Weekly MCU Review for 10/3

Another week, and more MCU news!  More Captain America: Civil War news, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back, and Marvel even announced a new ABC series.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up (*ducks*) on your Marvel news!

Mostly MCU Reviews

My articles from the week

Here are my expectations for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3 ahead of the season premiere.  What do you expect?

Here are my expectations and review of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3, episode 1, “Laws of Nature.”  What did you think of the season premiere?

Agent Carter and “feminism.”  Thoughts?

This is the first article in a new series:  The All-New, All-Different Marvel and the MCU.  Up first are the Spider-Verse characters and how—if at all—they may appear in the MCU.  Which do you want to see in the MCU?

MCU News

Links to news articles and blog posts about the MCU

Anthony Mackie has said that he doesn’t think Marvel needs a replacement Captain America in the MCU.  He said that he thinks he or Sebastian Stan would make a good Cap, but if that were to happen then there’d be no Falcon or Bucky.  Of course, Stan himself says that he should replace Cap.   Do you think Marvel should have someone replace Steve Rogers at some point?  Personally, I prefer that option over recasting the role.

Actually, Anthony Mackie said that if he could play any other character in the MCU, it would be the Hulk!  That would be an interesting storyline, to say the least…

Chris Evans suggested at the Salt Lake City Comic-Con that he doesn’t think there’s a clear bad guy in Captain America: Civil War.  And that’s a good thing:  we want to be able to identify with both sides.  However, Stan Lee is Team Cap.  Which team are you on?

Chloe Bennet says that she thinks Quake will side with Captain America in the Civil War because “Iron Man is not really for her.”  I have to say that I would agree with her reasoning:  I suspect that Captain America’s position is more favorable to the new Inhumans, and I suspect that Daisy’s arc in season 3 will involve fighting for the rights of new Inhumans.  What do you think of her reasoning?

The rumors that Doctor Strange will not include an origin story were evidently incorrect.  According to Kevin Feige, Stephen Strange’s origin is interesting and unique enough for them to include it.  And considering that very few—apart from hardcore comic nerds—know who he is, I think it makes sense to give something of an origin.  However, it’s not entirely clear yet if we will get an origin like Iron Man (where the whole thing is an origin story), Ant-Man (where it’s a new character’s origin taking on an established mantle), or Daredevil (where the origin is told in flashback as the character is undergoing a major change/transformation in accepting his role).  Which do you want to see?

Here are some comments from Kevin Feige about the MCU Spider-Man.  Essentially, they’ve been keeping options open for working him into their universe all along (which makes sense).  He also says that they are going to focus on also making a good standalone film for him.  Basically, he’s saying exactly what we thought he’d say.

Taiki Waititi is rumored to be in talks to direct Thor: Ragnarok.

More comments from the realm of “No, Duh” (seriously, it’s like the third option on the Bifrost):  crossover between the MCU movies and TV series is “inevitable.”  Based on the timing of movie productions, Phase Three seems like the earliest that they could really start doing major crossovers, since most of Phase Two was well into production before Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was even announced.  Among others, I think that Thor: Ragnarok (Lorelei) and [The Spectacular] Spider-Man (Daredevil and Kingpin) are the two movies with the most potential for TV characters to show up, though a nod to the Secret Warriors in Captain America: Civil War wouldn’t be amiss.  When and how do you think crossover will start to happen?

According to Kevin Feige we can’t expect a Captain Marvel casting announcement anytime soon because they are still working on figuring out who exactly Carol Danvers will be.  Is this just a smokescreen?

Apparently Kevin Feige does like Ronda Rousey’s Captain Marvel campaign, though he wouldn’t say anything about whether Marvel is considering her for the role.  Do you think she would make a good Carole Danvers?

Here is the list of Infinity Stones revealed so far, as confirmed by Marvel:

Tesseract: Space Stone

Aether: Reality Stone

Orb: Power Stone

Loki's Staff/Vision's Head: Mind Stone

When do you think we’ll see the Time and Soul Stones?

Avengers: Infinity War will be “an end to some version of the team that we’ve come to know.”  But it is not the end of the MCU.  Again, not much surprise there.

