Weekly MCU Review for April 22

Another week, and more MCU news!  There’s all kinds of news about movies wrapping production and scheduling the start of their production, plus a whole bunch of TV news.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Weekly MCU Review for January 7

Another week, and more MCU news!  Not all that much to talk about.  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is still raking it in at the box office, Star Wars Rebels returns tonight as Saw Gerrera joins the Rebels, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: LMD starts up again next week.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Weekly MCU Review for 12/3

Another week, and more MCU news!  Not a ton at the moment, but Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back for another week, and we are in December, meaning that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is just around the corner.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Weekly MCU Review for 11/12

Another week, and more MCU news!  Doctor Strange has been out for a week, we have a new President-Elect in the U.S., and there’s all kinds of exciting things happening with Marvel TV… even though Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is on a 3-week break.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Doctor Strange SPOILER REVIEW

Image Courtesy
www.twitter.com/DrStrange

So finally I’m getting around to my spoiler review of Doctor Strange.  I haven’t seen it again since writing the non-spoiler review, so there isn’t a ton of new insight into it.  However, we may go to see it in 3D sooner or later, and if we do that I will at least update whether or not the 3D experience is any good.

For now, let’s just talk about Doctor Strange, what stands out about it, what doesn’t work so well, and how this will affect the MCU moving forward.

Before moving into spoilers I should probably address whether or not there is a need to see it before the next Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which is still 2½ weeks away).  The answer to that question is:  I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.  Though there are some very global events in the movie, I don’t think S.H.I.E.L.D. will really have to get involved in any of them.  If there is any sort of tie-in (beyond the thematic tie-in of Ghost Rider and the Darkhold) I think it will be closer to the Ant-Man tie-in (a passing reference to the weird things going on around the world) than to the Avengers: Age of Ultron tie-in (which showed clips from the movie in the form of news footage).  I could be wrong on this, but I (obviously!) don’t think so.  But if you’re worried, just see the movie already.  It’s amazing and you won’t regret it.  Besides, you’ve got 2½ weeks to do it!

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the movie.

Doctor Strange NON-SPOILER REVIEW

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www.twitter.com/DrStrange

I am (admittedly) late to the party with Doctor Strange.  After all, the movie came out on Friday and it’s already Tuesday!  However, I did finally watch it yesterday, and I have to say: it was worth waiting for.  There is a ton of good stuff in it to comment on, but I will save most of it for my next review which will have spoilers.

For now, we’ll just have to content ourselves with this.

Doctor Strange Expectations

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www.twitter.com/drstrange

A little tardy to the party, but Doctor Strange just came out in the U.S. on Friday.  I haven’t seen it yet, so what are we expecting from this movie?

Weekly MCU Review for 11/5

Another week, and more MCU news!  Doctor Strange is out, and there's a lot going on with The Defenders, which is now shooting.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Weekly MCU Review for 10/22

Another week, and more MCU news!  We’re getting closer and closer to the Doctor Strange U.S. premiere, and more movies and Netflix shows are entering or nearing production.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Weekly MCU Review for 9/24

Another week, and more MCU news!  Not a ton of news this week, but Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. came back, Luke Cage will be out in a week, and Star Wars Rebels is starting again tonight.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Weekly MCU Review for 9/17

Another week, and more MCU news!  Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. comes back this week, Luke Cage is just another 2 weeks away, and Doctor Strange will be out before you know it, too!  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 EXPECTATIONS

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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns next Tuesday with “The Ghost” (4x01) at 10:00 PM Eastern/Pacific—note the time change!  What do we expect from this season?

Weekly MCU Review for 8/27

Another week, and more MCU news!  Not a ton of stuff, but there are a few movie-related things this week.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Weekly MCU Review for 8/13

Another week, and more MCU news!  Marvel and Netflix have a lot of stuff going on, particularly with Luke Cage only about 6 weeks away.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Potential New Magic Users in the MCU

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DrStrange

With Doctor Strange ushering a New Magical Age into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, suddenly a whole world of new possibilities opens up for our favorite movies and TV shows.  Now, it’s not as though we haven’t seen magic before in the MCU; Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has introduced (and promptly killed off) two separate Darkforce users (manipulators of extra-dimensional energy), and Agent Carter season 2 was all about the MCU’s first encounter with the Darkforce Dimension.  Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. Scarlet Witch, is (properly speaking) a magic user, though her powers have thus far been limited (for the most part) to mental manipulation and telekinesis.  However, all of these examples have been given scientific explanations (less so in the case of Scarlet Witch):  extra-dimensional energy and Mind Stone experimentation, respectively.

What Doctor Strange brings to the table is a form of magic we have not seen before, which will defy most scientific explanation.  I expect that characters will attempt to give it a scientific explanation (Strange is a doctor, after all!), but at some point they will just have to acknowledge that there are some things they will never fully comprehend.

Once Doctor Strange introduces magic in a big way, I expect that we will start to see a lot of magic users appear in various MCU offerings, a theory to which I alluded last week while talking about Tie-In possibilities between Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Doctor Strange.  This week I will expand on that by talking about magical characters who could appear in as many upcoming announced MCU offerings as I can.

How Can AoS Tie-In with the Upcoming Movies?

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com/AgentsofShield

This was originally going to be included in last week’s article defining Tie-Ins and Crossovers.  However, it got particularly long (that seems to be a theme this summer), so I decided to split it up.  Last week we talked about Tie-Ins in a general sense and gave some concrete examples from previous Tie-Ins between Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the movies.  Now, let’s talk about possible specific Tie-Ins with the upcoming MCU movies during the 2016-2017 TV season.  Neither of the upcoming movies really begs a Major, Direct Tie-In™ like we saw from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t still some intriguing possibilities.

In my opinion, a good Tie-In should take the events of the movie and apply them to the larger MCU.  If the movie expands the scope of the MCU in some definite way, the Tie-In should show how that expansion affects Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Weekly MCU Review for 7/30

Another week, and more MCU news!  Comic-Con concluded this week, so we've got a lot of new stuff to talk about.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

San Diego Comic-Con 2016 RESULTS

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So another San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone.  If you recall, last week I posted my expectations for the MCU presentations at Comic-Con.  Let’s see how I did!  In some ways I was spot-on, but there were a few places I missed.

Last year Marvel Studios didn’t even go to Comic-Con, so there really wasn’t a ton of stuff to report.  This year, I think they were trying to make up for lost time, because they gave us a lot of new stuff to talk about!

Weekly MCU Review for 7/23 (SDCC Edition)

Another week, and more MCU news!  San Diego Comic-Con is going on this weekend, so there’s a ton of news coming out of that!  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

San Diego Comic-Con 2016 EXPECTATIONS

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Today is the beginning of San Diego Comic-Con!  Over the next several days we will get tons of information about our favorite upcoming movies, TV shows, comic books, and the like.  It has already been confirmed that the upcoming Marvel movies, Luke Cage, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be there this year, so let’s talk about what we expect to get from Marvel Studios.  I’m going to focus primarily on the Marvel Studios productions for this, though I may add in a few thoughts for Justice League and the like.