The status of a shared cinematic universe: 3-Way Comparison (DC, Fox, Marvel)

Marvel started from scratch in 2008, pioneering this idea in the superhero genre. Phase 1 is over, Phase 2 has begun, with the cinematic universe spilling over onto network television. Phase 3 is still in early planning stages.

Fox is retconning all of their X-Men films back to 2000, and will focus their future on X-Men and the FF. Days of Future Past next year will tie together all the previous films, and a FF reboot is planned for 2015.

DC jumped on the bandwagon and are starting fresh in 2013. Man of Steel is all they have right now, and they are hoping to jump straight from the sequel to the Justice League.

Meanshile, Sony is content with expanding their Spider-Man universe, and as production wraps up on The Amazing Spider-Man sequel, they've announced release dates for their third and fourth installments.

This is a little photo I've put together. Marvel is dominating, of course, while Fox is desperately trying to redeem themselves. Meanwhile, DC is sticking with their comfort zone, and Sony is clinging to Spider-Man for dear life.

Hey, DC, feel free to use my plan to help you catch up.

Avengers 2 Update - Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch

Recently, Joss Whedon spoke in an interview about the process of the upcoming Avengers 2. If you want to watch the whole thing, check it out here.

The most interesting part to me was the following quote:

"I've got these two characters...two of my favorite characters from the comic books, a brother-sister act, they're in the movie, that's exciting..."

So, unless Whedon is intentionally deceiving us, (which is possible, but what other brother-sister act would be a favorite of his?), it looks like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver on in the draft for the sequel! Exciting!

For more on what I think of this idea and how it would work with rights and Fox, read my post on Scarlet Witch.

Until then, speculate!

Iron Man 3 Countdown: 4 days, 10 hours, 5 minutes, 0 seconds

Why the MCU needs Black Panther

At this point, its only a matter of time before we finally get a Black Panther movie in the MCU. The question is when. During Phase 3 with Ant-Man and Dr. Strange? Or will they be too worried about bringing in too many new heroes at once? How will it fit in with Vision, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Namor, and the other heroes coming up on the horizon? Below I'll explain why I think Black Panther needs to be a higher priority than most in the next few years.

1) Politics. Its a controversial reason, but let's face it, the only significant black members of the MCU are Nick Fury, who was white in the original comics and was changed, and War Machine, who's basically a sidekick to Iron Man. A large portion of this blog is about equalizing the gender demographic, but this is something that needs to be discussed as well. Luke Cage is another great hero to use, and Falcon is coming up, but those are still American blacks, and Black Panther is a true African. This would help with my next point as well...

2) Expanding the Marvel Universe - geographically and otherwise. In a word: Wakanda. The fictional African country home to Black Panther and a little fictional element called Vibranium. Excluding the Savage Land, which is unlikely to show up in the MCU anytime soon, Wakanda is the only source of Vibranium for all concerned. It's already been mentioned in CA:TFA, and Wakanda has been referenced in IM2, its time to dive into this plot point head on. Is there a relationship between Vibranium and the mysterious element Tony created in IM2? Is there any Adamantium involved in this story? Vibranium could potentially be vital to the fight against Thanos that is inevitable after his appearance in The Avengers. So let's get there.

3) More characters is always a good thing. I've mentioned this before with other heroes on this blog, but it's simple. The MCU is unique. It's not like a normal superhero film/franchise that can get easily bloated with too many characters -- it's built on characters. And rather than stuffing in more and more characters to one plotline, they can use new characters to introduce new plot lines to continue the story in other ways (Vibranium). More members also means multiple teams, another thing I've mentioned before. But another side affect would be actually helping to solve the dilemma that The Avengers created

The Avengers created a group of heroes that came together, starting as reluctant allies and ending up as friends. The problem with that is that now every MCU movie will have to explain why another hero isn't in it, why they can't just call up another Avenger. But if you think about it, if you add enough heroes to the roster, that safety net isn't the same. Because right now its thought of as "The Avengers" and you can just send out a distress signal and get help. But if you add more, it breaks down to a more individual level rather than a team effort, and you have to bring in the task of trying to keep tabs on all of them, each hero having their own problems, mini-team ups (Guardians of the Galaxy), and geographical issues (Wakanda, Asgard). It's a lot easier to say "why didn't they call the Avengers" than "why didn't he know exactly how to contact Hulk, Thor, Falcon, Cap, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Nick Fury, Black Panther, Vision, Namor, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, War Machine, Drax the Destroyer, or Henry Pym at any time he needed to and have them conveniently available and free of their own messes to come help him."

It makes sense in kind of a weird way. But the less personal the team is, the less likely it is that one would simply call another for help. Also, if there's only three people to call, that person might be like "oh, well if I'm your only hope..." whereas if there are 20, they would likely be like "I'm busy call someone else!"

