Just to note I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have superheroes moves or comics and while I’m not a comics nerd I’m still a fan. Just having a discussion about some of Alan Moore’s thoughts. Sorry for the derail.
He’s not wrong but I think those themes are universal and most of the people who relate to the characters actually don’t see that the answer is to become a terrorist or a Nazi proud boy. The issue I see is ideological radicalization. Look at ISIS as an example. Those are definitely disillusioned boys who felt alienated by society but are secretly superheroes of a sort in their minds. However what makes them act on evil is the ideological lie that if they capture back Dabiq or wherever their prophesied end of days battle is supposed to be, they’ll be rewarded with 100 virgins in the afterlife, and if they blow up themselves in Time Square and take down infidels they’ll get their that way too. Then there’s the ideology of the American right. Which is again taking disillusioned young men who think they are superhero badasses like Chris Kyle or Mark Whalberg in Lone Survivor who consume an ideology (Qanon etc) that tells them every day in the starkest terms that if they don’t act the evil democrats are literally going to sex traffic every woman and child they know or turn them into a shemale transvestite. Their reward isn’t as clear as it is YET with ISIS or Al Qaeda so that’s why I believe we don’t see more violence at the moment. Give the evangelical Christian nationalist leaders more time to break down the wall of church and state and we are doomed. So in short it’s the ideology and the call to action that is the straw that stirs the drink imo. A kid who reads Spider-Man or X-Men could be driven by how he self identifies to join the proud boys to fight the sex traffickers or maybe they are driven to become an Astronaut or climate scientist….. ….or maybe are just driven to always love comics and movies that offer them a mental fantasy escape when normal hard mundane life gets hard. I think that’s actually what comic stories and characters mean are for most people… an escape in their minds. Most people don’t see a call action and just need to escape in their minds. Maybe just cosplay at Comic Con or take their kids to Galaxies Edge. That’s why the fandom gets outraged when the MCU or Star Wars isn’t exactly what they want it to be in the next installments. Their escape and fantasy time is very important for them and in a way you are almost like a health insurance company forcing you to change to a new psychologist you don’t know or trust. That’s how important this stuff is to those who don’t use it to inspire them to join cults but instead use is as a fantasy coping mechanism. Anyways… that’s a long winded way of saying our relationships with comics are interesting and complex but not as simple to say that they promote fascist extremism.
Yes absolutely comics are a form of escapism and definitely reading comics and watching superhero movies doesn’t automatically lead to fascism. I don’t thin even Alan Moore thinks that but he is critiquing the cultures obsession with superheroes by stating it’s not all good or merely escapism. I think mostly he’s saying why he doesn’t write about superheroes anymore.
"soft-reboot" -- the article writers don't even know what they mean when they write that, it's just something some "source" said to the media at some point. "soft-reboot" could mean anything (maybe almost nothing). MCU just grasping at straws for publicity while they have no content to push. Also tired of seeing the MCU leak actor/actress names attached to movies like F4 SOLELY to rank fan sentiment on social media - just pick someone, bro. Stop trying to use social media as a focus group.
I guess it's too late now, but they better spend a million or ten to the scriptwriting to address multiverse fatigue.
I’ve been thinking lately that Marvel might be best served to kick the Secret Wars can waaaayy down the road and instead focus on a new Avengers arc for the next 10 years. It’s no fault of their own necessarily but the entire genre is so saturated with multiverse storylines and injecting nostalgia into every movie. Strange 2, No way home, and Loki are all we really need. You did the trick well with NWH. Loki can be a thing where this lives for another season or two and just insulate Kangs arc there with maybe a couple more cameos. Let Kang Dynasty be a culmination of Loki season 3, and quantumania. Let the Avengers tackle another arc. The comics have been around for like 80 years. There has to be more fresh and relevant storylines to write into the films.
