Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies and Streaming Series Discussion

AceofKnaves said:
Man, it is like the MCU is allergic to actual supervillains and supervillain teams!

“No, we must have more generic tactical guys and dudes in business suits!! Peak comic-book storytelling!”

Ugh.
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Which is weird because their heroes are leaning harder into comic booky costumes.
 
I don't remember the thinking from this community when Eternals came out regarding their costumes. A lot of people blame the designs for the action figures not selling, but I think the designs are beautiful. They aren't traditional, but the care and beauty that went into those costumes - have y'all seen the layers of wet paint that went into them to make them look organic and living? It's in the Assembled: Making of Eternals doc on D+ - it's really cool.

Seeing them doesn't make me cry like it did Brian Tyree Henry (which is a great thing), but I've thought about picking a few up to try and repaint. I did a tie-dye shirt on a custom once that turned out unexpectedly fantastic.

But then the Eternals have gone nowhere and I think... why?
 
Schizm said:
I don't remember the thinking from this community when Eternals came out regarding their costumes. A lot of people blame the designs for the action figures not selling, but I think the designs are beautiful. They aren't traditional, but the care and beauty that went into those costumes - have y'all seen the layers of wet paint that went into them to make them look organic and living? It's in the Assembled: Making of Eternals doc on D+ - it's really cool.

Seeing them doesn't make me cry like it did Brian Tyree Henry (which is a great thing), but I've thought about picking a few up to try and repaint. I did a tie-dye shirt on a custom once that turned out unexpectedly fantastic.

But then the Eternals have gone nowhere and I think... why?
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As someone who likes both the movie and the figures, it kinda baffles me as well. They're a really cool blend of regal, God-like entities and superheroes. Audiences kept begging for more originality, and we definitely got it- both in terms of the team, characters, and cinematography. The one time Hasbro seems to go all-out and do mostly new parts for each individual figure, too, and it bombs. I can get that it's a big team, so collecting them all can feel like a chore, and they do look a liiiittle on the plastic-y, Power Rangers-y side, but that never bothered me. In fact, I've slowly been dipping my toes into some weathering, and the Eternals figures especially really benefit from some dark washes and scuffs. It really spruces them up.

I was watching a video last night, in fact- can't remember the channel name, but it was really well made- on what the "meaning" or "message" of Phase 5 was. In it, he had some pretty good commentary on how reactionary the MCU has been of late; it used the Majors/Kang debacle as its primary argument, but I think the points are applicable to the MCU at large. Obviously, a lot of reworking was done after the Kang thang, some of it a bit smoother and less obvious than others. I would say the same for Eternals- it's clear that a lot of hope and goodwill was put into the movie, and I'm sure there were plans for the future, but after the movie didn't do well, it threw everything for a loop. I feel like that was still in the era where we were knee deep in the pandemic and still unsure as to how it would effect things moving forward, so companies were quick to just cut their losses. They panicked and erred on the side of caution which, while understandable, we can see now that we're on the other side of things (more or less) was perhaps a bit over-cautious. I think they saw that they kind of had a pretty easy out- the Eternals weren't household names (or even all that big at all, relatively), unlike F4 and arguably Thunderbolts, where they know that the audience is either familiar with or fond of the characters- therefore likelihood for future success is pretty good, so instead of investing more time and money into trying to get audiences to care about them and working them into other plots, they'd just cut their losses and write them out. They're, unfortunately, the most obvious candidates for sacrificial lambs.

Doesn't necessarily mean we won't see any of them ever again. Especially as we just now start to pick up on some of those loose threads from earlier, like Celestial Island, etc., and are moving into more of the cosmic stuff, it would make sense to see one or two pop up here and there, but it's not necessary. I think they're perhaps one of the biggest examples of Feige's recent "It may be a while before we see some characters again, if ever" comments, whether they were explicitly stated or not. I'd say the character who has arguably the biggest likelihood of returning would be Dane/Black Knight, but I feel like that can't/won't really happen until they get their act together with Blade. That's why, if anything, I'm cautiously optimistic at their new approach- it seems like they're taking more time to decide what they'll throw at the wall before they do. Yeah, F4 and Thunderbolts didn't seem to meet expectations, and obviously we aren't privy to inside talks, but it does feel like, at the very least, they're not abandoning their plans for those characters just yet. Now, in terms of the Thunderbolts, it does feel like they're pretty easy choices for fodder in the next big event movie, so it may not even really be an issue, but still- there was probably a time when, after Thunderbolts "bombed", Marvel would've scrambled to write them out of the next Avengers movies, but that doesn't seem to be the case currently.

Anyway. It does make me sad to go out and still see pretty big amounts of Eternals Legends on the pegs in places. At the "flagship" Toys R Us over in Jersey, there was a trove of Eternals figures and zero new ones. Are they the best Legends? Not by a mile; it feels like Hasbro did, for whatever reason, really step up their game on figures not long after the wave came out. That said, they're all pretty darn well made, and when else have or will we ever get a team that large all made at the same time? Feels crazy that it happened at all!
 
Are any of you familiar with Ken I Make It on Youtube? He's a customizer who caught my eye with his fixes to MLs - I don't love all his tweaks, but his work is really nice.

Here's a look at his Eternals display and you can see the updates he made to at least Ikaris, Thena and Sersi:
 
Seeing Arishem hovering over them in that screenshot FINALLY got me to open the Funko Pop I've had for months to do this exact thing - this improves my shelf dramatically!

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Also, gotta love when you finally crack open something after a long time of having it and it's broken. This cracked me up - and my Arishem has a lot of attitude in his neck now. :)

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Schizm said:
Brian Tyree Henry
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He needs to be in more things. Paper Boi deserves ALL the roles.
Schizm said:
Are any of you familiar with Ken I Make It on Youtube? He's a customizer who caught my eye with his fixes to MLs - I don't love all his tweaks, but his work is really nice.

Here's a look at his Eternals display and you can see the updates he made to at least Ikaris, Thena and Sersi:
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Oh! Oh! I am! I am! He's such a great Youtube guy. He makes it all look so easy, but having customized for close to 20 years, I know it isn't. Ugh. I hate painting.
 
Apparently Florence Pugh and Tom Holland have wanted to meet and work together for a long time so this is cool.

Florence has Dune Part III on her plate, though, so I don't imagine she'll have a very big part in Spider-Man. I'm thinking end credits scene to set up Doomsday.

We'll see.
 
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