Murphy's Multiverse

Category: Features

  • Twelve Days of X-Mas, Day 4: ‘STARJAMMERS: THE IMPERIAL GUARD’

    This feature originally ran at MCU Exchange in December of 2017.

    Welcome to another installment of what I hope is an enjoyable, extended look at a series of films that I’d like to see used as a way to bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four universes into the MCU. I’ve spent a troubling amount of time in my own mind thinking about this and figured that if I was going to spend that much time, I might as well write it up and feel accomplished! In doing so, I know that I’ll push some buttons with some readers, so let’s be clear about a few things: these are only MY ideas and do not, in any way, represent insight into what we should expect; of all the films I end up writing about, there’s a very small chance ANY of them get made; you’re free to write your own fan-fiction about films you want to see.

    With so much time between now and when we will first see the X-Men enter the MCU, there’s a lot of time for things to change (including my own mind); however, this “blueprint” is my current idea and one that I’ve attempted to base both in the kind of decisions Marvel Studios has made to date and on the types of changes we’ve seen recently. Unfortunately, in writing these I’ve discovered I am NOT cut out to do screenplays, so some of these  stray from convention in a few ways.

    In the first installment, I took at look at how The Starjammers could potentially kick off Marvel Studios’ inclusion of the X-Men characters into the MCU. Then I took a shot at introducing Charles Xavier to the world and explaining just why he needed the X-Men in the first place. Next, we introduced arguably Marvel’s greatest character, Victor von Doom. Today, it’s time to return to space and continue the story of Corsair and the Starjammers. When last we saw the Starjammers they had landed several major blows against the Shi’ar Empire and this film will pick up right where the last one left off: with Lilandra’s Shi’ar Imperial Guard on a mission to bring down Corsair and his crew of pirates.

    The middle film of what I planned out as a trilogy, this film will have a few twists and turns along the way but will definitely see our heroes taking a beating. A couple of years have passed and while the legend of the Starjammers has grown, Lilandra has not only called on the Shi’ar Imperial Guard, a team of the finest warriors from all across the Shi’ar empire to pursue them but has also placed a robust bounty on Corsair’s head, making it harder and harder for the space pirates to find safe places to stay. As the film opens we see the Imperial Guard, made up of Kallark, praetor of the guard, Mentor, Smasher, Oracle and Neutron smashing a few heads at a port where the Starjammers were rumored to have recently been.

    D’Ken has successfully unearthed the M’Kraan crystal from its resting place on Alsibar. His madness has grown and he looks to return to the expansionist roots of the empire. In the presence of the crystal, he believes himself to be communing with Sharra and K’ythri, the Shi’ar deities they hold responsible for the creation of the universe. Well aware of the damage done to the Kree homeworld of Hala during the Kree-Skrull War, D’Ken looks to threaten the Kree with an ultimatum: be annexed into the Shi’ar Empire, or be destroyed.

    On Earth, the 14-year old Scott Summers remains at the State Home for Foundlings. When we first see him, he’s talking with Dr. Essex about the nearly constant migraines he’s been experiencing the past few weeks. Essex draws some blood and as he goes back to his room, we see Essex open a computer file that gives us a little more insight into his deep obsession not only with Scott, but the entire Summers bloodline. A look at his computer reveals generations of gene mapping of the Summers’ blood line and molecular markers on Scott’s 23rd chromosome. As Essex takes a look at the new blood work and immediately recognizes that Scott’s body has begun producing some interesting new proteins.

    When we catch up with 12-year old Alex, we snot that he’s grown considerably. An early bloomer, Alex has moved in with a family and has fit in nicely. We won’t spend much time with Alex now, but it’s important to note that he’s matured quickly and has taken to the role of big brother in his new foster family.

    And before we leave Earth we head to upstate New York where we meet a mutant Shi’ar, Davan Shakari. Shakari, the Hand of the King, is on Earth collecting intelligence for D’Ken about the threats offered by Terra’s heroes as D’Ken hopes to wipe them out and expand the empire to include Earth. While he’d make you double take on the street, Shakari has a more-exotic, less-alien appearance that allows him to do some surveillance on his own. However, he has a full stable of slaves at his disposal and for his purposes on Earth, Gabriel Summers is the perfect tool. Summers does much of Shakari’s day-to-day information gathering. Though he seems loyal, it’s important to note that Gabriel has gained Shakari’s trust and is testing his limits.

    We’ve made it all this way and still haven’t checked in on our Starjammers! We catch up with the crew and notice that they’ve expanded by two members since last we met. Ch’od has picked up an adorable little companion who we see him playing with as we pan to Corsair, who looks a little worse from their recent mission. In swoops what first appears to be a small drone that heads towards Corsair; as it approaches, Corsair greets him as Dr. Sikorsky. A closer look reveals him to be a sentient being, covered in armor as he quickly demonstrates his his minor telepathic abilities. We learn that the Starjammer took heavy fire in their latest heist and that they’re aware that the Imperial Guard is hot on their trail. We also find out that they’ve become aware that the M’Kraan crystal has been found and Hepzibah gives the crew a little exposition on just what the crystal can do. The Starjammers are cornered, the galaxy is getting small so they plan their biggest heist yet: they are going after the M’Kraan crystal.

    Back on the ship of the Imperial Guard, Praetor Kallark briefs Lilandra on their progress in hunting the Starjammers. Their intel suggests they are hiding out near the planet Tryl’sart, the home planet of Hepzibah and her people, the Mephitisoids. The Mephitisoids were the last holdouts of the Shi’ar’s conquest of their current empire and have remained unruly, though controllable, since. As the crew sets a course for Tryl’sart, Lilandra asks Kallark for his opinion on D’Ken’s plans to expand their empire through fear. The hesitation in his voice gives us hope that Kallark is a good man, but his answer is this is what is best for the Shi’ar because it is what the Emperor has planned. As they jump to Tryl’sart, Lilandra reminds Kallark of the madness that took her sister and that she perceives is growing in her brother. She will speak to her brother and if he does not listen, she’ll plead her case to the Shi’ar High Council in the hopes that they will see what her brother is becoming.

