The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown: The Future of Superhero Movies

[TheGlyphstone]

Temperament and ego don't go well with obedience to a higher cause. Pre-accident Strange was very blatantly all about ME, he would never have been able to accept HYDRA's authority over him, or anyone's authority over him period. If he had just been about the power and wealth that his job gave him, he'd have been much more corruptible, but those were at best fringe benefits to his love of fame.

[Mathim]

He didn't have to accept HYDRA's dominion over him, he could easily have commanded a position of power within it with his talent. How valuable would someone like him be, on their side? His voting patterns should have indicated a severe conservative bent which I'd think would be the opposite of what the algorithm would pick up on. Corruptible doesn't seem like an adjective I would have any trouble connecting to him pre-accident. I just don't think the writers thought it through well enough and just name-dropped him despite the likelihood he wouldn't be part of HYDRA's kill list.

Speaking of which, I know it's a stretch but there are a few plot holes as far as villain motivations in The Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron. Even if HYDRA managed to kill off a few million people with Project Insight, they can't kill Bruce Banner even if he is one of the first people they target. It would immediately have triggered a Hulk transformation and I don't think it would be impossible for him to climb up something and jump onto one of those Helicarriers and rip it apart. Not to mention if they killed Jane Foster, Thor would be on them with a vengeance.

And as for Ultron, he was pretty close to killing Thor and yet what was he planning to do when the rest of Asgard showed up to put a boot up his ass in revenge? Nobody really takes that kind of thing into consideration or mentions any contingency plans in their schemes. I mean, they're nowhere near as convoluted and reliant on extreme luck as, say, Lex Luthor's scheme in Batman V Superman, but still.

[TheGlyphstone]

That's the thing - HYDRA was out to rule the world openly. Everyone would have to accept their authority, and anyone who couldn't or wouldn't had to be eliminated. Even if he commanded a position of power within the group, he'd still be answering to someone higher up the totem pole. There was no way Strange would have knuckled down to anyone telling him what to do, and his high social status meant that if he could be a rallying point for other malcontents. That's likely a twofer in the algorithm; when I saw Winter Soldier I assumed it was just a namedrop easter egg, but now that I've actually watched the movie I absolutely agree that the algorithm would have flagged him.

On that note, saw it today. I think I now understand what it is like to drop acid, that movie was incredibly trippy.

[Mathim]

Well he is always looking for a challenge, and frankly HYDRA would be likely to provide him with quite a bit of that sort of thing with their lack of ethics, so as long as it still means saving lives, he'd be doing what he's always done and risen to greater prominence. If HYDRA really intended to dominate, they'd have to start kissing up to guys like him or they'd never have enough doctors and whatnot to keep sustaining society. They can't just threaten them and put their money where their mouths are, so I don't agree he'd be answering to anyone, at least not without dictating his own terms. I just don't see him being prominent enough on the list for him to be mentioned in the same breath as Bruce Banner, even if I did buy that he was on their hit list.

[TheGlyphstone]

-I don't even think he was looking for challenges. He was notorious for turning down cases, like the second one of the three he listened to in the car. I don't remember what it was, but he told the assistant "no, that might break my perfect record" - i.e. he might fail. Or Preston, J.; trying to fix 'impossible' damage would basically cement him in the medical books forever, but he didn't even let the guy into his office. He was looking for praise and acclaim, taking the most difficult cases that he knew he could still do successfully without challenging himself.

-Sure, Hydra would need to co-opt or otherwise earn the willing cooperation of people like him. There's no one in the world exactly as good as him, but there's enough second-tier doctors (i.e. Nick McNotMyBoyfriend) that they can do away with Strange for being a threat and still come out ahead. I suppose if they appointed him the personal physician of the Head of HYDRA or something, that might be enough of a sop to his ego to keep him stable. He'd still be enough of an obnoxious asshole that whacking him pre-emptively would likely improve their health from the lower blood pressure.

-As for coincidentally being right next to Bruce Banner in the threat list...the list had thousands and thousands of names on it. I'll allow the tiny lump of narrativium for the two of them to be next to each other when the whole point of that specific sequence was hame-dropping superheroes. Hulk is kind of in a class of his own in terms of threat level, none of the names dropped in that scene deserved to be near him in that sense, so whatever specific sorting function was being used, it probably wasn't listing them strictly on most-dangerous to least-dangerous". Actually, come to think of it, I might have actually rated Strange above Banner in terms of actual threat probability if I was Zola.exe; Hulk is a rampaging force of utter destruction, but all Banner wants to do is be left alone - don't bother him, or just give him a private island to live on and any research materials/equipment he asks for, and Hulk will never be a problem.

