Tag: reaction

Fallout Season 2: “The Strip” Review

Published on by KyraLeave a comment

Happy Saturday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with a reaction to Fallout Season Two’s Finale, “The Strip.” Before we get into any spoilers, I’ll set the table for this reaction/review. Fallout Season One played out similarly to Star Wars: A New Hope. The creatives behind the show didn’t know they were getting renewed for a second season, so they teased New Vegas as the setting for a potential Fallout Season Two. Conversely, the creatives behind the show knew they had been renewed for a third season before Season Two finished filming. So, Fallout Season Two’s finale plays out similarly to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Major plot points get introduced during the episode’s final ten minutes. Heck. There’s a rather large complication teased during Fallout Season Two’s end-credit scene.

Last week, I lauded Fallout season two’s penultimate episode for doing everything the next-to-last episode should do. It answers some questions, but held back elements for the season finale to explore. “The Strip” does a good job of answering some of these questions, but since season three is on the way, it asks almost as many questions as it answers.

I’ve kept this reaction spoiler-free for about as long as I can. We’re about to enter spoiler territory. You’ve been warned.

I’ll begin with Caesar’s Legion because it needs the least amount of explanation and receives the smallest airtime. Macauley Culkin’s character recovers Caesar’s corpse and reads the former leader’s last will. Basically, Caesar named himself his successor. Culkin’s Legate character doesn’t accept this answer and takes the crown for himself. He also eats Caesar’s message. Ew! Dude, that was on someone’s corpse, and it was decaying. Nastiness aside, Culkin’s character becomes the new Caesar and galvanizes the Legion toward the Holy Land, New Vegas, to build a palace. Caesar’s Palace. How many takes do you think it took Culkin to say that line without laughing? Watching the Legion march on New Vegas was a sight. I can’t wait for the impending battle.

Inside the Strip, Maximus fights off the horde of deathclaws. The action sequence ventures into the unrealistic. Deathclaws may be less deadly than radroaches. More on that in a minute. The scenes with Maximus and the deathclaws contain the most fan service. That’s much appreciated. Still no confirmation on what Thadeus is transforming into, but he manages to lead Freeside’s residents into a shop, where they promptly bet on how long Maximus can survive against the deathclaws. This is a nice callback to The Thorn (in Fallout: New Vegas). Combatants battled various wasteland creatures, like deathclaws, and observers would place bets. Nice!

The battle concludes when the New California Republic marches into town and takes over the deathclaw fight. While the moment when the NCR sniper kills a deathclaw brought a smile to my face, it was undercut by Lucy doing something similar a few episodes earlier. Why did Lucy need to mimic the NCR shot from the game? She was on Buffout. That was already cool and hilarious. I would’ve preferred Fallout to reserve that shot for the NCR. That’s a nitpick. The moment still rocked

Accompanied by Mr. House (via a Pip-Boy), The Ghoul searches the Vegas Executive Vault for his family. We receive a lot more of The Ghoul’s backstory, but I was left with even more questions. This is part of what I mean by Fallout Season 2 functioning like The Empire Strikes Back. The Enclave is behind most things, including the bombs falling, but we still don’t know who’s behind the Enclave. Someone’s behind it all, but we’ll get to that more while discussing Steph’s storyarc.
There are a lot of storyarcs during “The Strip.”

Surprise! The Ghoul’s family is not in the Vegas Executive Vault. Their cryogenic chambers are empty, but in Barb’s place was a postcard from Colorado. This is a callback to a Ghoul flashback. It looks like The Ghoul’s family is in Colorado. The Ghoul is at least on his way to Colorado. And this separates The Ghoul and Lucy.

Speaking of Lucy, she destroys the mainframe. Rather, at Diane Welch’s request, Lucy kills Welch’s severed head. Yeesh! I’m with Lucy in this scene. Why does everyone want her to kill them? While she ponders her next move, Lucy discovers her dad, Hank, escaped, and he wants to put a mind control chip on her, forcing her to obey. Dude, Hank just went total supervillain. Hank orders the brainwashed legionnaire to subdue Lucy, but The Ghoul shows up in the nick of time, shooting the legionnaire dead, and Hank in the buttocks. You could almost see the pop-up message, “Lucy Liked That.” Lucy turns the tables, placing a chip on Daddy Dearest. Before she hits the button, she wants answers. Of course, she doesn’t get them because Hank has his own button and resets his brain. This was a stellar moment.

