Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Trailer Breakdown

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Somewhere around 3 years ago, Marvel Studios introduced the world to the Guardians of the Galaxy, a plucky band of space rogues who wormed their way into everyone’s hearts with their winning combination of humorous banter and space weirdness.  

Now, Marvel prepares for the Guardians next out, coming spring 2017, with a brand new trailer.  However, a lot can change in 3 years, and the world of 2017 is going to be very different for the Guardians. 

The original film was such a cultural shame it’s shaped a lot of the competition to come out since, both concerning renewed interest in space operas, also shepherded along by the return of Star Wars, and a greater attempt to co-opt the Guardians’ eclectic style, as evidenced by Suicide Squad.  

Given that and Marvel’s less unassailable standing in the current landscape, does the Guardians trailer promise the triumphant return of the kings of the MCU, or were our heroes never quite as fun as we initially thought?

New Thor: Ragnarok Set Photos May Reveal Where Asgard's Royalty Ends Up

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Edited by Robert Beach

As we continue our slow rumble towards Thor: Ragnarok, the film has begun to take shape as one of the most eclectic and ambitious Marvel projects to date. That’s unquestionably a good thing given one of Marvel’s biggest problems is that they’re so producer driven and tightly controlled their films can end up a little formulaic and distant; it's a problem that befell Thor: Dark World. Thankfully, Ragnarok sounds like a bizarre mix of science fantasy, high-flying adventure, and sci-fi hooliganism that has the same broad scope of Dark World without the compromised story structure. 

So far, we know the film will revolve around the mythical Norse apocalypse and feature Cate Blanchett as the villainous Hela, Goddess of Death. We also know that the Machiavellian schemer and Elder of the Universe, the Grandmaster, will be at hand. Played by Jeff Goldblum, Grandmaster, assumedly, is behind turning the Hulk into a sword-and-planet style gladiator. Now, thanks to a new slew of set photos, we see the Thunder God will also be stopping over in Midgard in this new adaptation and is bringing some old friends and possible cameos with him.

Panel Vision - Seven Characters Benjamin Bratt May Play in Doctor Strange

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Edited by Robert Beach 

As we continue to march ever closer to Dr. Strange, several people have picked up on a pretty interesting minor detail from the latest trailer for the Sorcerer Supreme’s debut film. So far, the trailers, posters, and announcements have all been pretty sparse for Doctor Strange. Most of the news focus on showing off how strange and different the movie will be. Whether or not that’s the case, it does lead to a lot of lingering questions about what role the various characters in the film are actually playing or if there’s some secret agenda at hand.  

That particular brand of conspiracy speculation got a shot in the arm when the ending credits of Dr. Strange’s latest trailer named Benjamin Bratt as a featured actor. Currently, we have no idea who Bratt is playing or that he was even in this movie as he hasn’t appeared in any of the set pics, posters, or trailers. Now, the question has become “who is he playing?” I thought up seven possibilities. 

1st Concept Art of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

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Edited by Robert Beach 

We’re currently in a bizarre dead zone for Marvel movie news.  After dominating the spring of 2016 through the double barrel punch of Daredevil season 2 and Captain America: Civil War, Marvel has more or less ceded the summer to its competition and aren’t even beginning to push Dr. Strange despite its fall release date.  Instead, Marvel’s spent the last couple months heavily emphasizing 2017’s slate of Marvel features, where they aim to dominate the entire calendar with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 in the spring, Spider-Man: Homecoming in the summer and Thor: Ragnarok in the fall. 

We’ve learned a lot about Thor’s casting breakdown, and Spider-Man can’t stop announcing new cast members. So far, we haven’t heard much about Guardians of the Galaxy. That changed this past week when we got our first look at the concept art for the new film, which revealed a trio of unexpected characters that seemed to be set for the movie. 

Thor: Ragnarok Casting Round-Up

Edited by Robert Beach 

As phase 3 of Marvel dawns, several major questions have started to loom in on the horizon as the previous invulnerability of the MCU begins to crack with age. At this point, Marvel is doing a dance of engagement with its audience, flittering between the fleeting high of Age of Ultron and the genuinely infectious interest of Ant-Man. Captain America: Civil War seems to be the best example of this so far, caught between the fun of the actual story and hanging out with characters we like/ All is enjoyable but fleeting, and the excitement of new heroes like Spider-Man or Black Panther, which is much more persistent. 