[Mathim]

Well, I already hate that moronic HYDRA plot twist anyway, so I'll say that it never would have worked regardless whether they could cajole enough doctors into serving their purposes. Them hiding their presence that long, that effectively, that's probably the biggest suspension of disbelief in the entire MCU, never mind all the sci-fi stuff.

Is it just me or does Gamora look a lot more capable in the Guardians teaser? Like she's jumping higher, farther, moving faster in general, what do you guys think? Maybe the planet she's on has lower gravity or something. There's just (to me) a noticeable difference between her in the prison in the first movie when she kicked that guy with both feet or when she's trying to run from Quill after swiping the orb on Xandar, and her movements in the teaser. Not that her level of strength relative to normal humans was ever really clarified but I'm just wondering if this is where we'll see it really set her apart from just being a green Black Widow.

[TheGlyphstone]

Honestly can't argue that HYDRA's whole scheme was beyond stupid in that sense.

As far as Gamora, maybe she's just been working out in between movies? Drax apparently grew a sense of humor, or at least the ability to detect sarcasm.

[Mathim]

Well, Drax did take Peter's 'no' about needing a hug to mean 'yes', so I'm not sure what to make of that. If he sensed Quill was fibbing, he may have thought he was assuming correctly but wasn't, so his detector and interpretation may still need tuning. Also, while I love baby Groot, I don't want him to stay that way the entire time. Also we didn't get to see Kurt Russel or the new character on the team, Mantis. I'm hoping we get a real trailer, not just a teaser (though this was an outstanding teaser by all usual standards and comparisons) around the holidays.

[greenknight]

SPOILERS but the movie's been out for 3 weeks now, so...

And released a week after I got sent under a rock.... ;) No worries, it's probably going to be another

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

:P , no, I'm not saying

before I get to go to a theater again.

Like I said, without a specific reference. Flashbacks, 1940's America, etc, are all specific references. So if Dr S has flashbacks or covers a long period, that should be obvious (or not, thematically, this is Dr. Strange). But the "now" of the movie would be where the significant action with the real threat can definitely be assumed as now barring any specific info to the contrary. (No real threat in a flashback because the hero is now telling us about then, so they obviously survived.) To do otherwise, "now" is actually then and I didn't tell you, is poor storytelling and disrupts the overall series arc.

As far as how to deal with Hulk from the helicarriers, Fury's had a Hulk cage, it's reasonble to assume at least one of the killer ships did, too. And they may have even improved the idea; add some rockets and go with the MurderMan* approach.

And I have to assume that the GoG movies are also contemporaneous to their release dates in chronology.


*ie, Supes flying/chucking an enemy into space or specifically into the Sun.

[Mathim]

And released a week after I got sent under a rock.... ;) No worries, it's probably going to be another

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

:P , no, I'm not saying

before I get to go to a theater again.

Like I said, without a specific reference. Flashbacks, 1940's America, etc, are all specific references. So if Dr S has flashbacks or covers a long period, that should be obvious (or not, thematically, this is Dr. Strange). But the "now" of the movie would be where the significant action with the real threat can definitely be assumed as now barring any specific info to the contrary. (No real threat in a flashback because the hero is now telling us about then, so they obviously survived.) To do otherwise, "now" is actually then and I didn't tell you, is poor storytelling and disrupts the overall series arc.

As far as how to deal with Hulk from the helicarriers, Fury's had a Hulk cage, it's reasonble to assume at least one of the killer ships did, too. And they may have even improved the idea; add some rockets and go with the MurderMan* approach.

And I have to assume that the GoG movies are also contemporaneous to their release dates in chronology.


*ie, Supes flying/chucking an enemy into space or specifically into the Sun.

Well the cage obviously can't hold Thor for long, and even if it did crash to the ground like that, we don't know if it would actually kill the Hulk, and that's only if they managed to trap him in the first place. Besides, even with Ultron's vibranium body, an Asgardian army marching on him in retribution for killing Thor if his plan succeeded would just use Odin's staff to melt his ass and destroy him. There's no endgame where the villain is free from reprisal in either of those films.

