MCU Phase 4

I have a theory. I was thinking the other day that the villains of each phase mostly followed a pattern.

Phase 1 had villains who were dark reflections of the heroes. Iron Man 1 gave us Obidiah Staine, a weapons merchant who never gained Tony's conscience, and then Iron Man 2 gave us Ivan Vanko, a tech genius on Tony's level. Hulk had the Abomination, a villain who enjoyed the power of the Hulk, Red Skull was basically Evil Cap and Loki in the first Thor needed to learn a lot of the lessons Thor was put through, only Odin never realized he needed them until it was too late.

Then phase 2 gave us villains out of the past, either the hero's or people connected to them. Thor 2 had an ancient enemy of Asgaurd returning, Iron Man 3 had a villain that was basically Tony's making while Cap had the Winter Soldier.

Finally phase 3 had sympathetic villains, or at least villains you could empathise with. The most famous is Black Panther's Killmonger, but Spiderman had a guy who was just looking out for his family, Thanos had logical motives (even if the logic was all kinds of off), Ant Man 2 had a villain who was just trying to survive, and Doctor Strange had a villain who, much like Thanos, thought he was doing right by the world even if he was horribly wrong.

There are exceptions, like both the Guardians villains, but most films have bad guys that fit the overall themes.

I'm putting the next bit in spoilers because it may potentially spoil Spiderman: Far from Home.

The villain is going to be Mysterio, a guy with no super powers, but enough special effects wizardry to make it look like he does. The Far From Home trailer makes it look like he's trying to fake being a hero by staging attacks and "foiling" them.

If the pattern holds true, it could be we're in for a phase where the villains aren't who they seem to be at first. This makes me think we could be heading into the Secret War.
 
I'm all over the MCU. It would be miraculous if they came up with something even remotely new. But, who knows.
 
Harpo said:
They don’t need new stories or characters, they have six decades of comic history, so they know who and what will be popular.
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Maybe in print but not so certainly in film [if you go back pre Iron Man]. The mediums are very different. I have seen some great comics that would make lousy films. Marvel have tried 2-3 times to get a Fantastic Four or Hulk franchise up and running, with limited success.
I'm happy with the MCU films I've got now. It doesn't need to added to, if it means more of the same.
That is with a small caveat for the upcoming Spiderman movie. For some reason those really work for me. They are just fun.
Like it or loath it [and its a bit of both for me] DCU's The Joker was a bold attempt to not give us another Marvel style superhero movie. Even Birds of Prey and the fabulous emancipation of one Harley Quinn [I just love that title!] tried to do something a little different. It didn't really work, but it was an attempt. I haven't seen The Suicide Squad but Suicide Squad didn't overwhelm because it was a [baddies as] Avengers look-alike.
It will be interesting to see how Black Panther 2 deals with not having Chadwick Boseman in the titular role.
 
I recommend that you see The Suicide Squad, Joe. It's a lot of fun.
I wasn't overly impressed with Black Panther so won't be rushing out to see the follow up.
 
Yeah... I wasn't a great fan of BP either [although I liked it well enough] but for me so much of what I liked was Chadwick Boseman's performance, that I want to see how they handle his loss.
Letitia Wright was great as his younger sister, and I have just read that she was injured [luckily not too badly it seems] while setting up for a stunt for BP2.
Thanks for the tip. I'll look out for TSS if or when it makes it to disc. It did appear in cinemas in the UK but I'm still to chicken to sit in the dark with people I don't know for two hour...
My main issue with Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad is why they had to give them near identical names?
It is not as if SS was such a mammoth hit that they are trying get some reflected glory...
 
The new short with Ben Kingsley is good fun. Brilliant actor playing a rubbish one, brilliantly.
 
Harpo said:
Has anyone here seen Shang Chi, or Eternals? The latter still isn’t at my local screen for two more weeks yet, but hey.

And does anybody watch Disney + at all?
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I've seen Shang-Chi and most of the Disney+ stuff - were you after recommendations?
 
Endgame felt like a fitting conclusion to such a huge era of the MCU that it's understandable to me that a large portion of the audience feels like they don't need to keep following along, or that anything that comes after is "fluff" or "more of the same." It took a long time to work up to Endgame, and I, for one, still have a bit of a hangover that has led to me not enjoying the newest MCU films nearly as much. Haven't seen The Eternals, but Shang Chi and Black Widow were...fine. Not bad, not great, each had their moments. If the next ten years of the MCU can only get to that level I'm not likely to stay with it.

I'm a lot more into the storytelling they're doing with their television series; conceptually the tv shows feel like limited-run stand-alone comic series--tell one story, about one character, and do it over the course of eight or so installments. They all feel self-contained (even if they're all setting up films to be released later) and fairly satisfying. I especially liked Wandavision and Loki (and I am genuinely looking forward to Loki Season 2), and Hawkeye has been good so far. The character work, specifically, is what draws me in: it's felt like we get to know these characters a lot more than we did in the films because we get to spend more time focusing just on their story (specifically Hawkeye--so far--and Scarlet Witch), while the newest MCU films have felt like a rushed hodge-podge of action set pieces working with too much effort to set up the next era.

If I had to choose between new films and new TV series, at this point I would pick TV. It's more of a time investment, but I can watch them at my leisure (either binging or one every few days), and their style of storytelling appeals more to me personally.
 
MemoryTale said:
Is anyone else here still watching Phase 4?
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Phase 4 will end at the end of this year, and Phase 5 begins early next year.

www.polygon.com

Here’s the official slate for Marvel’s Phase 5 and 6

Kevin Feige announced the new slate at San Diego Comic-Con
www.polygon.com www.polygon.com



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