Topic: SPOILER ALERT: MCU Thread (Quantum-Ant-Man-ia)

[BlackNMild2k1]

And the WandaVision intros... In Animal Crossing
https://youtu.be/vSrbdgzIGWY

Edit: I showed my daughter the Agatha AC video, and then she sent me the above video, so I thought I'd share that too.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Hot Toys!!! Hot Toys!!! Come and get your HOT TOYS!!!!



plus a bonus video:
WandaVision Pitch Meeting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRkLLkpL5oY

edit:
Apparently Jimmy Woo's missing person is clearly not Bohner, but apparently is still an ongoing thing that will be revisited....
https://twitter.com/PhaseZeroCB/status/1370786901196701698?s=20

So speculate away as to who Jimmy Woo's missing person is.

[Spak-Spang]

BnM: Do we know if the person is male or female?  If female I will vote for the Invisible Woman because it is too obvious.

[Adrock]

Should we start a new thread for The Falcon and the Winter Solider?

First episode was fine. Falcon murder-death-kills a bunch of people like right off the bat. Anyway, I didn’t mind the slower pace of the so far though there are only six episodes. Bucky “making amends” by befriending that old guy (whose son he killed) seems like it’s heading toward a similar confession scene in The Borne Supremacy. For all the punchy-punchy-pew-pew, Bourne telling Irena he killed her parents is my favorite scene in the movie.

The only things that really stuck out to me about the first episode is that Falcon not at least wearing a helmet seems unbelievable even in a world full of superheroes, and when the leader of the terrorists in the beginning doesn’t believe his henchman who says he saw a man (Sam) outside the cockpit window. Why would a member of a terrorist cell right in the middle of doing illegal **** ever NOT believe that in a post-Blip world?

[Stratos]

I updated the title for the new show.

Felt a little lacking for a first episode but I expect things to speed up quickly with only 6 episodes.

Love the "we have ___ at home" meme with the new discount Steve Rogers floating around.

[BlackNMild2k1]

BnM: Do we know if the person is male or female?  If female I will vote for the Invisible Woman because it is too obvious.

No ideas on who it is. I've  mostly been offline for the majority of the last 9 days, so I haven't looked into it any further either.

Should we start a new thread for The Falcon and the Winter Solider?

we could... but that's not how we do things around here

First episode was fine. Falcon murder-death-kills a bunch of people like right off the bat. Anyway, I didn’t mind the slower pace of the so far though there are only six episodes.

If the pace fits the show, and they actually make us care about Falcon and Bucky beyond the action set pieces they've been apart of so far, then I'm all for it. Long form character building on D+ between large group action set pieces in the theater is what we've been wanting.

The only things that really stuck out to me about the first episode is that Falcon not at least wearing a helmet seems unbelievable even in a world full of superheroes, and when the leader of the terrorists in the beginning doesn’t believe his henchman who says he saw a man (Sam) outside the cockpit window. Why would a member of a terrorist cell right in the middle of doing illegal **** ever NOT believe that in a post-Blip world?

that particular henchman might be the paranoid type... they may constantly be dismissing his BS claims about this and that, and that may very well be why he is a lowly henchman and not a "right hand man" so to speak.


as for the show... that betrayal at the end. the announcement of a new symbol of hope for American's.... using the very Shield that Falcon just donated to the Capt America Museum Exhibit...
a total slap in the face. He should've taken up the mantle for himself, as Cap suggested he do.
I mean Cap ain't even dead... and he handed Sam the Shield personally.

Not to mention the insensitivity at the bank.... Should have sold him the selfie.
And then he should also go to Pepper and or the US Gov or just start a Avengers Go-Fund Me to get the money needed, and then some.

Either way, I assume this is gonna be about getting that Shield back and Sam becoming the real next Captain America. Earned, not Awarded.

[BlackNMild2k1]

So episode 2...

Isaiah Bradley makes an appearance. And apparently he was the reason Bucky lost his arm?

Also Redwing was destroyed.... do we see an upgrade in tech for Falcon?

does anyone think that Isaiah may come in to save Falcon at some point and give him some blood transfusion and now Sam becomes Super too?

I'm gonna watch it again over the weekend before I comment more.

[Adrock]

Either way, I assume this is gonna be about getting that Shield back and Sam becoming the real next Captain America. Earned, not Awarded.

