#ronan the accuser icons

[lunarspiral1127]

X-Men 97 episode 6 *SPOILERS*

Shi'ar Empire/Space

Honestly, I wasn't expecting to see them and get an update on Xavier in this episode cause I thought this was gonna be the full Lifedeath conclusion, so more focus on Storm. But, I think it's nice to see how he's doing.

This is the first time we see Deathbird AKA Lilandra's sister in the X-Men animated series, and I like her look.

Gladiator is such a stoic bad@$$. Ngl, after seeing him fight after so long, Superman popped into my head. I think it was the powerset he displayed.

Ronan and the Kree! I wasn't expecting to see them cause we never had the Kree mentioned or shown in the previous show, so this was a nice surprise. Aldo, it's so refreshing to see Ronan the Accuser in his more comic- accurate outfit. Cause, I've only recently seen him and the Kree in their MCU outfits, so seeing the classics was nice.

Noticed Vulcan during the beginning....kinda awkward cause he's Scott's other brother. Dunno if they'll do anything with that, but then again, they didn't do much with Havok in the previous show.

It's good to see Xavier healthy again, but why hasn't he checked up on the X-Men during that year? Why didn't he let them know that he's okay? Is it because of that black hole?

Didn't know Xavier was interested in being Lilandra's....pet....psychics be kinky.

Xavier talking about Magnus....oh god, when he finds out what happened to him....

Man, even in space, mutants can't catch a break! Xavier gonna be emperor along with Lilandra, and these sunsofbeeches hate it cause he's Terran AND a mutant. Like, can the mutants EVER get anything nice?!

Xavier was willing to forgo his memories on Earth and of his friends and family. Just to be with Lilandra....god dammit, this show really is a soap opera.

Xavier educating the Shi'ar council, Deathbird, Gladiator, and even Lilandra on their system and why it's bad was pretty funny. Dude was going back to being a teacher. And, I thought he was succeeding until....

The vision. Now, he knows what happened to Genosha, and he gotta go back. Good, cause they need him more than ever. I just wish it didn't have to break him and Lilandra up. Like, can we have a good relationship that doesn't end in a breakup, death, or have way too much drama, please?!?!

GAMBIT!!! 😭 It still hurts! But, the vision could also be foreshadowing that he'll become Death of the Four Horsemen. And Magneto wasn't there, so does that mean he survived?!

Storm, Forge, and the Adversary

Storm called Forge "my love". She was mad at him earlier, but I guess despite the anger, she loves him too and understood that he tried to help her despite what he did.

The Adversary is spooky. I didn't get how they appeared, but from what the show says, the demon appears to feed on the self-loathing, so they sensed Forge AND Storm and came to them.

Storm's fear of tight spaces comes into play. The Adversary used her fear against her which almost worked. First time Forge was able to banish the demon, despite being poisoned, and the second time, Storm overcame her fears and doubts and got her powers back.

Oh yeah, MISTRESS OF THE ELEMENTS IS BACK!!! 🤩 She even got her iconic black outfit with the tiara! I'll miss her classic white outfit, though. And she got her long hair back! No offense to the mohawk.

Shoutout to @stormandforge for talking about how she got her powers back cause I was so confused and sleep-deprived. What makes the most sense was the machine Forge used worked. It's just that she had some kind of mental/psychological block going on with her powers and had to overcome it to reactivate them. Kinda like how Peter lost his powers in Spider-Man 2. As for how she got her outfit, well, Storm, in the very first episode in the previous show, used her lightning to change outfits. So, I chopped it off to that. Yeah, lightning doesn't work like that, but she looks beautiful! The hair was actually what I was most confused about cause she had a mohawk, and suddenly, her hair got long again? I thought some parts of her head was shaved. So how did her change? Same way as the outfit?

Forge is cured, so fingers crossed these two will be together and not end poorly and messy as it did in the comics. Please, I just need one good relationship in this freaking show that isn't gonna end in tragedy.

And she knows about Genosha. God, I really hope she doesn't get survivors guilt over this. But, we need her and Xavier more than ever with what's to come.

The rest

Y'know, it was one thing for Trask to be involved with the massacre, but Mr. Sinister? I wasn't expecting that. I thought it was the FoH or Apocalypse or maybe Nimrod. Either way, I'm mad now that I know who's responsible cause how dare them kill Gambit, Magneto, Leech and the others, and hurt Nightcrawler and Rogue! I really hope that they find a way to finish him off for good and make it hurt like hell!

NIGHTCRAWLER GOT TO BE PART OF THE INTRO!!! 🤩 Does that mean he's gonna be finally part of the X-Men? Will we ever get him using his swords? Cause they keep teasing that!

I just wish it wasn't at the expense of Magneto and Gambit's intros. Man, I was bracing myself, and they had to do that and the recap! UGH, IT STILL HURTS! 😭

The episodes have really alternated with multiple storylines in this show. The previous one usually focuses on one story at a time.

So, that's pretty much it. Good episode. One more episode left until even more trauma will be inflicted on us cause 8-10 are gonna be a doozy.

#x men 97 #x-men 97 #xmen 97 #episode 6 #episode six #x men 97 spoilers #marvel #charles xavier #lilandra #storm #ororo munroe #forge

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: The 25 Worst Comic Book Superhero Movie Villains

Hey, remember when I talked about good superhero movie villains? Remember how I said there were a lot less shit ones than I thought? Well, I didn’t say there were no shit ones, so here they are.

Bad comic book superhero movies are, contrary to popular belief, not super common. I only barely managed to scrape together 25, and that’s mostly because they take aspects of mediocre villains up to eleven. But there are people out there who say someone like, I don’t know, Yellowjacket from Ant-Man is a bad villain, and I just have to ask: Why? Sure, he’s generic, he’s not super memorable, but he’s not really offensive and he gets the job done. Or how about Ronan the Accuser! He’s pretty bland, he’s not the best use of a talented actor, but he’s also not unbearably awful to watch and he serves his purpose in the narrative even if he’s not utilized to his fullest extent. Average and mediocre does not equal bad; what I’m looking for are villains who do something truly offensive, who truly disrespect the character they’re playing at best, and who are insulting to the audience at worst.

Here’s some dishonorable mentions, villains who suck a lot of ass but who I left off the list so as not to clog it with filler: Cull Obsidian (Avengers: Infinity War), Tyler Hayward (WandaVision), Incubus (Suicide Squad), and Victor Zsasz (Birds of Prey). Shout out to General Dreykov AKA The Smelly Man (Black Widow), KGBeast (Batman v Superman), and Batroc the Leaper (Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) for being hilariously stupid villains, with Batroc actually almost making it onto the best list as the “So bad it’s good villain.” And finally, a nod to Black Manta (Aquaman) and John Walker AKA USAgent (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), who don’t come out of their respective works looking great due to being an absolute jobber and a character mishandled by the writing respectively, but who I think could easily be fine tuned in sequels to become genuinely great antagonists.

Alright, let’s get this over with. Here are the most miserable excuses for antagonists you could ever hope to see.

25. Cheetah

Wonder Woman 1984

Wonder Woman’s most iconic nemesis finally made it to the big screen, but in a moment of life imitating one of the movie’s themes, we should have been careful what we wished for. Kristen Wiig was a great choice and she is trying so hard to salvage the wonky writing, but no one can really come back from being turned into a CGI cat girl that would make the cast of Cats 2019 feel better about themselves. At least she can take solace in knowing she’s the least of the film’s problems, hence her low spot on the list.

24. Riot

Venom

Venom is a camp masterpiece, but he unfortunately doesn’t have a villain who lives up to that prestigious honor. Riot is the epitome of the Big Grey CGI Villain trend that should have died off years ago, existing with only the barest personality solely so the hero can have a fight at the end. And the fight isn’t even that great! The sequel gave a far better goopy symbiote smack down, so it’s not like it’s impossible to make a cool symbiote vs symbiote fight, but I think the distinction is that they gave Carnage unique powers and a personality to make the battle more engaging. Riot is just boring, and when the rest of the movie decidedly isn’t it makes him stand out in the worst way.

23. Parralax

Green Lantern

Green Lantern may not be the worst superhero movie ever, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at its villain, a generic doomsday villain for the ages. A lot of bad villains are generic doomsday villains, just nonsensical CGI spectacle for the hero to fight in a big final battle, but this case is especially weird for turning a being important to wider GL lore into a Galactus ripoff for Hal to fight in his first adventure. Considering we already have Mark Strong killing it as Sinestro in the film, did we really need some universe-ending fear being as the villain when we could have seen Sinestro’s fall to darkness instead? Much like the other bad things in the movie, though, Parralax isn’t egregiously bad; bad enough to make the list, sure, but putting him any higher would be a gross exaggeration.

22. Whiplash

Iron Man 2

The early days of the MCU were plagued by some of the most boring villains imaginable, and Whiplash is a shining example of that. Mickey Rourke wanted to add more depth and humanity to the character, but he was shot down by executive meddling, resulting in a character as compelling as wet cardboard. He especially stands out as awful since he’s in the same movie as the hilarious moron Justin Hammer. It makes you wonder why they even felt the need to cram in another villain at all.

21. Yon-Rogg

Captain Marvel

Much like a lot of the feminist posturing in Captain Marvel, Yon-Rogg falls incredibly flat in his role as an antagonist. He feels like he’s supposed to represent the patriarchal power structures that have held Carol back before, but he’s just so weak and unimpressive that he’s dealt with in a single blast. The dude with a motorcycle who puts Carol through microagressions is a better antagonist in this regard, and even he was clunky and executed sloppiy. And even disregarding any sort of feminist reading, he has bland, generic motivations (grrr he hates Skrulls!) and is not even close to being a match for Carol. If you want to establish Carol as the strongest Avenger, go ahead, but at least give her someone who can actually put up a fight to battle with.

20. Apocalypse

X-Men: Apocalypse

They got one of the greatest actors of our time (Oscar Isaac) playing one of the coolest and most badass X-Men villains of all time. How could they fuck it up? By letting him do just about jack shit aside from monologue, for starters. Apocalypse does little else but stand around and talk, with his one fight at the end of the movie leading to him getting curbstomped by Jean Grey. It’s a piss poor showing for a villain of this caliber, and a disgraceful waste of Isaac’s talent.

19. Paris Franz

The Killing Joke

Paris Franz is a weird, stupid stalker for Batgirl made up for this movie, and he is one of the big aspects dragging the first half of the movie down. The only reason he isn’t higher is because there’s something else in that first half that tanks the movie completely, but the fact there’s anything stupider than Franz in the film should really tip you off to the overall quality.

