MadCap At The Movies - "Deadpool and Wolverine" (2024)

 

There are many great duos in history.

Romulus and Remus.

Bulk and Skull.

Lennon and McCartney.

And of all the duos in history... this is one of them.

MadCap At The Movies - "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" (2023)

 ...this movie is good. Go watch it.

Yeah, that's... that's pretty much it. That's the takeaway here. Go.

Right now.

Go.

...alright, fine. But don't say I didn't put up a spoiler warning.

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "The Eternals" (2021)

So... most of you who know me will know that I can be very opinionated about a lot of things. I am a person who either really, really likes something or I utterly despise it. There is rarely, if ever, any middle ground.

So, this is going to surprise many of you... as it surprised me when I got about halfway through it.

I do not have strong feelings about The Eternals one way or another.

MadCap's D&D Builds - Moon Knight Build (Marvel) (5e)

Well, it's been a while since we were off to the races with a 5e build, so let's do us another one! After watching Moon Knight, I struck inspiration... so, obviously, this is gonna be a Darkhawk build!

... just kidding.

Seriously, do any of you know who Darkhawk is?

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (2021)

. . .remember when we used to be able to watch these in movie theaters?

Yeah, no, fuck COVID.

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "Black Widow" (2021)

 

Yeah, okay, something else to check off the bucket list.

I was actually a fan Black Widow before it was cool. Legitimately thought she deserved to have a movie before certain other individuals, and not just because I'm the undying love slave of Scarlett Johansson.

. . .okay, not only because I'm the undying love slave of Scarlett Johansson.

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (2018)

Yeah, I admit this one is long overdue. Tina is still giving me grief for having not seen it before. It's not that I didn't want to, honestly. It's just that things kept popping up and getting in the way of giving this a proper viewing and review. Now, three years late, I'll attempt to set right what once went wrong. Maybe, kind of, a bit.

MadCap At The Movies - "Spider-Man: Far From Home"

HEY! HEY! HEY, EVERYBODY! DID YOU KNOW THAT IRON MAN DIED IN AVENGERS: ENDGAME?! IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT THAT YOU KNOW THAT IRON MAN DIED IN AVENGERS: ENDGAME! HEY! HEY HEY!

...this is pretty much the entire first half hour of the film.

What starts out as a fitting and rather well-done tribute to those lost during Endgame (weirdly set to Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You") in the first few minutes turns into a film that spends a third of its run time praising a man who destroyed all of his company's weapons in order to build a bigger, more more destructive one and then about forty-seven variations of that, created an artificial intelligence that nearly ended the world as well as killed several thousand people and received no blame for it, willingly handed control over his team to a government that could still be crawling with HYDRA agents for all he knew, then fought and criminalized many of his friends when they didn't want to go along with it, manipulated a teenage boy from Queens into being his own personal soldier, and was apologetic for literally none of it before doing what was literally the least he could have done and sacrificing himself for the greater good.

So. CAN WE PLEASE STOP TRYING TO PASS OFF MCU TONY AS A GOOD GUY ALREADY?!

HE REALLY, REALLY WASN'T!

MadCap's Mad Rantings - "Shut the Hell Up, Bill Maher 2: Electric Bugaloo"

Because, y'know...sometimes, people just can't leave well enough alone. After all, why bother, right? It's not as if Stan Lee isn't around to defend the legacy of his work or anything- OH WAIT!

MadCap's Mad Rantings - "#MakeShulkyHotAgain"

Okay, before I stick my feet into this particular fire - it really should be #MakeShulkieHotAgain.

I'm just saying, I've never seen it spelled "Shulky" anywhere ever and it really kind of bothers me. Just my perspective as being raised by a Grammar Nazi, and I wanted to get that off my chest before I unpack the rest of this.

And oh, boy is there a lot to unpack here.

MadCap's Mad Rantings - "Shut the Hell Up, Bill Maher"

So, Bill Maher is kind of a complete jackass.

...okay, let me back this up a bit.

On November 12, 2018 - five days ago at the time that I'm typing this - Stan Lee passed away. The former Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics, he is - along with the likes of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko - responsible for the groundwork that led to Marvel succeeding as the powerhouse that it is today, both in comics and in cinema as we've seen over the last decade with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He was quite old, ninety-five years of age, but it was a sad thing to have to see the passing of someone who inspired so much wonder, joy, and courage in the world through his work. He created literally hundreds of characters and an entire universe for them to live in, which is still being built upon to this very day in the form of comic books.

I have (and will always regret) never met him in person, but anyone that I've spoken to who has met him has said that he had an infectious enthusiasm, a sharp wit, and a deep love and appreciation for his fans. He wanted to entertain people and, in the process, gave us characters that we could love and cherish and even relate to and learn from.

