#captain america franchise

[ljones41]

"THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" (2022) Commentary

"THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" (2022) COMMENTARY

During the height of my high regard for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), among the movies of which I had been a major fan were the Captain America releases. At least two of them. The third film in this mini franchise - 2016's "CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR" proved to be a major disappointment for me. However, when I heard that Disney and Marvel Films had plans to air a miniseries about the characters Sam Wilson aka the Falcon and James "Bucky" Barnes aka the Winter Soldier, I must admit that I felt a renewed interest in the franchise again.

When I said a renewal of the MCU franchise, I meant it. Aside from a few movies like "ANT-MAN", "BLACK PANTHER", "CAPTAIN MARVEL" and "ETERNALS"; the MCU had become a major disappointment for me ever since the release of 2015's "THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON". One might ask . . . what about the MCU television productions that aired on the Disney Plus streaming channel? Aside from one production that I somewhat liked and one that I loved, most of them have been disappointing to me. Unfortunately, I have to include this follow-up to the Captain America movies, "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER".

Set six months after 2019's "THE AVENGERS: ENDGAME", "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" followed former war veteran/Avenger Sam Wilson, who has resumed working the for the U.S. government, while using his role as the Falcon. When the government recruits Sam to track down and deal with a group of enhanced anarchists known as "the Flag Smashers", former World War II veteran/HYDRA tool/Avenger James "Bucky" Buchannan aka the Winter Soldier decides to join Sam in his mission, due to his lingering guilt as a former HYDRA assassin and their shared experiences as Steve Rogers' close friends and battling Thanos and his army.

Since "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" had aired on the DisneyPlus channel in six episodes, I had seriously considered ranking the episodes. But like Season three of the Marvel Netflix series, "DAREDEVIL", the more I watched "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLIDER", the more it disappointed me. Aside from complaints about its pacing, the limited series had received a great deal of praise from critics and fans alike. Because of this, I believe it was one of the most overrated productions in the MCU history. People had seemed so focused on little moments and scenes that very few had noticed how the series' narrative seemed to be all over the map. For example:

Sam Wilson This limited series is supposed to be a follow up to the events of "ENDGAME" in which Sam had received the Captain America shield from an aging Steve Rogers, a sign for him to take up the latter's costumed role. Was this an attempt by Marvel Films/Disney to make Sam a more relevant character? If so, why? Why did a MCU character have to replace Steve as the new Captain America to be more relevant? Why not allow Sam to continue as the Falcon, only push his role to the forefront as one of the franchise's new leading characters? Some might accuse me of not wanting a black man as Captain America, a topic that was brought up in the series. Frankly, I never wanted another character - regardless of race, gender or ethnicity - to become the new Captain America. That includes Bucky Barnes. Allow Steve Rogers to fade into the background and let Sam (as the Falcon) shine as one of the franchise's new leads. However, the die has been cast. One can only sit back and see if moviegoers are willing to accept Sam as the new Captain America.

Perhaps the MCU had to make Sam the new Captain America in order to make him more relevant. Why would I say that? The showrunner for "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER", Malcolm Spellman, came dangerously close to shoving Sam into the role of the second lead or worst, a role he has been since his debut in 2014's "CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER" - a supporting character. During the series' first three or four episodes, someone other than Sam (either Bucky Barnes or Helmut Zemo - two white men) made decisions that allowed the plot to move forward, not Sam. He was simply regulated to being an observer or reactor. The series even managed to undermine Sam's decision not to support the Sokovia Accords in "CIVIL WAR". In thee 2016, Sam became the first Avenger to speak out against the Accords and declare his intentions not to sign it. Yet, according to Bucky in this series, Sam had merely followed Steve's example in rejecting the Accords. And Spellman did nothing to allow Sam to correct this misconception.