18. Enchantress

Suicide Squad

A really cool and creepy initial design really doesn’t salvage this character’s status as a generic doomsday villain. I think this one in particular stings because Enchantress does have a cool design, cool powers, and story potential to actually be an interesting villain… but not when going up against a bunch of black ops mercenaries. It’s no wonder neither she nor her alter ego June Moon were mentioned at all in James Gunn’s soft reboot.

17. Bane

Batman & Robin

I am a quite vocal defender of Joel Schumacher’s final Batman film, but even I can’t muster up anything nice to say about its take on Bane. He is everything that the character isn’t, and everything he would come to be seen by bad adaptations for years until Nolan managed to somewhat salvage his reputation: Dumb muscle. I get this was pretty early into Bane’s life in comics, with his big debut being only a few years behind, but you’d think they could have made him a bit more interesting for his live action debut.

16. Harry Osborn

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

I really don’t know how they ever expected this chump to lead the Sinister Six in their own movie. His relationship with Peter is sudden and underbaked, the makeup on him makes him look more like Warwick Davis as the Leprechaun, and even his killing of Gwen Stacy is only impressive because it has to be. In a movie that already has a villain in the much goofier but more enjoyable Electro, the Harry Goblin just feels dull and uninspired. We’ve already seen Green Goblin twice before, and once as Harry; if they really wanted to have another big villain, why not just let Rhino have more screentime?

15. Stephen Wolf

Josstice League

In the Snyder Cut, Steppenwolf is a tragic villain, motivated by a desire to appease his master so he can finally return home from exile. It’s not the most complicated thing in the world, but it works wonders considering the mustache-twirling supervillainy of the version from Josstice League. In a vacuum, he’s honestly fun in a cheesy sort of way, especially with how the movie expects you to take a guy who’s C-list among Darkseid’s lackeys at best is the ultimate threat to assemble the Justice League against instead of going with a more impressive threat like Starro or Darkseid himself. But then you look at Joss Whedon in real life, and that implied threat of sexual assault against the Amazons starts to stand out more. And once you see the Snyder Cut and you learn Whedon liked a tweet disparaging Steppenwolf, it becomes clear he picked the worst and stupidest takes for the villain. It’s disrespectful not only to the vision of the man he came on to fill in god, but it’s disrespectful to Ciaran Hinds as well, who put effort into the character just to have it tossed aside out of spite and apathy.

14. Kro

Eternals

Kro pisses me off. He had an incredibly sympathetic backstory that gives him understandable motivation in killing the Eternals… which is explained once and then never brought up again. He shows up to the final battle, and his skills seemingly imply that he could form an enemy mine situation to stop Ikaris… but he just attacks everyone and then dies. He’s played by the always-awesome Bill Skarsgard… and he gets next to nothing to do. As is typical of Eternals, it’s a bunch of really cool and interesting ideas that are never really built upon in a meaningful way.

13. Sharon Carter

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier really couldn’t stop itself from fucking up everything at the last possible second. The reveal that the greater scope villain of the show, the Power Broker, is actually a disgraced and angry Sharon Carter is just mind-bogglingly stupid. It feels so disrespectful to a character who already got a ton of shit just for being a potential love interest for Cap. It doesn’t gel well with her previous characterization and honestly feels a little spiteful, like something out of a bad fanficI. t all just reeks of the treatment Rose Tico got in the last Star Wars movie. Here’s this female character who gets in the way of all the gay shipping and is perceived as annoying and pointless by fans, so she is essentially written out of future installments. But unlike Rose, when they bring her back, they make her into some evil, manipulative mastermind all because she didn’t get to fuck Steve Rogers? Like I guess that’s not the most unrelatable villain origin story ever, but boy, this just feels like a needlessly mean direction to have this character go. And it really makes less and less sense the more you think about it. Maybe they can salvage this in future installments, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

12. Dweller-in-Darkness

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

I’m not mad they changed the design from a Cthulhu homage to a giant soul-sucking dragon bat; that’s Metal as fuck and it honestly kind of rules. No, I’m mad because Dweller gets to be the final boss in a film that already had a villain. And not just any villain, mind you, but genuinely one of the best comic book movie villains of all time. But instead of an emotionally satisfying martial arts showdown between Shang-Chi and his father, this bastard unceremoniously kills Wenwu to usher in one of the most needless CGI monster battles in the MCU. It doesn’t ruin the film despite how pointless and forced it feels, as the final battle still manages to maintain the film’s core emotional weight, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hold the movie back a bit.

11. Talia al-Ghul

The Dark Knight Rises

You’ve already got the awesome, meme-tactic Bane in the movie, and he’s establishing himself as Batman’s fiercest foe yet. If you’re genius filmmaker Christopher Nolan, do you:

A. Have Bane continue being the big bad, serving as the ultimate enemy and final obstacle of Batman’s career, or

B. Reveal Bane was a simp for a hidden twist villain so bad it makes Prince Hans look competent as a twist villain in comparison?

If you chose option B, congratulations! You are apparently as smart as a critically-acclaimed filmmaker who seems to like comic books as much as he likes people not dying of Covid to see his mediocre Tenet in theaters.

10. Doomsday

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

This isn’t just any old generic doomsday villain—it’s THE generic doomsday villain. As cool as he looks in the comics, Doomsday is a boring villain who has one single claim to fame, and that’s killing Superman. Once you know he’s in this movie, there’s really no surprises as to what he’s going to do, and this version doesn’t even look cool! He’s the absolute pinnacle of Big Grey CGI Monster villains on top of being an interpretation of the original generic doomsday villain. He pops in at the final act, delivers a lackluster fight with no surprises, and then dies. BVS is already a slog to sit through, and Doomsday only compounds that.

9. Lex Luthor

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

You’d think the guy who was able to play real life ultra-rich tech supervillain Mark Zuckerberg would be able to play the iconic comic book superhero who is literally that, but I guess they sent him the wrong script because he is absolutely nothing like what Luthor should be. I think what’s most frustrating is that there are moments where you can see that he could pull the character off with better direction… and then he sends Elasti-Girl a jar of his piss and all goodwill evaporates. He’s a lot more tolerable in his cameo at the end of ZSJL, but whether they’ll ever follow that up who can say.

8. Ares

Wonder Woman

The worst villains are the ones who just trip up the whole movie with how bad they are. For most of Wonder Woman, it seems like the point of the story is to show that there’s no Ares, no one true boogeyman behind mankind’s desire for war, and that killing one bad guy won’t change everything. A pretty interesting and bold message t—Oh wait! Here comes Ares, real after all, and he’s the one behind it all! What follows is a big, stupid battle filled with awkward CGI and David Thewlis’s big honking mustache poking out from under the helmet. Very rarely does a movie trip at the finish line this hard, but most movies don’t feature a villain that shoots the message of the film stone cold dead at the last second either.

7. Joker

Suicide Squad

At this point, it almost feels unfair to say anything about Jared Leto’s attempt at playing Joker. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel, y’know? There is just so much glaringly wrong with this character, be it the design, the writing, or his use in the story that it’s quite frankly not even fun to make fun of it anymore. It’s honestly sad. They thought this shit was a good idea, and there are people who genuinely think an Ayer Cut of Suicide Squad, which would no doubt feature even more Leto, would be a great film. It’s just embarrassing. 

6. Malekith

Thor: The Dark World

If you asked me a few years ago, I probably would have said Malekith is the very worst comic book villain, but really? He’s pretty par for the course as far as bad villains go. He’s an obscure villain with a talented actor wasted in the role who is given nothing to do and ends up being—you guessed it!--a generic doomsday villain. Still, I think Malekith sucks harder than most for the fact they turned a character who is a chaotic shapeshifting wizard into this just because they didn’t want to do Loki again. Because, you know, there’s no interesting stories you could do with a character like that, definitely couldn’t have Thor enlist his brother’s help to try and outwit someone just like him or anything cool like that, definitely can’t let Christopher Eccleston actually act. I think if nothing else, Malekith is a prime showcase of the lack of imagination some of these filmmakers have when it comes to utilizing villains.

5. Karli Morgenthau

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

As you can see, the villains I think are the worst are the ones who really go out of their way to represent serious problems with superhero cinema. “In Name Only” adaptations, bungled characterization, undermining positive messages with stupidity… imagine if a villain managed to combine all of those things and more into one character. I’m obviously not opposed that they turned the obscure Cap villain Flag-Smasher into a terrorist organization, nor am I mad that the specific Flag-Smasher I’m talking about was gender swapped; these are interesting choices, as was the decision to give the group sympathetic motives to contrast with one of the heroes, John Walker, ultimately becoming violent and unsympathetic. But much like how the finale dropped the ball there, it dropped the ball with Flag-Smasher by turning her into a card-carrying supervillain who was willing to execute civilians if it meant pulling off her plan. It’s such a jarring shift in characterization done at the last minute, and it serves to undermine the whole point. Sam gives a big speech about how she had a point at the end, but it rings so much more hollow when this nuanced character devolved into a phase 1 villain for the finale. It’s frankly insulting, and considering she does have a genuine point and is literally fighting for the well-being of refugees, this has the unfortunate effect of demonizing her viewpoints, something a lot of superhero media is accused of doing but which seems to be blatantly the case here. We almost had another Killmonger on our hands here, but they refused to commit and instead gave us an inconsistent mess of a character. The only reason Karli doesn’t take the number one spot is because the finale does stress that, on some level, Sam pretty much agrees with her point and that the only reason she ever went mad with power is because of the idiotic governments who refuse to help. It reeks of having their cake and eating it too, but at least they literally have Captain America say she wasn’t wrong. If only the writing backed him up a little better, she wouldn’t be so high on this list.

4. Taskmaster

Black Widow

Taskmaster is a beloved villain from Marvel comics, known for his ability to perfectly mimic the cool non-superpowered moves of his enemies as well as for having a kickass sword and shield and a badass skull mask. He’s popped up in video games such as Insomniac’s Spider-Man and Marvel vs. Capcom 3, where he was welcomed with open arms, so going into this movie people had high expectations. Those expectations were not even close to being met. Maybe I could forgive them for not having this Taskmaster be Tony Masters; there’s some vague hints that leave it open for good old Tony to swing in for potential sequels, and the idea they went with here at least somewhat works with the story. But the filmmakers go with the bold choice to have this Taskmaster be a silent antagonist, like a Terminator ripoff from a movie you’d find at the bottom of the bargain bin at Wal-Mart. Taskmaster honestly shows the danger of needing to rely on a recognizable villain for a story even when one isn’t needed. They could have easily just made this an original character, but to put asses in seats they gave them a recognizable name that has nothing to do with the new character. It’s honestly dishonest and scummy, not to mention unfair to a character who could have been far more interesting without the baggage of being saddled with a name that isn’t theirs.

