The Marvel Thread (Spoilers, and language!)

For those who follow the comics, here's my brief review of the recently-completed Original Sin.

Original Sin features most of Marvel's all-stars solving a murder mystery. I say "most" because the X-Men aren't in this series aside from Wolverine and Emma Frost, but there are some tie-in X-Men books I haven't read. The murder victim is Uatu the Watcher; if you don't know the character, Original Sin #0 has all the background you need. It's not essential to the main series (#1 thru #8) if you know Uatu, but it does have a nice story with the current Nova, who isn't in the main series.

Nick Fury in this series is still the original grizzled white Nick Fury, not his black son Nick Fury Jr. who looks suspiciously like Samuel L. Jackson. This story is a major change in the original Fury's status, and appears to be Marvel paving the way for the SLJ-lookalide Fury to take over SHIELD in the comics. Original Fury starts the series retired, having a steak dinner with old friends Cap, Widow and Wolverine when word comes in that the Watcher has been killed. Steve Rogers convinces Fury to come out of retirement and lead the investigation. The roller-coaster starts there, any more plot is a spoiler.

Though I don't understand every bit, this series does (mostly) explain why Thor is now female in current Marvel Comics. Our ol' buddy hasn't changed; he has been replaced by a female Thor, while the old male Thor no longer has his powers. Original Sin explains part of how this happens, enough to guess the rest. There's also a nice tie-in story "Hulk vs Iron Man", where it turns out Tony Stark might have drunkenly caused the accident which turned Banner into Hulk, and this revelation makes the big green guy angry, of course...

The end of the series is a bit WTF, because Marvel seemed more interested in setting up changes to the characters than putting story first. The conclusion suffers a bit as a result. Still a good read, worth it at least once.
 
Disney released the official synopsis for Avengers 2 yesterday:

When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.

Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction.

Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, and Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes The Vision.

Remember that the upcoming series Agent Carter will feature both Howard Stark and Paul Bettany in some role. Remember that in The Winter Soldier, Howard Stark's photo was seen with Peggy Carter's in an old SHIELD base, and Cap explicitly said Peggy helped found SHIELD. I think Agent Carter will be setting up some backstory for Avengers 2.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
Remember that the upcoming series Agent Carter will feature both Howard Stark and Paul Bettany in some role. Remember that in The Winter Soldier, Howard Stark's photo was seen with Peggy Carter's in an old SHIELD base, and Cap explicitly said Peggy helped found SHIELD. I think Agent Carter will be setting up some backstory for Avengers 2.
Click to expand...

I've never heard any mention of it including Paul Bettany at all, especially as Jarvis is being played by James D'Arcy in Agent Carter and was only announced today.

All the other stuff was already known due to the Agent Carter one-shot that happened years ago, Stark asked Carter to run SHIELD with him, everything in TWS was a callback to that rather than setting up for future. As for setting up backstory, so far the TV series relationship to the films have been entirely one way, with the films affecting the TV show and not the other way round. With the next Avengers film being about Ultron, the only way I could see Agent Carter setting up backstory for it is if Howard Stark created/designed Ultron back in the 40's, which sounds a bit extreme - 70's or so sure, but not 40's.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program
Click to expand...

We already know that Tony has been interested in privatizing world security since the Senate hearing that opens Iron Man II. We know he's trying to personally replace SHIELD; Maria Hill said so in AOS. We know his father helped start SHIELD and Tony has daddy issues. The backstory explained in Agent Carter is likely to be something about Tony's relationship to SHIELD through his father, not Ultron.

Up until less than 24 hours ago, all signs pointed to Paul Bettany being in Agent Carter. Take a look at the news stories: most are talking more about Bettany's exclusion than James D'Arcy. At the time I posted that, it was believed to be accurate.

As for "all the other stuff was already known", shove it up your ass. I'm just posting stuff including my opinions and speculations here. If you "already know it", good for you.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
We already know that Tony has been interested in privatizing world security since the Senate hearing that opens Iron Man II. We know he's trying to personally replace SHIELD; Maria Hill said so in AOS. We know his father helped start SHIELD and Tony has daddy issues. The backstory explained in Agent Carter is likely to be something about Tony's relationship to SHIELD through his father, not Ultron.

Up until less than 24 hours ago, all signs pointed to Paul Bettany being in Agent Carter. Take a look at the news stories: most are talking more about Bettany's exclusion than James D'Arcy. At the time I posted that, it was believed to be accurate.
Click to expand...

The only rumour I've heard to do with Bettany and Carter is a scene filmed during Age of Ultron filming that had Bettany and Cooper together in 40's getup, but that was debunked, as well as being months ago and Agent Carter has barely (if at all) begun filming yet. Bettany voices an AI named after Starks butler, but as he is also playing Vision in Age of Ultron it would be a bit odd for him to also play the living Jarvis in the 40's, unless Ultron created Vision in his image - which wouldn't really make sense.

Tony didn't know of Shields existence until IM1, and didn't know his father was a part of it until IM2, at this point he doesn't really have any relationship to SHIELD. There could be things in the show that he has come to find out since the events of TWS due to everything being put online by Black Widow, but I would not expect any lead up to AoU through the TV series, I'd be quite happy if there was some two-way connecting going on but it hasn't happened yet and I have severe doubts it will in future.
As for "all the other stuff was already known", shove it up your ass.
Click to expand...

No need to get bitchy.
 
Tony Stark is the big billionaire behind everything in the MCU, though. That's kinda his role. He has the cash-money to make it happen, and he is. We know he is trying to replace SHIELD, and likely he's gonna end up bankrolling our good buddy Phil - even if he does not know he is supporting Phil.

As for the Vision, seems likely that Ultron is going to create him from JARVIS. We will have to wait and see if there is any 40s-50s scenes in Avengers 2, or if Paul Bettany makes an appearance in Agent Carter - things get debunked that happen in movies, so...and this is the company that kept the Hydra turn in Cap 2 from hitting the Internet. I'll believe anything of 'em.

SMX, did you ever see the Agent Carter One-Shot? Worth a look if you haven't seen it - it's really, really good.
 
LooseCannon said:
As for the Vision, seems likely that Ultron is going to create him from JARVIS. We will have to wait and see if there is any 40s-50s scenes in Avengers 2, or if Paul Bettany makes an appearance in Agent Carter - things get debunked that happen in movies, so...and this is the company that kept the Hydra turn in Cap 2 from hitting the Internet. I'll believe anything of 'em.
Click to expand...

I think it's all but confirmed that Vision comes from the JARVIS AI, the synopsis says "an old friend in a new form" especially. It also reduces the time needed to build an origin for Vision if he comes from an existing (albeit voice only until now) character, and potentially causes real problems for Stark.
 
What have they done to my man Fitz, and where is Simmons?

Skye is looking like a real agent. Ward is delightfully creepy. Absorbing Man was awesome.

And now for something completely different: my favorite panel from Civil War. Punisher rescues Spider-Man.
1217359-spider_man2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Something I noticed
aos1.png


And, at the start when they raid the Hydra base, Dumdum opens a crate for a split second and we see...
aos2.png

So that alien has been here a good long while then!

#ItsAllConnected continues already!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top