFC said:

It's also possible that while we're all expecting Phase 4 to be the start of the next big arc that it's really just the epilogue to phases 1-3 and the reset of the universe which sets everything up for phase 5 and beyond.

 

They've lost the two big flagpole franchises in Captain America and Iron Man but they have two much bigger franchises they have to weave into the universe in Fantastic 4 and X-Men.

 

It would make sense for all the multiverse/Kang the conqueror stuff to be wrapped up over a shorter span so they can move away from existing stories and introduce those characters with someone like Dr Doom being the next Thanos level threat.

Another excellent point. They’re building towards Secret Wars, but ultimately they just need to get Marvel’s First Family (TM) and the X Men in there ASAP. This deffo feels like a period where they’re just going for exponential expansion over a coherent overarching narrative. If there’s an ultimate payoff, great. However, they’re taking a huge risk with the scattergun approach right now. 

[Scott_M]

I’ve not seen Thor 4 yet but I’ve not been particularly impressed with any of the films since Endgame.

 

No Way Home & Black Widow were decent enough, I suppose.

 

I thought Shang-Chi was nonsense, Eternals was shite & Dr Strange was paper thin.

 

I’m fed up with these Disney + shows as well. Moon Knight & Ms Marvel started Ok and but I’m bored by the 3rd episode. All the show don’t need 4-6 hours to tell the story when 2 hours is more than enough.

[Scott_M]

9 hours ago, TD_LFC said:

There's been two mentions in phase 4 that they're possibly going to use to anchor the universe to but they're so obscure that it's not enough for people to cling to like the mention of the Avengers was.

Isn’t Ant Man 3 meant to be introducing 

Kang the Conqueror? I assume that set Avengers 5 in motion.

 

[RedKnight]

18 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

I’ve not seen Thor 4 yet but I’ve not been particularly impressed with any of the films since Endgame.

 

No Way Home & Black Widow were decent enough, I suppose.

 

I thought Shang-Chi was nonsense, Eternals was shite & Dr Strange was paper thin.

 

I’m fed up with these Disney + shows as well. Moon Knight & Ms Marvel started Ok and but I’m bored by the 3rd episode. All the show don’t need 4-6 hours to tell the story when 2 hours is more than enough.

 

That's because they're movie pitches stretched out to fill six episodes. They're TV in the loosest sense of the word and it's why they generally sag in the middle as that's where the padding is.

[TD_LFC]

11 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

Isn’t Ant Man 3 meant to be introducing 

Kang the Conqueror? I assume that set Avengers 5 in motion.

 

One of his variants was introduced in Loki but yeah he's the bad guy in Quantumania, it would be odd to have him as the bad guy in that but also the next avengers level threat (assuming we still have an Avengers).

 

When he was first announced people were surprised that he was the antagonist in Ant Man as it seems too much of a small scale film for such a big character.

[Scott_M]

On 10/07/2022 at 19:43, RedKnight said:

 

That's because they're movie pitches stretched out to fill six episodes. They're TV in the loosest sense of the word and it's why they generally sag in the middle as that's where the padding is.

If only I was as good with editing etc as this guy who has made his own cut of Obi Wan Kenobi, much better than the show, cuts out all the boring / pointless shite…

https://www.kaipattersonfilms.com/kenobi

[TD_LFC]

On 10/07/2022 at 18:33, Paul said:

ultimately they just need to get Marvel’s First Family (TM) and the X Men in there ASAP.

You may have got your wish!!!

[Paul]

So Marvel have just made about a million announcements at Comic-Con. The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer looks absolutely fantastic; certainly, far more genuinely thrilling than anything we’ve had from the MCU in quite a while now.
 

The Thunderbolts, two new Avengers movies in the same year and of course The Fantastic Four are all pretty exciting too. The idea of this being The Multiverse Saga culminating in Kang and Secret Wars Avengers films shows there’s still plenty for them to cover between now and then.
 

The lack of announcements about the X-Men makes me think that we won’t really see those stories move into gear until phases 7 to 9; The Mutant Saga, maybe?

 

 

[Paul]

Looking like T’ Challa has a son in this. Seems to open with his funeral.  Obviously Namor and the Atlanteans feature heavily. Ri-Ri Williams involved too. Killmonger back. Dr Doom hinted at? Shuri as the new Black Panther. A massive Atlantis vs Wakanda fight - at sea! All looks fucking great to me. 

[TD_LFC]

We've already had the first mutant mentioned in Ms Marvel so while we might not see the main X-men line up I think we'll see the odd mutant weaved in between now and the end of Phase 5 or 6 (there are 10 phase 6 projects not yet announced).

 

And I was wrong about Kang being around for a relatively short time, looks like 5 & 6 will be all multiverse stuff up to and including a new Avengers team being built for the Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars.

[Anubis]

A guy on Twitter who seems to have an inside track on AM&TW: Quantumania hinted that we’re also getting the Fantastic Four and MODOK in that film.

