Amph "You think you're the only superhero in the world?" - The Marvel Cinematic Universe

No one watched that Iron Man cartoon, and even fewer people liked it.

 

I can't go in a time machine and verify this, but I think Thor may have been a big deal back when he debuted in the 60s or whenever it was. I base this only on my mom and her two brothers, who were kids at the time. They were pretty obsessed with Thor and I remember long before the film ever came out, my mom complained that he was forgotten because he had been her favorite as a kid. When my mom was little she had made paper dolls with one of the original comics, and her brothers were always miffed at her for that because that particular comic is apparently worth a lot now (I guess Thor had a horse or something and she really liked the horse because it ran on the rainbow bridge or something...).

 

But it got made and people know of it, which means he was considered a big enough character to justify his own series being produced and adults who were around when the MCU began would know who he is.

 

1993-2019 timelapse for superhero popularity, so it doesn't get lost at the end of the last page:




Anyways, a "return to basics" for this Marvel Cinematic Multiverse should be character-centric. They've been throwing a lot of new characters at us... and as we begin to assemle them, I feel like the smart choice is to focus on the characters that people care about the most.

Which Phase 4/5 characters are people most invested in?

* Wanda (could be brought back, or have a story where she's in the netherworld with Mephisto)
* Billy Maximoff
* Tommy Maximoff
* White Vision
* Agatha Harkness
* Monica Rambeau
* Falcon / Captain America
* Bucky
* U.S. Agent
* Power Broker / Sharon Carter
* Zemo
* Valentina Allegra de Fontaine
* TVA-Loki (though he seems to have been written-out with the S2 finale)
* Sylvie
* Mobius
* B15 (the TVA agent)
* Hawkeye
* Kate Bishop
* Echo
* Moon Knight
* Layla / Scarlet Scarab (Moon Knight's girlfriend)
* Ms. Marvel
* She-Hulk
* Hulk
* Daredevil
* Wong
* Yelena (Natasha's "sister")
* Nick Fury
* G'iah (Talos' daughter)
* Rhodey (the real one)
* alternate Peggy Carter / Captain Carter (becoming the lead of "What If")

* Red Guardian (Natasha and Yelena's "dad")
* Taskmaster
* Shang-chi
* Xu Xialing (Shang-chi's sister)
* Sersi (the main Eternal)
* Kingo
* Sprite
* Phastos
* Makkari
* Druig
* Thena
* Dane Whitman / Black Knight
* Spider-Man
* Doctor Strange
* America Chavez
* Thor
* Valkyrie
* Sif
* Korg
* Zeus
* Hercules
* Love (Thor's adopted daughter)
* Jane Foster (perhaps, since it was shown Valhalla is a real place)
* Shuri
* Nakia
* Okoye
* M'Baku
* Namor
* Spider-Man
* Ant-Man
* The Wasp
* Cassie Lang
* Jentorra (Quantum Realm rebel leader)
* Peter Quill (no longer a Guardian)
* alternate Gamora (not a Guardian)
* Drax
* Nebula
* Mantis (no longer a Guardian)
* Rocket
* Groot
* Cosmo
* Kraglin (new Guardian)
* Adam Warlock (new Guardian)
* Phyla (new Guardian)
* Captain Marvel

 

Yep. Comic book wise the Avengers were big deal in 70's; in the 80's the X-men started to dominate; Spider-Man the only Marvel character that always was loved since the beggining till now; Avengers decline near the end of the century was so big that when Marvel started selling the rights to movie Studios nobody took them. X-Men and F4 went to Fox; Sony got Spider-Man; the deal with Hulk and Universal was always confusing.

 

Yeah Marvel’s big dumb mid-90s reboot attempt killed off the Avengers in order to hand them over to Image comics creators to retool… while leaving the X-Men and Spider-Man intact. While they quickly backtracked that trainwreck, it still succinctly sums up their cultural cachet until basically the first round of MCU movies.

You know how you can also tell the Avengers were a lower caliber brand? There was actually an Avengers cartoon in the late 90s and it was so ignored that Richie can’t even remember it to try and use as a counterexample.

