It's been a while, but if I recall correctly it went like kinda this.

As a result of the Civil War plotline Spider-Man intentionally revealed his secret identity to the world, since he was a initial supporter of Iron Man, though because he ended up supporting Captain America in the end he had to become a fugitive afterwards. During that an Assassin was also hired by the Kingpin to kill Peter Parker, but ends up shooting Aunt May instead, who ends up in a hospital slowly dying. After that the Comic Back in Black deals with him tracking the Assasin and Fisk down more violent and wearing a black costume.

One more Day itself deals with Peter trying to get his aunt fixed. He manages to convince Tony(who hates him now) to pay for the hospital she's staying at to buy him more time, since elsewise she'd die quicker. One of the Doctors also helps them keep Peter's identity a secret since Spider-Man saved him or a loved one once.

Peter tries to get Doctor Strange to heal May, but is told that some injuries are beyond magic, though he helps peter to quickly contact several other powerful people in the marvel world all of whom are unable to fix May.

In the end the Devil Mephisto(he's the one who made deals with the Ghost Riders) offers Peter to fix May by changing the past so that Peter never revealed his identity, but in exchange he also removes the history of Peter's marriage to Mary Jane.

 

Also worth mentioning that the story is pretty controversial because Peter explicitly sells his marriage to Mephisto as part of the deal. “Spider-Man sells his marriage to the devil” was not a popular plot point for a lot of fans.

 

Natalie Portman in Thor: Love and Thunder.

Did not expect her to actually get that muscled since there was mention they plan to change her with CGI. They will probably make her smaller for scenes where she's ill instead of making her bigger when using Mew Mew.

 

FInal Trailer

 

I just finished watching the first episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

I like it so far.

Spoiler

I've read that the comic version of John Walker, the 'new' captain america introduced by the government is a racist asshole, so I suspect that's going to be a plotpoint in the show.
We'll just have to see, there's been lots of versions of him.
I feel bad for Bucky regarding his elderly friend. I can imagine it will not be easy telling him that he was the one to kill his son.

 

I get the feeling this show is gonna make the Trump crowd super-pissed.

And I'm all for it.

 

I've already seen people on spacebattles say that people like Sam are "cheating" by stealing other peoples legacy (In this case Cap's).

Of course, the fact that Cap himself decided that Sam deserves the Shield and trusted Sam's character is somehow unimportant to these people.

 

Such people will also not say a word when Nightwing takes over for Batman.

I'm not a fan of pointlessly introducing POC/Minorities characters to be successors who haven't earned it (Iron Heart kinda feels this way or the whole Black Superman thing) or changing ethnicity (see Wally West), but Sam absolutely has earned the right to be Caps Legacy.

The one fun thing about the MCU is they don't have to abide by the status quo like the comics do. We are unlikely to ever have Steve Rogers as Captain America again...and that's perfectly okay. We have a story and a timeline that continues and moves forward. We can do new things with new characters.

Sam is absolutely the perfect person to take over for Cap. I'm excited to see this storyline take shape.

Good interview with Spellman on the role race will play in this series.

https://tvline.com/2021/02/16/falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-malcolm-spellman-black-history-month/

 

I agree. The status quo sucks. Things never really change in the comics, it's the same reheated piece of meat for decades now.

With the MCU characters played by real people we have an opportunity for meaningful deaths, meaningful endings and so on.

If a character dies in the comics it doesn't matter because they're going to return anyway. In the MCU, it matters.

 

I disagree with that when it comes to MCU Sam, but only because he never had a chance to earn it in the films. TV Show is that chance.

The status quo is the best thing about the superhero comics. No matter what happens by the end it will all reset to the status quo for another adventure which is exactly what I want. Stan Lee called it an illusion of the change and it's what allowed these comics to be published for decades. I suspect that the fanficion approach where everyone does their own thing would be successful, but that destroys the shared universe with its years of interactions between characters.

And it's not like nothing ever changes. There are always some elements that become a new status quo if they're popular enough.

 

The status quo is the worst thing about superhero comics. It's destroys anything from having actual meaning. It perpetuates character stagnation and prevents true storytelling from happening. Characters like Dick Grayons, Wally West, Donna Troy, will never be able to truly become their best selves, because those roles are held by their mentors. It's even worse for Gen3 and Gen 4.

Same thing for characters like Sam or Bucky.