I, personally, took several lessons from the man's work.

Captain America teaches us to do our best to be brave, and that right is right regardless of its futility.

The X-Men teach us that just because someone is different doesn't mean you should hate or fear them and we can, in fact, all get along in spite of our differences.

The story of Doctor Strange teaches humility and self-sacrifice, and imparts the wisdom that sometimes all you need to solve your problems is to put your mind to the task.

And Spider-Man, well...that one really does go without saying.

The point is, Stan Lee with just those four examples (and I'm sure that others could come up with many, many more), imparted lessons through his work that remain in our minds long after we've set down the comic. He was a force of good, no matter what some might say. His passing is a sad event, and he will be sorely missed by many.

So, naturally, Bill Maher decides to come along and belittle him and his work, and void his bowels all over the man's grave.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2"

It's come to my attention that there's an oddly disproportionate amount of Marvel Comics related content on my blog. It's something that really goes back to my childhood where some of the first comics I ever read were Amazing Spider-Man and the X-Men stuff, and I likewise grew up watching their animated series stuff. What with the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the last ten years, I've become even more of a fan as I've been exposed to facets of the comics that I would have never have considered before.

Right now, for the record, I'm reading Doctor Strange and Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider pretty much diligently.

MadCap At The Movies - "Avengers: Infinity War"

Go see this movie.

...no, that's not a joke. Get up, leave your computer or other internet-accessing device, and go see this movie.

MadCap At The Movies - "Black Panther"

So! Black Panther. The next step in the saga of T'Challa of Wakanda (Chadwick Boseman) as we see him dealing with the fall out of Captain America: Civil War. For me, at least, T'Challa was the most likable character in the whole of Civil War even with the addition of Spider-Man. He had a sympathetic backstory that we could relate to on an emotional level, and he showed himself to be a true hero by choosing forgiveness and peace over revenge and conflict, something which had consumed both Steve Rogers and Tony Stark by the end of that film.

Naturally, one would expect him to get his own solo film and rightly so. He proved through the narrative of Civil War that he was an interesting enough character, and that Boseman had the acting chops, to carry his own feature. So, two years after Steve Rogers delivered to Tony Stark his rightful ass-whooping, we come to this film. Is it a worthy continuation of the story of T'Challa? Is it worth all the praise that both audiences and critics have been heaping on it? Or is it, as some might have you believe, just another sign of Marvel sliding into a bottomless pit of failure?

In this order: Yes, yes, and get a life, losers.

MadCap's Comic Reviews - "Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #1"

The more astute of my readers (and good luck figuring out, between the three of you, who I'm talking about) might have noticed that I am a fan of Spider-Man. I'm not a fan of pretty much anything that Marvel has done with Spider-Man (in the comics, anyway) since about 2007. Why? Because Spider-Man had his entire status quo altered by a very, very poor deus (or should I say devil) ex machima that should have been laughed out of the writer's room in concept, much less ever make it into print. Joe Quesada insists that his magnum opus One More Day is a story about love and sacrifice, when it is really a story about Peter Parker rejecting his own creed of "with great power comes great responsibility".

So yes, it was basically Secret Empire before Secret Empire ever existed. But One More Day at least had the decency to only be four issues long.

However, as you can tell from the title, my hatred of Joe Quesada and Nick Spencer (who both still have jobs and Nick Spencer is due to take over for Dan Slott in writing Spidey - oh joy!) isn't what we're here to talk about. We can save that for another day. No, we're here to talk about the Scarlet Spider!

...no, not that one, though I could see why you might think that. Kaine did have the last ongoing series under the name and he has been, for a few years now, the only active Scarlet Spider, but no. I'm here to talk about the original Scarlet Spider: Ben Muckfothering Reilly.

And yes, that is his legal name.

MadCap's Trailer Reactions - "Venom"

...well, I suppose that are more pointless ways to fill one minute and forty-nine seconds.

Oh, sorry! I didn't see you there!

...y'know, sitting at your computer or reading this from your phone somewhere. I'm totally not right behind you right now. I just watched the Venom teaser trailer! You can watch it right here:

Well, congratulations. You wasted almost two minutes of your life that you will now never get back. Do you feel the pointlessness now? Feel it enter you being and then unleash it with a nice, long "meh".

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "Iron Man 3" (2013)

Okay, so...almost three years ago, I said I was going to do this. I honestly wanted to keep my bias out of this, but I just really hate this movie. I do. I hated it when I saw it in the theater, I hated it when I watched it on my home on DVD, and I hate it now having to review it yet again. After the glorious height that Marvel had reached in The Avengers, they crap out this. This is, in my mind, the worst movie the MCU has produced at the time of this writing. I think the only one that comes remotely close to it in terms of absolute horribleness is Thor: The Dark World, which we'll be getting into not long after this one.

