Disclaimer: The title of this post is meant metaphorically. I am opposed to violence in all its forms (though I accept that there are times when the use of violence is justified), and I do not engage in, advocate for, or support violent actions. So no, I don’t want the actual, literal heads of MRAs to go kablooey. Sending them into fits of incoherent rage? I’m all about that.
If you don’t know what an MRA is, go read this and thisfirst.
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All done? Cool.
Regular blog readers know that I’m a feminist. That means I advocate for gender equality in the social, political, and economic arena (basically all areas of society). Over the years, I’ve encountered more than a few MRAs in my online travels and read more than enough comments from them to know that I find them vile. They like to claim their goal is to fight for men’s rights (hence the name), but I’ve yet to see them do anything other than harass women and feminists (while there is significant overlap between both groups, not all feminists are women). Feminists advocate for eliminating the gender wage gap, paid maternity leave, an end to restrictions on women’s reproductive rights, equal gender representation in allareas of society, an end to Rape Culture, and more. In addition, feminists have accomplished a great deal (not a comprehensive list by any means) in the fight for gender equality. Meanwhile, MRAs advocate for…well, I’m not quite sure what, if anything, they advocate for (and yes, I’ve looked); nor what, if anything, they’ve actually accomplished (and again, I’ve looked). They have grievances, some of which are legitimate, but the kicker is that feminism addresses those issues while MRAs don’t address the grievances of feminists. If they spent their time, energy, resources, and person-power working on those legitimate issues, their “movement” might actually have a r’aison d’etre. Instead, these rage-filled misogyny-bleeding douchebags spend their time spewing lies about feminists, co-opting campaigns aimed at ending violence against girls and women, and generally engage in vile behavior directed almost exclusively at women. Hell, these supposed activists for the rights of men are so disgustingly misogynistic that the Southern Poverty Law Center keeps tabs on them.
Given their misogyny and opposition to all things related to gender equality, I imagine MRAs will suffer from a case of exploding heads upon seeing the work of 18-year-old Hungarian blogger Agnes. In a series of gender-swapped portraits of various characters from the first Avengers movie, Agnes takes aim at the lack of gender diversity in superhero movies:
Shailene Woodley as Hawkeye
Kristen Stewart as Loki
Kate Beckinsale as Iron Man
Click the link for images of a gender-swapped Captain America, Bruce Banner, Thor, and yes, Black Widow.
While you’re doing that, MRAs will be doing this (warning: graphic imagery of exploding heads…ahead):
In true Scanners-style, the heads of MRAs go all KABLOOEY when gender equality and representation are discussed.
After weeks of speculation, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios have reached an agreement to share everyone’s friendly neighborhood wallcrawler.
It’s been talked about for a while now, but only as rumors. Would Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures reach some sort of agreement concerning Spider-Man-an agreement perhaps, that would allow the web-slinger to appear in Marvel Studios movies like The Avengers? That speculation, hoped for by many, has now become a reality, as an agreement has been made between both companies to share Spider-Man:
Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Studios announced today that Sony is bringing Marvel into the amazing world of Spider-Man.
Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017, in a film that will be co-produced by Kevin Feige and his expert team at Marvel and Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio 13 years ago. Together, they will collaborate on a new creative direction for the web slinger. Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films.
Marvel and Sony Pictures are also exploring opportunities to integrate characters from the MCU into future Spider-Man films.
Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko back in the 1960s, Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man (the correct spelling of his name includes the hyphen), has become (arguably) Marvel Comics’ flagship hero. The character, known for the phrase “with great power comes great responsibility”, has been the subject of countless comic books, cartoons, coloring books, novels, records, and children’s books. The Spider-Man movies-5 in total, including the 3 directed by Sam Raimi and the 2 directed by Marc Webb-have grossed well over a billion dollars worldwide. Unfortunately for Marvel, because they licensed Spider-Man to Sony Pictures in 1999 (long before there was a Marvel Cinematic Universe-MCU for short), they haven’t been able to make use of the character (or any of his villains or supporting cast) in their movies. Much to their chagrin, I’m sure. One of the appeals of the Marvel Comics Universe (and the MCU) is the shared nature of their fictional world. Characters interact with one another on a regular basis. That was the basis (in part) for the creation of the Avengers. Not having access to their flagship character while building their shared universe had to be frustrating for Marvel Studios execs. With this new deal, Marvel Studios will now be able to expand their cinematic universe to include Spider-Man, and from the looks of the above press release, they’re already making plans.