Because the status quo, comics will forever be in a limbo of existing between the epicness of something like Lord of the Rings and the trashyness of the Young and the Restless.

Maybe it's good entertainment...idk. But it's not a good story or meaningful in anyway.

 

I disagree. I mean I see your point Arth, but you don't have to view this as a story being told and then yanked back to zero. There is a sandboxy world for writers to play in and they can use it to tell a million different stories, each its own little alternate timeline. Do notice that you're on a website that began with fanfic, which does the exact same thing.

I think problems emerge when comic book fans object to some elements in the movies were rearranged in comparison to the comic book default state (like who created Ultron) where, if the MCU were just another run of comic books, likely no one would have a problem with this.

To an extent this is the same thing as when people objected to Kylo Ren because Han Solo's son wasn't directly transplanted from the SW EU novels, ignoring the fact that the sequels weren't book adaptations.

 

To be fair, the writers tried to make these characters their best selves and it simply wasn't more popular than their status quo which is why they always get back to it. Bucky is actually an example of a character who escaped his status quo because the Winter Soldier was just that amazing.

 

@ScottPress I agree it's a sandbox and honestly a means for experimenting with stories...and it is basically paid fanfiction.

But that doesn't mean it's a good story or good for the characters. Which is why I love the MCU. It has a defined beginning. Defined stories that matter. And eventually, it will hopefully have a defined ending.

 

MCU will end when it stops making money.

 

I'm going to be watching MCU films with my grandchildren.

 

Re: the status quo and fanfiction.

Imagine you read a really cool story in which Harry defeats Voldemort, gets the girl and then...

Wakes up at the Dursleys because according to status quo Harry Potter is a kid wizard with shitty stepparents. It is basically the "lol it was all a dream haha" type of stuff.

Who cares if Spider-Man dies? Next issue he'll be fighting Doctor Octopus and this death either never happened or Spider-Man was resurrected by plot.

 

That's kind of what I do every time I finish a story and open up a new one.

A Fanfiction expands out from a set point of character/setting with some variation and explores it. When that fic is done, there's a new variation to read after that stems from the same status quo.

 

I think one of the chief issues with this, is that Comics bills itself as Canon. It is supposed to be the definitive iteration of these characters. Batman in N52 is the same character as Batman in Post Crisis. Meaning all the investment I had in him moving forward...is now gone and he's reset to back where he was.

The better analogy is you're reading a fic that is in the middle of an interesting story, and then the main character wakes up and it's all a dream. And they start over. And this is done ad nauseam.

 

Thoughts on F&WS ep 1.

Spoiler for the ep.1 itself but no spoilers for later episodes (am aware that comic-aware people will often post spoilers for unaired episodes using comic knowledge, which made the Wandavision thread a real minefield for people wanting to discuss the aired episodes without running into spoilers for future episodes).

Spoiler

I felt like the opening was somewhat inconsistent with the established "rules" of the Marvel universe. In that the opening was a moderately realistic depiction of how a guy with wings isn't really a very good hero, constantly being outplayed/outgunned by a bunch of normies with guns.

And I'd be fine with that more realistic portrayal if it was consistent with the way the Falcon had previously been portrayed. But it isn't. Watch Cap 2: Winter Soldier and he's sailing through huge quantities of anti-aircraft fire and beating small armies of grunts armed with guns.

So I felt that the realism was, in a way, unrealistic, in that it's not a real depiction of how things work in the Marvel universe. It's far too late now to be introducing military realism IMO.

But fine, moving on...

I enjoyed the "Bucky making up for his past" storyline, especially his date and his relationship with the father of one of his victims. That was touching and gut-wrenching when you realised.

Some weird camera angles/close-ups in the scene with the therapist. A bit over the top, I think - to the point of it being distracting.

But overall I'm enjoying the fact that Bucky still has his anonymity while being super. That's a fun dynamic you rarely get in the MCU.

All the stuff with Falcon and his sister and the bank was a bit meh, but I can see they're going for an approach where Falcon's character theme and Bucky's character theme mirror each other but express themselves differently. So we'll see how that develops.

Ending was a good hook. You definitely feel that Umbridge-type rage which is great for increasing investment in Falcon and wanting to see him deliver a can of whoop-ass on the US government.

Overall, I am intrigued and will definitely be following as the show progresses.