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Posted September 26, 2014 by GP Manalo in Comics
 
 

EDITORIAL: The Marvel Phase 3 Wish-List

THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: PHASE 3 WISH-LIST

8 PROPERTIES MARVEL SHOULD GAMBLE ON FOR THEIR THIRD PHASE

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Marvel Studios’ second phase of films is coming to a close with next year’s highly anticipated “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, with Marvel recently announcing that the setting to expand their 3rd Phase throughout July 2015 – May 2019 with 6 movies on their lineup It wouldn’t hurt to at least predict on what new property they would gamble their money on, for new faces to be part of a bigger universe.  We already know that Ant-Man will kick off Phase 3, and a Doctor Strange is set to debut sometime soon. One had to wonder what other property they will gamble their money on for their lineup and how they would connect to the third Avengers film to bookend the third phase.

Knowing that the Marvel doesn’t shy away from TV shows, and even smaller stuff like their Marvel One-Shots to expand their universe further. I thought that I could at least mention on what kind of way they could pop up in their lineup. Although I do have one movie in mind that may not be connected to the ever expanding universe.

NOTE: If you’re going to shoot this article down with that photo of all the Phase 3 films’ title cards (Films that have titles like Avengers: Civil War, Guardians of the Galaxy: War of Kings, Captain America: Fallen Son, etc.), don’t. That photo is from a fan who likes making title cards that Marvel does and that the studios has already shot down that it is fake a few months ago.

WARNING: WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FROM THE PAST MARVEL FILMS (IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED ALL OR AT LEAST SOME OF THEM)

THE WISH LIST:

 8. RUNAWAYS (ANIMATED MOVIE NOT RELATED TO PHASE 3)

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This is the movie I was talking about earlier, and it is that I wanted to see Disney Animated Studios do a Runaways Animated film. With Disney’s Big Hero 6 on the horizon, this could be the best property Disney Animations can bring to life in animated form.

THE PITCH:

If you don’t know what this comic book is, Runaways is a Marvel Comic Book Series by Brian K. Vaughan that ran through 2005 to 2008 and it follows A cast of colorful teenagers (and a dinosaur) discovering that their parents are super villains who are part of a cabal known as The Pride, and later on ran away as a group to plan and stop their occultist schemes.  Just by that premise it is perfect for an animated film if they drop the occult part (for the kids). Sure, Marvel opened up the fact that they’re not involved with the project (despite that they own the property and all), I think this should be the one project that they should have their name plate on.

 7. (GOOD) PUNISHER, GHOST RIDER, BLADE, HOWARD THE DUCK FILMS…

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I know I’m cheating but hear me out. These four films had one thing in common; they left fans of the material a big wound in them, being remembered as either “utter crap” or expendable guilty pleasure films that they see in cable almost all the time (or perhaps own them on Blu-Ray and they don’t want to admit it). With them being re-acquired by The Collector known as, Marvel Studios, it does seem they are in good hands for movies to be made.

Although Howard the Duck isn’t a likely candidate to have his own movie sooner or later, it is after all needed since Marvel is the kind of film industry who would make “really out there” properties work and he does have a lot of good comedic material to work with. If it ever become successful, maybe it’ll stop Joe Quesada from threatening George Lucas to re-release Howard the Duck on Blu-Ray for its 30th anniversary (that was a thing actually). Punisher, Ghost Rider, and Blade on the other hand are likely candidates. With the Russo Brothers tease the existence of the Punisher in the recent Captain America film and with Thomas Jane making a statement of returning as The Punisher with a short film (“Dirty Laundry”),  and Wesley Snipes wanting to come back to play their characters it does seem like Punisher and Blade got something going for them at least.. As for Ghost Rider – well….. Nicholas Cage is too busy making 4 films for a pay check to make another Ghost Rider film, and I sure hope more films come his way to stop him from doing another god-awful Ghost Rider film. But since, the “street-side” of things like Daredevil, Power Man, Iron Fist, and Jessica Drew are after all on Netflix – a Netflix show with either of them would work out too.

6.NEW WARRIORS (LIVE-ACTION TV SHOW)

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Marvel Studios has been successful in terms of gambling their money for unknown characters to have their own movie. As much as people would compare the success of Guardians of the Galaxy, the success of films like Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America does come to mind. Before Iron Man was even announced to kickstart Phase 1, Iron Man was pretty much a C-List character. In contrast, Thor and Cap were the butt of everyone’s jokes (despite the fact that they are awesome characters) and they had doubts that their characters would even work on the big screen and look at them now, the biggest stars and money makers of Hollywood.