3. Galactus

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

This is one of the single most frustrating villains on this list. They had concept art of a full, true to the source Galactus ready to go, but they decided audiences didn’t want to see that. Instead, audiences want to see big sentient fart clouds! Galactus is the epitome of how studios and filmmakers alike rejected the weird, fun side of comics and instead opted to reimagine weirder elements as gritty and realistic alternatives. A big space man in pink and purple who eats planets couldn’t possibly be cool, right? Fuck off. As time passes and we get characters like Ego, Starro, Polka-Dot Man, and Howard the Duck brought into superhero’s cinematic universes, this take on Galactus just seems all the more braindead.

2. Dudepeel

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

It’s almost incomprehensible just how bad this was. Like on a conceptual level, the idea here is taking a character known for cracking jokes and never shutting up (he’s literally called “The Merc with the Mouth”) and sewing his mouth shut and removing his personality. It’s the sort of thing that’s only possible from someone with extreme hate for a character. While the fact we now have a genuinely good Deadpool and now that Deadpool literally time traveled to the moment this guy appeared and shot him dead, I think Dudepeel still manages to take a high place on this list due to being emblematic of everything wrong with the “In Name Only” style of adaptation as well as a shining example of the worst aspects of the X-Men movie franchise amalgamated into one piss-poor villain.

1. Crash Test Doomy

Fant4stic

It’s really not possible to craft a version of a character that’s as singularly insulting as this one. There is absolutely nothing nice that can be said about this take on Doom. He’s a Cronenbergian nightmare so utterly divorced from the source material that it’s baffling they thought to slap the name “Doom” on it. But that alone wouldn’t be enough to give him the top spot; Dudepeel is just as much a disrespectful “In Name Only” take on a beloved Marvel character, one so disgraceful that fans refer to him by mocking nicknames rather than his actual name. No, this guy takes the top spot by not only being Doom In Name Only, but for literally only doing anything in the last ten or twenty minutes of the film, and in that short amount of time he is nothing but a generic doomsday villain with literally no motivation. Much as Fant4stic is everything wrong with Fox’s superhero movies cranked to the extreme, this living mannequin is everything a bad comic book movie villain could possibly be distilled into the absolute nadir of character design. When you’re making the chump from the Story duology look classy and dignified in comparison, you know you’re doing something really, really wrong.

#psycho analysis #list #villains #DC #Marvel #superhero movies

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[elerondo]

@warringpeace asked: Ronan grabs Elrond and gives him a passionate kiss before he leaves for the day. [ mun said anytime, so :P ]

Ronan answering the call of the flower boi 💖

     Whenever Elrond came on the Dark Aster, he commandeers Ronan’s time and attention without needing to lift a finger.  (   he doesn’t mean to, but thoroughly enjoys the attention from his lover anyway!   )  They’ve spent much of the first day shoulder to shoulder and in each other’s arm, with Elrond whispering teases and sweet nothings into Ronan’s ear as the Kree tried to update him on the new happenings in his corner of Space.  (   Elrond loved most when Ronan smiled or laughed.   )

     It was only when Ronan was with Elrond that he could look at The Vacuum without jitters coming into his heart. Elrond’s core is FIRE AND FLAMES yet he still shakes when met with the thought of suffocating in Space. Ronan would never let that happen, he knows that his lover took every precaution and maintenance of the Dark Aster seriously. Elrond was safe on this ship.

     This morning  (   if there were mornings in the all encompassing darkness of Space travel   )  Elrond rises to brew his signature chocolate beverage —the one he’d first introduced to Ronan. The cocoa is sifted meticulously, separating any clumps or bubbles resulted from the air pressure when he disembarked Axios to board the Dark Aster. The water is boiled to perfection, using his fea to minimise temperature fluctuations and oxidation levels.

     Sumptuous hot chocolate transfers from pot to stainless insulated bottles, to keep its temperature for long hours. Ronan’s bottle has the words ❛Property of Elrond❜ rune carved into it. It was glorious and could never be erased by any mortal means.  (   it also glowed when hostiles with malicious intent are near, so, it was more useful than it looked!   )

     ❝Here——❞ but Elrond doesn’t get to finish his words as air rushed past elven ears and vigorous warmth met his lips. Satisfied groans rumble from his throat into the tangle dance of their tongues hot with passion. Somewhere in those motions Elrond managed to direct Ronan’s hand to the canister of beverage. Then hands quickly circle around Ronan’s neck, pushing himself up into Ronan’s mouth roughly and without heed. The heat rises around the pair of lovers so smitten with each other, so consumed in their endeavours.

     He pushes Ronan back towards the closed entrance to his chambers. A hard thud followed by an indecent pop as Elrond disengaged from their impromptu make-out session. ❝Get ...❞ he said it slowly with a short pause. ❝Out.❞ and A WINK ere Elrond tapped the exit button and shoved Ronan out to the corridor. Surely the Supreme Accuser has work to do.

#«ＦＯＲＢＥＡＲＡＮＣＥ ＡＮＤ ＢＥＮＥＶＯＬＥＮＣＥ» — marvel #warringpeace #warringpeace » Ronan the Accuser #💖 i love you until the sun dies ❜ ╼ warringpeace » Ronan the Accuser #/ KISSY ICON WOOT!! #also will Ronan punish the naughty flower boi later ?? /

[the-oneiros]

#lee pace #the hobbit #thranduil #guardians of the galaxy #Ronan the Accuser #pushing daisies #avatares #icons #saint lorene

[classicmarvelera]

60 Years of Fantastic

Stan had decided to quit if his pitch wouldn’t get accepted. The Justice League was in it’s second year at DC Comics. It was a resounding success for it was a team of A-list Superheroes. The then Marvel’s publisher, Martin Goodman, wanted Stan to have something similar but he (Stan) was on a different trajectory 

Upon his wife’s encouragement, Stan pitched a new comic magazine that would focus on a family who accidentally are exposed to cosmic rays that would give them superpowers. The man who would illustrate the idea flawlessly would be none other than Jack Kirby. Somehow, Goodman gave the go-ahead and the result was the beginning of the Marvel Age of Comics 

It’s worth reminding that what Avengers are today and the X-Men were in the 90s, it was the Fantastic Four that redefined the concept of superheroes. As stated earlier, DC’s Justice League like it’s predecessor Justice Society was a team of A-list heroes but the FF despite being unknowns, a family of various temperaments would resonate so profoundly with the readers at the time because they would look like a family next door. This gave Marvel the secret recipe for a successful content strategy that would span for decades, even proving to be successful for it’s studios 

But besides being a team of relatable characters, the FF are the reason that Marvel has a well organized space realm. Even on Earth-616, some of the characters introduced in FF comics went on to become members of other teams due to being extremely popular with the readers. The list of important characters (other than FF mainstays) and races is as follows:

The Kree (incl. Ronan the Accuser)

The Skrulls (incl. Lyja)

Galactus

Silver Surfer

Uatu 

The Black Panther

Mad Thinker

The Inhumans

Annihilus 

Dragon Man

Moloids 

Agatha Harkness

Him aka Adam Warlock

Nova (Frankie Raye)

The Nova Corps

Terrax

Nathanial Richards (whose futuristic descendant is Kang)

Ahab 

Mobius. M. Mobius 

The list of names may not be complete but it is enough to show that how much one comic magazine influenced it’s sister titles which can now be seen on the silver screen 

Fantastic Rosters

The team has had some of the most iconic rosters 

Doctor Doom

“Your enemies define you” and no truer it is than in the case of FF

A psychologically complex character, a genius, a scientist and the one who doesn’t shy away from facing darkest of magic & mystic forces head on. Perhaps the greatest creation of Stan and Jack within the FF-verse and possibly in the entire Marvel Universe 

This antagonist has crossed paths with Avengers, Doctor Strange, X-Men; who dared to strike at Galactus, who sees eye-to-eye with Kang the Conqueror. One can’t think of his equal in the comic book industry. He is unique in his own way much like Joker in DC Comics 

In Marvel’s 80 years of existence, the impact of Fantastic Four cannot be understated, both within Marvel as well as within the industry itself 

#fantastic four #marvel age of comics #fantastic four 60th anniversary #marvel comics #classic marvel era #future foundation

[likeadeuce]

The Raven Cycle notfic: RC Cola (Ronan/Adam + Gansey)

This started as a head canon about names, and then Ronan Lynch had his own ideas. Also if you don’t remember RC Cola, the brand website ensures me it’s an American icon.  I had it when I was a kid in Charlottesville, but I don’t remember what it tastes like other than malted battery acid, like all cola drinks.

Otherwise, this is inspired by the guy I knew when I lived in the Shenandoah Valley in the late 90s who used to take road trips so he could buy Mr. Pibb by the case.

But basically, anyway, it was Gansey’s fault.

OK so obviously it's canon that Richard Campbell Gansey III goes by his last name because he doesn't like his peers calling him 'Dick,' which, who would. and sure like, a) Richard is sitting right there but clearly b) when you are a sixteen year old who goes around talking about your real estate deals, and you have that taste in sweaters, you PROBABLY don't want the 'Richie Rich' thing to be such low hanging fruit (Calla’s gonna call you that anyway. . .)

But going by 'Gansey' is not entirely unproblematic, what with a complicated family legacy and his mom in politics. . . So he definitely experiments at some point with going by 'R. C,' good Southern boy style  Which Ronan thinks is hilarious, because it's better to treat Gansey's neuroses as hilarity than let him start taking them too seriously. And Adam just finds the situation confusing  -- he doesn’t have any attachment to his family name as a family name but ADAM PARRISH is who he is and being indecisive about something as basic as your own name is weird to him. But Gansey keeps trying to explain the thing until at one point Adam lets a little to much of his drawl out and says "RC laahk the cola??"

This absolutely destroys Ronan and Noah  who keep saying 'lahk the cola' and Adam is about to get up to leave forever until Gansey has to explain they are definitely - DEFINITELY - not laughing at the way Adam talks, they are laughing at Gansey for being a pretentious tool. 

Which Ronan verifies as the correct interpretation and which -- maybe? -- counts as Ronan siding with Adam for the first time ever and Adam is still confused about how this happened but they talk about offbrand sodas + Adam brings up how he knows there's a warehouse down I-81 where you can buy them cheap. Then he forgets all about it.