Hank and Lucy’s story goes so hard. Both stay true to each other. We were never going to get a straight answer from Hank, and his action at the end solidified this fact. Loved this. We only have a few more threads to discuss: Steph, Norm, and the impending Enclave.

Surprise again! Steph and Hank are married. What? And the little time we get with Steph, we see her enact Phase Two, whatever that means. Steph contacts the Enclave, who have been listening to all the radio relays up to this point. A computer updates Phase One as completed, but Phase Two’s details are redacted. Because of course they are. My guess, and this is a guess, is that Phase Two has something to do with the Forced Evolutionary Virus. And that gets me back to Thaddeus. He may or may not become a Centaur, but he definitely got some variant of the Forced Evolutionary Virus.

We catch a glimpse of the Enclave, who have a base in the mountains. My guess, again a guess, is that the Enclave are based in Colorado, because that’s where The Ghoul is headed. We know the Super Mutants, who don’t make an appearance in this episode, have a vendetta against the Enclave. See what I mean about Fallout Season Two holding back most of its deck of cards? I have no idea where any of this will lead. “The Strip” gives us enough information to keep the audience engaged but dangles plenty of loose threads.

We have a couple more threads, I promise. The Vault-Tec goons unlock the radroaches from their farm. They wreak havoc. Seriously, the radroaches deal more damage than the deathclaws. Norm manages to rescue his would-be girlfriend, Claudia, from the wreckage. Funny how Norm and Claudia are the only ones left alive after the radroaches go ham. I’m not complaining. I don’t mind a Norm/Claudia side story for Fallout Season Three. So, that leaves us with at least four groups we’re following next season: Lucy, Maximus, and Thaddeus; The Ghoul and Dogmeat; Norm and Claudia; Vault 32 and 33. Oh. And the Brotherhood of Steel; they factor into the post-credit scene.

Elder Quintus has left his Unification stage and entered his Destruction stage. I’m unsure how the Brotherhood of Steel has hidden Liberty Prime Alpha, but I’m all for a kaiju battle in Fallout Season Three. There are so many places Fallout Season Three can go, and I’m pumped. Too bad we need to wait another year for the next episode.

So, what do you think? What was your favorite part about Fallout “The Strip?” Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Wonder Man Review

Published on by Kyra1 Comment

Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here again. I had intended to split my reaction to the MCU’s Wonder Man miniseries into two halves, but it wasn’t a long series, and I got into the series. In short, Wonder Man is one of the best Marvel television shows in years.

First, Wonder Man is only the second Marvel project to receive the Marvel Spotlight moniker; Echo was the first. The idea behind Marvel Spotlight projects is that one doesn’t need to know much about the MCU to understand and enjoy the show. While Wonder Man has some references to the greater MCU (most notably Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery, the fake Mandarin from Iron Man 3), it does a great job of weaving in the information you need to know about the character during the series’ runtime. Second, Wonder Man abandons most superhero tropes. This is a superhero show for people who don’t like or are tired of superhero shows. The show centers around Trevor Slattery and Simon Williams’s (portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) relationship.

The two of them are theater nerds, trying their best to break it in Hollywood. Their chemistry is electric. I’m struggling not to give away any spoilers. There will be some. You’ve been warned. Captured by the United States Department of Damage Control, Slattery is tasked with fetching enough dirt on Williams to lock him away for dangerous superpowers. But Williams only wants to be an actor. Unfortunately for Williams, there’s a ban on people with superpowers from becoming actors ever since Josh Gad–the actual actor, not a character Gad was portraying–disappeared into Darius “Doorman” Davis. There’s an episode in the middle of Wonder Man that chronicles Doorman’s exploits. It was a standout episode in a series filled with standouts.

Wonder Man manages to maintain tension and intrigue, despite the title character refusing to use his powers through most of the show’s runtime. This is one of the few Marvel shows that avoids an awkward middle. You know what I mean. MCU shows are notorious for losing their way and including filler episodes somewhere around the halfway point. The aforementioned Doorman episode occurs right when most MCU shows would falter. And it’s so good.

While it helped to already enjoy Kingley’s Trevor Slattery, pairing him with Badul-Mateen’s Simon Williams is brilliant. They make an unlikely pair of friends. But that’s skin deep. If you know the two of them, they’re more alike than one might guess. They’re both outsiders. Both have few if any true friends. They need each other, and their personalities play extremely well off each other. Trev is more laid-back, and Simon lives in his head. Heck, Simon overthinks everything. Trev helps Simon to relax; he literally teaches Simon the box breathing exercise. But Simon reminds Trev how rewarding acting can be; with Simon’s help, Trev rediscovers his passion.

