The MCU Omnibus ThreadFollow

SpoilerYeah, almost guaranteed I'm not going to enjoy that tonight. I could live with it not being NPH, but magic Naruto eyes and not a single hum from a guy whose powers are literally music based? Nuh uh. This is "Mutant Whose Powers Are To Never Die Dies" levels of wrong. I'm ... I'm still bitter over Darwin.

Cutthroat Bitch Anne Dudek joins the cast of The Flash as Tracy Brand, a character described as "a smorgasbord of quirky idiosyncrasies" from the future. In other words, another Felicity Smoak.

Ghost in the Shell Water Fight, but while the action certainly looks top notch you'll note SpoilerScarJo in a skin tight body suit soaking wet.

Flash: SpoilerMusic Meister was a disappointment. Just absorbed everyone's powers, and put people in comas to syphon their powers. No real mind control, nothing music related at all. The only reason it was a musical was because it was in Barry/Kara's minds.

Mon El x Iris was kind of obvious.

And Stein x Joe... kind of a laugh. (You got a problem with that? No, I like musicals...)

I didn't care for the way the songs were done. Related to the lack of mind control forcing them to sing vs them just deciding to sign. And I cannot say I enjoyed any particular song. Barry/Kara's Superfriends song had a couple funny spots. I didn't care for Stein/Joe/Captain Jack's song.

Legion: SpoilerSilent film setup was great. And Oliver conducting Ravel's Bolero was a nice touch. It was almost as if Oliver was summoning David. And I don't think that was a coincidence. Once David awoke in the "real" world, Oliver vanished. Yet he returned afterward in Summerland.

The Eye got trash compacted. Quite the gruesome way to go. And when he was placed back in his body with time still frozen, it wasn't until after time was moving again that the compacting effects happened.

Edit: Oh, and can't forget about the Shadow King vs Xavier classroom.

There's something going on here. Everyone seemed to know the name Farouk. Carey knew it, Syd knew it, etc. So either he was a famous telepathic mutant in this world, or they knew him someway else... (like, being part of David. And innately knowing this stuff, if not actually knowing why/how). Shadow King is looking for "It" from David. Something David hid, even as a child. I am thinking he was looking for the memories David had of his real Father. Which is why Shadow King was poking around with Amy and the memories around the time David was dropped off at her home. The globes and maps and control room type setup, just symbolism for Shadow King's attempts to navigate David's Mind/Memories.

And there is still the unanswered question of what it was that Shadow King did with David as a child, and the WABitW, Cutting off the mother's head, burning the city to the ground. I don't think those were just stories. But I am starting to think those answers won't be in season 1.

There was so much imagery in the first few episodes at the hospital and summerland that made the reality of those situations questionable. I can't accept them being a "real world" situation.

One episode left. I know I'm going to be disappointed next Wednesday. Not because of the finale itself (which, I'm sure is going to be as good a finale as you could expect). But more just because it's over.

And, I'll leave this here. Song from the episode. Kind of spoilery, I guess, cause it seemed better to know it wasn't coming:

SpoilerRavel's Bolero.




Edited, Mar 22nd 2017 11:58pm by TirithRR

Eh. SpoilerOr he really is a powerful mutant with a combination of telepathic and telekinetic abilities that allow for the kinds of effects in the "real world" that we've seen. The Shadow king is possessing him and trying to take control of those powers so he can once again live in the real world. There really is a fight between mutants and some evil government types. Oliver really was in some kind of suspended animation (got lost in his mind on the astral plane, so Melanie froze his body to keep him from dying). Which explains his interactions to date, and why he hasn't aged. The Eye being squished in real life is because the Shadow King used David's powers to kill him. We just don't see the effect in the real world until after they leave David's mind. If what was happening happened in a short enough time that the bullets hadn't yet reached David and Syd, it's reasonable that the squishing effect, while already represented in his mind was just starting when they came out, and finished in the first second after that point.

I'll fully admit to my assessment being somewhat biased because I'd honestly prefer that to be the case than "it's all in his mind". But so far I have not seen anything that's happened in the "real world" that could not be explained by David's mutant powers and mental manipulation by the Shadow King. But hey. You never really know right?



Yeah. That was a great touch.

