Many thanks, friend! Glad this dude feels good. He seemed like he'd always have a ranged option, so I tried to make him have that while also feeling like his tactics evolve throughout combat.

Definitely with you on his being the one death seeming striking. Haha not entirely unsurprising that they killed the one "good guy" with the negative personality trait. Definitely will expound on that below.What's so funny about that is we see Kang as being full capable of annihilating waves of dudes without any effort. His hand lasers wipe out whole platoons at a time... but they suddenly don't work on named characters. It's hilarious how obvious it is in the movie.

If we aren't killing Ant-Man to raise the stakes, why not have Kang wipe out ALL the Quantum Realmers, including all the not-Micronauts? They're all boring, one-dimensional characters anyway. The only way to make the audience legitimately care about them with the current story structure would be to wipe them out. You raise the stakes, make the climactic battle seem unwinnable, and make Hank's Socialist Ant army seem that much more awesome and relieving --like Aragon and the undead army or Gandalf with the Riders of Rohan.

Again, the only reason I can see keeping this jokers alive is to make them a callback in SECRET WARS and/or the THE KANG DYNASTY and I'm sure everyone in audience is gonna have the same reaction:

It’s crazy how leading up to this movie there was a lot of talk about possibly Scott dying or some other major deaths… but instead all got was light beam head guy.

I thought so sure this would be a good movie to kill off Hank and/or Janet for some stakes but nope. Guess they are saving that for Kang Dynasty maybe? Who knows.

Thematically, I feel like I get what this movie is trying to do—Scott is egotistical and isn’t willing to fight for the homeless. That is, specifically the Blip-displaced homeless. Cassie cares about those who were economically displaced through an act of God; not generalized homeless people. That's striking to me as the first two movies prominently take place in San Francisco, which is notoriously unaffordable for most working class people. Likewise, Scott isn't willing to join the freedom fighters. His journey, therefore, is to learn to care about other people's plight, even if it doesn’t affect him personally. Again, it’s debatable if Scott actually learns this so much as the plot forces him into conflict with his ideological opposite.

Kang, meanwhile, is what if Scott doesn’t get a character arc—he’s egotistical, wanting only to escape the Quantum Realm so he might continue his omnicide. Other people do not matter to him, even if he knows them personally.

This would be a fine set-up if Scott had a character arc, but he ends the film without apparently having learned anything; he’s quick to disavow that he might’ve spurred the end of existence or that he has the power to affect any change in the world.

So much for the Blip-displaced homeless, I guess.

What's so striking about all this to me is I literally watched STRANGE WORLD for the first time the day before seeing QUANTUMANIA, and thematically, the stories are identical. An intergenerational clash about what to do about a crisis is solved by a radical solution posted by Gen Z. There was a way to make QUANTUMANIA feel more resonant... it just isn't isn't effectuated.



#181 Jentorra
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 45
Keywords: Quantum Realm, Warrior, Ruler

9 11 18 2

8 11 18 2

7 11 18 2

6 10 17 2

5 10 17 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Resisting the Conqueror: Exploit Weakness. // Leadership, and when Jentorra uses it, she treats friendly characters who share a Keyword with her or who have as adjacent.

It is incredible how bad MODOK looks. I can’t tell if they wanted him to look mutated and warped or if they wanted him to look like a face projected on a screen, and that I can’t tell is SUCH a problem. It doesn’t look believable, partially because, again, Marvel has been overworking VFX studios, and partially because it’s just a bad design.

As I mentioned before, Marvel Studios doesn’t do much with animatronics, and that’s a shame, because it’s easy to imagine someone like del Toro or Peter Jackson turning out an amazing MODOK with animatronics and some simple camera tricks like Forced Perspective. You know all those MODOK cosplays that are just people wearing helmets with arms and legs? That’s what you do.