    Gabriel Summers has done well in preparing himself to escape and does so. He cleverly covers his trail and quickly finds himself miles away in the woods near a small orphanage that he’d previously identified as a potential shelter. As he enters the building and the staff begins to question him during intake, it’s quite clear that his only memories are, inexplicably from the very recent past. After he is settled in to his room, the director of the orphanage comes to visit: Moira MacTaggert is in America. Meanwhile in Nebraska, his brother Scott is shown getting a fancy new pair of specs, courtesy of Dr. Essex. As Essex explains, the red-tinted lenses should filter out the low wavelength, high energy blue light that’s been causing him headaches. And as we check in with Alex, we see that not only is he fitting in well with his new family, he’s become quite popular as he gets ready to head to high school.

    The Imperial Guard come out of their jump outside the planet Tryl’sart. It’s not long before the Starjammers are alerted to their presence and begin preparations to take off. Kallark and Neutron jump to action and quickly disable the ship. Kallark releases beams of intense heat from his eyes that begin to carve large pieces of the ship away. As he finished, Neutron approaches the ship on what appears to be a kamikaze run only to breach the hull: the rest of the Imperial Guard board the Starjammer. Raza and Ch’od greet the forces of the Imperial Guard and fight valiantly, but are quickly dispatched. Their battle is just a distraction allowing Corsair and Hepzibah to make their escape in order to commandeer the Imperial Guard’s vessel. As they work their way to their shuttle, Hepzibah is struck with the memory of how her friends saved her in the mine, plants a kiss on Corsair and tells him to hurry.  Her surprise entrance briefly turns the tide but Oracle quickly subdues her with her powers. She also reads her mind and sees that all this has unfolded just as Corsair had hoped: the Imperial Guard are all aboard a disabled ship and Corsair is in control of an Imperial cruiser. As Kallark flys out in pursuit of the cruiser, Corsair jumps leaving the Imperial Guard stranded, but also in possession of everything he has left in his life.

    Corsair flips his H.U.D. down and opens a line of communication with Dr. Sikorsky, who is still aboard the Starjammer along with Ch’od’s little pet. The two have surveyed the area and are ready to rescue the rest who are being stowed on a sub-level. When they arrive to free their friends, they find only a badly wounded Ch’od and Raza; Hepzibah is nowhere to be found. We find she’s been taken by Lilandra and Kallark to Tryl’sart’s Shi’ar embassy where she will be executed in front of her people for treason. As Dr. Sikorsky patches up Ch’od, he and Raza formulate their plan to get to the surface of the planet and save their friend. At the embassy on Tryl’sart, Lilandra contacts D’Ken and informs him of their progress. Long hateful of the Mephitisoids and their unruly behavior, D’Ken tells Lilandra to stay the execution of Hepzibah; he’s coming to Tryl’sart himself, with the M’Kraan crystal intent on destroying the entire planet and showing the rest of the empire what happens to those who harbor traitors. As the screen fades away, Lilandra and Kallark exchange glances…Lilandra must go back to the Aerie and confront the High Council and stop her brother’s madness. As she makes her plans, Neutron, well aware of Lilandra’s plans, storms away.

    Corsair walks the streets of the Shi’ar capital in disguise knowing time is short. They abandoned the vessel just outside the planet and have used some contacts on Chandilar to be smuggled in and are finding hiding among the nearly million of inhabitants of the imperial capital to be quite easy. Unfortunately for them, they have underestimated D’Ken’s response. As word on the street spreads of D’Ken’s decision to destroy Tryl’sart, Corsair realizes he has failed. Not only will he be unable to steal the crystal, he’s also going to lose what family he had left. It’s just at that time that Imperial Guardsmen Oracle and Smasher arrive and quickly disable Corsair.

    Lilandra’s ship lands on Chandilar and she approaches the chamber of the High Council, who she has called together. D’Ken’s ship approaches Tryl’sart, the newly weaponized M’Kraan crystal ready for use. Ch’od, Raza and Sikorsky, known as Starjammers and heroes to the Mephitisoids, launch their attack on the embassy with the help of some locals. Lilandra enters the chamber, eager to plead with the Council. Corsair, badly beaten, is thrown into a holding cell on a Shi’ar vessel. The Shi’ar jailer projects an image from D’Ken’s ship into his cell. D’Ken unleashes the crystal’s power, vaporizing Tryl’sart. Lilandra is never given a chance to make her plea; Neutron has informed the Council that she has planned to usurp her brother and take the throne for herself. Raza, Ch’od, Sikorsky and Hepzibah are shown to have escaped from the darkside of Tryl’sart in an old ship left over from the original Shi’ar-Mephitisoid war. Corsair watches the destruction of Tryl’sart, his failure complete in his mind. Lilandra is brought to the same Shi’ar vessel as Corsair and thrown in a cell across from him. D’Ken begins the journey home, eager to claim the heads of the pirate Corsair and the only remaining threat to his throne: his sister. Kallark and the rest of the Imperial Guard return to the Aerie, their duty done.

    Post-Credit Scene #1: Scott, much like Gabriel, is on the run. The difference, however, is that he has no plan and nowhere to go. He’s hitch-hiked as far as Sioux Falls, South Dakota when he begins hearing voices in his head. Those voices lead him to a small house nearby where the voices get stronger and stronger. As they grow, the stress causes Scott to unleash a massive optic blast, his first since the plane crash, and pass out. As he hits the ground, a hand, fully encased in diamond, reaches out to check his pulse. The camera pulls away to show fellow mutant Jack Winters, the Living Diamond, as he carries Scott to safety.

    Post-Credit Scene #2: Aboard the Imperial flagship where Corsair and Lilandra await their death, a defeated Corsair hears a familiar voice in his ear: Sikorsky has made his way to the jail.

    Things do indeed look bad for the Starjammers during the course of the film, but we get the glimmer of hope we need at the end of the film. The Summers boys are all in the places they need to be for what comes next. We are left to ponder the fate of Lilandra, however.  We’re just a third of the way through, but I want to thank you for reading and continuing to support the site. I’m looking forward to sharing tomorrow’s feature with you when I finally get around to introducing Marvel’s First Family, who come to find out, have been around longer than we know.

    The Starjammers will return!

  • Twelve Days of X-Mas, Day 3: ‘DOCTOR DOOM’

    This feature previously appeared at MCU Exchange in December of 2017.

    Welcome to another installment of what I hope is an enjoyable, extended look at a series of films that I’d like to see used as a way to bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four universes into the MCU. I’ve spent a troubling amount of time in my own mind thinking about this and figured that if I was going to spend that much time, I might as well write it up and feel accomplished! In doing so, I know that I’ll push some buttons with some readers, so let’s be clear about a few things: these are only MY ideas and do not, in any way, represent insight into what we should expect; of all the films I end up writing about, there’s a very small chance ANY of them get made; you’re free to write your own fan-fiction about films you want to see.

