Sometimes you just need a break.

It’s been hard not dialing these last couple months, so I figured I might as well return to the thread. Huge thanks to all of you who were kind to me about my mental health needs. Your words were extremely well-received and are dear to my heart.

In recent Disney shareholder meetings, returning CEO Bob Iger has indicated that Marvel Studios will be slowing down production to increase quality, something that Kevin Feige has echoed. Response to the Disney+ shows has been mixed, at best, and recent films have taken ever-more criticism, so it’s the right call (and we will for sure talk about these things as we go). That also tells me that the essays & customs workload won’t be as insane as it was.

However, going forward, I have a few rules to keep myself sane.

1. I might make the essay portions shorter as needed so it doesn’t feel like I’m rushing a dissertation.

2. I’m going to be MUCH choosier about characters. If I’ve already dialed them, I likely won’t do so again unless they demonstrate meaningfully different tactics. I don’t care about dialing everybody; my threads were never about that; they were about film accuracy of significant characters. I likely won’t dial noncombatant characters unless there’s a damn good reason to do so.

For movies & shows I like, I’ll dial more characters than not. For things I don’t like, expect 6 or fewer characters. It’ll really depend. I don’t want situations where I’m stuck dialing dozens of characters I dislike and dwelling on a title that repels me.

3. I will not be accepting guest dials. If you think I missed someone important, please politely make your request, but be prepared for me to say no. I do look at character lists when considering each title, so I probably left a character off for a reason. That reason was probably that their role was relatively insignificant and/or they’re too similar to what I’ve already dialed.

4. I’m not going to kill myself to get dials or essays out on time unless I feel like it. I’m not getting paid for this (but my private messages are open!), so these will come when they do. The more excited I am about a title, the sooner dials are likely to drop. If I’ve seen the film, I might converse about it with you here instead of writing an essay.

…and I think that’s it?

Either way, I’m excited to resume the thread and chat with you about our favorite comic book-inspired monoculture. All hail our mouse overlords!

Welcome back friend! SO Excited to have a return of the thread.

I think you're very fair to dial only what feels relevant and to not take requests. This is your thread, after all, and most of us are here for the discourse and delightful discussion as much as for the dials (or perhaps I speak only for myself). For instance, GotG Christmas - I don't know that anything except maaaybbeee Mantis (who finally gets to show off her comic-book Kung Fu) even warrants a dial there. You could dial Cosmo, I suppose, but it would also be sensible to wait and see what else if anything GotG3 says about the character before committing given their very limited screen time. I haven't actually seen Quantumania yet, but from what I've heard it sounds like there's definitely no need to re-dial Wasp.

I'm glad they're slowing down too. I was thinking about it, and it's definitely just one of volume:

• Phase 1 took four years to get done, and covers only 6 films.
• Phase 2 compressed down to two years, but was still only 6 films.
• Phase 3 covers three years and ballooned up to 11 films - but with the Spidey films serving more as dessert than a meal, still felt manageable.
• Phase 4 was only 7 films over two years...but D+ meant it was also 8 Television Series and 2 direct to D+ "Marvel Presents" hour-long specials, for a whopping 17 pieces of content to absorb in a very quick span.

Admittedly part of that is COVID - several of those projects were intended to release 2020 and ultimately none of them did, but it's still clearly way too much and would have been way too much even if Black Widow, Shang-chi, and a few of the shows had dropped in 2020 as planned. Add to that that none of it really builds off anything and I'm not surprised that it seems Quantumania is the jumping-off point. Hoping to catch it soon and looking forward to your thoughts!

Welcome back, Squabbler!
Your new rules seem very sensible, and I hope they'll help you have fun with this thread.

After I watched Quantumania, I will admit that I missed having a place to talk about it, so I'm glad to see this update.

Many thanks for the warm welcome back, friend! Very excited to get back into the swing of things.

