Not that he needs me to say it, but @SiddhantAdlakha is a gentleman and a scholar, and one of the finest critics to write about the Marvel Cinematic Universe from a place of knowledge and insight.
Also, it is frankly terrifying that @ign would consider replacing him as a reviewer on #Loki because he gave an opinion on the show that rabid Marvel fans didn’t like.
It’s a potentially chilling critical precedent. “Validate fans’ opinions, or else…!”
It’s weird how insecure fans get about these things.
There are plenty of my peers and people I respect who hold different opinions than I do.
However, I am secure enough in my opinion to know in my heart that “Demolition Man” is a true masterpiece of American cinema.
Even ignoring its potentially chilling implications for the industry and the profession, what does this whole panic say about fandom?
Fans claim they want the things they love to be taken seriously, and then start issuing death threats the moment someone takes them seriously.
Anyway, this is a travesty.
And it doesn’t bode well.
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Really fascinating to see a lot of superhero fans who hate Alan Moore holding up Grant Morrison as a creator who writes with “shame, malice or false pretence.”
(I love Morrison, to be clear.)
Have you not read any of their work from the past decade and change?
Since around 2011, there’s been a really profound sadness and disillusionment to Morrison’s mainstream superhero work, which is often about the limits that exist within the framework of corporate comics.
They’ve also grappled with something that a lot of comic book fans would to well to even acknowledge: the fact that these characters, treated as moral ideals and exemplars, were the product of exploitation.
Superman is tainted by the exploitation of Siegel and Shuster.
Broke: "Oppenheimer's politics will be 'wrong' viewed through the lens of Twitter discourse."
Woke: "'Oppenheimer' is likely about how guilty Christopher Nolan feels for reshaping pop culture with the 'Dark Knight' trilogy and studios taking exactly the wrong lessons from it."
I don't know if it will be, but Nolan's movies are often *about* his own work. Often specifically the morality of it.
Whether that's the morality of tricking the audience into catharsis ("Inception") or abandoning your family to make an epic adventure ("Interstellar").
It certainly won't be the *only* think "Oppenheimer" will be about, but the trailer vibes are very much "... we did this frankly incredible thing, but it altered the world in ways that indulged all humanity's worst self-destructive impulses."
It'll be "The Marvels" before we have any real sense of how/if "superhero fatigue" is progressing.
"Guardians", "Spider-Verse" and "The Flash" are exceptional cases in ways that will likely boost their box office. "Blue Beetle" and "Kraven" are exceptional in the opposite way.
"Guardians" is a capper to a beloved trilogy. "Spider-Verse" is, as @ScottMendelson has argued, primed to be a breakout sequel starring Spider-Man. "The Flash" has two Batmen in it.
Whereas "Blue Beetle" and "Kraven" would be tough sells to general audiences at "peak superhero."
"The Marvels" will really be the first "average" superhero film since "Quantumania."
A mid-tier property that has a proven box office track record but without a nostalgia boost, with a strong cast and corporate synergy at play, but sold primarily on the Marvel brand.
I adore Jim Starlin's cosmic comics. I think they are massively under-appreciated as part of the evolution of seventies Marvel, and belong alongside the work of Miller or Claremont or Simonson.
Adam Warlock is one of the great Marvel characters, just like Thanos was.
The Adam Warlock who appears in "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3" is very different from the character who appears in the comics.
But, you know what? So was the version of Thanos who appeared in "Infinity War" and "Endgame", and people seemed fine with that.
The Adam Warlock who appears in "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3" is interesting and fun in his own right, tying well into the larger themes of the story being told.
If I want Starlin's version, I can just read Starlin's original comics again. Which you should. They're awesome.
"The Long Good Friday" remains one of the best gangster films ever made. Even just in terms of pure filmmaking, it's a ruthlessly efficient piece of work with a powerhouse central performance from Bob Hoskins.
"The Long Good Friday" is also one of the great snapshots of the early Thatcher era, a vision of Britain on the cusp of the eighties, caught between its past and future.
Enchanted by visions of bringing American capitalism in Europe, but haunted by the legacy of its empire.
As played by Hoskins, Harold is the perfect avatar of the moment.
Harold is a gangster wearing a mask of legitimacy and aspiration, but with only a white suit jacket and a glass of prosecco separating him from his more violent impulses.
Which heroes are playing the roles of Steve Rogers, Tony Stark or Thor Odinson in "the Multiverse Saga", the spine that holds this mammoth story all together?
Sam Wilson is the only character to headline a project in *both* Phase Four and Phase Five.