It seems that Marvel is legitimately at their best when they’re both expanding the scope of their shared universe and are being incredibly weird and idiosyncratic while doing it. That blend of new horizons and unique characters has reared its head once more with the latest casting announcements for next year’s Thor: Ragnarok. True to form, they seem to have everyone genuinely excited for a Thor film. 

Ryan Coogler Directing Black Panther

So, the first major comic book adaptation news story of 2016 is officially here with the announcement that Ryan Coogler will be directing Black Panther for Marvel Studios.  This is one of those announcements that’s been in the post for a long time but it’s nice to finally have official confirmation on it.  Black Panther has been lingering over Marvel’s phase 3 schedule alongside Captain Marvel ever since they both got bumped from the 2017 spot by the new Spider-Man movie so getting some kind of information on it is thoroughly welcome.  At the same time it’s great to see Marvel pursuing an African American director for the film, especially an up and coming talent like Ryan Coogler. 

Coogler may be new but so far he’s shown amazing directorial skill mixed with a consummate and confident sense of vision that makes him feel like an old pro.  His twin success, Fruitvale Station and Creed, have helped make him a serious name in both critical circles and with audiences so throwing him the reigns to a big budget Marvel superhero film feels like the next natural step in his evolution as a filmmaker.  However, Black Panther isn’t just a big budget superhero film, it’s an adaptation of the most important black superhero of all time and possibly the biggest mark for diversity in this genre since Blade.

Who Is Cate Blanchett in Thor: Ragnarok?

At time of writing Marvel studios is entering into their much vaunted phase 3 with…less than a full deck of cards, to put it delicately.  The Marvel brand is still a pretty unassailable seal of financial success but its standard as a seal of quality and, most of all, audience interest has become decidedly tarnished in the 3 years since Avengers cemented them as the entertainment kings of the 2010s.  There have been some major cultural hits like Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant Man, and Winter Soldier has done a lot to cement Captain America as THE superhero of this moment in time, much like Spider-Man in 2001, Batman in 1989, or Superman in 1978.  Additionally they’ve finally managed to make some in roads on the issues of diversity that’ve been dogging their brand for awhile thanks to the twin hits of Agent Carter and Jessica Jones. 

Unfortunately, a pretty heft bundle of disposable, forgotten, or underwhelming and underperforming entries have also blighted the Marvel stable.  Stuff like Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., have all done a serious number on the Marvel brand and losing out key box office battles to rival franchises like Jurassic World and Hunger Games has definitely not helped.  The crowning example of the tarnished Marvel star would have to be Thor: The Dark World, the lackluster and underperforming sequel to one of Marvel’s greatest successes of phase 1. 

Comic Rainbow - Inhumans

Comics Rainbow is a project I’ve been meaning to start for awhile now and given that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has returned to cement Marvel’s incredibly ill-informed infatuation with the Inhumans I might as well dive in.  The idea behind Comics Rainbow is basically that I wanted another weekly article to produce and this is something I can do several weeks in advance.  The other major factor was getting the chance to rip-off Reading Rainbow’s name because the combination was too obvious not make.  As for actual content this is mostly meant as a beginners guide to a characters, story lines, and interpretations. 

Each week it’ll be some new topical city that I’ll breakdown through my spectrum of criticism.  Red is for stuff everyone hates, orange is personal favorites, yellow is for stuff I think is terrible but everyone loves, green is objective good, blue is something I like but everyone hates, indigo is well intentioned but flawed, and violet is universally loved. 

Occasionally I’ll also work white and black in there if there are other points I’d want to make but the 7 major colors will be here every week.  Like I said, it’s an introduction point for new fans who don’t have the time to just jump in on consensus.  This week I’m taking a look at the Inhumans, a hidden non-human race on Earth with a history so dense it’ll probably warrant a full article of its own.  For now I’m just going to be aggressively focusing on the Inhuman Royal Family, the characters who make up the corp of this brand and will probably be showing up in the movie Marvel are still insisting they’ll make.