@therealsilvermane

You don’t have to know what comicsgate or alt-right politics is to be shaped by it. If you’re using terms like SJW in this forum, you’ve been influenced by it. The hilarious thing is you say politics have no place in this forum but then you throw that very toxic political tag around in a lot of your posts. Isn’t it ironic? I also never said I have a “problem” with comics or said they were “flawed.” But it is a problem for DC and Marvel who are trying to diversify their super-hero films but don’t have enough major diverse heroes to supply that want.

Clearly your sense of comic book history is shaped by comicsgate and not by actual comic book history. Comic books, particularly since the 1960’s, reflected and addressed the social justice issues of the time. The Black Panther and Falcon, both co-created by Stan Lee, were reflections of 60’s Civil Rights. The famed Green Lantern Green Arrow series by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams touched on a different social justice issue every month, like workers rights and racism in America. Ms Marvel was born out of Stan Lee’s awareness of the women’s independence movement in the 1970’s. The Uncanny X-Men have always been a metaphor for civil rights whether Stan Lee or Chris Claremont wrote them. It’s an issue that absolutely has a place in a comic collector forum. The “problem” for studios today who are trying to increase the audience demographic for super-hero comic book movies, is that there still aren’t enough major characters that represent different genders or races, to appeal to that wider demographic. For Marvel, after Carol Danvers and Black Widow, there aren’t any more major solo female characters. After Panther and Falcon, there aren’t anymore major black heroes. DC has the same issue. After Wonder Woman and Supergirl, they have to turn to villains like Catwoman or Harley Quinn.

Being kind of sarcastic, the point being that the Avengers and the MCU in general has been mostly male heroes, understanding that it's also an inherent problem with comic book source material in general.

I’m talking about the MCU. There have been plenty of female Avengers in the comics. It’s only in the past year we got Wasp and Captain Marvel. If there’s an Avengers team after Endgame, it’ll be almost half female with Marvel, Wasp, and Witch. Which might preclude the gimmicky “need” for an all female Avengers squad.

Granted, they add Scarlet Witch in Age of Ultron, but offset her with her jerk brother Quicksilver and another white dude robot Vision. Then in Civil War let’s add even more dudes with Falcon, Bucky, Black Panther, Spider-Man, War Machine, and Ant-Man. So that’s like 12 male Avengers and two females still. A little uneven isn’t it? That’s about to end.

Are you being sarcastic? The first Avengers movie was five white dudes with a female secretary.

I don't think anyone else is wacky enough to compare Brie Larson's acting technique to Bruce Lee's kung fu. Thas all me I'm afraid. Check your site editor?

I don't think I was being clear enough how much I like Captain Marvel, so I went back and edited.

One of the things I love about Brie Larson being Carol Danvers (I'm not calling her Captain Marvel until she officially takes the name) is that she nails the killer dagger stare. She's got these big piercing eyes along with this ability to freeze in motion that says "I"m about to beat your a**." I also loved how Brie let Carol be whatever she wanted her to be as the film progressed, which was particularly poignant being that Carol is literally a blank slate for most of the movie. Is she a stoic Kree soldier, is she a fun loving Earth girl? We don't know, and neither does Carol. I apologize in advance for the NFL analogy, but Brie reminds me of an ultra-talented NFL wide receiver, like Chad Ochocinco or Odell Beckham Jr, who can turn on a dime and be gone the next second. You think you're getting one route, but before you know it, Odell has the ball and is gone with it. Like those guys, Brie has the ability to cover a wide arrange of emotions in one scene, she's so smart and so quick. Her raw talent is unquestionable. For instance, in many scenes throughout Captain Marvel, she seems to have a very relaxed demeanor, almost being herself before the camera (the exact opposite of stiff), a kind of an indie style approach to acting. However, when the scene requires it, she explodes or pierces with emotion, on a dime. It's very precise, very intense, and there's no mistaking where her energy is being directed. And then the next minute, Carol is displaying yet another emotion. Brie makes our hero very hard to pin down. The reason why Brie's acting approach in Captain Marvel was so effective for me is that it doesn't allow us to nail down exactly who Carol is. She could be anybody. We don't know who she is and neither does Carol. And that's the point of Carol Danvers missing identity and who she was in the comics. But also, because Carol won't stand still for us, it creates surprise, maybe uneasy surprise for some who want to know everything. It's a kind of art this approach. Like an expressionistic painting. But it also speaks to who we are as humans. We all like to think we know we are and who everybody else is around us, but aren't we all blank canvases in a way. To stop making yourself up as you go along is to kind of die. Brie Larson's Carol Danvers was very much alive in Captain Marvel, from beginning to end. So yeah, for me, Brie was plenty on the mark in Captain Marvel.

Look, Jeremy Renner is great and the best Olson sister is good, but I just don't think I can watch them in anything else and not see them as Avengers.

This image makes it look like Olson is about to use her Hex Powers but then is like "dammit, wrong movie!"

Barton has a particularly extraordinary skill set conducive to Avenging.

Barton and Wanda could've reeeally used their super powers in this situation...

Not sure how random a pick Captain Marvel was, as the guy was an MCU fan and seeing how much CM was in the news for better or worse, it got his stunt that much more publicity. There ought to be a Guinness record for passionately watching a movie the most times. I think after my fourth Infinity War viewing, though, I started to get annoyed at all the times the Guardians or the Avengers coulda have stopped or thwarted Thanos easily.

I just find it amusing that the Brie Larson haters rant about her acting after the lady has won an OSCAR FOR BEST ACTOR. I don't care how much one dismisses the Academy Awards, you have to know how to "actually act" to win one of those awards. And Elizabeth Olsen is okay. But she's kind of forgettable though if she ain't playing a super-hero. I think she was in that first Godzilla movie, I forget. And her accent in Age of ULtron? Thank goodness the Russo Brothers seemed to have her lose the thing eventually. It was pretty awful.

Not to mention maybe the most important thing...Marvel successfully pulled off Thor. It seems no big deal now, it back then, who knew how it’d turn out? Selling a super-hero movie about a Norse god with a flying hammer who gets trapped on Earth to a general audience was no simple task, and Marvel did it. It’s the movie that really set up The Avengers.

I'd argue that Thor 1 is one of the strongest films in the MCU, story-wise.It has an actual three act story and Thor's personal development as the main character IS the story. With Iron Man and Chaplain America, their personal development was over in the first act, with powering up and stopping the bad guy taking up the rest of their movies. Thor 1 had a great villain (maybe the MCU's best villain) who also developed personally as the movie went along, and continues to be a beloved MCU character. The movie's turning points throughout were all strong, whether it was Thor being cast out from Asgard, Thor finally becoming worthy of Mjolnir again, or Loki's "death." Yeah, I'd say Thor, as an origin story, is one of the better MCU films.

With the Eternals movie coming, maybe the next big MCU event will be tied to the Celestials or the Builders

It's possible they're talking about the more recent Secret Wars event written by Jonathan Hickman. The 80's Secret Wars mini-series is a bit dated.

I wonder if Ant-Man & Wasp missed the influence of Edgar Wright. The movie was okay, I just wanted to love it and didn't at all.

Okay, so I would love to see Luis tell the Avengers story from Iron Man to Endgame. That might could be the awesomest MCU thing EVER.

Hmm, does this mean less Spider-Man in "Phase Four" of the MCU?

I think Sony understands they need Marvel Studios at this point to really make Peter Parker’s story work. They can’t reboot the character a fourth time. And I think Disney understands they still need Spider-Man to be part of their universe. I think they’ll make something work going forward.