Didn't he earn it already? Sam is a regular man in a bird costume who helped save the universe. It made more sense to pass the shield down to him than Bucky what with all that PTSD.

Anyway, regarding episode 2, I liked it. Here are some thoughts/nitpicks:

Sam almost got shot by police for existing as a black man in America. Cool, cool...

Meanwhile, in the same scene, Bucky gets calmly taken into custody despite being an internationally known assassin. The cops might as well have stopped at Baskin Robbins and picked Bucky up a nice, cold treat. It pays to be the White Panther.

I didn't like the "We're gonna go see Zemo" line at the end. Even though I already know Zemo is in the show, I thought it would have hit harder to just cut to him. Not a huge deal though.

That one super solider sacrificing himself seemed so unnecessary. The way the scene was cut made it seem like that road was closer to the runway so it seemed like he could have made it back to the plane if he tried. Then, he just fucking runs right into their gunfire. What kind of plan is that? If you're trying to stall, why go down so easily? Maybe push down the utility pole then run away? It doesn't even have to be towards the plane. Make them chase you.

I'm not sure why Sam and Bucky need to visit Zemo anyway. Black Widow released all of SHIELD and HYDRA's files onto the internet. Surely, someone else in the last nine years pored over and documented those files. right? RIGHT?!

does anyone think that Isaiah may come in to save Falcon at some point and give him some blood transfusion and now Sam becomes Super too?

Ugh, I hope not. Isn't that how She-Hulk gets her powers? Even if Marvel doesn't go down that route in the MCU, be better than that. I kind like the fact that Sam is just a regular dude in a bird costume who (rightly) takes up the Captain America mantle and still kicks ass.

[BlackNMild2k1]

My "earned, not awarded" comment was in regards to Sam getting the mantle of Captain America and the Shield that he earned, was given and then passed on, instead of US Agent being awarded the title whether the U.S Gov wants us to think he "earned" it or not.

It pays to be the White Panther.

"It's the White Wolf" - Bucky

[ThePerm]

Is it my TV or did that third episode of Falcon and Winter soldier have the worst lighting in years?

I had to set my brightness settings to their highest setting and everyone still looked like outlines.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I heard certain LG TVs kept dimming the show. So it might be your TV... 🤷🏿‍♂️

[Stratos]

Is it my TV or did that third episode of Falcon and Winter soldier have the worst lighting in years?

I had to set my brightness settings to their highest setting and everyone still looked like outlines.

I watched the final season of Game of Thrones. This episode was not too dark 

[ThePerm]

I have a TCL TV.

Is it my TV or did that third episode of Falcon and Winter soldier have the worst lighting in years?

I had to set my brightness settings to their highest setting and everyone still looked like outlines.

I watched the final season of Game of Thrones. This episode was not too dark 

That episode was 2 years ago now. That was the last time. At least that made sense from a plot standpoint. The Long Night was a remake of Army of Darkness.

[Stratos]

I have a TCL TV.

Is it my TV or did that third episode of Falcon and Winter soldier have the worst lighting in years?

I had to set my brightness settings to their highest setting and everyone still looked like outlines.

I watched the final season of Game of Thrones. This episode was not too dark 

That episode was 2 years ago now. That was the last time. At least that made sense from a plot standpoint. The Long Night was a remake of Army of Darkness.

I would strongly disagree on it making sense as there were plenty of films and shows that show night scenes perfectly fine. But I digress; I didn't notice any issues with the episode being too dark and we watched it on our older TV that doesn't always get the color right on part of the screen so we would have noticed it. I'm thinking it was your TV?

[Adrock]

I'm having a difficult time buying the characterization in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

Everyone is so cold toward Zemo. Fair because *broadly gestures at his list of crimes* and especially with Barnes for the whole framing/Winter Soldier trigger words thing.

My problem though is when Sam Wilson defended and even related to Karli Morganthau. She blew up a building full of people and murdered a bunch of others before that. I understand her motivation. Morganthau and the Flag Smashers have a bone to pick with the Global Repatriation Council, a group they feel focused more on those who returned from The Blip than those who had to live through it. The Flag Smashers feel they have been ignored and displaced. Okay, fine. That sucks. I get it, all the murdering less so.