 

Steven Yeun Is ‘Sorry’ He Dropped Out of Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts,’ Cites Strike and Scheduling Issues: ‘I Wanna Do a Marvel Movie’

“I think for me, time passing and things shifting kind of pulled me out of it,” Yeun explained. “But Jake [Schreier], I know, is going to do an incredible job.”
...
“It took a lot of drafts on email to make sure that I conveyed the sincerity of how sorry I was to have to back out,” Yeun said.

Asked what Marvel movie he would like to work on in the future, Yeun replied, “I think it’s too early to say that. I probably pissed off too many people leaving, so I’m just gonna say, ‘Thank you for having me.'”

“I have some ideas,” Yeun teased. “But I heard if you put it out there, you’ll never get it, so I’ll keep it close to my chest.”

 

"Flashpoint" was financially successful despite fan backlash and didn't involve the Multiverse, other than merging DC and Wildstorm together. The problem was DiDio's ADD regarding story direction, his insistence in screwing with legacy characters that pre-date his tenure at DC and trying to do a total reboot. That's what killed the momentum. Post Crisis continuity retained most of the history and integrated everyone together just fine.

It ran two seasons, but it was not as bad as the FF cartoon.

Every Marvel character was popular in the 60's, but Spider-Man and the Hulk had the most exposure outside of it. Both had live action shows, Spider-Man was a regular on "The Electric Company", both had substantial merchandise, both had multiple cartoons and Spider-Man had a float in the Macy's parade and the newspaper strip. Plus, Spider-Man had the Shea Stadium wedding in 87. The X-Men did gain traction in the 90’s, but were still largely unknown. Marvel licensed the hell out their characters for video games, but it was still not enough.

The films were the thing that made everything possible. The comics audience is niche compared to everything else.

 

Defenders shows added to the Disney Plus Marvel Cinematic Universe in Timeline Order, right before you hit Age of Ultron, Daredevil and Onwards. Begun the canon wars have, again!

 

From Old Harry's Game:

"Whenever there's snow, you're never ready for it, the gritters aren't on standby..."

"Gary, how could we have anticipated a cold snap... in hell?"

 

So everyone knew Fisk was Kingpin at the end of Daredevil s3 and he isn't in jail. And I'm only on episode 1 of Echo but it looks like Fisk as Kingpin may not be public knowledge.

So he either got really lucky using the Snap to his advantage. Also I like to head canon he memory erasing wizard with access to the The Runes of Kof-Kol on his payroll. Maybe Wong got in deep with gambling

 

More like this is 616 and the show was in the Multiverse.

 

thanx to the confusing MCU timeline after The Blip, the events in Echo happens in the summer of 2025; DD S3 was set in 2018. 7 years apart. Many excuses or explanations on how he may got free.
Also Hawkeye series made clear KP operations never got interrupted.

 

I really wish they’d explore the Snap/Blip with Fisk and Daredevil. I can think of a lot of fun scenarios with the both of them. I only watched episode 1 of Echo so far. No time this week. I liked it and loved that

Spoiler

Fisk was playing Daredevil so Maya could get some training/experience in. That’s so true to Fisk.

 

I think that's reserved for adding in Agents of SHIELD

 

Fun head canon theory I read with Luke Cage being included on the Timeline Order is that is really Black Mariah at MIT who revs up Tony Stark as a falsehood just so the Sokovia Act would get passed and make Luke Cage's life more difficult (although later on Tony does throw up a picture of the son who died in Sokovia though when lecturing the Avengers)

 

Let's not forget, though, that a decade later, they stomped the X-Men into the ground and tried to replace them with the Inhumans, just because they didn't have the movie rights

Edit: Plus, they needed some desperate housecleaning in the Avengers. Teen Tony? Mutated Wasp? Ugh.

 

I'm just now watching What If? season 2. I really like Peggy as Cap.

 

HISHE is usually pretty funny, but I think this is one of their best.

 

Having finished What If? all I want in life now is more Captain Carter, animated or otherwise.