The Marvel Thread - Multiverses and other Shenanigans

[gorast]

I think All Hail the King did what it wanted to without bending over backwards to appease people who were mad at IM3's twist - the real Mandarin always had the potential to exist, and I'm pretty sure IM3 directly referenced that. The short was just much more explicit about it.

Even though Drew Pearce said this could be a doorway to IM4 or 5, I sure hope it isn't, because I don't want shitty racist caricature Mandarin to be a thing in IM4 unless he gets brutally murdered in the opening ten minutes.

[Hazekiah]

I closed out excess tabs, turned off the captions, disabled annotations, and switched to the lowest-res setting and it was still dropping out or w/e.

I'm assuming it was just ripped that way and posted as is, but I'm perplexed that no one seems to have mentioned it in the comments.

Reversed and replayed a few times and it's always dropping out in the exact same places, though...so I'm guessing that's that.

Either way, THANKS! I've been VERY curious about all these shorts so this'll do nicely for now. Anyone have a decent link to the one with Lizzy Caplan, btw?

[marodi]

Ahhh sir Ben. What a splendid actor!

I'm going to throw this little idea of mine out there as food for thought: you're seeing this one shot as some sort of fan service thing to those who were upset after IM3 came out but what if this was the plan all along? What if Marvel had planned the outrage at the fake Mandarin for the beginning and watched with glee as the rage exploded all over the Internet? Remember: the MCU has been in development for years.

I think a lot of people have been Loki'ed.

[gorast]

That would be an extraordinarily shitty thing for them to do - intentionally piss off their fanbase? Why?

It's one thing to reinvent a character and make them topical - that's fine, and I thought it was a great move. But solely to troll people? No.

[marodi]

I most definitely explained myself poorly in my last post so here the long ass theory I have.

The Mandarin has a mystical side to him with the powers the Ten Rings give him. As of now, the MCU has yet to introduce this aspect in its story lines. Sure there's Loki but until The Dark World, we barely saw him do any actual magic and he's an alien who may or may not be a god, depending on whom you ask. Everything Earth related has been science and technology based. For Iron Man 3, the powers that be at Marvel knew the fan base was expecting the Mandarin but (and this is my theory, based only on my faulty brain) it would suit the MCU better to introduce AIM, another villain that can be used in other movies. Also, the plan is (and this is somewhat official) to introduce magic and mystic in the form of Dr Strange in Phase 3.

So what I think happened is this: they brought back the Ten Rings from Iron Man 1 and the Mandarin but they made it into this plot twist to move AIM at the front of the bad guys line. But they always knew there was a real Mandarin down the line, a Mandarin most likely closer to its comic book self that they can introduce in let's say Phase 4 (or a possible Iron Man reboot once RDJ's out). They knew the plot twist would upset some of the fan base (but whatever they do, there's always someone upset: Cap's not big enough; Thor doesn't wear his helmet; where's *insert character's name here*) and I do say some of the fan base because there are those of us who really like the plot twist (and Trevor is awesome). So when the uproar started, they must have been smiling to themselves thinking "oh ye of little faith".

Bottom line: I don't believe All Hail The King is fan service, I think it was planned that way all along. Also: I have too much time on my hands.

[orestes]

If the Clairvoyant turns out to be The Leader I would be ecstatic, because that brings Incredible Hulk deeper into the MCU and gives the show a much stronger tie to the films - win-win!

Is Tim Blake Nelson a feasible TV actor, though?

I've heard speculation that the Clairvoyant is actually Loki and . . . ahahahaha, I'm sorry, I can't stop laughing.

[gorast]

That speculation isn't serious, is it? Because I might actually throw something. Aside from that being the dumbest thing I've ever heard, having Loki in absolutely anything before Thor 3 will just make me hate him that much more. I blame Tumblr for that, though, with its disgusting tendency to over-fetishize every single thing ever made.

[orestes]

Nah, I think it's just wish fulfillment. I mean, the speculation continued that Skye was his daughter. *smfh*

[Conan The Barbarian]

That speculation isn't serious, is it? Because I might actually throw something. Aside from that being the dumbest thing I've ever heard, having Loki in absolutely anything before Thor 3 will just make me hate him that much more. I blame Tumblr for that, though, with its disgusting tendency to over-fetishize every single thing ever made.

