Marvel Universe stuff

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amigo

Lord Nagafen Raider
337
353
Dunno if it's been mentioned, just watched the RLM comiccon video, Blade pg-13?!?
get...
the...
fuck..
out :(
 
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Conefed

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,790
1,633
Odds are stacked against Shang-Chi.
We're in super sensitive times about racial stereotypes and martial arts don't have the oomph they had 20(+) years ago.
I wonder if Mulan comes out first and if it's success/fail affects generates edits to this
 

Conefed

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,790
1,633
Well yeah, I know that. I said it changed him into Beta Ray Thor as sort of a shorthand for how he not only gained the powers of Thor, but also had a wardrobe change. Huge BRB fan here, I know the lore!
All I know about BRB was that he was made to look monstrous to intentionally setup from the get go a switcheroo of him not actually being bad, but good.
The name was basically a clue that he was good because it was southern white inspired, the least threatening archetype of the time. The rest was him being maguffin powerful including being able to use the hammer and wear the same clothes.
In short, super duper lame. But you and others like him and his lore, so I ask what's the deal. What's his story that leads to his appeal?
 

Angerz

Trakanon Raider
1,229
818
Odds are stacked against Shang-Chi.
We're in super sensitive times about racial stereotypes and martial arts don't have the oomph they had 20(+) years ago.
I wonder if Mulan comes out first and if it's success/fail affects generates edits to this

knowing nothing about Shang-Chi, its actually the movie I might be most excited for out of the whole bunch. You say martial arts movies don't have the oomph they used to have, I'm personally hoping we get a fucking awesome Wuxia film. Take some chances, don't even tame it down for western audiences. The guy playing the Mandarin is a well know wuxia actor, get Chow Yun Fat to play Fu Manchu.

Marvel has some space to do some weird shit. Ragnarok kinda qualified as weird shit, but they could push it farther. China has money to spend on going to see shit targeted to them, so I don't even know how much of a risk it would be. If you got a full Asian cast, asian director, etc, go all the fuck out.
 
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Singh'sSpot

Blackwing Lair Raider
1,208
1,708
Odds are stacked against Shang-Chi.
We're in super sensitive times about racial stereotypes and martial arts don't have the oomph they had 20(+) years ago.
I wonder if Mulan comes out first and if it's success/fail affects generates edits to this

Imagine the big twist in the movie is that he's gay, also the movie will have a message about freeing Tibet and liberating the Uyghur population.
 
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Randin

Trakanon Raider
1,922
872
Imagine the big twist in the movie is that he's gay, also the movie will have a message about freeing Tibet and liberating the Uyghur population.
Don't be crazy. Shit needs to sell in the Chinese market, otherwise what's even the point?

Hell, didn't Dr Strange just dodge around Tibet to avoid pissing off the Maoists?
 
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Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
<Gold Donor>
44,370
92,517
Imagine the big twist in the movie is that he's gay, also the movie will have a message about freeing Tibet and liberating the Uyghur population.
Youre smoking crack if you think their Chinese masters would allow anything remotely like that.
 
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Singh'sSpot

Blackwing Lair Raider
1,208
1,708
Youre smoking crack if you think their Chinese masters would allow anything remotely like that.

But they gotta have some kind of sjw message in the movie somehow, it's current year and shit, maybe at the end of the movie he turns out to be gay just like the reveal for that girl at the end of stranger Things.
 
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Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
9,374
10,989
All I know about BRB was that he was made to look monstrous to intentionally setup from the get go a switcheroo of him not actually being bad, but good.
The name was basically a clue that he was good because it was southern white inspired, the least threatening archetype of the time. The rest was him being maguffin powerful including being able to use the hammer and wear the same clothes.
In short, super duper lame. But you and others like him and his lore, so I ask what's the deal. What's his story that leads to his appeal?
As with any attempt to explain why one person likes something that another doesn't, it can be difficult to put into words. But I'll try.