4) More crossover potential with FOX. Black Panther and Storm meet as children, fall in love over the years, and eventually get married. That could lead to more semi-partnerships between studios which would overall be a good thing. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out this post on Scarlet Witch or this post on Ms. Marvel to get some background info.

5) He's unique. One thing that keeps the MCU working well is that each character is unique. With the exception of War Machine, who's just an extension of Iron Man (though the two are unique in their personalities), everybody is unique. The Knight, the Monster, the Archer, the Spy, the Thunder god, and the Soldier. The Panther would be another unique set of powers to throw in there....night vision, enhanced senses, vibranium-ness, and being a King.

6) There's material for it. He's not some random character that would have to be stuffed and fluffed to seem interesting. He's got a whole country of stories to go off of! And having the split between protecting Wakanda and protecting the Earth (echoing Thor's situation) gives plenty of material. Just like the Thor films focus mostly on Asgard (the sequel will be exploring more realms) the Black Panther film(s) could focus primarily on Wakanda, with enough connective tissue to the rest of the universe to maintain continuity.

7) He's going to come around eventually anyway. Why not make it sooner rather than later?

Thoughts on Ms. Marvel or: Another idea for the Fox-Marvel content sharing plan

If you're not up to speed on how Marvel and Fox (who currently have film rights to the X-Men and the FF, at least) want to sort-of half-way play nice together, go back and read my post involving the Scarlet Witch. This post is another idea of how something like that could happen.

Let's talk for a moment about why Ms. Marvel should be brought into the films.
1) She's a strong female superhero. Not just strong physically, but strong as in she could carry her own in a film.
2) She can expand the Avengers universe with more heroes. Hey, a simple reason, but valid.
3) She's a part of the USAF. Which could have fun interactions with War Machine (also in the USAF) in various films. Iron Man sequel? War Machine spinoff that brings Ms Marvel in? A separate movie bringing them together? Lots of possibilities, just pick one!
4) She's a Kree. Which means that she could help set up the entire plot line of the Kree-Skrull war. Which could totally help build up the cosmic side of Marvel that they're obviously interested in doing with the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film. That could help develop Thanos, it could be integrated into a Thor film, or another Guardians story, or her own thing. But there's a ton of potential there.
5) Rogue absorbed her powers. This is where the interaction with FOX comes in. In the original X-Men trilogy, Rogue is nothing but a whiny sissy who can't do anything helpful and never meets her potential. That's such a waste of a great character! Another strong female character wasted! In the comics, Rogue had an encounter with Ms Marvel that led to her permanently having her powers (including flight, strength, invulnerability, you know). So somehow if Marvel could build up Ms Marvel, she could have a brief cameo in a later X-Men film (if, say, Days of Future Past [The X-Men First Class sequel] introduces Rogue briefly), or Rogue could cameo in a Marvel Studios film, and they could have that encounter, then separate back into their own movies. This would provide a small bridge between the two franchises to suggest/show they're in the same universe, without going all out cooperative (because who could do that?)
6) More heroes means more teams. With the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, and Dr. Strange on the way, Marvel Studios is well on its way to forming a new team, whether that be a replacement team (likely due to other actors getting older/stale) or a separate team like the West Coast Avengers or Great Lakes Avengers. But as long as they keep developing and keep getting new material, this series can last for a very long time. Which would make me very happy.
7) She can fit in anywhere. I mentioned most of these separately above, but putting them together makes a point of its own. She could be brought into an Iron Man/War Machine film following the USAF relationship. Or a Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor film due to the fact that she's an alien. Or an X-Men film because of her necessity to Rogue's story. Or her own film like Ant-Man and Dr. Strange are getting. Or, if a film is made about a new team of heroes, using newer heroes already introduced, she could be one of even more new heroes introduced in that film.

There are so many possibilities of getting her in the mix, and so many reasons to do it.

 

Thoughts on the Scarlet Witch

Fox and Marvel have stated that while they won't reach the point of officially "crossing over" their films anytime soon due to film rights, they do hope to be able to work together to try and make it seem like all the movies (avengers and xmen franchises) take place within the same larger universe. Which is confusing. How can you be in the same universe without crossing over? One possible answer might lie with the mutants Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Brother and sister, these mutants are the children of Magneto (though they didn't know it for a long time), and were tricked by him into becoming enemies of the X-Men early in their careers. Later, they left Magneto and reformed, joining the second team of Avengers. Legally, they belong to both X-Men and Avengers franchises, and Marvel has stated that in film, they could be used in either one, or even both. This would provide an opportunity to have a shared element between the franchises, but with X-Men going with "days of future past," they could introduce an alternate reality plot point or something else to keep the two franchises from being officially "crossed over." Many people think Scarlet Witch is the cellist mentioned in The Avengers as Coulson's girlfriend.