James "Bucky" Barnes One of the few aspects of "CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR" I found enjoyable proved to be the interactions between Sam Wilson and Bucky Buchannan. Despite their lingering jealousy and competition over the role as "Steve Rogers' best friend", the pair's interactions proved to be very entertaining, thanks to the screen chemistry between Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. Unfortunately, Mackie and Stan could not save "CIVIL WAR" for me. Nor could they save "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER", due to its problematic writing. A good deal of that writing surrounded Bucky's character. I have so many questions about his role in this series. For example:

*Why would any official of the Joint Counter Terrorist Center allow Bucky to visit and question Helmut Zemo, the man responsible for the U.N. conference bombing in Vienna, in "CIVIL WAR"? That made very little sense to me. Surely the JCTC authorities remembered how Zemo managed to brainwash Bucky into making his own prison break in "CIVIL WAR"? Also, Bucky was on parole for his activities as a brainwashed HYDRA assassin. Yet, the JCTC had allowed him to visit Zemo? Surely, the showrunner could have allowed Sam, who was serving the U.S. government again, to be the one to visit and question Zemo?

*How on earth did Bucky managed to evade being arrested and charged for helping Zemo escape from the JCTC? The U.S. and other governments should have been suspicious of Bucky after learning about his visit to Zemo.

*Bucky came off as an arrogant school jock, who thought he was entitled to get his way - especially in his interactions with Sam. I found it hilarious that many fans had criticized John Walker aka Captain America aka U.S. Agent for such toxic behavior. Yet, they had turned a blind eye to Bucky's own behavior. And so did the series - up until the last two episodes. Why did the showrunner allow Bucky to get away with this behavior toward Sam for so long without any complaints from the latter?

*I did not care how Bucky had bullied his way into Sam's mission without the latter's consent. What I found even more annoying was the U.S. government's decision to allow Bucky to join Sam's mission after that ludicrous "therapy session" they were forced to attend together.

Racism A good number of MCU fans had complained about the inclusion of racism in "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER". I had no problems with this direction, considering the story was about Sam, an African-American man, becoming the new Captain America. However, I had a good deal of problems with how the production explored the topic of racism.

The story of Isaiah Bradley, Marvel's second Captain America, had originated in the comics. In the MCU, he was a Korea War veteran whom the United States Army used as one of several unwilling African-American test subjects for their version of the Super Soldier serum. I realize that both Marvel Comics and the MCU had attempted to use Bradley's experience as a metaphor for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The problem is that I cannot see the U.S. government and the Army - both racist organizations in the early 1950s - be willing to risk the possibility of creating a non-white super soldier. Despite the recent desegregation of the Armed Forces in the late 1940s. And both the government and the Army had been more than willing to use white soldiers in other experiments.

After saving a group of black American super soldiers from a prison camp, Bradly was imprisoned by the U.S. government for thirty years. I saw nothing wrong with this twist in the character's narrative, until I remembered two things - Bradley had been able to free his fellow soldiers without anyone's help; and nearly sixty years later, Steve Rogers managed to break into the Raft and free those Avengers who had refused to sign the Sokovia Accord. Why was Bradley unable to free himself from prison? This is the man who had defeated the Winter Soldier by breaking the latter's metal arm. And he was not powerful enough to make a prison break, let alone evade capture?

I had assumed Sam's difficulty in becoming the new Captain America would stem from the government's reluctance to recruit a black man for the position. That would explain their decision to recruit the blond-haired John Walker instead. But the series never really made it clear whether political racism had played a role in Walker's recruitment. The series also had James "Rhodey" Rhodes had paid Sam a visit, emphasizing the importance of the new Captain America being black. As it turned out, Sam's own insecurities about becoming Captain America had more to do with him not initially assuming the role. There was also that interesting scene outside Bradley's Baltimore home where the police arrested Sam during verbal argument with Bucky. Although the cops backed away when they recognized Sam as an Avenger, they ended up arresting the parolee Bucky for missing his required therapy appointment. This scene was supposed to be a case of racial profiling. But . . . we might as well be honest. In the real world, the police would not have backed down from hassling Sam. What I found more disturbing was the production's handling of Bucky's arrest. Once the police discovers that Sam was an Avenger; they turned to arrest Bucky for failing to show up for his missing his therapy session. Not only did the police arrest Bucky with a more gentle behavior, they did so, accompanied by Henry Jackman's mournful score, something that did not accompany the moment of Sam being arrested. Were the audiences expected to notice the hypocrisy and racism in the police's handling of the two men? Expected to feel sympathy for Bucky? Or both?