The New Avengers like Ms Marvel and Shang Chi? Lmao man, I’m just about done with Marvel at this point
That kinda bums me out. I didn’t see the last GotG movie in the theater. I’ll eventually watch it on DisneyPlus. I just don’t care even a little bit about the future of the bigger picture. I’ll see Captain America, I’m sure. I’ll see whatever they do with SpiderMan. Aside from that, I’m not sure what I’m looking forward to with Avengers stuff.
I’m not sure I would be bummed out just yet because the whole point of phases 4 and 5 were to branch off where it’s not necessary to watch everything and expand into many siloed off characters. See Moon Knight which is a stand alone thing. Spider Man was moved off with his arc to where he could do his own thing. With Hawkeye they created a NYC/mob setting to where multiple characters could exist outside all of the other characters. Even the Marvels sectioned off a few characters in a corner so they could do their thing without needing to interconnect with Cap, Black Widow, Wakanda, etc. The MCU has a ton of issues but lack of variety isn’t the issue. I think the studio is actually banking on folks like you only being interested in a handful of the characters and storylines. Them trying to appease that demand actually might be part of the problem in realty.
I have Marvel fatigue as well, I quit Secret Invasion 2 episodes in bc bored, but GoG3 is one of the better Marvel movies out there.
Secret Invasion was so bad that I cannot understand why they felt they had to even release it. It was obvious they had a show, scrapped it, and had to reshoot the whole thing on a shoe string budget. FYi it was the whole invasion of Ukraine by Russia that apparently was the reason they felt they had to reshoot the entire show. The issue that is glaring though that also is glaring throughout the other shows is the 6 episode format. It's the same format, and always leads to episode 6 being rushed, but also at the same time having the most CGI action. They need to bring in actual TV people to create TV shows in a more traditional way like HBO does/did in the past. With the whole MAX thing happening Marvel would be smart to snag talent that left, or is wanting to Leave MAX. Let them develop stand alone TV shows apart from the movie studio apparatus. Otherwise, other than Quantumania, the movies really haven't been all that bad. Wakanda forever just wasn't what anyone wanted it to be because the lead died. It still was decent though. Thor 4 wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. The problem there was probably the studio giving too much freedom to a quality filmmaker. GOTG 3 was great. Spider Man NWH was awesome. I don't think the movies are the real problem here TBH.
I forgot secret invasion was even a thing. I never watched a second of it and seriously might not have remembered it came out at all had someone not typed it here.
Secret invasion is bad. FX would've made a better treatment if they're going for the low budget TV reimagination (make it up as it comes along) Not even an exaggeration. Episode 5 was filler. They could've gutted it and fill in the blanks with an ep 4 post credits scene plus a ep 6 recap. It was all budget stretching "tension building" with a throwaway jump cut fighting scene to follow a TV format. They could've built up Fury more in the beginning and go deeper into what made him tick and also fleshed out the side characters that believed in him. If you watched the series, then you might have an idea where I'm getting at... MCU Fury is totally different than Comics Fury. They made Samuel L into a burnt out bum who's a week from retirement ready to skip town on his fully paid ship. It could be because the actors like Jackson and Smoulders wanted a different direction, but that's just a lot of wasted good will built up over ten years. That wasted goodwill also felt similar to the Black Widow movie. I would've been satisfied with a cliched atomic blonde + PG-13 rated Red Sparrow thriller plus her back story of meeting Hawkeye, which was never told but the main reason she sacrificed herself in Avengers. Instead, BW became sidelined because you already knew how she turned out and her family wasnt the reason I'd watch.
The last GotG movie was actually pretty good. If Marvel stuck to that sort of style and solid writing and quit worrying about these grand phases and multiverse garbage then they would still be putting out good movies. The multiverse has been a complete disaster by Feige and crew. They can blame Disney but it was Feige who went the multiverse direction and decided to try to create his own source material and ignore what was already out there. Just write good scripts and quit bringing in so many random characters that no one cares about.
