Marvel Phase 3 – They’ve Given Us Too Much to Talk About

Okay, when Marvel leaked their Age of Ultron trailer last week, I was excited. And we were starting to get some rumors on the next movie in the works, Captain America 3. It’s going to have Iron Man! It might be Civil War! With those little tidbits, I figured that would be it for a while. After all, we’re seven months out from the next Marvel movie, and we just got the first trailer for it…

Then last week, DC announced all of their movies between now and 2020. I haven’t even had a chance to talk about these – so check out the post about them on We Minored in Film to cover that! The announcements are both exciting and expected, as they are movies for the members of the Justice League. The Marvel equivalent would be announcing Hawkeye, Hulk, and Black Widow movies to go with the existing titles.

And I feel that there’s an element of DC forcing this play, but maybe it was always planned. Marvel announced all of Phase 3, all in one go! With release dates, subtitles, and everything! I should add, though, that it seems their plan was to announce all of these movies – and then show the trailer for Age of Ultron that evening. By which point, there would have been way too much for one day.

Alright, so to try to keep this halfway manageable, there’s a great article on The Mary Sue about the movie announcements already. So I’m going to add a bit of my own speculation and excitement about the movies!

Found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Comics

Update: Also, check out some thoughts from We Minored in Film: the good and the bad.

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Comics and Film – Guardians of the Galaxy, a LitFlix

There’s a lot that could be said about Guardians of the Galaxy. About how it’s great. About how it has great relationships. About how it lived up to expectations. About how it has great music. About all the great characters. Luckily, as the links show, we’ve already written about these things, to one extent or another.

We’re putting the band back together!

So this is my LitFlix of Guardians of the Galaxy: my comparison of the film to the comics that it comes from. In particular, this group of Guardians of the Galaxy came together in the 2008-2010 run of the comic, and I read all 25 issues before seeing the film. I read the Marvel prequel comic, too, but those were short: an intro to Nebula and Gamora, and an intro to Groot and Rocket. Then a bunch of the first appearance comics for these different characters.

But they came together pretty recently. And ended up part of a lot of crossover comics. I figured there probably wouldn’t be much at all from the comics in the movie. So call me surprised to find just how many little tidbits from the comics ended up in the film! I’ll be looking at a few things that made the cut, from comics to movie, and then a few things that didn’t – spoilers to come, for Guardians of the Galaxy!

The Mad Titan, Thanos – A Character Study

From The Infinity Gauntlet

Marvel’s recent crossover event Infinity recently ended, and with all the events with “Infinity” in the title, this was a crossover that included the Mad Titan, Thanos, as the villain. In Infinity, he had to share the stage with the Builders, and was only one front of a two-front war. Nonetheless, his parts in Infinity tied in heavily to who he is as a villain, and what motivates him.

Of course, other Thanos events like the Infinity Gauntlet help inform us as to who Thanos is and what he’s up to, but Infinity drew from more than that. They did a limited-run, 5-issue series called Thanos Rising which explored the origin story of Thanos. It’s interesting, because with this story, it’s hard to tell where the previous Thanos events fit in. Nonetheless, the psychological underpinnings of the character are explored and revealed in Thanos Rising.

And what they lay out is that this is a mentally unbalanced, overly powerful character, willing – and wanting – to kill anyone and anything. Conquering or razing worlds because he can. So I’ve read the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos Rising, and Infinity, so let’s take a look at who this villain is! Spoilers to follow!

Thor: The Dark World and the First Appearance of Malekith the Accursed – A Litflix

Thor is not a comic hero I really ever knew much about. The whole actually-being-the-Norse-gods thing was a bit odd, and feels like it could be a bit stifling for creativity. Plus, he’s overpowered, and as I mentioned in my post on Superman, I am not a huge fan of those sorts of characters.

However, with the first Thor, I was convinced. The vision they had of Asgard, and the role of the Asgardians, was entertaining and creative. And Thor is the sort of hero you want in a group like the Avengers. Because it really still takes a threat that big to need Thor involved.

So to prepare for Thor: The Dark World, I read a few Thor comics to get my head in Thor’s world. First I read the Thor novelization, and then the Thor: The Dark World Prelude. But the prequel comics are only so good, as I have found this year with my LitFlix, so I went hunting. I found an old story from the 80s, the first appearance of Malekith, and a huge epic battle from there – in Thor 344-353.

So read on for some of my thoughts on how Malekith, Kurse, and others were used in the movie as opposed to the comics! It was a good movie, so if you want to avoid spoilers, you should go see it! Onward!

Also, I will take a look at the credits Easter Egg, the lead-in for the next few movies!

My Review of Marvel Now!

Alternate Title: Who is this Brian Michael Bendis?

How do you do a reboot without doing a reboot? Time Travel. Brought to you by Marvel Now! and Brian Michael Bendis!

I have been exploring a lot of comics lately, and have been doing reviews here on the blog. Comics like Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, New Avengers, All New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men… and I keep running into one name. One creator.

Brian Michael Bendis.

When I saw his name randomly scroll past during the credits of the movie The Avengers, as a consultant, I knew I had to write a post a bit about him. And this made the most sense in terms of Marvel’s current marketing campaign, Marvel Now! So, note I have not necessarily done any research here, this is just my observations.