What I don't get is how an egregious amount of people in this version of Earth including and especially the Avengers themselves have ignored that the Avenger's own actions directly led to Zemo's revenge. Let's review: Stark and Banner created Ultron who proceeded to create hundreds of copies of itself to devastate an entire country in order to destroy the planet resulting in the deaths of thousands of Sokovian citizens including Zemo's family. Sure, the Avengers stopped Ultron, but then they just fucked off and the only consequences they faced for unleashing hundreds of hyper-intelligent kill-bots was the creation of the Sokovian Accords that half of them refused to sign.

This stems from the Wandavision discussion. The Avengers have committed a ton of (sometimes indefensible) crimes, and I've been ignoring/avoiding them. However, I'm getting frustrated by the lack of narrative consistency. I don't understand the line they're drawing between Morganthau and Zemo. Was there any evidence that Zemo was especially villainous before the Avengers fucked his homeland? Y'all destroyed this man's life yet are seemingly baffled when he decided he's sick of your elitist, no-consequence-having selves.

I don't want this to come off as Zemo-did-nothing-wrong because he absolutely did (i.e. bombed the United Nations resulting in the deaths of dozens including King T'Chaka, torture etc. etc). He had a point; he just shouldn't be blowing **** up. However, this show is making the same argument for Morganthau yet the heroes seem okay with it. They're still trying to stop her, but they're more understanding of her plight than Zemo's. What is the difference?

My understanding is Zemo wasn't blipped (or did I miss something?). He sat in prison that entire time, post-Blip would be like seven to eight years. I have doubts that a man as intelligent, resourceful, and well-trained as Zemo couldn't have escaped and disappeared if he wanted to. Dude was going to kill himself yet he accepted his punishment for the evil he wrought. He even apologized to T'Chala and Barnes. Comparatively, we know Rogers, Wilson, Romanov, Sharon Carter etc. ALL went on the run instead of facing consequences after the events of Captain America: Civil War. I don't believe Marvel is doing an especially good job of portraying Zemo as any more villainous than the heroes. Maybe that's the point?

[BlackNMild2k1]

The difference was they were the target of Zemo's plight?

And don't forget that Sam was reasoning and connecting with her, because not only does he understand where she's coming from, but he was a counselor, and was also trying to get more info out of her. Such as the location of the rest of the NuSS serum. That was until #NotMyCaptain burst in and blew the the whole fact finding mission with his whole "I'm the Captain Now" BS.

also, Zemo used to be part of some sort of Kill Squad, so he wasn't a boy scout prior to his CW actions.

[ThePerm]

I have a TCL TV.

Is it my TV or did that third episode of Falcon and Winter soldier have the worst lighting in years?

I had to set my brightness settings to their highest setting and everyone still looked like outlines.

I watched the final season of Game of Thrones. This episode was not too dark 

That episode was 2 years ago now. That was the last time. At least that made sense from a plot standpoint. The Long Night was a remake of Army of Darkness.

I would strongly disagree on it making sense as there were plenty of films and shows that show night scenes perfectly fine. But I digress; I didn't notice any issues with the episode being too dark and we watched it on our older TV that doesn't always get the color right on part of the screen so we would have noticed it. I'm thinking it was your TV?

The episode looks fine on my other TV. The TV it looked too dark on is a newer 4k TV, but you couldn't see skin highlights. The only person on the show you could see clearly was Zemo because he's a snow beast. Sebastian Stan was hard to see. On my older tv, which Red is burning out, everything looks fine. So, it is the TV. We only got the TV summer of 2019. My mom is probably burning it out. She sleeps in the living room with the TV on all night. Maybe I can **** with the settings to get looking better. It seems to have pretty limited options. Nothing like my 2003 Sanyo Trueflat 24 inch 480i TV has.

[Adrock]

The difference was they were the target of Zemo's plight?

Yeah. That's part of my problem though. It makes the Avengers hypocrites. If your kill-bots destroyed an entire country, the least you can do is stay a while and fix some ****. According to Zemo in that awesome scene with Black Panther, the Avengers left the country in the state it was in. We don't know exactly what happened to Sokovia post-Age of Ultron, but it's probably safe to assume its entire socio-economic infrastructure collapsed and thousands of people died. None of the Avengers answered for that. Who watches the watchmen?

