But don’t worry, there is still a lot to talk about. We had the final Eternals trailer come out which showed a whole lot more. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever gets a new character added into that story. What If Episode 2 is out so we have T’Challa as Star Lord to talk about. Plus I go through my 15-12 of the MCU films. Including a couple that people might have lower than I do, though, that is expected will happen.

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Comments/Questions

Let me know your thoughts on the last Eternals trailer? Which of the upcoming Marvel films are you most excited for, Shang Chi, Eternals, or Spider-Man: No Way Home? Also, two episodes into What if, so what are your thoughts on the show?

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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.

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.

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.

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?

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If you are enjoying the podcast, please consider subscribing or leaving a rating and review. Those help more people find out about this little Marvel podcast and join into the 10 Minute Marvel community. The podcast can be found on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, and Stitcher.

If you want to get in contact with me and the show, you can leave a comment below. Or you can find me on Twitter, @TheScando, or by using #10MinMarvel. Give me suggestions of comics to checkout, thoughts on the news coming or any news that you’ve found regarding Marvel comics, shows, movies, or podcasts.

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In this weeks episode, besides saying Thank You to everyone a lot, I do have a few bits of news. Plus, I look back at the year and some of the Marvel highlights and I look forward to what is coming in 2020 and 2021 for the second year of 10 Minute Marvel.

If you have been enjoying the podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving a rating and review. Those help more people find the podcast and join into the 10 Minute Marvel community. We’re on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, and Stitcher.

And if you have any comments, you can leave them below. Or you can find me on Twitter @TheScando or use #10MinMarvel. What are you looking forward to from Marvel in the next year? Is it an MCU movie, comic book series coming out, the Disney+ shows?

I’ll see you next time.

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Spider-man: Far From Home takes place after the snap and after the second snap when everyone was brought back. Spider-Man is having a hard time with Tony’s death. And he just wants to be a normal kid, but that is going to be too much. He has grand plans for his schools trip to Europe, getting closer to MJ and just enjoying life without the responsibility of being Spider-Man. But a phone call from Nick Fury changes that all as he has to team with Quentin Beck to defeat elementals that are destroying cities. How can Peter Parker balance being Spider-Man, but also just live his own life and not feel like he has all the pressure int he world?

This movie reminds me of Iron Man 2 in a good way. While I think they nail the bad guys better than they do in Iron Man 2, this movie is more about Peter determining what type of hero he is going to be. And it’s about him feeling and failing to live up to what he thinks Tony Stark would want him to be. And I think that it does a good job of that, you feel so much for Peter because of what has happened in Endgame, him losing his father figure in Tony Stark. It comes across that Peter almost feels guilty for it having happened, though there was nothing he could have done about it. You really get how much he’s missing him, and how much being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man reminds him of Tony. Obviously with the suit being Tony’s tech that’s a big thing. And you can feel him trying to escape that super hero pressure mantle and just be a teenager and tell MJ that he has a crush on her. And that is a fun theme to explore, the super hero who doesn’t want to be, or can’t be the hero that they need to be or the hero that they want to be.

The acting in this film really pulls it off. Tom Holland does a great job of being that nerdy teenager who is ready to make a quip to hide his emotions, but still have to confront them. We get to see a whole lot more of the nerdy side of Peter Parker in this movie, and it’s a lot of fun. And I’m not the biggest Jake Gyllenhaal fan, mainly because of his work when he was younger just wasn’t that interesting to me. But in the role of Quentin Beck, he does a very good job. You feel the emotions that he’s feeling and they all make sense. I wasn’t in love with the casting of him as Beck, but it turned out to be a really good choice. The rest of the cast is solid around them as well, but Gyllenhaal and Holland really shine in this movie.

Now, I’m not going to spoil anything, but this movie does tie into a lot of the other movies. Some of them you don’t get the payoff until the end credits, but it sets up a launching point going forward. Now, I don’t know how they are setting it up tot use them, but things change for Peter but also some other characters in unexpected ways. Homecoming definitely feels like an MCU movie, but that one doesn’t do much more than mess up the timeline for the movies, Far From Home, on the other hand is going to make differences going forward and they could be a big changes and stories for upcoming movies. So if you were thinking about putting this one off, I wouldn’t wait too long. Spoilers, I’m sure, already exist in abundance but they are only going to be become more common place, the further from the movie.

