My Top 5 Out Of Character Comic Book Movie Moments

The work "trainwreck" can be used to describe more than one movie currently playing in theaters.  Fox's Fantastic Four is now surrounded with drama as it's director lashes out at the studio on social media and it becomes a box office flop; barely making half of it's projected opening weekend numbers.  My thoughts on the film aside, I did find it odd that while the movie had Johnny Storm in it, a.k.a. The Human Torch, there was actually no sign of the character anywhere in Michael B. Jordan's performance.  

This isn't the first time film makers have taken liberties with comic book heroes to serve their movie.  But to change a character completely is almost as bad as calling your film an X-Men movie, but not having any trace of an actual X-Men root anywhere in the movie *cough*Brett Ratner*cough*.  I for one don't mind changing a character trait for another adaptation so long as it doesn't change what the original character stands for.  So after a little thinking I've got my top 5 moments in comic book movies that totally went against their character archetype.   

5) THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

Peter Parker Stops His Bully From Bullying Someone Else

I always thought Tobey Maguire was the perfect Spider-Man casting.  He was shorter than the average male, wasn't too handsome, and overall looked like a nerd.  However, Andrew Garfield was the same height and stature as his bully; Flash Thompson.  In one scene, Peter stops Flash from picking on another fellow nerd.  Now, post-spider powers, Parker may have had the confidence to stand up to Flash, but pre-spider powers Peter would have seen the incident, thank God it wasn't him, and kept walking.  Peter Parker had no self-esteem before he become Spider-Man.  But after getting bitten he became a cocky little punk whenever he was slinging webs.

4)  FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER

Mr. Fantatic Busts A Move On The Dance Floor

For Reed's bachelor party Johnny decides to throw him a massive shindig complete with a fully stocked bar, dance floor, and lots of girls.  This of course is not Reed's scene at all.  Mr. Fantastic can barely lift his head from his microscope to talk to his wife.  He'd be sitting in the corner by himself at his own party; let alone nowhere near the dance floor.  This moment makes no sense and makes me truly believe the people behind this film didn't know the FF at all.

3)  BATMAN AND ROBIN

Batman Attends A Public Event

There is no much wrong with this film that goes against Batman myth I could go on "forever" about it.  But the moment that makes the least amount of sense is when Batman tries to lay a trap for Mr. Freeze.  He offers the Wayne diamonds up as bait, and Batman and Robin as security.  Batman didn't even show up to Superman's funeral!  He is only seen by those he's saved and savaged.  His power is him being purely myth to the general public, not at a charity event like he's an NFL player from the Make A Wish foundation.  This moment was followed by the Bat-credit card.  Oh Joel Schumacher, what did you do!

2) MAN OF STEEL

Jonathan Kent Tells His Son To Let People Die

"Maybe."  It was the word I shuttered at as I heard Kevin Costner say it in the trailer for Man of Steel.  I was hoping it was an editing trick for the trailer to spark more interest that this would not be the boy scout version of Superman.  However, as I watched the film, it indeed was in the movie. "What was I supposed to do?  Just let them die?"  "Maybe."  Oh come on!  Clark gets his moral compass from Jonathan and Martha Kent, and Pa Kent would never have told his son to let a school bus full of children die just to protect his own secret.  That moment goes against everything Pa Kent and Superman stand for.  Damn you David Goyer and Zach Snyder!  Now I'm reminded why I'm trying not to get my hopes up for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

1)  X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE

Deadpool Has His Mouth Sewn Shut

His nick name is The Merc With A Mouth.  For about ten glorious minutes we got to see Ryan Reynolds bring to life the foul mouth, fast talking, Wade Wilson.  It was the only good ten minutes in the film.  The next time we see the character he has his mouth sewn shut and sporting all kinds of mutant powers.  Most of Deadpool's charm lyes in his wit and speech.  Luckily this atrocity seems to be rectified based on the latest Deadpool trailer.  The film is set to come out next year and looks to find Reynolds back as Wade Wilson doing what both of them were meant to do; never shutting up.

'Fantastic Four' Fumbles At The Finish Line

I am one of those rare film fans who did not hate the last interpretation of the Fantastic Four starring Chris Evans and Jessica Alba.  I thought Rise of the Silver Surfer was ridiculous and making Galactus a giant storm cloud was a horrible decision, but the previous film I thought had a lot of good qualities. It nailed some key FF traits like Johnny and Ben's bickering, Reed focusing so much on his work he is oblivious to Sue's advances, and Ben needing Reed to wrap himself around Ben to calm him down.  In order to prepare myself for this film adaptation I read the source material; Ultimate Fantastic Four.  The relationships and characters were a bit different compared to their classic counterparts; a point I had to keep reminding myself as I watched this film.  

