#the hulk vs Ben Grimm

[yranigami]

[wwprice1]

These Marvel Two-in-One variants are so fun!

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

CLASH OF THE IRRADIATED HEROES -- GAMMA VERSUS COSMIC RADIATION IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on assorted versions of the Incredible Hulk versus the Blue-Eyed Thing of the Fantastic Four, from the pages of "Marvel Portraits of a Universe" #1, c. 1995. Artwork by Simon "Biz" Bisley. Marvel Comics.

"Fans are always writing to our bullpen, suggesting battles they'd like to see. Through the years, the one moat often requested was a face-off between the Thing and the Hulk. In case you might have missed it years ago, here's Simon's interpretation of one of comicdom's greatest battles."

-- "MARVEL PORTRAITS OF A UNIVERSE" #1, from the aforementioned two's battle in "Fantastic Four" Vol. 1 #12

Resolution from largest to smallest: 1466x2048, 1261x2000, 762x1200, & 700x1060.

Sources: http://disasteryear20xx.blogspot.com/2013/04/hulk-vs-thing-by-simon-bisley.html, Pinterest, Comic Art Fans, & X.

[maxwell-grant]

You ever hear of ultimate marvel vs capcom community edition and if so are there any characters you would want added?

Could other characters from The Shadow work well in a fighting game?

1: Yes, absolutely, I've been keeping up with it for a while now and regularly watch the tournament matches. They achieved absolutely astounding results with porting over Infinite's characters as well as making new ones. Movesets are still kinda lacking the flair of original characters but that would be a really unfair standard to judge them by considering all the limitations they have to work around with and have already overcome (different game but I still remember how big of a milestone it was when Brawl modders learned how to code projectiles into new movesets, let alone make new characters, modding entire new characters is brain-breaking work). I'm particularly extremely impressed with Asura, who was never in the games so they had to make an entire new moveset for him and he absolutely feels and plays just like how he should, with slightly less janky camera work he could EASILY pass as a vanilla character (also kudos to the voice actors they got for Captain Commando and Ben Grimm and others, UMVC3 is known for it's quality voice acting and they really help make the characters feel like they always belonged in the game)

Honestly I don't really know which characters I'd want added, I'm happy with what they're able to deliver. I know my boy Juggernaut is in the works and I'm excited for other characters they might bring back, but what I most want to see is new ones, the characters they're adding that were never in the series and they're having to build new stuff for like Ben Grimm. I've seen they're working on mods for Electro and Shocker, which is good, I would be happiest if they could add other Spider-Man villains in there, particularly Mysterio, Sandman who, yes, would be a graphics nightmare but I think has a lot of moveset potential, Doctor Octopus who was so so close to being in the game for real, and of course Rhino, who is definitely redundant next to Haggar and Hulk and Juggernaut but nope, don't care, put Rhino in it right now, just port over Abigail/Zangief assets and you're halfway there.

2: From The Shadow? Hmm, honestly no, not really. The unreleased beat em up I think was as close as you'd get and even that had issues. Overwhelming majority of the agents don't really fight or have things that you can build a fighting game moveset out of, some characters like Myra and Cliff and definitely Jericho can do that but you'd still be really really reaching to give them things to do, and the villains aren't particularly interesting nor do they lend themselves to it as well. You could do a lot of things with The Shadow and with Shiwan Khan, maybe the Voodoo Master or one of the wackier comic characters if you feel like really putting in the work, but at that point you might as well just make a pulp-based fighting game and include them instead of basing it around The Shadow. Playing and obsessing over Disco Elysium is consuming my every waking hour giving me ideas to reconsider how I'd make a videogame based on The Shadow and a fighting game, much as I intend to make one someday, is definitely not one of them.

[phantom-le6]

Ramble of the month August 2024: 90’s MCU phase 7 – the Infinity War aftermath and prelude to Secret Invasion

Well, we’re back to looking into my alternate MCU that begins in the 1990’s but is rapidly catching up to our present day.  For those new to my Tumblr page who perhaps haven’t read any of my rambles on this subject, and for those who may just need a refresher, here’s a quick over-view of the underlying premise.  This is a hypothetical MCU slate, complete with fan-casting, which I’ve done both for fun and to show up the flaws in 90’s MCU memes.  What are those flaws?  Very simply, if the MCU had begun in the 1990’s, Marvel would have had all their film rights instead of just some, certain source material used by the real MCU would not exist and a number of characters/teams would be quite different.

With that quick summation out of the way, let’s quickly re-cap the film run for phases 1 through 6 of this hypothetical MCU.

Phase 1:

1992: Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man

1993: Thor, Spider-Man, Ant-Man & The Wasp

1994: Captain America, Fantastic Four 2, Iron Man 2

1995: X-Men, Avengers, Daredevil

Phase 1 established the initial characters of our MCU, putting the Fantastic Four first and foremost to bring them in line with their comic-book counterparts before beginning to develop the Avengers, the X-Men, Spider-Man and Daredevil.

Phase 2:

1996: Spider-Man 2, Thor: Land of Enchantment, Silver Surfer

1997: Hulk vs Wolverine, Fantastic Four: Doomsday, Iron Man 3

1998: Captain America: Society of Serpents, Daredevil 2, X-Men 2

1999: Avenger 2, Spider-Man 3, Doctor Strange

Phase 2 provides expansion as not only do most heroes get solo and ensemble sequels, but other characters start to take on films of their own.  The Silver Surfer is spun off from his appearance in Fantastic Four 2 into a solo film while Doctor Strange is introduced, and we also see the first examples of the “third film loss” trope, including Stark’s loss of his business and Iron Man persona through alcoholism, Doctor Doom destroying the Baxter Building while Ben Grimm loses a chance to be human, and Peter Parker loses Gwen Stacy.

Phase 3:

2000: Fantastic Four: World War III, Thor: Ragnarök, Daredevil 3

2001: Hulk: Rise of the Leader, X-Men: Fall of the Mutants, Avengers: Under Siege

2002: Doctor Strange 2, The Captain, Spider-Man 4

2003: Captain Britain, Fantastic Four: Enter the Negative Zone, Ghost Rider

Phase 3 further put our heroes on the back foot with yet more loss, most notably assaults on the X-Mansion and Avengers Mansion, but we also see more expansion; Namor, the Black Panther and the Inhumans all get introduced via the Fantastic Four, who then go on to become a family via the birth of Franklin Richards, and both Captain Britain and Ghost Rider get added to the mix.

Phase 4:

2004: Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Secret Wars: Part I

2005: Excalibur, Defenders, Ghost Rider 2

2006: X-Factor, Secret Wars: Part II, Heroes For Hire

2007: Namor the Submariner, Doctor Strange 3, Iron Man: Enter The Mandarin

Phase 4 took us through Secret Wars, and along the way gave us a lot more characters.  Black Panther and the original, pre-Carol Danvers iteration of Captain Marvel get solo films, former X-Men become parts of spin-off teams, and we see the formation of the Defenders and a one-shot of the Heroes For Hire, not to mention a Namor solo film and the return of Tony Stark.

Phase 5:

2008: Spider-Man 5, Fantastic Four: Unthinkable, Ms Marvel

2009: Elektra, Black Panther 2, Defenders 2

2010: X-Men: Proteus, Spider-Man 6, Ant-Man 2

2011: Silver Surfer 2, Avengers vs X-Men, Ghost Rider 3

Phase 5 gave us the Black Suit saga for Spider-Man as an aftermath of Secret Wars over the web-slinger’s fifth and sixth solo films, while the Fantastic Four’s sixth film would also be their last as we began the Infinity Saga.  In turn, Carol Danvers and a resurrected Elektra gained solo films, with the former precipitating an Avengers vs X-Men clash.

Phase 6:

2012: Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther 3, Iron Man: The Dragon Seed Saga

2013: X-Men: Phoenix Rising, Defenders 3, Ant-Man 3

2014: X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga, Infinity War, Blade

2015: Inhumans, Infinity War II, Deadpool

Phase 6 concluded the Infinity Saga while also removing Jean Grey and Cyclops from being active in the MCU via the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix sagas being adapted into a film duology.  We also add Blade to the MCU, and the Inhumans finally gained their own film, while several solo and group film franchises reached their third and final instalments.

This then brings us to phase 7, which brings us into the main aftermath of the Infinity Saga and begins set-up for a Secret Invasion film in phase 8.  How does it do this?  Well, let’s look at my proposed slate for the phase.

Phase 7:

2016: Union Jack, Silver Surfer 3, Iron-Man/Spider-Man: Legacy

2017: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Blade 2, Ghost Rider Returns

2018: Eternals, Deadpool 2, New Avengers

2019: X-Men: Days of Future Past, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Blade 3

As you can see, this slate is heavy in sequels, but with a few new things being worked in, beginning with the opening film of the phase.

Union Jack (2016) Directed by Matthew Vaughan

Joseph Chapman/Union Jack III = Rob Mallard

Brian Folsworth = Ben Hardy

Jacqueline Folsworth/Union Jack II = Lily James

Lord James Folsworth/Union Jack I = Hugh Bonneville

John Falsworth/Baron Blood = Rupert Everett

Kaecilius = Irrfan Khan

Steven Levens/Jack O'Lantern = Duane Henry

Jim Jaspers = JJ Field

Lily Cromwell = Emilia Clarke

Jack Chapman = Michael Le Vell

Kate Fletcher = Isabel Hodgins

Steve Rogers/Captain America = Brad Pitt

Matthew Vaughan of X-Men: First Class directing fame is at the helm for the film that introduces another flag-wearing British superhero to our MCU, though Union Jack is a different type of hero to Captain Britain, especially once Joseph Chapman inherits the role from the Folsworth family.  Union Jack is a highly skilled fighter without super-human abilities, the original in the comics fighting alongside Captain America and others during World War 2 on a team called the Invaders.  This film version would make a nod to this, hence Brad Pitt reprising his role as Captain America in flashback scenes.  However, the main focus is on Joseph becoming Union Jack.

The other point of distinctions between Union Jack and Captain Britain is that Union Jack is also a vampire hunter, owing to the brother of the first Union Jack having a brother who became a vampire and who was also a Nazi, and while Brian Braddock is from upper class privilege like the Folsworths, Joseph Chapman is a working-class lad from Manchester.  These differences are key to how the film separates itself from prior films for Captain Britain and Excalibur, and also explains some of my casting choices.  I’ve purposely looked up actors from the Manchester-based soap opera Coronation Street to play Joseph and two film-original characters related to him (his father Jack and ex-girlfriend Kate), while casting people from more southern English backgrounds to play the Folsworth family and other English characters.  Some of the character relationships within the Folsworth family are slightly altered due to the greater span of time between the film and World War 2 compared with Union Jack’s introduction via Captain America comic in the 1980’s.

Silver Surfer 3 (2016) Directed by JJ Abrams

Silver Surfer = David Wenham

Galactus = Tony Todd

Shalla Bal = Liv Tyler

Terrax = Vincent Regan

Firelord = Peter Mensah

Frankie Raye/Nova = Isla Fisher

Ego the Living Planet = Peter Capaldi

The Silver Surfer has worked his way through a Fantastic Four-based introduction into a wide-spread solo run, with appearances in the Defenders and the Infinity War films, and here the time comes to wrap up his story.  Why?  To help set aspects of the cosmic stage to better facilitate the eventual roll around of Secret Invasion.  To that end, the Surfer finds himself dragged into the affairs of Galactus once more when the devourer of worlds clashes with Ego the Living Planet.  To resolve the situation, the Surfer must seek out and ally with other former heralds of Galactus, and his reward?  Hopefully a return to his home planet to be reunited with Shalla Bal.

Now for those who only know the films of Marvel, Ego is not supposed to be Peter Quill’s dad, hence why I’ve put him in this film and not a Guardians of the Galaxy production.  In terms of directing, I’ve put JJ Abrams in charge on this occasion.  The Surfer, Galactus and Shalla Bal are all returning actors, which the other roles are all freshly cast.

Iron Man/Spider-Man: Legacy (2016) Directed by Jon Watts

Peter Parker/Spider-Man = Wil Weaton

James Rhodes/War Machine/Iron Man II = Samuel L. Jackson

Mary-Jane Watson-Parker = Alison Hannigan

Flash Thompson = Ben Affleck

Randy Robertson = Taye Diggs

Harry Osborn = Ryan Phillipe

Liz Allen-Osborn = Alicia Silverstone

Sha Shan Nguyen = Grace Park

Principal Harrington = Viggo Mortensen

Mrs Arbogast = Kathleen Turner

Abe Zimmer = John Billingsley

Felix Alvarez = Adam Rodriguez

Vic Martinelli = Matt LeBlanc

Miles Morales/Spider-Man II = Noah Gray-Cabey

Amadeus Cho/Iron Man III = Charles Melton

Ganke Lee = Jacob Batalon

Aaron Davis/Prowler = Donald Glover

Rio Morales = Penélope Cruz

Jefferson Davis = Eriq La Salle

Dr Helen Cho = Ming-Na Wen

Aldrich Killian = Guy Pearce

Ava Ayala = Cierra Ramirez

Anya Corazon = Alejandra Reynoso

Carolyn Trainer/Doctor Octopus II = Ruby Rose

Sunset Bain/Madame Menace = Peyton List

With this MCU’s version of Tony Stark having been played by Tom Selleck, and following RDJ’s lead of sacrificing himself in the Infinity Saga, this film was about doing a couple of mantle hand-overs in one.  Following Infinity War II, Rhodey is trying to be Iron Man and support Peter, who Tony has asked to take over the running of Stark Enterprises based on Peter’s scientific expertise.  The problem is Peter is struggling to balance being a business leader, a husband, a father-to-be and a superhero.  Something has to give, especially when villains like Aldrich Killian and Madame Menace enter the picture, along with criminals like the Prowler and a would-be successor to Doc Ock.  Luckily, successors wait in the wings; during a field trip of students from Peter’s old high school, student Miles Morales gains spider-powers of his own, while Amadeus Cho manages to commandeer a suit of Iron Man armour.