This movie isn’t perfect, and I need to think about where I rate it in Marvel movies, but it is really good. The main issues are that it sometimes is a bit heavy handed in it’s plot. The plot is well done, but sometimes it drives home a point a bit too long, or makes a point a bit too obvious. However, it does create one of the most complex villains in the MCU. I’d put the villain after Killmonger from Black Panther and Thanos from Infinity War/Endgame in terms of good villains in the MCU, which is awesome. I love a good villain to set off against a hero, and in this case, you get a good hero performance, something that I felt like we were lacking some in Black Panther.

Definitely check out this movie if you are a Spider-Man fan, if you are an MCU fan, you will most likely enjoy it. I don’t know that you need to have seen Endgame to know what is going on, but it would help make things a whole lot clearer. And I think what you’d miss does make the story stronger, but I think it would be possible to watch it without having seen the rest. I’m going to be figuring out where I rate it in the movies, coming up here soon, so that’ll be interesting to see, but for me, this is a definite top half Marvel film.

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1. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon -This board game I kickstarted in December but should have the first wave being shipped in August, happy birthday to me. The game takes Arthurian legend and puts a dark twist on it as you are the B-team that is trying to stop the fall of Avalon. The game has some really cool mechanics, and the Rolling Solo Youtube channel did an amazing preview for it that explains it and shows some great game play for it.
2. Avengers: Endgame – The list isn’t in any order, but this is one of the things I’m looking forward to most this year. The trailer looked great, and I want to know how they are going to undo what Thanos has done. Or maybe they just filmed a whole Spider-Man movie that they are never going to release to keep us off the track that Spider-Man is going to stay dead. No spoiler tag, the movie has been out for a while now, so if you haven’t seen Infinity War, that’s your own fault.
3. Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles – Another board game, but this time an expansion for my favorite game of all time. I don’t know that it really needs an expansion because the game is huge, but I’m not going to complain about more content for a game that I love. I am curious to see what locations and what story it will add to the game as well as finishing off the content that we have before we get into that game.
4. Captain Marvel & Spider-Man: Far From Home – Marvel Superhero movies, of course I’m excited for them. I really am excited to see how they’ll set-up Captain Marvel for Avengers: End Game, and while I joked about Spider-Man staying dead, I’m still waiting impatiently on the trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home. I’ll always been looking forward to Marvel movies, and seeing new heroes on the big screen is cool.
5. Godzilla: King of the Monsters – The trailers look amazing. And I really like the most recent Godzilla movie as well. There’s just something about watching a ton of giant monsters on the big screen battle it out that is so amazing. The cast seems interesting for the film, and there appears to be a bit of a plot there, but really I’m in it for Godzilla fighting all the other monsters, and that’s all the plot I really need.
6. Stranger Things Season 3 – The 4th of July, so if you can’t get out and watch the fireworks in the real world, I’m sure there will be plenty of fireworks as our favorite people from Hawkins, Indiana take on whatever new monsters seeks to come through from the Upside Down. I’ll always been waiting for this show to come out, and even though I know it’s going to stay on Netflix, I am still tempted to get the physical copy of the show, because the show boxes look cool.
7. Dark Season 2 – This time travel show is just amazing and I can’t wait to see what happens in season 2. I feel like the show is going to change a lot, so I’m not sure how well it will work because of that, but the first season was a masterpiece. I also want to say Rain Season 2, but I need to finish off season 1 first, but thus far season 1 of that has been great as well. Dark is just more moody and captivating in a lot of ways.
8. Jump Force – Fighter game with all the Jump Magazine characters duking it out. It’s going to be a silly game, but it just looks like a lot of fun. Face off with Goku vs Naruto or Ichigo vs Vegeta. A silly game like that is always good and fighting games are fun because you can sit down and play them for a few minutes without feeling like you get sucked into the story and must play for hours on end.
9. My Hero Academia 4 – This show just keeps on meeting my expectations, though there is a ton of crying in it, and it’s one of a few animes that I’m watching that is still coming out. The characters are good, the story is good, I just want more of it.

I’m sure there a number of things I’ve missed. I’m certainly hoping for something from Brandon Sanderson or Jim Butcher book wise, but nothing is announced. And I know there are some board games that I’ll be likely to pick up as well, but these are they heavy hitters of what I’m looking forward to.

What are some nerdy things, shows, books, movies, etc. that you’re looking forward to in 2019? Is there anything huge that I missed? I’m sure that there is something that I’m going to be kicking myself about, but I can’t come up with it right now.

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