And don't forget that Sam was reasoning and connecting with her, because not only does he understand where she's coming from, but he was a counselor, and was also trying to get more info out of her. Such as the location of the rest of the NuSS serum. That was until #NotMyCaptain burst in and blew the the whole fact finding mission with his whole "I'm the Captain Now" BS.

Understood, and that's also part of my problem. Wilson is a counselor yet he can't connect and empathize with a man whose family was killed and country destroyed as a direct result of the Avengers' negligence. Stark was willing to kill Barnes and go through Rogers to do so.

also, Zemo used to be part of some sort of Kill Squad, so he wasn't a boy scout prior to his CW actions.

No one is arguing that. Zemo was a colonel in the Sokovian army and commander of EKO Scorpion, aforementioned death squad. We don't have any details of what they actually did. Was EKO Scorpion killing bad people? The very first scene of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showed Wilson kill a bunch of bad people.

[UncleBob]

Was Sam trying to talk Karli down in an attempt to befriend her and planning on letting her and her pals go if they promised to be good, or was the plan to talk her down and get her to turn herself in?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Disjointed response to earlier post...

I would also like to think that it's not the Avengers job to stick around after a mission to do clean up. The Avengers are commissioned by SHIELD, so I would assume that the Gov (or whatever agency that took their place) would then be responsible for the post event participation, whatever that may entail.

I can see how blaming the Avengers is what makes sense, as they are the known face  (and in many ways, the cause of lots of the destruction), to those that were there, but I have to think they have a squad that does show up that they just haven't gone into detail about yet.

There was that Gov crew that came in on Spider-man: Homecoming, and it's they were the same "Damage Control" that almost got a sitcom on ABC, then that's probably the spearhead of the cleanup crew.

Speaking of which, I think it would be awesome if Feige would bring back "One Shots" but do it after event movies and have it be Damage Control don't cleanup. There's gotta be lots of comedic and dramatic opportunities in those situations to expand on the snake moments of the MCU.

[Adrock]

Was Sam trying to talk Karli down in an attempt to befriend her and planning on letting her and her pals go if they promised to be good, or was the plan to talk her down and get her to turn herself in?

The latter, but that's beside the point. Scenes from an earlier episode about the Wilson family possibly losing the house/the flustercuck at the bank are meant to illustrate that Sam does legitimately relate to The Flag Smashers' feelings of displacement, rather than merely saying he does in an attempt to talk them down. The writers are trying to get the audience to view Morganthau and co. in a more sympathetic light. I don't think they get there.

This reminds me of that weird scene at the end of Wandavision with Monica and Wanda. I get what the writers were angling for, but it didn't work for me. We're meant to sympathize with Wanda at least a little bit. I was mostly stunned at how easily Monica shrugged off Wanda's actions.

As the good guys, coldness towards a man like Zemo who caused so much destruction makes sense. However, that is juxtaposed with even a hint of warmth and understanding toward a young woman like Morganthau who similarly caused so much destruction. To me, that's inconsistent characterization.

I would also like to think that it's not the Avengers job to stick around after a mission to do clean up. The Avengers are commissioned by SHIELD, so I would assume that the Gov (or whatever agency that took their place) would then be responsible for the post event participation, whatever that may entail.

I can see how blaming the Avengers is what makes sense, as they are the known face  (and in many ways, the cause of lots of the destruction), to those that were there, but I have to think they have a squad that does show up that they just haven't gone into detail about yet.

It isn't so much that the Avengers are a known face as it is they're objectively directly responsible. Age of Ultron was the first time the Avengers created the problem they had to fix. Sokovia sure could have used Stark and Banner's genius, resources, and technology.

Also, the Avengers are supposed to be the good guys. Isn't the expectation that they do things because it's the right thing to do, not because it's their job?

[BlackNMild2k1]

I haven't watched Ep5 yet, but wanted to point out this moment of insight from Ep4 real quick

https://twitter.com/MarcFaletti/status/1381596803615842305?s=20

https://twitter.com/lunamoki/status/1381631304723206147?s=20

Just one level deeper than what I realized was being presented.
I just didn't take it quite that far in my head, but to expose that layer to the sun just makes the scene all that much better.

[Adrock]

I didn’t catch that at all, but damn, that’s about right.

[Shorty McNostril]

Damn - episode 5 is a cracker.

[Adrock]

Damn - episode 5 is a cracker.

Because it’s a good episode or all the white privilege? Both?