Edited, Mar 23rd 2017 4:03pm by gbaji

SpoilerSure. None of that precludes Oliver having some mental abilities of his own, which resulted in him drifting off and getting lost in the astral plane years ago, only to be contacted by David (as seen a couple episodes ago), which led to him being aware of the conflict in David's mind, which led to him heading into his mind to help out when they were all trapped there. I saw the whole Bolero thing as his (overly dramatic of course), use of his mental abilities to help David break away from the Shadow King's control. Which is exactly what happened. When the Shadow King became aware of this and popped into the room to stop him, he basically "banished" Oliver from David's mind, the shock of which actually woke Oliver up in the real world and caused him to come out of his stasis. Heck. It's entirely possible that the Shadow King realized that he had to wake up Oliver to prevent him from remaining in the astral plane, and thus interacting with David's mind. Who knows? We don't know enough about Oliver and his powers to know. It could be that he can only roam around mentally while asleep. And if he found the astral plane more interesting than the real world, he may just have decided to stay there (again, backstory we don't really know yet).

I don't think Oliver is part of David at all. I think they have a connection because they're both telepathic, but that's about it.

Again though, I'm basing this on the comic character, in which he was real and was really possessed by the Shadow King. And while he did have the ability to pull people into his mind, they always came in two varieties. People he'd killed (accidentally) and he imprinted their personality into his own mind such that they operated semi-separately, and people who were very much alive, but he pulled them in for some reason (exactly like what happened at the hospital).

IIRC (and it's been years and years since I read the stories), the only actual created characters were representations of his own fractured mind and powers. One controlled his fire abilities. One controlled his telekinesis, I think? And I think the imprint of the one terrorist guy he killed controlled his telepathy (and was actually trying to repair David's mind as it turned out). So yeah, I suppose Oliver could be such a construct, but I'm at a kind of in for a penny in for a pound situation. If Oliver isn't "real", then none of them are. Because Melanie and the rest certainly know about Oliver from the past, well before they ever met David, and he's been in suspended animation the whole time. I suppose the whole thing could be a literal head fake, but again, I'd find that incredibly unsatisfying.

SpoilerRight, originally, but then his mind further splintered because COMIC BOOKS and he's (currently, as of 2013's "X-Men: Legacy at least) got an infinite number of, let's call them "power personalities," ranging from psychic claws similar to Psylocke's sword to full on omnipresence reality warping like the Beyonder. They're, you know, literally legion. So far he's only demonstrated the original three powers, but we haven't seen the associated personalities. The Summerlanders could remember Oliver from the past if that's what David's subconscious decided their memory should be. To make a "more complete narrative" for his mind to accept as reality while it's fighting for control. Like the Matrix. But like you said "You never really know," and I kind of doubt next week's season finale is going to truly answer anything.

Which, speaking of source, it is kind of weird now that I think about it how "real" David has a mostly American accent while the "fake" Rational David we were just introduced to is the one with the Scot/Brit accent his character normally has. Couple of good jokes, but nothing that'd really convince me to go out of my way to watch. Maybe stay tuned when it's on accidentally or I cleared out my DVR of all the other shows and had it left. I'm starting to believe that just maybe I'm not a sitcom kind of guy. Not sure why Powerless wasn't on. It looks like it was a last minute decision, since apparently everyone's DVRs recorded it meaning the providers weren't informed of the change.

While I haven't seen it, from everything said and reported Assassin's Creed was a below average to huge disappointment of a movie, which means it's perfect for a television series. Ymar Azaiza, during an AMA on Reddit, revealed that Ubisoft is still interested in producing a TV series set in the universe of Assassins and Templars. "We will take our time to get sure we deliver something we can be proud of." Back in 2016 Ymar revealed that they were negotiating with Netflix for a new series.

