Monthly Marvel Musings - Spidey's in the MCU, and Agent Carter should be on UK TV now...

This month's Monthly Marvel Musings article was supposed to hit in a week or so - but then this happened, so my plans have changed slightly...

MONTHLY MARVEL MUSINGS

I had planned to discuss the recent Marvel Movie (& TV!) Trailers - Age of Ultron, Fantastic Four, Daredevil and Ant-Man, about how they've each emphasised tone and mood over story (or, with Ant-Man, the opposite); but now it's official that an agreement between Sony & Marvel Studios will see Spiderman join the MCU, well I think that calls for some discussion, and pointless speculating, don't you?

As well as that I wanted to mention how ace the 'Agent Carter' TV series is - and how the British TV Networks are out of their minds for (so far) passing it over.

But let's look at the big news first...

It's Official - Spidey will be swinging in to the Marvel Cinematic Universe

So sue me, I used Marvel's own picture from their announcement - it was just too cool not to, though...

Following months of speculation in the wake of problems at Sony, including rumours Marvel Studios would get the rights back completely, the two studios have agreed to share the character.  Although last month I speculated how Marvel Studios could have given the character a clean slate to bring him to the MCU, I think this news will keep many, many people happy: comic fans, super-hero movie geeks like me, and - not insignificantly - Sony's Shareholders.  We have the exciting prospect of seeing Peter Parker as Spiderman onscreen alongside Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, etc, which is many a fan's dream come true.  There is a downside to this - in order to give space to a new Sony produced Spiderman movie, Marvel Studios have pushed back most of their Phase 3 slate after Doctor Strange and apart from the two Avengers: Infinity Wars movies.  This will lead to, puzzlingly, Inhumans being released after Infinity War Part 2 - surely the final act of Infinity War would have made the better conclusion, not just to Phase 3, but what looks like the involvement of Downey Jr, Evans, Hemsworth etc (as their contracts expire with the Third Avengers outing)?  There's still a few years before those movies, and release dates can change, so perhaps there'll be some other release date moves; but in the meantime here's some speculation about how Spiderman might impact the MCU.

Firstly, which film will he debut in?

The most logical place would be Captain America: Civil War, due to Spidey having a significant role in that comic story-line, moving from Tony Stark's side then to Captain America's.  But it was believed that Black Panther was going to play that role, with a lot of setting up for that character apparently taking place in Avengers Age of Ultron.  Also, Civil War starts filming in less two months, and it may be too late in the day to re-jiggle scripts to fit Spidey in.  The alternative then is Doctor Strange - although the supernatural realms and foes the Sorceror Supreme deals with might seem as far from the daily struggles of Parker and his alter-ego as can be, they do have one element in common: both are based in New York.  A cameo for Spidey could be used to establish that supernatural threats are crossing in to the MCU, and that heroes such as the web-slinger are completely out of their depth and unable to deal with them - so demonstrating the need for Doctor Strange to face them.

Could we see the New Avengers?

Apologies, recycling images, but this one  neatly illustrates my next point...

Given the rumours that the current Avengers line-up changes by the end of Age of Ultron, and if the next Captain America movie sticks reasonably close to the comic arc, it could be highly likely that at the beginning of the two-part Infinity War movie the New Avengers could have been established.  In the comics this team has stepped up when, for various reasons, the normal 'classic' Avengers team-mates have either not been able to, or not wanted to, get together.  One line-up came out of the aftermath of the Civil War story line in the comics, and (with the exception of Wolverine) most, if not all, of these characters will have been introduced and established in the MCU by the time the first part of Infinity War hits.  I think at this point, it's not unreasonable to speculate this team will be in place when the Infinity War begins - but so great will be the threat posed by Thanos and his Infinity Gauntlet that, come Part Two, Iron Man, Thor, Cap and Hulk will come back to help take him on.  Well, that would be fun, anyway!

But what about the Spiderman franchise?

Of course, in the midst of all of this, it's easy to overlook that the announcement is an acknowledgement on Sony's party that they have mishandled Marvel's most famous and popular character.  It's interesting to note that the name of Avi Arad was missing from the official press-releases.  Arad had a hand in bringing the X-Men and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films to the screen as a Producer, and also the recent Amazing Spiderman films.  Clearly, he started off well, with the first two films of each of those franchises - but it's arguable that many of the decisions that negatively affected the Spiderman franchise (putting Venom in Spider-Man 3 when Raimi didn't want the character, trying to set up a cinematic universe with ASM) are down to him.  And it's hardly surprising - Arad came to producing those films as he was the director of a toy company making action figures of Marvel Characters, and pretty much let the sales of specific characters affect decisions regarding their on-screen portrayal.  But he's gone, and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige will be taking part in guiding Spiderman's future movies, as well as his MCU appearances.  Although there Feige is only one part of a team responsible for guiding their Marvel characters to increasing success with each film, he clearly respects the characters and is keen that each film reflects this.  This can only benefit future Spiderman movies.