And yes, GotG does take place in the time around when the film was released, as it shows the year where Peter's mother dies, and how many years later it is when he lands on Morag and goes looking for the Orb. Not many of the other films do such a great job of that.

And there aren't 'specific' references, but if you look hard enough you find them. According to that video, the reason Doctor Strange can be shown to take place at least in early 2016 is because an award in his loft is dated 2016 for best surgeon or some prestigious honor, so it can't take place any earlier or it wouldn't make sense. The months of recovery, seeking cures, and training in the mystic arts would surely take him from a January-February-ish part of the year into a near-Thanksgiving time of the year quite neatly. So you could argue a good half hour to 45 minutes of the film takes place before 'now'.

[SapphireStar]

They announced Inhumans will become a tv series on ABC. It was reported that a few episodes are to be shown in IMAX.

Angela Bassett has joined the cast of Black Panther.

David Leitch has been confirmed as the director for Deadpool 2. I'm hoping they still maintain the same level of action and Deadpool style humor for the sequel. It would be awesome if they brought in Taskmaster given the rivalry between the two. Possible addition of Landau, Luckman and Lake would be interesting.

[Mathim]

They announced Inhumans will become a tv series on ABC. It was reported that a few episodes are to be shown in IMAX.

Angela Bassett has joined the cast of Black Panther.

David Leitch has been confirmed as the director for Deadpool 2. I'm hoping they still maintain the same level of action and Deadpool style humor for the sequel. It would be awesome if they brought in Taskmaster given the rivalry between the two. Possible addition of Landau, Luckman and Lake would be interesting.

TV episodes in IMAX? How's that work? And is this going to be the royal family of Inhumans, from Attilan with Black Bolt and all the really powerful and freaky ones? I would hope this would make it impossible for Marvel to stop keeping the TV stuff out of the movies since the Inhumans would be a really important force in helping battle Thanos.

And how interesting, Angela Bassett was Amanda Waller in the failed Green Lantern movie, and now she's moving to a successful franchise that didn't fail to get off the ground after one movie.

Never heard of Leitch, gotta look up his career history. And I think Taskmaster is still part of the wider Marvel universe so he's not in Fox's pocket, but hey, they're not really using him even though he'd be amazing as a Netflix villain, so why not make another swap so Marvel can claim back another character for their stable? Surely he's not worth a Galactus or a Doctor Doom even though it's going to be 6 more years before we see another attempt at either of those two from Fox.

[wander]

As a quicky about Dr. Strange, it does apparently span over the space of one year. Can't remember my source though it supposedly shows from autumn to autumn (so assuming from late-ish 2015 to October-November 2016). There was a newspaper or some other references pointing at one point in the film to early 2016 too. Youtube videos can probably source better than myself though.

As for film chronology, looking back some films probably do have differing times. For an easy example; Iron Man 3... Where were the others to help Stark? We can figure that Thor 2 and The Winter Soldier were probably set all around the same time, which makes the most sense with the fridge logic of especially Cap facing off against a corrupted SHIELD, Stark would have been good to have on-board then, right? Let's not think too hard about Banner either, looking back at Phase 2...

I think though there have been some bumps along the way, but the MCU seems to be settling in a bit now from Ant-Man onwards.

I just wish though we could get a compelling villian and no 'giant beam in sky' in more films of this type...  ;D

[Mathim]

As a quicky about Dr. Strange, it does apparently span over the space of one year. Can't remember my source though it supposedly shows from autumn to autumn (so assuming from late-ish 2015 to October-November 2016). There was a newspaper or some other references pointing at one point in the film to early 2016 too. Youtube videos can probably source better than myself though.

As for film chronology, looking back some films probably do have differing times. For an easy example; Iron Man 3... Where were the others to help Stark? We can figure that Thor 2 and The Winter Soldier were probably set all around the same time, which makes the most sense with the fridge logic of especially Cap facing off against a corrupted SHIELD, Stark would have been good to have on-board then, right? Let's not think too hard about Banner either, looking back at Phase 2...

I think though there have been some bumps along the way, but the MCU seems to be settling in a bit now from Ant-Man onwards.