Until a couple days later at school Ronan tells Adam they are going on a road trip after school and Adam definitely thinks he's being kidnapped. No no, dumbass, Ronan tells him, we're just gonna go down to Troutville and buy a ton of RC Cola from that offbrand soda warehouse. 

 WHY? says Adam

Because it will be funny. 

 WHY? 

 Because it'll be fun. You have heard about fun, Parrish?

And it goes on like this for a while with Adam generally just not able to grasp the concept that sometimes it's fun to just drive somewhere and do something stupid and it's more fun  with a friend and that Ronan is including Adam in this? because maybe they might be friends?

And so they go. Adam is wears his Coca Cola T shirt for maximum irony. This was a Wal-Mart special when he was 14 and since he’s started lifting weights the shirt is kind of tight. “Have you always had those arms, Parrish?” Ronan demands, ensuring that Adam will definitely be wearing that shirt again.

So Ronan notices Adam is kind of hot; Adam notices Ronan is actually pretty smart. For the drive back,Ronan pulls out a hip flask which he immediately starts using to doctor an RC Cola. 

“None for me,” Adam says, wary about Ronan drinking, and then Ronan throws Adam the keys to the BMW.  This is, somehow, better than the handful of times Gansey has pressed the Camaro key into Adam’s palm. Yes, Adam knows that Gansey has never given Ronan the keys to the Pig. He knows that was a deliberate ritual of trust to hand it over to him. In contrast, Ronan tosses control over casually, like it’s not a thing. Like maybe Adam is just another person and his right to inhabit the same universe has never been in question.

On the other hand -- Adam vaguely remembers Gansey alluding to the notion that the BMW is technically *stolen property*, that it really belongs to Declan or to Ronan’s father’s estate. Adam thinks that if they get pulled in a stolen car with open containers of alcohol in the front seat, the person who in trouble will  be the scholarship kid, somehow, and not Niall Lynch’s heir. You might think this thought process would motivate Adam to drive very carefully. 

It does not.

*

Everything’s fine. They make it home fine. 

An hour later, Gansey comes into Monmouth and finds Ronan and Adam lounging around. Ronan is drunk off bourbon + RC’s. (This drink is now called the Raven’s Crown. It tastes like bourbon and Coke, but if the Coke was worse). Adam is just a little overcaffeinated.

Gansey is confused why Ronan and Adam are hanging out without him.

Ronan says it’s all very straightforward. “WE HAD TO GO TO TROUTVILLE TO BUY A BUNCH OF RC COLA!!! OBVIOUSLY.”

Adam’s got nothing. “Ronan started it?” he suggests.

“Wait,” Gansey says. “Hold on. You guys drove to Troutville -- wherever the fuck that is -- without me? You were just hanging out -- without me?”

If Ronan or even Adam had said this there would be be a current of accusation, of the need for negotiation and balance. Gansey just sounds smug. Maybe his two best friends in the entire world don’t completely hate each other. Maybe they’re all getting somewhere.

Then he goes in the kitchen/laundry/bathroom and swears.  "Jesus Christ," he sighs. "What the fuck are we gonna do with all this shitty soda?"

#the raven cyle #ronan lynch #adam parrish #richard gansey iii #off brand cola #Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish #pynch #i have lived in the shenandoah valley and sometimes you gotta make your own fun #the coca cola shirt also makes an appearance for maximum irony

[racefortheironthrone]

Have you seen Captain Marvel? Thoughts?

thoughts on captain marvel?

Have you seen Captain Marvel?

Have you seen Captain Marvel yet?

Given all your great People’s History of Marvel stuff lately, I assume you’ve been asked already, but any Captain Marvel thoughts you can share?What did you think of Captain Marvel?

Ok, ok already, I’ll write the post!

Full Spoilers Below

I really liked it! As solo origin movies go, it was definitely one of the better ones; personally I’d put it up there with Doctor Strange in how it deals with bringing some big new ideas into the MCU, while having way higher expectations than that film ever did. (Also, I want to plug my colleague @elanabrooklyn‘s podcast episode about the film, which you should listen to while reading this.)

Things I Liked:

I thought the amnesia/false memories plot was a great way to wrong-foot the audience who’re used to superhero origin stories (the good guys are the bad guys, the bad guys are the good guys, Vers is Carol) which worked hand-in-glove with the film’s broader thesis about gender: that male dominated institutions are not just going to try to exclude or diminish you, but also gaslight you about who you are, what strength looks like, etc. to get you to comply. “What was given can be taken away”/”““Don’t let your emotions override your judgments.” are the key throughlines here, a great example of how the writers are taking worn-out Hero’s Journey tropes and flipping them on their head. 

I really liked the twist on Mar-Vell. It makes the origin story less of an accident and more of a choice, and I’m always in favor of more active protagonists; there’s really no reason why the Space Alien Defector from Decadence couldn’t be a female scientist instead of a male warrior; and it both honors the original (that no one really cared about, tbh) and surprises the hardestcore of fans. Also having the light speed engine be the Tesseract is a good way to incorporate Captain Marvel into the broader MCU without needing to explain a brand-new source of wibbley-wobbly. 

The war metaphor. There was a lot of handwringing before the film about Captain Marvel being pro-military propaganda, because of the Air Force deal that had been worked out. As I suspected going in, the film is a very sneaky subversion of that, with the Kree Starforce being a very clear stand-in for the U.S. Military. The surface level analogy is that the Kree Starforce is a male-dominated institution that tries to gaslight and prevent Carol from reaching her true potential just like the Air Force tried to do, but it goes deeper than that. The whole first act of the film sets up the Starforce as Seal Team Six equivalents - a highly-trained special forces group, fighting an enemy explicitly described as terrorists, but trying to do it in an efficient/precise way that makes them the good guys as opposed to Ronan’s carpet-bombing Accusers - which is a narrative we’ve been conditioned to accept since 9/11 through films like the Hurt Locker/Green Zone/Zero Dark Thirty/etc. However, the second and third acts reveal that’s total bullshit. The Starforce try to kill civilians, do kill their own people to get their hands on military intelligence, and are perfectly happy to carry out the Supreme Intelligence’s imperialist total war, and their supposed commitment to precision and avoiding collateral damage goes out the window the moment it’s the least bit inconvenient. 

Seeing Carol Danvers in the Jamie McKelvie suit - fauxhawk and all - blow through an alien warfleet whooping with joy made me ferklempt a little. I think that moment will only grow with time as something on par with the first time that Iron Man does the superhero landing or “I’m always angry” as genuinely worthy of the term iconic. 

EDIT: Forgot about Goose. Cute, funny, and instantly wins over the cat-lovers in the audience. I imagine the dog-lovers out there will want a much bigger role for Cosmo in Guardians 3...

Things That Surprised Me

I was genuinely surprised at how good the de-aging CGI has gotten. Coulson looked slightly waxy, but there was a real performance in Samuel L. Jackson playing not just a younger Nick Fury but a younger Nick Fury who is very specifically Samuel L. Jackson in the Long Kiss Goodnight. I have no idea what this means for the future; are we going to see the original Avengers forever, just with more and more de-aging GCI slapped on them? If only for salary and contract reasons, I doubt it’ll go beyond the realm of cameos and secondary performances, but it’s a nice way to try to maintain continuity as the MCU ages into its second decade.

The Skrulls. I had thought that the anti-war message was going to be more of a Kree-Skrull War plague-on-both-your-houses thing, but turning the Skrulls into the equivalent of Syrian refugees totally blindsided me. It’s an incredibly gutsy move, and I’ll echo what @giveamadeuschohisownmovie said about the brilliant bit of culture-jamming that is casting it-bad-guy Ben Mendelsohn as “the lead villain” and Jude Law as “the wise mentor,” judo-flipping audiences with our own expectations about recent films, the hero’s journey, and how we should feel about aliens who look like the Skrulls and aliens who look like us. That being said, part of the reason why it’s a gutsy move is that it precludes a lot of possible stories: I don’t think you could do a Kree-Skrull war, or a Secret Invasion movie, or a Super-Skrull movie after this, given the way that the film deconstructed the entire notion of Skrulls-as-heel-species. 

Things I Could Have Used Even More Of:

While I totally understand the pacing reasons why they didn’t do this, I kind of wish there had been more time to do some road-trip banter between Nick Fury and Carol; give Nick a chance to introduce the alien to 90s music and fast food, crack some meta jokes about Pulp Fiction, etc.

I also could have used some more banter with the rest of the Kree team. I think some stuff got cut here, because there’s definitely some shots from trailers of the team walking down a hallway and staring down Ronan coming the other way that didn’t make it into the film. As a result, Carol’s team turning on her and her fighting back doesn’t have as much emotional weight.

Finally, and this is a really small nit-pick, but a bit more budget spent on the CGI during the Supreme Intelligence scenes would have gone a long way. Annette Benning’s dual performance was so good that the slightly dodgy mirror tendril stuff stood out in a negative way. Or just don’t do the mirror tendril stuff and double-down on the memory-warping or dueling beams stuff, which worked much better. 

#marvel #marvel meta #mcu #captain marvel #spoilers

[trashpandaorigins]

You Idiot! Deconstructing Groot & Rocket’s Less Than Wholesome Dynamic

I recently rewatched GOTG and it really struck me (shockingly) for the first time how Rocket is really actually pretty mean to Groot throughout GOTGVol1. Now we're gonna talk about it.

Writing this makes me a hypocrite. I have read and written numerous fanfics about Groot and Rocket. Fics about how they met, how they escaped prisons, how Groot was the first being in the galaxy to care about Rocket, how bereft Rocket was after the original Groot died and how he then rose to the occasion to take care of baby Groot. There are fluffy fics, angsty fics, so many fics and lovely pieces of fanart that feature this iconic duo. However, there’s an element to Groot and Rocket’s relationship that is very much the elephant in the room: Rocket is, (and I was somewhat shocked by this upon my most recent watching of GOTG) really a jerk to Groot. He doesn’t treat him nicely at all.  Let’s just start off with Rocket’s persistent referral to Groot as an idiot. In most fics, (my own included), this is brushed off as an endearing term. One that is playful, doesn’t carry much meaning behind it beyond a nickname of sorts. This is problematic and it’s not the only thing that contributes to their less than wholesome dynamic. Indeed, there is a lot there. Rocket is mean to Groot throughout most of the film and Groot tolerates it even as he is protecting the raccoonoid and assisting him along their adventure. I am going to be looking exclusively GOTG1 for this little ramble. Volume 2 brings up a whole different dynamic and the comics are a different story all together. Personally, I think Groot has  more agency in the comics and pushes back more frequently on Rocket’s antics (not that he doesn’t do that in GOTG, we will get into that later), but the comics have the luxury of time and different runs to expand on their relationship.