Reed Richards is a genius.  The young man solves inter dimensional travel and is recruited by Dr. Franklin Storm to join a government funded group to travel to that other dimension.  Helping Reed is Dr. Storm's emo daughter, Sue, his rebellious son, Johnny, and a guy who likes to crash government servers, Victor Von Doom.  The kids travel to this other world, along with Reed's friend Ben, but of course it goes horribly wrong.  Soon they all exhibit strange abilities that will come in handy as a great evil is about to strike at them and possibly destroy the planet.

Director Josh Trank has already gone on Twitter saying the film currently in theaters is not the version he agreed to do with 20th Century Fox, and I've seen nothing but bad reviews of the movie.  So walking into this film I expected the worse, but as the movie went along I was quite enjoying it.  It was less jokes and fun than the previous FF films, but still interesting.  The characters seemed a bit under developed, but over an hour into the film I was liking what Trank and his crew had done. WARNING! MILD SPOILERS: Then Victor Von Doom resurfaced and the film took a nose dive.  Dr. Doom started killing people for no reason and had no motivation for doing so.  The heroes as well seemed to act differently and the dialogue became very cheesy and forced.  It was if Trank said "F%ck It" after 75% of the film was edited and walked out, leaving a scared editor to piece together what he felt like was the film's ending.

One of the weakest parts in this film was the relationships.  All of the actors are capable of good performances but their interactions weren't great.  I felt no chemistry between Sue and Reed, and Michael B. Jordan played The Human Torch, but that was no Johnny Storm I had ever read before.  However, his version of the character worked in the context of the film so I'm ok with it; or I would have been if the film's ending delivered.  I felt like the focus should have been more on Reed's journey, even though he was obviously still the main character.  His relationship with Ben was set-up but never fully realized.  I think that could have been the best part of the film, again, if they just developed it more.  

Visually, I was happy with how the characters looked.  I thought The Thing looked the best out of any interpretation on screen, and The Human Torch has been done wrong in the past, but worked in this instance.  However, I'm not sure what they were trying to do with Dr. Doom, both in look and the character overall.

Fantastic Four is not a Marvel Studios film.  It's not full of jokes and action.  It's a serious sci-fi film that I thought would have worked well if the ending would have paid off.  I feel like there is another 20 minutes of the movie left in the editing bay that could help the 3rd Act.  Given Trank's social comments I doubt we'll get a Director's Cut of the film like we got with X-Men: Days of Future Past, but I am anxious to see the deleted scenes on the DVD to see if their ever was a better ending to this film we just didn't get.  Say what you will about Tim Story's FF films, at least they had follow through.  Also, worst delivery of "It's Clobberin Time" ever.

RATING:  D+

P.S. There is no mid or end credit scene. You're Welcome.

My Blu-Ray Purge

The other day I did something I've thought about for a while now.  I went through my blu-ray collection and got rid of a few movies that I felt did not live up the high standards I think my collection should project.  Now, a few movies I kept because my wife enjoys them.  Some of which have now been separated from the main collection like The Hobbit films and the Twilight saga.

Some blu-rays I thought long and hard about whether to give them up or not.  In the end, I felt like I kept a few people may disagree with, but I don't think anyone would argue with what I sold off.  Here are 3 I Sold, and 3 I Saved.

SOLD

Green Lantern (2011)

Like the Star Wars prequel trilogy I think there are some good qualities in this film, but suffered due to bad directing.  I wasn't on board when Ryan Reynolds was first cast as Hal Jordan, but he eventually won me over.  I even enjoyed Blake Lively as Carol Ferris and Mark Strong as Sinestro, but this messy film could not be saved by the great casting and mythology.  The movie had one of the weakest villains with Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond and a poop cloud as Parallax.  Whenever I try and watch this film I get about half way through and turn it off.  Such a shame.  I hope WB goes a better job with their Green Lantern Corps movie, but my hopes are not high.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

Speaking of great comic book villains turned into smoke monsters I give you the devourer of worlds; Galactus.  This is just one of many things wrong with this movie, from Jessica Alba's bleached hair to Mr. Fantastic break dancing.  Again, this film did have a few good things about it such as the Johnny/Ben banter and the Silver Surfer I felt was done pretty well.  But I also believe this movie was just more of a victim of it's time.  It came out the year before The Dark Knight and Iron Man was released, and a time before studios knew how to do these comic book properties right. 