The last episode featured a scene of two black kids playing with toy Captain America shields. Someone had commented that the shields (especially in the hands of non-white children) represented hope to the future of race relations in the United States. Why? How? This country had a biracial president for EIGHT YEARS. Yet, U.S. racial policies have remained problematic even to this day. I can say the same for other countries. The so-called symbolism of this scene only reminded me of how human beings put so much faith in imagery and symbolism. And this strikes me as a FALSE FAITH. Why was taking up the mantle of a costumed hero that had been previously occupied by a white man, the only way for Sam Wilson to become relevant within the MCU franchise? What was wrong with him being "the Falcon"? Sam becoming the next Captain America was not going to save the U.S. in regard to race relations - not in real life and not in the fictional world of the MCU. Looking back on the series, the series' only scenario that seemed to expose racism in a realistic manner, proved to be Sam's failure to acquire a bank loan for his family's fishing boat in Louisiana.

Sharon Carter I am certain many MCU fans are aware of this. One of Marvel Comics' most iconic couples happened to be Steve Rogers aka Captain America and Sharon Carter aka Agent 13. She also happened to be the great-niece of Peggy Carter, Steve's love interest during World War II. Portrayed by Emily VanCamp, Sharon was first introduced as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in "CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER" as a potential love interest for Steve. Despite Sharon's appearance in the following Captain America movie, "CIVIL WAR", their romance never really developed. Many blamed the lack of chemistry between VanCamp and Chris Evans. I never had a problem with their screen chemistry. I had a problem with the lack of relationship development between Sharon and Steve. And I blame Kevin Feige's decision to transform the third Captain America film into a third (and badly written) pseudo Avengers movie. The change in the film's narrative, along with Sharon's failure to appear in "THE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR" and "ENDGAME", left no opportunity for Sharon and Steve to become the romantic pair they had been in the comics. Instead, Sharon became a fugitive from the U.S. government after helping Steve and Sam hunt down Bucky, moved to Madripoor, a city-state with no U.S. extradition and became an embittered criminal known as "the Power Broker".

After "CIVIL WAR", nearly five years had passed before Sharon appeared in another MCU production - namely this series. And what happened? The franchise, with Spellman, ended up completely destroying her character by transforming her into the villain known as Power Broker, the criminal leader of an Indonesian city-state called Madripoor. After helping Steve and Sam acquire their suits and equipment in order to go after Bucky in "CIVIL WAR", Sharon lost her job with the C.I.A. and became a fugitive. She eventually moved to Madripoor, a city-state with no U.S. extradition, to evade capture, survived Thanos' Snap and became an embittered criminal nicknamed "the Power Broker" in order to survive the new world.

What really pissed me off about Sharon's arc between "CIVIL WAR" and "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" is that her development into a major villain all happened OFF SCREEN. Off screen. Apparently, screenwriters for "INFINITY WAR" had written a draft that included Sharon in the movie. But according to Christopher Markus, he and Stephen McFeeley could not imagine scenes featuring Steve and Sharon trying to make it work in an apartment, because the 2018 movie did not have time to focus on their personal life. Why did Marvel simply fail to allow Sharon to be part of Steve's vigilante team - like Sam and Natasha Romanoff? I mean . . . good fucking grief! And why did Malcolm Spellman believe the only way Sharon could be interesting was to become a villain in "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER"? This was his idea of improving Sharon's character?

Helmut Zemo aka Baron Zemo Why did Malcolm Spellman, Kevin Feige and the MCU thought it necessary to bring back Helmut Zemo, the Sokovian-born villain from "CIVIL WAR"? What role did he play in "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER"? I realize that Bucky, of all people, visited the incarcerated Zemo to acquire information on who had created the super-soldier serum that empowered the Flag Smashers. But why did he believe Zemo could provide the answer? Because he thought HYDRA was involved? Bucky or Sam could have searched for information from sources other than Zemo, who had been incarcerated for . . . what? Eight years? Eight years. Zemo managed to become something of a crowd-pleaser, thanks to Daniel Brühl's performance. Otherwise, I found his presence in this series unnecessary.

The Big Bad Why on earth did it take this series so long to finally reveal the main villain's identity? At first, the series hinted the Flag Smashers, led by Karli Morgenthau. However, the series tossed other potential candidates for the Big Bad before viewers - John Walker, Helmut Zemo and yes, Sharon Carter. But in the end, Morgenthau and her group proved to be the main villains.

