Marvel-Movies

X-Men: Days of Future Past opened in theaters across America this weekend. The movie is a strong installment in the X-Men franchise and manages to fix some of the continuity errors and poor decisions from past movies that have frustrated fans of the series. There are a lot of good things about the movie and it is very entertaining; however the decision to retell the comic story Days of Future Past in the movieverse that FOX has established led to some questionable changes.

There used to be a saying in comics that nobody stays dead except Bucky Barnes and Uncle Ben. In 2005 Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting decided to break that rule by bringing Bucky back and what followed was one of the best runs on Captain America and the introduction of the Winter Soldier to the Marvel Universe. That decision, while controversial to some longtime fans, was so well executed that now, less than ten years later, the character has hit the big screen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. There was widespread excitement on the Internet as soon as Marvel announced the title of the Captain America movie. At the time I hadn’t read the Captain America comics that reintroduced Bucky, but even I was thrilled at the announcement. Anyone that followed Marvel Comics knew that bringing in the Winter Soldier was going to make for an emotionally powerful story. Comic storytelling is at its best when there are real emotional stakes for the heroes and it’s hard to get more personal than your best friend and beloved side kick being resurrected as a seemingly unstoppable foe. Bucky Barnes has always been an extremely important part of Steve Rogers’ history. During the Golden Age he was Steve’s sidekick—back when Captain America was part of Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel. They fought side by side during World War II, but he seemingly died during the war. During the same incident that killed Bucky, Captain America was frozen in the ice not to awaken again until the Avengers found him. Since that time various authors have addressed Bucky’s loss and what it means to Steve. Dealing with that loss is one of the most defining aspects of his character. Then Bucky came back.

This week instead of an episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ABC aired a special about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe was basically a documentary discussing the process that Marvel Studios went through to create their series of interconnected movies and at the end gave a few teases for upcoming projects. My friends and I, and according to the website Television by the Numbers more than four million other people all tuned in to watch. Four million viewers isn’t going to win any time slots but it was still good enough to give ABC third place for the hour and drew significantly more viewers than the rerun of S.H.I.E.L.D. they aired on February 20th. More interesting to me was the fact that ABC was willing to air it at all. They have enough faith in the popularity of comic book entertainment that they were willing to air a documentary primarily about movies that people have already seen during primetime. If that isn’t a sign that we are living in a new golden age for comic fans I don’t know what is. However, unlike the Golden Age of Comic Books this new golden age is on the big and small screen. In honor of this new era of superhero entertainment I thought I’d take a look at the current and upcoming live action superhero movies and tv shows from both Marvel and DC.

The first full-length trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy was released this week and it marks the tenth movie that will be released in the interconnected Marvel Cinematic Universe, joining the Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and Avengers movie franchises as well as The Incredible Hulk movie and the television show Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Also coming from Marvel Studios this year is Captain America: The Winter Soldier which continues the Captain America franchise and seems to be tied very closely to the S.H.I.E.L.D. stories and characters that featured in Avengers. These will be the last two movies before all the interconnecting threads meet again in Avengers: Age of Ultron and I thought I’d do an early overview of them both.

As a lifelong fan of science fiction and fantasy media I’ve grown used to seeing female characters in skimpy clothing and impractical armor. In fact I’ve grown so used to seeing women’s bodies on display that it rarely even registers until it reaches Starfire levels of ridiculous. Fan service aimed at pleasing the male gaze is such an ingrained part of the genre that female fans are expected to just deal with it. After all, sex sells. That’s why, as a woman, I find the Thor franchise to be such a breath of fresh air.

Iron Man 3 has just been released on DVD, which makes now the perfect time to discuss some of the controversy surrounding its primary antagonist. The way the movie handled the character of the Mandarin upset some long-time comic fans and relieved others. When I first saw the trailers for Iron Man 3, I was concerned about the inclusion of the Mandarin. He’s been one of Iron Man’s greatest foes for decades, but as his name suggests, the character was created without much sensitivity during an era when the US was deep in the Cold War. The fact that the trailer showed a British actor of Indian descent dressed in very stereotypical fashion did not assuage my fears.