What's Next?

If you go into a theatre nowadays you can no doubt find a Marvel movie playing. From its multiple franchises be it the Avengers, X-men or The Amazing Spiderman they can always be trusted to bring an entertaining and action-packed movie (I said recently; don't even mention Dare Devil or Ghost Rider).  The next few movies in the Marvel franchises are as promising as ever.

The Amazing Spiderman 2 is presently in theatres and contrary to the Avengers where you get several heroes for the price of one, you get several villans. The classic Green Goblin, plus Electro and Rhino. I was originally opposed to the remaking of the Spiderman but the comedic performance of Andrew Garfeild and the more advanced special effects have changed my perspective (plus so far there hasn't been EMO Spiderman, see Spiderman 3 for reference). I Haven't been to see it quite yet but it seems promising.

Next to come to theatres will be X-men: Days of Future Past. I much look forward to seeing this next instalment tying together the original cast of mutants from X-men, X-2 and X-men: Last Stand with the new cast form the prequel X-men: First Class (a favorite of mine). I have long awaited the follow up to the original trilogie and would love some explanation to a few time parodoxs beetween the two series. Looks exciting and leaves the door open for sequels such as X-Men:Apocalypse.

Marvel is pushing the boundaries with Guardians of the Galaxy, and I couldn't be happier. There's nothing like seeing obscure heroes coming to the big screen and it's one big blow to DC comics knowing that Marvel got a superhero movie with a a talking tree and a raccoon made before it could pull together a Justice League. The team of alien fugitives protecting the galaxy from the Collecter(the guy in the after-credit screen from Thor: the Dark World) promises to be everything we've come to expect from Marvel movies and more. This summer is going to be action packed and just a little weird.

Further in the future we've got other movies to look forward to, Avengers: Age of Ultron come out a year from Tuesday, May 29 the sequel to the highest grossing movie ever made(single release). Shortly after we have Ant Man another somewhat obscure hero, I have very little information on the movie except for the fact that it comes out summer 2015 and it stars Paul Rudd. Even further in the future we have a Fantastic Four Reboot which I have absolutely no info on besides the primary cast.

What ever we movies Marvel brings to the big screen, I look forward to.With so many coming out at once it's hard to decide which to be excited about most. And DC is lucky if it gets two movies out in a year.

Excelsior, Marc out.

It's a Beautiful Thing

Breaking away from the typical superhero image, the female superhero or super heroine have had their successes and their failures. Being praised by feminists for the powerful image of women and at the same time being criticized for their physical appearance makes them somewhat controversial. However, given that the primary audience of comic books and superhero movies are nerdy guys who can't get girls, the super heroines aren't in danger of falling out of popularity.

That said, who has the best super heroines? I am so glad you asked. Marvel does. I know what a lot of you are thinking, Wonder Woman. She has her merits but she is REALLY lame as a hero, think about it. She has a lasso of truth (I don't get it; it's a lasso that makes you tell the truth?),  indestructible bracelets (which I'm sure are very useful), and an invisible plane (which would actually be kind of cool if she weren't still visible while inside) none of which make her interesting as a heroine. Then there's Super Girl who essentially is a female version of Super Man (real creative DC), Cat Woman for which the movie speaks for me, Hawk Girl who...has the powers of a hawk? Not very inspired.

Now let's take a look at Marvels line up of killer ladies. We have Black Widow the red-headed Russian assassin (she's in the Avengers, Iron man 2 and Captain America 2 nuff said), Jean Grey/the Pheonix with telekinetic powers she can use to literally tear people apart or resurrect them, Scarlet Witch the daughter of Magneto who can manipulate reality itself (she will be in Avengers:age of Ultron), the Invisible Woman female member of the Fantastic Four, She-Hulk green skin and a law degree, Electra the ninja assassin, Wasp, Storm, Emma Frost, Valkyrie, Spider Woman, The Lady Sif, Psylocke, Tigra, sorry for rambling there are just so many great female heroes in the Marvel universes (yes plural, if you read comics you know what I'm talking about). All totalled, Marvel has better super heroines, they are more powerful, more diverse, and it doesn't hurt that they're easy on the eyes (I'm a nerdy guy, deal with it feminists).

Excelsior, Marc out.

It's a Fine Line

My last post about villains got me thinking about the Anti-Hero, a character that despite technically being a hero doesn’t posses typical heroic characteristics. The most famous anti-hero, or should I say, the hero most famous for being an anti-hero is DC’s Batman. (Yes I’m trashing Batman again).

Although he is praised as an anti-hero I really don’t see how he fits into the description. Besides the fact that he looks like a bat and he fights crime at night what qualifies him as an anti-hero. He doesn’t kill his super-villains he captures them knowing full well they will simply escape Arkam Asylum and wreak havoc again. He’s afraid to hit a woman (see Batman Returns), he works with children (robin), not to mention that he is affiliated with the government (which sort of makes him evil but not in the anti-hero way). Batman is NOT an anti-hero.

 Do you want to know who some REAL anti-heroes are? Well for that we look to the best superhero franchise ever, Marvel. Ghost Rider and The Punisher.