Aaaand now another trailer for the trailer of Justice League, featuring Robo-Flash. The footage itself looks pretty exciting, but ... hell cards on the table I just hate the costume with the force of a million exploding suns. It's like a reminder of the dark ages of comics in the 90s where everyone had power armor of some sort. And pouches. So many pouches. Spoiler


And one for Wonder Woman. I wonder if Henry Cavill is upset over his being shoved to the side of the franchise he launched and for all intense porpoises should be the main character of. Should be another two of these trailer trailers before tomorrow's trailer, which will probably just be all these mini trailers combined to form Ultra Mega Megaman. Anyway, Diana's trailer is pretty average. Batman, Aquaman and Flash's are all better so far. Spoiler


Now Cyborg. Poor guy. First he lost his movie, and now he's stuck with the least interesting trailer trailer of the bunch. Of course, we still have one more to look forward to, and the actual trailer tomorrow. Spoiler


Two posters for Spider-Man: Homecoming, one for the US and another for the UK. While I think the US one better captures Parker's character better (as a kid) personally I like the UK one better since Spoilerhe's sticking to Avengers Tower in that one. Still not a huge fan of the weird blue "stripes" that break up the costumes red sections, but I guess it could be worse. Could be powered armor.

Extended TV spot for Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2. Much better than the previous trailers. Spoiler Though "Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am" just doesn't have nearly the impact of "OOGA CHAKA."


Edited, Mar 24th 2017 4:08pm by lolgaxe

Justice League trailer. Looks awesome. I mean, really. SpoilerExcept the music choice. I get the choice, the words match the theme of the movie, but the trailer is pretty heavy on the action and the song just ... isn't. It's a minor nitpick, and if it weren't for the last two movies I'd be far more excited about seeing this one. After all, their trailers looked amazing as well.

Something else about Iron Fist in general, and the Netflix shows overall. SpoilerThere seems to be three "evil" factions. One with super elite undead ninjas that fight Daredevil and Stick, Gao's faction that pushes drugs, and now Bokuto's faction seems to be the Foot. Getting kids into a ninja army. The whole time I expected someone to offer Danny some cigarettes (Regular or menthol ).Spoiler90s Ninja Turtle movie, if you're lost. Anyway, it takes about ten episodes before they finally reveal that all the bluster and awkwardness is from Danny's inexperience and that he doesn't even really want the job and not just a subpar script. Which is a good twist for a movie, not so much after ten hours to finally get there. If the tenth episode were the third or fourth episode the series as a whole would probably be much better paced. Obviously you'd also have to change some other things around. Ward and Harold Meachum certainly have grown on me.

Aww, Samurai Jack made a friend. SpoilerAnd promptly went on a loli murder spree. Metal. SpoilerI'm guessing one Akuloli will survive and be adopted by Jack.

New video leak for Avengers: Infinity War, showing Vision either awkwardly escaping or being thrown in the air by someone with what looks like a staff. Apparently the rumor is that it'll be the Black Order, a group of super powered generals for Thanos' army. So if true, I'd venture to guess either Proxima or Corvus. Whoever they are, their goal is pretty easy to guess. SpoilerTo try and take over the world, Pinky! take the Soul Gem stuck to Vision's noggin.


Also new, a flick featuring Batman and Harley Quinn. Just a picture so far, with the art style from the last season of the old 90s animated series. Complete with the harlequin Harley Quinn costume. Hopefully this version brings back Arleen Sorkin's delicious 30s gangster moll thick Long Island accent.

Reports speculate that the Venom movie will start filming this Fall, which makes sense considering the movie is set to release October 2018. The site, My Entertainment World, also states that it'll be a "Action/Horror/Sci Fi" movie. Which would be neat if it weren't also speculated that unlike Spider-Man it won't be a part of the MCU at all. How that's going to be a "spin-off" is anyone's guess.

CinemaCon is taking place in Las Vegas and things kick off tonight with Sony Pictures' presentation, which means there could be a new trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming tonight. Looks like Sony confirmed there will be a new trailer coming some time tomorrow. To celebrate, they released a six second teaser for it. God do I hate this trailer for a trailer nonsense ... but here it is. SpoilerHas a neat Spider-Drone thing, which I guess takes the place of the old Spider-Tracers he's known to use in the books constantly?

More from the world of Homecoming, Michael Keaton recently did an interview with USA Today about his character, Adrian Toomes / The Vulture. According to him the old man is less a tech engineer and more involved with the salvage efforts dealing with the incident with the Chitauri and Avengers 1. Toomes is less than thrilled when a government-backed company, owned by Tony Stark, takes over his contract (after some sort of accident). According to Keaton, Toomes feels like a victim. "Some people see themselves as victims - he sees himself a little bit like that. He probably would have a strong argument that he never got a fair shot - a lot of ‘Why not me? Where’s mine?’" Director John Watts adds that it was fun to pick over past Marvel films for the tech that Vulture, The Tinkerer and Shocker would be using in Homecoming, calling it, "Neat junk from all the other movies. [...] It’s a really great starting point for the villains to have the Vulture picking over the stuff and finding the valuable exotic elements and having the Tinkerer assemble into something that could be used."

