Agents Of SHIELD!

[Bazza]

[zslane]

There are plenty of divergences of at least equal significance to the timing of LMD development between the comics and the movies.

Excellent post. Thanks!

[Hugh Neilson]

One issue the success of the MCU has created is the need the writers/editors/executives feel to align the comics with the movies (not the other way around - we know which medium is bringing in the bucks, right?). Marvel had a whole miniseries to introduce Nick Fury's son and his buddy, with the son introduced as a single parent child with Marine Corps experience, referring to his buddy only by a nickname.

 

But surprise, Son loses an eye and discovers Dad's identity over the course of the miniseries, and shaves his head near the end - SURPRISE - He's now Nick Fury, Agent of Shield (and with that head shaved, looks remarkably like Samuel L. Jackson). Meanwhile, his buddy shaves off the facial hair and replaces his jeans and sweatshirt with a suit and tie - why his real name was Phil Coulson all this time (he looks like he dropped 20+ pounds getting that suit on too, and his hair must have been dyed since it looks different with the shorter cut).

 

Unprecedented? Not by a long shot, when one considers the writers were instructed to find a way to bring back the late Alfred Pennysworth back in the '60s because his absence was a difference between the comic and the TV show.

 

Enjoy the comics but not the movie? Stay home and read the comic. Like the movies but not the comics? Go to the movies and don't buy the comics. Like both? Great - read the comics and watch the movies. But enjoy each for what they are. Some comic tropes translate well and others don't. Issues that plague monthly publication aren't the same issues that challenge a movie producer. "Inspired by" can produce some absolute trash, but so can "enslaved to".

 

How dull would it be for those of us familiar with the comics to watch 40+ years of publication history play out on screen, already knowing every twist and turn to come?

[zslane]

In the case of Nick Fury's physical appearance, this is a case of the tail wagging the dog which then wags a second tail. Nick Fury in the MCU is Samual L. Jackson because that's what he looks like in the Ultimates. Then the MCU starts to infect the 616. So the epidemiology of Sam Jackson as Fury goes 1610 -> 199999 -> 616. And the transmission agent? Sales/box office revenue. Not creative inspiration.

 

For myself, I wouldn't find it dull at all to watch 40+ years of published continuity play out on screen. In fact, there's a large part of me that wishes that's what the MCU was, more or less. It wouldn't matter one way or the other to the general public, but a lot of fans of the comics are disappointed by many of the strategic creative choices made for the MCU.

[Hugh Neilson]

And those fans can keep reading the comics and ignore the movies. All that continuity is still there (although, as noted above, some is drifting to the movie continuity). There have been choices I liked, and choices I didn't, in the MCU, but overall, no one has come close to being this close to the comics. I wasn't that thrilled with Iron Man. I just about fell off my chair when Hulk answered "Hulk Smash!" on screen (a talking Hulk - never saw THAT on the TV show!). Thor wasn't great. Iron Man II wasn't a classic comic book simulation. Captain America - hmm...that was pretty good, and a lot closer.

 

And those were all on DVD. My son had decided he wanted to the The Avengers (before it came out), so we got caught up on all the movies already released. And guess what? The Avengers worked. There were some choices in there too (a million aliens so it looks like a video game with minions and the occasional Big Boss). But, overall, it worked. It probably would have worked even better, for me, had I not read 40 years of continuity.

 

For my son, 10 years old at the time? "That was AWESOME!" He wasn't burdened with 40 years of continuity. And as I think of it, when I was his age and started reading a lot of comics, neither was I. And those comics? They were AWESOME!

[Lord Liaden]

Even with my burden of 50 years of comics continuity, I think AoS Ghost Rider is AWESOME!

[Nolgroth]

I think Ghost Rider has always been awesome. For some reason though, I don't like the head on this one. It looks a little like a cheap Hallowe'en mask. The actor does a pretty good job with the character aspect though. Isn't he supposed to have magic chains or something?

 

Kind of upset that Daisy/Skye is still having problems with using her powers. One hell of a Side Effect limitation.

 

Nice to hear reference to the Darkhold. I only vaguely remember it, but as I recall it was the Marvel Universe equivalent to the Necronomicon. Always fun when a dark and nasty piece of supernatural reference material makes its way into a story.