    With so much time between now and when we will first see the X-Men enter the MCU, there’s a lot of time for things to change (including my own mind); however, this “blueprint” is my current idea and one that I’ve attempted to base both in the kind of decisions Marvel Studios has made to date and on the types of changes we’ve seen recently. Unfortunately, in writing these I’ve discovered I am NOT cut out to do screenplays, so some of these  stray from convention in a few ways.

    In the first installment, I took at look at how The Starjammers could potentially kick off Marvel Studios’ inclusion of the X-Men characters into the MCU. Then I took a shot at introducing Charles Xavier to the world and explaining just why he needed the X-Men in the first place. Now it’s time to introduce my absolute favorite Marvel Comics character of all time: Victor Von Doom. This film would represent a major departure from the norm for Marvel Studios because the main character is one of their greatest villains; however, he’s also one of their most well-developed characters and deserves his own film, especially given the role I have imagined for him. After a brief discussion this morning, we are envisioning this as the MCU’s There Will Be Blood!

    The film opens in Doomstadt on June 23, 2020: Midsummer’s Eve. Following some beautiful establishing shots of Castle Doom, Victor von Doom summons a dimensional gateway. Upon stepping through the portal, Victor finds himself in what appears to be Hell. This is not Muspelheim. This is not the Dark Dimension. This is a place unlike any other and, as we find out, one that is whatever its host wills it to be. As Victor makes his way through the visually striking dimension, he is greeted by two beings: the film’s villain and the driving force behind ever decision Victor has made his entire life. The demon Mephisto tortures a woman as he welcomes Victor to his realm. Victor gives his Inigio Montoya speech, revealing to us the woman is his mother, and then the two engage in a battle of extra-dimensional energies in the vein of Doctor Strange. Cut to title.

    The film proper opens in Latveria in 1984. It’s an appropriate time not only to fit the current MCU timeline, but also to properly root Victor in the Romani culture from the comics. The 1980s were not kind to the Romani people of Eastern Europe. They lived in ghettos, were persecuted (one Eastern European leader of the time said there were some Romani you “just had to shoot.”) and even sterilized, so our fictional country of Latveria won’t differ much from what was actually happening during that time.

    It’s in a Latverian Romani ghetto, just outside the capital city of Hassenstadt, that we first meet the von Dooms: Victor, his father, Werner, and his mother, Cynthia. From their ghetto, the von Dooms look up to Castle Hassenstadt, ancestral home to the ruling family of Latveria, the Fortunovs. The castle is now inhabited by a young, ruthless warlord, Valdimir Fortunov, the third member of his family to rule the country since being given control of it during the Red Skull’s march on Europe in World War II. During Vladimir’s 4-year reign, the Romani have been villainized and identified by the government as dangerous criminals. It’s not uncommon to see mass executions of the Romani and, as we move back to Victor and his family, we find that the people of their tribe, the Zefiro, led by an elder named Boris, are planning their exodus from the country. The von Doom’s small home holds a wealth of treasure for young Victor. While is father is a doctor and man of science, his mother is well-known among the Romani people as a practitioner of the mystic arts and their home is full of texts and artifacts, many of which the 4-year old Victor is shown reading and studying.

    As plans develop, a group of Zefiro are caught outside of their ghetto and brought before Vladimir. As punishment for their “crime”, Vladimir takes them back to their part of town and has them executed in front of the remaining Romani. Victor’s mother Cynthia is outraged and begins to summon a spell but is stopped by Werner. As Vladimir walks away, Cynthia sets her heart on revenge and sets in motion the series of events that will lead Victor to becoming the man we met in the opening.

    Back to Hell. Mephisto and Victor battle fiercely and Victor’s assault is seen to weaken Mephisto who makes not of his surprise at how strong Victor has grown. At this point, Mephisto summons Kagrok, a brimstone beast, to attack Victor, turning the tide. As Victor battles Kagrok, we close in on Mephisto grinning.

    The camera pulls away from Mephisto and we see him looking face to face with a very alive Cynthia von Doom. It seems Cynthia’s interest in sorcery has allowed her to tap into the dark arts and she has summoned Mephisto in order to have her revenge. Ever the deal maker, Mephisto agrees to empower Cynthia’s revenge against the soldiers who killed her people in exchange for the only thing he ever wants: a soul. Believing that making this deal will save her son from an early death, Cynthia gladly pays the cost of her soul, due to Mephisto at the time of her death. Cynthia’s retribution is swift and brutal. As she makes her way through the village where the soldiers who killed her people live, she casts the spell given to her by Mephisto. As screams come from every house in the village, Cynthia sees Mephisto’s evil at work as he collects the not only the souls of the soldiers as they leave their bodies but the souls of their wives and children as well. Stricken by the fact that she has just committed the same atrocity for which she had sought vengeance. As the scene ends, Cynthia ends the spell and is shot by Vladimir. A wide smile covers Mephisto’s face as he collects her soul and returns to Hell.

    Word of Cynthia’s death at the hands of Vladimir reaches the Zefiro quickly and expedites their exodus. Initially they consider leaving Victor and Werner behind, they decide to move on together. Victor and his father collect their and Cynthia’s things into a chest and begin their move from Hassenstadt. It’s winter and their journey is harsh. Several of the Zefiro die and Werner falls ill. Victor watches as Boris and the others try to save him, but to no avail. Victor watches his father die and be buried unceremoniously in the woods. As they leave the country, Victor, clutches the chest, his only possessions, and takes one last look at Latveria and Castle Hassenstadt, determined to return to it under very different circumstances.

    When next we see Victor he has aged 10 years. Communism has lost its grip in most of Eastern Europe. Economic reforms had swept most of Europe, leaving the small nation of Latveria as one of the only holdouts. Victor had taken advantage of the open markets to in the neighboring countries to sell some inventions and has grown into central figure among the Zefiro. Several scenes will show Victor mastering not only science and technology, but also the mystic arts. Key among them will be a scene in which Victor is followed back to the Zefiro camp by a group of men who mean his people harm. Victor quickly turns to the use of magic against them, sending them running. As they run, Victor uses a spell to bring one of the men to him before strangling him; at this moment Victor realizes that his actions could bring retribution to his people and uses what money he has to get to America. We see Victor arrive in Manhattan in the fall of 1994.