First, you have to put yourself into that time period. I was barely a teen when this came out, and I had limited allowance money to buy comics every week. I had bought a few comics with Thor in them, mainly the ones with Silver Surfer and Mephisto because those were fucking awesome, but in general Thor kind of sucked at that time. He had his mortal secret identity (Donald Blake) and that stupid stick that was Mjolnir's disguise. So like half of every Thor comic dealt with is shitty mortal story and how he was conflicted and upset and blah blah. Who gives a fuck. I certainly didn't. Thor was pretty much an automatic pass for me at the Comics & Comix in the mall.

Then, I see the cover to Thor #337.
beta-ray-bill-marvel[1].jpg


I'm instantly hooked. Holy shit, who the fuck is this weird looking guy with Thor's hammer, and why is he smashing the logo??

Then I open it. Walt Simonson started his run with this issue, and the art was dramatically different (and better I'd imagine) than what had been on his book before.
RCO002[1].jpg

RCO003[1].jpg

RCO004[1].jpg


I mean, seriously, if that doesn't get you hard, nothing will. It instantly made a hard pass comic into a must-have in 4 fucking images.

Ok, so you might say, sure the art is cool and dramatic, but it's still just a horse-faced alien with a stupid name and a stupid mechanic of giving him the hammer when you take the art away. Well, again, it is really tough to put into words why Bill is awesome. At the time, he was sort of like...the Thor that Thor should have been, if that makes sense? He is noble and dedicated and virtuous, and you can tell very quickly that this is a fucking good guy. Check that, a GREAT guy. He makes Thor look like a whiny little bitch...which is exactly what Thor had turned into with all that Donald Blake shit. He was tired and boring and dull. Beta Ray Bill was what the God of Thunder should be. He'll give his life for someone without even debating it, but if you get in his way, he will fuck you up. Even when he doesn't have the power of the hammer, he's fighting and striving and willing to die if that's what it takes. Thor was pretty selfish back then, which is the whole reason Odin "cursed" him with his mortal form, so he'd learn some humility. It wasn't working as a comic book. This fucking worked.

And let's not forget, this was also the first time EVER that someone else had picked up the hammer and used it. Now, we've got Vision and Cap that have picked it up in the movies, and multiple, multiple people in the comics since this first time, so it is no big deal to hear that Bill picked it up. But he was the first, and it was a huge deal at the time.

On top of all that, the entire run was fucking marvelous. Here's a better synopsis than I could give, that I found when looking for those pics above.


I suppose another thing that makes me love Beta Ray Bill is that he hasn't really been used much at all in the 35+ years since he was first introduced. He's had a couple of limited series, and has appeared here and there, but usually only briefly. So he hasn't been over-saturated with exposure like a lot of other characters.

Honestly, if you didn't experience his "birth" in real time, I can totally see where he doesn't seem like anything special. But he was a huge deal at the time. So hopefully that explains a little bit of what makes him one of my favorites.
 
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Lithose

Buzzfeed Editor
25,946
113,035
Starting to have doubts about Black Widow...Quotes from the writer of the prequel. =-/


“I would like to see alternatives to violence in superhero movies. Maybe I would qualify that by saying, alternatives to glamorizing guns and weaponry. That’s one of the reasons that I love Captain Marvel — it’s all about inner power. And the destruction is not at the expense of human life.”


Classic sign of a cult member. Guns and men embody violence, without them you can destroy entire ships of refugees and murder scores of innocent people and its not "real violence". No different from how some people deep in religious dogma begin to believe the symbols embody the aspects of their religion, and not actions.

But its this quote that illustrates there is going to be a more severe break soon from the source material, I think.

To comic book movie fans who prefer ultra-violent shoot-outs, 100 percent-evil villains, and casts that look like they did a decade or two ago, Schaeffer says, “I’m not interested in adhering to comic canon that is discriminatory in any way or that violates my values system.”
“I wasn’t a huge superhero movie fan before starting to work [at Marvel], but now that I’m doing it, there’s just so much opportunity to make big, positive statements,” Schaeffer says. “Especially something like Captain Marvel and Black Widow, to have these female-centered stories — I just can’t not be involved in that.”


