Haaris on the Marvel Phase 3 line up (and why the Civil War shouldn’t be adapted right now)

The Civil War. For those of you who don’t know, the Civil War storyline was a massive crossover event that Marvel published that impacted nearly every superhero at that time. I’ve only read the central Civil War graphic novel, that covered the main events, but every other series running coherently dealt with how the Civil War impacted on their respective characters.

The Civil War was an extremely good story. It was emotionally investing. I felt sad that all these characters who were the good guys and I’d grown up with (mostly on cartoons – I love comic books and the stories and the characters but sadly couldn’t afford to buy and read comics – so most of my exposure were cartoons and reading about the comic storylines) were viscously fighting each other. 

A large group of people have been hoping for an adaptation of the Civil War since The Avengers was successful. I’m not one of them. 

My main reason is this. Too soon. One of the main reasons for success of Civil War is that most readers had grown up with these characters, so had a bond, and so they had emotional investment. As much as MCU fans love Tony Stark and Steve Rogers and the like, we haven’t reached the same level of investment with these characters. So I think it’s too soon. But then, can we afford to wait? The movie industry is a changing business, and despite the success of MCU, will it even last long enough? 

As I sit here and think, I now actually wonder … maybe 2016 (four years since The Avengers) IS long enough? Sure, most characters have only had two movies and only two of those (by that time) had all of them in it … but for cinema, where movies are released a few a year, maybe it is long enough. That said, I think it’s still better if they do wait longer. I’m sure I can make a food analogy here but I’m not a cook. Basically, you could make a good movie in 2016, but it could be tastier if you let the individual ingredients cook a bit longer … as long as you’re prepared to take the risk of burning your ingredients.

However, I have another big concern. The amount of characters we had. The Civil War wasn’t an Avengers conflict. Indeed it contained multiple Avengers. The original Avengers. The New Avengers. The Secret Avengers. The Young Avengers. In fact, quite a hilarious joke was made when the two groups were about to clash and one group shouted the rallying cry ‘Avengers Assemble’ to which the opposition lampshadingly said they thought they were the Avengers. As well as loads of non-Avenger members and individuals (like the Punisher).

Point is, Marvel don’t have the right to all of these. The X-Men didn’t actively participate in the major battles, deciding to keep out of the conflict (I think Wolverine did some of his own stuff, but that was in his own comic books, which, as I said, I haven’t read – just the main stroyline), but they still had some really important and deep things to say, having already experienced prejudice against them. 

More importantly: Spider-man. Spider-man is crucial to the whole Civil War. He probably out of all the characters is the one who has defended his secret identity the most. So when he publicly announced his identity – it was a big thing. It was a big event.  

So without these characters … the Civil War is downscaled from being the entire superhero community to just the Avengers. Which doesn’t carry the same weight. 

That said, the most interesting thing here is that Civil War isn’t an Avengers movie. It’s a Captain America movie. It’s possible that, just like Age of Ultron isn’t an adaptation from the comic by the same name, Civil War only borrows the name. In some ways, I hope not, because I DO want to see Civil War adapted at some point, just not now. But on the other hand, there is a movie being made called Civil War, and I don’t want it to be this.

There’s not much to say on this, because not much has been announced. I am happy that we are finally moving away from the mainstream characters and focusing on other characters. Dr. Strange is a very interesting character. He’s considered very wise, and a lot of heroes come to him for advice. He was also name dropped in Captain America: The Winter Soldier by Agent Sitwell as being on Hydra’s hitlist. He’s also quite a fun character, not shy of making very snark comments.

I’m going to briefly comment on the Benedict Cumberbatch news. He’s in negotiations. Even though they are late negotiations, that is not the same as confirmed. Hold your horses, wait till it’s confirmed then scream and shout. 

Other than the fact this is on Katie’s birthday, the only interesting fact about this is of the pre-existing franchises returning, this alone has no subtitle in the film title. Meaning it is unclear what the movie will actually be about, other than it will contain the Guardians. Guardians of the Galaxy was an excellent movie, however, so I am looking forward to this all the same.

Ragnarok can mean two things here, The event Ragnarok, which is basically the big apocalyptic event or the character Ragnarok, a clone of Thor who was created during the Civil War as a weapon. If the Civil War in Civil War is the comic book Civil War, then this could very well be the character. But it could just as easily be the event. We shall have to wait and see. Obviously as explained above, I think Civil War is a bad idea at this stage, so you know which camp I’m rooting in.

So far all the leads of solo films have been white males. Finally, we get a person of colour in the much anticipated Black Panther. Chadwick Boseman has been cast as the Black Panther. Actually, he’s been cast as the Black Panther in Civil War. Fans have already noted that the character Andy Serkis is playing in Age of Ultron resembles Ulysses Klaw, who is an enemy of Black Panther. They have also noted that in the same movie, Cap’s Shield gets shattered, and it’s Black Panther in the comics who gives him a new one. This is a strong indication of the role he will play. 

Even though, like Age of Ultron shows, the title doesn’t necessarily mean they are adapting from the source material, the Infinity War storyline contains Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet (and possibly the Gems?), both of which have featured in the MCU (but so does Mr. Fantastic, but Marvel don’t own him yet). The Infinity War comic storyline basically contains a plot where Magnus uses evil doppelgängers of heroes and tried to replace the actual heroes with them. I haven’t read the storyline, and I’m getting my information second hand, so I might be slightly off … in any case, this film is four years away and the second Avengersfilm still hasn’t been released yet. Apparently Joss Whedon is returning for the third in the series, which is good, though it hasn’t been confirmed if he’s writing for it as well, though I suspect he will be.

I am excited by this. Rather than feature Mar-Vell (which they could’ve done, considering the Easter Eggs referencing the Kree in Agents of SHIELD and the mention of them in Guardians of the Galaxy), but instead they have gone with Carol Danvers, the current Captain Marvel who is a woman! Very few superhero movies have had female leads, so this is very awesome to see. Marvel have had a very good track record with how they deal with their female characters, so hopefully this will be a very strong female lead movie that the Hollywood industry needs to see so we can finally convince the old white men who rule it that people will pay to see a female lead action movie. 

I don’t know much about the Inhumans, but according to the Marvel Comic Database, they are a race of Humans mutated by the Kree. A quick scan of the article reveals ties to Quicksilver, Thanos, Ronan the Accuser and other things. Again, this film is a while off, and it’s not clear what it will actually be about beyond the Inhumans, but it’s nice we’re moving deeper into the comic book resource, not just sticking with well known names. 

For the first time, there is no Iron Man movie announced. I really hope, even though there are none, Robert Downey Jr. still reprises the role when his character is needed. Tony Stark is the one character you can’t recast. Robert Downey Jr. IS Iron Man. 

More disappointing is the lack of a Hulk movie. Mark Ruffalo has proven a raging success as Bruce Banner, people love him, he’s brilliant, he ‘s the only actor to have played the Hulk in more than one movie, can he have a solo movie now? In The Incredible Hulk (when he was played by Edward Norton, who despite now being mostly forgotten, was still an amazing Bruce Banner), we were shown an excellent story about how being the Hulk affects his personal life. He’s changed a lot in the Avengers, coming to terms with his powers. It would be good to see how he fairs in his own movie again. Surely Marvel can’t be haunted by Ang Lee’s Hulk forever?

So that’s my thoughts on the line up for Phase 3.  What do you think of the line up? Leave a comment in wherever I put the comment box (honestly it’s one in the morning, I have no idea what I’m doing).