Age of Ultron | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com Where to jump in on board games, anime, books, and movies as a Nerd Tue, 04 Aug 2020 13:40:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://nerdologists.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/nerdologists-favicon.png Age of Ultron | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com 32 32 Top 10 Marvel (MCU) Movies https://nerdologists.com/2020/08/top-10-marvel-mcu-movies/ https://nerdologists.com/2020/08/top-10-marvel-mcu-movies/#respond Tue, 04 Aug 2020 13:38:20 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=4619 I was going to make this top 10 superhero movies, but from what I’ve seen, I don’t think any non-MCU movie would make the top

The post Top 10 Marvel (MCU) Movies first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
I was going to make this top 10 superhero movies, but from what I’ve seen, I don’t think any non-MCU movie would make the top 10 list. Batman Begins is the only DC one that I’d place that high, maybe, and that is probably just outside of a Top 10, plus, this is something I’m going to rehash at some point in time on 10 Minute Marvel, once I’ve completed my Marvel movie watch through. I’m also skipping the likes of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man for this just because I wanted to make it MCU focused.

10 – Avengers: Age of Ultron

This movie is very underrated, I think, when it comes to the MCU films. I think that James Spader does an amazing job as Ultron. Just his cadence and delivery as Ultron works so well. I also like that we get to see Tony Starks biggest flaw really played upon and something that pays off so well in Avengers: Endgame. He’s trying to save everything and everyone and in the end, that doesn’t really work for him in this movie. Plus, we get the best version of Quicksilver to show up in a movie, much better than the X-Men one, and we get the introduction of Wanda and Pietro. This film just builds well and I think while there are some jokes that don’t land, it also has some of the most meaningful interactions between characters. I know some people have an issue with some of that, but I think that it’s great and it plays really well throughout the movie and in the context. A few jokes land a bit flat though.

9 – Spider-Man: Homecoming

Watching this movie again it dropped a little bit on my list because I think that some of the jokes don’t hold together as well as I remember. But with that said, it is still really good. The scenes with Peter and The Vulture both knowing who each other are is a really great scene. It plays off of the awkwardness that you’d have with meeting the parents for the first time, and so to everyone else in the scene that’s what is going on. But for both Peter Parker and The Vulture it’s way more than that. Tom Holland also just does such a great job of being awkward in the films and though he isn’t a high school aged actor, he fits into that way more than any of the previous Spider-Man actors.

8 – Spider-Man: Far From Home

Back to back Spider-Man films, I give the second one a little bit of a nod. While I really like the performance of the Vulture, I think that Mysterio is a better villain in my opinion. I think how he gets close to Peter because Peter was close to Tony is interesting and works well. I know that’s an issue for some people because they want it to be more Spider-Man focused and less about Tony Stark, I think that it’s a good balance of both. I also like it for how it uses or doesn’t use Nick Fury in the film. In terms of Spider-Man himself, I think that we get to see him a bit more in action and as a bit more important to the story versus kind of getting in the way as he was in the first film, or kind of being that B-level player, now he’s an A-level Avenger having gone through and helped in Infinity War and Endgame.

Image Source: Screencrush

7 – Guardians of the Galaxy

It’s easy to like this one, it has a good blend of humor and action, and while it might be lighter on character development than the second Guardians of the Galaxy film, it still has one. I think in terms of the Marvel movies that really use humor a lot, this one is very good and doesn’t have the jokes fall flat or not stand out as much on multiple viewings. I also like that this is a team-up film but not an Avengers team-up, and in terms of the non-Avengers titles, so Captain America films and Thor: Ragnarok, this does the team-up one of the best of those. I think what really makes this work is how well they cast the main characters in the film. Chris Pratt as Star Lord just works and Bradley Cooper as Rocket is hilarious. While I think you get to dig more into their characters later, you start to see the depth of them and how interesting they are in this film.