Unlike the Phase One films, I'll likely be following these in terms of release rather than personal preference.

And, of course, with the release of Thor: Ragnarok, doing the third movie in one of Marvel's franchises seems topical enough, so let's crack into this steaming pile.

MadCap At The Movies - "Thor: Ragnarok"

So, Thor: Ragnarok. I was going to do this as a vlog post, but considering how retro the film feels, I figured it would be best to go back to blog format for this review!

Also, I was displeased with my recording of this and thus will be looking into new equipment very shortly, if you desire to know the actual reason for this sudden reversion.

From here on, there be spoilers. You have been warned.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series" (Episode 4)

As I type these words, I have just completed a journey, dear readers. This journey has seen a father come to peace with the death of his daughter, two sisters reconcile, and a space flight out of the anus of a giant worm.

...oh, sorry, I've just been informed that it's pronounced colon.

Obviously, spoilers are to follow, so if you have not yet played Episode 4 - "Who Needs You" - go and do so now.  For everyone else, let's get down to brass tacks.

MadCap's Trailer Reactions - "Captain America: Civil War"

Ohhhh, boy...this movie.

Anyway, you know the drill by now.  Watch the trailer, then read on...

Now, anyone who's been following my blog for a while, or who knows my general disposition towards Marvel Comics, or has a shred of common sense will know that I'm not a fan of the comic book storyline Civil War.

Short recap: The government wants register superhumans after an incident that killed a few hundred civilians. Iron Man says yes, Captain America says no, they fight and so do a bunch of other superheroes in the Marvel universe. In the end, Iron Man does a lot of illegal things, but in the end Cap and the Anti-Registration side are the bad guys so Tony Stark doesn't spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement at a maximum security prison.

Oh, and Spider-Man makes a deal with Satan.  Charming.

Needless to say, I don't have a very high opinion of the event and I don't know a lot of people who do. However, I've decided to not treat this film on the merits of the adaptation. After all, stupid ideas have been made to work in the hands of good writers. And even ideas that were good have been brought to new heights in adaptation - such as in Captain America: Winter Soldier. So, could that potentially happen for Civil War? Let's have a look at what we have so far.

First off: the bad. There's no Spidey in this trailer.  Yeah, I was disappointed, too. Especially since this is going to be his first appearance on the MCU scene, I figured there'd be at least something to show of him. Not showing their hand on him isn't a bad choice, however, especially after the previous two film adaptations of our friendly neighborhood snarky joke machine that have gone over as polarizing at best.

The final scene where Cap and Tony have the exchange about Bucky. "He's my friend" "So was I", doesn't...really work.

One of the very, very few things I will give the comic event Civil War credit for is in the fact that it used the long established friendship of Steve Rogers and Tony Stark as a point of conflict. Sure, they were now dire enemies, but they had been friends and respected one another a great deal.  In any other situation, as they had demonstrated many times in 616 canon, they would have stood back to back against any foe. Mind you, that friendship was used as a way to try to pull at our heartstrings for what was one of the stupidest Marvel crossovers in recent memory, but still, it was there.

In the MCU...they've know each other for all of two major events. While that's a big deal to some, it's not really when you compare it to the (at the time in the comics) 40 years worth of storylines that they had fought alongside one another in. The line "So was I" comes across as Tony trying to put himself up on the same level of Bucky...which is really just offensive when you break it down. Bucky, in the MCU, had been Cap's best friend since before he was ever Cap. Tony is a guy who, while he's fought in two major conflicts alongside Cap, does not have the same bearing with him as a man who he had known since boyhood and fought alongside for years in war against the Nazis/HYDRA.

Needless to say, I was immensely satisfied with the scene where Tony is getting wailed on by Cap and Bucky.

However, since we've gotten through the bad, let's get into some good: Black Panther. Sure, he has no speaking lines, but we do get our first good look at him and I have to admit, I do like how he looks. It's a problem in superhero comic movies to see translations of superhero outfits not come over so well. This has been seen in some films and television shows, as well as been made a joke in others (such as the recently released and quite excellent Jessica Jones). However, Black Panther doesn't seem to have suffered that fate, having a very sleek look to his black armor that is very fitting of the comics version of the Wakandan king.

And so far, that's really all there is to talk about. No Spidey, a little of a very good-looking Black Panther, and a conflict that literally no party involved is going to look good coming out of. Given the "realistic" version of the Marvel world that the MCU wants to present, perhaps we will actually see some consequences to people's actions.

Then again, somebody might want to bring up that whole "Stark's AI tried to drop a city on the world" thing...might help to paint things in a different light.

Captain America: Civil War will be released to theaters from Disney and Marvel on May 5, 2016.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.