“Fantastic Four”
The success or failure of “Spider-Man: Homecoming” could be a benchmark for 20th Century Fox, which owns the screen rights to Marvel’s First Family. In three films released between 2005 and 2015 Fox has yet to properly capitalize on the potential of the Fantastic Four. After seeing what Marvel did with Spider-Man in just a few minutes of screen time in ‘Civil War,’ there’s every reason to hope that Marvel could succeed with Fantastic Four where Fox has failed. Sony has come out of its Spider-Man deal with Marvel looking good so far, and if ‘Homecoming’ is a hit the studio’s decision to share Spider-Man will look like a brilliant move. And if Marvel can get their hands on Reed Richards & Co., that means big bad world-eater Galacts comes along, as does the Silver Surfer. That would change a lot for the MCU, and would be the best thing for Marvel and Fox alike.
“Secret Invasion”
In 2008 Marvel’s big crossover comics event, “Secret Invasion” posited that the changeling alien Skrulls had spent years infiltrating Earth with replacements for major character as a prelude to a major invasion. On the big screen, such a story might serve several purposes, from the creation of spectacle to the opportunity to recast a major character or two. More to the point, “Secret Invasion” is a chance to bring Marvel’s Earth-based and cosmic characters together, and to further develop the major alien races for occasional use in the MCU.
“Secret Wars”
While we’re on the topic of secrets, Marvel’s mid-’80s event series “Secret Wars,” the first of the company’s now-numerous empire-wide crossovers, has been revisited multiple times on comic pages, and stands as an obvious major option for the MCU. The original conception involved Marvel’s heroes and villains being spirited off to a world on which they were forced to do battle under the watchful eye of a powerful alien known as the Beyonder. The original story altered some major characters (notably Spider-Man, who returned to Earth with the black costume which ultimately became Venom) and storylines.
In fact, we wouldn’t be entirely surprised if one of the upcoming two Avengers movies folded “Secret Wars” into the ‘Infinity War’ concept, with powerful Thanos standing in for the Beyonder. But if that isn’t the plan for ‘Infinity War,’ the basic “Secret Wars” framework — which was revisited in a 2015 comic book series — remains as an option for a story to really change the board of the MCU in Phase 4.
A Non-Avengers Team Movie
In addition to its cinematic universe, Marvel is building a TV world leading up to a team-up called The Defenders. Some of the company’s more “gritty” characters, like Moon Knight (originally Marvel’s riff on Batman), Ghost Rider, and Blade, would make good additions to the New York-set Netflix shows.
But The Defenders often played a slightly different role in Marvel Comics — the team was the weird crew, like a mid-point between the Avengers and X-Men. As we see Marvel expand and twist its major team roster while introducing many new characters, there’s room for another team. It should be The Defenders, or a version of that collective. We’ve already got a couple major Defenders members set in the MCU, Hulk and Doctor Strange. If Tessa Thompson is playing Valkyrie in “Thor: Ragnarok,” the MCU will have yet another core Defender. It seems more likely that Marvel would build out such a concept as a “Doctor Strange” sequel, in much the same way that ‘Civil War’ is basically an Avengers movie. But an MCU team capable of tackling some slightly more odd concepts would be very welcome.
Thoughts? Where do you think Marvel is going next? Let us know in the comments section.
“All of which is to say that solo movies for existing characters won’t exactly be ‘solo’ movies going forward.” But yet, they somehow need a Black Widow “solo” movie, despite her playing significant roles in 5 movies already, just to say they made a Black Widow solo movie? Also, they can’t use the Skrulls because Fox owns the rights thanks to their Fantastic Four deal.
Thanks for the intelliegent and knowledgable discussion. What I believe is really needed by MCU journalists is to go beyond “just the facts and speculations” and challenge Marvel to keep a focus on truly human values.
Captain America is popular in part because he stands for human values. The first Thor movie has Thor willing to sacrifice his life in a moving moment. One of the problems with BVS is the sub-text of values is either trivialized, cartooned or disengaged from character and plot.
Super villains stand for negative values but in a cartoony way rarely engaging. As Charles Solomon says, in real life most people doing terrible things don;t even think of themselves as villains.
Deadpool functions as a destroyer of human values; or if you prefer, social permission to numb ourselves to lack of human values.
Without any mention of values, reportage like this tends to come off sounding like news for very educated 14 year olds. Russ, I suspect you have more writing chops in you and I’d like to see them come out more. Your “what if” scenarios are a good place to expand.
What if Iron Man took a stand again inequality between the 1% and the 99%?
You may be old enuf to recall the Marvel comic book What If series. I’m recommending it as the apex–or nadir–of Marvel’s lack of imagination in writing in that era. More what-if thinking, please!
What if Dr. Strange decided to fight cancer as a world thought form?
What if Captain America ran for President ala Bernie Sanders? Trump-like villain and all.
What if the Human Torch tried to manage or put out a devastating wild fire?