Kevin Feige is taking a slow approach to the Spider-Man corner of the MCU.  They are focusing on a good first movie now, and will think about spinoffs if/when the opportunity presents itself.  However, he does think that Spider-Gwen is “cool.”  Personally, as I said earlier this week, while I agree that the character is interesting, I think the alternate universe events which created her are incompatible with a Peter Parker Spider-Man, so if they did decide to turn Gwen Stacy into Spider-Woman, it would take a lot of creative wrangling to get it done.  Do you want to see Spider-Gwen in the MCU?  If so, how should they fit her in?

According to Kevin Feige, we may see Marvel return to the Marvel One-Shots sooner than later because they don’t think they can push production beyond 3 movies per year.  Yes, please!

When do you think Daisy will start going by “Quake”?

Marvel TV has ordered a pilot for a half-hour comedy series based on Damage Control to air on ABC.  Are you interested in this?

According to Drew Goddard, he first pitched Daredevil to Marvel as a movie, but he and Marvel both decided it would make a better Netflix series:  Daredevil doesn’t really need a massive budget and alien spaceships, and Marvel doesn’t do R-Rated movies.  Do you want to see a Marvel-set Daredevil movie sometime?

Here is the third Jessica Jones teaser trailer.  It doesn’t show much.  Hopefully we’ll get a full-length trailer this weekend at/after New York Comic-Con.

S.J. Clarkson directed the first 2 episodes of Jessica Jones.

Latino Review found a set photo of a Jessica Jones character filming on the set of Luke Cage.  And it’s not the one you would expect.  I’m curious to see how they are going to connect these two shows together.

News from Around Geekdom

Anything not related to the MCU that I find interesting

What do you think will happen to Marvel after Stan Lee dies?  The Man himself doesn’t think anything will happen since he only goes to panels now… but “we may miss my cameos.”

Marvel announced that they will be starting a new Black Widow series in 2016 as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel.  What do you want to see in this series?  Think this could be setting her up for her own movie or Netflix series in the MCU?

Mark Millar weighed in on the controversy surrounding the Fant4stic flop.  He seems to still be confident in their ability to turn it around in the sequel:  after all, Marvel did the same thing with Iron Man 2 and Thor 2 both being received poorly but setting up well-received future installments.  Umm, Mark, you might want to check your figures (as of publication):

Movie	Rotten Tomatoes	Domestic Box Office	World Box Office
Iron Man 2	72%	$312.4 million	$623.9 million
Thor: The Dark World	66%	$206.3 million	$644.7 million
Fant4stic	9%	$55.9 million	$165.4 million

In other words, each of those Marvel Studios comparisons was at least 7 times better-received on Rotten Tomatoes, and both made more domestically than Fant4stic has made worldwide.  You know what else made almost as much domestically as Fant4stic has made worldwide?  Fantastic Four—as in the one with Jessica Alba as Invisible Woman and Captain America as the Human Torch.  Another movie that has made more domestically than Fant4stic has made worldwide:  Ant-Man.  Even The Incredible Hulk—arguably Marvel Studios’ worst movie to-date—has a 67% Rotten Tomatoes score and made better numbers at the box office ($134.8 million domestic, $263.4 million worldwide).

Do you really think that Fant4stic 2 has a chance of improving on such dismal numbers, especially since this is a thing:

Movie	Rotten Tomatoes	Domestic Box Office	World Box Office
Fantastic Four	27%	$154.6 million	$330.5 million
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer	37%	$131.9 million	$289 million
Fant4stic	9%	$55.9 million	$165.4 million

See that downward trend in box office totals?  That’s not good.

Millar also talked about Old Man Logan and the possible changes they will make to the comic book storyline.  Among other things, they may replace Old Hawkeye with Cyclops.  How do you think they will adapt Old Man Logan?

Anna Paquin confirmed that her Rogue will not be in Gambit.  Does this mean they are recasting, or does it mean that Gambit’s longtime love interest won’t be in his solo movie?

The first script for New Mutants is complete.  Are you excited for this movie?

Admiral Ackbar will be appearing in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  Excited to see him again?

Sarah Michelle Gellar will be voicing a new Inquisitor on Star Wars Rebels.  I hope this character is as awesome as the first Inquisitor was!

Which of these new additions to Netflix are you most excited for in October?  I have to say, I’m interested in that Finding Jesus show (to see just how wrong it is), but none of these excite me as much as what’s coming in November! (*cough*JessicaJones*cough*)

This is why I love my state:  Gov. Sam Brownback officially declared October to be “Zombie Preparedness Month” in Kansas.

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