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Ever heard the joke, "I thought The Avengers was Iron Man 3?"  If only.  Setting aside the whole Mandarin issue, this franchise hit a new low when War Machine was just a bystander and not the kick-ass soldier he is meant to be.  And did I mention Pepper got super powers?  The villain and plot of this film was so lame this ranks as my least favorite Marvel Studio film to date.  I'm seeing Ant-Man in a few hours, and I'm pretty sure it'll be better than this toy-selling vehicle. 

SAVED

The Punisher (2004)

Out of the three films starring Frank Castle this is still my favorite.  Some prefer War Zone, but it had too little of plot and character development for my enjoyment.  Sure this film has a few laughable moments that might not be intentional, but this is still the Punisher killing everyone involved in killing his family while still trying to come to grips with the tragedy himself.  Thomas Jane is a great actor and after the short film, Dirty Laundry, I think we'd all like to see Jane have another crack at playing Castle. "God's gonna sit this one out."  Classic dialogue!

Fantastic Four (2005)

Yes, the sequel to this film has very few redeemable qualities that make it watchable a second time, but this film I feel still stands up.  Aside from Sue Storm I think the cast is pretty solid; especially Chris Evans as the Human Torch and Julian McMahon has Dr. Doom.  It's a decent origin story with some laughs that I feel nailed the family dynamic between the four heroes.  Ben and Johnny are the kids,  Reed is the distracted dad, and Sue is the frustrated mom.  I'm hoping Fox's new interpretation(otherwise known as Ultimate FF) is a good one, but I feel like this film gets a bad rap from people who know nothing about Marvel's First Family.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

My 2nd least favorite Marvel Studio film, but my wife thinks Thor is hot. 'Nuff said.

My 'Fantastic' Journey With '4'

Growing up, one of my favorite superheroes was Johnny Storm, aka, The Human Torch.  Johnny was young, arrogant, and so cool.  As a boy reading comic books there was nothing better than a hero you could relate too.  Because of my preference for the Torch I kind of thought as my family as the Fantastic Four.  My father, the smart guy who is borderline mad scientist.  My mother, the nurturer who kept us all together.  My brother, the moody guy who liked to use his fists on me.  And myself, the young hothead who could never sit still.  However, I could never really get into Fantastic Four comics.  Now, as a full grown adult, I figure it was time to give the FF another try.  It's been years since I tried reading anything about Marvel's First Family so I thought years experiences, and a bit of wisdom, might have changed my perspective.  I went to my local library and picked up as many FF books as I could.  After I browsed through the regular series I dabbled in the Ultimate universe since it looks like that's what this years Fantastic Four movie will draw from.

I started off as far back as I could.  I was surprised to find out that most of the movies Marvel Studios are gonna roll out in their Phase 3 were introduced in FF.  Black Panther and the Inhumans both first appeared in Fantastic Four.  Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's early work was rich in story, but like most comics back in the day, the dialogue and character development left much to be desired for today's modern reader.  However, Lee and Kirby laid the ground work for some great mythology.

Throughout the years the Fantastic Four saw some guest members like She-Hulk, Ant-Man, and the Inhuman's Crystal, but it always reverted back to the core 4.  In 1996, following the events of Onslaught, most of the Marvel heroes got a re-vamp with Heroes Reborn. The Avengers and the Fantastic Four got updated origins, with a bit of a twist, provided by Jim Lee(no relation to Stan) and Rob Liefeld.  Both had worked with Marvel in the past, but had since went on to start Image Comics.  Lee's art added a new sense of style to the FF and I enjoyed quite a bit more of these stories compared to the 1960's comic.  

After a year of Heroes Reborn Marvel's First Family returned to the actual Marvel U with some big problems to come.  This was the start of some of my favorite FF stories with Civil War and Marvel Knights 4 written by playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.  His run saw the team kicked out of the Baxter Building and trying to live like real people who had to get real jobs.  I enjoyed these volumes because they were so much more personal.  Most FF stories involve them going on some crazy adventure through time or space, but I'm a fan of smaller stories that focus on the characters themselves and not the villain their fighting that month.  Marvel's Civil War also saw the team split on the Superhero Registration Act.  The event almost destroyed the FF as well as Reed and Sue's marriage.