Thank you too for that breakdown of the Phases! Haha it's wild when you lay it all out like that. I get the ramp up leading into Phase 3, but Phase 4's exponential number of projects was straight up insane-- possibly to the point of brand damage. We'll get into it later, but the huge number of projects all with lower degrees of quality seem to have hurt the MCU with critics. The box office is softer than it used to be too, unfortunately.

Hopefully the MCU is on the verge of a comeback!Many thanks, friend! Excited to get back into it with you!

Oh dear, I bet you've got all kinds of thoughts about QuANTuMANia. Looking forward to getting into it!

haha so that makes two cheeky titles in Phase 4. INTO THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS wound up being a stealth acronym for "MOM," which hints the plot. Granted, "INTO THE MOM" might've indicated a different kind of movie...

You have no idea how excited I am to see you back!

The only characters from Guardians Christmas Special I would dial are Kevin Bacon and the Old 97s. Because I’m a goofball.

Many thanks, friend! I really appreciate that! Haha now I have to try to live up to the excitement!

Haha they did cross my mind, for sure!

I decided that since I'd probably just make them bystanders with either Enhancement or Empower, they didn't feel like they needed dialing.

Now watch Kevin Bacon and the Old 97s be MASSIVE parts of GOTG Vol.3 and necessitate dialing XD

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER is a funeral dirge for Chadwick Boseman, and it’s hard to overstate how strongly his passing was felt. Not only was he a storied Black actor with a great career, he was the first Black title character in the MCU in a movie made by members of the community, for members of the community, about their community. That’s HUGE.

It makes sense, then, that WAKANDA FOREVER is half about grieving his loss and struggling to move on. It’s in the film’s diegesis and in the zeitgeist of the moment.

Shuri plays a vastly different character this time, her vivacious usual self replaced with anguish, frustration, and rage, and it’s hard to blame her character for that—she loses her brother in the film’s opening moments, and she loses her mother late in the film. She’s thrust into a leadership role she doesn’t want, given power she barely believes are hers, all while struggling to believe there’s a positive future for her, the monarchy, or Wakanda itself. Ultimately, by processing her grief, Shuri begins to believe in a more positive future. And, of course, the post-credits reveal of l'il baby legacy T'Challa doesn't hurt either.

The only bummer I see there is, like, we all know monarchies suck, right? Kinda wish Wakanda had taken the opportunity to embrace socialism after T'Challa's passing.



#168 Black Panther
Real Name: Princess Shuri
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 5
Points: 80
Keywords: Wakanda, Scientist, Warrior, Ruler

7 11 18 3

7 10 18 3

7 11 17 3

9 10 18 3

8 11 17 3

7 10 17 2

7 10 17 2

6 9 17 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Recreated Heart-Shaped Herb: Improved Movement: Ignores Hindering & Elevated
Dragonfly Drones: FREE: Generate up to 2 Dragonfly Drone Bystanders this game.
Damaged Panther Armor: Toughness & Super Senses.

#168b Dragonfly Drone
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0

10 10 17 0

Griot Remote Hacking Device: POWER: Mind Control, but only against adjacent opposing characters with the Armor, Vehicle, or Robot Keywords. After the Mind Control resolves, KO Dragonfly Drone.

I like this for Shuri Panther. Especially that she starts out by blasting her gauntlets at her enemies before shifting into melee combat. It feels like a very accurate portrayal of her tactics in the final battle aboard the Wakandan vessel.

I really enjoyed Wakanda Forever. I'm not entirely in agreement with all the creative decisions (I still can't get myself on board with killing the character off being the best way to honor Boseman - I feel like letting the character live on could have been more impactful), but I can't deny that they did them with grace and poignancy.

And I was really impressed by how handily Letitia Wright stepped into the lead role, and how well it suited her. She did some seriously phenomenal work in this movie.

Great dial for Shuri as Panther - heavy reducers, opening range, and her drones play up her "inventor first" power set, while the lack of Stealth makes total sense compared to T'challa (subtle Shuri ain't).