6 – Avengers

It’s hard to go wrong with the original Avengers film, not the earliest of the films to grace my Top 10, but definitely worth talking about. We get introduced to Black Widow and Hawkeye, we get a well done Battle of New York where each of them has a chance to shine, and we get some solid humor and solid character interactions. I think that’s the piece that works so well is that it’s very believable that those characters would butt heads repeatedly, especially when meeting. It isn’t a team that comes together because they all immediately mesh, it’s because they need to come together to save the world. And I think that makes the most sense for how you create a team like that, they need the pressure cooker to pull them apart but also bring them back together. It is also nice because this is the first time we get a good Hulk on screen.

5 – Doctor Strange

Probably the shocker of the list, though Age of Ultron might have shocked some as well, but I really like Doctor Strange. A little bit of a spoiler for the list, but I like it for a lot of the same reasons that I like the next movie on the list, Iron Man. Both of these films have a villain who isn’t really the villain. Sure, Dormammu is a bad guy and Kaecilius is a bad guy, but the movie is about Stephen Strange coming to terms with himself not being who he thought he was and not being able to be as selfish. I think one way that this differs from Iron Man is that Strange is technically doing something that is good already, he is saving lives, but he’s doing it for his own selfish reasons. He has to find a way to let go of that before he can truly understand his real calling. I also like Wong in the film and even Baron Mordo and The Ancient One. I think they all play off of each other well, and especially Mordo and Strange have some good interactions.

Image Source: Marvel

4 – Iron Man

As I teased, Iron Man is up next. For being the original MCU film, this really hold up well. I like that it teases something that we’re eventually going to get a payoff for with the Ten Rings in Shang-Chi, probably not intentional at that point. But I like how it’s a pretty straight forward story of Iron Man and about how he has to overcome some obstacles but one of them is coming to terms with that he and what his company have done and the fact that they are profiting off of war and death. The opening with the capture and building of the armor just works so well, as well, and while Obediah Stane is underwhelming as a villain, it’s again less about him as a villain and more about Tony Stark having to overcome his own past and overcome what is happening to him. Shows a bit of the age of the film in some of the effects and things like that, but they did a good job and holds up well for overall.

3 – Thor: Ragnarok

I’ve talked about team-ups and humor, and in terms of a non-Avengers team-up, this film does it best, and in terms of humor, this film is again probably the best. I think that the jokes just land well and the team-up works. All of that for this over the top techno colored film, it still manages to have heart to it. I think that Skurge who is currently traveling with the Asguardians of the Galaxy in the comics, has a nice arc in terms of character and Heimdall is given more to do and work with in this film, which is great because Idris Elba is great. There’s just so much that works because we have the Hulk start to realize that there are things that can hurt him, we have Banner hiding away or more so Hulk taking control and just the changing and growing dynamic of the relationship between Thor and Loki. Plus we get Valkyrie who is awesome.

2 – Avengers: Endgame

I don’t think there will be much surprise for the two that top this list, maybe just some question about the order, but for me Endgame is #2. The reason for that is that the ending doesn’t really stick with you the way that it does in Infinity War. It pulls a little bit of a Return of the King in terms of how many endings it kind of has, but it feels right still to send off all of those characters the way that they did. It also does a really good job of bringing the heroes back together again. I like how they use time travel, I like how they use Ant-Man, and I think the whole thing just makes an odd amount of sense. But really, this film is about closure and passing of the torch for Captain America, and for Iron Man, finally being able to know that he saved everyone and that he did the right thing which is what he’s been trying to do, for better or worse – it’s worse – throughout all of the films, he’s always trying to redeem himself for what started in Iron Man with him finding out that his company sold weapons to the enemy.

Image Source: Forbes.com

1 – Avengers: Infinity War

Finally, we have Infinity War as my #1 film. I think so much of this works because we get to see into Thanos brain, and we get to see how he thinks he’s doing the right thing. Now, there are massive issues with his plan, though less absurd then trying to impress Death like in the comics, but he believes in it, and he believes that what he’s doing is the right thing and a good thing. And we get to see the start of the Avengers coming back together. I like that it isn’t them fully back together in mindset, that doesn’t come until much later in Endgame, but we get to see all the main players come together to do battle again, and this film has some epic battles, which I think Endgame is lacking in some ways, as it’s more of a very entertaining heist film. Finally, I like it that they don’t win, sure, they might win in the end, but here, they don’t win and they don’t just barely lose, they lose so much and, again, we get to see the fallout from everything that was lost in this film in Endgame.