As time progressed the team stayed true minus a brief death by the Human Torch(which no one believed would be gone long).  The current Matt Fraction series takes the family through space as Reed tries to solve the issue of not only his cells brake down and eventual death, but those of his teammates.  Reed hopes to find the answers in the stars to save those he cares about most.

Ultimate Fantastic Four started in 2004 and saw the FF back as young adults.  Reed's experiment into the N-Zone goes awry and instead of them gaining abilities by cosmic rays, it's by an N-Zone explosion.  While quite a bit different from their original beginnings, I enjoyed this reboot the most.  Making them younger made them seem more relatable than the characters who have been heroes since 1963. 

On top of reading all the graphic novels I also watched the Fantastic Four movies.  I remember watching the 1994 Fantastic Four film as a child.  The movie was never released in theaters, and for good reason.  It was pretty bad.  2005 saw the FF actually on the big screen thanks to 20th Century Fox.  A lot of comic readers rag on this film and it's sequel, but I'm in the minority that I somewhat enjoy them.  Rise of the Silver Surfer has less of my respect, but that first film I thought highlighted the core of what the Fantastic Four is about; family.  We saw Ben and Johnny fight, Reed wrap the Thing into a knot to control is rage, and Chris Evans play the perfect Human Torch.  Evans was so good as Johnny Storm I was very against him being cast as Captain America.  I ate my foot on that one.

From what I could tell the 1994 film drew straight from the original 1963 origin, the 2005 film got a lot from the Heroes Reborn origin, and the 2015 film will basically be Ultimate FF.  Michael B. Jordan has been cast as Johnny Storm; totally changing his ethnicity.  Sue Storm is going to be played by Kate Mara(not a blonde) and their most hated enemy, Victor Von Doom, will go by another name. The Dr. Doom changes are the most disturbing to me, but the cast itself is one of the few aspects I think will be good about this film.  I'm sure I'll change my tune when I see a trailer, but for now, my hopes aren't high.

So, after a few months of reading and watching Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, and the Thing, I'm kind of back to where I was when I was 10 years old.  I love the concept and characters of Fantastic Four, but actually enjoy few stories told about Marvel's First Family.  However, I will continue to keep up with their adventures and cross my fingers that this next FF film will be the one that catches on.  And if it doesn't then the rights will go back to Marvel Studios and in another few years we'll see the Human Torch fighting alongside Captain America.  I won't mention the irony there.

I can't believe I wrote this whole post without working in, "It's Clobberin Time."

My Top 12 Movies To See In 2015

The holidays can be a busy time.  With all the extra hours of work, holiday parties, and family time, a fella may not have time for things like routine exercise, eating three healthy meals a day, or writing his bi-weekly blog.  But now that the shroud of Christmas has past there is just New Years Eve standing between all of us and the slew of movies that await us in the new year.

While some sites are trying to think of fifteen movies they are excited to see in 2015 I decided not to play that game.  Twelve is my lucky number, so I'm sticking with twelve. Sure that cuts off films like Marvel's Ant-Man and the final Hunger Games movie; both in my Top 15,  But if nothing else, I'm a creature of habit.  

12)  KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (Feb. 13)

I just recently read the graphic novel this film is based on and quite enjoyed it.  Though, from the look of the trailer, the film may play out a little different.  Colin Firth recruits a young hoodlum to join the most prestigious group in Britain and mold him into a spy in order to stop Samuel L. Jackson from doing something I'm sure a Bond villain would have thought of.

11) THE AGE OF ADALINE (April 24)

Blake Lively stars in a film about a woman who has an accident in the early 20th century and can no longer age.  She tries to spend immortality not getting close to anyone but of course she eventually finds someone she could love forever.  She'll just have to learn to change his diapers in forty years.

This film intrigues me because usually you have to kill people in order to live forever.  Just see the Highlander films or any vampire flick.  She is immortal, but she doesn't have to kill to stay young?  Also, I think Blake Lively has great potential as an actress. Could this be her Benjamin Button? 

10) CHAPPIE (March 6)

From the director who brought us District 9 comes the tale of a robot that learns to be more human and think for itself.  But unlike anything other film, Chappie is hunted down for what he is.  Ok, you're right, it does sound like Short Circuit.  Oh well.

While I never got around to seeing Elysium, District 9 was such a delightful surprise for me I'm willing to give Neil Blomkamp the benefit of the doubt.  Plus, the film stars Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver.  I'm hooked just with those two names.

