What I Need From Marvel in 2019

You might have noticed I began to cover more comic book related media and less about the actual books themselves. I have kept reading them, but did not feel inspired enough to write about them.  They have not been bad per se , in fact they have improved now that we have corrected problems like Steve Rogers not behind the shield, Banner not as Hulk, Jane Foster the impostor Thor and Toney Stark being MIA. So going back into finishing what is less of a review and more of an over view, we will look back to see what they have done so far and where it needs to go.The Avenger's book has been treading water , Ghost Rider doesn't fit on the team. I am also fine with Dr. Strange not being on it despite him being one of my favorite characters I think he works better in the context of the Defenders. I liked when they brought Namor in , but that story kinda fizzled. We know the Squadron Supreme is showing up and Coulson is a bad guy now.This year will bring the Avengers into 3 big events . The War of the Vampires, No Road Home and a big Asgard themed event the War of Realms . At present they are no faring as well in their solo books. Thor has gone in a weird world direction. The last issue of Captain America focused too much on the side story of the bad guys, while he is being framed for the murder of Gen. Ross, I think they could do better than recycle this tired old spin,  Iron Man's current conflict with the Controller might be the most interesting story of the big 3 Avengers with proven track records for holding their books down.

Black Panther is hit or miss with his inter-galactic story arc, but at least they have him out of Wakanda,because when he is stuck there they tend to tell the same stories over and over again and due to his limited rogues gallery it gets boring quick. While we are on Avengers with limited Rogues galleries it looks like the newest run of Captain Marvel, is resorting to alternative universes and even then she has Spider-woman tagging along. I think Jessica Drew holds her own book down better than Capt. Marvel which is going to prove a detriment to trying to mine sequels out of a Capt . Marvel movie. The same thing could be said for Black Panther.


The Immortal Hulk is being praised as horror book, but I am not sure it's much different than any other version. He is in Hell at the moment, which lends it self to Clive Barker like dark streak, but I am not sure I am totally sold on the direction they are taking it. I did like the ass kicking he gave the Avengers a few months ago.The first issue of the new Guardians Of the Galaxy worked for me. I am fine with Moondragon and Beta Ray Bill on the team. It looks like Gamora is going to be pulled in at some point. When it comes to the cosmos, the return of the Fantastic four should find Marvel's first family, pulling it all together if they are smart. They have gone right for Galactus and Doom, which you can guess will be the focus of any movie coming down the road. The key to their success lies in getting Dr Doom. right. Spider Man Far From Home could have also served as a place to introduce Doom. Spider-man 's book as long as they stay away from convoluted plot points with clones are fairly consistent. It is too bad Miles did better in Into the Spiderverse than in his own book.

X-men are trying to shake things up with almost another no more mutants trick.  I like the fact two of the New Mutants, Magick and Wolfsbane are on the main team.Though the New Mutants are not that new any more. It seems like a very contrived way to bring  Cyclops back. Matt Fraction is coming back to Marvel and may or may not be on an X-book. An Eternals vs X-men books could be cool as you know with a movie pending they are going to need more fleshing out. If they are planning to make Ikaris gay, though most people have assumed it will be him though it could be Sersi, which I would find more interesting, though Ikaris' Prince Valiant hair cut is kinda gay . Also we can expect more Nova and Shang -Chi in the coming years . It will also be interesting to see how they blend Conan into the universe proper.

r3

Film Review : "Captain Marvel"

So when I reviewed "Black Panther" there was the out cry that comes when you say the Emperor has no clothes of people saying "That movie is not for you" . To which I replied "You mean a comic book movie isn't for someone who reads comics?" That is what this is coming to now. So I will first give you the review of someone who this movie is for ... a 9 year old girl. After all they are making GoFund Me's for this movie so they can go see it. Or perhaps that is all in the hype , and if you can sell this as something that a cultural even rather than a super-hero movie then perhaps we don't notice when the movies take on the same formula. But I digress here is what a 9 year old girl thought of it.

First she has seen other super hero movies in theaters ... Spider-man, Wonder-woman, Ant-man, and Avengers. She did not make it through Aqua-man,got bored fast. She loves Suicide Squad and I think if you ask her will tell you she prefers Harley Quinn over Captain Marvel, a fact also substantiated by the fact she has watched Suicide Squad multiple times. So she can sit through a super-hero movie. Another point is considering she is my daughter she has grown up around comics. She knows who the Sentry is as well as Satanna, so might even be more well versed in them than many of today's fair weather Marvel movie fans. Since she knows the comics and not just the movies,  Today she asked is Captain Marvel the greatest super hero ever before we watched the movie and I told her well...probably not, but that can be a matter of taste.  So the heavy sci-fi shoot outs at the beginning between the Kree and the Skrulls , began to lose her, she wanted super-heroes not star wars. Then 30 mins later she was falling asleep.  When I asked her how did she like what she saw she liked Ant-man and Wasp better.

I think that is a fair assessment of where this movie falls. I was surprised the girl power was not more heavy handed. There was only one montage like scene where she gets up after being knocked down that put it in your face. I will also say , the cgi was not as bad as what they showed in the commercial. Not on Infinity War level or even Dr. Strange. I like the fact that it felt more like a super-hero movie than Black Panther and more fluidly flowing into the Marvel Universe. That is the movie's strong point. There was a lull midway into it, but it was not as slow going into as I had expected. So points for that too.

Where the movie was a train wreck was doing things like making the Skrulls good guys. I went in thinking it would make for a great entry point for the Fantastic Four. Boy did they fuck that up. I did like the little Kirby looking servant skrulls though. Visually they were handled pretty well. The Kree have appeared on Agents of Shield before which is part of the cinematic universe. Anette Benning as Mar-Vell was another place they dropped the ball. Mar-vell as a conspiring bad guy? Give me a fucking break. Ronan was hardly used. The cat everyone was talking about, underwhelming. I agree that the 90s thing seemed forced. Brie Larson's Captain Marvel, lags behind Scarlet Witch or Wasp in terms of convincing me, though she was better than anticipated, but my expectations were pretty low. I am all for female super-heroes...She-Hulk could carry a movie better. Mantis could be a bad ass instead of a Pokemon. Where is Tigra? If they left an easter egg for Kamala Khan it was buried. Decormick kinda killed Danvers for me in the comics, I think I prefer the yellow and black suit.

As a movie stripped of any Trojan Horse agenda, I liked it better than Black Panther , the Andrew Garfield Spider-man movies and think it has a better ending than Wonder-woman. But if they try to sell us The Eternal with this same hype machine, Marvel is going to have ruder awakenings in store.