    Back in Hell, Victor has defeated Kagrok and sets his sights on Mephisto once more. He is distracted by the screams of his mother as he sees her torn into shreds by the hands of countless minor demons only to be reconstituted and torn apart again. Victor summons a massive energy surge and strikes Mephisto who is driven back by the blast.

    It’s now 1996 and the 16-year old Victor is wearing a welding mask as he works on an android. We meet Professor Gregson Gilbert and learn that Victor’s genius has earned him a scholarship at State University in upstate New York. Victor’s arrival has breathed new life into Gilbert who has been working on robots and android technology for years before hitting a stopping point. Victor works late into the night, using his access to the lab to work on several side projects as well as Gilbert’s android, “Dragon Man.” Over the years, Victor’s continued work with the mystic arts and communing with other spirits have led him to believe that his mother’s soul belongs to an inter-dimensional being known as Mephisto. Victor believes that by blending magic and technology, he can open a doorway to Mephisto’s dimension and reclaim his mother’s soul from eternal torture and he begins to design the machine. Word of Victor’s genius spreads and he is approached by Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D., alongside an unnamed man (Nathaniel Richards) who asks for his help in examining an interesting piece of alien technology: a Kree Sentry. The Sentry has been on Earth for some time and given the events that took place around it (seen in Captain Marvel), Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. are interested in cracking it secrets. Victor agrees to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. on the project as a way to gain access to more materials and is paid handsomely for his work. It is here that Victor first comes across the Tesseract and begins work on his original Time Platform. NOTE This sort of behavior is not spreading Victor too think, in my opinion. This is, perhaps, the type of behavior exhibited by many genius-level intellects over the course of time: being capable of holding several complex problems in their mind consecutively, working to solve one mentally while physically constructing another.

    Of course this time at State University will also introduce two of the most important characters in Victor’s upcoming life: Reed Richards and Ben Grimm. Though Reed and Victor are not working together on any projects, the school is abuzz at having two super genius intellects on campus. Reed and Ben stop into Victor’s robotics lab one day to introduce themselves to the other resident star. Though hard at work, Victor recognizes the two and they share a brief interchange. As Victor continues work on Dragon Man, Reed grabs a notebook believing he’s looking at plans for the android. Reed quickly understands the schematics he’s seeing aren’t for an android at all and include symbols and a language he’s never seen before. Stunned at his inability to understand a machine, Reed asks Victor to explain; Victor scoffs at Reed’s ignorance and dismisses the two from his lab; Reed warns Victor that while he can’t understand the language, he also can’t agree to the calculations for how it channels energy. Of course Victor ignores Reed and finally completes his machine. (Does Ben mess with the machine now?) The machine uses energy to open a portal to Hell, where Victor is greeted by Mephisto. As the two speak, the machine begins to draw too much energy and surges. Victor hears his mother’s voice, warning him to never come back, and as he reaches to her, Mephisto grabs his throat and stares into his eyes, terrifying Victor. At that moment, the machine explodes, closing the portal and disfiguring Victor. As he recovers from his wounds, Victor is asked to leave State University for his actions. Reed and Ben visit Victor in the hospital and he accuses them of tampering with his machine, an accusation Reed denies as Ben stands mute. As the two leave it’s clear where they stand with Victor. As the second act of the film comes to a close, Victor leaves America with the knowledge that his mother remains in Hell and that the man who killed her has survived the fall of the Iron Curtain and remains in power in Latveria (hospital TVs are handy).

    The final act of the film will take us catch us right back up to where the film begin and will reveal how Victor came to power in Latveria. Victor uses a portion of the money he made and invested while working for S.H.I.E.L.D. to purchase an abandoned castle in Sokovia: a small country near Latveria. Here Victor refined his original Time Platform, eventually perfecting it and using it to catch a glimpse of a being from the 31st Century who is identified as Immortus. Victor also continues his pursuits in the mystic arts, though after his harrowing experience with Mephisto, he has begun to dabble more and more in the dark arts. As his knowledge grows, Victor is still unable to achieve his ultimate goal, the release of his mother’s soul, and begins acquiring and studying ancient texts in order to gain more knowledge. In these texts he comes across stories of Kamar-Taj and the Ancient One and, eventually, the Aged Genghis, a legendary being thought to have been gifted with his power by the Vishaniti themselves. Despite most writing him off to legend, Victor believes he is alive and can be located and heads to the Himalays.

    In a journey that mirrors the one he made in his youth, Victor treks the Himalays to the point of exhaustion. Calling upon the dark arts to sustain his energy, Victor eventually finds the cave of the Aged Genghis. An order of monks, similar to those in Kamar-Taj. Victor spends years with the monks, mastering all aspects of the mystic arts, but still haunted by his inability to save his mother’s soul. Over the years he is there, Victor feels both a strong repulsion to yet an urge to enter an underground cavern located within the monks’ cave. In a very Cambell-esque moment, Victor enters a dark cave nearby and leaves a changed man. Victor and the monks quickly begin work on an enchanted suit of armor designed to literally and figuratively build a barrier between him and the world. As Victor leaves the monks, he is still unable to save his mother from Mephisto so he sets his sights on Latveria and Vladimir. As he descends the mountain, Victor places the mask on his face, completing his transformation into Doom!

    After briefly returning to his Sokovian castle, Doom leads his newly built army of Doombots to Latveria. Doom’s army quickly pushes through the Latverian defenses and Doom takes note of the impoverished state of his homeland. Doom breaches the castle and after torturing Vladimir, chooses to kill him with his bare hands instead of using any of his considerable powers. Doom uses both his Doombots and his mastery of the mystic arts to destroy Castle Hassenstadt and erect a new castle in the village where is mother was slain. He supplies the population of Latveria with food and supplies, long horded by Fortunov’s men and is shortly hailed as hero by the people. Now the people of Latveria are his. Castle Doom becomes the center of Doomstadt, the new capital city and the people have no needs or fears, only the care of their new ruler, the benevolent Doom!

    It is June 21, 2005: Midsummer’s Eve at Castle Doom. Mere days after his takeover of Latveria, Doom, now a master of the dark arts, creates a dimensional portal to Hell where he confronts Mephisto again. Eager to leverage anything he has for his mother’s soul, Doom enters into a pact with Mephisto. Each year, on Midsummer’s Eve, the day in which there is the least amount of darkness on the Earth, Doom is allowed to enter Hell and battle Mephisto. Should he win, his mother’s soul is released; should he lose, the people of his newfound kingdom will suffer. Doom agrees and we quickly montage through 15 years of Doom’s defeat at the hands of Mephisto and the growing distress in Latveria. We end where we last saw Doom and Mephisto in battle and watch as Doom is defeated again and sent back to Castle Doom where he angrily returns to his lab to begin refining the Time Platform.