So, that’s my list, I’m sure for a lot of people films like Winter Soldier or Civil War would make the list, and probably some like Age of Ultron and Doctor Strange would be off the list. It’s okay to have your flawed opinion, but I am curious to know how other people would put their top 10, any major surprises that would make your list from how the films are generally seen?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

The post Top 10 Marvel (MCU) Movies first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2020/08/top-10-marvel-mcu-movies/feed/ 0
10 Minute Marvel Episode 45 – Secret Invasion and Age of Ultron https://nerdologists.com/2020/05/10-minute-marvel-episode-45-secret-invasion-and-age-of-ultron/ https://nerdologists.com/2020/05/10-minute-marvel-episode-45-secret-invasion-and-age-of-ultron/#respond Tue, 19 May 2020 12:06:15 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=4383 We start out with two bits of news, one about a movie, New Mutants, and the other about a potential Disney Plus show in The

The post 10 Minute Marvel Episode 45 – Secret Invasion and Age of Ultron first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
We start out with two bits of news, one about a movie, New Mutants, and the other about a potential Disney Plus show in The Secret Invasion which would tie into Captain Marvel 2. Then, for the main topic, I look at the second Avengers movie and break down what I think makes this movie work so well. Where does Age of Ultron rank for you?

Thank you all for listening to the podcast. If you are enjoying it, please consider leaving a rating and review. Those help more people find the podcast and join in the 10 Minute Marvel community. We’re in iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, and Stitcher.

If you have questions about the podcast, suggestions for comics to checkout, or any other comments, let me know. You can leave a comment below, or you can find me on Twitter. You can tweet to me @TheScando or you can tweet using #10MinMarvel.

I’ll see you next time.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

The post 10 Minute Marvel Episode 45 – Secret Invasion and Age of Ultron first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2020/05/10-minute-marvel-episode-45-secret-invasion-and-age-of-ultron/feed/ 0
MCU Movie Rankings https://nerdologists.com/2019/05/mcu-movie-rankings/ https://nerdologists.com/2019/05/mcu-movie-rankings/#comments Thu, 02 May 2019 13:13:47 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=3056 First off, this is not what movies are critically the best. I think even that is subjective on some level, but there are some movies

The post MCU Movie Rankings first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
First off, this is not what movies are critically the best. I think even that is subjective on some level, but there are some movies that are clearly critically better or more groundbreaking for the genre. This is how much I like the movies. Also, this is not how often I’d watch the movies. I’d watch the third movie on the list more than I’d watch the second one and probably the first one as well. Finally, I used the Marvel Sorter website to do these rankings. It’s a simple website that ranks the movies for you based off of you doing comparisons between two movies, until it has a list. For example, you get Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel as your first option, and you pick the one you like better. So you won’t get every movie compared to every other movie, because it’s smart enough to know when movies won’t flip flop. I’ve done this a number of times in the past month, gotten different results at times, but here are my results this time.

Image Source: Marvel Sorter

So let’s talk about this list. Starting at the top and going down.