I just wish though we could get a compelling villian and no 'giant beam in sky' in more films of this type...  ;D

If we're talking about the same video, it's actually from spring (flowers just barely starting to bud on the trees in Khamartaj) and by the time Strange actually gets good at the mystic arts, it's starting to turn brown and the leaves are falling.

The only real villains that are somewhat compelling have survived their initial intro movies, namely Loki and Zemo. DC isn't doing so hot either but we don't generally hear much about that because there's so much else bad to complain about, it hardly makes the lower tier of the list. I think if they just let more villains have the opportunity to return and not just kill most of them in the same movie they're introduced, that would go a long way.

[wander]

Agreed, as a fan of the old cosmic side of Marvel, Ronan had some potential into developing into something more, especially back considering an Inhumans role would have brought in Crystal later into the MCU. I was royally pissed by his nerfing into faceless alien baddy with no personality which won't survive the movie #957...

Hail to the King does say a true Mandarin is out there, plus Iron Man 1 basically had those Middle Eastern baddies work for a group called the Nine Rings... It's a shame with how Universal is we can't get more mileage from Thunderbolt Ross. It was nice to see him again in Civil War, though I think a few fans are just eager for him to Rulk now.

Potentially Hugo Weaving may return as Red Skull (likely in one of the Infinity War movies), though I feel as stated that Loki and Zemo are better villians who would fare better from the minutes that Red Skull could take up.

Though really, looking at how Marvel comics have devolved these last five, maybe less years, the MCU do need to do something to quell what will down the road end up as supers vs supers mega-events like the comics to be a draw. Though I'm talking like Phase 5 (there's bound to be one and you'd be silly to doubt Marvel Studios isn't planning it out) onward by time where this would likely be a problem...

[Mathim]

Agreed, as a fan of the old cosmic side of Marvel, Ronan had some potential into developing into something more, especially back considering an Inhumans role would have brought in Crystal later into the MCU. I was royally pissed by his nerfing into faceless alien baddy with no personality which won't survive the movie #957...

Hail to the King does say a true Mandarin is out there, plus Iron Man 1 basically had those Middle Eastern baddies work for a group called the Nine Rings... It's a shame with how Universal is we can't get more mileage from Thunderbolt Ross. It was nice to see him again in Civil War, though I think a few fans are just eager for him to Rulk now.

Potentially Hugo Weaving may return as Red Skull (likely in one of the Infinity War movies), though I feel as stated that Loki and Zemo are better villians who would fare better from the minutes that Red Skull could take up.

Though really, looking at how Marvel comics have devolved these last five, maybe less years, the MCU do need to do something to quell what will down the road end up as supers vs supers mega-events like the comics to be a draw. Though I'm talking like Phase 5 (there's bound to be one and you'd be silly to doubt Marvel Studios isn't planning it out) onward by time where this would likely be a problem...

Marvel's biggest criticisms right now are its villains and cookie-cutter formula, but 14 movies in and they're still making bank. I don't think they have anything to worry about. As long as they can bring the dazzle, the laughs and the good performances, they'll continue succeeding.

I had quite a good idea of how to make Ronan a better villain, but if he was fated to die anyway, it wouldn't have helped much. Too bad.

And it doesn't matter if there's a 'real' Mandarin out there, they pissed away the opportunity to do it when it really mattered and wasted the chance to have Ben Kingsley truly play that role. But I've said over and over, Iron Man 3 had so many bad calls, that twist was hardly what ruined it. And the terrorist group was the 10 Rings, not 9. Sadly it looks like we'll never get to see the real ones in action.

Ross should have been in jail, not Secretary of State. And even if not, he's the last person who should be telling the Avengers that THEY need to be put under control.

Hugo Weaving said he never wanted to come back as Red Skull, he hated the makeup application. They could substitute Christoph Waltz, he's authentic German and a wonderful actor, and he's done this kind of movie before (Green Hornet as the villain).

I think if Marvel does want to draw in new fans and not just their existing base (which is not the least bit insignificant in and of itself), they'll need to keep adapting new characters' stories. Ant-Man and Doctor Strange were great successes, so if they keep going forward with others who have yet to get screen treatment, that will widen the demographic they reach and expand the potential for stories. I believe they'll be doing this anyway, but even if they didn't, they'd still be successful, just maybe not as much as the were at the height.