While the Miles Morales story line is largely straight-forward adapting of that source material at the right time into this MCU, working out Iron Man’s succession is more original-to-film story writing.  In the comics, Amadeus becomes a new version of the Hulk, but I never liked that idea.  Largely, this is because the computer game Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction posited in between-mission material that gamma-based transformations are psychologically unique, which would mean only Banner can be the Hulk because the various Hulk personas he had changed into are unique to him.  By comparison, the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series gave Cho the role of Iron Spider after being given the Iron Spider armour by Peter.  As such, putting Cho in the Iron Man armour makes sense for this film universe given that animation precedent and my disagreement with the idea of any Hulk-type transformation being repeated over multiple characters.

Directorially, I put the MCU’s Spider-Man director Jon Watts in charge for this film, and just to clarify, the Peyton List playing Madame Menace is not Peyton Roi List of Jessie and Cobra Kai fame, but the Peyton List who played Poison Ivy in the Batman-based TV series Gotham.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) Directed by James Gunn

Peter Quill/Star-Lord = Chris Pratt

Drax the Destroyer = Dean Cain

Groot = Vin Diesel

Rocket = Bradley Cooper

Hepzibah = Kirsty Swanson

Raza = Dominic Keating

Nebula = Emma Stone

Yondu = Michael Rooker

Mantis = Midu

Simon Williams/Wonder Man = Taylor Kitsch

Nova Prime Irani Rael = Rene Russo

Nova Centurion Richard Ryder = Edward Norton

Brother Royal = Chris Klein

J'Son = Kurt Russell

Blood Brother Gh'Ree = Matthew Perry

Blood Brother R'Hos = David Schwimmer

Czar Doon = Woody Harrelson

Delphinia = Karen Gillan

Raksor = Tom Hardy

Misa = Naomie Harris

While I’m still keeping James Gunn in charge of directing Guardians of the Galaxy films in this hypothetical MCU, I really think his second and third films had quite a few flaws.  Having already made changes in the first film based on other elements in this MCU, the second is going to be even more different.  Peter learning about his paternal heritage remains the plot, but this time we go accurate-to-source by using J’Son from the comics instead of Ego.  I also worked in Raza and Hepzibah from the Starjammers of X-Men Shi’ar fame and human superhero Wonder Man, while also putting J’Son into an alliance with the Badoon, a Marvel alien race that have appeared as villains since the Guardians were a team from the distant future instead of distant space.  Friends’ fans may note that Ross and Chandler, or more accurately David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry get roles in this film, following in the footsteps of Matt Le Blanc and Courtney Cox.  This only leaves Jennifer Aniston (who is anti-superhero, so I won’t use her on any fan-cast I do) and Lisa Kudrow (who I just can’t think of a suitable part for).

Blade 2 (2017) Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Eric Brooks/Blade = Jamie Foxx

Miles Morales/Spider-Man II = Noah Gray-Cabey

Ganke Lee = Jacob Batalon

Rio Morales = Penélope Cruz

Jefferson Davis = Eriq La Salle

Felicia Hardy/The Black Cat = Elisha Cuthbert

Hannibal King = Stephen Amell

Safron Caulder = Freema Agyeman

Joseph Chapman/Union Jack III = Rob Mallard

Michael Morbius = Chris Diamantopoulos

Martine Bancroft = Léa Seydoux

Emil Nikos = Jason David Frank

For the first Blade film in this alternate MCU, I gave Blade his original film but with a more comics-accurate supporting cast.  This time, it’s a team-up between Blade and the new Spider-Man Miles Morales to deal with pseudo-vampire Michael Morbius.  The film show Blade and Miles tracking Morbius from New York back to his native Greece via a couple of other cities, including one in England that allows us to bring in Union Jack again.  Along the way, we also get the inclusion of Hannibal King and a return appearance by Felicia Hardy, AKA The Black Cat.  Unlike the 90’s animated series, Felicia doesn’t have a romantic link to Morbius, but her inclusion is very much a nod to that show.  For direction, I picked Guillermo del Toro as he also directed Blade 2 in the Wesley Snipes trilogy.

Ghost Rider Returns (2017) Directed by Marc Webb

Danny Ketch/Ghost Rider II = Andrew Garfield

Barbara Ketch = Genevieve Angelson

Francis Ketch = Elizabeth Perkins

Paula Harris = Ellen Hollman

Melissa Maro = Mila Kunis

Jack D'Auria = Robert Ri'chard

Jack Russell/Werewolf by Night = Scott Eastwood

Deathwatch = Jared Padalecki

Ebenezer Laughton/Scarecrow = Bill Skarsgård

Blackout/Ray Carrigan = Johnny Whitworth

Johnny Blaze = Connor Trinneer

Mephistopheles = Jeffery Combs

Over the years, the comics have seen three characters cursed to become the Ghost Rider; Johnny Blaze, Danny Ketch and Robbie Reyes.  Having done a trilogy for original Ghost Rider Blaze, this film is Ketch’s turn in the saddle, and since Wil Wheaton kept the role of Peter Parker throughout this MCU, that leaves Andrew Garfield free to play the latest Rider.  This film also features the Werewolf by Night, who together with former GR Blaze aids Ketch in dealing with villains Deathwatch, Scarecrow and Blackout, all under the watchful and conniving hand of Mephistopheles.  To direct the film, I put another form Spider-Man director, Marc Webb, in that position, and for those who may be wondering, Marvel does have a character named Scarecrow who is different to the Batman villain of the same name.  The Marvel version is a criminally insane killer who is a contortionist and has some skill in training birds.  This film would look to give the characters a supernatural element to these abilities for use against the Ghost Rider.

Eternals (2018) Directed by Matt Reeves

Sersi = Gemma Chan

Ikaris = Richard Madden

Gilgamesh = Don Lee

Thena = Rose Byrne

Sprite = Lia McHugh

Kingo = Kumail Nanjiani

Makkari = Lauren Ridloff

Phastos = Brian Tyree Henry

Ajak = Jennifer Lopez

Druig = Barry Keoghan

Arisham = David Kaye

Kro = Terry O'Quinn

Dane Whitman/Black Knight = Ioan Gruffudd

How does one take the Eternals and put them to film without repeating the mistakes by the real MCU?  First of all, this MCU has delved more into the branch of the Eternals that settled on Titan and became known as Titans, so we’ve got a better point of introduction the original film.  Second, we’ve also been introduced to the Black Knight via Captain Britian, and this character is used more to give us an audience POV that the other film could have done with.  Other plot elements would also be shifted so there’d be a bit less murder-mystery and more focus on establishing the characters, as well as a different conflict with the Deviants.  In short, the characters and film title are about the only things being translated over.  Direction-wise, I opted to go with Matt Reeves; his work on the later films in the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy is of such quality that I think he can give us a lot of the world-building this film requires while also keeping audience sympathies with the title characters.

Deadpool 2 (2018) Directed by Tim Miller

Wade Wilson/Deadpool = Ryan Reynolds

Weasel = TJ Miller

Blind Al = Stockard Channing

Nathan Christopher Summers/Cable & Stryfe = Dennis Quaid

Domino = Morena Baccarin

James Proudstar/Warpath = Booboo Stewart

Theresa Rourke-Cassidy/Siryn = Sarah Bolger

Paige Guthrie/Husk = Kelly Stables

Roberto Da Costa/Sunspot = Mario Lopez

Tabita Smith/Boom Boom = Anna Faris

Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane = Bonnie Wright

Tyler Dayspring Summers/Genesis = Jack Quaid

Tempo = Zazie Beetz

Dragoness = Rila Fukushima

Reaper = Mena Massoud

Zero = Jiang Wen

Strobe = Elizabeth Olsen

Wildside = James McAvoy

Having gone more comics-accurate with this MCU’s first Deadpool film, the second takes a similar approach to Deadpool 2 by putting Deadpool in the middle of a conflict between X-Force and the Mutant Liberation Front, which is made more interesting by the complicating factor that Cable’s son Tyler is on the side of the villains and the MLF leader Stryfe is Cable’s clone.  Several X-Force members reprise their roles from past X-Men films while a few characters are kept from our first Deadpool film.  However, Cable, Stryfe, Domino, Tyler and the MLF membership are all new.  That said, I realised while writing this that Paul Walker, my original selection to play Sam Guthrie/Cannonball died back in 2013.  Rather than re-cast, I decided to have the character of Sam’s sister Paige step into the films in his stead, giving us another new face in the form of Kelly Stables.  The film also continues Deadpool’s somewhat one-sided romantic interest in Siryn.  Direction-wise, it’s back to Tim Miller of Deadpool 1 to keep things going on the sequel this time around.

New Avengers (2018) Directed by the Russo Brothers

Dr Stephen Strange = Johnny Depp

Wolverine/Logan = Tom Cruise

Luke Cage = Tyrese Gibson

Scott Lang/Ant-Man II = Paul Rudd

Nadia Pym/Wasp II = Shailene Woodley

Spider-Woman/Jessica Drew = Anne Hathaway

Hawkeye II/Kate Bishop = Hailee Steinfeld

Miles Morales/Spider-Man II = Noah Gray-Cabey

Amadeus Cho/Iron Man III = Charles Melton

Kamala Khan/Ms Marvel = Odeya Rush

Kang The Conqueror = Colin Hanks

Princess Ravonna = Jenna Dewan

Electro/Max Dillon = Eddie Cahill

Carolyn Trainer/Doctor Octopus II = Ruby Rose

Jacques Duquesne/Swordsman = Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Janice Lincoln/Beetle = Naya Rivera

Rita DeMara/Yellowjacket II = Elisabeth Moss

Frank Simpson/Nuke = John Cena

Herman Schultz/Shocker = Patrick Muldoon

Whitney Frost/Madame Masque = Alice Eve

Rattler/Gustav Krueger = Christoph Waltz

Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone = Wesley Snipes

Donald Pierce = Armie Hammer

Douglas Scott/Razorfist = Joe Manganiello

In this MCU, the Avengers have disbanded following the death of Tony Stark in the Infinity War films, but the need for the Avengers still remains.  This film brings that front-and-centre by showing the time-travelling villain Kang trying to alter history by causing a mass jailbreak, only to find himself at odds with a mix of new and existing heroes as a New Avengers line-up arises.  This film basically combines elements of New Avengers and Young Avengers into a single film, helmed by the Russo brothers to see how they would do putting a new Avengers team together.  Of course, as fans of mid-to-late 2000’s-era comics will know, this film will also ultimately play into Secret Invasion.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2019) Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Beast/Hank McCoy = Alec Baldwin

Storm/Ororo Monroe = Halle Berry

Peter Rasputin/Colossus = Henry Cavill

Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler = Daniel Brühl

Rogue = Anna Paquin

Remi LeBeau/Gambit = Zachary Levi

Jubilee = Chloe Bennett

Emma Frost = Elizabeth Banks

Danielle Moonstar = Selena Gomez

Bishop = Winston Duke

Malcolm = Evan Peters

Randall = James Franco

Shard = Letitia Wright

Rachel Summers = Danielle Panabaker

Franklin Richards = Jeremy Renner

Trevor Fitzroy = Johnny Knoxville

Bantam = Sean Astin

Congressman Fred Duncan = Forest Whitaker

Congressman Rev. William Stryker = Eric Roberts

Lady Deathstrike = Tao Okamoto

Joanna Cargill/Frenzy = Amanda Nunes

Tower = Liam Hemsworth

David Canon/Whirlwind = Colin Cunningham

Wolverine/Logan = Tom Cruise

Dr Valerie Cooper = Malin Åkerman

Forge = Jimmy Smits

This version of Days of Future Past occupies a similar role in our MCU to its position in the comics, namely being the first major arc post-Dark Phoenix saga for the X-Men team.  In this version of the story, time-travelling future mutant Trevor Fitzroy and his diminutive lackey Bantam return to the present to interfere in a past assassination, hoping to make it more successful for mutant-kind.  To try and stop him, Bishop is forced to team up his XSE officers with the last of the X-Men to travel back and stop Fitzroy, though the X-Men of the future want to work with their past counterparts to stop the assassination altogether.