SPECULATION:

Marvel Studios could do the same with New Warriors, a team that consists of totally unknown superheroes that are in the middle of being both bad and good, but this time in the smaller screen. *trailer voice* In a world where, super heroes are popping up since The Avengers revealed themselves to the world (while stopping an alien invasion in the process), it is the time for other people with abilities will go other to stand up and also fight the good fight for helping people out. One guy wants to have his own Avengers and that guy is Night Trasher with his wealth he used it to form the New Warriors and recruited: Firestar, Marvel Boy, and Speedball as its initial roster and will add more heroes as the show develops in the real world (Namorita and probably Nova will be introduced later on). If Agents of SHIELD could be connected to what happens in the Winter Solider Maybe once in a while we’ll follow them in the MCU’s big events like Ultron taking control over humans and we’ll see them fight through Ultron’s army that is far away from where The Avengers are taking the fight.  Another fun thing I could think about is that everything they do is documented (and have them having confessionals and all that), which will later on evolve into some Reality Show like what happened to them in the comics.

5. HAWKEYE (MARVEL ONE SHOT/TV SHOW SPINOFF)

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It is quite unfortunate that his presence in the Cinematic Universe isn’t as big as his fellow Avengers. Especially when he didn’t even appear in The Winter Soldier after all that happened to S.H.I.E.L.D. in that movie. But questions about this particular subject will be answered in Avengers 2 as he promised before in an interview that “all we be explained” as director, Joss Whedon promised.

SPECULATION:

There’s so much you can do with Hawkeye, you can either let him star in a show about him leading a team (of superheroes in the west coast, perhaps?) or just be him hanging around New York dealing with everyday threats like the Russian Mob, his exes, a dog named “Pizza”, and his sidekick who keeps annoying him (if you don’t know what I’m referencing, you obviously haven’t read Fraction’s run about Hawkguy). With all that material being mentioned I can also see that being a “A Day In A Life” type of short film starring Hawkguy in Marvel’s ever growing collection of One-Shots. But alas, Jeremy Renner is either “too expensive” or “too busy” to at least be in a few episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., A One-Shot, or even have his own TV Show. This would really help them answer on what’s been going on with Hawkeye after the events of The Avengers.

4. CAPTAIN MARVEL/MS. MARVEL

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With the Kree Empire being teased in episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and having some sort of a significant role in Guardians of the Galaxy it does show that the Kree Empire does have a strong presence in this universe both on earth and even in deep space.  You can flip a coin on who would be the main focus for the “Captain Marvel” film, although fans have been clamoring for a female-led superhero film with Carol Danvers (with her and Black Widow does come to mind for female-led comic book films)

SPECULATION:

Carol Danvers had been a high profile female superhero for the past decade, especially now where she gets her own solo book and a new look, an important member of the Avengers, and even have her fight alongside The Guardians of the Galaxy too. Mar-Vell on the other hand may be unheard of in the universe lately but he does serve an important role to Carol’s origin and can even serve as a (plot device) way to introduce Carol and the audience the cosmic side even deeper (and perhaps st-up the Inhumans if they ever tackle a Kree-Skrull  War storyline). If it were to happen I can see a Thor-Jane dynamic between Carol and Mar-Vell, beings from two different worlds falling in love while having space politics in the background, with a dynamic like theirs it could be the first sci-fi romantic comedy comic book movie Marvel will ever do.

3. BLACK WIDOW

 

Yes, more female led movies, but I’ll stop with this one since I see both Black Widow and Ms. Marvel (currently Captain Marvel) to be likely since I’m still confused about where does Spider-Woman’s rights lie (look, her name has the word “Spider” in it, I guess you can see my confusion there). There’s been some outcry already from a lot of fanboys for this to happen, although there are equal amounts of people saying that it “wouldn’t work”. I on the other hand, stand in the positive side.

SPECULATION:

Black Widow has some intriguing history in the comics that was teased in previous Marvel films like the “red on your ledger” monologue of Loki in The Avengers and a government official mentioning the acts she did “against the country” by the end of The Winter Soldier. Which made me wonder if she had been working for an everyday KGB anti-America organization or did she really work for Hydra at one point of her life? (And another important question under this is WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED IN BUDAPEST?!) If ever they do go into the Hydra route, it would be a good time to put Hydra in her existing cinematic lore ledger since they are an even bigger presence than before in the Cinematic Universe. But let’s just see how it will go in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America 3.