Some movie posters. First, individual character posters for Justice League. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) Next up we have the Inhumans IMAX/ABC poster.

More time to comment on that Justice League trailer.Yeah, it was and then mixed into Come Together by The Beatles. I imagine the Beatles were in part to draw in the Guardians of the Galaxy crowd with some Dadpop, which is such a bad idea since the music in Guardians was actually part of the story and it just doesn't have the same appeal in other movies.

I'm just wondering why not even a flicker of a red cape? We know Supes is going to be there. They've already done a bunch of promotional images for him with Cavill. I'm all for keeping plot out of a trailer, but generally it should be things we don't already know are going to be there. It's not going to be a surprise that the boyscout is going to be there, the only question is when and how. I think making Aquaman a bro is going to work out, but giving the one-liners to Batman not so much.

Edited, Mar 27th 2017 1:31pm by lolgaxe

SpoilerI think I'm 9 episodes in (honestly lost count). Just escaped from the Hand compound and had the whole "how could you?" "You don't understand" bit between Danny and Colleen. I am getting the whole "this is less a story in itself as a lead in to Defenders" vibe, as you mentioned earlier. Again though, I got that same sort of vibe will all of them so far (except maybe the first season of DD). Jessica Jones more or less existed solely to introduce Luke Cage and tie him into DD via the lawyer and the nurse characters. And Luke Cage itself was more just an introduction to the character, with a pretty clear set up for Iron Fist. So yeah, I'm not surprised by that aspect of it.

I'm speculating here, but I suspect that Danny's lack of really wanting to fulfill the assumed duties and responsibilities of the Iron Fist is actually the whole point. It's still a bit early to tell, but the impression I get is that the monks hanging out in their own closed off city, avoiding all contact with the outside world, and in fact somewhat violently "defending" it from outsiders has effectively removed them from the conflict for centuries. The Hand doesn't need to beat them. They've already retreated and made themselves a non-issue. I suspect Danny was chosen to receive the Iron Fist precisely so he would head back into the world and fight the Hand. Anyone else would have dutifully stood at the gates and defended it from an attack that the other guys have no reason to make.

I have a feeling that the whole "your flaws are what make you the exact right person to bear the Fist" is going to be a bit of the theme, and presumably lead into his presumed decision to stay in the outside world at the end of the season (and join/form the Defenders perhaps?). While I suppose the whole journey of self discovery may be a bit boring for most, I'm actually finding it quite interesting. Because even as unsure of his role as he is, he's still chock full of bias and assumptions, presumably repeated in a vacuum for centuries by folks who don't actually know what the heck is going on in the world outside. He questions his teachings and how they fit into the reality of that world, but that's the point. He can at least question them. The others would not. And thus would fail.

Well, that's my guess anyway. Dunno. I am actually enjoying the series quite a bit. I did doze off once (I tend to watch them late at night, and sometimes my "I'm really sleepy" timing isn't quite synced with the episodes start and stop times). But far far less than any of the other Marvel Netflix series so far. Not sure if that's the most scientific way of measuring things, but for whatever reason I'm finding myself more interested in whatever new thing is happening in this show, where there were whole sections of each of the others where it felt like the same drum being beat over and over.

Oh yeah. I'm not sure how the whole "multiple hands" thing will shake out. But again, it's at least interesting to watch. To be honest, they were always presented in this almost cardboard cutout manner previously, so it's refreshing to have at least *some* character to them and their organization.

It had been awfully quiet in the media about Dark Tower, or The Stand movies. And I'm not one to really care about White-Washing, (or what's the inverse... Black-Facing?), I like both actors. But I really am curious how they'll handle the race interactions between key characters when it's removed from the character. SpoilerWould they make Odetta's interactions with Roland minimal in that aspect, and focus instead of her and Eddie, keeping the same race relations in the character development. Or just make her an angry bitch in general, no reason other than mental illness.