The rest of Wonder Man’s cast is fantastic. While the show does include comedic moments (How can you not with Kingsley’s Slattery in the production?), it never loses sight of its emotional center. Wonder Man is one of the rare Marvel shows that avoids undercutting scenes with emotional weight with a bad joke. Kudos! I was not expecting that. Honestly, I thought Trevor Slattery would ham up every scene in which he was involved. I am happy to be wrong Unlike a lot of other Marvel shows, I’m going to return to this one. Wonder Man is worth your time. It reminds us of what the MCU can be. Fingers crossed that we’ll get other great Marvel Spotlight shows in the future.

What did you think of Wonder Man? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Fallout Season 2, “The Other Player” Review

Published on by KyraLeave a comment

Happy Saturday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. We made it to the weekend. Woo hoo! Today, I’ll share my reaction to the latest Fallout Season Two episode. “The Other Player” confirms who pulled the strings behind the scenes before the bombs fell.

“The Other Player” doesn’t harbor too many spoilers besides our first glimpse at a super mutant, portrayed by none other than Ron Perlman. It’s about time Perlman got screen time in Fallout. He’s been the narrator for most of the Fallout games. Nope. He doesn’t deliver his iconic line of “War, war never changes,” but it was great seeing him as a super mutant, and the small screen time Perlman received carried a ton of world-building.

I wondered why we hadn’t seen a super mutant before the seventh episode of Fallout season two. You can’t sneeze in a Fallout game without encountering at least one super mutant. According to Perlman’s character, humans have hunted them to near extinction. And no, we don’t know who Perlman is supposed to be. Is he The Master from Fallout: New Vegas? Marcus? Or someone else entirely. One thing’s for certain, Perlman’s super mutant isn’t a nightkin.

Too bad. Perlman could pull off Lily Bowen. “Oh, pumpkin, Grandma’s sorry about that. Sometimes she gets mad and listens to Leo when she really shouldn’t.”

We get even more of The Ghoul’s backstory in “The Other Player.” Fallout season two tiptoes toward too many flashbacks, especially in the past two episodes, but I liked Barb’s scenes. And the idea that The Enclave could predate the bombs dropping is a nice touch. The impression I got from the games made it look like The Enclave became active after the bombs dropped. Michael Emerson’s Dr. Wilzig also shares a good scene with Barb. And I like how Season 2 calls back to how Cold Fusion was transported. All of this is good, but a second flashback-heavy episode made “The Other Player” feel like it marked time in moments.

And what was up with The Ghoul waiting until sundown before trying to pull himself off the pole? He may have made it to the top if he didn’t wait for at least four hours. The Ghoul spending time on the pole gave Fallout an excuse for more flashbacks. That’s the only reason he wouldn’t try and free himself.

“The Other Player” made me care about what happens in Vaults 32 and 33. That’s no small feat. Honestly, Norm’s storyline–we need more Norm–set up potential stakes in the Vaults. According to the records we saw last week, Vault-Tec still intends to use the Forced Evolutionary Virus on the Vaults. That’s the same virus that created super mutants. What happens when Vault 33 runs out of water? Will they consume unfiltered water that could transform them? We’ll have to wait and see.

And I’m loving Hank MacLean’s villain arc. His worldview suggests that order without autonomy is preferable to conflict. Interesting. Hank and Lucy’s dynamic is great. I can’t wait to see where Fallout takes their relationship.

Overall, “The Other Player” is a good episode. It just misses the great label because it spends too much time in the past. Granted, everything we discover in the past intrigues me. But I didn’t care for two consecutive episodes, spending half their runtime in flashbacks. It’s excessive.

What are your thoughts on Fallout “The Other Player?” Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Deadpool Wallpaper

Deadpool and the Future of the MCU

Published on by Kyra2 Comments

Hey, hey! Kyra here. I’m still figuring out what kind of content a rebooted JK Geekly should include. If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments. I’m also working my through older content, but we’ll run out of that soon enough. Lastly, I’m late with a reaction to Deadpool and Wolverine. Instead of writing a review (I’d rather not get back into traditional reviews), I’m doing more of a reaction and what I think of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future.

