With a slew of Marvel Studios productions coming to Disney+ over the next six months, The Escapist has launched a weekly show discussing these series
This week, I join KC Nwosu and Amy Campbell to talk about the second episode of What If…?, streaming on Disney+.
Filed under: Podcasts!, Television | Tagged: a marvellous escape, a marvelous escape, amy campbell, Black Panther, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, kc nwosu, Star Lord, t'challa, the escapist, what if | Leave a comment »
Guardians of the Galaxy hits a few bumps along the way, but it works very well.
The key to this would seem to be James Gunn. Like the best of the Marvel comic adaptations, Guardians of the Galaxy is a film that manages to find its own unique authorial voice amid the cross-pollination of Marvel’s vast cinematic universe. Like Shane Black on Iron Man 3, Kenneth Branagh on Thor or Jon Favreau on Iron Man, James Gunn manages to put his own unique stamp on Guardians of the Galaxy – a film that remains compellingly personal amid the apocalyptic 9/11 imagery.
Lighting the way…
While the film suffers from some of the structural weaknesses that are typical of Marvel’s blockbusters, its strengths come from the director and co-writer. Although set in a vast universe with epic stakes and impossible odds, Guardians of the Galaxy works best when it focuses on its characters, whether the human Peter Quill (with his “outlaw name” Star Lord), the killing machine Drax, the sentient and sensitive tree Groot, the racoon named Rocket or the prodigal daughter named Gamora.
Guardians of the Galaxy is a film that introduces itself to the image of Peter Quill dancing beneath the logo, to the tune of Fooled Around and Fell In Love by Elvin Bishop, playing from a cassette labelled “Awesome Mix, Vol. 1.” That is all you need to know.
Gotta dance…
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: chris pratt, cosmic, gamora, groot, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, i am groot, James Gunn, john c. reilly, kree, marvel, non-review review, nova corps, peter quill, review, rocket, rocket raccoon, ronan the accuser, Star Lord, zoe saldana | 4 Comments »
April (and a little bit of May) are “Avengers month” at the m0vie blog. In anticipation of Joss Whedon’s superhero epic, we’ll have a variety of articles and reviews published looking at various aspects of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” This doesn’t exactly feature the Avengers, but a similarly all-star cast of cosmic Marvel superheroes…
Read our review of The Avengers here.
I have to admit, I have really enjoyed the “cosmic” Marvel crossovers in the past few years, perhaps more than I’ve enjoyed the big Avengers-themed events that they’ve been churning out consistently. Being honest, I think part of the reason that the cosmic line balanced these events so well was because it was smaller, and thus easier to handle. You didn’t have to worry about splitting character beats between the main miniseries and the supporting titles, nor did you have to worry about a dozen other comics feeding into (and flowing out of) your miniseries. At its peak, the line – as helmed by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning – consisted of two titles (Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy), and nobody else was playing in the sandbox. Maybe I’m just a little bit selfish, but it’s always fun to watch a writer play with toys that he’s not being asked to share.
Five cosmic powerhouses walk into a bar...
Filed under: Comics | Tagged: andy lanning, annihilation, Comics, cosmic, dan abnett, Infinity Crusade, joss whedon, marvel comics, marvel cosmic, nova, review, richard ryder, Star Lord, starlord, thanos, the thanos imperative | Leave a comment »
This is the tenth in a series of comic book reviews that will look at the direction of Marvel’s shared universe (particularly their “Avengers” franchise) over the past five or so years, as they’ve been attempting to position the property at the heart of their fictional universe. With The Avengers planned for a cinematic release in 2012, I thought I’d bring myself up to speed by taking a look at Marvel’s tangled web of continuity.
Perhaps it was the novelty of Marvel’s Annihilation crossover which lent the series its appeal. It took some of the more often overlooked space heroes of the Marvel Universe and tied them all together as part of a gripping narrative fighting against the extinction of life itself. It was loud and bright and colourful and frentic – it was perhaps the best crossover that Marvel have produced in the past five years or so. So I was very much anticipating the sequel, Annihilation: Conquest – hoping that it could be another breath of fresh air in this long trek through Marvel’s shared universe. Unfortunately, it seemed that a lot of energy of the original was gone – the series couldn’t help but feel somewhat anti-climactic.
Feel the Wraith...
Filed under: Comics | Tagged: aliens, andy lanning, annihilation, annihilation conquest, borg, captain marvel, Comics, conquest, cosmic marvel, dan abnett, games, marvel, marvel comics, Marvel Super Heroes, nova, phalanx, quasar, Roleplaying, ronan, Star Lord, starlord, Super Heroes, ultron, wraith | Leave a comment »
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