The Flag Smashers were a group of empowered people who believed the world was a better place between Thanos' Snap and the Blip (resurrection of those who had died during the Snap), when Humans around the world managed to unite and form a borderless society, one in which people helped others without any thought to nationalism and bias. Thanks to the Avengers, the world resumed its conflicts between nationalities and other groups. In other words, the borders returned.

Frankly, I have nothing against this ideal. Only Ms. Morgenthau and her followers resorted to violence and terrorism to achieve their goals. Does this sound familiar? It should. The Flag Smashers proved to be another example of characters with a progressive goal, resorting to extremism and becoming villains. This seemed to be a growing trend within the franchise, which I believe began with Erik "Killmonger" Stevens aka Prince N'Jadaka in 2018's "BLACK PANTHER". Since then, the MCU has not looked back at its growing roster of progressive villains. Perhaps I should not have been surprised. The franchise's ambiguous portrayal of an unconstitutional document like the Sokovia Accords, should have been the wake-up call. It seemed as if Kevin Feige, Marvel Films and Disney Studios had finally exposed themselves for the faux progressives they pretend to be. Frankly, this form of villainy has become tiresome to me.

After writing this article, I had considered ranking the six episodes featured in "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" anyway. But I decided against it. My dislike of the series made it impossible for me to even bother. Being a fan of the first two Captain America movies, I had truly hoped this series would redeem the franchise. Unfortunately, it proved to be just as disappointing as "CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR". Pity. Perhaps the fourth film, "CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD" will do the trick. I hope so.

#disney plus #marvel cinematic universe #mcu #captain america franchise #the falcon and the winter soldier #the falcon #anthony mackie #the winter soldier #sebastian stan #sharon carter #emily vancamp #florence kasumba #isaiah bradley #carl lumbly #flag smashers #erin kellyman #baron zemo #daniel brühl #john walker #wyatt russell #julia louis dreyfus #kevin feige #steve rogers #chris evans

[me1och]

Oblivion by Palaye Royale

#steve rogers #captain america #the first avenger #palaye royale #fuck how do you tag things #this isn't explicitly stucky but. i mean. #stucky #shout-out to alex for. everything #i haven't touched watercolour in literal years but i do like this #best blorbos of the worst franchise tag #mel does art

[livvyofthelake]

huge hater ass post i could make rn but you guys are my friends so i won’t say any of that. lovers soul and buddha nature 🫶

#sorry but i really do think it’s embarrassing to care about captain america. like at all #i think it makes you like. insane misogyny apologists but i won’t say that because you’re my friends. #it’s probably not a good idea to get me started on that franchise.

[figures4fun]

Howard Stark asks Peggy to check out his competition, Weyland, for illegal bioweapons. Believing to be a pawn in corporate espionage, Peggy agrees only to find out just how right Stark was…

#peggy carter #agent carter #captain america #captain america the first avenger #weyland yutani #alien #aliens #xenomorph #facehugger #alien franchise #avp #avp2 #howard stark #mcu #marvel #marvel what if #action figures #jxtoys #toy photography #action figure photography #figure photography #comic #diorama

[autumn3l3ctr0swings]

How the hell can someone be babygirl and daddy at the same time????????

Examples include:

-Bowser

-Miguel O’Hara

-Captain America

-Darius Deammone

HOWWWWWW???

#darius deamonne #daddy issues #baby gurl #why why why #why am i like this #bowser #miguel ohara #Spider-Man lotus #captain america #steve rogers #the owl house #toh season three #toh #Mario #mario franchise #marvel #spiderman

[ackerslut]

no but listen i am constantly thinking about the mcu and other franchises like star wars and dc have tried to replicated their cinematic universe and i think the problem is that these big budget movies aren't willing to commit to the concept of a stand alone film. the entire reason avengers (2012) actually works is because all of the movies beforehand were complete stand alone action flicks that tied into the same universe only by a few end credit scenes and the fact that SHIELD was at least mentioned in each movie. when you go over to the DCEU they're trying so hard to get to the justice league and they haven't even made a batman movie yet!!!

