Marvel Live Action

[Dr. Insomniac]

Ideally, they could recreate what the Netflix shows did and have the Marvel shows take place in their own corner of the universe where they can intermingle with each other but away from the movies, and the paths between mediums only cross in an Infinity War/Secret Wars-style event film or an odd cameo. It always seemed like they listened to the complaints that the prior Marvel shows were too distant from the movies (like calling the events of the Avengers "the Incident", nobody from the movies finding out Coulson came back to life and had his own adventures, a lack of communication between Feige and the Runaways producers resulting in this) and went too far in the opposite direction.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Oh yeah, the Guardians Christmas special was fucking great. I didn't realize how much I missed Gunn handling these characters until now.

[Avaitor]

That may honestly be my favorite part of Phase 4. He's still yet to do any wrong with either Marvel or DC as far as I'm concerned.

Although I do have to wonder, to what extent is earth familiar with the Guardians? I recall some cosplayers at AvengersCon in Captain Marvel, but it seems like the tourists at the Chinese Theater were confusing Drax for Kratos, and neither Kevin Bacon nor the police he called seem to know who he and Mantis are. They could just not be that interested in heroes, though.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Drax and Mantis were dead for 5 years, so it's easy to see them not being as well-known.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Spoiler

Here lies Maria Hill. She never scored.

[close]

[Avaitor]

So I think I'm cured of my desire to watch everything in the MCU. I tried the first episode of Secret Invasion when it came out, thought it was boring as shit, and haven't caught up.

Not sure if I'll try any more shows, but I'll probably at least go see The Marvels, because it still looks fun.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, Olivia Colman's fun, but after watching the first couple, it's mostly just a show I'll watch via react channels. My main takeaway was "God, if only Disney talked to Tony Gilroy while he was working on Andor about making a SHIELD show. Or a prequel starring a young Nick Fury. Could've been the coolest shit. But alas..."

At the very least, it doesn't annoy me like the Secret Invasion comic did, but that's an extremely low bar.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, Marvel has effectively become a bigger budget version of the CW Arrow-Verse at this point. I still like what I like, and I'll be up for at least checking out the new Fantastic Four movie (whenever that manages to come out after the writer's strike and potential actor's strike delaying it's production), but with  Guardians wrapped up I'm just not interested enough in anything else to want to keep up with it. Maybe Spider-Man if they do another one, but I'm pretty checked out otherwise.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I'm still wondering when they're gonna push the big red button that say "X-MEN" on it. That or follow Gunn's lead and do a Nextwave show to rival DC's Authority.

Also, I just remembered Zeb Wells of all people is co-writing Captain Marvel 2. They're gonna let him write MCU Kamala after what he did to Comic Kamala? Were G. Willow Wilson or Al Ewing just unavailable?

[Dr. Insomniac]

For what it's worth, it's interesting that Preston and Carmine are warmer on SI than I expected.

[Avaitor]

Really awkward to have a Miss Minutes-heavy Loki episode considering what Tara Strong has been up to recently.

So far I'm enjoying Loki season 2 just fine. I enjoyed Loki's chemistry with Mobius more than his with Sylvie, so focusing on the former first has been a good call, and I also enjoy O.B. Although I'm really just happy that Jenny Nicholson got to see her Apple Pie Tree at Sylvie's McDonalds.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Oh yeah, watched a little of Agatha All Along because people were saying it was a very refreshing shift after some of the weaker MCU shows. And yeah, I liked it. Shouldn't be surprised since the Wandavision showrunner's on this, and that was the one that knew how to have fun instead of being a 6-hour MCU movie. Don't know if this Aubrey Plaza performance was better than her Legion one or not, which should be considered high praise since she was great in Legion.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

While I didn't love it, Agatha was a surprisingly enjoyable show for the most part. Wandavision was more experimental with it's premise and still probably my favorite MCU show up to this point (which in and of itself isn't saying much, unfortunately), but Agatha was the first in a while to not feel like a chore to keep up with.