[George Roper]

 

[DalyanPete]

On 10/07/2022 at 21:23, Scott_M said:

Dr Strange was paper thin.

Watched it last night, so many dead parts. Fuckin hate Wanda and her wet lettuce boyfriend. Wandavision was the worst tv show I've ever seen.

[skend04]

2 hours ago, Anubis said:

A guy on Twitter who seems to have an inside track on AM&TW: Quantumania hinted that we’re also getting the Fantastic Four and MODOK in that film.

MODOKs appearance in Ant Man was confirmed in the Comic-Con presentation last night. MODOK and Fantastic Four kick off Phase 6, so that'd make sense.

[Paul]

4 hours ago, TD_LFC said:

We've already had the first mutant mentioned in Ms Marvel so while we might not see the main X-men line up I think we'll see the odd mutant weaved in between now and the end of Phase 5 or 6 (there are 10 phase 6 projects not yet announced).

 

And I was wrong about Kang being around for a relatively short time, looks like 5 & 6 will be all multiverse stuff up to and including a new Avengers team being built for the Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars.

Agree we’ll see mutants emerging - and even some X-Men. However, I reckon it’ll be Phase 7 before things really get going with the X-Men. Apparently Feige has said they’ve got outline plans to take them up to 2030. What they announced yesterday takes us to 2025 so it looks like there’s an entire third saga already mapped out. 

[Scott_M]

I’m struggling to understand what Phase 4 has actually achieved. 
 

Phase 1 culminated with Avengers.

 

Phase 2 culminated with Ultron.

 

Phase 3 culminated in Endgame and Assemble.

 

Phase 4 just seems to have added loads of different characters, some nowhere near as good as the original Phase 1-3 characters, Phase 5 seems to be spinning that ball further before it finally comes to a head at the end of Phase 6.

 

I’ve never read the comics, I do genuinely enough the films, the previous Phases all added up to a genuine ending. This feels an unbelievable slog to get to Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars. 

[Scott_M]

6 hours ago, George Roper said:

 

It’s a shame Chyna from WWF isn’t about anymore as she had previous for playing the She Hulk…

[Paul]

30 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

I’m struggling to understand what Phase 4 has actually achieved. 
 

Phase 1 culminated with Avengers.

 

Phase 2 culminated with Ultron.

 

Phase 3 culminated in Endgame and Assemble.

 

Phase 4 just seems to have added loads of different characters, some nowhere near as good as the original Phase 1-3 characters, Phase 5 seems to be spinning that ball further before it finally comes to a head at the end of Phase 6.

 

I’ve never read the comics, I do genuinely enough the films, the previous Phases all added up to a genuine ending. This feels an unbelievable slog to get to Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars. 

As it’s now called The Multiverse Saga, it’s introduced the multiverse, I guess. However I agree it feels very disjointed. 
 

In terms of all the characters, Secret Wars has a cast of virtually every Marvel character ever so in that regard, it’s serving its purpose in building towards that. 

[Scott_M]

Hopefully the don't bother with Eternals 2.

[Bobby Hundreds]

I liked Loki, Hawkeye, wandavision was okay everything else I've seen has been average moon Knight had its moments. The shit is something to watch when it's available I've no expectations for it. It will be good or bad, I find a lot of people's need for every piece of work to be near perfection on every level rather than sometimes just be there as entertainment take it or leave it to be so demanding how can you ever be happy.

[Strontium]

I've only just started on the Phase Four films (Black Widow and Shang-Chi), and it all seems a bit... unfocused at the moment. They're fine as far as they go, but I enjoyed Loki, Wandavision and TFATWS more.

 

Yet to start on Ms Marvel, and only seen a couple of episodes of Moon Knight. A note about these two series: they made such a big deal (rightly) about Ms Marvel and how it's overdue representation for the Muslim community, but isn't Marc Spector's Jewish identity as important to that character? Much more so than it is for other Jewish comic book heroes (Thing, Shadowcat, Iceman, Harley Quinn etc). And yet it hasn't been touched upon... well, not yet anyway. I dunno, it's sort of like making Batman without mentioning that he's an orphan. Really odd.

[Karl_b]

I also agree that phase 4 has been a bit out of sorts in comparison to what went before and it's definitely lacked some focus and quality at times. However, alongside the multiverse stuff I think it's doing a good job of showing what a world without the Avengers looks like, and certainly the weekend's announcements suggest that's something of what they're aiming for. 

 

Avengers films are years away, we have a Thunderbolts film, presumably the Young Avengers, FF and X-Men/Mutants all to come, alongside the phase 4 appearances. I'm assuming things are going to go really wrong, over a long period and it'll only be the coming together at the end of Phase 6 which turns things around. Beyond that there's a plan to 2030, so who knows what's in store.

 

Also, Daredevil is properly back. Fuckin' A. 

 

[Section_31]

Good that about daredevil, is it a continuation or a reboot?

 

Anyone who hasn't seen the originals should really give it a go, it's one of the best shows ever made. Like cage and punisher were top drawer too.