You have described that website accurately. That site has turned me off from shows that I probably would had liked. ( sherlock, Dr who, Hannibal.)

Anyways, they should have had mandarin be the iron man 2 villain instead of whiplash.

Shame on marvel really. How dare you tease the mandarin like that to people.

[AgentofChaos]

Marodi; No. Just no. If they had really planned things that well, they would have stingered showing the real Mandarin or alluded to him at the end of that film, or post credits. Instead of that useless Banner/Stark scene they just tacked on that really did not do anything to move along the story whatsoever because they hadn't gotten that far in their phase 2/3 planning and had nothing else to say i.e the vague statement of "Tony Stark will return". You are giving them far, far too much credit. They were smiling alright, at IM3's BO returns, and I'm sure they had some slight discussion about where they would take the IM franchise in the future, and the idea of having a real Mandarin as a future villan was floated at some point of course, but it is clear to me that nothing was drawn up to the point of them being able to say "this was all part of the plan". I do agree with you that they did intend to further introduce AIM as this global entity, for future henchmen purposes, as AoS baddie fodder, etc. But that's about it. Good try though. I wish I could agree with you.

[AgentofChaos]

As much as GotG looks like it could be something incredible if done the right way, and as pumped as I am to see the full trailer tonight, I'm much more focused on Cap right now. The latest trailer looks like it's going to put Iron Man 3 to shame.

[imail724]

Just watched the unrated/extended version of The Wolverine (saw the original version in theaters). Was glad to see Logan put that cigar in his mouth and light it with the explosion from the snow blower.

[ziltoid]

I gladly present to you the first 11 minutes of Cap 2: Winter Soldier.

[theburningreptile]

In my list of top anticipated movies of the year. I've grown up with The X-men and this just looks awesome to me. I cannot wait for Apocalypse either. Hnnnng.

[orestes]

The new poster looks like shite.

[Broadbent]

Anybody who stuck it out with Agents of Shield got rewarded tonight. Looks like it might intertwine with the new Cap movie. Which I'm pretty pumped for this weekend.

[thelastdisciple]

Yeah i think it's safe to say the remaining episodes for Agents of Shield are going to be preeeeetty good.

[marodi]

In Whedon we trusted and boy are we glad we did! Was it awesome or what?

So Sitwell has a boat to catch, eh?

And how about that Bill Paxton? I want MORE Bill Paxton, damn it. This is going to be one hell of a ride!

edit: it does tie in with The Winter Soldier very very neatly.

[littlemonkey613]

@orestes nice icon, have u been reading the new Young Avengers?

[orestes]

Oh yes! I've read all the issues of Gillen & McKelvie's run on YA and just finished reading issues surrounding the original team.

"Come with me if you want to be awesome!"

[richardp]

This is going to sound like an extremely stupid request to probably 99% of you guys, but to any of you that have all of the Mavel Cinematic flicks on Blu-Ray, if you've got the slip-covers for them and are one of those people who hates slip covers, please feel free to shoot my obsessive nerd self a DM, as I've got a couple missing the covers and my OCD tendencies are killing me. I'd be willing to throw some bucks your way.

Carry on now everyone!

[gorast]

So, Agents of SHIELD.

Spoiler tags, I guess, because this episode basically assumes you've seen Winter Soldier and says "fuck you" if you haven't. Spoiler: Goddamnit Garrett, how could you do this to us? You HYDRA-hailing bastard.

I loved that they tugged us in so many different directions with the whole "who's HYDRA and who isn't???" deal throughout the episode. But, they really need to double down on Ward being a traitor. The way he's portrayed in the preview for next week, though, doesn't give me much hope. Reeks of redemption. That's bullshit - I want him to be a stone cold motherfucker, and then for Skye to kill him in the season finale.

[Broadbent]

Soooo I haven't seen Captain America yet... Should I watch this weeks episode or agents of shield or should I see see Captain America first?

[orestes]

No, you have to see The Winter Soldier first.

[Broadbent]

Thanks for the spoiler heads up.

[marodi]

Epic fail?

[AgentofChaos]

[orestes]

[AgentofChaos]

Patton Oswalt on this last ep of Agents of Shield was a fuckin boss. Loved his character!

[thelastdisciple]

I can't stand Patton Oswalt Spoiler: so I'm kinda glad i don't have to see him anymore lol