[wander]

Opinion on the lady mentioned in Dr.Strange with the brain implant being Captain Marvel?

[Mathim]

Opinion on the lady mentioned in Dr.Strange with the brain implant being Captain Marvel?

Well since the pilot in the experimental armor was not Rhodey, I don't know if this other one makes sense to be someone of significance. But does Carol Danvers in the comics have a history of...was it seizures? And did her getting her powers involve getting struck by lightning? I'm totally not familiar with her history so I would like to know, although I suppose with all the differences between the movies and comics, anything is possible. We already know who's been cast. You know, I'd probably have put the scene with Mordo and Pangborn at the very end, just before the credits started to roll, and the very end-credits scene could have been a shot of a woman in the hospital, looking like she's on life support, and we can kind of tell she's blonde and resembles Brie Larson, and then the lights flicker, the room shakes a little, and knocks over a prescription bottle on the side table, the name on it being 'Danvers'.

[wander]

Fiege has already stated Danver's origin is going to be changed to make her slightly more different than what they see as something very similar to the Green Lanterns... Now whilst her placement (both cosmic stories and costume design) in the current Marvel comics has her like the Lanterns, I can't really see her '60s origin having the Abin-Sur passing the mantle in it... She never got her powers from Mar'Vell directly. Whilst his spirit did pass the title of Captain Marvel onto her ala Abin-Sur, this was after decades of our time spent as Ms. Marvel (and Binary, and Warbird...), lets say she was operating with her powers in the comic sliding time for around 10 years and making a name for herself, before this even occured. This was mainly a glorified name-change in the early 2010s to go with her new jumpsuit costume.

What's known also is that Carol will be the only Captain Marvel in the film and Mar'Vell will not be appearing at all.

Her original origin basically had her get zapped by a Kree machine in a crossfire when Mar'Vell was fighting a villian, back when Danvers was Mar'Vell's love interest. That zap is what endowed her with Kree genetics and her super powers.

I agree btw with your stinger changes for Dr. Strange.

[Mathim]

Thanks. I also might have gone with Scarlet Witch popping up after Strange tells Thor he's going to be helping him find Loki, saying, "I thought you were going to be teaching me how to control my powers?" And Strange would look slightly embarrassed while Thor chuckles, and replies, "Well, we're just going to have to learn on the go."

Also with Ronan, I'd have had Broker tell Quill about Ronan's origin, maybe explaining that Ronan was orphaned during the war between the Kree and Xandar, and he was taken in by some monks, sowing the seeds of his fanaticism. I would also have made him head of the Universal Church of Truth, and throwing a coup to put himself in charge. Then I would have had a scene with him going up to the office of the Kree Prime Minister, chastising him for his cowardly acceptance of the peace treaty and demonstrating that even among Kree, Ronan's strength is immense, lending some credibility to the bizarre faith he espouses. He would then crucify the Prime Minister on his own desk, kick it out the top-floor window and let it crash to the ground below, creating a panic and making it so that there would be a power vacuum, so that the Kree planet would be in chaos and not in any position to attack Xandar after the Dark Aster's attack, which left the Nova Corps' forces crippled. Because really, the Kree have no reason not to immediately take advantage of this opportunity to attack and strike a critical blow against Xandar, as dishonorable as that would be.

[HannibalBarca]

Okay, so I gave up collecting comics in the 90s, right around when the huge glut of comics and sports cards hit.  I collected no less than twenty titles a month, mostly Marvel, with a couple DC and Dark Horse.  I sold most of my massive collection after I got married, holding on to personal favorites like my X-Men Death of Phoenix original issue (signed by inker Klaus Janson!) and my various eccentric titles (Atari Force, Milk & Cheese, Usagi Yojimbo).

I didn't really get back into comics--the film aspect at least--until my son showed interest in MCU.  That was 2 years ago. By that time, I'd only seen the first two Spider-Man movies.  We checked out the Iron Man films, the first Thor, both Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, first Cap, newest Fantastic Four, first two X-Men, Deadpool, and loved the new Dr. Strange.  He's also seen the original Batman with Keaton, The Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel, and Batman v Superman.  We both love the Flash series, and I also watch Daredevil and Luke Cage.  I've tried to catch him up on all the history of both Marvel and DC up to the early 90s, because he's really enjoying the films, regardless of the critics...he's almost 15, and it's all fun for him.