If I had to guess, those plans include Spider-Man participating in Captain America 3, which will be based on Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s 2007 comic book mini-series Civil War. The story centered around the creation, in the wake of a tragedy involving superheroes, of the Superhuman Registration Act. The SRA required all superhuman beings to register their abilities and identities to the federal government. Iron Man supported the SRA. Captain America opposed it. Spider-Man initially sided with Iron Man but eventually switched sides and joined with Captain America. A significant moment in the story occurred when Spider-Man revealed his secret identity before the eyes of the world. The three characters are incredibly important to the story and when Marvel Studios announced that Captain America 3 was going to be a cinematic version of Civil War, I wondered how they would fill the Spidey shaped hole in the story. While it’s not been confirmed by Marvel, I think it’s quite likely that Spider-Man’s first MCU appearance prior to his own movie will be in the third Captain America movie.
No matter where his first MCU appearance occurs, one thing is certain: Andrew Garfield will not be reprising his role as the wallcrawler. In fact, the studios are apparently looking to reboot the character again. According to Variety, Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures want the character back in high school, which means finding a younger actor to portray him.
Actors have yet to be approached, and sources say Sony is looking to hire a new director to replace “The Amazing Spider-Man” films’ Marc Webb before tapping a new Spidey. The studio also needs to figure out whether it wants to go with another Peter Parker or introduce another character that suits up as Spider-Man, including Miles Morales, whose father is African American and mother is Puerto Rican.
Sony has put the character, played by Tobey Maguire and Garfield, in Midtown High School before, but the plan is to spend more time in the setting and explore his awkward relationship with other students while fighting crime out of the classroom. Midtown is a major setting in the comicbooks, and Peter Parker also returns to the school to become a science teacher in storylines.
One of the side effects of the Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios deal is a reshuffling of the release dates for upcoming Marvel Studios movies:
Disney has even pushed back almost all of Marvel Studios’ slate of upcoming films to make room for Sony Pictures’ next Spider-Man film, starting with Thor: Ragnarok, which will relocate from July 28, 2017, to Nov. 3, 2017. That, in turn, will bump Black Panther to July 6, 2018, Captain Marvel to Nov. 2, 2018, and Inhumans to July 12, 2019. The two Avengers: Infinity War movies, however, are still slated to open on May 4, 2018, and May 3, 2019.
Despite the change in release dates (I’m particularly bummed about Captain Marvel and Black Panther being bumped), I am excited to finally see Spider-Man interact with the heroes of the MCU. Now, if only Marvel could somehow reach a similar deal with FOX over the rights to Fantastic Four and the X-Men…
YouTube user and comic book fan Alex Luthor has a penchant for creating unique movie trailers. Through a melding of movies, television shows, video games, and even unseen TV pilots, Luthor has created trailers for comic book movies that will probably never be produced by Warner Bros. or Marvel Studios. Still, that makes me appreciate the effort he took to create believable trailers like the following:
Marvel vs DC
Avengers vs the X-Men
and his most recent video, which pits the heroes of the Marvel and DC universes against a powerful force:
Over on his tumblr, Andrew Wheeler created his dream team of all female Avengers, so I feel compelled to do the same. This one was tough. I like so many female heroes at Marvel, though I realized many of them were from the Avengers.
Ultimately I decided on
Storm
Chosen for her regal nature, her leadership abilities, her fear of enclosed spaces, her status as perhaps Marvel’s premier female character, her unique power set, her ethnicity, and her strength of will.
Spectrum
Chosen for her ethnicity, her unique power set, her leadership skills, her snarky humor, her fear of water, her skills from the Harbor Patrol, and her friendship with the next person on the list.
Captain Marvel # who can remember?
Chosen for her leadership skills, her military background, her powerhouse abilities, her friendship with Monica (and Ororo for that matter), and her status as a prominent female character.
Rogue
Chosen for her unique abilities (this is a recurrent theme), her burgeoning friendship with the next person on the list, her friendship with Storm, her history with Captain Marvel, her tragic nature (she’s back to being unable to touch anyone), the potential for friendship with Monica (both from LA), and her fierce devotion to causes she is passionate about.
Scarlet Witch
Chosen because of the developing friendship between her and Rogue, as well as her friendship with Carol and Monica. Her mystical nature allows for more than traditional superhero stories, and her past as both a member of Magneto’s Brotherhood as well as the events of Decimation lend tragedy to her character that contribute to possible desire for redemption.
Wasp
Chosen for her leadership skills, the fact that she’s a founder, her friendship with Carol, Monica, and Wanda, her abilities (which lend themselves to stealth), her skills in fashion, and her often light hearted nature.
Finally:
Moondragon
Chosen because the Avengers need a telepath dammit! Plus I love her arrogance (which has been toned down over the years). Also because she has a checkered history with the Avengers and is LGBT.
So there’s one version of my dream team of all female Avengers. She-Hulk, Spitfire, Valkyrie, and Firebird were all so close to making the cut, but perhaps they can be in an all new, all different Avengers 🙂
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