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Ranking the MCU


Driver
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I have my list saved at work, so I'll try to remember to post tomorrow or rewrite later today if I have a chance.

 

But on the topic of origin stories, I'm sick of them entirely. I quite enjoyed how they introduced Spider-Man and Black Panther in Civil War. I also enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy - it was an origin story for the group, but we met all the characters after they were already who they are.

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Doctor Strange (double ehi - I'm sick of dude superhero origin stories)

Isn't there a Captain Marvel movie coming out next year? But I agree there should be more female hero origin movies. I'd like to see a Black Widow movie, LA fem Nikita style. And frankly I'm surprised we haven't seen a Valkarie or She hulk movies yet...or at least a west coast avengers team up.

 

 

I have my list saved at work, so I'll try to remember to post tomorrow or rewrite later today if I have a chance.

 

But on the topic of origin stories, I'm sick of them entirely. I quite enjoyed how they introduced Spider-Man and Black Panther in Civil War. I also enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy - it was an origin story for the group, but we met all the characters after they were already who they are.

Yeah, honestly, I'm also sick of origin stories period, and wish Captain Marvel was a story with her already having her powers. But since it's a period piece, I'll probably enjoy it anyway. :p (It's also annoying because Captain Marvel is supposed to be a lot older than Brie Larson when she gains her powers. It would have been nice to see an older woman lead a superhero movie for once. And then Charlize Theron could have played her.)

 

(One of the reasons I liked Wonder Woman so much was because even though it was an origin story, it wasn't a typical story about her gaining powers or discovering her abilities. She trains in the beginning, yeah, but she's always had the potential to be a warrior.)

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Guest El Chalupacabra

SO basically, you would like to see a movie where the hero is already established, but introduces use to that hero? Sort of like how Batman 1989 does?

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Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, etc., don't need origin stories, but I knew almost nothing about Dr. Strange and only that Captain Marvel's origin is "very similar" to Green Lantern's (which one? Hal Jordan?), so origin stories for the more obscure characters would be helpful yet.

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With Fozzie 100%

 

Over origins. Thing is, you can work them into a current story. In Batman 89 it was a flashback scene. In Homecoming it was a single line. In GOTG it was the opening scene.

 

You don't have to frame the entire story around it.

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How much of an origin story do you need, even for Doctor Strange? I was a doctor until my hands were severely damaged in an auto accident. Then, while seeking a cure. I came across (whatever the group is called) and trained to become a sorcerer"

 

Captain Marvel? I have no clue what her story is, but she can just kick ass. Whatever her origin is, I believe 100% that it can take 5 minutes or less. Instead it'll likely take 95% of the movie and the final 5% will be the same cookie cutter boss battle that's in every video game - I mean Marvel movie.

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Her origin is pretty simple-- she was an air force fighter pilot girlfriend to the Male Captain Marvel who was an alien, and she was standing too close to an exploding alien device that imbued her with powers.

 

The MCU has already established alien tech problems in a post Avengers world. It was a major part of Agents of Shield and Homecoming. Seems pretty easy to just say she was somehow given powers when some experimental plane with alien tech she was flying crashed. Given that the government has lost Captain America as their poster child, why not replace him with a new public hero persona in the form of Captain Marvel?

 

Carol is one of my favorite Marvel characters, she doesn't need a complicated origin and there's nothing inherently 90s about her story or character.

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My list:

 

1 Guardians of the Galaxy

 

2 Captain America: The First Avenger

 

3 Thor

 

4 Iron Man

 

5 Captain America: The Winter Soldier

 

6 Ant-Man

 

7 Marvel's The Avengers

 

8 Captain America: Civil War

 

9 Doctor Strange

 

10 The Incredible Hulk

 

11 Iron Man 3

 

12 Thor: The Dark World

 

13 Iron Man 2

 

14 Avengers: Age of Ultron

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Hulk had already had a movie and a popular TV show. The Incredible Hulk cribbed from the TV show's intro to summarize Banner's transformation. It's easy to skim the origin when the popular culture already has absorbed the gist of it.