  1. Avengers: Endgame – It’s hard to say that this movie isn’t the best one. it wraps everything up nicely and it’s just amazing action throughout. Clearly I’ve been thinking about it and l am going to see it again. Rarely does a movie feel like it hits all the right notes like Endgame does.
  2. Avengers: Infinity War – I like this movie for it’s shock value, I like it for Thanos as a villain, I like it for everything that it does. It also hits it out of the park, and we get to see the first of the team-up of Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy which should be fun, hopefully, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol III.
  3. Thor: Ragnorak – I can watch this movie whenever. It has a blend of humor and action and is the only Thor movie to use Immigrant Song from Led Zepplin. Chris Hemsworth just plays comedy so well.
  4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol I – I think this one is so high because it showed that Marvel could do something that was primarily comedy. Yes, there is action in Guardians of the Galaxy, but really it’s more about the humor. They also were able to get heart into this one.
  5. Spider-Man: Homecoming – Peter Parker is one of my favorite, if not my favorite superhero. I grew up watching the early 90’s Spider-Man cartoon, so there’s nostalgia, and the original Spider-Man movies I liked, even kind of liked the mess that the third one was. But this is by far the best Spider-Man movie, and they really nail the feeling of Peter Parker in the MCU.
  6. The Avengers – Hard not to put the original team-up movie up high. The battle of New York is just great, and Loki makes such a good villain. We also get to see the good Hulk really show off in this movie. We also get to meet so many characters that are important as well, like Maria Hill, Hawkeye, and really get to know Black Widow for the first time.
  7. Iron Man – The original MCU movie. This movie just hit perfectly with Robert Downey Jr. playing a great Tony Stark. It was an origin story that started Marvel’s trend of creating really human and relatable characters as you see Tony from the start, at his weakest. The main villain might be underwhelming, but Robert Downey Jr. makes that not matter.
  8. Thor – Way higher than most people will have it, but I love Thor. I think that it actually does a good job being a Thor movie that feels like the comics as well. You get some team-up of Asgardians, and you get to see Thor out of place. Plus Loki is always a good thing. I don’t think Hemsworth had hit his stride with the character yet though.
  9. Ant-Man – Probably a lot higher than a lot of people have it. Again, I thought the villain was underwhelming, but the family comedy feel for this movie just works. Scott Lang, played by Paul Rudd, is just great, and you get good sight gags, and action that is done in an interesting way.
  10. Doctor Strange – This one is an interesting story, probably where we see the first drop off of movies that I really like to just like quite well. Benedict Cumberbatch does a good job as Strange and you get some interesting action throughout. It also didn’t have a big fight at the end against the final boss which was fun and interesting.
  11. Avengers: Age of Ultron – James Spader as Ultron works great. Getting to see Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver is amazing, I love adding them in. This also really doubles down on the infinity stones. I also like it, because this movie is key to Tony Stark’s character arc and sets up Thor: Ragnorak by giving us some great Hulk and Black Widow scenes.
  12. Ant-Man and the Wasp – I really like Ghost, but I thought that overall this movie wasn’t quite as fun as the first Ant-Man. Michael Pena is amazing in this movie, as well as the first Ant-Man movie. I suspect I’ll like this movie more on a second viewing, only watched it once thus far.
  13. Iron Man 3 – Do they do the Mandarin wrong? Yes, in some ways. Mainly I say yes, because it could have been some other random bad guy, not someone as big as Mandarin, in terms of the comics. However, I think it works for the movie, and the end fight is great and exciting.
  14. Captain America: Winter Soldier – First Captain America movie on the list, and definitely the best one in my opinion. I really like the twist the SHIELD is Hydra, and I think it would be fun to see some sort of Secret War angle for Nick Fury to lead a covert SHIELD and be battle Hydra still behind the scenes. Also, we get to see Cap conflicted about Bucky and deal with that.
  15. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol II. – Probably another one that I need to see again, but it feel a bit flat for me. The biggest thing was Ego that part of the story just felt weird and off to me. I don’t know how they’d have been able to pull it off differently, but it felt like there should have been a better way.
  16. Black Panther – Probably a lot higher for a lot of people, but I have a major issue with this film. The writing for Black Panther, himself, was bad. It wasn’t acted very well and it just didn’t work. Then you have Michael B. Jordan stealing the show. The look and tone were great for a Black Panther movie, but when the main character and his love interest are both the most boring characters in the movie, it’s going to fall very flat.
  17. Captain America: The First Avengers – I’m not a huge fan of this movie. I think out of all of the origin story movies, it feels most like an origin story. However, Red Skull is a villain that I like, and I like that they’ve been able to kind of bring him back. Captain America just doesn’t have much character development as compared to say Iron Man.
  18. Captain Marvel – Probably another one that surprised a lot of people. I got one issue, and I talked about it in my spoiler review of Endgame, but Captain Marvel is too powerful for the MCU. She isn’t a character that you can use often because you have to have an Infinity Stone to slow her down I guess? Maybe they can save her character by nerfing her powers now that the infinity stones are destroyed and it would make sense? Also, Brie Larson, I like you as an actress, but you didn’t feel like a super hero in this movie.
  19. Captain America: Civil War – Aka. Captain America and Iron Man fight over Bucky. Sokovia Accords, what are those? This is about Bucky, with a side of Bucky, and a little bit more Bucky after that. That is why this movie falls so flat for me, while others like it. Sure there is a bit about the Accords in there, but when you really get down to it, Captain America spends more of his time fighting Iron Man because of Bucky than the Accords.
  20. Iron Man 2 – I don’t think this is a horrible movie, but it just falls flat. Whiplash as a villain isn’t all that compelling, but like the rest of the Iron Man movies, it is often more about Tony fighting himself than it is about Iron Man fighting a bad guy. Just wish the bad guy had been a bit more compelling.
  21. Thor: The Dark World – Chris Hemsworth did fine in this movie that really didn’t know where it wanted to go. However, Natalie Portman who had been okay in the first movie clearly is phoning it in on this one. I also don’t think they did a great job with the Dark Elves. Loki was entertaining, but not in it enough.
  22. The Incredible Hulk – Haven’t seen it. That will change this summer, but sorry Edward Norton, you don’t interest me as the Hulk. There are only two hulks, Lou Ferrigno and Mark Ruffalo.