Playing Spidey clearly meant a lot to Andrew Garfield - here he is, dressed as Spidey, at Comic Con - but it's unlikely he'll be back in the role...

So a new Spiderman movie has been announced for July 2017, but the belief is that it's likely to star a new actor in the role.  Which will be a shame, as Andrew Garfield's performance as a sarcastic, New Yorker teenager was one of the few things that were positive about the last two films.  Aside from this, there's a very good chance that a new Spiderman film will want to distance itself from the poorly received films in the series without rebooting the origin story over again.  So it won't be 'Spider-Man 4', and it won't be 'The Amazing Spiderman 3', either.  My money is on it being entitled 'Spectacular Spiderman' - as David Koepp (writer of Raimi's first Spidey film) recently stated, the differently titled comic runs of the character each have a different tone, so using another of the comics fore-titles makes sense for a slightly different take on the character - one that fits in with a shared universe of other Marvel characters.  The other option is to call it 'Ultimate Spiderman', though this could cause confusion with the Miles Morales version of the character.  On the other hand, the currently running and popular cartoon series has used that name, and is centred on Peter Parker - albeit having him part of a massively linked Marvel Universe of characters.  With that in mind using 'Ultimate' as the fore-title could work, if they're evoking the TV series.

But time will tell what future Spiderman films - and MCU appearances - will follow.  It's not as though there aren't a plethora of great story-lines they can take inspiration from.  And the prospect of seeing him swing in to action, potentially alongside Iron Man, Captain America, et al, is one that will make geeks very happy.  Now, we just need to hope that Marvel Studios and Fox can sit down and get the Fantastic Four and some X-Men to appear in Infinity War; this would be the place where such a cross-over would most make sense, but that's speculation for another time...

TV's 'Agent Carter' is totally ACE and should be on broadcasting in the UK NOW!!!

Even though I'm an avid viewer, I'll be the first to admit that 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' hasn't really lived up to its potential.  The first series was a rambling 'mystery/investigation of the week' procedural that lacked a compelling focus - until almost two-thirds in, when the events of 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' impacted on it.    Midway through the second series, there have been some fun episodes, and it's cool to see them laying the groundwork for the Inhumans, before their big screen debut in 2019(!).  But it's fair to say it needs to improve somewhat before it is really delivering a quality TV show that also satisfies fans of the MCU.  Launched as a stop-gap to fill the mid-season break of 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.', 'Agent Carter' has so far not had any of that show's weaknesses.  In fact, it is a tremendously enjoyable TV show, and it's a shame more people in the UK haven't been able to see it yet.

Agent Peggy Carter returns, along with Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) - but this series is so fun it doesn't need MCU cameos to keep your interest.

Set in the late 1940's, before the founding of S.H.I.E.L.D., the series focusses on Peggy Carter from the first Captain America movie, played by Hayley Atwell.  It retains some of the slightly pulpy, period elements and feel of that film, but adds in some noir-ish elements, such as the way some scenes are shot, and how the fellow agents at the SSR dress and speak.  Throw in some gender politics (Agent Carter is frequently over-looked and under-valued by her male colleagues), a few Easter eggs for the MCU (including possible ties to characters such as Black Widow), and a well handled conspiracy mystery, this series is consistently entertaining and fun, where ' S.H.I.E.L.D.' occasionally felt a bit tedious.  Hayley Atwell is great in the role, and Carter is a really watchable character - fusing that traditional 'stiff-upper-lipped' British attitude associated with that era, alongside her capabilities and resilience as a military operative and agent.  Even if you got bored of 'S.H.I.E.L.D.', this series should not disappoint - it certainly hasn't disappointed me yet.

Agent Peggy Carter investigates a conspiracy, aided by Howard Stark's Butler, Jarvis.

So it's a real shame that, so far, no one has picked it up for broadcast in the UK.  I guess Channel 4 were put off after seeing their ratings drop for 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' - in which case BBC, ITV, Five and all the others are missing a great opportunity.  Unlike a lot of other US series, this is only an 8 episode run which actually works in its favour - without the need to stretch a story to 13, or even 20++ episodes, it has managed to keep focussed on moving central plot elements and character development forward without having to throw in filler episodes to pad out the season length.  To top it off, all the supporting cast are a lot of fun (even when they're pretty archetypal), especially James D'Arcy as Howard Stark's Butler, Jarvis (that's a familiar name...).  Whilst UK viewers aren't able to watch this series legally it's missing out on vital ratings and income that would justify a second season - which would be most welcome.  The series ends later this month in the US, prior to the return of ' S.H.I.E.L.D.' in March - hopefully UK viewers will be able to (Legally and legitimately) watch this series at some point soon.  Trust me, it'll be worth the wait!

That's it for this month - now back to the regularly scheduled program of film reviews.  Coming this week - a review of 'Selma', starring David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr.