Gatsby77

As was pointed out -- The Punisher (2004) pre-dates the MCU. Punisher War Zone, however -- does not. It came out in Dec. 2008 -- after Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk -- and, much to Marvel's dismay, should count. (Yeah - folks claim Hulk it doesn't because Lionsgate distributed it, but Universal distributed The Incredible Hulk too and this is just as much an official "Marvel Studios" production).

1) I think this is very good news. 2) This scene from Waiting is, by far, the greatest thing that John Francis Daley has done. (NSFW):

This. Thank you. It continually baffles me that folks on this board by and large seem to rank Iron Man 3 below Iron Man 2. My expectations for Iron Man 2 were sky-high, with the introduction of the Black Widow, Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, Cheadle as the new Rhodey, and Mickey Rourke as Whiplash. Instead we got a jumbled mess of a movie, Rourke (and his character) were wasted, and after the first action scene (at the racetrack) there were no real stakes -- we never actually believed Tony or Rhodey were in danger. In contrast, most of Iron Man 3 deals with Tony Stark the man -- suffering from PTSD from the battle of New York in The Avengers, de-powered, and broken. The entire middle section he's a humbled, stripped-down man who has to figure out just how heroic he really is without the suit. Even better -- the plot sets this up without taking the easy route -- which would have been the alcoholic spiral portrayed in Demon in a Bottle. Instead, they went with Extremis, and it works -- largely up until the last scene when Pepper suddenly gets Lady Iron Man powers. Comic fans rant about the Mandarin twist, but at the end of the day, it's a minor part of the story. I also found it brilliant and subversive -- and one of the reason it works is Mandarin himself sucks as a villain -- he's an out-dated racist Fu Manchu rip-off that doesn't really work in this day and age. And -- unlike the Joker, Loki, or even the Red Skull -- he's never been three dimensional enough to actually be popular in his own right. So there's little harm in neutralizing his racist caricature with a clever twist. I think the movie would have been better if Shane Black had been allowed to keep Maya as the primary villain rather than Killian, but as it stands it was a great Iron Man movie and best exploration of Tony Stark to-date.

For those keeping score, after 12 days of release, Black Panther's now rocking nearly $100 million ahead of Avengers: Age of Ultron at the same point domestically. Day-um.

Think I mentioned this before, but Edgerton's quickly becoming one of my favorite actor. He has sort of an unmemorable face, which means he can disappear in a number of totally different roles in films like: Warrior Loving The Gift The Great Gatsby Exodus: Gods and Kings I also trust his instincts on scripts, given that he wrote, directed and acted in The Gift.

Any ideas on who's got the Soul Stone? Captain Marvel? Warlock? Hidden in Wakanda?

I was introduced to him in the '80s Silver Surfer run. He's just as ridiculous (and therefore awesome) as Howard the Duck -- so I wouldn't put it past Disney to introduce him with a cameo at some point.

Impossible Man would _rule_. But I reckon he's still owned by Fox.

We still think is going to be Infinity War Part 1, right? So it makes sense that it ends similar to Infinity Gauntlet # 4 -- with our heroes defeated and a few major heroes (Cap, Drax, Nebula, maybe Iron Man) lying dead. Enter - the cosmic ones for part 2: Captain Marvel Warlock (maybe) Beta Ray Bil Who else?

What's the presumptive break-even on a $200 million production + $150 million advertising? $800 million? $850 million? I know there are many variables that play into this, including the domestic/foreign split, advertising off-sets, merchandising revenue, etc. But I don't like seeing _any_ movie studios spending so much that a film has to do $400 million domestic / $400 million international just to break even. Similarly, I'm wondering if Avatar 2 will break records to the tune of a $350 million production cost + $150 million in advertising...

This. Daily think pieces... A dozen New York Times articles so far... That Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote the comic two years ago and is now serving as a brand ambassador for the character... The soundtrack has topped the billboard charts two weeks in a row... Comic book sales don't matter anymore (and haven't for awhile). Hell, even the first few Spider-Man movies didn't affect print runs of that title. This is a cultural phenomenon. It may be (like Titanic or The first Avengers movie) lightning in a bottle, but it's real -- and moving the needle in broader conversations about superheroes, race, and culture.

Yup. And for all that, Black Panther is now on-track to have more people watch it in the theater than watched Batman that summer. To be clear, $404 million is a far cry from $578 million, but give it a few more weeks...

Point taken, but this is a legit phenomenon. Remember how big Wonder Woman was last year? Yeah - Black Panther will pass its entire domestic take today. (I personally think Wonder Woman was a slightly better movie, but I'll support any well-done comic book film.) As a character, BP is now bigger than Deadpool among the general populace (as in, more Americans have already seen BP than saw Deadpool in its entire theatrical run). But for me the mark is now $578 million domestic. If Black Panther passes that mark, it will have surpassed Batman (1989), a film that was _the_ blockbuster event of the year and that redefined what comic book movies could be. Batman was _everywhere_ that summer and was the reason I started collecting comics in the first place. And Black Panther will likely turn out to be bigger -- and in a much more fragmented media environment with 3x as many entertainment choices, that's even more impressive.

Not to knock her work (which I haven't read), but I'd prefer either a comic book writer or screenwriter with a stronger record. Like Gail Simone (comics) or Kathryn Bigelow (movies). Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) could bring a serious Nolan-style sensibility to Batgirl as a gritty crime thriller.

I could see Black Panther being the logical choice to lead the team in a post-Chris Evans/Robert Downey, Jr. era. As in: The West Coast Avengers Black Panther Captain Marvel Scarlet Witch Black Widow The Falcon Ironheart (Shuri) And note - not a white guy among them. Some folks would lose their minds...

Incidentally, y'all think we'll get a surprise Captain Marvel in this film? Saw a rumor on da internets that her costume can be glimpsed -- that she's standing directly behind Cap in a split-second shot in the trailer. I could see it, esp. if she functions as a Warlock surrogate at the film's end, introducing the cosmic entities for the second round of battle (think last few pages of Infinity Gauntlet # 4).

I wish we had Cloak and Dagger in this film. My two favorite deaths from Infinity Gauntlet # 4 were: Cloak Wolverine

Yes, but Blade II is a _masterpiece_. Friends of mine didn't believe me -- about either that film or Guillermo Del Toro's skill -- until years later when he did Pan's Labyrinth.

I think Blade is underrated and _hugely_ important because it essentially proved the viability of non-Superman/Batman superheroes. I don't think it's an overstatement that the first film led to studios finally taking chances on X-Men and Spider-Man (after the long-rumored James Cameron-Leonardo DiCaprio venture). I know that Bryan Singer was slated to direct X-Men as early as 1996, but it's telling that it took a few more re-writes (and well -- Blade) before the project was finally greenlit.

Just as long as it's better than the '90s movie. Tied for worst-ever Akiva Goldsman -script, Gary Oldman over-acted and Matt LeBlanc proved he really can't do anything outside of Joey. Gawd was it horrible.

i disagree. Because we've seen more than a dozen instances of professional take-downs due to sexual misconduct by high-profile men since last summer. And in each case, the timeline from revelation to firing (or equivalent) was far shorter (i.e., three weeks or less). See: Harvey Weinstein Kevin Spacey Louis C.K. Sen. Al Franken Brett Ratner Jeffrey Tambor Garrison Keillor Matt Lauer It's been more than three months. Hence, Occam's Razor dictates it may be a contributing factor, but not the primary one. Something else drove this.

Umm...the allegations by his ex-wife surfaced in November. It's February.

The answer's probably much simpler than that. He saw the studio landscape and realized it probably couldn't be done right - and yeah, didn't want to be on the hook for that failure. This is the man who pushed Wonder Woman as his passion project a decade ago. There's zero chance he "didn't have a story" for Batgirl. Or...(honestly) that Warner Bros. saw Black Panther surpass Justice League's total domestic gross in four days and thought it'd be better to hedge their bets with a female-driven production. This was day seven -- but surely that timing's just coincidental, right?

Random question -- anyone know why Marvel tended to have Black Panther star in issues # 52? He debuted in FF # 52 Joined the Avengers in Avengers # 52 Guest-starred in Daredevil # 52 Seems weird...

I agree -- if BP does $100MM this weekend, its doing better than Infinity War isn't out of bounds. If it does $100MM this weekend, we're looking at $600+ million domestic. The Avengers did $624 million domestic. Age of Ultron did just $459 million domestic. Infinity War should be somewhere in the middle -- definitely $500 million domestic, but $600 million+ is not at all assured.