Now, what do you think of this list? I’m sure that there are some, mainly Civil War that people will have much higher on there lists, but you’re wrong. Wait, this is a list of what I like, so you can put them where ever you want in your list and enjoy them. Let me know what your rankings are in the comments below.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

The post MCU Movie Rankings first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2019/05/mcu-movie-rankings/feed/ 1
The Avengers – MCU Look Back https://nerdologists.com/2019/05/the-avengers-mcu-look-back/ https://nerdologists.com/2019/05/the-avengers-mcu-look-back/#comments Wed, 01 May 2019 13:36:38 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=3051 Today’s post will contain Endgame spoilers, you have been warned. However, before we get to those, let’s talk about what this article will be covering

The post The Avengers – MCU Look Back first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
Today’s post will contain Endgame spoilers, you have been warned.

However, before we get to those, let’s talk about what this article will be covering so that we don’t get spoilers in the blurb on the main page. This article is going to be looking at the character arcs of Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor, and Hulk, the original Avengers team and to look at their arcs throughout the MCU.

Image Source: Marvel

I’m hoping that’s enough text, I think it should be, but I want to split up my look at characters into three different pairs. Captain America and Iron Man, Black Widow and Hawkeye, and Thor and Hulk. Not surprisingly, that’s how they’ve generally gotten split up in the movies a well, and for that reason, they’ve ended up in similar points.

Again, spoilers ahead.

Captain America and Iron Man

The big reason to put these two together is because they have had their “end” in the MCU. I put “end” in quotes, because this is comics, there are ways to bring them back easily. I’ll toss out some stuff in the speculation article on Friday. But both of them had very satisfying ends in Avengers: Endgame.

With Captain America, we’ve seen him as the hero and the “man out of time”. However, I think we’ve mainly seen him as someone whose only real story is that of him and Bucky. Him losing Bucky, him finding a broken Bucky, and him defending Bucky. For me, this is a flaw in the development of Captain America. We’re supposed to see him as this person who will always do the right thing and who strongly believes in what he believes, but at times it’s just Bucky, Bucky, Bucky. That said, in Avengers: Endgame, we see him grow from that. He really leans into the man out of time. He can’t save everyone, he failed to live up to his own code by not being able to take out Thanos, and he feels out of place and that the world has passed him by, that isn’t laid out super well though. But he starts to see how kind of silly some of his things are and his hang-up with Bucky. Eventually, at the end when he is returning all the stones, he decides that he’s better staying back in his real time with Peggy Carter and finally getting that dance. What does this do to the timeline, who knows. But this is why I can say it’s the “end” of Captain America, we see him as old at the end of Endgame, but there’s no reason he couldn’t be brought forward again if needed, and also no reason that we couldn’t get Captain America in the 1950’s. But it’s a very satisfying ending for him, and does punctuate the whole out of time aspect for him.