    Post-Credit Scene #1: In Hell, Mephisto is pleased with his victory. As he delights in the tortured screams surrounding him, he turns his eyes to newly opened portal where we see the Silver Surfer race through the Cosmos. We get a sense that this is a soul that Mephisto highly covets and as the scene ends, the Surfer becomes aware that he is being watched.

    Post-Credit Scene #2: July 4, 2020. At work in his lab at Castle Doom a defeated Victor works on a Doombot. The face of another Doombot morphs into a screen broadcasting the return of the Fantastic Four. From the broadcast we learn that the four heroes have been missing since early 2008 when they left on what was expected to be a two-year voyage. As the cameras pan in, the four are joined by two small children: 8-year old Franklin and 4-year old Valeria.

    Fan Cast: I simply cannot decide, but I’d love to hear who you guys think would make a great Doom! Let me know in the comments.

    Man do I hope Marvel Studios makes the choice to give Victor his due! I know this is just poor fan fiction, but Victor is a character unlike any in their stable and I want him fully realized on film. At any rate, we move onward and revisit the cosmos to check in on the Starjammers.

    Victor von Doom will return!!!

  • Twelve Days of X-Mas, Day 2: ‘PROFESSOR X’

    This feature originally ran at MCU Exchange in December of 2017.

    Welcome to another installment of what I hope is an enjoyable, extended look at a series of films that I’d like to see used as a way to bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four universes into the MCU. I’ve spent a troubling amount of time in my own mind thinking about this and figured that if I was going to spend that much time, I might as well write it up and feel accomplished! In doing so, I know that I’ll push some buttons with some readers, so let’s be clear about a few things: these are only MY ideas and do not, in any way, represent insight into what we should expect; of all the films I end up writing about, there’s a very small chance ANY of them get made; you’re free to write your own fan-fiction about films you want to see.

    With so much time between now and when we will first see the X-Men enter the MCU, there’s a lot of time for things to change (including my own mind); however, this “blueprint” is my current idea and one that I’ve attempted to base both in the kind of decisions Marvel Studios has made to date and on the types of changes we’ve seen recently. Unfortunately, in writing these I’ve discovered I am NOT cut out to do screenplays, so some of these, including this one, stray from convention in a few ways.

    In the first installment, I took at look at how The Starjammers could potentially kick off Marvel Studios’ inclusion of the X-Men characters into the MCU. Following Marvel Studios The Starjammers, I think it’s time to dive into the history of Charles Xavier and get some insight into what motivated him to assemble a team of mutants and work to save the world.

    Fox’s X-films have certainly given us some background on Charles Xavier, but I can’t say that I particularly love any of the contrivances they’ve injected into his story. While we’ve had two very talented actors portraying the man behind the X-Men, we’ve hardly gotten a comic accurate Professor X. We’ve seen a good man who had a few misgivings, but we’ve never seen the true Charles: a man with a dark past, innumerable secrets and the determination to due whatever was necessary to drive his agenda forward to victory. The Professor X from the comics is a man who, over time, was revealed to be as deceptive and scheming as nearly any of Marvel’s major villains, it’s just that he was supposed to be the good guy. In the words of Kitty Pryde:

    We’ve had some back and forth behind the scenes on this feature and one of the things I’m hoping Marvel Studios is ready to do is to continue to blur the lines between hero and villain. I think a Professor X film offers just one option (I’ll be exploring others down the line) for Marvel Studios, but one that makes us fundamentally question how we think about good and evil. That’s a big of a departure from what we’ve come to expect, but it’s the kind of change that can really switch change things up for a studio often criticized for being formulaic and predictable.

    For the purposes of this film, I’d be looking to cast someone in their late 30’s-early 40’s. A good portion of the film will be spent catching us up to present day and while we’ve seen some impressive de-aging technology, it’d be far easier to have someone who can just portray Xavier throughout his 20s and 30s and stick around for the better part of a decade as the X-films build. And as far as making sure we won’t get confused with previous Xaviers, there’ll be no British accent with this one given that he grows up in New York.

    The film will open before Charles’ birth with an introduction to his father, Dr. Brian Xavier, his colleague, Dr. Kurt Marko and face we’ve seen before (although before was in the future relative to this film), Dr. Essex, who is currently working as Dr. Milbury. The three men, alongside the creepy Amanda Mueller, are revealed to be working for the government on Project: Black Womb, a project that finds them working on what is essentially the Mutant Genome Project in hopes of understanding the recent rise in the prevalence of the chromosomal x-factor. While he once again is not the main focus of the film, there’s enough time in the opening act to fill in more of his background, including his obsession with the X-gene that runs in a particular family: the Summers. Both his and Mueller’s long life spans can be revealed in this film, along with Mueller’s own interaction with the Summers’ family as the great-great grandmother of Scott and Alex.

    While partners on the project, Dr. Marko is shown to be a jealous and hateful man, though his genius is the equal of Xavier’s. Though both men had sons of the same age, Marko’s arrogance, anger and tendency to get lost in his work had cost him his first wife. The contrast to Xavier’s home life is key as their two sons will be at the center of not only this film but key MCU events for the next several years. Having found what they were looking for, Milbury and Mueller leave the project leaving Xavier and Marko with no funding and no direction. The two continue their work until a lab accident takes Xavier’s life. At this point, things will be quite uncomfortable for the audience and the characters involved. Kurt marries Xavier’s widow and their two sons, Cain Marko and Charles Xavier begin a journey that will keep their fates intertwined for decades.

    From here we will see the two boys growing up in the ancestral Xavier mansion as Cain, who has a history of violence and insubordination, come to live with his father and his new step-family. Brothers by law only, the two boys aren’t close and Cain grows to resent Charles. Kurt abuses and neglects his own son at the expense of fostering Charles’ incredible intellect. Cain feels betrayal at the hands of his father and begins bullying Charles and it is during one such incident that Charles first becomes aware of his telepathic abilities. Charles unintentionally enters the mind of Cain and is terrified of what he sees there and in an act of kindness, tries to talk to Cain about it. This not only increases Cain’s hatred of Charles but also plants the seed of fear of what his step-brother can do. With Marko wrapped up in his work once more, Charles’ mother succumbs to her grief and dies. Angry with Marko, Charles intends to confront him at his lab where he overhears Kurt and Cain fighting. As the fight turns violent, Charles attempts to use his powers to subdue the two only to cause Cain to fly into an uncontrollable rage that results in an explosion. Kurt Makro perishes in the fire, leaving the two boys on their own and Charles as the rightful heir to the Xavier fortunes. From here on, though fully aware of the extent of his powers, Charles remains largely reluctant to use them.