Speaking personally, I don’t like this MODOK. I dislike that it’s Darren Cross; I dislike the bland, goofy appearance; I dislike the angry face helmet; and I dislike the “I’m not a dick” line that sounds like bad James Gunn dialogue. I’d hoped that if we saw Darren Cross again, he’d be a Cronenbergian body horror character who’d merged with his Yellowjacket suit and who was burning to exact revenge upon Scott Lang. What we got here was weird… and not in a good way.

I specificy "personally" because I know how MODOK has evolved over the decades from a creepy Jack Kirby monster to a goofy aren't-comics-weird comedy character. I fully respect that everybody's mileage may vary.



#182 M.O.D.O.K.
Real Name: Darren Cross
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 6
Points: 75
Keywords: Kang Dynasty, Scientist, Robot, Monster

6 11 19 4

6 11 19 4

6 11 19 4

6 11 18 4

6 11 18 4

6 11 18 4

6 11 18 4

12 11 19 6

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Oddly Ineffectual: When M.O.D.O.K. targets multiple characters, lower his Attack value by 1 for each target instead of dividing damage among hit characters. He instead deals his modified damage value to all hit characters.
Bad CGI: M.O.D.O.K. has -2 Defense if his controller thinks the character's CGI wasn't believable. Be honest, folks.
I AM NOT A DICK!: STOP & Invulnerable. KO M.O.D.O.K. the next time he hits with a close attack.

See, on the one hand Darren CroDOK had some moments that were actually kind of funny, and I feel did the role of comic relief. The conversation between him and Scott about him being an Avenger now admittedly got a small chuckle from me.

That's about all I've got to say positively though. The CGI was rough, he could have been dropped from the film, and I really don't think things would change too much. Could have been a totally different character and saved MODOK for something else. Some other plot contrivance would have still gotten the characters where they're needed, I'm sure.

Also, I understand he's a weird design to adapt, but I mean c'mon:



For all its faults, Marvel's Avengers did a solid job creating a recognizable MODOK design that fits a more "realistic" design, so clearly it's possible to do well. Well, at least when you're not abusing your poor VFX artists.

Hey, Danish subtitles!

Anyway, nice dial. I like the alternative way to spread out attacks with s.


As for the character, I don't mind MODOK being played for laughs, as long it's only his enemies that are making fun of him.
Like in the Avengers: EMH cartoon, where Thor was flabbergasted by MODOK's appearance and Wasp kept cracking jokes about it, but AIM, Hydra, Baron Strucker, and MODOK himself took him completely seriously. And the show took him mostly seriously, too, seeing as he was a genuine threat the heroes had to put effort into fighting.

Here, though, no one seemed to take MODOK seriously. The rebels are implied to have feared MODOK in the past, and Darren tries his best to be intimidating, but the heroes never take him seriously and Kang doesn't seem to have any real respect for him.
He has enough fire power to be dangerous, but he never gets to feel properly intimidating.

There is some satisfaction in seeing a (relatively) grown-up Cassie defeat the monster who came after her as a kid. But other than that, I wasn't really a fan of the idea of turning Darren into MODOK, either. That's the second time Darren has stolen a different comic character's identity.

At least they did try to replicate MODOK's look. He's got the giant head with tiny limbs, forehead gem and hover chair. Even the right color scheme of mostly gold with purple limbs.
I'll always appreciate that kind of thing. The same certainly can't be said for Darren's Yellowjacket suit.

This whole MODOK conversation has made me interested to check out Marvel's The Avengers. I watched the cutscene move up through Abomination because I love that guy, and its take on MODOK seemed interested, at the very least. Ultimately didn't play because I need WAY more than 2 name supervillains to satisfy me in a superhero game. Think it's worth playing? Haha factor in that I don't really play online.
Haha those subtitles are probably a direct result of Europe getting the movies before America... and probably someone in Denmark giving dem visuals the side-eye too.