I once had Thanos Quest and Infinity Gauntlet, so I know what's coming up in the MCU. I have two questions for those of you who are more caught up on the comics side as well as knowing more of the master plans for both Marvel and DC cinematics universes:

1.  What other Marvel and DC films are worth watching out of what's left from above?  I know the Hulk films and Green Lantern got panned, as well as some of the mid range of the X-Men and the Wolverine films.  Are they worth seeing anyway?  Is Agents of Shield watchable?  I can't get into Arrow, though my son loves it.

2.  What is the news on Infinity Gauntlet?  Nebula and Adam Warlock aren't in the MCU as far as I know, and they play major roles in the comic arc, in IG and Infinity War after.  Why aren't the Skrull in MCU either?  I figured they'd be easy to use as the aliens Loki works with in Avengers, but MCU didn't take that course.

3.  Spider-Man is back in-house as far as MCU, but FF and X-Men are still out I know.  I also understand, from watching some youtube comics channels, that X-Men are basically being phased out, and Inhumans are being pushed.  WTF?  Inhumans, really?  Is there anything ongoing to try to work out the Marvel/Disney/Fox impasse on X-Men?  No X-Men in Infinity Gauntlet really sucks.

4.  I am a huge fan of the original 80s Secret Wars.  I wonder if there's any rumors about that eventually working its way into MCU.  I've heard bad things about Marvel's comics side in the last several years, as far as multi-title story arcs twice a year or so, and a reboot or something of Secret Wars.  The first one was incredible, but anything similar would absolutely require FF and X-Men rejoined to the MCU.

[Mathim]

Okay, so I gave up collecting comics in the 90s, right around when the huge glut of comics and sports cards hit.  I collected no less than twenty titles a month, mostly Marvel, with a couple DC and Dark Horse.  I sold most of my massive collection after I got married, holding on to personal favorites like my X-Men Death of Phoenix original issue (signed by inker Klaus Janson!) and my various eccentric titles (Atari Force, Milk & Cheese, Usagi Yojimbo).

I didn't really get back into comics--the film aspect at least--until my son showed interest in MCU.  That was 2 years ago. By that time, I'd only seen the first two Spider-Man movies.  We checked out the Iron Man films, the first Thor, both Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, first Cap, newest Fantastic Four, first two X-Men, Deadpool, and loved the new Dr. Strange.  He's also seen the original Batman with Keaton, The Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel, and Batman v Superman.  We both love the Flash series, and I also watch Daredevil and Luke Cage.  I've tried to catch him up on all the history of both Marvel and DC up to the early 90s, because he's really enjoying the films, regardless of the critics...he's almost 15, and it's all fun for him.

I once had Thanos Quest and Infinity Gauntlet, so I know what's coming up in the MCU. I have two questions for those of you who are more caught up on the comics side as well as knowing more of the master plans for both Marvel and DC cinematics universes:

1.  What other Marvel and DC films are worth watching out of what's left from above?  I know the Hulk films and Green Lantern got panned, as well as some of the mid range of the X-Men and the Wolverine films.  Are they worth seeing anyway?  Is Agents of Shield watchable?  I can't get into Arrow, though my son loves it.

2.  What is the news on Infinity Gauntlet?  Nebula and Adam Warlock aren't in the MCU as far as I know, and they play major roles in the comic arc, in IG and Infinity War after.  Why aren't the Skrull in MCU either?  I figured they'd be easy to use as the aliens Loki works with in Avengers, but MCU didn't take that course.

3.  Spider-Man is back in-house as far as MCU, but FF and X-Men are still out I know.  I also understand, from watching some youtube comics channels, that X-Men are basically being phased out, and Inhumans are being pushed.  WTF?  Inhumans, really?  Is there anything ongoing to try to work out the Marvel/Disney/Fox impasse on X-Men?  No X-Men in Infinity Gauntlet really sucks.

4.  I am a huge fan of the original 80s Secret Wars.  I wonder if there's any rumors about that eventually working its way into MCU.  I've heard bad things about Marvel's comics side in the last several years, as far as multi-title story arcs twice a year or so, and a reboot or something of Secret Wars.  The first one was incredible, but anything similar would absolutely require FF and X-Men rejoined to the MCU.

You came to the right place!