    The second act will follow Charles as he begins his post-secondary education. Charles’ prodigious intellect pushes him quickly through his graduate work and he finds himself jumping across the pond to pursue Ph.Ds in Genetics and Biophysics, hoping to gain some insight not only into his own abilities, but the work his father was doing. As his knowledge grows, so does his curiosity and as he begins to dig into the work done by his father and Marko, he eventually comes across the names of two of their colleagues: Milbury and Mueller. Charles finds himself now at a tipping point and, if not for him happening to meet someone who will become one of the most important people in his life at just this time, things could go quite differently for Xavier. It is at this point that Charles meets and quickly falls in love with Moira Kinross. The two find they are both deeply interested in genetic mutations, though Charles keeps his hidden from Moira, and it is through their discussions that the seeds of Charles’ future plans are sown. Though they have feelings for one another, Moira is clearly wary of entering into a relationship and we learn that she’s been in a tumultuous on-and-off relationship with a man named Joe McTaggert, who is currently stationed abroad as a Royal Marine. Despite her concerns, Moira finds herself falling for Charles and the two fall in love.

    Back at Xavier’s ancestral home, Cain Marko continues to live a life in which he becomes increasingly isolated and violent. Though the two aren’t close, Charles has allowed him to stay in the home and attempts to maintain contact, but on a return trip to America one summer, he uses his powers to access Cain’s mind only to find that his step-brother has given himself over to his baser instincts and has made quite a reputation for himself as a mercenary. Reaching out to help him, Charles approaches Cain about what he knows only to have his step-brother attack him for using his gift to read his mind. The two fight and Cain holds nothing back. While Charles holds his own, he puts an end to the fight by mentally disabling Cain. When he recovers, Cain leaves the mansion, his hatred for Charles and his abilities driving him towards becoming even more of a monster.

    Returning to Oxford, Charles finds that Joe McTaggert has returned. After a brief confrontation, Moira tells Charles that she is leaving him for Joe. Enraged, Charles reads both Moira and Joe’s minds and finds Moira terrified of the abusive Joe. Broken and alone, Charles finishes his work at Oxford at returns to America. Seeing people oppressed at the hands of a dictator, Charles enlists in the US Army and becomes a part of Operation Desert Storm. His time in the war opens his eyes to the hatred, violence and destruction that man unleashes during war. As the war winds down, Charles and army pilot Carmen Pride find themselves behind enemy lines during a rescue mission. As things begin to take a turn for the worse, the opposing army is mowed down by a band of privately contracted soldiers led by Cain Marko. Charles learns that his brother’s team has been sent to loot an ancient temple under the cover of war. Charles puruses Marko into the temple, attempting to stop him from taking treasures that rightfully belong to the people. Marko arrogantly grabs the largest ruby in the old temple, claiming it for himself. In a pretty Indiana Jones scene, the temple begins to fall around them as Charles watches Marko become transformed into something superhuman. As Marko’s rage is unleashed, the temple collapses on top of him, and the last thing Charles sees of his step-brother are his glowing, red eyes.

    With the war ended, Charles completes his service and decides to stay in the Middle East, choosing to live in Cairo. Reaching out with his mind one night, Charles connects with Moira and finds that life has brought her many ups and downs, but that she is now separated from Joe and working at her own research facility on Muir Island, off the coast of Scotland. Digging deeper, Charles finds that Moira has a mutant son and, though the boy is very young, she is already terrified of him. A distraught Charles takes to the streets of Cairo where he becomes aware of the thoughts of a young pickpocket targeting him. As Charles connects with the mind of the young girl, he identifies her as a mutant before he is overwhelmed by another, darker presence in her head and looses consciousness.

    Charles awakens in the lair of Amahl Farouk, the crime boss of the Thieves Quarter of Cairo. Here, Charles gets a good look at the young pick pocket, Ororo, and many others who are clearly under the control of Farouk. Farouk greets Charles and tells him he became aware of his presence in Cairo when he connected with Ororo. Recognizing Charles as a strong telepath, Farouk tells Charles of his criminal enterprise and invites him to be a part of it. For the first time, Charles recognizes not only the equal of his abilities, but also the opposite: someone who is not only willing to use them, but also to use them to commit acts of evil. While Charles’ powers have grown, he’s uncertain of their full extent; however, when he refuses, he finds out the full extent of Farouk’s.

    Farouk quickly shows Charles that while he himself is a powerful mutant, he’s long been bonded with an entity known as the Shadow King. Brought to life as a manifestation of the terrors of early humans, the Shadow King has lived on people’s fears and feasted on their terror. In Farouk he has found a willing and powerful vessel and hopes to bring Xavier’s powers to his stable by inhabiting his mind. As Xavier resists, he finds his mind opens a gateway to another dimension where his likeness is projected: the Astral Dimension. Here Charles quickly learns the power of the Shadow King as his every fear is turned against him (the death of his father, his failure to save Marko and his failed relationship with Moira). In what will become his first act of great violence and a memory that will long haunt him, Charles, reminiscent of what he had seen in Cain, turns the fear to rage and battles back. Unprepared for the immense power unleashed against him, Farouk is beaten. As he attempts one final attack, Charles enters into Farouk’s mind and destroys it entirely, killing Farouk, driving the Shadow King from him. Before Charles returns to his body, we see one final shot of the Shadow King, a being of fear who now knows it.

    As he recovers from his battle with the Shadow King, Charles realizes that while an entirely foul creature, Farouk is certainly not the only mutant out to do evil. It is at this point that he becomes determined to protect others from those who would do evil and to begin to protect and train young mutants, such as the one he met in Cairo, so that they couldn’t be used as weapons. Reflecting back on the life of his step-brother, Cain Marko, Charles knows the dangers that the outcast, orphaned and down-trodden face and begins Project Cerebro, a way to identify mutants that he might train.