That's a really, really good point about MODOK as comic book character. I've got no problem with characters making fun of opponents-- Joe Kelly's Deadpool and Ultimate Spider-Man are both among my favorite runs. I think I need major characters to acknowledge that something is a threat for it to feel like a threat. I always use this example, but I love how Spider-Man makes fun of villains until he realizes he's outclassed and it suddenly gets desperate. I think I might've enjoyed something like that for MODOK-- you make fun of him until you see what he's capable of, and then he's as much of a threat as Kang.

That's also a great thematic point about Cassie vs. MODOK-- I hadn't made that connection, but that's a great arc for the series to have. In retrospect, I appreciate that moment more.

Boy howdy, have things been nuts for Disney lately.

CEO Bob Iger stepped down after 2019 and was replaced by Bob Chapek, former head of Disney Parks. Y’know, the same guy that infamously pays park employees below the poverty line, created a baffling park pass system, and whose new parks cater exclusively to the mega rich. That guy decided to pivot hard to streaming and for Lucasfilm & Marvel Studios to churn out as much content as possible.

In that time, reviews for most of Phase 4’s content plummeted (LOVE & THUNDER, ETERNALS, and QUANTUMANIA are the three lowest-scored films on Rotten Tomatoes) as did their box office. Reports of troubled production emerged from STRANGE 2, LOVE AND THUNDER, ARMOR WARS, SHE-HULK, ECHO, IRONHEART, and MORBIUS (if you count it. I don’t, it’s Sony). BLADE nearly went into production with a script that was apparently bad, under 80 minutes in length, and only had 3 fight scenes, leading to its director quitting and a new script being written to keep Oscar winning actor Mahershala Ali onboard.

Around Thanksgiving, Bob Chapek was fired by Disney’s board and replaced with Bob Iger (a borderline unprecedented move!), who along with Kevin Feige, are pledging to slow Marvel Studios’ productions to focus on quality. That’s a desperately needed move, considering the divisive reaction to Phase 4’s narratives and visuals.

Between 2019 and now, we saw Phase 4 rearranged from an open-ended slate without a listed Avengers film (presumably to cap with Secret Wars) to three rushed phases with WAKANDA FOREVER being the last Phase 4 film and QUANTUMANIA being the first Phase 5 film. Considering that Phases 1-3 lasted about a decade, this is quite a pivot, signalling that the studio is rapidly trying to get on track.

How did WAKANDA FOREVER end Phase 4? How did QUANTUMANIA start Phase 5 when f***ing LOKI contained the same information? Doesn’t matter. What matters is that Marvel Studios gets in the black and fast.

Anyway, here’s Kang.



#183 Kang
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 75
Keywords: Kang Dynasty, Scientist, Ruler, Cosmic

7 11 18 4

7 11 18 4

7 11 18 4

7 11 18 4

3 9 18 2

3 9 18 2

3 9 18 2

5 10 17 2

5 10 17 2

5 10 17 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Evil Hand Gestures: Telekinesis & Force Blast.
Selectively Lethal Laser Blasts: 6, Penetrating/Psychic Blast & Pulse Wave. Kang's ranged attacks deal double damage to Generics and to bystanders.
Just Standing Around While His Army Gets Clowned: Invulnerability, Mastermind & Barrier.

QUANTUMANIA might just be Marvel Studio's first financial flop. While the $250 million movie is expected to get a worldwide cume of about $450 million, once you factor in all the advertising costs, this may well be Marvel's first critical and financial failure. At best, it will break even. No matter what, it IS a black eye for the studio.

Meanwhile, it and ETERNALS are sitting at the bottom of Rotten Tomatoes, which I don’t think is fair to either film. QUANTUMANIA is a little better than that and Eternals is a lot better than that.

If anything, I think this speaks to critics’ fatigue of the MCU and, specifically, lashing out at things that are too “weird” and “out there” when they primed for a standard superhero movie. The box office and audience scores show that superhero fatigue only exists in the minds of detractors… but Disney & Marvel Studios’ posturing sure indicates that they’re worried about burning their goodwill.

Keep an eye out for updates. I’m sure they’ll be interesting.