1. I would avoid the Wolverine-centric X-Men movies, but definitely check out the retro trilogy of First Class, Days of Future Past, and Apocalypse. Also the Blade trilogy averages out to be pretty good. And if you haven't seen the Daredevil movie, I liked it well enough even if general audiences didn't. Agents of SHIELD is pretty slow throughout most of the first season but once season 2 starts showing more people with powers, it gets good. Season 3 even better, and I haven't seen any of season 4 yet beyond the first episode, but I liked what I saw. If you know what happens in The Winter Soldier, go ahead and start with season 2, you won't have missed much on Agents of SHIELD. And yeah, Arrow is kinda lame. It would be much better off with 13-episode seasons. Flash is way better. Legends of Tomorrow is kinda disjointed but I'd give it a chance.

2. Nebula actually IS in the MCU, played by Karen Gillan in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and she's been shown in the teaser for Volume 2 so she's making a return appearance. In one Easter Egg scene in the post-credits of the first film, the cocoon that supposedly contained Adam Warlock is shown to have opened, so we may be seeing him yet. If not, I would bet Doctor Strange assumes whatever role he played in the Infinity Gauntlet crisis. And because Fox owns the rights to almost all Fantastic Four associated characters, that's why the Skrulls weren't in the MCU.

3. Speculation is that in order to 'punish' Fox and hurt their ability to profit from their film franchises, the comics are phasing out mutants and focusing on Inhumans which are basically indistinguishable but for the origin of their powers, because Marvel owns the latter and can basically substitute any existing mutant power with an Inhuman possessing that or a similar ability. If Fox stops drinking their own Kool-Aid, they'll wise up and start working with Marvel more, as in the past, they've acted like whiny brats and fucked up a couple of reasonable deals, although they did make one concession, apparently, to let Ego the Living Planet go in exchange for letting Negasonic Teenage Warhead from Deadpool have a different mutant power than in the comics.

4. Funny you should mention Secret Wars, I was seriously skeptical that Marvel could successfully pull off Infinity War this early on, and that Secret Wars would have been a far better third Avengers movie. The closest we're likely to get, at least according to info we have right now, is whatever is going to happen in Thor: Ragnarok, which is likely a meshing of Ragnarok, Planet Hulk and possibly some elements of Secret Wars. We'll probably see more elements from it in the Avengers films of Phase 3 but it's hard to tell which. And honestly, I could live without Spider-Man being involved (the whole being a teenager thing is just killing it for me), and I love that the MCU has been so great even without him and the X-Men up til recently, so I'd be totally fine with them doing their own original Secret Wars without them, like how they pulled off Civil War without them or the Fantastic Four.

[HannibalBarca]

Thanks much for the info, Mathim.  I forgot that Nebula was in GotG--I've only seen it once, and it was good stuff.  I'm wondering how they'll introduce Death as Thanos' love interest, or all of the other available godlike beings like Order/Chaos and the Living Tribunal.  With Dr. Strange in the mix, it should be easier.  I don't think Strange would be a bad replacement for Adam Warlock, but if his cocoon was shown (I'll have to check that out, I didn't watch that last bit) then he will probably be making an appearance in some movie soon, maybe Thor: Ragnarok.

[Mathim]

Thanks much for the info, Mathim.  I forgot that Nebula was in GotG--I've only seen it once, and it was good stuff.  I'm wondering how they'll introduce Death as Thanos' love interest, or all of the other available godlike beings like Order/Chaos and the Living Tribunal.  With Dr. Strange in the mix, it should be easier.  I don't think Strange would be a bad replacement for Adam Warlock, but if his cocoon was shown (I'll have to check that out, I didn't watch that last bit) then he will probably be making an appearance in some movie soon, maybe Thor: Ragnarok.

Since we haven't heard any casting news on Warlock, and we've already seen a teaser for Volume 2, I'm not sure whether Warlock is actually going to show up. I do hope for a Beta Ray Bill cameo in Ragnarok, though. And speculation suggests that Hela, the Asgardian mythos' ruler of the non-Valhalla part of the afterlife, will substitute for Lady Death as Thanos' object of affection. We saw what we believe was a glimpse of her in that trailer from a scene that got cut from Age of Ultron, but it's unclear who the actress was of if indeed that was Hela or someone else.

[wander]

Cate Blanchett will be playing Hela in Thor:Ragnarok, to confirm something.  :-)