After all isn’t that  one of the great beauties of engaging in fandom and shipping? In this case platonically;  that we can both love and adore our favorite characters while also examining their relationships from different angels and gaining new insights and analyzing them critically. I would also argue that it makes fandom more engaging, provides inspiration for new content and allows us to delve deeper into these endlessly intriguing characters. I am not trying to argue that Rocket doesn’t love Groot or doesn’t care about him, in fact I think that if we look at the problematic parts of their relationship it makes the ending of the movie all the more impactful. I’m just saying that sometimes you have to look at the entire ship, even the nasty bits and in so doing you can appreciate the whole. With that note let’s blow some holes in this ship. You know, for fun!

“Don’t drink fountain water you idiot that’s disgusting!” From the very moment we are introduced to Groot and Rocket the raccoonoid is already insulting his partner in crime. The casualty with which he utters this indicates that this isn’t the first time he’s referred to Groot as such and it certainly not the last. Repeatedly calling Groot and idiot  reinforces the idea that people who are quiet or don’t communicate verbally in the way that others do, are somehow dullards, fools or dunces, people with low intellect. This really is quite mean spirited of Rocket especially when you consider the flora’s loyalty.

It might seem as through Groot doesn’t mind this insult but you see him object, shaking his head and looking at Rocket as he tries to deny the fact. Groot may speak in a way that not many people can understand but he can understand them. He knows what words mean; he knows what the word idiot means. So that is how we meet the duo. Rocket ordering Groot around. The fight ensues with Quill and Gamora, during which Rocket calls Groot an idiot again after the flora manages to capture Quill. But Groot does this of his own volition, taking initiative and sneaking up on him to get the bounty. Does Rocket praise his partner or react pleasantly to Groot succeeding in this? No he tells him to quit smiling and again accuses him of being an idiot. Towards the end of the fight as Groot is whimpering over his lost arm Rocket calls him an idiot for a third time and tells him to  essentially “get over it.” Not a terribly wholesome start. It paints their relationship as one where Rocket orders Groot around, using him for his brute strength, hanging around with him out of convenience and the protection/intimidation he offers, but not really caring all that much about his feelings or his well-being.

Not only does Rocket continue to insult Groot but he also demeans nearly everything that the flora says and brushes aside Groot’s genuine concern with irritation. See the, “I told you you can’t fit now stay here I’ll be back,” bit of dialogue before the pod chase as well as, “so what it’s better than 11% what the hell does that have to do with anything?” He dismisses Groot’s anxieties and shrugs off most of what he says. Any suggestions or comments are met with contempt.

Groot is the butt of Rocket’s insecurities, the emotional punching bag upon whom Rocket projects his anger and frustration. Rocket often lashes out at him and  behavior is not uncommon. We’ve all intentionally or unintentionally taken our anger out on those we love most.

Rocket treats Groot as an annoyance for most of the film. Shaming him in front of others, insulting him, snapping at his every word but….can we blame him? Rocket is a tormented little thing who never learned empathy, never learned how to treat people right. It’s heavily implied that the people or things that made him certainly didn’t expose him to an ounce of sympathy or understanding. He wasn’t socialized in the way other beings are whether by human or animal social circles. He is the product of a lab. They were making something to be used for violent means. They didn’t care if their creation could play nice in the sandbox. I have made this comparison before but Rocket is in many ways,  an abused child who is trying to make his way in and understand a world that consistently rejects him and dehumanizes him for that which his creators did, (by the way he doesn’t even know what that is). The fact that he is able to form any relationship or emotional connection with anyone is remarkable.  Of course Rocket’s struggles with forming relationships is indicative of his traumatic past, but having trauma doesn’t give you a free pass to treat people poorly. It can help explain certain behaviors but it doesn’t excuse them, and Groot appears to understand this just as well.

We’ve been focussing pretty exclusively on Rocket’s perspective here so let’s shift to Groots, something that is undoubtedly harder to do, (and people ask me why I only have one story from Groot’s point of view, this is why). Imagine for a second you are in a country where you can understand their language but they cannot understand you. What’s worse, most of the people view you as an outsider and a freak. No matter how many times you try to communicate with them they still look upon you with scorn. It’s alienating, frustrating and profoundly lonely. Then imagine you finally, finally meet someone who can communicate with you, what a relief! Not only that but they seem to be deft at navigating this fast, complex world you are trying to inhabit. Sure they are a bit rough around the edges and sometimes they are rude to you but depend on them. It is precisely this dependency that perhaps provides the foundation for Groot and Rocket’s team up-though the movies don’t tell us exactly how they met. Maybe Groot helped him out of the jam. Rocket is good at many things but given his size he probably does his best to avoid hand to hand combat when necessary. It would make sense for him to relay on Groot for protection as well as his ability to intimidate others as we see in the Klyn. Despite this dependency Groot does put up with a lot of Rocket’s antics.

Groot isn’t some passive figure either when it comes to Rocket’s behavior. As my good friend @captaintoomanybattles pointed out during our latest viewing of GOTG,  Groot and Rocket stick together even when it’s not something Rocket wants to do. Groot is determined to save Quill and Gamora and Rocket follows along even though it’s not something. Rocket isn’t really even being persuaded really. Groot expresses horror at Rocket mockery of Drax’s loss. Groot pushes back against him and takes a stance.  It is Groot who initiates the rescue of Quill and Gamora, he is the first among the Guardians to stand up after Quill’s big speech, agreeing to fight Ronan. Groot makes this choice entirely on his own. When he looks at Rocket he isn’t asks for permission, he’s asking if Rocket is with them. In this case it is Groot who is the driving force. There’s a balance, it goes both ways. Both are able to make their own decisions independent of the other.

In order to really understand why Groot would stand all of this, and who Groot is I think you really need to understand trees. I’m not a philosopher and this little piece has gone on long enough and I still have a few more things I want to touch on so I’ll keep it quick. Perhaps Groot, like trees and other plants is playing the long game so to speak.Thinking and conceptualizing time and existence in a cyclical nature of seasons, life, death and rebirth; slow and steady. So maybe it doesn’t trouble him overmuch when Rocket lashes out in the movement because Groot knows his partner in crime has had a rough life and he is trying slowly to learn how to build relationships and be more compassionate. In contrast, Rocket who is reckless, impulsive, his temerity knowing no bounds doesn’t fully grasp the pernicious effects of words and deeds on to Groot until the very end.  

And that right there is perhaps the real tragedy. That Rocket doesn’t realize until much too late that Groot is, up until this point the only other creature who has ever cared about him. Groot is the one person who has ever deemed Rocket someone not only worthy of friendship and compassion despite his rudeness but someone worth saving, worth dying for. It is in that terrible movement when the two look at each other right after Rocket has begged him not to do this- that Rocket must reckon with how he has exploited and insulted Groot, (and thus begins to realize the profound effects of his own trauma upon himself and his relationships with others). Groot was the only person in Rocket’s lonely misbegotten existence who deemed him capable of something more than the little monster his creator's had intended. Groot proves that Rocket is worthy of being loved and the rest of the Guardians subsequently prove to him that he is capable of loving others. Groot was the first to humanize this little malformed creature, the one who in many ways showed him he had personhood and the Guardians then push him to become a fully realized person in turn.

Rocket’s persistent rudeness towards Groot doesn’t detract from the beauty nor the love in this shot where Groot lifts a vine to stroke against Rocket’s face; it adds depth and dimensionality.  That is the tragedy that only in a moment of pure altruism on the part of Groot does Rocket realize he did in fact love Groot too. His perspective shifts, seeing Groot not as a tool or a means to an ends but someone who cared for him. But at this point it’s too late. Groot has chosen to sacrifice himself wholly on his own volition. Rocket knows he cannot talk Groot out of it, (though he tries by demanding to know why Groot is making this choice.). At this point Rocket can only look into the eyes of the creature he mistreated so and….weep?  He just...looks up at Groot with this helplessness and you feel feel it, deeply. Groot’s last words are ones of hope, reassurance, unity, and boundless love even in the face of utter chaos and his own impending ruin. The scene shows Rocket’s grief-stricken face, powerless to stop what is coming and then you see Groot. Who is somehow despite the tears in his eyes and no doubt the fear, still so full of faith in friendship, of faith that the rest of them will be okay. We are Groot breaks our hearts and then it fades to white. Now I’m not going to make a Jesus metaphor here and say that Groot dies for the sins of the rest of the Guardians bur rather his death does force rocket to face the fact that he did sin, or at least that he treated a kind person who was nothing but good to him, unkindly and with apathy at best.

Still, you can tell that Rocket does care about Groot through it all. He runs towards him under dire circumstances in the Kyln, leaping up on his shoulder ready to fight instead of running away and letting Groot get shot up. He advocates for Groot to get his share of the bounty on multiple occasions and lashes out at the Collector when the man posets buying Groot’s corpse after his death, (wasn’t that some heartbreaking foreshadowing).

It is clear that Rocket regrets treating Groot the way he did. That much is evident in the shot where we see him kneeling-and let’s be clear here-among the literal splintered saw dusted broken remains of his partner. It’s a short shot, easy to miss and Rocket’s mumbled words are hard to hear but he murmurs, “I called him an idiot,” whilst picking up a handful of the remaining twigs. This quick shot, not even a scene really is tiny but powerful. For it shows Rocket’s humility and vulnerability rivilng that of the scene at the bar on Knowhere. The raccoonoid is full of shame and grief and understandably, rage. Rocket took advantage of Groot throughout their time together and only realized the love he had when it was too late. He will never get the chance to apologize, he will never be able to make amends, he will never be able to tell Groot how much he truly appreciated and loved him. Peter never took his mother’s hand and Rocket never apologized to Groot and damn if that ain’t relatable to anyone who has ever lost someone they loved without being able to say goodbye. But this guilt isn’t lost on Rocket. He learns his lesson, at least in part. As another fan pointed out Rocket never once calls baby Groot  an idiot, even when he is frustrated or angry with him. Nor does he call Teen Groot such.