I guess overall I'm not too optimistic about the movie. Not due to the race change, but just do to how huge the source material is, and how incomplete any movie adaptation would inevitably be, and unlikely that they'd adapt many of the more interesting scenes to the big screen properly. But my mother was really excited about a possible "The Stand" movie. She loves that older mini series / movie. Though she wasn't too keen on Matthew McConaughey playing Flagg. But if the Stand did happen in the same generation as Dark Tower, they really should cast the same actor.

Edited, Mar 28th 2017 10:24am by TirithRR

Some casting confirmation for Black Panther. Danai Gurira will be playing a Dora Milaje member, Okoye, while Lupita Nyong'o is Nakia, who starts out as a fellow bodyguard of T'Challa's Spoilerbut eventually turns against him and joins forces with Killmonger. Forest Whitaker has also been confirmed as one of T'Chaka's old friends, Zuri. Letitia Wright will play Shuri, T'Challa's half-sister. Shuri also took up the mantle of Black Panther in the comics for a while.

Also there's a rumor that Gwyneth Paltrow might reprise her Pepper Potts role in Spider-Man: Homecoming. That'd be interesting, maybe a triangle between her Stark and hot Aunt May Marisa Tomei.

Stephen King's It reboot has a trailer. Hope you like clowns. SpoilerBecause it's some freaky stuff if you don't.


Edited, Mar 29th 2017 1:46pm by lolgaxe

Ha, David Voltron'd the guards. SpoilerWe still have no idea who exactly set the people on fire at the pool and how Syd knew it would happen. Why is the world an amalgamation of modern and the '60s, and not just Oliver? What is up with David's stepdad, why can't he remember him, and what's with the Worlds Angriest Boy In The World? What is and isn't real? Was that Lenny at the hospital at the beginning of the show or was it Benny and she just overwrote everyone's memories to believe she was there in his place? Will we survive waiting for season 2? That whole speech about how schizophrenia makes you believe you don't have it certainly didn't help. Not only that, but now we've got another question: Is Oliver being controlled or is he working with the Shadow King? When they showed Lenny and Oliver driving away he seemed awfully in control of himself. Yeah, okay, that weird ball thing too, but I figure that's the "Equinox" Division 3 General dude was talking about earlier in the episode.

Josh Boone, director of the New Mutants spin-off instagramed a picture of scene scouting, which indicates the movie might have a scene or two in Boston.

Also, barely any information beyond a headline, but a rumor of a rumor says that Josh Whedon is in talks to write, produce, and direct a Batgirl movie. Can't even find a director for The Flash and WB is already expanding on the freakin' Batfamily. Also, considering this weekend is April 1^st I'm being far more skeptical of this than my usual not believing anything.

Speaking of rumored directors, Jordon Peele is also rumored to be in talks to direct the live action Akira movie. Get Out was such a surprisingly good horror movie, considering Peele is best known as a comedian so I think he could do it if he were given a script and capable actors and a genre that wasn't anime related at all. At the very least it's been a while since there's been a decent Cronenberg movie.

At least Agents of SHIELD and iZombie return next Tuesday.

Edited, Mar 30th 2017 1:06pm by lolgaxe

Good news, there was some news. It's been pushed back a week to an August 4^th release, to "give The Emoji Movie more time to play in theaters while children are home from school over the summer." Somehow I don't think a Patrick Stewart talking poop is really aimed at my kid.

Finally got around to watching the final two episodes of Iron Fist. It's the kind of ending you make when you know there's another season, or in this case another series, where you can complete the story. Under normal television circumstances I've no problem with that, but somehow for the Netflix MCU it just doesn't do anything good for me. I wasn't fond that Daredevil Season 2 did it either. But the most infuriating thing for me is how Spoilerthey still refuse to acknowledge that Gao is the Crane Mother. Not fooling me, Netflix! I stand by what I said earlier: By itself I felt it was a good show, but within the confines of the MCU universe it just feels weak. Spoiler Neither Gao, Bakuto, or Harold ever really feel like real antagonists. Especially Bakuto who at best was a deranged school counselor. For what it's worth, everyone gives a pretty good performance, but Claire does feel out of place. She's had like a month of self defense training and she's holding her own against Hand bodyguards and footsoldiers? Yeah, no.

Opening credits for American Gods on Starz. SpoilerI imagine this is what acid trips in Vegas looks like.