Image Source: Comic Book Resources

With Tony Stark, Iron Man, we get the biggest arc of any character, I think. We get him going from being this playboy style character who decides he doesn’t like arming both sides, but still living a huge life, to someone who has his toys, but wants the simple life. It was fun seeing Stark as a family man, just living in a somewhat humble house for him, in the middle of nowhere, just off by himself. His real arc, though, focuses in on how his families legacy, as he saw it, was destruction, and he wants to keep everyone safe instead. He doesn’t want to be known for selling to both sides, he wants to be known as the man who saved the world, because he feels like he has to make up for everything he’s done. In Iron Man, we see that he’s armed both sides, or his company has that he doesn’t pay attention to. In Iron Man 2, he’s created the bad guy in some ways, and in Iron Man 3, he’s almost directly responsible for the evil that is happening by how he lived his life. Not to add in Avengers: Age of Ultron, he built Ultron. But Ultron is his first attempt to save humanity from itself. It gives him that complete arc by him being the one who does the snap. As Pepper Potts tells him, he can finally rest, because by destroying Thanos, and with how they tried to set-up time travel, the world should be safe from the Infinity Stones for a bit.

Iron Man’s arc is just really well written and whereas Captain America’s lacks depth, and looking at it from a long view, is all about Bucky. I think it’s an interesting thing to look at, because Stark is not always on the right side, but he’s always trying to help, and that is driving him so much. That’s why, though the movie doesn’t say it, just implies it, in Endgame, when he is working on time travel and solves it, the implication is that he’s been doing that already, he just didn’t have everything he needed. In the end, both of them get what they needed. Steve Rogers gets his dance and Tony Stark gets to rest knowing the world is saved.

Black Widow and Hawkeye

This one is probably going to be shortest section, as their stories are so intertwined. Black Widow and Hawkeye is really the story of two characters who need each other. Black Widow needs Hawkeye to keep her from slipping away from reality in her work. His family, at the beginning, help keep her grounded. Hawkeye needs her to keep pushing him forward into doing things and trying to save the world, when needed. I think that’s one thing that I really like about Clint Barton is that he isn’t always needed, and he makes space for his family.

When they were sent off to get the soul stone, I think that Marvel did a good job of not telegraphing who was going to die. I was actually thinking that it would be Hawkeye. The primary reason is that he wanted to atone for his sins that he had done after his family had been snapped away. However, I think it would have been much harder to get that feel good moment and then have it torn away when the phone rings after Hulk’s snap of the stones. I also think that it’ll be easier for Hawkeye to join the fight now, because he’s seen what has happened to the world, without Black Widow being there. Whereas, Black Widow, without Hawkeye, while the Avengers are her family, would struggle more on her own. I think this is another sense where they wrapped up Black Widow’s arc really nicely. And if Hawkeye doesn’t show up in anything else, I think that is fine, because it would be hard for Jeremy Renner to top that performance as Hawkeye. He had so much emotion and so much of a shell throughout the movie from the first scene on, that is just hard to explain. This is some of the reason why I’m not all that excited for a Black Widow movie. I do think getting her origin story would be interesting to watch on the big screen, even if it’s more her origin in SHIELD, but her character wraps up so well.

Image Source: Marvel

Thor and Hulk

Finally, we end up on Thor and Hulk, and that’s because I don’t think they’ve had the complete arcs like we’ve gotten from the other characters. I think that there is more for Thor and Hulk to do. Practically speaking, until The Fantastic Four are introduced into the world, Hulk kind of needs to stay around so he can be deus ex science, since Tony Stark isn’t around for that anymore.