Groot and Rocket’s relationship is not necessarily a healthy one. Built on a mutual dependency with Rocket often times exploiting him and then treating him a nuisance-but Groot doesn’t just stand by and take it either. He pushes back, and when push comes to shove Rocket will follow where Groot goes. Both of them care for one another, deeply. Enough for Groot to sacrifice himself for Rocket’s life, enough for Rocket to begin to change for the better. I adore these two with all my fangirl heart and well I wouldn’t use the word “adore” to describe how Rocket feels-anyone who watches the Groot cocoon scene, or the shot of Rocket as Baby Groot emerges can see the radiant emotion that is there. We are all imperfect people with imperfect relationships. Things we never said to people, friends and family we took for granted, people we didn’t stick up to sooner. If Groot and Rocket’s dynamic can teach us anything it is that it is alright have a messy imperfect love as long as we push ourselves to do better and sometimes give ourselves and each other, a break. Groot said it best: We are Groot, despite our flaws and short comings, we are all worthy of love.

#my writing #rocket raccoon #groot #grocket #gotg #Guardians of the Galaxy

[virtual-insomnia]

MCU 20 Questions

Tagged by @carynsilver to do this one. :-)

Do I need to tag somebody? Hmmm. How about you, @feiolinydd?

1. Favorite solo film? Tough one. Iron Man is iconic. Black Panther is important. Guardians of the Galaxy is just fun. But I think in the end I have to go with Thor: Ragnarok. Taika Waititi is the only director to ever really understand how to use Thor, and it shows. This movie was so good that Marvel broke it’s unofficial “3 and out” rule for solo movies and decided to go for 4.

2. Favorite team-up film? The Avengers. I gotta go with the original team-up here. I watched it 3 times in the theater (which is a lot for me), and I spent months afterwards reading tons of fanfic where Tony built all of the Avengers their own floors in his tower in NYC, and they all lived together as one endearingly dysfunctional family with JARVIS doing his best to keep everyone in line. Good times, good times.

3. Favorite female character? Pepper Potts. I’ve read a ton of Stony fic, not to mention my recent WinterIron obsession, and one thing always remains true. THOU SHALT NOT DEMONIZE PEPPER POTTS JUST TO MAKE YOUR SHIP HAPPEN. It’s like fandom has just collectively agreed that she is made of awesome and must be treated as such. And fandom is 100% right. She is the best. <3

4. Favorite male character? Tony Stark, of course. I love him 3000. <3 <3 <3

5. Best canon ship? Tony/Pepper, obviously. Despite my forays into other Tony pairings, I still adore Pepperony and think they are the bees knees.

6. Best non-canon ship? My answer used to be Stony, but CW, IW, and Endgame have soured Steve for me a lot. And yet I have a new and unexpected Bucky Barnes fascination, so I guess maybe WinterIron? Or ooooooh... am I allowed to answer with Marvel Netflix pairings? Because I had an intense Matt/Foggy period after Daredevil S1 ended...

7. Favorite actor? RDJ (see #4)

8. Favorite actress? Gwyneth Paltrow (see #3)

9. Favorite director? Taika Waititi (see #1)

10. What was the first MCU movie you ever watched? Iron Man. In the theater on opening weekend way back at the beginning of it all.

11. Which MCU movie have you watched the most? Not sure. It’s gotta be either Iron Man, The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, or Thor: Ragnarok. But I honestly couldn’t say for sure which one.

12. Favorite super-suit? Iron Man’s suit is the coolest, hands down.

13. Favorite weapon? Steve’s shield is just iconic. I even have it on a t-shirt. (Which I still wear even though I’m pissed at Steve, so that’s saying something.)

14. Favorite origin story? Iron Man by a clear mile.

15. Favorite villain? Loki is my favorite hot mess of a trickster god. There really is no other choice here. The MCU has never made any other villain as compelling as Loki. Even Thanos, who they promised to make so compelling and three dimensional, fell flat for me. (He was just a giant-sized California Raisin with delusions of grandeur.) Meanwhile, Loki was so well done that they eventually had to work him around to anti-hero/reluctant good guy status because everyone loved him so much and wanted more of him.

16. Favorite fight sequence? The Winter Solider highway fight is epic.

17. Favorite line from any of the films? ”Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk.” -Tony Stark

18. Favorite scene from any of the films? Peter Quill’s “dance-off” against Ronan the Accuser never fails to crack me up.

19. If you could pick an Infinity Stone to keep, which would you choose? The Tesseract/Space Stone so I could teleport anywhere I wanted to go instantaneously.

20. Which Disney Plus MCU series are you most looking forward to? Loki (see #15)

#marvel #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #20 questions mcu edition #my enduring love of tony stark says hello #pepper potts is my queen #loki is a hot mess and i love him for it #taika waititi will save the mcu #tony stark #pepper potts #loki #taika waititi

[girlbookwrm]

MEMECEPTION:

THE MIGHTY PRE-ENDGAME REWATCH CONTINUES

happy galentine’s day. we did this, like, a week ago for The Roommate ( @goteamwin ) ‘s birthday and i just took f o r e v e r to type it up sorry

in my defense, it’s hard to meme-efy a movie that’s already extremely meme-eful. Hence, memeception. although tbqh if Guardians of the Galaxy is giving me trouble because it’s already making fun of itself, I don’t know WHAT I’m going to do with Thor: Ragnarok. Remember when GotG was the memiest Marvel movie? We were so young.

It is important to me that y’all know that because of cacw, whenever The Roommate and I see any kind of... title page? whatever? We bellow the word at top volume even if the font ISN’T inexplicably filling the entire screen. 

and so, I say to thee:

E A R T H ! ! ! 1 9 8 8 ! ! ! ! !

stealth reagan in the background to let you know it’s the 80s in case you were confused.

In What Sense is he like his father At All???

Honestly, to anyone who was surprised at Starlord’s actions in IW, they set up his tragic flaw right here. it’s page one. i don’t know why u were surprised.

B- grandfathering, but extra credit for difficult circumstances. u tried

Day Whatever, I Still Miss The Old Marvel Logo.

26 Y E A R S L A T E R

so, 2014 confirmed, for all the other timeline enthusiasts out there.

This is. The WEIRDEST gadget.

why is it like this

what is it doing

and how

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

I love this scene because up until this point it could be literally any other marvel movie and then 

BOOM

it’s GotG, bitch. get ready to Have Some Fun.

also it pretty firmly establishes that Peter Quill is our protagonist, but he is No One’s Hero.

there are giant fucking eels here? what the fuck? what HAPPENED to this place???

stop trying to make star-lord happen, it’s never going to happen.

i have questions. 

specifically about Ronan’s whole. everything.

Is he literally sleeping in the blood of his enemies?

is it necessary to have all these people help him get dressed?

what is up with this Immortan Joe Esque powder tossing business

what sorry sucker gets to put THAT on their Kree Resume

“Ronan’s Makeup Artist”

seriously

what is his fucking deal. how did he get the name “accuser” and will Captain Marvel give us these answers?

anyway, moving on.

POOTER!

people DO NOT call you star-lord

Gamora is a real #Icon in this whole scene.

SUPERHERO LANDING!

love that Rocket’s entire plan is to put criminals in a literal bag

and that it’s foiled because Groot doesn’t get gender.

also, John C Reilly has some of the best lines in this movie and I think he deserves more recognition for that.

“I am Groot.” “That’s gonna wear real thin real fast”

WEIRDLY NO??? srsly how did they prevent that from getting old fast?

Me: was it witchcraft?

The Roommate: No, it’s just Groot.

can we appreciate that Gamora is One Of Us? like. She’s into that.

if you don’t know what I’m talking about i am not going to explain it

Don’t Worry About It.

the moment we all went ho lee FUCK ANDY DWYER??? YOU GOT RIPPED MY DUDE YOU GOT FUCKING HUGE

oh no they gave me feelings about Rocket

the real hero of this movie is that prison lady and her telenovela

good job drax u found ur light

Rocket’s Bedhead is An Entire Mood.

how can Thanos take you seriously with all that shit on your face you look ridiculous.

“my favorite daughter” DUDE NEBULA IS R I G H T. T H E R E.

 Rocket’s UGH face is also An Entire Mood

i love how the others are like. wanting to get out. but Drax just joins in for shits and giggles? like? he’s having a good time? wholesome.

“Oh. yeah.” Rocket is maybe explosion-sexual. which. ok yeah mood there as well.

I will never tire of the fact that the prison uniform prints their rap sheets on their legs and Quill’s is the shortest

like, it’s even shorter than Rocket’s. And let’s remember that Rocket is definitely less than 20 years old since he’s A Raccoon.

Rocket just casually putting bombs together just to have something to do with his hands.

Let’s pull this apart: No one is phased by the Jackson Pollack reference. They seem to know exactly what Quill is talking about.

Jackson Pollack is an alien. CONFIRMED.

oh hey it’s a dark elf

GROOT: CINNAMON ROLL, 2 GOOD FOR THIS WORLD 2 PÜR

“he killed my parents in front of me.” I mean. kkkkkkinda

The Gal Pal, who teaches English Language Learners: “Sticks up their butts” is actually a prime example of the ELL struggle and why English is hard to learn

Rocket one drink in is sad AND angry

oh yeah? how many friends do YOU have, petey boy?

We firmly believe that the Collector kept them waiting so he could do his hair. He truly is the Grandmaster’s brother.

oh hey it’s exposition time

wait is that the planet we were on earlier? is the power stone why it’s Like That? did they just leave the power stone there after it did that? it’s the reality stone all over again honestly what the fuck

whAT DO YOU STILL HAVE IT FORRR?????

seriously. “the accuser” is a hell of a name.

aw drax. don’t you hate when you realize that someone means more to you than you do to them.

it’s like bumper cars but there’s a winner!

spinal fluid is an extra gross way to drown

omg it’s the frog all over again SHE’S EVEN GREEN

Quill’s eyes here are red and that feels right but also I HATE IT

everyone thinks they’re Groot’s dad, when in fact Groot is everyone’s dad.

This whole argument/discussion scene is Solid Gold

12% of a plan

IT’S REAL

Rocket understanding everything Groot says

basically Rocket tbh

“To Give A Shit”

The Roommate: I feel like this is when Quill becomes Quill instead of the superhero Andy Dwyer imagined. 

wait did they say sakaaran???

freaking Glenn Close wth man

Random Extra #2056 has amazing hair and she knows it

Drax is having too much fun

Honestly I’m typing this up and in my notes it just says “And This Happened” and even I don’t know what I mean there

Honestly, they had to kill Yondu. He’s too powerful. Thanos wouldn’t have stood a chance

“Star-Lord” oh my god it’s happening.

the way peter slides around in this movie -- does he have ball bearings in his ass or what?