As part of this story being post-Dark Phoenix, this film is also our first without Xavier, Cyclops or Jean, and Wolverine only appears for scenes in the future era alongside an aged-up Forge.  This makes Forge the only character appearing as two versions of himself in the film.  Another change is using a mix of random mutants in place of Mystique’s Brotherhood, largely to keep the focus more on Fitzroy as the main villain and the conflict between Bishop’s group, the future X-Men and the latest present-day version of the team over how to resolve the situation.  To direct all this, I picked Robert Zemeckis because who better than the guy behind Back to the Future and the 2009 Disney version of A Christmas Carol to handle a time-travel story?  Also, I know Fitzroy is meant to be English and I’ve cast an American to play him, but I want to see what Knoxville can do with this character once he’s had some accent coaching.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2019) Directed by James Gunn

Peter Quill/Star-Lord = Chris Pratt

Drax the Destroyer = Dean Cain

Groot = Vin Diesel

Rocket = Bradley Cooper

Hepzibah = Kirsty Swanson

Mantis = Midu

Simon Williams/Wonder Man = Taylor Kitsch

Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat = Selma Blair

Johnny Storm/Human Torch = David Spade

Professor Charles Xavier = Patrick Stewart

Princess/Empress Lilandra = Winona Ryder

Gladiator = Luke Hemsworth

Oracle = Pom Klementieff

Smasher = Randy Orton

Fang = Matthew Lawrence

Starbolt = Richard Armitage

Araki = Mark Hamill

Deathbird = Sunyata Palmer

Admiral Lord Samédàr = Rami Malek

Brood Queen = Alice Krige

Warstar = Peter Cullen/Dwayne Johnson

Hussar = Gina Carrano

Earthquake = Lee Pace

Manta = Olga Kurylenko

Polaris/Lorna Dane = Jeri Ryan

Robert Drake/Iceman = Michael Weatherley

Carol Danvers = Melissa Joan Hart

Heather Douglas/Moonstone = Anna Popplewell

Mentor = Michael McKean

Eros/Starfox = Joel McHale

Brood Clan-Master = Corey Stoll

Brood Warrior 1 = Jerry O'Connell

Brood Warrior 2 = Jason O'Mara

Brood Warrior 3 = Nathan Fillion

Brood Warrior 4 = Kari Wahlgren

Continuing the trend of getting this MCU’s Guardians to step away from the path of Gunn to do things a bit better, welcome to my alternate volume 3 for this space-faring group of outlaws.  I also continue my trend working things back towards what I know by making this film an adaptation of the X-Men’s Brood Saga arc, up to and including the Brood giving Carol Danvers new powers following the theft of her old powers by Rogue.  The key differences are that now it’s the Guardians of the Galaxy coming to the rescue, bolstered by the presence of Kitty Pryde and Johnny Storm, while also working in a few X-Men alumni as possible Brood victims.  The Titans and the Shi’ar also play big roles this time round.

Blade 3 (2019) Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Eric Brooks/Blade = Jamie Foxx

Danny Ketch/Ghost Rider II = Andrew Garfield

Jack Russell/Werewolf by Night = Scott Eastwood

Daimon Hellstrom = James Van Der Beek

Hannibal King = Stephen Amell

Nina Price/Vampire by Night = Anya Taylor-Joy

Satana Hellstrom = Krysten Ritter

Elsa Bloodstone = Georgie Henley

Vlad Tepish/Dracula = Mads Mikkelsen

Lilith = Felicity Jones

Taj Nital = Jay Chandrasekhar

To close out phase 7 of this alternate MCU, I’ve brought back Guillermo del Toro to direct a better version of a Blade vs Dracula clash than we got with Blade Trinity.  This includes Blade teaming up with a few other supernatural heroes, marking a prelude to something I have on my phase 8 slate, and of course a better casting for Dracula than we got in Trinity.  The aim with having Mikkelsen play Dracula is to land on something like the later Marvel comics version of Dracula who appears in red armour and with a white ponytail, rather than the more stereotypical version of earlier comics.

That concludes our phase 7 tour of my hypothetical 90’s-commenced MCU, leaving only two phases left before it all wraps up.  Next month’s ramble will be looking at another fan-cast project I’ve had, and phase 8 of this MCU should be on my November ramble, with October’s topic yet to be decided.  Until my next ramble, ta-ta for now.

[ao3feed-janefoster]

The Marvel Age

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/nxMwBH1

by Lichking101

After the fantastic and incredible reception of, "The Amazing Fantasy," Series, I would like to present five, canon short stories set before the series' events! Each explores the various corners of the Marvel Universe, showing the uncanny realities of living with superpowers. Each showing mighty battles between gods and mutants in astonishing locals. I present to you all the humble beginnings of the Marvel Age!

Words: 38677, Chapters: 3/5, Language: English

Fandoms: Marvel (Comics), Iron Man (Comics), The Incredible Hulk (Comics), Ant-Man (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse), Fantastic Four (Comicverse), Thor (Comics), Iron Man (Movies), Hulk Vs. (Movies), X-Men Evolution, X-Men (Ultimateverse), Fantastic Four (Ultimateverse), Thor (Ultimateverse), Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman, Norse Religion & Lore

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: F/M

Characters: Tony Stark, Hulk (Marvel), Hank Pym, Jean Grey, Scott Summers, Reed Richards, Thor (Marvel), Pepper Potts, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Betty Ross, Rick Jones, Thaddeus Ross, Janet Van Dyne, Charles Xavier, Ben Grimm, Susan Storm (Fantastic Four), Johnny Storm, Alicia Masters, Victor von Doom, Jane Foster (Marvel), Darcy Lewis, Erik Selvig

Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Hulk/Betty Ross, Hank Pym/Janet Van Dyne, Jean Grey/Scott Summers, Reed Richards/Susan Storm (Fantastic Four), Jane Foster/Thor, Bobby Drake/Rogue

Additional Tags: BAMF Tony Stark, Alcoholic Tony Stark, Hulk Talks (Marvel), Hulk Smash (Marvel), Hulk Feels (Marvel), BAMF Hulk (Marvel), Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Bruce Banner Has Issues, Bipolar Hank Pym, Hank and Janet being a good couple for once, Well at least trying, BAMF Charles Xavier, Honestly Charles What Are You Thinking, Charles Xavier Wants to Help, BAMF Scott Summers, Awkward Hank McCoy, Dork Hank McCoy, BAMF Ororo Munroe, Cool Bobby Drake, Goth Rogue (Marvel), Warren Worthington III has a Trust Fund, All Mutants need a hug, Scientist Reed Richards, Ben Grimm Needs a Hug, Johnny Storm is a little shit, BAMF Susan Storm, Amnesiac Thor, Bad Parent Odin (Marvel), Accurate Norse Myth in Marvel Comics, Post-Ragnarok

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/nxMwBH1

[justdealingwithsomeissues]

The book states that Reed did this to the FF on purpose. Out of a fear of supervillains on the rise, he wanted to create a group of superheroes to help fight back the tide... so he specifically designed their ship to expose them to the cosmic rays and transform them.

[ungoliantschilde]

Thing Vs. Hulk, by the late great Mike Wieringo.

[cgbcomics]

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #11: PRIDE of the REGIMENT

August, 1986

Looks like the West Coast Avengers are going to fight some more random idiots!

Like I said last time, Master Pandemonium is fine and good but, yeah, I want to see random jerks.

And these random jerks sure do look randomly jerky!

And and, Iron Man is involved! I’ve felt like he was getting sidelined a lot earlier in the series so look at him being front and also center!

Of the three non-Avenger dinguses on the cover, I only recognize the sai guy, since he was in Batroc’s mercenary group in Great Lakes Avengers.

Guess I’ll find out who they are INSIDE. Except I read this digitally so more VAGUELY TO THE RIGHT.

Last times in West Coast Avengers: Tigra has been having trouble with her cat soul being super horny so she made a secret deal with the cat king of the cat world of the cat people to kill Master Pandemonium in exchange for removing one of her souls. But she screwed it up and he got away. So she’s still super horny and has made plays at both Hank Pym and Wonder Man and also has a cat guy boyfriend on the side that she can magically summon. Wonder Man learned about Tigra and Hank but Hank still thinks he and Tigra are exclusive. Also, other people are on the team and have their own stuff. Wonder Man was cast in a movie! Ben Grimm almost joined the team but didn’t! Really, this is kind of a standalone and I didn’t need to explain anything!

The issue starts with Mockingbird being really angry, possibly at people wanting her to change her long distance service.

But, no.

Hank Pym assumes the phone system glitched and complains about her treating the equipment roughly.

Hank Pym: “I just got the last bugs out of that system, Mockingbird! You didn’t have to slam it down!”

Iron Man: “Nobody ever gets the last bugs out of a system, Hank! After a while you call them ‘features’!”

HAH!

Iron Man asks what has Mockingbird so mad and she says “Ohhh -- the world!”

Hawkeye: “Oh! Is that all?”

HAH!

Okay but for serious, Mockingbird is mad that people pick on poor, defenseless intelligence agencies like SHIELD.

Which.

I mean. Okay, it makes sense for her character. She worked for SHIELD most of her adult life. She’s got a lot of identity tied up in intelligence work. But its like when Jen Walters, She-Hulk, complained that people were picking on the poor oil companies in her solo series.

They do not need help!

In this specific context, SHIELD is having a rough time in the press recently because they lost a helicarrier and there are reports of agent brutality. Which Mockingbird thinks is just media sensationalizing.

I don’t know though.

Mockingbird has decided that she’s going to go visit Nick Fury and get his side of the story. She invites Iron Man and Hawkeye along. Iron Man doesn’t really get along with Nick Fury since Nick Fury tried to take over his- I mean his boss’ company a while back but he does care about the actual SHIELD agency (since he was an advisor to the board that founded it (this is, of course, before the retcon that SHIELD is a super old counter-cult to the super old Hydra cult. Or something)).

What was I talking about?

Iron Man: “But can Hawkeye get in, now that the Avengers have a restricted clearance?”

Mockingbird: “Heaven help me, Iron Man, but I’ll vouch for this suspicious character!”

This is actually a fairly cute moment. Just the (West Coast) Avengers goofing around together.

Speaking of cute, Tigra is just napping poolside while Wonder Man swims hundreds of laps.

Just friends existing adjacent.

This is just a fun moment.

Mockingbird is afraid she’s going to become one of those annoying people who talks up California’s weather vs New York winters.

Iron Man had to turn down the solar power converters on his armor because ITS JUST TOO SUNNY.

And Wonder Man has apparently decided that he’s going to get in shape (??) by swimming 300 laps a day.

Simon, if you get in any more shape, you’re going to be cubist.

Hawkeye invites Wonder Man (but not Tigra, apparently?) to go visit SHIELD with them but Wonder Man has to go be in the movie he’s in.

And Tigra invites herself along to that.

So that’s where everyone is going to be in this issue.

Wonder Man and Tigra at the Arkon movie studio and the other three West Coast Avengers at the “Hair Razing” hair salon.

Good name. No one will ever suspect that its a secret SHIELD base.

The pink-haired hairdresser Josyane who speaks in an OOTRAGEOUS FRENCH ACCENT is a SHIELD plant and also a hairdresser. The other one, Cherie, has no idea that there’s a secret base under the salon.

So as a flawless cover story why several people are coming in when the salon is booked solid, Mockingbird claims to be Bobbi van Dyne of the Cleveland van Dynes. And Hawkeye and Iron Man are hilariously in disguise as her bodyguards Antonio and Bruno.

Tony looks so silly. But I guess he had to wear something that would cover his armor. Even though what he wears in no way could cover his armor.

Also, Josyane asks who did Mockingbird’s new hairdo.

Mockingbird: “David, at the Sainte Regine! But that big palooka over there won’t even acknowledge I got it done!”

Hawkeye: “So I like long hair! So sue me!”

Mockingbird: “I got it chopped after fighting a werewolf -- it was getting in my way!”

Hawkeye, indignant: “So I like long hair...!”

Heh.

He’s so grumpy.

Iron Man is boggled that Hawkeye hasn’t mentioned the haircut at all since Tony Stark is a guy who would notice a haircut.

Hawkeye: “Hey, I know you know all about women, Iron Man, but I’m the one who fell in love with a long-haired cutie! And it’s because I’m in love that I don’t mention the way she resembles the quarterback of the Chicago Bears!”

So, you’re trying to start a fight?

Anyway, as these secret hair salon bases go, the West Coast Avengers sit in the seas and get lowered to the secret base.

Where SHIELD agents immediately surround them, pull guns, and start shooting at the superheroes.

Hawkeye: “Don’t’cha know who we are, you idiots? We’re the Avengers!”

SHIELD idiot: “Avengers are security risks!”

That’s not untrue but still! Simmer down!

As you might expect, the Avengers make the SHIELD agents look like fools and chumps.

(And now that the topic has come up, Hawkeye really isn’t letting the hair thing go)

Once a small army of agents gets embarrassed, Nick Fury comes in shouting.

He tells them that considering they were fighting superheroes they did pretty good and then pivots immediately from compliment to MORE yelling. Telling them to do better than pretty good next time and then calls them goldbrickers because Nick Fury’s vocabulary never evolves.

Once he finishes putting the fear of Fury in his men, Nick Fury turns to the superheroes and asks what they’re so upset about.

When they say they weren’t expecting to be attacked unprompted, Nick Fury tells them to get over it.

Iron Man (secretly Tony Stark) even says that his cool boss Tony Stark didn’t expect such a “garrison mentality” from SHIELD and Nick Fury tells him “my heart bleeds for yer playboy boss, Iron Man!” And then blames all of SHIELD’s troubles on Tony Stark not selling him guns.

Hey, Nick, get over it?

But Mockingbird, as mentioned, has a big place in her heart for SHIELD so she says that the (West Coast) Avengers are here to see if they can help with SHIELD’s troubles.