I think with Bruce Banner and the Hulk, we’ve had a good arc for him though, so if it’s in a smaller role from here on out for Hulk, I think that’s fine. With Banner, we have the origin movie, which we’ll choose to generally ignore, but going through the movies we’ve seen him in. We’ve seen Banner fight to not be the Hulk in the first Avengers movie, eventually he admits who he is, and he turns into the Hulk and lets the Hulk go as need be. Then in Age of Ultron, he starts to feel like he’s being the Hulk too much, and we get the bit of a relationship between him and Black Widow, and it is clear that both Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff do care a lot for each other and really care for each other. I’ll unpack that a little bit, because Tony Stark, less mature at that time, does joke about it, but you really see
Natasha open up to Bruce and Bruce trust her to be able to bring him back from being a monster. There’s the scene early on in the Avengers’ tower where she is making drinks, and she, while she’s able to flirt and seduce people for her job, is having troubles being able to do that with someone she cares about, because she wants the feelings to be real back. Which they are from the Hulk, then there is the moment as Hawkeye’s farm where Bruce calls himself a monster and that he can’t provide her a family like Hawkeye has. Natasha responds with the story that she can’t have kids either and she’s done horrible things and is a monster in her own way. This isn’t a story about not having kids that makes her a monster, which some people took it as, it is that she’s done bad things that she wishes she could take back, and more so, it’s making Banner not feel like he’s an outcast and just a monster. However, Banner still thinks of himself as a monster and that he’s more trouble than good. And he leaves, in Thor: Ragnorak, we see that Hulk h as taken over. Hulks in charge and Banner’s personality and influence is being suppressed. When he comes back to Banner, we still see the struggle between the two halves and Banner being worried about losing himself. The change happens, and I think starts to happen, when Fenris damages the Hulk. Then Hulk loses to Thanos, and then Banner loses to Thanos. Hulk realizes that just as a beast, there is always a bigger fish, and Banner realizes that sometimes he needs more than just his brain, and in Endgame, we get Professor Hulk. I feel like his story isn’t complete though, because while Professor Hulk was able to help, I don’t feel like we got the hero moment for Professor Hulk where both the Banner and Hulk sides come into play fully at the same time.

With Thor, I think we’ve seen a shifting vision for him more than any other superhero. We’ve gone from him being a child who just wants to fight into looking like he’s going to be the new Odin in Thor: Ragnorak. And now we’re not back to him being a child, but to him kind of knowing what his strengths are and knowing that he’s better and leading a fight than he is at leading people. In terms of actors, we’ve gone from Chris Hemsworth just looking like and playing a fairly serious Thor with the jokes being from him not being all that familiar with Earth to a great comedy Thor being The Dude. Hemsworth has amazing comedy chops. It again, feels like we haven’t had Thor’s full arc though. Going back to what I wrote about Thor in my Endgame spoiler review, Thor gets a moment to cut off Thanos head, but in the final battle, Thor, while extremely powerful, isn’t back to the hero that we once knew. I think he still needs that final win, at some cost, more so than he had in Thor: Ragnorak. And with that, we need Thor to be able to have his moment of peace where he doesn’t feel like he’s failed because he hasn’t saved everyone.

There’s so much to unpack when you really look through all of the movies. I think that they did an amazing job from the beginning. While there are a few hiccups along the way, we’ll see those tomorrow as I go through my Marvel movie rankings, generally, they’ve written such as tight and arching story throughout all that movies, it’s just impressive. Marvel, I salute you. And I can’t wait to see what stories and arcs you take Spider-Man, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, The Guardians of the Galaxy, and the rest through.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

The post The Avengers – MCU Look Back first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2019/05/the-avengers-mcu-look-back/feed/ 1
Comic Books – Marvel: Meeting the Line-Up (part 3) https://nerdologists.com/2016/07/comic-books-marvel-meeting-the-line-up-part-3/ https://nerdologists.com/2016/07/comic-books-marvel-meeting-the-line-up-part-3/#respond Tue, 12 Jul 2016 19:01:16 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=1058 Let’s roll with some more heroes. Doctor Strange: A brilliant and proud doctor gets in a car crash and becomes Sorcerer Supreme. But it’s not

The post Comic Books – Marvel: Meeting the Line-Up (part 3) first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
Let’s roll with some more heroes.