Groot’s Smile. TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD TOO PURE

“YOU STAND ACCUSED” OF? WHAT??

Bucky and Nebula would really get along. I hope they get to meet some day.

More Questions About Ronan “””THE ACCUSER??”””

did he spend the last few hours just like

“ugh he WAS familiar”

“where the FUCK do I know him from ugh ugh ugh”

“OH RIGHT! I DID KILL HIS FAMILY!”

“Their screams were pitiful”

“I should tell him that.”

WE! ARE! GROOT!

Did they not evacuate the city? wasn’t that a thing?

EYYYY THEY SAID THE NAME OF THE THING

oh buddy you need like. all the skin cream.

Gamora = Peter’s Mom?? REALLY? YOU JUST WENT AHEAD AND MADE THAT SUBTEXT... TEXT. ALRIGHT. YOU WENT THERE. OK.

So is Ronan... not mortal???

like, he says 

Anyway.

How much time has passed between the battle and this end scene? coupla weeks? months? What are we thinking? I need to know for timeline reasons.

#the mighty pre endgame rewatch #guardians of the galaxy

[amandajoyce118]

Captain Marvel Easter Eggs And References

My goal for Easter egg lists is always to get them up within a week of a movie’s opening, or the same night that a television episode airs, but I’ve had an injured wrist/thumb that has made writing difficult. So, Captain Marvel hasn’t been delayed because of a busy life, but because I’ve been trying to rest my hand. I’ve been wearing a brace and thumb stabilizer for most of my day for the last few weeks, so I should be getting back to normal soon.

As usual with my Easter egg lists, this list assumes you’ve seen the movie, and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe  for that matter. There will be spoilers. You have been warned. I’m sticking mainly with comic and MCU references, so you won’t find a lot of pop culture ones here. If you want someone to give you the 90s rundown, I’m sure you can find it online.

The Stan Lee Tribute

Every MCU movie opens with the same sequence, highlighting the heroes that are part of the universe. This is the first Marvel movie to hit theaters since Stan Lee’s death, so they did something a little different. That sequence instead highlights him. The color scheme and the background text remains the same, but none of the actors are there, just shots of Stan Lee from different movies and red carpet events. I won’t lie. I’ve teared up a little every time I’ve seen it.

Hala

Both the name of the main planet and the capital city in the Kree Empire. MCU fans saw it before in Guardians of the Galaxy, though it was a bit darker and didn’t seem as tech-friendly. It makes me wonder just what happened in the years in between.

“There are tabs for that.”

Not an Easter egg, but a tiny bit of world building. Going into this movie, I think most people knew that Carol Danvers AKA Vers was really from Earth. But, I find it interesting that Yon-Rogg is so quick to offer Carol a Kree sleeping aid. It reinforces the idea we’ve seen on Agents of SHIELD that human and Kree physiology are relatively compatible.

Supreme Intelligence

Less of an Easter egg and more of a direct comic book adaptation, the Supreme Intelligence is also an A.I. in the comics. There, it’s made up of all of the minds of the smartest and most distinguished Kree after they day. That’s presumably what Yon-Rogg’s “join the collective” comment meant in the movie as well. The idea of it becoming the person you most admire is created for the movie.

Carol’s Inhibitor

The comics have tried many different inhibitors on characters with super powers over the years. The X-Men usually have collars. Alien species like their neural inhibitors though, which is what Carol appears to have when she trains with Yon-Rogg. Kudos to the MCU for keeping their tech consistent across movies and TV since it appears to be the same type as what Quake ends up with in the future on Agents of SHIELD. Interesting that Daisy’s is embedded in her brain tissue while Carol’s is on the surface of her skin. Something changed in the decades in between - probably the fact that Carol was able to disable hers. Then again, so was Daisy.

Starforce

This is considered a group of supervillains in the comics, so perhaps movie fans might have expected their turn if they knew that. A few of the members are different in the comics. For example, Yon-Rogg isn’t a member, but Ronan the Accuser is. ScreenRant did a good job at running down who’s who in the movie version since they’re all comic book characters. You can see that here.

Torfa

Torfa is a relatively new creation in the planets. It first popped up in 2014, which tells you the movie pulls from a lot of the new comic book continuity. Like the movie, Torfa was a planet where refugees lived. Also like the movie, not all of them survived the hostile atmosphere, though in the comics, it was chemicals, not Kree that were hostile. Carol also had it out with Starlord’s comic book dad there.

Talos

Talos is in the comics, but apparently he’s also a Star Trek reference. Not a Trekkie, though I do find the franchise interesting, so I’ll direct you to this article for a full explanation.

Carol’s Look

One of Carol’s most iconic looks in the comics is her mohawk. She gets it for the movie in the form of her helmet keeping her hair in place. Her uniform, with the green color scheme, is one all of Starforce uses, but it’s also a nod to the original Captain Marvel’s uniform in the comics. In fact, the color changing of her suit appears to be a nod to a few other costumes she had in the comics too. The red, yellow, and blue came later. I’m just glad we didn’t have her bathing-suit like uniform of her Ms. Marvel days.

Maria “Photon” Rambeau

Maria is created for the movie (her daughter is from the comics), and though we learn more about her much later, we see her callsign on her jet during Carol’s early flashbacks. Photon is actually one of the many superhero names Monica Rambeau uses in the comics. Nice touch.

Carol’s Family

Carol’s family flashbacks only ever show us her brother and her father. We don’t get much of an idea about her homelife other than her relatives not wanting her to be as rough as the boys. That’s very much a part of her comic book background. Her father favors her brother so much that, even though Carol has the better grades growing up, he only pays for her brother to get a university education. Carol joins the Air Force for the free tuition and to prove she’s as good as the boys to her father. (It’s also interesting that we never see her mother since a recent retcon in the comics has her mother as a Kree refuge and Carol’s birth name as Car-El as she’s half Kree.) It’s also interesting to note that a lot of Carol’s major stories in her classic comics involve her losing her memories and having to figure out who she is all over again.

Lieutenant Trouble

It’s a cute nickname for Monica with Carol’s military background. It’s also a nod to another little girl Carol new in the comics with the same nickname and Monica being a police officer in the comics when she’s introduced as an adult. She’s also from Louisiana, just like the Rambeaus are in the movie.

Dr. Lawson

We’ve got some genderbending going on for the new generation. In the comics, the original Captain Marvel is Mar-Vell, a Kree soldier sent to Earth to monitor the planet as it gets destroyed by Galactus. Mar-Vell comes to sympathize with humanity and turns on the Kree to help the humans. He also takes the guise of a scientist with NASA named Dr. Lawson while he’s undercover. Sounds familiar, except her Lawson and Mar-Vell are a woman and the race she sympathizes with are the Skrulls. The original story also had Mar-Vell and Carol ending up in an accident with a piece of Kree technology that left Carol with his powers. I love the twist on this origin story. There’s plenty of nods to the source material without Carol’s jealousy of Mar-Vell from the comics, and without her playing second fiddle to a heroic dude for a long time.

Project PEGASUS

In the comics, Project PEGASUS is a unit researching alternative energy sources. It also acts as a prison for those with superpowers. We’ve actually seen mention of it in the MCU before. For the MCU, it was created in the 1940s when Howard Stark found the Tesseract in the ocean while looking for Captain America. It was a joint venture between the Airforce, NASA, and what would become SHIELD to study it. It gets a mention in a few of the tie-in comics for the MCU movies, but specifically, Tony Stark mentions he wants files on it to JARVIS when he’s going through his dad’s stuff in Iron Man 2. A sign for it also appears on the wall in a SHIELD facility in Agents of SHIELD.

Blockbuster And Radio Shack

A+ choices for the businesses for Carol to run into. Two companies that are essentially extinct 20 years later, but were cutting edge at the time. (From what I understand the Blockbuster scenes were actually filmed at the last Blockbuster left in the US. It’s in Arizona. Go figure.)

True Lies

True Lies gets noticed in the video store because Carol shoots the standee, but the spy movie is known for a fighter jet sequence, and it was the first true “blockbuster” movie because it cost over $100 million to make - unheard of in 1994. The fighter jet prop used in it was also repurposed and used in The Avengers, so it’s like Easter egg inception here.

Universal Translator

So much is made about alien races speaking English in the MCU. In the comics, pretty much anyone traveling through space has a universal translator built into their ship or their helmets. This one off mention from Carol reminds us of that, though she’s likely speaking English anyway.

Coulson the Skrull

Phil Coulson appears as a rookie agent in the 90s. I’d wager this is one of his first big jobs since he’s still on evidence collection. You know him from the Iron Man and Avengers movies as well as, you know, Agents of SHIELD. I like that he’s the one a Skrull simulates instead of Fury because there were so many theories about who could be a Skrull when they were announced for this movie. It’s also a nice misdirect from Marvel that there’s concept art out there of Fury’s transformation from a Skrull, but not Coulson’s.

And, I mean, Nick Fury’s not an Easter egg, so I don’t need to remind you he basically started the MCU with Hulk and Iron Man, right? Though this movie does make me worry about his driving record in the MCU. He seems to end up in a lot of accidents.

Stan Lee And Mallrats

Stan Lee’s cameo is extra special because it’s also a nod to a real life cameo of his. How very meta. The script he’s holding on the train is for Kevin Smith’s Mallrats, where he really did say the line, “trust me, True Believers,” something he also said a lot in his editorials in the comics.

Kelly Sue Deconnick

When Carol gets off the train, she passes a woman with red hair and glasses in her walk. That’s Deconnick. She wrote the Captain Marvel comic book series a few years ago that this movie pulls a lot of its nods (and aesthetic) from. We can likely credit her with the surge in popularity Carol’s seen the last few years, and the reason she had a movie in development at all.

1989

In case there’s anything noteworthy for you in the year Carol ended up in Hala: Ron Perelman bought Marvel Entertainment Group, the massive X-Men Inferno story arc played out, the new Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD comic launched, and Jubilee made her comic book debut.

1995

Likewise, for Carol’s return to Earth: the Age of Apocalypse comics launched, Thor made his 400th comic book appearance, comic books like The Fantastic Four and The Amazing Spider-Man had landmark issues as well, and a bunch of Punisher comics were cancelled, only for Marvel to turn around and launch a new Punisher comic later in the year. The Skrull Kill Crew mini series also launched.

SHIELD Logo

Thanks, Carol for calling out the fact that a covert group shouldn’t put their logo on everything. Fans have been saying that for years. Also, nice touch that it’s not the sleek and modern logo we see in Agents of SHIELD, but the older one seen on the Wall of Valor in the MCU before.