So she's not a fan of comics/superheroes, believes the movies are there for her to affect positive change in society and make statements, rather than telling a compelling story and characters like the ones "from the last decade" are should be "out". Because their job is done, apparently--they built the pulpit, now its time to use it to preach baby. Praise SJWness!

I hope I'm wrong. But I doubt it. Not a good sign that this chick is assigned to one of the few characters that actually uses a gun, and is specialized in...guns.
 
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gauze

Molten Core Raider
1,078
358
I feel like something branching too far from the comic narrative(not accuracy) might not pass through the green light. It'd still have to be cohesive and compelling to the overarching MCU, no? I'd imagine they do see the trend in what sells, and what doesn't.

I'm just kinda taking away from it the idea of not going for the ultra violence route with insane amounts of gunfu.. or adding discriminatory characters; alas something like Fu Manchu.. or scantily clad women fighting. Buuut I could be looking for a reason to not feel bad about this film?

I've just kinda straightened my mind to believe the ultimate goal of this film is to set up a lot more backdrop to the MCU since we are moving more toward political powers, television series which will probably need henchmen, and they really haven't set up many organizations deeply aside from shield and hydra.. AIM was a throwaway, but still has potentional and we are on the brink of seeing Ten Rings being displayed/fleshed out, which were probably in bed w/ whatever USSR power is going on, plus Namor, Wakanda, and maybe Doctor Doom at some point.

I just remember reading something that post-infinity war, things were going to go into some sort of labeling at like Earth level threat type movies, and cosmic level threat movies.
 

Fedor

<Banned>
17,346
47,327
Starting to have doubts about Black Widow...Quotes from the writer of the prequel. =-/


“I would like to see alternatives to violence in superhero movies. Maybe I would qualify that by saying, alternatives to glamorizing guns and weaponry. That’s one of the reasons that I love Captain Marvel — it’s all about inner power. And the destruction is not at the expense of human life.”


Classic sign of a cult member. Guns and men embody violence, without them you can destroy entire ships of refugees and murder scores of innocent people and its not "real violence". No different from how some people deep in religious dogma begin to believe the symbols embody the aspects of their religion, and not actions.

But its this quote that illustrates there is going to be a more severe break soon from the source material, I think.

To comic book movie fans who prefer ultra-violent shoot-outs, 100 percent-evil villains, and casts that look like they did a decade or two ago, Schaeffer says, “I’m not interested in adhering to comic canon that is discriminatory in any way or that violates my values system.”
“I wasn’t a huge superhero movie fan before starting to work [at Marvel], but now that I’m doing it, there’s just so much opportunity to make big, positive statements,” Schaeffer says. “Especially something like Captain Marvel and Black Widow, to have these female-centered stories — I just can’t not be involved in that.”


So she's not a fan of comics/superheroes, believes the movies are there for her to affect positive change in society and make statements, rather than telling a compelling story and characters like the ones "from the last decade" are should be "out". Because their job is done, apparently--they built the pulpit, now its time to use it to preach baby. Praise SJWness!

I hope I'm wrong. But I doubt it. Not a good sign that this chick is assigned to one of the few characters that actually uses a gun, and is specialized in...guns.

zFxrA2X.png


director-jac-schaeffer-attends-a-photocall-for-the-movie-timer-at-the-picture-id91501561
 
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Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
36,050
113,852
Wonder who she fucked? Look at her credits. She's literally done nothing. How'd she end up writing for the MCU?
 
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Fadaar

That guy
10,393
11,309
At this point they're bringing in a bunch of nobodies and throwing proverbial shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. It's not the casting or character choices that worries me for the future, it's the director choices. I know anything directed by Gunn, Waititi, and the Russos are going to be great but everyone else is a bit of a question mark with the new blood coming in.
 

sakkath

Trakanon Raider
1,651
1,036
Dunno about writers but most of the MCU directors had done very little before being given an MCU movie. Russos had done heaps of TV comedy, but only one or two movies of note. James Gunn similar, bit of TV, one movie, then MCU... etc.. They've done a good job of picking winners fairly early.
 
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