dorsk188

Absolutely. The broad strokes of the '85 series would make a great gritty short-run TV series on HBO or something. All it needs is a bit of streamlining and some modernizing of the tone/character designs. Just the philosophical implications of the B-Mod Machine alone make it a story worth adapting.

As for the Max series, it's a different animal entirely, but just really amazing. I did feel like it was losing steam before cancellation, but then it started to perk up again right before the cliffhanger ending. The worst part was that I didn't know it had been cancelled at first, so I didn't see the end coming. That's part of the reason I made sure to mention it here. It's a really great series, but everyone should know going in that it isn't complete.

@zearing:

I recently read the 1985 mini-series and found it really interesting, though it's better at posing moral questions than resolving them. But it made me interested enough in the characters to check out JMS's Max series: Supreme Power, which was just absolutely phenomenal. Just don't get too attached (like I did), it was cancelled before its time.

Both are worth a read depending on your tastes (1985 is the Bronze Age personified, and the JMS run is downright Kafkaesque).

After I binged on both, I've become a massive Squadron cheerleader. Comparing them to the Justice League or the Crime Syndicate misses the point. They are Marvel's version of the Justice League in essentially the same way that the Watchmen were Alan Moore's version of Charlton Comics characters. Which is to say: subversive, complex, and fascinating in their own right.

Damn girl... I'm thinking the 616 spider bit the wrong person.

It's probably inspired by Batman Beyond in some way, with a bold red sleek bat symbol, maybe even capeless. Unlikely, but possibly even having no visible chin or eyes (just white). That would fit all of Smith's descriptions, especially his "all-black" comment, while also falling into line with the not-really-concept art that at least suggests the direction they may go, and would also ultimately be disappointing and slightly cringe-inducing (because it's a Snyder film, after all). That's my bet.

@hart7668:

I didn't care for IM3's trailer, actually, but I loved the movie itself.

Maybe it's just that good...

But seriously, it's pretty damn good. I wish I could get half as excited about Thor. Whereas this and Iron Man (and to a disappointingly lesser extent Agents of Shield) build off of the wider cinematic universe, and offer the promise of some spectacular synergistic nerdgasm, Thor seems very self-contained and small somehow. I mean, is everyone in the movie universe going to be constantly talking about the Dark Elf attack on wherever it is in Thor 2 the way they obsess about the Battle of New York? For some reason, I don't think so. Just like how no one ever mentions Abomination's rampage or Hammer's battle drones (wiped from the collective consciousness because the movies were weak, I suppose). Winter Soldier seems to be building SHIELD's mythology very organically (as opposed to the forced exposition of Iron Man 2) so that another franchise like Ant-Man or Agents of Shield, or something we don't even know is coming yet, could keep going. Thor, ultimately, is a dead end for the shared universe, which is still a really novel and exciting thing to me.

EDIT: Also, is it just me or does ScarJo seem very low energy here? She sounds like she's already tired of this gig.

I've always wanted more for Captain America in the movies. It seemed like other characters (Iron Man especially) have really stolen his thunder. His role in the Avengers climax was so incredibly disappointing that I've been hoping CA2 would perhaps address his combat deficiency (it'd be a nice arc for him to have to prove himself worthy of being an Avenger the same way he had to prove himself worthy of being the super soldier test subject). That's my biases / expectations / hopes going in...

But this trailer is really really promising. It seems like they're going to be using the unique qualities of Cap (traditional values literally thawed from the Greatest Generation) in a setting where they will really shine (the modern international world of moral greys), while allowing him to be all the badass that he's supposed to be (no parachute). It also seems like Marvel has enough movie franchises going that they aren't straining to connect them anymore. All of the SHIELD stuff in Iron Man 2 felt like forced worldbuilding because it was needed to explain why the Avengers movie was coming, but now, they're a bit more free to choose the organic relationships (Black Widow/SHIELD/Falcon/geopolitics) and let other movies pick different stuff from the same bin. I'm actually stunned at how much I am now looking forward to this.

As crazy-over-the-top-massive-budget as it sounds, I wish Marvel would do a sort of TV version of the fantasy anthologies that gave rise to so many of these characters in the first place. A 4-6 episode arc about a certain character, then move on to another character, then come back to the popular characters with further adventures. It would allow them to test the waters with, say, a Daredevil legal procedural, a Silver Surfer philosophical self-examination (don't know if Marvel has TV rights), a Captain Marvel alien adventure (Carol Danvers meets X-Files with more punching), or a Heroes for Hire without committing to 26 episodes of it. Sort of a superhero version of the Outer Limits or Twilight Zone.

Of course, I thought the Agents of Shield show would offer some possibility for this, but it's been very reluctant to adapt anything from the comics to the screen. Maybe its a sign of how nervous Marvel is of giving a bad first impression for a comic character that could be the "next Iron Man".

For a charismatic, likable, and humorous Scott Lang version of Ant-Man, it would be hard to do better than Rudd.

I love Gordon-Levitt in superheroy kind of movies, but he's not really in the Ant-Man wheelhouse. In fact, the two choices are so different, that I think these two aren't really the "final two". Either one of them is already picked and this is manipulative leaking or neither is really all that close to the role and they'll get someone else.

As for Wasp: if Pym isn't Ant-Man, then Janet should probably not be the Wasp (at least not yet). Hank and Jan go together, imo. For all the rockiness (and let's hope that dirty laundry doesn't get aired in the cinematic universe), they belong together. I'd cast Patrick Wilson as Hank Pym (even if he's not the first Ant-Man) and probably Olivia Wilde as Janet.