i also think this is why the mcu started sucking after age of ultron because they stopped making stand alone movies and instead made a cinematic experience where you had to go to antman: 17 revenge of the cockroaches just so you could see an ensemble movie where deadpool crosses the multiverse to find spiderman's girlfriend for an ocean's 11 team up with moon knight

#THESE MOVIES ARE EXHAUSTING BY THE TIME YOU HIT PHASE THREE #like??? #you have to watch wandavision and MAYBE loki to understand wtf is going on in DOCTOR STRANGE'S movie #during phase 1 & 2 i did not have to watch a single thor or captain america movie to understand what was going on in the iron man films #and vise vera fr #and then you go over to whatever the FUCK is going on with dc and star wars and guess what its so incoherent that i've watched every #property associated with the franchise and i have no fucking clue what's going on #mcu #mcu critical #except not really? #dceu critical #star wars critical #this isn't anti anything i'm just throwing it in the tag #marvel cinematic universe

[notgoingwell]

#marvel #anti mcu #modern entertainment #hollywood #modern movies #quentin tarantino #anthony mackie #Youtube #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #entertainment #superhero #superheroes #captain america #franchise #Cinema #actors

[stevesbigbazoxngas]

The fact that Captain Carter got her own comic series, Cameos in a major MCU film, main character status in What if... , got the CA twitter account changed to CC after Sam had it for less than a couple months, meanwhile Sam is only officially Cap in ONE EPISODE. OF HIS WHOLE DAMN SHOW, we don't have any trailer or release date for Cap 4, don't have any information about what Cap 4 is going to be about other than Sam "proving" himself as Cap despite the fact that's kinda what TFAWS was about, and has not been acknowledged as Captain America outside of his show??

The fact they even gave Peggy the Captain America role at all when shes a nazi collaborator???

Get her! Away! Get her out! Please!!!!!! My god!!!!!!!!

#really disgusted with the way sam has been treated by the fandom and the franchise itself #sam wilson #sam wilson get behind me #anti captain carter #anti peggy carter #cw nazism #cw antiblackness #cw antisemitism #captain america

[the-hoziest]

the fact that there's still people watching the mindless garbage dizney keeps shoving at fans like...

it's not good. the content is not good. do you know that? it's important to me that you know that.

#not trying to be condescending im quoting ben Wyatt #the mcu shows like?????? you will never be the defenders' (netflix)..... #idek what happened with thor 4: more thor. looks fucked up. #and enough about the !!!!!! #shut up about the scarlet witch SHUT UP ABOUT THE SCARLET WITCH #i swear the franchise has zapped all braincells from the gen. pop. #please it's ALL bad #spiderman my ass.... that is not spiderman. that's barely even a person. #falcon and the winter soldier aka what do we do with these two since we don't have captain america anymore #enough... i have seen enough..... #anyway im here on my anti mcu salt train toot toot idk *train noises*

[faeriecap]

reading an essay on representations of disability and when the author discusses marvel she brings up captain america and the super soldier serum as a depiction of the inherent “good” qualities of a person needing to match a preconception of the “perfect/good” able bodied individual in order to be valued, due to how we place value on ableness over disability and how in media disabled features are often used to signify weakness or even villainy. right? that tracks. HOWEVER when discussing steve rogers she makes sure to point out that his story is barely a disabled one at all because, pre-serum, steve is just “scrawny” and doesn’t fit the typical expectation for a male body in society or the military at the time. which. okay i know they didn’t show him in a hospital or anything on screen in catfa but this is BAFFLING to me as a stance because he is very clearly rejected by the army more than once for a laundry list of disabilities and chronic conditions which is visible in the movie and also in the supplemental media surrounding mcu steve???? and i don’t think she’s talking about the original comics steve here bc as far as this passage goes she briefly mentions the origins of marvel comics then moves onto discuss what feels like an analysis of the movie characters. and the rest of the work is littered with allusions to disney films at large and other marvel films and franchises so i do believe she was writing this with exclusively chris evans steve in mind but also????? there are so many comic depictions that mention his health as a child and even up to his adulthood beyond just being “small” or “generally weak” so. WHAT IS GOING ON!!!!!