    Post-Credit Scene #1: A few years later, Charles has completed work on his third Ph.D, in Psychiatry, and is traveling the world again while continuing to work on Project Cerebro. Seeking to help the survivors of the Bosnian genocide, he works at a refugee clinic in Austria where he meets another volunteer: Erik Magnus.

    Post-Credit Scene #2: Cain Marko, alive and well, boards a plane in an Israeli airport.

    Fan Cast: For some odd reason, I just can’t get this picture out of my head. I’m not sure that it has to be JGL, but there’s something about it that I like.

    A little (or a lot) unconventional I know, but this film sets so many wheels in motion that it had to happen in my mind.

    Professor Xavier will return!

  • Twelve Days of X-Mas, Day 1: ‘STARJAMMERS’

    This feature originally ran at MCU Exchange in December of 2017.

    Welcome to the first of what I hope is an enjoyable, extended look at a series of films that I’d like to see used as a way to bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four universes into the MCU. I’ve spent a troubling amount of time in my own mind thinking about this and figured that if I was going to spend that much time, I might as well write it up and feel accomplished! In doing so, I know that I’ll push some buttons with some readers, so let’s be clear about a few things: these are only MY ideas and do not, in any way, represent insight into what we should expect; of all the films I end up writing about, there’s a very small chance ANY of them get made; you’re free to write your own fan-fiction about films you want to see.

    With so much time between now and when we will first see the X-Men enter the MCU, there’s a lot of time for things to change (including my own mind); however, this “blueprint” is my current idea and one that I’ve attempted to base both in the kind of decisions Marvel Studios has made to date and on the types of changes we’ve seen recently.

    Assuming that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will take place at some point in 2022 or 2023, the first of the films I’ll be writing about would be both a nice companion piece, given how James Gunn has maintained that Vol. 3 is the last film for this version of the Guardians, and the gateway to the X-universe. It’s a film that is safe and familiar enough to draw fans in, but different enough that they aren’t just getting more of the same under a new title. Of all the films I’ve dreamed up in my head, this is the one I want to see the most. I want Marvel Studios Starjammers!

    Image result for marvel starjammers"

    A Starjammers film allows Marvel Studios to cash in on the massive goodwill of Guardians of the Galaxy while opening the door to other parts of the Cosmos previously unavailable to the studio while sewing several X-seeds along the way.

    The Starjammers story is more than another space opera; it is the story of the Summers family. The first film will focus on the family being torn apart, following Christopher Summers as he rises from the Shi’ar slave pits to become the leader of a rebellion against the mad emperor, D’Ken. While his oldest children struggle through adolescence as orphans, his youngest child is experimented on by the Shi’ar and becomes a slave himself.

    A family story needs to start with the family and so our story begins in the year 2023 at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska where we meet Christopher Summers, his wife Katherine, and their sons, Scott and Alex as they prepare for a long overdue family vacation.

    As the family vacations, the focus shifts to the cosmos where we are taken to Chandilar, the Imperial Seat of the Shi’ar Empire where Majestor D’Ken Neramani’s growing madness is accompanied by an increase in violent outbursts. His sister, Lilandra, who serves as the Grand Admiral of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard, grows concerned that D’Ken will be taken over by the madness in the same way their oldest sibling, Cal’syee, was when she murdered their father in a move to take the throne. Though Cal’syee, whose more avian-esque features and murderous ways earned her the name Deathbird, was exiled, Lilandra is haunted by her crimes and begins to wonder just how far her brother will go in his quest for power.

    The Summers vacation is full of fun-loving memories and as it ends, Chris flies the family back to Alaska, ready to resume their busy life, one that is about to get a whole lot busier as Katherine reveals to Christopher that she’s expecting their third child. It’s at this point that our two worlds collide, forever altering the course of everyone’s life and setting Christopher on his hero’s journey. The Shi’ar, always looking to expand and protect their empire, have recently begun investigating Earth by sending cloaked scout ships through Stargates. While flying back home, the Summers encounter one such ship. In an effort to keep their presence on Earth a secret, the Shi’ar scouts open fire on the Summers’ ship. An expert pilot, even Christopher knows he can’t save the plane but as the family looks to escape, they find only one parachute. Without thinking, Katherine straps Scott in, places his younger brother Alex in his arm and pushes them from the plane. As Scott and Alex descend towards Earth, Scott realizes their chute is damaged. As they begin to accelerate towards the ground, the stress triggers Scott’s latent mutant ability and his eyes unleash a massive blast of energy that slows their freefall enough to save their lives. In the instant before they touch down, Scott rolls over, taking the full force of the landing on his back and head; the last thing he sees before impact is his parent’s plane exploding into the mountainside.

    Weeks pass by on Earth. Given the trauma they experienced at such a young age, Scott (12) and Alex (10) have been hospitalized and struggle to recover from the incident. Scott’s injury has resulted in what the doctor’s believe will be permanent brain damage. As they heal, the orphaned brothers are moved to a Midwest orphanage where the founder, Dr. Essex, has taken a great interest in the brothers’ unique genome. This will be the last we see of the Summers’ boys in this film.

    As the Shi’ar scout ship returns to Chandilar, Christopher Summers struggles to escape his cell. Beaten and malnourished, Summers is eager to escape his captors and return to Earth to his remaining family. Weeks go by and Summers remains a prisoner, left with the weight of having lost his entire family. Seeing an opening, Summers escapes. Maneuvering his way through the Imperial Palace, Summers is pursued and hides in an open room where he discovers D’Ken’s Imperial harem. Their interest in Summers draws the attention of the guards who find Summers just as he lays eyes on his wife, who he believed dead, for the first time in weeks. The guards find Summers and take him and Katherine before D’Ken. As punishment for his escape attempt, D’Ken sentences Summers to the mine pits; as pleasure for himself, D’Ken murders Katherine as Christopher looks on. As Christopher is led away in chains, he’s left with the vision of his wife and unborn child being killed in front of him. Before cutting away to the mine pits, D’Ken hovers over Katherine’s body and removes her unborn child from her and hands him to Shi’ar scientists who place the boy in an incubation pod.