AND THEN SHE STARTS RECAPPING HER HISTORY WITH SHIELD TO NICK FURY

WHO WAS THERE FOR IT

Ah, I make fun but I do love when a comic goes ‘so you probably haven’t read issues x, y, and z of series 1, 2, and 3 and fan wikis don’t exist yet so lemme just catch you up.’

I think losing this attitude was a big contributor to comics becoming unwelcoming to new readers.

Anyway. Recapped backstory.

Bobbi Morse was a scientist in a SHIELD lab when Nick Fury decided ‘this girl needs to kick people in the face’ and trained her to be a field agent.

As Agent 19, she was sent to hang out in the Savage Land with Ka-Zar. They met Gog!

Anyway, after Bobbi came back from the Savage Land, she was tasked by a congressional committee with hunting down moles at the highest levels of SHIELD.

So she quit the agency so she could do her mole hunt as HUNTRESS!

No, not the Batman one.

Since Nick Fury didn’t know who this Huntress was or why she was jumpkicking SHIELD station chiefs in the head, he put her on a most wanted list.

So she changed her name to Mockingbird.

Glad she didn’t stick with her first look. It’s kinda generic.

Then she Mavel teamed up with Spider-Man to take down a mole in New York and got shot a lot by agents of SHIELD when she tried to run over to greet Nick Fury after he saved her from the mole.

I mean, running at a dude when you’re wearing a mask and he’s surrounded by a bunch of people holding guns... even Bobbi admits it was a dumb decision.

Mockingbird: “After I recovered, I stayed solo -- then went double with the guy who likes long hair here -- "

This hair thing is becoming one of those couple cold wars. They’re going to be sniping at each other over this until they either fight or Hawkeye breaks down.

Anyway, Nick says he owes a lot to Mockingbird for what she did IS WHAT HE WOULD SAY but she stayed solo and SHIELD’s problems are only for SHIELD to worry about.

Nick Fury: “We’re supposed ta be a secret organization, an’ I can’t have ex-agents waltzin’ in and out while I’m tryin’ ta solve my new problems! -- Or guys who put profit before the interests o’ the world!”

Iron Man: “You thick-skulled, right-wing -- ! When Tony Stark stopped making weapons he was able to start on projects that would serve the world -- like his new satellite research facility enabling man and his technology to benefit from -- !”

Nick Fury: “Sure! You an’ your boss’re big on the fancy stuff, ya walkin’ tank -- not like us grunts who’re out there on a thousand frontlines protectin’ the world day after day after day! My boys an’ girls do the grimy work, while you super guys get all the glory! Well, we don’t mind -- it’s always been like that for the joes, in any war -- but if my boys an’ girls get a little tight now an’ again, you can understand why!”

Someone call the waambulance for Nick.

I’ve never really been all that wild about Nick Fury. Mostly its just disinterest. Early on, I was really only about Spider-Man and the X-Men. ‘Cause cartoons. Nick Fury showed up sometimes but c’mon, he wasn’t a cool superhero like Spider-Man.

And now I’m older and less wild about Nick Fury. I just hate his hard man hard choices there are walls and there are men on those walls attitude.

Then I was exposed to Ultimate Nick Fury and geez he’s just worse. In all those regards. And how he went out of his way to just be a huge asshole. Not for spy reasons. Just because. So he can smirk about what a cool alpha male guy he is, I guess.

Getting off track, basically Nick Fury is kicking them out of the secret base.

Hawkeye thinks to himself that he’d just do Nick a murder if he didn’t have to be respectable as leader of the team. Which is funny. He’s so annoyed he has to be responsible.

And so Mockingbird wins the Great Hair War, but not when she’s in the mood to appreciate it.

Also:

Nick Fury: “Hey -- Bobbi Morse! Barton! As long as yer gonna be an Avenger -- let ‘em know SHIELD trains its troops ta be the best!”

Hawkeye: “Avengers, Fury, are born the best -- not trained!”

That is patently untrue, Hawkeye.

The Avengers train so much. There’s so much training and Cap gets huffy if you’re late for training and they also want you to do assigned reading on all the previous cases.

Meanwhile, movie set.

Simon Williams on the set of the Arkon movie.

There’s movie stuff going on. The important part is that Simon is going to show his ionic eyes for the movie.

So I guess he’s gotten more comfortable with showing them off! Or I hope he is because he’s agreed to have them in the movie!

Also, incoming Tigra being catty again.

Yay.

Simon, completely unaware of the potent hate beams radiating off of Tigra, introduces her to Christy Carson. Who... I don’t remember what job she has on this movie set.

The important point being is that Tigra gets mad.

Tigra: He likes her more than he likes me! I don’t like that! Just because I play the field doesn’t mean I like coming in second anywhere!

That’s an argument, Tigra.

She doesn’t realize though that Simon learned about her and Hank so he’s stepping back from the tentative relationship he had with Tigra.

So she starts hanging off Simon’s agent Dino to make him jealous but he just observes that “Tigra and L.A. were made for each other -- !”

MEANWHILE, Hank Pym, non-superhero but adjacent to superhero guy, follows up on the Master Pandemonium problem.

Someone is still remembering that subplot.

Since the West Coast Avengers learned from Master Pandemonium narrating about himself that he was a major movie star and that he owns Anvil Studios, Hank is checking at the local bureaucracy to see who is the registered owner of the studio.

Hank Pym: “The files will tell us the name of the registered owner -- and checking out files is just my speed now -- there’s no need tying up any of the active Avengers!”

Buuuuut

When the records are pulled, Hank discovers that the deeds for specifically Anvil Studios - and none of the adjacent pages - have been burned away. Leaving only the smell of sulfur.

How mysterious.

Hank decides to take some of the charred page remnants to run SCIENCE tests on them.

Meanwhile, back with Mockingbird, Iron Man, and Hawkeye.

Hawkeye prods Mockingbird into talking about her feelings.

Mockingbird: “I just never thought that you’re either in or out when it comes to intelligence work!”

Hawkeye: “Any regrets?”

Mockingbird: “You know there aren’t, sport! When I got you, I got all I’ll ever really need in life! But it’s like being disowned, being frozen out of SHIELD! It hurts my pride!”

She’s tempted to turn this sky-cycle around and force Nick Fury to accept her help.

Hawkeye jokes that it’s comforting that he’s not the only leader that screws things up.

Iron Man: “What have you screwed up -- other than Firebird’s membership?”

Hawkeye: “That’s enough, isn’t it?”

He himself is tempted to turn this sky-cycle around and ask Firebird to join the team. But he’s realized that its better to give Firebird some space from him.

Iron Man: “That’s very insightful, Clint!”

Hawkeye: “Yeah, well, I got Agent 19 on my case -- an’ I want to keep her there -- so I’m correcting my deficiencies! -- Minor as they may be!”

Stay classy, Clint!

And then a guy jumps off a building onto Iron Man and shorts out his armor. And two goobers tackle Mockingbird and Hawkeye off their sky-cycle.

No respect for people having a conversation. Geez.

So these three goons are Razorfist (the guy with stabby hands), Zaran the Weapons Master (the guy with the red ponytail), and Shockwave (the guy in the power armor).

Hilariously, Mockingbird declares that these guys are OBVIOUSLY kung fu fighters based on how they land.

Shockwave’s armor is built for electrical attacks as Iron Man finds out when he tries to backhand him. There’s an enormous electrical discharge which shorts out Iron Man’s armor.

Iron Man: Massive overloads -- no matter what amperage I design the circuit breakers for, somebody always finds a way to overload them! System’s gone to level 3 -- have to reset them manually!

Which will take time, time that Shockwave very much won’t give Tony as he kicks him in the face and easily dodges Iron Man’s ponderous counterattack. Because turns out that the Iron Man armor is very heavy when the power is out!

Hawkeye is doing better with his opponent, Zaran (the Weapons Master).

Womp womp.

Zaran spins this positively since he’s a martial arts dude he Craves Challenge Etc. He says that he should have come to America sooner because of the cool guys to fight like Captain America and Hawkeye.

He pulls out some shuriken but Hawkeye drops a smoke arrow and dodges the attack.

Zaran again spins this positively. He still has the advantage because Avengers don’t kill. Plus:

Zaran, the Weapons Master: “Monsieur Khruul gave my associates and myself a complete dossier on your weaknesses! You’ll try to subdue me with your one weapon -- while I kill you with any one of a hundred!”

Oh boy, guy. That is an argument.

Like, for one thing, where are you getting all these weapons? I see some daggers or something in your gloves but you haven’t used them. Where did you pull a whole ass wooden bo staff?

For two thing, you’re a kung fu fighter or whatever, according to Mockingbird. Shouldn’t you know the one kick ten thousand times versus ten thousand kicks one time thing?

Hawkeye is clearly better with you with his one weapon than you are with any individual thing.

ALSO, with all his trick arrows, you can’t say his fighting style lacks variety!

Anyway, what Hawkeye took from all that was recognizing Monsieur Khruul from Avengers #121-123.

Guy supposedly died in issue #123 so I don’t know how he’s giving away dossiers. He was killed by an alien dragon which is a pretty conclusive way to die, all things told.

I guess one of his family could be the new Monsieur Khruul but its weird to drop a callback into this issue if it’s not even the same dude.

So if it was the same dude who gave these dudes the dossiers, how long have they been sitting on this attack?

Or: how long ago was Avengers #123 supposed to be??

(Hawkeye wasn’t even on the team for that story so I don’t know why SPECIFICALLY Monsier Khruul would have a dossier on him.)

Moving on.

Over with Mockingbird vs Razorfist, Razorfist gloats that he only has to hit Mockingbird once to kill her. Which is big talk considering she’s making him look like he’s flailing angrily.

Mockingbird: “Some folks have said I mock them when I fight, the way I’m always one step ahead of them -- one inch beyond their reach! But I just know how to fight -- right?”

Then she flips him on his ass.

His mistake was attacking her when she had a lot of frustration to work out.

Also, she’s kinda pissed about him using kung fu to kill instead of for spiritual discipline.

Razorfist: ‘This is fine, sexism will save me’

Mockingbird: ‘Low kick, lol!’

Meanwhile, Iron Man is still have a bad day with Shockwave.

Guy keeps hitting Tony to prevent him from resetting the armor.

(Iron Man manages to shoot a unibeam at Shockwave, which he dodges. But I guess that means there’s some power left? I dunno how that works.)

Shockwave finally manages to fuse the system reset closed so Iron Man can’t even get to it but grabbing onto Iron Man’s Iron Arm lets him... reverse the polarity? Which flings Shockwave away from him.

Then Iron Man jumps on him, yelling about how this is a character moment for him because he fixed his life from the spiral he had been in and chose to continue as Iron Man.

Also, he grabs Shockwave by the throat and starts choking him. Wow, kinda intense, Tony.

Shockwave threatens to blow out the rest of the circuits in the Iron Man armor but he’s overlooked something.

Iron Man: “But once my circuits go, my hands will be locked around your neck, with all my weight on top! I wouldn’t kill you consciously but you’ll still die!”

That’s a fun loophole on the Avengers don’t kill thing, Tony.

‘I’m not killing you, I’m just creating a situation that will be fatal if I can’t stop it!’

Shockwave panics and turns off his armor’s power, upon which Iron Man headbutts him unconsciousness.

Iron Man: “And so, Iron Man wins after all!”

Fun that Iron Man was the one who was having the hardest time with his opponent but wins first.

Although, the other two don’t take much longer.

Despite Zaran the Weapon Master’s hundreds of weapons and despite Hawkeye being an archery expert, Hawkeye closes the distance and bonks Zaran with his bow.

I think he was doing it to prove a point? Since Zaran had talked about taking on Cap and Hawkeye has that thing where he’s always lowkey competing with Cap.

Anyway, Mockingbird is literally smacking Razorfist’s ass with her telescoping rod and interrogates him for why any of this is happening.

Razorfist: “We represent the Blood Tong of Hong Kong! They plan to open operations in America! Super heroes -- SHIELD -- the masses of your police -- none shall stem our inevitable victory!”

Since that’s what Mockingbird wanted to hear, she clobbers him unconscious.

As the only one of the three villains still conscious, Zaran darts away from Hawkeye, scoops up Shockwave, and escapes in a flying car.

What a character.

Not great that none of the three heroes present did much to stop him but eh. Lets blame this on Hawkeye.

Oh and while Mockingbird was distracted by flying car, Razorfist also snuck away. So lets blame Mockingbird too.

The only one who is blameless is Iron Man who is stuck inside a ton of almost useless power armor and has a reaction time of no.

Based on Razorfist’s threats that whatever a Blood Tong is is definitely coming, Iron Man and Hawkeye discuss how they should get the word out to the East Coast Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Nick Fury.

Mockingbird insists that they do it through Proper Channels instead of just going back to Nick’s secret barbershop and telling him directly. He made it very clear that he doesn’t want help and dammit Mockingbird cares about his pride.

(Hawkeye doesn’t but this isn’t a hill he’s going to die on, the hill he eventually dies on is much stupider)

Anyway, Iron Man argues that costumed idiots is more a superhero concern than a thing for super spies. “Something for the ‘fancy folks'!”

All three heroes miss a flash card that Shockwave dropped mid-battle.

And sure, its evidently in code and only translated for the audience’s benefit.