The Punisher is everything an Anti-hero should be. He is all about murder, torture and various other forms of pain in pursuit of…Justice? In addition to being highly skilled in combat, he is practically a walking armory with every firearm from machine guns to rocket-launchers, making him capable of vast amounts of destruction, leaving a trail of death behind him (if that’s not and anti-hero I don’t know what is). Another thing that makes him an anti-hero is the fact that he himself is an outlaw, Batman has sometimes been wanted by the police but only in certain versions and never permanently.

Ghost Rider. Let me start by saying that he is one of my absolute favorite characters in Marvel (not based on the movies). Just saying that he is a flaming skeleton biker who got his powers from the devil should be enough to prove that he’s one epic anti-hero. If you want more, how about that his primary weapons are flaming chains (hellfire chains to be specific), or how his powers are essentially a curse he has to overcome, or how he LITTERALLY burns your soul with his eyes. I’d take a flaming motorcycle over the batmobile any day of the week.

Compared to these guys Batman may as well be a boy scout.

Excelsior, Marc out.

For Every Hero...

A hero is nothing without his villains; the sole purpose of a hero is to fight of threats that no one else can. In this instance, and it pains me to type this, some of the most interesting villains are from the DC franchise. However, these villains are all exclusive to one hero…Bat Man.

Bat Man has an amazing line up of foes threatening Gotham city, from the Joker to Two Face to Mr. Freeze to Scarecrow to the Riddler they are interesting characters and I give credit where credit is due. But go outside the Bat Man franchise and you have…Lex Luthor…Sinestro…um…Brainiac…awkward.

Even within Bat Man the villains rarely threaten anything but the city itself. They arm themselves with bombs, toxins, high-tech weapons, or just brute strength to terrorize only within Gotham (did not one of them think about leaving the city and moving somewhere that’s Bat Manless). The best Marvel villains threaten entire countries, the human race like or simply life itself.

I could go on about all my favorite villains but instead I’ll focus on my absolute favorites.

 Eric Lehnsherr is a mutant with the ability to manipulate metal with his mind, you probably know him as Magneto. His past as a Holocaust survivor makes him one of the most sympathetic villains in comic books. His objective of Mutant supremacy, his incredible powers and his brotherhood of evil Mutants (including some of my other favorite villains such as Mystique, Juggernaut and Sabertooth) instills fear, awe and not a small amount of trouble for the X-Men.

 Loki brother of Thor, made famous by his film portrayal by Tom Hiddleston is Marvel’s answer to the Joker. Granted, the Joker is not a villain that you can compare many others to, but Loki has his own intrigue. Beside the fact that he is the god of mischief straight out of Norse mythology, being Thor’s brother creates an intriguing hero/villain relationship between the pair. Plus he the primary villain in the AVENGERS (best movie ever).

Finally, the villain to end all villains (and heroes for that matter) Galactus. The unstoppable force who’s only goal is to devour planets. Originally a villain for the Fantastic Four his massive size and power makes him the end-all villain (literally). He is often only defeated by a group of heroes fighting together. I would like to see Joker beat that.

These are only a few of the many heroes Marvel has to offer. I didn’t even mention Ultron, Dr. Doom, Red skull, Venom, Dr. Octopus, Abomination, the Mandarin and many others. We may love the heroes but the villains are sometimes the best part of a franchise.

Excelsior, Marc out.

Movie Spoilers

I thought I would give DC the week off, let them recover a bit before the second round. Over the weekend I went to the movies and saw the new Captain America movie: Captain American the Winter Soldier. Personally, Captain America has never been my favorite hero in the Marvel franchise (in part because I'm Canadian) but this movie was in a word...AWESOME!

 I was trying to think of how to talk about this movie without giving anything away so after giving it some thought I've decided to fill it with spoilers and you will have to find a way to be ok with that.

After watching Thor: the Dark World, I was disappointed. Not to say that it was a bad movie but I found it lacked in certain aspects, such ass character development in both Thor and the main antagonist Malekith, who had the potential to be an amazing villain but who instead was vague and hardly present. (I have personally heard people refer to him as “that elf guy”). I was concerned that Marvel had reached its peek and the quality of the movies was beginning to drop.

 However, I was happily mistaken. The new movie was exciting, action-packed, funny, and brought in new layers of Marvel characters. In adition to the returning Captain America, Black Widow,Nick Fury and other favorites, characters I thought would never work in a live action movie like Arnim Zola and the Falcon seemed to fit seamlessly into the Marvel cinematic universe, something that would not be easy to do considering it’s a man who downloaded himself into a computer and a man who flies around with high tech wings.

The movie had its share of memorable moments like the death of Nick Fury which had me nearly jumping out of my seat in anger (until he came back half way through), and the return of captain America’s side-kick Bucky Barns as the deadly assassin the Winter Soldier. But all this pales in comparison to the realization that the Nazi splinter group Hydra, though disbanded at the end of WWII, had actually infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D at the highest level and are now behind the wheel of three heavily armed helicarriers capable of eliminating millions of targets in a matter of minutes. It’s all just so awesome!

Not to mention the after-credits scene introducing new heroes to appear in the Avengers: Age of Ultron, Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff) and Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) (of which I already was aware of because of thorough internet research).

I’ll stop rambling before this post becomes pages long. If you haven’t seen the movie see it.

Excelsior, Marc out.