Before Peter Parker slung webs, before Hulk smashed, before there was Deadpool and Wolverine and Wakanda and mutants and infinity stones and cinematic universes — there was the core Four. You can separate the history of superhero comics into Before and After eras regarding Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s creation …
Read More »'Ironheart' Is Marvel's Gamble on a Minor MCU Hero. It Doesn't Pay Off
Riri Williams, who suits up as the titular heroine of the new Marvel Cinematic Universe series Ironheart, insists that her plans are much grander than flying around in a suit of armor inspired by Iron Man’s. Her technology, she boasts, will transform the world, and will be, as she says …
Read More »'Agatha All Along' Broke the Spell of MCU Misses
This post contains spoilers for the finale of Agatha All Along, now streaming on Disney+. For a show where the power of witches’ circles was so prominent, Agatha All Along felt like an appropriately full-circle moment for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was a direct sequel to the very first …
Read More »Robert Downey Jr. to Play Doctor Doom in Two 'Avengers' Films
Robert Downey Jr. is returning to the Marvel universe for two Avengers movies. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced the news during Marvel’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, as The Hollywood Reporter reports. Feige also revealed that the Russo brothers would direct the next Avengers film. The upcoming …
Read More »Marvel Just Fired Jonathan Majors. What Now?
While Kang is the most prominent time-traveling villain in Marvel Comics, it’s notable that he never seems interested in using time travel to change the past, preferring instead to visit different eras so he can conquer them, and build up his vast army along the way. If you gave the …
Read More »Marvel Studios' Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year
Oh, how the folks behind Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have fallen. Going into 2023, Marvel Studios was still busy licking their wounds from the previous year. Recent big-screen entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe had underwhelmed, notably Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder (despite the …
Read More »How a Mar-a-Lago Lunch Birthed the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Lunchtime, early 2003: Donald Trump was one year away from starring in The Apprentice and fourteen years away from being sworn in as the forty-fifth president of the United States. He owned a share of the Miss Universe beauty pageant, some Atlantic City casinos on the verge of bankruptcy, and …
Read More »'Secret Invasion' Is Marvel's Weak Tribute to the Avengers' Daddy
Back when Marvel was first dipping its toes into the waters of television with shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., then-Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb liked to use the phrase “It’s all connected” as a selling point. The idea was not just that the various Marvel series — whether Agents of …
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