But geez Shockwave, you’re one dumb, stupid idiot carrying that into battle with you! You can’t remember THREE names??

The real shocker is that SHIELD hired the three bozos to kill Mockingbird, Hawkeye, and Iron Man specifically. The Blood Tong thing was a cover story for if they were captured.

And since its specifically Mockingbird, Hawkeye, and Iron Man, I think we’re supposed to suspect that Nick Fury is behind this.

He’s acting jerkassier than usual and all.

Since I don’t think its relevant to the West Coast Avengers book, I’ll just reveal the gist of the SHIELD limited series.

Rogue LMDs have infiltrated SHIELD.

Is SHIELD ever not infiltrated?

Follow @essential-avengers​ for more hot takes like ‘is SHIELD ever not infiltrated?’ Like and reblog and unlock secret hot takes like ‘Iron Man sure can be enjoyable a character some of the times, in my opinion!’

[comics-and-stories]

Plato de hoy: Doctor Doom vs Mr Fantastic a la Simonson

En “No time like the present or.. It ain’t funny how time slips away!” (Fantastic Four #352) El autor integral Walter Simonson, que se encontraba en la cresta de la ola en su corta etapa con los cuatro fantásticos, se encarga de presentar posiblemente el número más complejo a nivel narrativo y artístico de su carrera. Walt siempre está un nivel más allá de su propio genio, pero en esta ocasión, para mi humilde persona, un duelo a muerte con saltos temporales hacen de este capítulo el más glorioso de todos.

Debo previamente señalar como obligación, que no tengo mucho número de FF leído, algo de Lee/Kirby (estoy en el Essential #2), Hickman, Robinson y Simonson, obviamente. Ahora dentro de todo ese repertorio nada me produce más placer que una lucha sin cuartel entre Richards y Doom.

Los FF de Simonson son una burbuja temporal principalmente por la época en la que fueron publicados. Inicio de los noventa, Marvel está en su época de reestructuración, los jóvenes ilustradores del nuevo zeitgeist eran los dioses en ventas, Todd Mcfarlane, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, Liefeld, entre otros, cambiaron la estética de títulos ya clásicos. Esto no quiere decir que la vieja guardia no pudiera dar pelea contra el actual canon estético. Dentro de ese panteón de ilustradores camaleónicos se encuentra Walt “nice guy” Simonson responsable de una emblemática etapa con el dios asgardiano Thor, al igual que X-Factor, Manhunter y Orion, siempre con una impronta Kirbyana. Por esto mismo tenía que tener una etapa frente los Cuatro Fantásticos.

Para este entonces, la familia Marveliana había luchado contra Galactus en el final del universo, acompañado de Iron Man y Thor, Ben era humano de vuelta, pero la actual Mrs Marvel, Sharon Ventura era ahora “She Thing”, a su vez Johnny estaba en pareja con Alice (¿Recuerdan esas épocas?). Además el equipo se había enfrentado contra un Stalin robótico tras la cortina de hierro para luego caer en una isla repleta de dinosaurios y tropas norteamericanas. En los siguientes números el grupete se enfrenta a los Skrulls y Mole Man para luego sí llegar al evento principal.

En el arco previo (#347, #348, #349), Walt solo se encargó de los guiones y dejó al siempre increíble Arthur Adams hacerse cargo de los lápices. Sin dudas fue un éxito asegurado, además toda la formación de los FF era cambiada por Wolverine, Hulk, Ghost Rider y Spidey, convirtiendo esos tres simples números en un clásico, con incluso su propio libro recopitalorio. Entonces para subir aun mas la vara, Walt se dispuso a dejar su huella en esta corta pero efectiva etapa. Si en los primeros números se había encargado de enfrentar a estos héroes contra Galactus, el cierre debía ser contra el archi nemesis, Doctor Doom (aunque el real cierre fue contra Mark Gruenwald y su cruzada por proteger el continuo espacio tiempo).

En el #350 una invasión de “Dooms” asedio el castillo de Latveria, ahora controlado por Kristoff, en el ataque, hace acto de presencia el real con nueva armadura y un plan para atacar a los Fantastic Four. Primero le ofrece un trato a Sharon Ventura, ahora conocida como She Thing, con la promesa de devolverle su normalidad. Luego de llevar a cabo esta parte de su plan informó al resto de la familia de héroes que tenía cautiva a la actual pareja de Ben Grimm en su reino, obviamente en el ínterin los cuatro enfrentan trampas individuales y Thing es el primero que llega al socorro de su dama para ser cruelmente atacado por ella luego de una breve confusión. Así termina el episodio previo, Richards llega y el monarca lo invita a batirse a duelo como nunca antes había sucedido. Antes de que se pudiera ver la culminación de esta lucha, el autor necesito darse un respiro así que en el #352 llega el final.

En este capítulo en particular se revela que Doom no había hecho acto de presencia desde el enfrentamiento del edificio Baxter. Simonson mencionaba de forma encubierta la postura de John Byrne sobre cuando era un doombot y cuando no lo era, para el escritor de esta etapa todos eran bots del tirano desde el #40, una bestialidad. En el episodio que nos interesa, además del enfrentamiento temporal, acontecen varios hechos. En primera instancia aparece un tercer grupo interesado que serían “los agentes del tiempo” una entidad controladora los verdaderos oponentes de esta saga, a su vez Ben rescata a los Storms y hace las paces con su chica.

En el final, a diferencia de los ejemplos a los que hice mención en el párrafo anterior, Doom sale airoso del combate gracias a un artilugio de último momento, no es el vencedor pero puede sentirse consagrado al estar un paso más adelante que Mr Fantastic, aunque en el resultado final su reemplazo es abatido por este grupo invasor. “No time like the present” es uno de los mejore episodios de los FF, capaz es necesario leerlo junto al #350 pero son dos números totalmente redondos y particularmente muy bien hechos, Simonson siempre fue y será un autor que se deja todo, pero cuando le dan rienda suelta para que experimente, puede sorprender.

La habilidad superlativa para crear dos relatos en un mismo cómic y que sean coherentes, con los ires y venires que de por si el viaje en el tiempo conlleva, no carece en ningún minuto de sentido y diversión. Nuevamente estamos en plenos ‘90, las mallas eran pegadas al cuerpo y las caras bien rudas pero este autor en este simple instante nos brinda el más puro divertimento. Una sinfonía de viñetas y colores a la orden de un par de ojos. Consejo de lector y de un pésimo escritor, ya busquen el #352 y no duden en leerlo.

[sevenheadstencrowns]

Hulk vs. Thing by Jae Lee

[wwprice1]

Hulk vs. Thing by Drew Moss!

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of February 19th, 2020

Best of this Week: Fantastic Four #19 (Legacy #664) - Dan Slott, Sean Izaakse, Marcio Menyz, Erick Arciniega and Joe Caramagna

It all began with one fateful foray into space.

Reed Richards, a gifted scientist from Empire State University, his brilliant wife, Susan Storm, her hot headed younger brother, Johnny Storm and expert pilot Ben Grimm board the Marvel-1 in an attempt to explore space. Unfortunately for them, their ship is hit with a wave of Cosmic Rays, sending them crashing back to the Earth and giving them all special powers. For decades, we all thought that everything was Reed’s fault for not having strong enough shields, blessing and cursing his family with powers, but we learn here that that is not the case.

Throughout the last five issues, The Fantastic Four have been fighting against the people of Spyre; A planet of normal people, enhanced people and monsters that have feared the prophecy of the “Four-Told,” beings that would destroy Spyre and their way of life. After Reed exposes their leader, The Overseer, for being the one that released the cosmic rays on the Four, Ben climbs his tower, beats the everloving crap out of him and destroys the tower in the process.

Realizing that the Overseer stands defeated and the eye that watched them is no more, every citizen turns on the FF, proclaiming that the prophecy did happen as the Overseer lay in the rubble. This issue picks up in the immediate aftermath (after a preview of the coming story in the first few pages involving Mole Man and Wyatt Wingfoot). Sue places a barrier over the FF as the citizens, heroes and monsters pelt her forcefield with fists and rock. Previously, the citizens were divided by their classes, but now they’ve united against Reed and the Four.

One of the more interesting subplots that Dan Slott had been weaving is the burgeoning relationship between supposed “soulmates” in Johnny Storm and a Spyrian hero named Sky, a darker skinned girl with wings that may actually be in love with another hero by the name of Citadel. This is one of the few times that Johnny shows an actual longstanding interest in a woman, especially since their connection was made shortly after the Fours first failed mission unbeknownst to him.

Slott had been building this up and getting readers invested in their struggle of love and it’s good to see Johnny loving someone like he did with Medusa or Crystal of the Inhumans.This is further tested as Sky is torn between the traditions of her people and her disdain for the FF after their actions. Of course, she’s not the only one who is irate as the Overseer picks himself back up and calls Reed out for a one-on-one brawl.

Reed’s never been the best fighter in the world, but he’s always had ways to use his powers to his advantage and can still hold himself pretty well. Sean Izaakse portrays that pretty well with a few expertly drawn pages of battle as Reed uses his stretchy abilities to dodge energy beams, punch Overseer from afar and uses his arm as a slingshot to fling boulders at the villain. Izaakse and Erick Arciniega work in perfect tandem to make these scenes exciting with bright colors and dynamic angles.

Things get even crazier as Overseer fights back with his own arsenal of suit abilities. Izaakse draws amazing looking rings for sonic blasts that Arciniega colors with a beautiful yellow. Then switches it up for crackling blue lightning and finally ends things with Kirby-esque bubbles of energy that go from a dark orange to a dastardly purple to match Overseer’s beautiful armor. This fight is absolutely gorgeous to look at even as the panels are mostly medium sized, widescreen rectangles.

Throughout their fight, the two have an exchange that boils down to hubris vs. personal responsibility and both make pretty good points. Reed had always blamed himself for what had happened to his friends and family, thinking that his miscalculations are what put them all in anger and that weight is lifted off of his shoulders with rage at finally punching the cause. Overseer, feared for the lives of his people from the potential threat from beyond by a man that never asked what the greater galaxy wanted. Reed always does things like this and Overseer’s only course of action was to curtail it before things got bad.

As always, Reed does what he does best, uses his brain to talk Overseer down, knowing that he too hasn’t fully mastered the use of Cosmic Rays and suggests that they could accomplish more together than against each other (opposite his conversation with Charles Xavier - see X-Men/Fantastic Four). Reed proposes that the two make a trade of sorts and offers the people of Spyre a chance similar to what Ben has in “The Almost Cure,” something we’ve seen used recently when Ben and Alicia Masters went on their honeymoon and would have allowed him to turn human for a day until he fought the Hulk and landed in a coma.

The Monster Men take umbrage with the idea because Ben had preached appreciating who one is on the inside when he rallied them to fight Overseer, but when one of the Heroes of the Spyre asks if it will work on him too, almost everyone seems to want in on the change. Of course there are others who see the FF’s gift as what will truly destroy their people, showing that some people just can’t be pleased. As their time on Spyre draw to a close, Reed and Johnny bond together like they did when this arc started as Johnny muses on what his life would have been without his powers.

It’s a touching scene and Dan Slott has always been great at things like these. From his time on Spider-Man and She Hulk, he’s shown that he has skill in giving readers heartfelt moments, especially given that we almost hardly ever see the pair together. This is accentuated by Izaakse drawing Johnny with a smile on his face as he flies through the skies with an almost old school look colored by Arciniega with lush oranges and intense reds.

Just as the FF are about to depart, Overseer tells them that only ones soulmate can remove the soul bindings on their arms. After a few pages of searching for Sky, she shows up to Johnny. I think the implication is that she went on some soul searching away from Johnny and when he offers to remove her Soul Binding, she refuses and tells Johnny he can keep his too as she’s joining them on the trip to Earth.

Suffice to say, this is as shocking to The FF as one might expect as they add yet another hero to the ranks, but she likely won’t be on the main team, but more as a supporting role until Marvel decides to give her a miniseries and then sends her back to the Spyre. She’s certainly a welcome addition and it’ll be fun to see what kind of shenanigans she and Johnny will get into as he’s naturally flirtatious and she wants to keep to the traditions of her people. It’s difficult to say that she’s fully in love with Johnny still as she flirts with Citadel before they disembark.

Overall, this was a really fun issue and concludes a story that had a surprising amount of heart and depth. Generally, I like the idea of Cosmic Happenstance and did love the mysterious nature of how the FF got their powers. I might have preferred that things be kept random chance, but honestly, I wasn’t put off by this equally ridiculous explanation either. At the same time, Dan Slott also alleviates some of the guilt from Reed’s shoulders which could be a double edged sword for him in the future if his ego grows too large.

Sean Izaakse and Erick Arciniega also do an amazing job on the art (I can’t leave out Marcio Menyz, but I didn’t really care for the Wingfoot stuff). The pair smash it with the visual storytelling through fantastic facial expressions, body language and utopian setting. One thing that took me time to notice was that all of the people of Spyre were black. It’s a small, but nice touch that makes them stand out amongst the other races that we see throughout the galaxy.

Depending on how the next issue goes, I may stick with the series, but I’ve never been a big fan of Mole Man stories, so I may drop off until the next arc, but this one was absolutely worth the time, a high recommend!