In the midst of all of this MCU fatigue and poorly reviewing Phase 4 films and all that, this is the part that gets me the most. How does this happen? Disney/Marvel made the blueprint for this whole shared-universe-franchise situation, and the entire Phase 1 to Avengers is about as well as you could expect it to be pulled off. I remember when I was way younger, in High School I think, talking to my friends about how I didn't see how The Avengers could be pulled off; that many characters, with literal movies worth of backstory, with all these moving parts, how could it possibly be done?

Fast forward to now, and I'm in disbelief but for the opposite reason; how is Marvel screwing this up? They know how to do it, they have a blueprint, and they can look to their many, many imitators to learn what not to do. At the end of the day, it all rests on two things: screenplay and screen players. Guardians of the Galaxy took a bunch of C (or even D) list heroes that nobody gave a rat's ass about, but because James Gunn wrote/directed it so well and the actors all fit their characters so perfectly, they're some of the most popular superhero characters in pop culture. Even Taika Waititi (who I know is in vogue to hate) took lukewarm reception to the first two Thor movies and turned it around into one of the most popular Thor movies just by putting his own spin on it and showing what he's good at.

I know a lot of people liked Black Panther 2, but the whole time I was sitting there wondering what the Hell happened: why is Iron Heart here? Why is there a whole subplot with Martin Freeman being Madame Hydra's ex-wife? Why does all of the underwater stuff look so muddy and dark and bad? It was just such a far cry from what made the first movie special, and I know it had a troubled production for reasons outside of their control, but there were so many decisions and unnecessary plot beats and overall bloat that just made me wonder what happened to the days of Iron Man or GotG.

I feel like the old man yelling at a cloud meme, it's just so weird to me seeing that it's the same exact company, it's still Kevin Feige, and in many cases it's the exact same filmmakers, but sequels and attempts at breathing life into the MCU just fall so completely flat most of the time now.

She-Hulk and a lot of the other D+ shows were good though, so I'll give them that. It feels like the TV wing is having a lot more success at the moment than the movie wing.

Well said, friend!

I lay the blame at Bob Chapek & Kareem Daniel’s (chairman of the Disney Media and Entertainment Division) feet. Both men were responsible for the speeding up of franchises and the hard pivot to streaming. Suddenly an exponential amount of content had to come out to make Disney+ look enticing, meaning the 3 main Marvel producers were spread too thin. We saw under the same leadership Pixar films punted to streaming movies, which made the brand look less premium and helped LIGHTYEAR fail.

Throughout all this, you have Covid playing hell with the intended release order, filming, and distribution (and again, Chapek mandating speeding up production). And to THAT, you’ve got all the ways Marvel Studios is mistreating VFX houses and forcing last-minute changes to complicated shots. In WAKANDA FOREVER’s case, I suspect they had to rewrite the script to both accommodate Boseman’s passing while also keeping franchise planning demands: seeding Ironheart and the Thunderbolts. That’s a damn hard balancing act, even under the best of conditions.

Think Feige’s success, in spite of Perlmutter in Phases 1 & 2, and throughout Phase 3 was the result of careful, deliberate planning and presumably working with the best VFX houses before evidently burning those bridges. We’re basically seeing where a change of leadership, one that puts quantity over quality, can hurt the brand.

I think slowing down will ultimately be good for Marvel Studios. They clearly need time to figure s*** out and get back on track to their pre-Covid narrative plans. I’d imagine the next big priority will be doing everything in their power to make THE MARVELS a success narratively and visually.

I get that as time goes on, my continued enjoyment of the MCU puts me in a smaller and smaller group. I get that.

But gosh, my wife and I finally got to see Quantumania today, and you know what? We had fun. It wasn’t the most thematically rich film, I found it fun and refreshing. I liked the weird visuals, the unabashedly comicbook feel to everything, and how it didn’t waste time getting to the adventure.

Jonathan Majors is honestly kind of a revelation. I knew he had the goods when we saw him as “Not Quite Immortus” at the end of Loki, and he was just fantastic here, to the point that we know he’ll be great in his continued presence.