 

I'm sure the origins of Doctor Strange could have been summarized better, and probably would have benefited from it. I found his development from scientist to sorcerer to be too quick and unconvincing. Starting the film with an already established Dr. Strange might've worked better, but as an introduction into the mystical side of the MCU, it was necessary that at least one of the characters be a novice to sorcery. Maybe Stephen Strange wasn't the right character for that, but then, the novice would like have become the main character, rather than Strange. :shrug:

 

I'm sure Captain Marvel's will be handled deftly (though just from Driver's summary it still strikes me as needing some important details - Who is the alien? Why is the alien on Earth? Is Carol Danvers aware the alien is an alien? Is SHIELD aware of the alien?). If it is going to be a 1990s period piece, though, can we count on the alien technology that is already pervasive in the post-Chitauri MCU? I presume SHIELD would be the MCU's version of the Men in Black, controlling access to extraterrestrials and their technology. What do we currently know of alien visitation to Earth in the MCU, other than Yondu's quick visit to nab Quill in the late '80s?

 

I get it, though. Superhero origin stories are the largely the same, and have become boring. However, I'd like to point out that Batman, of all characters, got an entire origin movie in 2005, despite not really needing one, yet it still covered unfamiliar territory for a familiar character.

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If Marvel pulls off a Batman Begins, I'll gladly eat my words. But nothing we've seen so far indicates that they're even wanting something like that.

 

They've gone for cookie cutter origins, and we've seen enough. I can't blame them, because they're doing these movies to make money, and they're succeeding. And the movies are, overall, good enough that they're being discussed, but there are a fair number of people who want something different.

 

And Strange could easily have explained magic to a non-magic user. Like Rachel McAdams. There you have a reason to explain without needing to make that person the main character.

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I'm sure Captain Marvel's will be handled deftly (though just from Driver's summary it still strikes me as needing some important details - Who is the alien? Why is the alien on Earth? Is Carol Danvers aware the alien is an alien? Is SHIELD aware of the alien?).

SHIELD has a Kree on ice. The flux capacitor running it overloads and explodes. Carol was standing too close and the Kree's pysiology somehow mapped itself to her DNA. She now has powers.

 

Opening scene. Cut to x years later and she's in it to win it.

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I'm sure Captain Marvel's will be handled deftly (though just from Driver's summary it still strikes me as needing some important details - Who is the alien? Why is the alien on Earth? Is Carol Danvers aware the alien is an alien? Is SHIELD aware of the alien?).

SHIELD has a Kree on ice. The flux capacitor running it overloads and explodes. Carol was standing too close and the Kree's pysiology somehow mapped itself to her DNA. She now has powers.

So. Much. Bad. Science!

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Is that actually the origin of her powers?? I thought you were just making stuff up.

 

Just because other writers created superhero characters with iffy science and funny ideas doesn't mean it has to continue for all superhero characters. Unless it's some sort of tradition, which I suppose it is at this point.

 

I just think it's too bad origin stories were overused on characters that didn't really need them, to the point that the more obscure characters won't be getting them in the same detail.

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If you're asking me, I don't know. Apparently even the better known characters are unknown to me. I'm no comic book geek. I don't own any comics, I never read them as a child, and only know what I've learned from the movies, wikis and general popular culture osmosis. Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel were unknown to me before the MCU started. I'd never even heard of the Guardians of the Galaxy before the movie was announced. Even Iron Man and Thor were only vaguely familiar to me, and I would've had a hard time recalling if they were DC or Marvel characters. The only Marvel superheroes that I knew anything about were Captain America, Spider-Man and the Hulk, and they'd all been in the popular culture for decades, with bad movies (Captain America in 1979 and 1990), TV shows, cartoons, and daily newspaper comic strips. Even so, Spidey got two origin movies, Hulk got one overly-long one in 2003, and Captain America's MCU origin story was actually good, mostly because it was a period piece.

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