Also, support me on Patreon:

patreon.com/TyTalksComics

[fyeahbenreedsue]

A guide to BenReed, one of Marvel’s oldest and slashiest relationships! The ultimate nerd/jock pairing! A love story for the ages! They started out as college roommates and ended up becoming lifelong best friends, roommates, partners, and, along with Sue, the co-parents of Reed’s children. They’ve said six times that they love each other and would willingly die for each other and can’t bear to live without each other, Reed’s admitted that he sees Ben as more than just a friend and that he loves Ben as much as he loves his wife, and Ben’s told Sue point-blank that he loves Reed just as much as she does.

PRIME MARVEL UNIVERSE

Silver to Modern Ages (1961 to 1997):

+ Fantastic Four Vol 1 #11: “A Visit With the Fantastic Four!” | 1963 | Ben and Reed recount how they first met as roommates in college and later fought in WWII together. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #25: “The Hulk vs Thing” | 1964 | Reed falls ill while developing a cure for Ben, who ends up fighting the Hulk; Reed is desperate to help. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #41-43: “The Brutal Betrayal of Ben Grimm!” to “Lo, There Shall Be An Ending!” | 1965 | Ben is brainwashed by the Wizard into becoming evil and is unleashed on the rest of the FF; Reed is the only one who can save him. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #51: “This Man...This Monster!” | 1966 | Reed discovers the Negative Zone; Reed and Sue wrongly believe Ben has died; Reed admits that Ben is “more than just a friend.” + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #61-62: “Where Stalks the Sandman?” to “...And One Shall Save Him!” | 1967 | Reed is trapped in the Negative Zone; Ben and Sue desperately try to find a way to save him; Ben admits that he’d willingly die for Reed. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #64: “The Sentry Sinister” | 1967 | Ben, Reed, and Sue go on a romantic island getaway that is interrupted by a Kree sentry.

+ Fantastic Four Vol 1 #68-#69: “His Mission: Destroy the Fantastic Four!” and “Divide -- and Conquer!” | 1967 | Reed tries to cure Ben once more but fails; Ben despairingly goes out alone and ends up getting brainwashed by the Frightful Four...again. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #78: “The Thing No More!” | 1968 | Reed successfully cures Ben; Ben realizes that he’s unable to protect Reed if he’s not the Thing. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #105-113: "The Monster in the Streets!” to “The Power of -- the Over-Mind!” | 1970-1971 | Reed’s latest attempt to cure Ben goes disastrously awry; he admits that Ben and Sue are the two people he cares most about in all the world, apart from his son. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #204-206: "The Andromeda Attack!” to “The Death of... the Fantastic Four!” | 1979 | Ben, Reed, and Sue go on an adventure in space; Reed is seemingly killed; Ben goes berserk. + Marvel Fanfare Vol 1 #2: “Annihilation” | 1982 | Reed works himself past the point of exhaustion because he believes that he is on the verge of discovering a cure for Ben. + Thing Vol 1 #2: “For Beauty Passed Away” | 1983 | Ben flashes back to his early college days with Reed. + Thing Vol 1 #23: “Remembrances” | 1985 | Ben discovers that Reed has been keeping an important secret from him; he quits the FF. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #296: "Homecoming!” | 1987 | Ben announces that he’s moving permanently to Monster Isle; Reed wants some closure. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #301: "Dark Dreams!” | 1987 | Ben continues to be furious at Reed for keeping the true reason behind his inability to revert to his human form a secret; Franklin begs him to forgive Reed. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #304-307: "Pressure Drop” to “Good-Bye!” | 1987 | Reed offers Ben the opportunity to take over as leader of the FF; Reed and Sue plan to retire to focus on raising Franklin. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #350: "The More Things Change...!" or "It's the Real Thing...” | 1991 | Sharon goes missing; Ben tries to become the Thing again; Reed is worried and furious at him. + Fantastic Four Unplugged Vol 1 #2: “Willpower” | 1995 | Believing Reed was murdered by Doom in Fantastic Four Vol 1 #381, Reed’s family attends the reading of his will; a grieving Ben lashes out; we discover that Reed attended every one of Ben’s college football games.

Contemporary (1998 to the present):

+ Fantastic Four Vol 3 #5: “Broken Reed” | 1998 | Ben and Reed travel together to Paris for a conference. + Fantastic Four Vol 3 #38-39: “Flesh and Stone” to “Things Change” | 2001 | Ben is attacked by the Grey Gargoyle; Reed and the rest of the FF must save him. + Fantastic Four Vol 3 #57-59: "The Ever-Lovin', Blue-eyed End of the World: Part 1-3" | 2002 | Ben’s skin goes haywire and Reed saves him; Ben calls Reed “baby.” + Fantastic Four Vol 3 #65-66: “Small Stuff / Big Stuff" | 2003 | Ben and Reed team up to deal with rogue Negative Zone bugs that are loose in the Baxter Building. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #501-502: “5th Wheel, Pts 1-2" | 2003 | The FF are left reeling by Doom’s vicious attack; Ben confesses that Reed and Sue were what gave him the strength to keep going after the rocket crash.  + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #509-511: “Hereafter” | 2004 | After Ben’s untimely death in the previous arc, a devastated Reed voyages to the afterlife to get him back; Ben swears he’ll never leave him. + Marvel Knights 4 Vol 1 #5-7: “The Pine Barrens, Parts 1-3” | 2004 | Reed, Sue, and Ben take their son Franklin on a camping trip that ends up going horribly wrong. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #524: “Tag” | 2005 | The FF’s powers are hopping from person to person throughout the city; Reed does his best to ensure that he gets Ben’s powers rather than Ben.  + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #551-553: “Epilogue” | 2008 | A Doom from the future arrives to warn the FF of the path Reed is taking them on; Ben comes passionately to Reed’s defense and insists that he could not love Reed more than he already does. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #554: “World's Greatest: Part 1” | 2008 | Reed accompanies Ben on a philanthropic visit to a school. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #569: “Doom’s Master, Part 4” | 2009 | Ben mysteriously doesn’t show up to his wedding; Reed is there for him through the aftermath. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #581-2 | 2011 | Ben is transformed into Angrir, Breaker of Souls; Sue and Reed must save him. + Fear Itself: FF Vol 1 #1: “When Everything's Lost, The Battle is Won...” and "... Because of All These Things I've Done." | 2010 | Reed’s time-traveling, immortal father, Nathaniel Richards, asks for college-aged Ben and Reed’s help in murdering an AU version of himself. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #605: “End of Line” | 2012 | Reed’s father takes Reed to see what will become of Ben; Reed discovers that Ben will outlive him by thousands of years. + Marvel 2-In-One Vol 1 #2: “Our First Adventure” | 2018 | While hunting for the Multisect Reed bequeathed to him, Ben recalls his and Reed’s first adventure.

OF INTEREST

Please note: These comics aren’t BenReed-centric but they feature shippy BenReed moments.

+ Fantastic Four Vol 1 #13: "The Fantastic Four Versus the Red Ghost and His Indescribable Super-Apes!" | 1963 | Ben calls Reed “adorable.” + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #15: "The Fantastic Four Battle the Mad Thinker and His Awesome Android" | 1963 | Ben calls Reed "pretty boy.” + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #20: "The Mysterious Molecule Man!" | 1963 | Ben calls Reed "lover boy.” + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #22: "The Return of the Mole Man!" | 1964 | Ben swears he’s going to kiss each of Reed’s fingers if Reed saves him. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #44: “The Gentleman's Name is Gorgon!” | 1965 | Ben admits to Sue that he loves Reed almost as much as she does. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #55: "When Strikes the Silver Surfer!" | 1966 | Reed confesses that he’d willingly die for Ben. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #56: "Klaw, the Murderous Master of Sound!" | 1966 | Ben calls Reed “lover boy.” + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #59: "Doomsday" | 1967 | Ben admits that he thinks that Ben is “the most man” he’s ever met. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #89: “The Madness of the Mole Man!” | 1969 | Reed and Sue buy a mysterious new house; Reed nearly dies; Ben gives him CPR and saves him; he admits that he thinks that Reed’s “the greatest.” + Marvel Two-In-One Annual Vol 1 #3: "When Strike the Monitors!" | 1978 | When the Fantasticar saves Ben’s life, he’s so grateful he swears he’s going to kiss Reed. + Marvel Two-In-One Vol 1 #60: "Happiness Is a Warm Alien!" | 1980 | Ben calls Reed a “long drink of water” and thinks about how much he loves him. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #229: “The Thing from the Black Hole” | 1981 | Ben is enraged when a monster harms Reed. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #350: "The More Things Change...!" or "It's the Real Thing..." | 1991 | Ben foolishly tries to turn himself back into the Thing; Reed is furious; Ben says he knows it’s because Reed loves him. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #382: "Captured!" | 1993 | Ben admits that he loves Reed. + Fantastic Four Unplugged Vol 1 #3: "Showdown in Elsewhen" | 1996 | Reed tells Glot that Ben is the best man he’s ever known. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #410: "The Ties That Bind!" | 1996 | Ben is so overjoyed that Reed’s alive that he lifts him into the air. + Fantastic Four Vol 1 #557: "World's Greatest: Part 4" | 2008 | Ben tells Reed that he’s got a man-crush on him. + Heralds Vol 1 #3: "Burning Up The Future" | 2010 | Ben admits that he wolf-whistles at Reed when he looks hot.

NON-616 UNIVERSES

+ Tales of the Thing Vol 1 #2: “Hulk — Widescreen” | 2005 | Reed helps Ben out with a problem. + Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four Vol 1 #38: “Dear Aunt Petunia” | 2008 | Ben writes a letter to his Aunt Petunia that is all about Reed. + Fantastic Four: Season One | 2011 | A retelling of the FF’s origin story; Ben tries to kiss Reed as a thank-you for being cured. + What If Doctor Doom Had Become the Thing? Vol 1 #1 | 2004 | A What If? where Victor becomes the Thing and Ben becomes the Hulk.

[phantom-le6]

Ramble of the month May 2024: 90’s MCU phase 6 – an alternate iteration for Infinity War and more accurate Phoenix Saga

While I was originally considering other subjects going forward on my monthly rambles, another messed-up internet meme showing how little people understand doing an alternate film continuity has led me to carry on with my 90’s-based MCU.  For this reason, I’m going to be a little more detailed in recapping what doing alternative film continuities should look like before we dive into the latest ideas on the latest phase.  The basic premise, most of us know; we’re basically asking if this range of films was made at an earlier time, what actors would we have seen in the roles of those films.  However, what internet meme lords and ladies are forgetting is that the films of MCU are influenced by source material and real-world events that in past eras did not exist.

What am I on about?  Well, let’s consider characters first.  The Guardians of the Galaxy as we know them from the MCU are based on a relatively modern interpretation of the characters that began around 2007-2008, Bucky Barnes becoming the Winter Soldier was an invention of early 2000’s comics, and a Black Nick Fury wasn’t done in the main run of Marvel comics, only in the Ultimates continuity that began at the turn of the century.  In turn, while Ultimates Hawkeye was married with children, main comics Hawkeye was married without children, and to fellow costumed hero Mockingbird.  As such, if you go back to the 1990’s or 1980’s, a lot of characters we know from the MCU films would not be included or would be changed a lot to fit what the source material supported at those time.

In addition, Marvel didn’t sell the film rights to their characters to other studios to avoid bankruptcy until 1995, so any MCU started early enough in the 1990’s would include the likes of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men alongside the Avengers, Spider-Man and so on.  This, together with certain story arcs not coming into comics until set times (e.g. Civil War being a 2006 story arc), means you’re not looking at the same MCU in a past era, but a whole new MCU.  That means you don’t just transpose actors of the past into the roles of the MCU we know; you also have to come up with a new continuity with its own films, hence why my 90’s MCU looks very different to most others.

Now that we’ve re-established what an alternate MCU should involve, let’s re-cap the previous phases accordingly.

Phase 1:

1992: Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man

1993: Thor, Spider-Man, Ant-Man & The Wasp

1994: Captain America, Fantastic Four 2, Iron Man 2

1995: X-Men, Avengers, Daredevil

Phase 1 established the initial characters of our MCU, putting the Fantastic Four first and foremost to bring them in line with their comic-book counterparts before beginning to develop the Avengers, the X-Men, Spider-Man and Daredevil.

Phase 2:

1996: Spider-Man 2, Thor: Land of Enchantment, Silver Surfer

1997: Hulk vs Wolverine, Fantastic Four: Doomsday, Iron Man 3

1998: Captain America: Society of Serpents, Daredevil 2, X-Men 2

1999: Avenger 2, Spider-Man 3, Doctor Strange

Phase 2 provides expansion as not only do most heroes get solo and ensemble sequels, but other characters start to take on films of their own.  The Silver Surfer is spun off from his appearance in Fantastic Four 2 into a solo film while Doctor Strange is introduced, and we also see the first examples of the “third film loss” trope, including Stark’s loss of his business and Iron Man persona through alcoholism, Doctor Doom destroying the Baxter Building while Ben Grimm loses a chance to be human, and Peter Parker loses Gwen Stacy.