Deadpool 3 and Its Place in the MCU

I enjoyed Deadpool and Wolverine. Was it perfect? No. It dragged in parts and that’s something with which the MCU during the Multiverse Saga has struggled, but Deadpool and Wolverine did what a Deadpool movie was meant to do. It made fun of the MCU, particularly the maligned Multiverse Saga. Deadpool and Wolverine served as a good penultimate film for the Multiverse. The Multiverse isn’t yet finished but there aren’t that many movies/TV shows remaining before it wraps. So, I’m calling it a penultimate movie. Deadpool 3 also acted like a Monty Python’s “this is getting too silly” and signaled an abrupt turn that the MCU intends to make: the Mutant Saga.

Right. Before we get too much further, I’m going to try and avoid spoilers. But the nature of posts like this makes that impossible. Consider this a spoiler warning.

Wow! I took this long to say spoiler alert. I am rusty.

Not only was Deadpool and Wolverine the penultimate Multiverse Saga film, it also said farewell to the 20th Century Fox Era X-Men and the Fantastic Four (to a lesser extent). I’ll echo other critics and express concern about Disney/Marvel relying on nostalgia to make a quick buck. I dislike the idea of the MCU using nostalgia as much as it has lately. Disney has worn out their nostalgia button. Did anyone ask for live-action versions of every Disney animated classic?

It’s true that Spider-Man: No Way Home tapped into nostalgia big time, but not necessarily in a bad way. With its proximity to the latest Spider-Man film, one could view Deadpool and Wolverine as nostalgia porn. But Deadpool and Wolverine hits different.

Legally, Disney/Marvel cannot cast their own X-Men actors until 2025. Most of the X-Men, including Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) are under contract to play these characters until the end of 2024. It makes sense for Disney/Marvel to say “Bye, Bye, Bye” to these actors before the end of their contracts.

That said, I hope Disney/Marvel does something new with these characters. They had best cast their own actors for these roles after these contracts expire. I’d also like to see the MCU cover different X-Men stories. The world doesn’t need three Dark Phoenix Sagas in two decades. I’d love it if Disney/Marvel puts that storyline to rest for a good decade or more and concentrate on other great X-Men stories. It’s not like the X-Men have decades of great stories.

We’ll get into some of these potential storylines with the Wolverine montage. Oops! We’re heading into definite spoilers for Deadpool and Wolverine. Anyone who hasn’t yet watched the movie should turn away for the next section. You can pick back up in the MCU’s future section.

Wolverine Montage

The Wolverine montage at the beginning of Deadpool and Wolverine was not only fun but showcased the various worlds in which Wolverine/Logan existed. Most of the scenes depicted during this montage could make for a good movie or movie series. Let’s cover each one as quickly as possible and in the order in which they first appeared.

Short Wolvie
This is the 5′ 3″ Hugh Jackman Wolverine. There isn’t much to say except this Wolverine is the most accurate to the comics, and he was the most eager of the bunch to join Deadpool. Too bad Deadpool went in a different direction.

Brown And Tan Wolvie
Deadpool references John Byrne (X-Men artist during the late 70s and early 80s) and Wolverine’s classic brown and tan outfit that Byrne designed. The scene they chose for this one comes from Incredible Hulk #340 (drawn by Seth MacFarlane) where Wolverine and the Hulk throw down. There have been plenty of instances of this happening. In fact, Wolverine was first introduced in an Incredible Hulk comic (#180 in a cameo and #181 in full), where the two fought each other. This may not be the only time the MCU will depict this fight.

One-Handed Wolvie
The one-handed Wolverine in the dilapidated city comes from Age of Apocalypse. I don’t think the MCU will dive headfirst into this storyline but if they did choose to cover it, I’d like to see Marvel characters not mentioned in this world. The original Age of Apocalypse run mostly affected the X-Men. Other characters were mentioned and a few made appearances, but it could be fun watching alternate versions of The Avengers. But we’ve had enough of the Multiverse and this could be more of the same.

In case you’re wondering, this reality’s Cyclops severed Wolverine’s missing hand.

Old Man Logan
The Wolverine who looks like he’s cosplaying as Joe from the Dollars Trilogy comes from the Old Man Logan storyline. This is another post-apocalyptic story, and I doubt the MCU will go in this direction.

Oddly enough, Deadpool and Wolverine borrows a major set piece from Old Man Logan.  Giant Man’s skeletal remains–the ones in which Cassandra Nova has established a lair–makes an appearance in this comic book story. And technically, we’ve already seen a variation of the Old Man Logan story in the movie Logan.

