Marvel Phase 3
Fair warning, I will discuss past comics versions of storylines and Marvel-released casting etc. information behind the cut.
1) They are going to have to hit peak superhero eventually, right? Right? Between Marvel and DC I'm exhausted just looking at the list. And I don't even watch DC movies!
2) I really only know T'Challa from the EMH Avengers cartoon, but based on that I look forward to him winning everything, because he is smarter than you. I always enjoyed his visits. ("Did you all just... yes, you did. For God's sake. Okay, hang on, I got this.") The character design looks awesome, at least, though god bless Chadwick Boseman if he has to breathe in that thing for a whole bunch of fight scenes.
3) It's nice to see a female-led film, I have no particular attachment to Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, but no objection to her either. (elishavah will be disappointed but I figure there's about a 75% chance she isn't reading this, so she'll never know I said that, ha!)
4) Civil War. I had this whole long multi-paragraph discussion that I set off from the numbered list, and something ridiculous happened to the formatting and I refuse to take the amount of time it will take to go through and fix it, because... well, it's weird and it will take a long time to fix, trust me. Its destruction is probably a Sign. So, the short version: I am so skeptical right now about the ability of the MCU to do that storyline in a way that makes sense, and also worried about Steve's characterization and kind of unfairly mad at RDJ and sad that Cap 3 probably won't have a whole lot of Bucky content, though one certainly could try to do the storyline centered around him. I don't think they will, though, if they're going to have a lot of Tony; the emotional center of the movie will likely end up being around his relationship with Steve rather than anyone else's.
Oh well. As I said to destina, at least if they drop the Bucky stuff we'll have more room to maneuver with non-AU fic. I mean, we might have to resurrect Steve but that's easy enough. ("Six months after Steve came back..." See? Easy.)
Okay, ETA to add: The reason I'm concerned about Steve's characterization is that registration of superheroes in and of itself is so obviously the ethical choice, when one is supportive of things like "democracy" and "the rule of law" and "lynchings are bad." So I want them to be careful how they set up Steve's opposition, and it'll be tiring for me to suspend disbelief if I have to do the "well, but in this universe it's okay to have random superpowered vigilantes without government oversight!" I mean, granted after the SHIELD/HYDRA thing Steve is going to be skeptical of government agencies, but that doesn't mean that "we do whatever the hell we want" is a good option.
5) I look forward to the Russos' statements about how they're thrilled, thrilled! to have the opportunity to bring this classic comics storyline to the big screen. It's like a dream come true!
6) It's not that I object to Benedict Cumberbatch per se. It's just kind of like... you know when you buy a couple of chicken-themed things and suddenly everyone thinks you collect chickens, and they keep giving you chicken stuff, and you think, you know, I like chickens fine, but I'm not that into them? I feel that way about Cumberbatch. He occupies enough fannish space, and I kind of wish they'd gotten someone else.
7) I think it's pretty hilarious that when I searched to find out who had been cast as T'Challa, I found a USA Today headline saying "Marvel goes for diversity with latest movie slate". Like, okay, but they announced nine movies, three of which are unquestionably headed up by white guys, three of which are ensemble movie sequels that will, based on history, be either very white-guy heavy or focused on the one white guy in the cast, and one of which is The Inhumans, which I know nothing about but when I look at the picture on their Wikipedia page the person in the front is a white guy. I mean, credit where credit is due, I'm happy about Black Panther and Captain Marvel too, but let's not oversell it, guys.
ETA 8) I do like the new Age of Ultron scene, though.
1) They are going to have to hit peak superhero eventually, right? Right? Between Marvel and DC I'm exhausted just looking at the list. And I don't even watch DC movies!
2) I really only know T'Challa from the EMH Avengers cartoon, but based on that I look forward to him winning everything, because he is smarter than you. I always enjoyed his visits. ("Did you all just... yes, you did. For God's sake. Okay, hang on, I got this.") The character design looks awesome, at least, though god bless Chadwick Boseman if he has to breathe in that thing for a whole bunch of fight scenes.
3) It's nice to see a female-led film, I have no particular attachment to Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, but no objection to her either. (elishavah will be disappointed but I figure there's about a 75% chance she isn't reading this, so she'll never know I said that, ha!)
4) Civil War. I had this whole long multi-paragraph discussion that I set off from the numbered list, and something ridiculous happened to the formatting and I refuse to take the amount of time it will take to go through and fix it, because... well, it's weird and it will take a long time to fix, trust me. Its destruction is probably a Sign. So, the short version: I am so skeptical right now about the ability of the MCU to do that storyline in a way that makes sense, and also worried about Steve's characterization and kind of unfairly mad at RDJ and sad that Cap 3 probably won't have a whole lot of Bucky content, though one certainly could try to do the storyline centered around him. I don't think they will, though, if they're going to have a lot of Tony; the emotional center of the movie will likely end up being around his relationship with Steve rather than anyone else's.
Oh well. As I said to destina, at least if they drop the Bucky stuff we'll have more room to maneuver with non-AU fic. I mean, we might have to resurrect Steve but that's easy enough. ("Six months after Steve came back..." See? Easy.)
Okay, ETA to add: The reason I'm concerned about Steve's characterization is that registration of superheroes in and of itself is so obviously the ethical choice, when one is supportive of things like "democracy" and "the rule of law" and "lynchings are bad." So I want them to be careful how they set up Steve's opposition, and it'll be tiring for me to suspend disbelief if I have to do the "well, but in this universe it's okay to have random superpowered vigilantes without government oversight!" I mean, granted after the SHIELD/HYDRA thing Steve is going to be skeptical of government agencies, but that doesn't mean that "we do whatever the hell we want" is a good option.
5) I look forward to the Russos' statements about how they're thrilled, thrilled! to have the opportunity to bring this classic comics storyline to the big screen. It's like a dream come true!
6) It's not that I object to Benedict Cumberbatch per se. It's just kind of like... you know when you buy a couple of chicken-themed things and suddenly everyone thinks you collect chickens, and they keep giving you chicken stuff, and you think, you know, I like chickens fine, but I'm not that into them? I feel that way about Cumberbatch. He occupies enough fannish space, and I kind of wish they'd gotten someone else.
7) I think it's pretty hilarious that when I searched to find out who had been cast as T'Challa, I found a USA Today headline saying "Marvel goes for diversity with latest movie slate". Like, okay, but they announced nine movies, three of which are unquestionably headed up by white guys, three of which are ensemble movie sequels that will, based on history, be either very white-guy heavy or focused on the one white guy in the cast, and one of which is The Inhumans, which I know nothing about but when I look at the picture on their Wikipedia page the person in the front is a white guy. I mean, credit where credit is due, I'm happy about Black Panther and Captain Marvel too, but let's not oversell it, guys.
ETA 8) I do like the new Age of Ultron scene, though.