Phase 3:

2000: Fantastic Four: World War III, Thor: Ragnarök, Daredevil 3

2001: Hulk: Rise of the Leader, X-Men: Fall of the Mutants, Avengers: Under Siege

2002: Doctor Strange 2, The Captain, Spider-Man 4

2003: Captain Britain, Fantastic Four: Enter the Negative Zone, Ghost Rider

Phase 3 further put our heroes on the back foot with yet more loss, most notably assaults on the X-Mansion and Avengers Mansion, but we also see more expansion; Namor, the Black Panther and the Inhumans all get introduced via the Fantastic Four, who then go on to become a family via the birth of Franklin Richards, and both Captain Britain and Ghost Rider get added to the mix.

Phase 4:

2004: Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Secret Wars: Part I

2005: Excalibur, Defenders, Ghost Rider 2

2006: X-Factor, Secret Wars: Part II, Heroes For Hire

2007: Namor the Submariner, Doctor Strange 3, Iron Man: Enter The Mandarin

Phase 4 took us through Secret Wars, and along the way gave us a lot more characters.  Black Panther and the original, pre-Carol Danvers iteration of Captain Marvel get solo films, former X-Men become parts of spin-off teams, and we see the formation of the Defenders and a one-shot of the Heroes For Hire, not to mention a Namor solo film and the return of Tony Stark.

Phase 5:

2008: Spider-Man 5, Fantastic Four: Unthinkable, Ms Marvel

2009: Elektra, Black Panther 2, Defenders 2

2010: X-Men: Proteus, Spider-Man 6, Ant-Man 2

2011: Silver Surfer 2, Avengers vs X-Men, Ghost Rider 3

Phase 5 gave us the Black Suit saga for Spider-Man as an aftermath of Secret Wars over the web-slinger’s fifth and sixth solo films, while the Fantastic Four’s sixth film would also be their last as we began the Infinity Saga.  In turn, Carol Danvers and a resurrected Elektra gained solo films, with the former precipitating an Avengers vs X-Men clash.  This then brings us to phase 6, which pans out as follows;

Phase 6:

2012: Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther 3, Iron Man: The Dragon Seed Saga

2013: X-Men: Phoenix Rising, Defenders 3, Ant-Man 3

2014: X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga, Infinity War, Blade

2015: Inhumans, Infinity War II, Deadpool

So, this is how part 2 of our Infinity Saga lines up, but what does it mean?  Well, let’s look at the films in detail and find out…

Guardians of the Galaxy (2012) Directed by James Gunn

Peter Quill/Star-Lord = Chris Pratt

Gamora = Zoe Saldana

Drax the Destroyer = Dean Cain

Adam Warlock = Chris Pine

Groot = Vin Diesel

Rocket = Bradley Cooper

Super-Skrull = Luke Evans

Nova Prime Irani Rael = Rene Russo

Nova Centurion Richard Ryder = Edward Norton

Denarian Garthan Saal = Peter Serafinowicz

Corpsman Jesse Alexander = Mark Ruffalo

Corpsman Malik Tarcel = Jake Gyllenhaal

Corpsman Minn-Erva = Lucy Lui

Yondu = Michael Rooker

Pip the Troll = Peter Dinklage

Nebula = Emma Stone

Thanos = Josh Brolin

As a rule, I think James Gunn started out well with his iteration of Guardians of the Galaxy in the real MCU, so my alternate MCU keeps him at the helm and puts a lot of his choices for certain roles into the mix again.  However, not all castings or plot elements remain the same.  For starters, it’s the time stone that’s at the centre of this plot, while Adam Warlock possesses the Soul Stone following on from his introduction in Silver Surfer 2.  In turn, Drax is back to being an android with the mind of a human, as it would be my intent to see him reunited with the daughter of that human in later films, and again this character is established back in Silver Surfer 2.

In addition, Super-Skrull is Thanos’ ally in this film rather than Ronan, and secretly plots to try and use the time stone to alter history to ensure the victory of the Skrull empire over the Kree.  The Nova Corps is expanded to give the original human member of the Corps, Richard Ryder, a role as a major Guardians ally, and Peter Dinklage is added to be Pip the Troll, while Emma Stone takes over from Karen Gillan as Nebula.  The biggest change of the film will be totally avoiding any autism-like aspects in Drax, as I’ve no desire to see people like me misrepresented in film, either intentionally or by accident.

Black Panther 3 (2012) Directed by Tim Story

T'Challa/Black Panther = Chadwick Boseman

Shuri = Tatyana Ali

Ramonda = Alfre Woodard

T'Chaka = Courtney B. Vance

W'Kabi = Chiwetel Ejiofor

Okoye = Nia Long

Zuri = Joseph Marcell

Erik Killmonger = Anthony Mackie

Horatio Walters = Ryan Hurst

Reverend Achebe = Mahershala Ali

M'Baku = Idris Elba

Nakia/Malice = Lupita Nyong'o

Monica Rambeau = Zoe Kravitz

Everett Ross = Martin Freeman

While the first Black Panther film dealt with T’Challa avenging his father’s death by Klaue, and the second was a team-up with Ka-Zar and Shanna the She-Devil against the Mandrill and Nakia, the third deals with T’Challa being overthrown by Killmonger and Nakia, who in a more comics-accurate turn is teamed up with Killmonger rather than being on the side of T’Challa and company.  Indeed, T’Challa’s main allies in this film are his sister Shuri, Monica Rambeau (pre-powers) and CIA agent Everett Ross, who has been present throughout the full Black Panther trilogy.

Having given the directorial reigns to Tim Story on Black Panther and Tim Burton on BP2, I’ve gone back to Story on film 3.  Much of the cast is retained from past films, with Killmonger, Achebe, Walters and Rambeau being the new characters in the mix.  The main point of this film, beyond feeding into the third film loss trope of the real MCU, is to see Wakanda weakened ahead of the events of Infinity War.

Iron Man: The Dragon Seed Saga (2012) Directed by Jon Favreau

Tony Stark/Iron Man = Tom Selleck

James Rhodes/War Machine = Samuel L. Jackson

Bethany Cabe = Julia Roberts

The Mandarin/Xin Xhang = Chow Yun-Fat

Chen Hsu/Fin Fang Foom = Russell Wong

Dr Su Yin = Rosalind Chao

Dragon Lords of Kakaranathara = Eddie Redmayne, Timothy Dalton, Marina Sirtis & Chiwetel Ejiofor

Mrs Arbogast = Kathleen Turner

Abe Zimmer = John Billingsley

Felix Alvarez = Adam Rodriguez

Vic Martinelli = Matt LeBlanc

The one thing that has always annoyed me about the real MCU is that it totally mishandled the Mandarin, who is Iron Man’s equivalent to Red Skull for Captain America, Loki for Thor and so on.  This was Iron Man’s arch foe, who played a major role in his origins in the comics, and the films dishonour him first by making him a bad fake-out in IM3, then messing up his rings when using him as Shang-Chi’s father later on.  Closing out phase 4 with a Mandarin-oriented Iron Man film that also brought back Tony was step one in my MCU correcting this, showing the Mandarin as the Imperialist, monarchist would-be world-ruler I’ve always known him as from the Iron Man animated show of the 1990’s.  Step two is adapting the Dragon Seed Saga from the comics.

In the comics, this story revealed the Mandarin’s rings were some kind of power source for aliens whose natural forms resembled ancient Chinese dragons, and Tony and Rhodey having to tag-team them while Tony was over in China seeking treatment for a deteriorating nervous system.  This time, the focus for Tony is more on reversing the damage he’s suffered from succumbing to his alcoholism, and the aliens will be guiding the Mandarin to the space stone as part of the on-going Infinity Saga.  For new cast, we’re mainly looking at the addition of the Chinese doctor that will be a potential new love interest to Tony in the film, plus the Dragon Lords and their leader, Fin Fang Foom.  I’ve gone for quite a mix of actors on these roles, and the rest come from past films.

Directorially, I started Iron Man off in the hands of Steven Spielberg on his first two films, then gave Sam Raimi the reins on Iron Man 3.  Enter The Mandarin put Jon Favreau in charge as he was for Iron Man 1 and 2 in the real MCU, and based on Favreau doing so well directing those real MCU Iron Man films, I would have him back in charge for this film.

X-Men: Phoenix Rising (2013) Directed by Jonathan Frakes & LeVar Burton

Professor Charles Xavier = Patrick Stewart

Cyclops/Scott Summers = Patrick Swayze

Jean Grey = Milla Jovovich

Storm/Ororo Monroe = Halle Berry

Wolverine/Logan = Tom Cruise

Peter Rasputin/Colossus = Henry Cavill

Remi LeBeau/Gambit = Zachary Levi

Rogue = Anna Paquin

Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler = Daniel Brühl

Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat = Selma Blair

Banshee/Sean Cassidy = Liam Neeson

Dr Moira Mactaggert = Olivia Williams

Princess/Empress Lilandra = Winona Ryder

Emperor D'Ken = Tom Cavanagh

Gladiator = Luke Hemsworth

Erik the Red = Tom Hiddleston

Oracle = Pom Klementieff

Smasher = Randy Orton

Fang = Matthew Lawrence

Warstar = Peter Cullen/Dwayne Johnson

Starbolt = Richard Armitage

Corsair/Christopher Summers = Mike Farrell

Hepzibah = Kirsty Swanson

Ch'od = Dave Bautista

Raza = Dominic Keating

Jason Wyngarde (Hellfire Club illusion) = Kenneth Branagh

Mastermind = Keanu Reeves

While Patrick Swayze died in 2009 in real life, I didn’t quite realise this and cast him earlier in this alternate MCU believing he’d died later.  However, since this is all hypothetical, we can either assume that Swayze didn’t die until a later time, or that as in the case of General Ross in the real MCU, a suitable actor could take over the role in question.  With that out of the way, let’s consider the first part of the first back-to-back film duology within this phase of the MCU.  It’s meant to be a more comics-accurate adaptation of the Phoenix Saga than we got in the Fox X-Verse, or in any animated adaptations since the 90’s animated series.  In this case, the X-Men encounter the Shi’ar in a more first contact-like situation, and Jean inadvertently bonds with the Phoenix entity rather than it’s intended host, namely Oracle, the telepathic member of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard who defects alongside Lilandra in order to protect the dreaded M’Kraan Crystal from Lilandra’s evil brother D’Ken.

The film also includes the Starjammers, giving us a chance to see Cyclops’ origins as a supposed orphan and his father come to the fore, and for this film, I’ve chosen M*A*S*H alumni Mike Farrell for the role.  A lot of other roles consist of many well-known actors joining the established X-Men of this MCU, including Ken Branagh doubling with Keanu Reeves to bring both faces of the mutant illusionist Mastermind to life.  The idea in this film is that some months after the bulk of the film occurs, a more powerful Mastermind encounters a Jean Grey frustrated at the Phoenix entity not leaving her, and uses his powers to seduce her, setting up for the events of the second half of the duology.

In terms of directing, the X-Men in this MCU have gone from Jonathan Demme in their opening film to Jonathan Frakes for two films, to Levar Burton for a fourth film following spin-off films helmed by Burton and by Christopher Nolan, then we’ve had a Frakes-helmed Avengers vs X-Men film.  As such, I thought it would be good to see Frakes and Burton co-direct this duology.

Defenders 3 (2013) Directed by Rob Marshall

Dr Stephen Strange = Johnny Depp

Namor McKenzie/The Submariner = Christian Bale

Silver Surfer = David Wenham

Valkyrie = Diane Kruger

Kyle Richmond/Nighthawk = Josh Duhamel

Patsy Walker/Hellcat = Mena Suvari

Dr Tania Belinsky (Belinskaya)/Red Guardian = Beatrice Rosen

Warren Worthington III/Archangel = Neil Patrick Harris

Beast/Hank McCoy = Alec Baldwin

Robert Drake/Iceman = Michael Weatherley

Mentor = Michael McKean

Eros/Starfox = Joel McHale

Heather Douglas/Moonstone = Anna Popplewell

Isaac Christians/Gargoyle = Robert De Niro

Manslaughter = Noel Fisher

Interloper = Kevin Conroy

Lunatik/Arisen Tyrk = Cillian Murphy

Seraph/Sonya Tolksy = Adrianne Palicki

Harridan/Svetlana Porfiry = Sinéad Cusack

For the third of our Defenders films, we see a changing of the guard as many members of the team leave for varying reasons and former X-Men alumni Beast, Iceman and Archangel form a new team from the ashes of the old one.  Their main mission for this film is to protect the Reality Stone, but when new team member Moondragon begins acting strangely, the so-called New Defenders may end up being the last Defenders.  This film is basically meant to conclude the trilogy for the classic Defenders line-ups from 70’s/80’s comics lore while also continuing the journey of the reality stone and setting up for where other characters need to be for later MCU instalments.  Rob Marshall, who directed the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film among others, takes the helm on this one.

Ant-Man 3 (2013) Directed by Peyton Reed

Hank Pym/Ant-Man = Michael Douglas

Scott Lang/Ant-Man II = Paul Rudd

Nadia Pym/Wasp II = Shailene Woodley

Maggie Lang = Judy Greer

Cassie Lang = Joey King

Jacinda Rodriguez/Tarantula = America Ferrera

Janice Lincoln/Beetle = Naya Rivera

Rita DeMara/Yellowjacket II = Elisabeth Moss

Petra Laskov/Swarm = Danielle Fishel

The Ant-Man franchise of this MCU has been quite different to its real MCU counter-part.  Having started in the 1990’s, we’ve been able to do the first film with a focus on Hank and Janet as the original Ant-Man and Wasp, then see their rise as heroes and Hank’s fall in the Avengers film franchise.  Ant-Man 2 then sees Hank redeeming himself a little by acting as mentor to Scott Lang, and film 3 very much becomes a different animal again.  In this instance, we see Scott trying to get back some Pym-tech that’s fallen into the hands of a group of female thieves.  When Scott himself is captured by the gang, it falls to Hank’s long-lost daughter of his first marriage to step up as the new Wasp.  Real MCU Ant-Man director Peyton Reed runs this film as he does Ant-Man 2 of our alternate MCU (the first Ant-Man film is directed by Sam Raimi in this alternate continuity).