Image Source: Tri-State Original Art
Image Source: Tri-State Original Art

Doctor Strange: A brilliant and proud doctor gets in a car crash and becomes Sorcerer Supreme. But it’s not quite that simple, first he has to become a broken man, no longer able to do surgery because of shaking in his hands, he eventually gets pulled into becoming the new Sorcerer Supreme. Doctor Strange is one of those secondary characters that hangs out in the comics with the Illuminati along with Professor X and Tony Stark also other members and also hanging out with the Avengers. He does have his one big bad guy whom he fights. Dormammu is an extra-dimensional being whom Doctor Strange comes up against and who generally wants to take over whatever dimension he is currently in.

Ant-Man: This is one of those characters that is slightly confusing since there are a couple different versions. There is Hank Pym the brilliant scientist who helps the Avengers with problems that require scientific work and has helped contain the Hulk and many bad guys. And then there is Scott Lang, a criminal who often uses the ant-man suit for many more undercover things. Ant-Man currently is Scott Lang (or was as of six months ago) and the stories often with Lang focus around his redemption. He generally is pushing himself to become better, faster, stronger, and to help people after he has previously hurt people and spent time in jail. Again, people will probably recognize them as part of the ensemble in the Avengers.

Hawkeye: Hawkeye most people will recognize the character from the Avengers movies. Hawkeye in the comics is still just a human and still just shoots arrows. He also has a great comic book series where it was about Clint Barton as a normal human and not trying to jump into the crazy world of massive world ending events. In the comics he doesn’t actually have a family like we saw in Age of Ultron, but instead of interested in the Mockingbird, but that relationship becomes strained and changes over time.

Image Source: Go Comics
Image Source: Go Comics

Black Widow: Another one of those Avengers movies characters that people will know. But Black Widow has a very interesting history. She was a creation of the USSR, and there are a lot of issues because of that and her world is about killing and being part of the normal world it odd for her. She has love stories that touch on Daredevil and Hawkeye, but she is too transient to really stay in one place for too long. Again she mainly plays as a secondary character in Avengers, but has had some of her own stories as well but does much of the black-ops for the Marvel universe because there isn’t anyone else who can really do what she does.

Daredevil: As a boy he is blinded when a vehicle crashes as he is saving a person from the vehicle. However, radioactive material splashes on him, and he loses his sight but it gives him powers as well, basically a radar sense. Growing up in Hell’s Kitchen, after he is blinded, his father is killed when he refuses to throw a fight, by the mob. Daredevil, Matt Murdock, then takes it upon himself to clean up the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York, but he regularly has to take care of corruption and mob influence that takes over. Daredevil has a couple of villains in particular who he deals with, the biggest is The Kingpin. The Kingpin is a giant strong man who runs the mob in the area and other mobsters are scared of him, and Bullseye, who is kind of crazy.

Image Source: Complex
Image Source: Complex

Black Panther: From Wakanda, he was the prince in the land, and was forced to take over as a king when his father is killed. Wakanda is known for being secretive and for having amazingly strong and hard metal that they try to keep it from the rest of the world, what people don’t know about this African nation is that it is very advanced technologically. Black Panther is their countries legendary fighter who protects their people. But as the world is advancing, Wakanda can’t keep themselves nearly as separate from the rest of the world, and as more people try to get their resources, the Black Panther has to come out and work the the Avengers. He generally works on the fringes and he has very specific standards that he holds himself to.

———————————
Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

The post Comic Books – Marvel: Meeting the Line-Up (part 3) first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2016/07/comic-books-marvel-meeting-the-line-up-part-3/feed/ 0