9) FANTASTIC FOUR  (August 7)

Nothing I've heard about this movie has made me feel good about it except the cast.  I love Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan.  I also give credit to Kate Mara and Jamie Bell as well in their acting abilities.  Beyond that, the changes they are making from the source material is why this film is not higher on my list.

I know everyone hates on the 2005 film, but as a guy who knows more than the average moviegoer about the FF I was entertained by it.  This film appears to be going with the Ultimate Fantastic Four angle.  Instead of cosmic rays, the four friends get their powers by entering something called the N-Zone, or Negative Zone, as most fan boys know it by.  I liked Chronicle, so here's hoping Josh Trank doesn't let too many chefs in the kitchen if you catch my drift. 

8) VACATION (Oct. 9)

The next National Lampoons film so far is just titled "Vacation" and will be directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein, whom most notably wrote both of the Horrible Boss movies.  The film is set to star Ed Helms as Rusty Griswald.  Rusty decides to take his own family on the vacation from hell; much like the original movie. 

Chris Hemsworth, Leslie Mann, and Charlie Day are all set to co-star in the film; with an appearance by Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo.  I loved the Vacation films growing up.  Just take my money now.

7) PAN (July 24)

I'm a big Peter Pan fan so when a prequel film was announced to come out I made sure to watch quite a few films directed by Joe Wright.  Just look at any film Keira Knightly has done in the past decade.  Chances are it was a Joe Wright film.

Hugh Jackman stars as Blackbeard the pirate and Garrett Hudlund as Captain Hook, but before he gets the hook.  Levi Miller is the boy chosen to play Peter; the soon-to-be legendary hero.  It's got the stars and the mythical legend, but why isn't Knightly playing Tinkerbell?  She already lent her voice to the pixie in a TV movie.

6) JURASSIC WORLD (June 12)

My enjoyment of the Jurassic Park franchise ended after the credits of the first film rolled.  Sure Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Moore were enough to get me to see the sequel, but by the third film they were just beating a dead horse; again.

Twenty-two years after the events of the first film John Hammond's vision is realized as people go to a theme park to see dinosaurs.  However, man has again played god by making their own dinosaurs.  Let's see how that goes for them.  Chris Pratt stars in this film, which looks like the new twist could give this franchise fresh legs to run.  Let's find out.

5)  007: SPECTRE (Nov. 6)

Daniel Craig returns as James Bond for the fourth time and is bringing a barrel of talent with him.  From Christoph Waltz to Ralph Fiennes this film looks like it could surpass Casino Royale as my favorite Bond film.  

James in the hunt for the sinister organization known as Spectre, which I'm hoping is the crime syndicate Craig was on the verge of uncovering in his first two films.  I was sad that Skyfall didn't continue that storyline, but make Christoph Waltz the main villain, and Dave Bautista his main henchman, and all will be forgiven.

4) TERMINATOR: GENISYS (July 1)

We all know the last good Terminator film was all the way back in 1991.  However, I felt like Rise of the Machines had a few good moments, but their are no words as to what the hell Salvation was.  Alan Taylor, best know for directing Game of Thrones episodes and the Thor sequel, will try and re-ignite this long dead film franchise.

From the first trailer it appears that Kyle Reese goes back in time to save Sarah Connor; just like the first film.  Only Kyle does not find a helpless waitress.  Instead Sarah was raised by a Terminator and is all set to stop Judgement Day.  Arnold is back, along with Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney, and looks like they will be using the Star Trek/X-Men loophole of erasing the past to give the franchise a new future.

3) ENTOURAGE  (June 5)

While I wasn't to psyched about the way the HBO series ended I could not be more excited for this film.  Not much is known about the film's plot with the first teaser trailer recently released.  But it's the further adventures of E, Vince, Drama, Turtle, and Ari in Hollywood.  Sex and the City got two films made.  I don't see why Entourage can't either.

2) AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (May 1)

Earth's mightiest heroes are back at it as Joss Whedon once again directs this anchor in Marvel's Cinematic Universe.  In the sequel, Tony Stark tries to restart a peace keeping program that goes horribly wrong and results in the creation of Ultron; an artificial intelligence who thinks the only way to save the world is to eradicate the human lives inhabiting it.

All the familiar faces are back, along with a few new ones like Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.  But this isn't the same Quicksilver from X-Men: Day of Future Past, nor are either of them mutants.  Fox has forbid them from having any relation to the X-Men.  Whatever, it'll still be awesome!

1) STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (Dec. 18)

Forget the rest of this list.  If I could only see one film in 2015 this would be it.  J.J. Abrams is going to try and make us all forget about how bad the prequel films were and how awesome Star Wars really is.  Almost nothing is known about the plot of the film, except that it is set 30 years after the events in Return of the Jedi and Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher will all be back to reprise their iconic characters.

You could just show me the announcement trailer over and over again and I will still plan on seeing this film at least four times in the theater.  After a midnight viewing of The Avengers I swore off all future midnight shows.  It was full annoying teenagers who made the experience horrible.  However, I may have to break that rule for this event.  I just have to decide which lightsaber to bring.

Marvel's Cinematic Civil War A Good Idea?

This week has been a comic enthusiasts dream.  After coming off all the news from the New York Comic Con there were also two big movie stories that broke.  I'll share my thoughts on Warner Bros announcement in my next post, but for now I'm gonna focus my feeling about Marvel Studios.

Robert Downey Jr seems to be teasing Iron Man fans lately with saying he wants to do another Iron Man film and then retracting his statement just hours later.  Now, Variety has reported that Downey is in negotiations to guest star in the third Captain America film opposite Chris Evans.  This is happy news, but the 'exciting' part of the rumor is that Cap 3 is set to start the infamous Marvel storyline, Civil War.

In the 2006 miniseries, the government has implemented the Superhero Registration Act, a law that requires any vigilantes or masked heroes to reveal their identities and work for Uncle Sam.  Tony Stark sees just how serious the American government is about this and decides to support the Act.  Meanwhile, Captain America opposes the Act and leads an underground group against Iron Man and those who follow him.

This series was epic and one of my favorites.  I've always dreamed of seeing it on the big screen, but I'm hesitant about this decision.  A main focus in this story was Spider-Man.  He's the Marvel hero that protects his identity the most, which is why Stark convinces him to reveal who he is at a press conference.  Later on, Peter Parker switches sides to Cap's team.  Peter's journey in this plot is central, and without him I feel like the movie(s) will be missing it's heart.  However, there are talks about Sony loaning Spider-Man to Marvel Studios due to their financial situation.  Could Marvel take advantage of this and get Spider-Man mixed in to the cinematic Civil War? 

 Another major perspective in Civil War is the Fantastic Four, which Fox currently owns the movie rights too.  Having to choose sides tares this team in two and almost destroys Reed and Sue Richards marriage.  Without this subplot I feel like the film may also be missing another piece of it's center.  I don't believe for a second Marvel is canceling the FF comic book in an effort to try and hurt the upcoming film, thus allowing Marvel to possibly get the rights back.  By the time the Fantastic Four movie is released next year you can bet Marvel Comics will have another FF series out to take advantage of any buzz the film may get.

My last gripe about bringing up Civil War on screen is the lack of characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Sure we have more characters coming like Ant-Man and Dr. Strange, but all of these superheroes have already outed their identities.  The only issue would be those who are forced to work for the government or hang-up their tights, or leather now-a-days.  Of course, if they need more heroes Netflix's Defenders team will be coming up soon.
And what about Thanos?  We all figured Avengers 3 would be the Infinity Gauntlet.  Are they really going to continue that slow burn until perhaps Avengers 4 or 5?  I could however see all the Marvel heroes splitting up, but then having to put aside their differences to face the galaxy's ultimate baddie.

With all the concerns I've listed don't think for a second I'm not ecstatic about this!  Sure they'll probably have to pay RDJ a crap-load of more money, but seeing this all unfold will be sweet.  You can see in Captain America: The Winter Solider how the small seeds were planted for the idea of Civil War.  Speaking of which, the second Captain America film strayed pretty far from the original source material, but was still the best film Marvel Studios has released in my opinion.  So if this "Civil War" doesn't follow the miniseries exactly I won't be upset as long as it's good.

A year ago there was a phrase that I, and perhaps others, have started reciting; In Feige We Trust.  Guardians of the Galaxy was a risk for Marvel Studios that paid off big time because their president knows what he's doing.  I'm sure he's had Civil War planned for years now and is just now letting us all in on a fraction of his plan.  The story may not be exactly like the original comic, but as long as it's a good film I'll be ok with it. 

 Marvel Comics seem to be bringing back old story lines like Secret Wars, Planet Hulk, and Civil War, but the cinematic world is still a toddler that has a lifetime of stories to tell that will be fresh to us all.  Now if you'll excuse me I'll need a break before I start my DC/Warner Bros post.  Or I may just watch Captain America: The Winter Soldier because I could literally watch that film every day. Until next time true believers, In Feige We Trust.