X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga (2014) Directed by Jonathan Frakes & LeVar Burton

Professor Charles Xavier = Patrick Stewart

Cyclops/Scott Summers = Patrick Swayze

Jean Grey = Milla Jovovich

Storm/Ororo Monroe = Halle Berry

Wolverine/Logan = Tom Cruise

Peter Rasputin/Colossus = Henry Cavill

Rogue = Anna Paquin

Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler = Daniel Brühl

Warren Worthington III/Archangel = Neil Patrick Harris

Beast/Hank McCoy = Alec Baldwin

Dr Moira Mactaggert = Olivia Williams

Princess/Empress Lilandra = Winona Ryder

Gladiator = Luke Hemsworth

Oracle = Pom Klementieff

Smasher = Randy Orton

Fang = Matthew Lawrence

Warstar = Peter Cullen/Dwayne Johnson

Starbolt = Richard Armitage

Hussar = Gina Carrano

Earthquake = Lee Pace

Manta = Olga Kurylenko

Araki = Mark Hamill

Jason Wyngarde (Hellfire Club illusion) = Kenneth Branagh

Mastermind = Keanu Reeves

Sebastian Shaw = Patrick Warburton

Emma Frost = Elizabeth Banks

Donald Pierce = Armie Hammer

Harry Leland = John Goodman

Tessa/Sage = Sasha Alexander

The second half of the X-Men duology in this phase is, of course, the Dark Phoenix Saga side of the Phoenix arc.  In this case, the ending of the first film puts us in a position to open on the X-Men’s infiltration of the Hellfire Club to try and save Jean, who at this point believes she is one of them.  This ultimately leads to her transformation into Dark Phoenix, which precipitates events that, together with initial X-Men efforts to restore Jean, brings us to a comics-accurate third act; the X-Men battling the Shi’ar to save Jean from execution for the Phoenix’s actions.  However, that’s not to say this is just a like-for-like copy of the comics with a few X-Men changed around.  Rest assured that some details, including the nature of Emma Frost’s allegiance to the Hellfire Club and the fate of Cyclops, will be quite different.  Direction, as noted previously, is in the hands of Trek alumni Jonathan Frakes and LeVar Burton.

Infinity War (2014) Directed by The Russo Brothers

Thanos = Josh Brolin

Ebony Maw = Tom Vaughan-Lawlor

Cull Obsidian = Terry Notary

Corvus Glaive = James Michael Shaw

Proxima Midnight = Carrie Coon

Supergiant = Jennifer Lawrence

Steve Rogers/Captain America = Brad Pitt

Thor = Dolph Lundgren

Iron Man/Tony Stark = Tom Selleck

Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk = Lucy Lawless

T'Challa/Black Panther* = Chadwick Boseman

Sam Wilson/Falcon* = Will Smith

Peter Parker/Spider-Man* = Wil Weaton

Clint Barton/Hawkeye* = Kevin Costner

Vision* = Casper Van Dien

Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff* = Kate Beckinsale

Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic = Tom Hanks

Susan Storm (Richards)/Invisible Woman* = Meg Ryan

Johnny Storm/Human Torch* = David Spade

Storm/Ororo Monroe = Halle Berry

Wolverine/Logan = Tom Cruise

Peter Rasputin/Colossus = Henry Cavill

Remi LeBeau/Gambit = Zachary Levi

Rogue* = Anna Paquin

Dr Stephen Strange = Johnny Depp

Namor McKenzie/The Submariner* = Christian Bale

Silver Surfer* = David Wenham

Valkyrie = Diane Kruger

Kyle Richmond/Nighthawk* = Josh Duhamel

Patsy Walker/Hellcat* = Mena Suvari

Peter Quill/Star-Lord* = Chris Pratt

Gamora = Zoe Saldana

Drax the Destroyer* = Dean Cain

Adam Warlock = Chris Pine

Groot* = Vin Diesel

Rocket = Bradley Cooper

Eros/Starfox = Joel McHale

No sooner does the Dark Phoenix saga end then the Infinity Wars begin.  The first such war sees Thanos begin his campaign to collect the Infinity Stones; having intercepted the Power Stone en route to the Nova Corps, Thanos hits the Corps’ headquarters for the mind and time stones.  The Silver Surfer, however, is able to grab one of the stones and flies to Earth.  The film is then very much a matter of Earth’s heroes, with some assistance from the Surfer and the Guardians of the Galaxy, trying to keep the stones from Thanos.  Of course, as per the real MCU, Thanos is initially successful, leaving a need to resolve the events of this film via a sequel.  The Russo brothers retain direction of this version of events from their role directing Infinity War and Endgame in the real MCU.  I also added Supergiant back into Thanos’ elite for this film, and those roles marked with asterisks are those who end up as victims of the “snap”.

Blade (2014) Directed by Sam Raimi

Eric Brooks/Blade = Jamie Foxx

Rachel Van Helsing = Cote De Pablo

Jamal Afari = Ernie Hudson

Quincy Harker = Jack Davenport

Frank Drake = Shawn Ashmore

Taj Nital = Jay Chandrasekhar

Deacon Frost = Zachary Quinto

Tara Brooks = Angela Bassett

Quinn = Michael Fassbender

It’s horror director Sam Raimi at the helm as we get into the first of two films plugging the gap between our two Infinity Wars.  In this case, we’re bringing Blade into our MCU; not to feed into the events of the Infinity Saga, but to set up how those events impact efforts to keep the undead at bay (remember, Thanos’ snap was about dealing with life, not un-life).  In this film, we focus on Blade as the leader of a group of vampire hunters hunting down Deacon Frost.  Along the way, some of Blade’s part are turned, and the events of Infinity War impact on the film’s climax.  As the first original film of this phase, all casting is brand new.

Inhumans (2015) Directed by Joss Whedon

Black Bolt = Pierce Brosnan

Medusa = Elizabeth Hurley

Crystal = Dina Meyer

Gorgon = J.G. Hertzler

Karnak = Alexander Siddig

Triton = Orlando Bloom

Maximus = Willem Dafoe

Kamala Khan/Ms Marvel = Odeya Rush

Emily Guerrero/Synapse = Becky G

Dante Pertuz/Inferno = Diego Boneta

Daisy Johnson/Quake = Willa Holland

Lash = Benedict Cumberbatch

Stallior = Ben Barnes

Hollow = David Ramsey

Nightfall = Diane Guerrero

Sheath = Kristen Stewart

In this MCU, the Inhumans were introduced via Fantastic Four: World War III in 2000, then returned to play a key role in Fantastic Four: Unthinkable in 2008.  This film focuses on the Inhumans for the first time as a central group.  In this film, a small town in the United States is exposed to Terrigen Mists, revealing Inhumans to the wider world when some of the town’s inhabitants undergo Terrigenesis and become Inhumans themselves.  As the Inhuman royal family attempts to deal with the matter, Maximus engineers an escape and a plan to reveal and control any other Inhumans hidden among humanity.

Director-wise, I put Joss Whedon on this film based on his work in the real MCU.  While the Inhuman royal family was cast some years ago, the rest of the cast are new additions.  Due to the change in when Kamala Khan would appear in the MCU, that’s necessitated some casting shifts, and while it is true my choice of actress is Israeli rather than Muslim, I stand by this choice for one simple reason.  Any conflict between any religions is fundamentally stupid because any higher beings that see you behave like that aren’t going to be pleased, any more than a parent is pleased to see their children fight with each other.  It’s petty, it’s juvenile, and it causes more problems than it solves.  Moreover, arguing over land or religion is just as meaningless as arguing over a favourite toy or who gets the top bunk.  Grow up and learn to tolerate each other, would everyone please?  Getting an Israeli actress to play a Muslim character would be a big step in that direction, just to help with a bit of “walking a mile in someone else’s shoes”.

Infinity War II (2015) Directed by The Russo Brothers

Thanos = Josh Brolin

Ebony Maw = Tom Vaughan-Lawlor

Cull Obsidian = Terry Notary

Corvus Glaive = James Michael Shaw

Proxima Midnight = Carrie Coon

Supergiant = Jennifer Lawrence

Steve Rogers/Captain America = Brad Pitt

Thor = Dolph Lundgren

Iron Man/Tony Stark = Tom Selleck

Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk = Lucy Lawless

Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic = Tom Hanks

Storm/Ororo Monroe = Halle Berry

Wolverine/Logan = Tom Cruise

Peter Rasputin/Colossus = Henry Cavill

Remi LeBeau/Gambit = Zachary Levi

Dr Stephen Strange = Johnny Depp

Valkyrie = Diane Kruger

Gamora = Zoe Saldana

Adam Warlock = Chris Pine

Rocket = Bradley Cooper

Eros/Starfox = Joel McHale

Heinrich Zemo = Til Schweiger

Dr Karla Sofen/Moonstone = Peta Wilson

Henry Peter Gyrich = David Caruso

Jacques Duquesne/Swordsman = Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Mantis = Midu

Simon Williams/Wonder Man = Taylor Kitsch

Melissa Gold/Songbird = Carrie Underwood

Crystal = Dina Meyer

Karnak = Alexander Siddig

Triton = Orlando Bloom

Scott Lang/Ant-Man II = Paul Rudd

Nadia Pym/Wasp II = Shailene Woodley

T'Challa/Black Panther* = Chadwick Boseman

Sam Wilson/Falcon* = Will Smith

Peter Parker/Spider-Man* = Wil Weaton

Clint Barton/Hawkeye* = Kevin Costner

Vision* = Casper Van Dien

Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff* = Kate Beckinsale

Susan Storm (Richards)/Invisible Woman* = Meg Ryan

Johnny Storm/Human Torch* = David Spade

Rogue* = Anna Paquin

Namor McKenzie/The Submariner* = Christian Bale

Silver Surfer* = David Wenham

Kyle Richmond/Nighthawk* = Josh Duhamel

Patsy Walker/Hellcat* = Mena Suvari

Peter Quill/Star-Lord* = Chris Pratt

Drax the Destroyer* = Dean Cain

Groot* = Vin Diesel

Black Bolt* = Pierce Brosnan

Medusa* = Elizabeth Hurley

Gorgon* = J.G. Hertzler

The second Infinity War film takes a very different tact to Endgame in the real MCU for two key reasons.  First, we’ve not developed this continuity to really support the time-heist concept option used in Endgame, to say nothing of the fact that I’m not too keen to go multiversal.  Second, different characters, different story-to-date, so different solution.  Fearing that the universe might need balancing again in time, Thanos has withdrawn to Titan and conquered it, turning the planet into a massive fortress.  The survivors of the snap make an initial attempt to reach Titan and battle Thanos for the stones, but are repulsed.

A year later, a team of black ops super-beings stumble upon a means by which a second attempt can be made by stealth.  The film then focuses on an effort to reclaim the Infinity Stones to undo Thanos’ snap via a stealth incursion onto Titan.  In effect, the idea is to combine elements of Endgame with more source material from Marvel’s original Infinity story arcs and the plot of DCAMU film Justice League Dark: Apokolips War.  However, the film’s climax remains much the same as Endgame in terms of the fate of a certain armoured Avenger.

Deadpool (2015) Directed by Tim Miller

Wade Wilson/Deadpool = Ryan Reynolds

Dr. Emrys Killebrew = Richard Riehle

Theresa Rourke-Cassidy/Siryn = Sarah Bolger

Banshee/Sean Cassidy = Liam Neeson

Weasel = TJ Miller

Blind Al = Stockard Channing

Francis Fanny/Ajax = Ed Skrein

"Black Tom" Cassidy = Ciarán Hinds

Angel Dust = Rhonda Roussey

After the events of the two Infinity Wars, not to mention the Phoenix Saga before it, our 90’s MCU needs something slightly lighter to close off phase 6.  To that end, it’s time the “merc with the mouth” made his debut in this MCU.  Of course, I’m not about to meddle with ideal casting, hence retaining Ryan Reynolds in the lead role.  By the same token, Deadpool director Tim Miller and actors TJ Miller and Ed Skrein are retained.  However, in other areas we’re shifting away from Fox’s efforts and going a bit closer to the comics, hence Deadpool teaming up with Siryn and Banshee, Blind Al being white instead of black, and the inclusions of Dr Killebrew and “Black Tom” Cassidy among the film’s villains.  Having already used Gina Carano as alien super-being fodder in the Phoenix Saga films, the role of Angel Dust goes to Rhonda Roussey since she’s another MMA fighter who has gone into acting, and she’s closer to the comics version of Angel Dust on hair colour alone.

With that, we come to the end of phase 6 is this alternate MCU, which has another three phases to go before it wraps.  For next month’s ramble, though, I’ll be concluding my alternate DCEU with a look at its phase 6, or more accurately phase 1 of its reboot.  Until then, ta-ta for now.