#it’s just a highly strange standpoint for me in the face of her other very eloquent and well researched arguments #especially because in terms of the og avengers in the mcu not like x men or others #steve rogers is like. THE disabled guy ??? #by which i mean all the other 2012 avengers aren’t born with disabilities #and also that in universe steve is historically known as someone who was disabled and then all his disabilities were completely removed #like hes famous??? for that??? #ik the serum effectively erases all disabilities in him ever and there are others in the franchise who are disabled #but he. is very clearly meant to be disabled at the get #and yes we can discuss how it’s problematic rhat he has to become ablebody: the guy to be valued at all n be a hero #or the other problematic ways in which marvel and the mcu specifically handle disabled rep bc CLEARLY BUCKY FOR ONE IS RIGHT THERE AS AN #EXAMPLE BUT LIKE. the one thing marvel kinda clearly doesnt do is NOT HAVE STEVE BE DISABLED #at all #steve is a disabled character??? #so i’m lost fjdhshsjekekdkdkdkdjd #i speak #steeb #marvel #mcu #captain america #steve rogers #marvel cinematic universe #disabled representation #disabled character #disability representation #captain america the first avenger

[delicatefury]

You know what’s fun about Marvel movies?

The sheer, indisputable downward trend.

Hear me out. Phase 1, favorite movies. I can say Iron Man, and no one would dispute that it’s a worthy contender. I love the first Iron Man movie. It’s up there in my favorite rewatchable movies of all time. But someone else could say Captain America, and I would get it. I like the personal relationships of Iron Man, but this other person might just prefer WWII movies. And Captain America plays out a lot like a classic WWII movie. With updated action sequences, of course.

Iron Man II is weaker, yeah, but it was an understandable progression, and if you’re a Pepperony shipper, then I definitely get it. Tony once again suffering from the unintended consequences of his actions. He’s in a better place than IM, but he’s still struggling to be the better person he wants to be.

Or Thor. I could even understand someone saying Thor is their favorite. It’s a rom-com superhero movie. Star-crossed lovers and all that. Probably one of the weakest movies of phase 1, but it had heart. Actually, if they had leaned in more into the rom-com or more into the Loki-Thor conflict, it probably would’ve been better, but I liked it (kinda wish they kept Thor’s OG intro, but I get that it probably felt too close to Steve’s). Didn’t fully track the Loki descent into darkness, but that can probably be solved with a rewatch.

Now. Current Marvel (phase 4, i think?), favorite movies. I would say about 90% of people still watching would say one of the Spider-Man movies. Actually, having double checked the list of phase 4 movies, I’d say 95%. And what else is even a contender? The Eternals bombed and broke the lore. Black Widow went on about 20 minutes too long (all for mediocre CGI, too) and was disjointed in tone and morals. Love & Thunder isn’t doing too hot. Shang Chi? That’s probably the other 5%, to be honest. But it also kinda broke the lore. The Ten Rings were heavily hinted at in Iron Man, totally misused in Iron Man III (aka Disney’s Iron Man. Which almost, but not quite, hit the mark), and then completely changed for Shang Chi. If any non-Spider-Man movie is your favorite in phase 4, you have an uphill climb defending it as an objectively good movie the way you could for phase 1. And that’s probably because the Spider-Man movies are the only ones that don’t feel like a “Disney Marvel” movie.

Phase 1 (and 2!) movies all had a different tone and feel. From the introspection of Iron Man 1 & 2, to the war movie of Captain America, to the rom-com feelings of Thor, the Spy-Thriller of The Winter Soldier, and the heist-like conventions in Guardians of the Galaxy.

I could keep going. Like how AC/DC and other classic rock used in the soundtrack makes sense in Iron Man, since 1. It’s Tony’s favorite music, 2. he’s flying around in a mechanical suit with built in speakers, with similar reasoning for GotG with Starlord and his walkman. But how, while it was an impressively coordinated fight scene, the use of Immigrant Song in Thor:Ragnarok makes no sense,

Okay. Rant over. Disney Marvel is on a downward trend. Not because it’s trendy to hate on Marvel, but because the movies are objectively of lower quality and off the path laid out by the pre-Disney Marvel movies.