I dunno. Maybe I’m just a blinded fanboy. Maybe I’m too willing to look past the flaws and have a fun time anyway. But still, even at their worst, these movies are still a fun, comicbooky time. I compare the worst MCU movies to the worst of other comicbook franchises, and it still feels leagues ahead. I’ve survived X3, Wolverine Origins, two Fantastic Fours, Daredevil, Spider-Man 3, Amazing Spidey 2, two Ghost Riders, and more besides, and if this is the worst the MCU can throw at me?

I say bring it on.

I like that. Faults or not, I can't think of too many MCU projects that I downright dislike. I still mostly have fun.

The MCU continues to do a good job of embracing the fact that it's based on comic books. I can't imagine the FoX-Men movies would have given us a Kang in green and purple armor with a(n occasional) blue visor.

And I'm still excited about where we're going. Young Avengers sounds fun. Secret Wars with a potential army of Avengers variants sounds like something that could actually feel bigger than Endgame (in terms of scope, not necessarily quality or hype).

Haha reading this, I realize I didn't actually get around to saying what I thought of the film.

I had fun with it too! It certainly had no shortage of screenwriting and VFX issues, but it was fun, diverting, tonally (and I think thematically?) consistent, and I loved Jonathan Majors as Kang/s.

I do think we're reaching a point where there's no longer a consensus "worst" MCU movie. For a lot of people, it's probably still IRON MAN 2 and INCREDIBLE HULK (THOR: THE DARK WORLD has seen some rehabilitation lately), but I'm sure many would put ETERNALS, THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER, and QUANTUMANIA down there too for various reasons, some fair, some not.

You're right, of course-- we've absolutely seen worse films with the Marvel brand, some that were franchise-killers. Nothing the MCU has produced has reached the depths of X-MEN APOCALYPSE, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, or SPIDER-MAN 3. God help us if it gets as bad as ELEKTRA or DARK PHOENIX.

If anything, I think the soft responses to LOVE AND THUNDER and QUANTUMANIA might be indications that while nothing in the MCU is outright bad or artless, their tone and style might've gotten old hat for general audiences and that a stylistic and production-approach refresh might be in order.

I absolutely love the story of the Avengers game. It is worth playing just for that. I am not much for online play either, and honestly the online stuff was the worst part about that game. I really enjoyed the characterizations, the world they built, the plot, the character interactions, is all great. I am a huge Avengers and AIM fan, so others mileage my vary, but this was a great game from a story telling perspective. The inhumans push received a lot of backlash when it happened in the comics and honestly could have been done better, but other tellings of that same story such as this game and the Future Avengers cartoon prove that it could have been great if it was shown in a slightly different way. It may have to do with those universes not having X-Men to displace with the Inhumans to begin with.
The Avengers game was launched too soon and as a result still had a lot of bugs and stuff to work out, but again that mainly affected the online stuff. There have been a ton of free updates that gave us more villains, Monica Rappaccini, Maestro, and Klaw. Everyone feels fresh and unique to play, even Kate Bishop and Clint Barton have very different feels to them.

Yeah, for me it’s just the fact that this was a fun, comicbook romp with one hell of a good villain. And I feel like we’ve had a good number of thematically strong and resonant MCU movies that have been about something lately that it was nice to get a basic popcorn flick.

They could have used this to tell a deeper story, absolutely, about the need to stand up for displaced people, about how selfishness leads to cruelty, etc. etc. And the seeds for that are definitely all here. From Scott to Kang to even Lord Krylar.

But in the end, it just wasn’t that deep, and that’s okay. It’s still a solid take on these characters, and it joyously plays with comic style concepts and visuals. I’m always happy to see a wild and wacky comicbook adventure up on the big screen. Because it makes me feel like a kid again, wishing that the fantastical stories I loved reading could ever make it up into live action, and it still kinda blows me away that they do now, after so many years of toning down the comics for the normies.