2. BLACK PANTHER

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The fight for diversity continues. In the MCU we have had some very strong supporting roles for their African-American characters like James Rhodes as War Machine and Anthony Mackie as Falcon. But what about that one superhero that started it all for Black Superheroes, Black Panther. Since they have plans to have New Avengers members for Avengers 3, I don’t see why Black Panther couldn’t be one of them.

SPECULATION:

In Avengers: Age of Ultron, they filmed first in Africa, just by that you would think “hmm, maybe Wakanda is not that far?” Of course in Wakanda you’d expect it to be some technically advanced utopia that looks like it came out of something from Blade Runner. But it looks like it’s not (assuming that the filming location is “Wakanda”). I will speculate that this could be an issue the tribe is currently facing (an issue both developed in the comics and in the short-lived animated show, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes). An issue on whether or not they want to modernize Wakanda into the Wakanda we know in the comics. This issue is the best way to drive the ideas of T’Challa forward and his development.

For the film’s first foes we’ll have Man-Ape (or his uncle, King S’yan if you want to be accurate to the comics) in the picture to overthrow his father – some guy our hero has to fight as an integral part to the Black Panther origin, a secondary villain could also have Ulysses Klaw. How could Klaw fall under this? Again I’m gonna bring back Hydra into the picture. What if Klaw is some arms dealer who would use the vibranium to sell it to the highest bidder, and one of them could be someone from Hydra perhaps? (Madame Hydra? Von Strucker?). I think there should be at least one or two movies that should take a break from all the Infinity gem shenanigans (case in point: Phase 1 – Iron Man 1 and 2, The Incredible Hulk; Phase 2- Iron Man 3, The Winter Soldier), and show a much simpler story where it’s just all about good vs. evil.

1. INHUMANS
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Guardians of the Galaxy opens a lot of doors for unknown (to the non-comic book reading public) cosmic characters of the Marvel Comic Book cannon to have films of their own in the cinematic universe; both through film and television. If Guardians of the Galaxy gave us the fun side of the cosmic side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Inhumans can give us a serious one or not since Marvel loves doing curveballs).

SPECULATION:

A lot of people have been theorizing that Quicksilver Pietro and Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff are some Kree experiments that Hydra kidnapped and brainwashed, the same kind the Inhumans are; with that theory in mind, it is a more plausible way to introduce them without dropping the “M” word (by that I mean Mutants), and them being a fairly good introduction for the existence of the Inhumans unless Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t really the best example for it (I’ll explain why I brought that show up later).

Like I said earlier, the Inhumans are after all created by the Kree themselves during their war with the Skrulls. In their experiments they were messing with the human candidates’ (when they discovered the existence of the human race) genetic code and later on mutating them into species that are rather Inhuman. Due to their genetic potential of being easily mutated, the Celestials (whom we already know they exist in the MCU due to the expositional monologue of The Collector as he explains the existence of the Infinity gems) and the Kree Empire becomes invested in people like us because of our genetic code having the ability to do so. A crazy theory by the AstonishingArachnid of ComicBookMovie he speculated on how Killian giving the idea of the human brain be connected to the Inhumans:

Killian states that human beings have an empty slot in their brains which can be accessed to rewrite genetic code and mutate human beings Case in point: Extremis and Centipede.

(I’m more surprised than you are that someone found a way that Iron Man 3 can be of certain relevance).

It’s a longshot of a theory for sure, but there is hope with the developing existence of both the Kree and the Celestials. He also brought up on how Blizzard (who was in the 12th episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) could be a possible Inhuman (and he is revealed to be in the comics), and even Scorch (who was also in one of the episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) or even Blackout (who appears in the Cellist episode). Do note, they can’t explain why they had these powers in the first place. Perhaps it was their genetic code being activated? *winks* Perhaps I could be jumping into conclusions about the characters of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and even the Maximoff twins, but it wouldn’t hurt to at least speculate a bit. Inhumans seems to be in development now especially with Vin Diesel being teased to be the lead role, Black Bolt. We could argue that he is already Groot but that’s just the voice, but we’re talking about a role that has a voice that could destroy galaxies (to those who read the comics, you see what I did there?)

These are all just speculation or what I call ‘spitballing’ after all, with a future of Marvel films being stretched to the next 14 years. I don’t see why we couldn’t at least come up with wild theories of how we want the underdogs to come up and succeed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So what do you guys think? Did I miss anything? What other property do you want Marvel to gamble their millions of dollars on? And how would you like them to appear?


GP Manalo

 
G.P. Manalo is a student by day, and a resident tortured writer by night. Writing to keep him sane from all the Business School papers and presentations piling up each week.