@therealsilvermane

In both WandaVision and Falcon Winter Soldier, there is no clear cut single uber-villain to channel audience apathy. In WandaVision, the real antagonist is her own grief. In FWS, the real antagonist is a lack of empathy in the world. And in both shows, both Wanda and Sam power up not by beating everything to submission, but by using their heads. Marvel Studios is exploring new ways of telling these super-hero comic book stories. It's different. I like it.

Well the series has Sam Wilson empathizing with the leader of the Flag Smashers and refusing to engage in combat with her at the end. Obviously Falcon and Winter Soldier isn't a cut-and-dry good guy vs bad guy typical melodrama action story. Evildoings in this show were spread out between the U.S. Government, the GRC, the Flag Smashers, Batroc, John Walker, Val, and I guess Sharon Carter now. The show seemed to be more about two things: establishing the messiness of the post-Thanos world and Sam Wilson proving that he was it takes on the inside to carry on the legacy of Steve Rogers by dealing with all the different antagonists in his own way. His super-power really does seem to be what he said it is, the power of believing there's a better way. After all, he did accomplish what the Flag Smashers couldn't do with all their super serums, get the GRC to stop the resetting of international borders which would have resulted in millions of people losing their homes.

Russell Crowe says he's playing Zeus in Thor: Love and Thunder Wow! Yeah, that might mean Hercules might be coming to the MCU soon. I'm glad I held on to my Journey Into Mystery Annual #1 now.

I was thinking more along the lines of Sam's new Captain America themed vibranium suit but Baron Zemo's head in the box as a warning to not cross Wakandans would be kind of awesome, too...

https://www.engadget.com/the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-streaming-premiere-stats-203512547.html By the numbers, Falcon and Winter Soldier has more viewers than WandaVision. The reason why there's less internet chatter is because it isn't a mystery like WV and there's no big speculation buzz on Mephisto or Magneto or Reed Richards showing up in the next episode. FWS is more of an action drama that's giving the viewers most of what they need to know for that episode instead of causing fans speculation ad nauseum over who the mystery big bad is like over in WV.

From the internet, the arbiter of ultimate truth: Murica or 'Murika is a slang term for America which is used to denote extreme patriotism, coupled with aspects of a redneck or southern American stereotypesimilar those featured in the advice animalsRedneck Randal or Almost Politically Correct Redneck. It can also be found on image macros to either support or criticize American stereotypes.

You honestly think in a post-pandemic world where streaming is now more important than ever, that Disney would continue to allow Marvel Studios to keep making Spider-Man movies for Sony(even with a meager 25% of box office take) if Sony won't let Disney stream those same Spider-Man movies on Disney+?

This must mean Old Man Steve Rogers is going to take back the Shield in Ep 6 because after watching Sam's training montage in Episode 5, his feeling was that Sam wasn't proficient enough with the Shield yet and maybe 'Murica isn't ready for a black Captain America after all. Steve will come out of retirement, reassume the mantle, and the next movie will be Old Man Cap. Go ahead and schedule it.

I was wrong with the 3 billion number at least. 3 billion is what Sony is getting from Netflix and Disney combined. I was right in how important streaming and Disney+ is to Disney and this new deal is proof. I also stand by my theory/statement/whatever that any future deal that concerns Spider-Man continuing as a character in the MCU going forward (which includes Marvel Studios making Spider-Man movies for Sony), requires Spider-Man movies be able to stream on Disney+.

It’s a great scene.

I did say Marvel Studios doesn't need Spider-Man for the MCU to continue to be successful and I stand by that opinion. I never said Marvel Studios doesn't want Spidey, I said if they can't get access to him because Disney and Sony can't come to an agreement, then Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige will be just fine without him. Marvel Studios still doesn't need Spider-Man. But if Disney and Sony can come to another movie deal agreement, then of course Marvel Studios and Feige will keep throwing him in movies. Sony signing a deal with Disney to let Spidey stream on Disney+ opens up that possibility. Last week, according to media reports, that was not a possibility.

If you watch the trailer, in what appears to be a flashback scene of Shang Chi as a youth, when he punches somebody, blue radiation is emitted similar to Wanda radiating red Chaos energy when she uses her power. I'm assuming this blue radiation is a visualization of Shang Chi summoning Chi energy when he strikes someone with his special power.

You're confused. What I had argued last week or so was that if Sony won't let Spider-Man stream on Disney+, then Disney will no longer make the Spider-Man films and the character is done in the MCU after No Way Home. That Spider-Man couldn't stream on Disney+ seemed to be the case when Sony had apparently signed an exclusive streaming deal with Netflix. Apparently it wasn't exclusive after all and now Sony will indeed let SPider-Man stream on Disney+ for 3 billion, which changes everything again. My entire argument about Disney's stance on Spider-Man was based on Disney+ not having access to Spider-Man.

I suspect the epic China historical battle sequence you're seeing in the trailer is just a flashback sequence that gives us a little history to Shang Chi's world, like what you saw at the beginning of Thor or Black Panther. The rest of the movie appears to be very much set in the present day, complete with karaoke bars and city buses.

Yeah, looks like the rings are more like bracelets.

