Brie Larson Is Your Captain Marvel

I've already mentioned that I feel like DC clobbered Marvel when it came to big movie announcements at SDCC but one of the big splashes Marvel made was announcing that Academy Award winner Brie Larson is going to play Captain Marvel on the big screen. It's a big announcement for two reasons: First off this will be the first Marvel movie solely focus on a female hero. Secondly, grabbing an academy award winning actress for any Marvel role is a pretty good grab.

It's pretty ridiculous that it's taken 8 years and about about a dozen movies for Marvel to get to this point but I guess it's better late then never? Marvel has been pushing a more diverse comics universe for the last 5 or 6 years, it's nice that effort is finally showing up on the big screen with Captain Marvel and Black Panther. Can't wait for all the hot takes from Fox News when these two movies hit the box office.

Dear Links

Why the “Future of Women in Comics” Thinks It Helps to Be Terrifying. Kelly Sue Deconnick (not in costume) is one of my more favorite comic book writers right now. Not really based on her run on Captain Marvel (which I liked but didn't love) but because of two of her other books Bitch Planet and Pretty Deadly. Pretty Deadly being one of the raddest books I've read in a LONG time. I met her once at ECCC and she was SO COOL.

Anyway, it's cool to see her and the issue of women in comics get some big mainstream press like this.

Hollywood is missing the one thing that makes Superman great. Man, this times a thousand. I hate that people somehow think that Superman isn't interesting or relatable. The best Superman stories are inspiring and uplifting, it's kind of like Star Trek at the end of the story you should feel better about the human condition not worse.

From Tomato Cans To Mike Tyson: The Definitive ‘Punch-Out!!’ Fighter Power Rankings. Man I LOVED Mike Tyson's punch out (and it's arcade brother Punch Out) but I was terrible at them. I don't think I ever made it past Bald Bull, heck in the arcade I don't think I ever made it past Don Flamenco. Still good times were had.

Dear Idiots, Stop Leaking Comic-Con Trailers. Ugh... this guy. Where to start? First off the idea that somehow Comic-Con would be worse off if the big movie studios decided to come is arrogant and short-sighted. That actually sounds great to me and a lot of people that you know... actually read comics. If you read any of the coverage leading up to Comic-Con you might have seen that one of the big stories was that Marvel decided to skip Comic-Con altogether this year. Actually, MARVEL STUDIOS skipped Comic-Con. Marvel was there with lots of new comic books to show off. It's frustrating for this old school nerd to see people treat movies as the final destination for comic books, like each book is just a pitch for a movie or tv show.

But I digress, this guy can get bent and so can all the studios that believe they can show a couple thousand people some hotly anticipated footage without having someone record it. They literally live-stream the panels over the internet but then when it comes time to show 2 minutes of footage that's supposed to stay in San Diego? If you're showing footage at Comic-Con you should be prepared to post it to youtube immediately. Otherwise just don't show footage, the crowd will still clap and get happy when you trot out Ryan Reynolds for a little Q&A.

Captain Links

Meet Captain Marvel: Fighter Pilot, Feminist and Marvel’s Big Gamble. Hey Time Magazine did a big online article all about Captain Marvel. Hooray! Also Time Magazine has the worst looking website. Ugh.

The article itself is pretty good and gives you lots of info on Captain Marvel and the creators behind the character, I just wish it didn't label the project "Marvel's Big Gamble". Seriously, they also announced a Black Panther movie and an Inhuman's movie and the one starting a woman is the gamble? Just to key you in the Inhumans are a raced of superpowered beings that live on the moon. Their leader can't talk without blowing up a planet, their Queen Medusa has "hair power" and they get around with the help of a giant teleporting dog. Yeah, Captain Marvel is the gamble. No institutionalized sexism or anything to see here...

Captain Marvel: 8 Actresses We'd Cast. Speaking of Captain Marvel, lets fire up the speculatron as to who will nab the lead role. The 8 actresses Geekytyrant throws out are a good start although there's heavy rumor that Jessica Chastain may have already got the part. I'm throwing my vote for Emily Blunt. I know as an honorary Carol Corps member it's supposed to be Katee Sackhoff or nothing but I kinda think there are better actresses for the part (sorry Corps).

British swimsuit calendar shot on Utah National Guard base 'without proper authorization' sparks investigation. Someone's getting fired... Seriously, how can a seemingly sane person that's worked for years in the military and raised up the ranks high enough to be in charge of a National Guard base decide "Sure, why wouldn't we let some company come here and shoot a sexy calendar?" USA! USA! USA!

Margot Robbie Reportedly Cast As Harley Quinn In Suicide Squad. I haven't seen Wolf of Wall Street but I hear Margot Robbie steals the show (possibly due to lack of wardrobe). She's definitely not unattractive, interesting to see if she can get that right mix of crazy, tough and vulnerable that makes Harley Quinn so beloved.

Wait, they're making a Suicide Squad movie? What the hell, when did that happen?

Marvel Phase 3

Hey kids, you like movies? Cause Marvel is going to make some movies. A lot of them. Roughly a thousand.

Earlier today at a big press conference thingy Marvel Studios announced Phase 3 of their much vaunted shared movie universe. Here's the list of films along with their preliminary release dates:

May 6 2016: Captain America: Civil War
November 4 2016: Doctor Strange
May 5 2017: Guardians of the Galaxy 2
July 28 2017: Thor: Ragnarok
Nov 3 2017: Black Panther
May 4 2018: Avengers: Infinity War Part I
July 6 2018: Captain Marvel
Nov 2 2018: Inhumans
May 3 2019: Avengers: Infinity War Part II

Summer 2020: Reboot City

Ok, so that last one was made up.

There's a lot to be excited about here. First thing and probably the most important, would be the added diversity to the Marvel Movie Universe. Once Marvel proved that you can make a billion dollars with a movie staring a Tree and a Racoon it was pretty silly of them to hold off on a film led by a person of color or a woman. We're getting both. Sure there will be 8 movies staring blonde guys named Chris before one Black Panther movie but progress is progress.

The second biggest thing to get excited over is a little thing called the Infinity War. For those unfamiliar the Infinity War was a limited series that spun off from the Infinity Gauntlet, one of the all time classic Marvel stories. The basis behind it was the that mad Titan Thanos stole these gems, each with a tremendous amount of power, slapped them all on this cool looking glove and became god for a day. His first act was to kill half of all living things in the universe as a tribute to his on/off girlfriend Death. Eventually earth's greatest remaining heroes save the day. Like I said classic Marvel.

My guess here is that the powers that be at Marvel will be adapting the Infinity Gauntlet story line and not the Infinity War story line. The Infinity War story meanders a bit and doesn't have the classic confrontation of the original. I'll bet they just balked at the idea of naming their most ambitious film after a type of glove.