Crucified Wolvie
The Uncanny X-Men #251’s famous comic book cover features Wolverine on an X-shaped crucifix. I don’t think the MCU will go in this direction, because the Siege Perilous (a crystal that opens doors to other dimensions) features heavily. The MCU won’t want to go back into the Multiverse too soon. However, this Siege Perilous could be one of the many ways the MCU could “fix” the Multiverse and catapult the MCU into the Mutant Saga.

I won’t go into too much detail because there’s a lot going on, but the people who placed Wolverine on the crucifix were the Reavers. The Reavers were the main antagonists in the movie Logan. Reavers have cybernetic implants but in this universe, most Reavers have them because Wolverine cut off their biological limbs. The Reavers hate all mutants, but especially Wolverine, which is why they placed Wolvie on a crucifix.

Patch
This one could easily happen, and there are two prominent storylines with Patch Wolverine. The above with Hulk’s alternate identity Joe Fixit pits Patch Wolverine as a casino bouncer. This could happen, but it might be a bit silly and would most likely be a cameo like we saw during Deadpool and Wolverine. If Patch Wolverine made an extended appearance in the MCU, the story they’d most likely use would come from the 2022 Patch Wolverine mini series.

This Patch is an alternate Wolverine who hides his mutant identity. He has a knack for gambling and espionage. He even teams up with Nick Fury; two patches for the price of one. This could be another way the MCU could bridge the current timeline with a mutant heavy one. They’d have to change a lot of the story, but that wouldn’t be the first time the MCU did so. Age of Ultron didn’t resemble its comic book counterpart.

The Cavillrine
One might think, this is just Henry Cavill as Wolverine, and one would be correct. It is just Henry Cavill as Wolverine, but let’s add a little context. Cavill portrayed Superman in the DC Extended Universe and Geralt in the Witcher Netflix series. Many comic fans love him. Cavill is the leading fan-casting for the next Wolverine, and many ardent fans of this casting insist that Cavill IS the Wolverine of Earth-199999, also known as Earth-616, which is the world in which the MCU takes place. Who knows? These fans could be right. Deadpool and Wolverine could’ve introduced the next actor to portray Wolverine.

The MCU’s Future

We’ve discussed some of the directions in which the X-Men could go or more specifically Wolverine. The above Wolverine Montage by no means covers all stories for Marvel’s mutants, but it’s a good start.

I’ll reiterate, wherever Disney/Marvel goes with these characters, I hope they go in a direction not yet explored. And they should cast their own actors in these roles. Channing Tatum as Gambit is fine; he never had the chance to portray Gambit in a full-length feature before his cameo, and he’s meme gold. Wesley Snipes as Blade might be fun, but he can’t play the character until he’s 90. Can he?

The next thing the MCU should do is contract the number of shows and movies they release; they’re already doing this to some extent, so that’s good. Additionally, they should reduce the number of characters in their active slate of characters. What do I mean? The Infinity Saga focused on the core six Avengers: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. It added a few here and there over time like Falcon, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, and Vision, but the core six were in most–if not all– the team-up films, and prominent members Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor received a trilogy of films in a short timeframe. Go back to that.

It’s difficult to grow attached to a character when you haven’t seen said character in half a decade. I’m looking at you, Shang-Chi (his first movie released in 2021 and 2026 may be the soonest he’ll get a follow-up–the soonest is 2026, yikes!). There have been issues outside the MCU’s control. The pandemic didn’t help. I still get choked up over Chadwick Bosman’s passing. Jonathan (Kang) Majors’ domestic assault and harassment case derailed the Multiverse’s story. And navigating the Spider-Man license and other licenses haven’t been easy.

A lot has happened outside Disney/Marvel’s control, but the MCU hasn’t helped itself by making some questionable choices. It concerns me that the two highest grossing films during the Multiverse Saga are the two (Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool and Wolverine) that lean heavily on nostalgia. It’s too easy to learn the wrong lesson.

Those two movies succeeded because one didn’t need to do as much homework (watching a gagillion hours of content before watching the movies) and both films were the third part of movie trilogies that took five years (for Spider-Man) and eight years (for Deadpool) to complete. These two factors may have done more for these movies’ success than nostalgia alone. But hey, hit the nostalgia button.

Okay. I’m done ranting about Disney’s overuse of nostalgia. For now. Let’s discuss some other developments, beginning with everyone’s favorite Marvel character trapped in license hell.