Except Sam then refused the mantle and gave the Shield to the Smithsonian Institute in Episode One. For four episodes, Sam was arguing that he wasn't worthy of the mantle and that only Steve Rogers was worthy of that Shield. Sure, Steve believed in Sam, but Sam didn't believe in Sam, and within the story, the outcome was still in doubt until Episode Five. And part of the power of FWS is that it's showing us why Sam Wilson is worthy, not just telling us because Steve Rogers says he is. When Sam chooses what he thinks is right over self-glory by giving up the Shield, he kind of did the same thing George Washington did when he stepped down from the presidency after two terms, and was on the way to showing us he's worthy. When Sam chooses empathy and diplomacy over being just another state cop in dealing with Karli, he showed why he's worthy of taking "America" down the right road. And when Sam catches a full speed Shield with both hands as it's about to take off his head, he shows us he now has the basic skills to be the next guy who carries the Shield of Captain America.

I always thought Cap was just good at math or billiards.

Let me break down the power of Sam's training montage for the jaded and insensitive types. Yes, there are bigger battle scenes in the MCU with lots of explosions or much grittier scenes of heroes dying or struggling, but Sam finally accepting the mantle and training with the Shield is IMO a turning point for both the MCU and comic book movies. There is the quiet social implication of an African-American man accepting the mantle of Captain America within the MCU story and also being allowed by a major cultural gatekeeper, Disney, to become Captain America in the first place. When Sam's nephews (is one of them Jim Wilson btw?) touch the Shield with their fingers and he smiles down at them, it represents within the super-hero comic book culture which has taken over the world, that a black kid in America can strive for something greater and maybe achieve it. And not only does Sam accept the mantle of the Shield, we see him indeed succeed with it as he starts off fumbling the Shield at full speed but then progresses to someone who can wield the Shield deserving of Captain America, maybe just not with as much oomph behind the throws that you'd get from a super soldier. With this montage, Sam proves that he's physically deserving of the Shield's legacy. Training montages can be some of the most powerful scenes from movies. In Rocky, the best scene is arguably our hero running through the streets of Philly with a crowd behind him as he breaks away and runs up the steps to the Philly Museum of Art. Here, the movie shows that not only is the world inspired by this underdog, but that our hero finally believes in himself after years of self-doubt. As much as I love the MCU, we just don't get a lot of scenes like that. The training/power-up montages of Iron Man or Ant-Man were humorous and well done, but lacked the Rocky-like seriousness of Sam's training montage. Like Rocky, Sam finally believes he is worthy of the Shield, and when he catches it as it's about to take his head off, he proves he's also capable of wielding the Shield. Also throw in a full orchestra emotional version of Sam's theme music and it's a very emotional scene. For me at least. If anything, it's the best scene IMO in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. And for me, it's one of the most powerful single scenes I've seen in an MCU film.

I'm a fan of the MCU. The MCU puts out great stuff and I'm acknowledging it. This is a forum about comic book movies used by comic book and movie fans. How is anything I'm saying indicative of me being some kind of Disney plant which you are accusing me of (a bit jokingly yes I know)?

But we're getting a James Bond movie already with Black Widow. Marvel always changes up its "genres" within its Phases. Chi energy has become a kind of magic force of its own in the Marvel Comics recently, so exploring that aspect of Shang Chi's story as a martial arts fantasy, which many 70's kung fu films were anyway, will be a unique approach for the MCU despite some folks here saying it looks like more of the same. The director, Destin Daniel Cretton, is a good filmmaker (see Just Mercy) so I'm expecting not only a decent action movie, but a strong character piece.

Now you're just trolling and making no sense at all.

The way the vibranium Shield bounces off objects at full speed, I believe, is due to vibranium's unique molecular structure. While vibranium perfectly absorbs sonic energy, actual kinetic energy directed at vibranium is perfectly reflected. For example, in Avengers when Thor strikes the Shield with Mjolnir, the awesome kinetic energy from the strike is reflected as a shock wave that levels the woods around the three heroes. In a moving situation, the Shield almost works in a Newtonian vacuum, meaning if the Shield is moving, when it strikes an object, the kinetic energy from the impact does not affect the Shield's velocity because the unique molecular structure of vibranium reflects the kinetic energy back to the non-vibranium structure being hit, whether it's a person or a tree. And at the same time, the vibranium Shield loses very little of its own kinetic energy, again because of the unique molecular structure of vibranium. The only force affecting the Shield is gravity, so as the Shield bounces off objects or other human beings after Sam or Steve throws it, it returns to the thrower (if thrown at the right angles like a cue ball in pool) at almost the same speed as when he threw it, because of vibranium's conservation of energy.

This is a great film, and one of the few MCU films with a character arc that happens throughout the entire movie's three acts. Iron Man can't say that. Captain America First Avenger can't say that. Thor can say that. The above scene from Captain Marvel, however, isn't a training montage, so it's irrelevant to the discussion of great training montages in the MCU.

Sam training with the Shield is IMO one of the best scenes to ever come out of the MCU. Training montages in the MCU are already kind of rare (Iron Man 1, Ant-Man, and Dr Strange are it I believe), but to get one showing us how a guy learns to throw and catch the Shield at combat speeds is great.