[aylwin13]

<SNIP>

For myself, I wouldn't find it dull at all to watch 40+ years of published continuity play out on screen. In fact, there's a large part of me that wishes that's what the MCU was, more or less. It wouldn't matter one way or the other to the general public, but a lot of fans of the comics are disappointed by many of the strategic creative choices made for the MCU.

 

 

<SNIP> And those fans can keep reading the comics and ignore the movies. <SNIP>

 

I think I get where zslane is on this. As a visual person, my seeing the stories on the pages of the comics is great (not necessarily better/worse than a text novel, but as I said I prefer to see things).

 

However, I always thought that it would be so much cooler to actually see those stories on the screen, in motion, able to hear all of the cool "sound effects". So, yeah, if they wanted to make all of my favorite Marvel stories into video versions, be they live action or animated, I'd be jazzed.

 

I'll still keep reading and watching though, because if it has supers in it, I'm interested.

[Lord Liaden]

Nice to hear reference to the Darkhold. I only vaguely remember it, but as I recall it was the Marvel Universe equivalent to the Necronomicon. Always fun when a dark and nasty piece of supernatural reference material makes its way into a story.

 

Pretty much. The evil elder god Chthon personally scribed the book to be his talisman on Earth, to pave the way for his eventual return, much as Set created the Serpent Crown. As such the Darkhold is unique and practically indestructible. Studying its lore corrupts the reader; the medieval mystic Mordred was turned into Chthon's undying slave after exposure to it. Ancient Atlantean wizards used spells in the Darkhold to create the first vampires.

[Nolgroth]

Mordred. Yes. That is where I remember it from. Thanks.

[slikmar]

So, AOS is setting up the sequel to Dr. Strange as all previews make it appear at this point Mordu and Strange are on the same side. Cool. I need to catch up with shows, dammit.

[DasBroot]

It's been mentioned before but AoS's depiction of Elena's super speed is pretty fun to watch.

 

It was so nice of the EMP pulse to merely disable electronics instead of permanently frying anything un-shielded with current running through it. The first pulse, where cell phones sparked out, had all the proper menace.  

 

They mentioned the 17 Inhumans killed during these blackouts but the real death toll would be hospitalised normal humans.

[Cassandra]

The LMD is going to get possessed.

[Joe Walsh]

The LMD is going to get possessed.

 

And then...repossessed!

[zslane]

And I think we all know what our good Dr. Radcliffe does with his LMD prototype when no one's around. C'mon, I saw Ex Machina...

[DasBroot]

"Did the two fire guys just fall into a warehouse filled with fireworks?"

"You had to see that coming."

 

Yes we did, and it was great.  Fun fight all around - though I doubt very much that the Ghost Rider would have let Robbie take the guy alive (or at the very least not finish him off the moment they get the info they need from him - which I'm half expecting).

[Cassandra]

Just wondering, but does anyone plan on seeing Doctor Strange?

[zslane]

Oh hell yes!

[Bazza]

Just wondering, but does anyone plan on seeing Doctor Strange?

 

 

Yes. In one week. 

[aylwin13]

Absolutely. Probably the first week. I don't usually do that.

[slikmar]

Just wondering, but does anyone plan on seeing Doctor Strange?

Is this a trick question?

[BoloOfEarth]

Just wondering, but does anyone plan on seeing Doctor Strange?

 

I tried, but he's not currently seeing any new patients.  Probably a good thing, since I'm not sure he takes my health insurance.

[Cassandra]

I just don't get the hype about Doctor Strange.  We may be talking Incredible Hulk here, a one note character who'll have to be part of a team to utilize.

 

And who here is looking forward to a Defenders movie without Valkyrie?  They'd probably cast Jennifer Lawrence as her.

[aylwin13]

For me it's not the hype. As I've said in many other threads:

 

It's a superhero movie/TV show, I'm going to watch it. To me they're better viewing than Teenage Mom Survivors Living in Their Tiny Houses in Atlanta, or any of the rehashed 70's TV show movies made into comedies.

[zslane]

I'm not aware of the hype, mostly because I don't pay attention to entertainment news. What I do see, however, is a lot of excitement and enthusiasm for the movie. I don't think the degree of excitement and anticipation I'm seeing is unwarranted, so I don't see it as succumbing to hype. People seem to be genuinely jazzed about its potential.

 

And I understand why: Dr. Strange will be the first movie to fully explore "magic" in the MCU, and it will be starring an actor that a lot of us nerds really love. The visuals look terrific and he appears to adopt his classic costume at some point. What's not to be excited about?