#Just a little rant #Disney Marvel #Marvel #Thor Love & Thunder #Captain America #Iron Man #I just #I have a lot of feelings when things have potential #and fall far short #or worse #when something objectively good gets handed to people who couldn't care less #or whose egos lead to them changing the things about the OG that made them beloved #Which is practically every franchise Disney gets its hands on nowadays #huh? #Even their own franchises that they created #I'm looking at you Disney Princesses #Yeah apparently I feel like kicking hornet nests lately

[livvyofthelake]

“we’re nephilim, we’re not even supposed to know about the avengers” ok jules incredibly bold words coming from the guy i am certain is the one who took all those kids to the movie theater to see that shit in the first place… book that takes place in 2012 fr

#it would please all of you (losers) to know that livvy is a captain america girl #in the sense that she thinks he’s handsome <3 (she did not put it so politely) #and it would please all the normal people to know that ty is a superhero hater. me when i already have my one franchise interest!

[shitpostingkats]

“Captain America was right” “Iron Man was right.” They are both imaginary men making desicions based off their moral compass and past experiences, if I see one more person get hate threats for defending fictional comic guys I am going to blow up a clown factory.

#Its 2022 and still when I see a fanwork tagged ‘Not team X friendly’ I want to start rounding up nerdboys like cattle #If you want to have a nuanced discussion about millitary law I am begging you #do not hurl insults at eachother over a film franchise funded by the us army #just be nice and have nerdy conversations dissecting character motivation with basic civility my god #marvel #cacw #captain america #iron man #steve rogers #tony stark

[ljones41]

When I first began watching “Andor”, I liked it, but I didn’t love it.  I still feel the same about the series.  So far.  Yet, when I had posted my criticisms of the show, I ended up encountering a series of bullying behavior I haven’t seen since I had expressed my dislike of “Captain America: Civil War”.  Someone had complained that the “Andor” fandom is pretentious.  I don’t have the same complaint about the “Andor” fandom.  I feel as if the fandom has developed into a massive group of bullies who either insult the intelligence of those who had some complaints about the series or attempt to constantly manipulate or coerce others into accepting their opinions of the show.  I find it off-putting and distasteful.

#fandom bullying #anti andor fandom #andor #captain america civil war #mcu #disney plus #star wars franchise #anti star wars fandom

[loptrthecloneshadowtrooper]

Master Chief VS Captain America | Death Battle!

(Halo VS Marvel Comics)

#death battle #death battle season #death battle episode #halo #marvel #marvel comic #marvel comics #marvel universe #master chief #captain america #vs #halo franchise #halo series #disney #microsoft

[txttletale]

I know copyright and intellectual property is bullshit, but how do I tell that to someone who's convinced that it protects small artists?

tell them about bill mantlo, creator of rocket racoon, whose brother has to start gofundmes to pay his medical bills while marvel makes millions off that character's merch. or to gary friedrich, creator of ghost rider, who sued marvel for using the character at a point where it should have returned to him, lost, and was then counter-sued for selling merch including sketches for fans at conventions. or alan moore, who vowed to never work with DC again after he was screwed out of owning watchmen. or the archetypal examples of this phenomenon, jack kirby (co-creator of iron man, captain america, ant-man, the hulk, and a fuckton more characters) who of course was also screwed out of any ownership, or jerry siegel and joe shuster, who spent decades fighting over the copyright to superman, a character they created and sold for $130 as desperate struggling artists and who then went on to make millions for DC comics.

or if they're not a comics fan, why not talk to them about robert kurvitz, head writer of disco elysium, who through an extremely suspect purchase lost the rights to the world of elysium, representing his life's creative work. or to hideo kojima, who was forced out of konami, keeping absolutely no rights to his iconic metal gear franchise, and had his demo for Silent Hills made into fucking vaporware that nobody can download anymore!

or about the time that disney used threats of legal action to put a stop to such nefarious infringement of their copright as 'being painted on the walls of a daycare' or 'being put on a child's gravestone'.

the thing about copyright is that it has to be enforced in court. a 'small artist' -- even ones who are independently successful and considerably wealthy -- can simply not afford to fight a protracted legal battle while paying top legal talent. disney and marvel and any other big media company, however, can fight as many legal battles as they want for as long and have the legal fees be a drop in the bucket. companies that can afford lawyers and can afford to, if it really comes down to it, lose a lawsuit -- that is, companies with millions of dollars to spare -- are simply above copyright law. this is not a bug--this is a feature. this is the system working as designed.

#ask