Spider-Man and His Villains

There’s a tentative agreement between Sony and Disney/Marvel for Peter Parker Spider-Man . The Spider-Verse films may prevent Disney/Marvel from using Miles Morales. I haven’t read the terms of the contract as it pertains to Sony animation, but another series of talks may need to be had for Miles entering the MCU. I’d imagine that will come to fruition. Eventually. It’s going to take a fleet of Brink’s truck cash.

Spider-Man Noir will not appear in the MCU because Nicholas Cage will portray him in a live-action TV series. I’m okay with that. I’ll be watching the show after it drops on Amazon Prime. Any Spider-Man character who receives a Sony-led live-action movie or TV series is ineligible to be included in the MCU. That’s why we’ve seen a Venom trilogy (that includes characters like Carnage and Rhino), Morbius, Madame Web (with at least a half dozen other Spider-Man characters), and the upcoming Kraven films. Sony is playing keep away from Disney/Marvel.

I don’t blame Sony too much. Disney/Marvel has countless intellectual properties and makes several movies annually. Sony produces far fewer movies and their largest IP is Spider-Man. Spidey and Spidey related films account for over half of Sony’s major film releases each year. They’re forced to make Spider-Man content, even if that content isn’t the best. And with the exception of the Spider-Verse franchise, Sony Spidey content hasn’t been good.

The Incredible Hulk

But Spidey isn’t the only character who’s had licensing issues. Universal’s deal with the Hulk concluded this year (2024 if you happen to be reading this after the new year; happy new year btw). According to the previous deal, the Hulk could be in MCU films but only as a supporting character. Thor: Ragnarok touched on Planet Hulk themes (namely Gladiator Hulk), and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law laid the ground work for a potential full-fledged Planet Hulk movie (Hulk traveled the cosmos and found his son Skaar). I don’t know if we’ll ever see another movie with Hulk as the title character, but it’s a possibility. I wouldn’t mind at least one with Mark Ruffalo.

Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom

Is this casting odd? Yes. But Downey Jr. as Doom could’ve been the plan from the beginning, but only as a cameo. The MCU could easily combine Earth-11029’s Doom (who mind swapped with Tony Stark) and the Doctor Doom from Secret Wars. The MCU was always headed toward Secret Wars, and toward the end of that story, Doom assumed the Beyonder’s powers and ruled Battleworld. The MCU probably intended an homage to the source material with a quick look at an alternate Doom (perhaps Downey), much like the alternate Reed Richards (John Krasinski) in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Kang was the original big bad for the MCU’s Secret Wars, but Majors’ legal troubles thrusted Doom to the forefront. Will it work? I’m unsure. We’ll have to wait and see. A Downey Doom would’ve worked better as a cameo or teaser for the next leg of the Fantastic Four’s story. But the MCU is trying to salvage what’s left of the Multiverse Saga. I guess it’s worth a shot, but this reeks of desperation and hitting the nostalgia button. Remember when RDJ was in Avengers movies? Here he is again. Wait. We haven’t had an Avengers movie without RDJ yet. He’s got to maintain his Avengers streak.

Fantastic Four and X-Men

The MCU is barreling toward the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. These two teams will feature heavily in the upcoming MCU. That’s a great thing and a bad thing. The MCU already has a bloated roster and now it’s adding two massive teams. These two teams could delay the third film of major MCU characters.

Going back to my point that the MCU should return to a tighter character roster, the three main Avengers during the Infinity Saga had a small window for their film trilogies. Cap’s original trilogy took five years in total. Iron Man’s also took five years. And Thor’s original trilogy took six years. Six years passed between Doctor Strange and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Strange continues to wait for the third movie in his trilogy. That’s way too long. There’s also the aforementioned Shang-Chi and his five year wait for a second film. And is Captain Marvel getting a third movie? Rewatching older films in a film series becomes part of an MCU movie’s homework.

What were talking about? Deadpool. Right.

Deadpool needed eight years to conclude its trilogy. That’s impressive considering that Fox was bought out between the second and third films. A tighter release window for movies in a series and a smaller cast of recurring characters are the lessons Disney/Marvel should take from Deadpool and Wolverine’s success. That and R rated films can rake in money. We’ll have to see which lessons the MCU takes to heart.

That’s all I have for now. Let me know your thoughts on what the MCU should do going forward. See you soon. Bye, bye, bye.

~ Kyra