“Smile for me.”

I know that Brie Larson was asked about this moment in an interview and said it wasn’t an Easter egg. But the fact that she was criticized so much by male fans for not smiling in promotional materials made me add this to the list.

SHIELD Medical Examiner

Nelson Franklin played him. He also appeared in an episode of Agents of SHIELD. Maybe they’re just relatives.

A “Full Bird Colonel”

Carol calls Fury this during their chat at Pancho’s. His military history before joining SHIELD is right in line with the comics. Of course, he was from New York, not Alabama there. He also says he likes the B’s and spent time in Budapest. Not the same mission as Hawkeye and Black Widow though, right?

“Just Fury”

Nick Fury also points out that he only goes by Fury. Not Nicholas. Not Nick. Just Fury. I intend on going back and finding when in the MCU someone calls him Nick to his face. Maybe it’s like a distress signal for him.

“You look like someone’s disaffected niece.”

Fury says this to Carol when he points out her clothes not fitting in on a secret base. But it reminded me of the comments about her looking like Emily VanCamp, who plays Peggy Carter’s niece Sharon.

The Welcome Wagon

Carol’s not familiar with the term, though Fury is. Probably because that’s what they call the intake program for new “assets” with SHIELD. That’s what Coulson eventually wants Skye to do when he adds her to his team in Agents of SHIELD.

Ronan The Accuser

You probably recognize Lee Pace’s character from Guardians of the Galaxy. In that movie, he was after a little purple gem that turned out to be the Power Stone. He’s a Kree purist, out to conquer neighboring lands and make sure the Kree stay in power. He’s not all that different here. His mention of coming back for the weapon and the woman at the end is likely a nod to him pursuing other Infinity Stones, even if it’s not clear that he knows what they are here. By the time of Guardians, he’s got whole rituals he’s participating in, which includes painting his face in Blue Kree blood. It doesn’t look like he’s quite that fanatical here. He does, however, inspire loyalty in Korath, who eventually works for him directly, which does make me wonder what happened to Yon-Rog after this and how much Korath told Ronan about their encounter with Carol on Earth as well.

“That’s a flerken.”

Goose likely gets his name from Top Gun, but he gets his alien identity from the comics. In the comics from a few years ago, Carol has a companion on her spaceship - a cat named Chewie. As Rocket Raccoon points out to her, “that’s no cat. That’s a flerken.” Like Talos, Rocket was right. Chewie ends up having a whole litter of flerkens. Goose just eats things and people at convenient times.

Women Flying Combat

Maria notes that women weren’t allowed to fly combat in 1989. That’s true. They weren’t allowed to fly combat until 1993, a few years before the movie is set. The first woman to get to after the ban lifted? That would be Jeannie M. Leavitt. Now Brigadier General Leavitt, she actually trained Brie Larson for her role in the film and appears in the new Air Force ads.

ASIS

The name given to Lawson’s new aircraft, as mentioned briefly by Maria, is ASIS. It’s a nod to Marvel’s Ultimate universe where that version of Captain Marvel developed it. Carol was his head of security, and his girlfriend, in that universe.

A Kree Blood Transfusion

We find out that when Carol was brought to Hala, she needed a blood transfusion to stay alive. I like this nod to GH-325 on Agents of SHIELD, but it does make me wonder why Carol was saved from going mad. Is it because that particular Kree on the series had something in his blood that made everyone end up with it driven to find the ancient city? Is it because Carol was already brainwashed into thinking she was Kree? It’s interesting that Kree blood often comes with messing with memories though.

A Kree Imperial Cruiser

Mar-Vell much have had some military connections when she left Hala and came to Earth if she had a cruiser. We’ve seen them before in the MCU commanded by Ronan’s people. The design here is basically the same, but again, it looks like she’s got more tech, likely because the scientific nature of her work. It does make me wonder if she ever ran into the other smaller ships stationed near Earth that were monitoring the planet for Inhuman activity. (Remember the ones left in orbit to destroy the inhuman abominations in Agents of SHIELD?)

The Tesseract

The Space Stone certainly gets a lot of mileage in the MCU. Hydra wanted it, SHIELD experimented with it, Loki stole it, and now, we found out what else SHIELD was doing with it besides Fury’s secret weapons making team. Lawson, though we see her as part of the air force, is a SHIELD scientist. Like I said, PEGASUS is a joint effort by a few groups. She’s using the Tesseract for space travel though, like it should be.

Quadjet

Nice touch that Carol and Maria use a quadjet to rescue the Skrulls. Why? Because just a decade later SHIELD is using the later model - a quinjet.

Carol Stopping The Warheads

This imagery, like a lot of what comes with Carol glowing and flying, is straight out of the comics. She actually flies into Earth’s atmosphere and slows a sentinel from crashing to Earth in one comic. It looks nearly exactly like this sequence, except, you know, there are other Avengers with her in the comics.

Sizzling Power Lines

We hear the crackle of electricity and see power moving along the lines when Carol brings Yon-Rogg to Earth. This looks to be a nod to how her power works in the comics. She doesn’t just magically produce photo blasts. She absorbs ambient energy from her surroundings to fuel herself. That’s why she doesn’t technically need to eat, or even why she doesn’t need to breathe in the vacuum of space. Her power converts energy around her to sources to sustain her.

Mother Flerken

This has to be a nod to the fact that MCU movies don’t drop F-bombs, though Samuel L. Jackson loves them.

Mar-Vell. Two Words.

Fury mistakenly calls Mar-Vell Marvel. Carol corrects him. That’s kind of how the Captain Marvel term came to be in an alternate universe in the comics though. No one could pronounce Mahr-Vell in the Ultimate universe, so people called him Captain Marvel.

“We found her, and we weren’t even looking.”

I know that this is a nod to Fury’s eventual gathering of the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye together. But this is also a reminder that for decades, SHIELD was seeking out people with powers. As Agents of SHIELD showed their audience, some of those people were then locked up and exploited by Hydra agents working undercover. SHIELD still likely has a lot of super powered skeletons in its closet.

Mid Credit Scene

What a surprise. Captain Marvel will show up after the pager is activated in Avengers: Endgame. We’re all surprised, right? (Sarcasm, I know.)

Special Thanks

During the credits, there are a slew of comic creators listed in the special thanks section. Among them are heavyweights like Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Waid, Ralph Macchio, Gene Conway, Jack Kirby, and Chris Claremont. I honestly missed that section the first time and didn’t read them fast enough to catch more. But they aren’t directly responsible for Captain Marvel, but instead had a huge effect on Marvel comics as a whole with massive runs for different properties.

Post Credit Scene

Goose coughing up that tesseract was necessary for Fury to later use to attempt to develop weapons, just like Hydra, in a secret SHIELD program that Captain America won’t like in The Avengers.

A few side notes:

Coulson’s Gut

To be perfectly honest, I feel like Coulson’s part was originally just a generic rookie SHIELD agent in the script. I think when they got the chance to add Clark Gregg to the cast, a few things changed, like this exchange between Fury and Carol about going with your gut instead of following orders. That has always been Coulson’s thing. And, even though Fury is always yelling at people to follow orders, it’s actually how he operates too. It’s why he’s always set up ways for himself, and his proteges, to work around the system. I like that it was touched on here since it’s such a big part of Agents of SHIELD.

Coulson’s Kree Knowledge

Does this create a plot hole? Coulson specifically remarks to Fury at the end of the movie that he heard a Kree took out his eye. But when Lady Sif made her appearance on Agents of SHIELD, Coulson had no visible reaction to her telling him that Kree were one of the blue skinned aliens she knows of. Also, does Coulson even know they were (mostly) blue? After all, he might not since his only face to face with a “Kree” was Carol. It makes me wonder if he suspected the alien that provided GH-325 was Kree all along. Obviously, this is just the kind of thing that happens when universes expand, and it can all be explained away with SHIELD’s use of their memory machine on him, but it still makes me wonder.

Fury And The Women Around Him

I love the theme in the MCU of Fury surrounding himself with powerful women. We’ve seen that Maria Hill is his right hand over and over - even when she was working for Stark. We also saw that he and Natasha Romanoff were close. He trusted her to do the dirty work Steve Rogers wouldn’t. We also know he trusted Sharon Carter and Melinda May to report to him directly during their spy work. Now, Carol Danvers inspires the Avengers Initiative and he invites Maria to work with him after spending one mission with her. I want to meet Fury’s mom. Because she must have been one hell of a woman.

That’s it. Anything I missed? Feel free to tell me because there’s no way I caught every Easter egg.

#captain marvel #marvel comics #marvel easter eggs #agents of shield #iron man #easter eggs

[thearabkhaleesi]

CAPTAIN MARVEL - FIRST LOOK

We have our first official look at Captain Marvel on the cover of EW & stills from the movie! 💥 Captain Marvel is an upcoming movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), set in the 90s and follows Carol Danvers, an air force pilot, who, after gaining cosmic powers, grows to become one of the universe’s most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. 💥 The stills feature:

Captain Marvel in her iconic costume

Carol with Starforce, the elite military team on the Kree planet of Hala

Jude Law as Mar-Vell/Walter Lawson, her mentor and Commander within the Starforce, who trains her to use her new powers

The Skulls, the film’s baddies, who are dangerous aliens with shape-shifting abilities

Ben Mendelsohn’s character, Talos, who is working undercover at SHIELD

Mar-Vell with Ronan the Accuser, whom we have already met in Guardians of the Galaxy, though during Captain Marvel he’s still a high-ranking member of Kree society.

Carol Danvers during her time as an Air Force pilot before becoming Captain Marvel

Carol wearing a SHEILD hat, and a Nine-Inch Nails shirt, again reminding us that this film takes place in the 1990s

Maria Rambeau, one of Carol’s oldest friends, a top Air Force pilot with the call sign “Photon,” who is also a single mother to a young daughter.

Samuel L Jackson as a younger Nick Fury, who in this film is a lowly S.H.I.E.L.D. desk jockey who hasn’t yet met any superheroes and doesn’t have his signature eyepatch yet. (SLJ was digitally de-aged for the role)

💥We also found out a bit more on the movie’s plot, and that it doesn’t follow Marvel’s typical origin-story plot template, as when we meet Carol in the film, she already has her powers and has left her earthly life behind to join the elite military team Starforce on the Kree planet of Hala.

Captain Marvel hits cinemas March 8, 2019!

#Captain Marvel #carol danvers #brie larson #marvel #mcu #ew #entertainment weekly #jude law #mar-vell #samuel l jackson #kree #skrull #nick fury