I think Wakanda Forever is the best of Phase 4 but the movie is a gut-puncher and I'm not sure I'm into watching it again. I can see around the margins that the story would have probably had a similar structure with T'challa, although the theme would have less been grief and more "parental abandonment" (I think I've read that Namor and Atlantis were always part of the script even before Chadwick's tragic passing). Namor works even better as a reflection of Shuri though - a man forced into power who has completely given up on love, hope, or trust, the road Shuri is on for most of the movie.

My only quibble with the film is one I imagine we'll talk more about with Namor though, so I'll save that for then.

Huge thanks, friends! Glad to hear the dial feels accurate! That’s always the goal C;

I agree, I think WAKANDA FOREVER was among Phase 4’s strongest, if not THE strongest (I think ETERNALS is neck and neck with it, but recognize that it was polarizing).

It’s interesting debate— if recasting or digitally recreating Boseman would’ve been a good idea. I picture Carrie Fisher in RISE OF SKYWALKER as the worst possible scenario for that. I’d be curious to know what, if anything, Boseman had shot before he passed.

All that said, I’ve heard rumors that T’Challa II might get an aged up recast a la Cassie Lang to be the replacement Black Panther. As good of a job that Wright did, industry trades reported her extremely conservative views and anti-vaxing status caused problems and delays on set. It wouldn’t surprise me if after SECRET WARS, T’Challa II takes the reigns (same deal with Evangeline Lily becoming more outspokenly supportive of far right culture war BS).

Interesting to hear some differences with this interpretation of Namor are on the way! Looking forward to discussing those!

Just as Chadwick Boseman was a cherished Black actor, so too is Angela Basset an iconic Black actress. Just as behind the scenes, she might lead her fellow cast and crew through their grief, so too does her Queen Ramonda with her subjects and remaining child. Through her anguish and outrage, we see an embattled monarch struggling to find Wakanda’s new role in the world and to continue T’Challa’s mission, despite challenges from adversarial foreign nations.

Her late-movie death serves to yank the safety blanket away from the characters and audience, forcing them to process grief anew and accept that sometimes, there is no path forward safe for the ones we create ourselves.



#169 Queen Ramonda
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 15
Keywords: Wakanda, Ruler, Celebrity

6 9 16 1

6 9 16 1

6 9 16 1

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

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

You do not sneak into my country and tell me what is fair: Leadership, and when Queen Ramonda succeeds, a friendly character with the Wakanda or Warrior Keyword may make a Move Action for Free.

Like BLACK PANTHER before it, WAKANDA FOREVER also explores colonial violence and deliberating how to proceed from the injustice and generational trauma of it. The film begins with Ramonda slapping down the U.S. and France’s attempts to seize vibranium for their own purposes and it continues with Namor (we’re calling him that for simplicity’s sake) planning to wipe out any and all nations who might be considered a threat. Currently, that looks like the whole world, potentially minus Wakanda.

While I wouldn’t say the events of the movie are “healing” for Wakandans and Talokans, they are transformative. It was beautiful and poignant that the movie brought together two heavily colonized peoples -those of African descent and those of Latinx descent- and explored their similar histories and offered a unified path forward. It’s all the more beautiful when one considers how White governments frequently drive a wedge between these communities and play them against each other.

Again like in BLACK PANTHER, here, the antagonist isn’t philosophically wrong; they’re just reacting more proactively to the real villain of White imperialism.



#170 Okoye
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 5
Points: 75
Keywords: Wakanda, Warrior, Armor

9 11 17 2

8 11 17 2

8 11 17 2

11 11 18 3

10 10 18 3

9 10 18 3

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Vibranium-Powered Thrusters: Charge & Flurry.
Midnight Angel Armor: STOP. Impervious.

Great to see you back!

That Shuri Black Panther is pretty nice… though is begging for a second starting line on click 4 (@50 points or so)

Many thanks, friend! Happy to be back!

From a gameplay standpoint, I definitely agree. In this case, I'm thinking of the dial from a storytelling standpoint where she's losing power and getting more desperate as she fights, as in the movie.