    In the brutal mine pits on Alsibar, Christopher and the other slaves search for the legendary M’Kraan Crystal. The crystal, said to be created by the first beings in the universe, was once used by the Shi’ar as they expanded their empire. As they entered a peaceful reign, the Shi’ar buried the crystal deep in uncharted space, knowing that its power would only entice those who desired it to abuse it. D’Ken, obsessed with power and longing to expand his empire, devoted incredible resources to regaining the pink stone, researching every legend and story about its potential whereabouts. Summers’ time in the mines only deepens his grief. Near the end of his rope, Christopher sees the exotic and beautiful Hepzibah try to escape only to be caught and beaten by the guards. Reminded of his failure to save his wife, Christopher looks the other way. Moments later, the alien cyborg, Raza Longknife, and a massive Saurid, named Ch’od, come in pursuit of their friend, Hepzibah. Christopher initially refuses to help, only to rethink it and chase down the two and help them in rescuing Hepzibah. Invigorated by the bond they begin to form, the four plan their escape and subsequent revenge on the empire that has taken everything from them. Mining continues and as the Shi’ar slavers are distracted by a major discovery, the foursome hatch their plan and steal a Shi’ar vessel named the Starjammer and begin their quest to chip away at the Shi’ar empire.

    Reclaiming his Air Force callsign “Corsair”, Summers leads the crew as they begin their swashbuckling adventures, committing acts of piracy against the Shi’ar, hijacking shipments between planets and taking the spoils for themselves. It’s key that several major heists are shown against the backdrop of D’Ken’s growing anger. The Starjammers are winning and their legend is growing. This is the film’s final act and while I’m not giving it much justice here, the film would obviously spend a significant amount of time detailing these adventures and.

    Post-Credit Scene #1: Back on Alsibar, D’Ken arrives to supervise the extraction of the M’Kraan crystal from the pits. Upon returning to Chandilar and updated on heists that have taken place, D’Ken turns to Lilandra and asks her to assemble the Imperial Guard to track down and stop the Starjammers.

    Post-Credit Scene #2: On Earth, the Summers boys are split apart (Alex is adopted while Scott remains under the watchful eye of Dr. Essex), while in space their brother emerges from the Shi’ar incubation pod older than his brothers, but alone in space.

    Fan Cast: Many of these actors will be behind heavy makeup or just doing voice work for the film, so there’s really only one role I keep thinking about: Corsair. Obviously Corsair has to have the most fantastic facial hair of any MCU bro to date and needs be willing to go to some extremes. I’m thinking someone like Wes Bentley, who is currently a young-looking 41, could pull this off even if it’s a few years down the road yet.

    This film should standalone but also set up the long game. As it comes to a close, Lilandra will assemble the guard, giving us our first look at some major fan favorite characters who will play a major role not only in the sequel, but in other MCU films as well. As exciting as that will be, the film as set in motion the events that will ultimately lead Scott Summers not only to becoming the first of Professor X’s X-Men, but one of the central characters of this post-Endgame MCU.

    Of all the films I’ve been dreaming up over the past several weeks, this is the one that feels like I want to see it the most. It seems a little Star Wars-y to have a trilogy of films tell the story of a family, but that is just what I was going for. Time to move on to the next film in the series…Professor X!

    The Starjammers will return!

  • A Look at How ‘BLACK WIDOW’ Could Set up the Future of the MCU

    Kevin Feige was in Brazil over the weekend to bring exclusive footage to CCXP and while audiences outside of the convention won’t be seeing what was show any time soon, Feige also had plenty to say about the future of the MCU including something very interesting about next May’s Black Widow.

    Following the screening of some new Black Widow footage, Feige explained that the film will not only further explain her past, but also set up the future of the MCU. The second part of that comment could mean something as obvious as introducing Yelena Belova as the new Black Widow, but it could also mean something bigger. Let’s do some thinking about some ways in which Black Widow might change the MCU landscape moving forward. To be clear, this is purely speculative and not meant to be informative about what to expect in the film.

    The Introduction of Latveria

    If Black Widow is going to set up the future of the MCU in a meaningful, long-lasting way, introducing Latveria and it’s benevolent monarch would be among the most interesting ways to do so.

    Image result for doom latveria"

    In the comics, Latveria was a piece of land annexed from Southern Hungary. Given that much of Black Widow is set to take place in Budapest, Hungary, it doesn’t seem too crazy to believe that we could, at the very least, hear mention of the growing threat coming from Doomstadt, get a Victor Von Doom name drop or even have a post credit scene teasing Doom’s future role. Remember that we first saw Thanos in a post credit scene in 2012’s Avengers, then again briefly in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy and that it wasn’t until 2018 that we saw him fully realized, so introducing Doom, a character who would, like Thanos, be a decade long threat to the MCU, is not entirely crazy.

    Thunderbolts…Assemble?

    Image result for ross black widow trailer"

    William Hurt’s Thunderbolt Ross is the lone holdover from 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and while his presence in the film makes plenty of sense superficially, it’s more fun to think about how it might grow into something more than just chasing down Natasha after the events of Captain America: Civil War.

    The recent Black Widow trailer is cut to make it sound like Ross and Nat are having a friendly chat, but given Ross’s line of questioning, he could just as easily be talking to Yelena Belova in an attempt to recruit her to his own band of heroes. Sure there are some hoops to jump through with the 5 year leap in time, but it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that Ross decides to assemble his own team in a post-Endgame world without Avengers. Hell, who’s to say he doesn’t already have some members and that he’s not the one who sent Taskmaster after Nat?

    Mutants?

    Image result for marvel comics mutants"

    This is as far fetched and unlikely as anything I’ve ever come up with, but it’s possible (though highly unlikely) that the Eastern European setting of Black Widow could allow it to be the first MCU film to broach the subject of mutants. Sokovia was the site of a nearly cataclysmic tragedy at the hands of Ultron. While Ultron planned for extinction, it’s possible that his mechanism could have triggered the next stage of human evolution.

    In 1999, Jim Krueger and Alex Ross wrote a limited series called Earth X in which every human has now acquired some form of super powers. Among the many fascinating ideas in the alternate universe take is one that sees Reed Richards attempt to use Vibranium to solve the world’s energy crisis. During the series, Richards explains his belief (though it turns out to be wrong) that his failed vibranium experiments caused the mutation of the human genome and the dystopia followed. While it was later revealed that Terrigen Mists released by Black Bolt triggered the changes, the idea has always stuck with me.

    Ultron used huge amounts of Vibranium in the device that lifted part of Sokovia towards the atmosphere. We’ve seen the immediate consequences of the disaster, but what if, much like a meltdown at a nuclear plant, there were longer lasting implications from the Vibranium crashing into Earth. It’s an alien substance that we know affected the flora of Wakanda and that when that flora is consumed can grant superpowers to its consumer. Could Vibranium that’s been in the soil for almost a decade be the catalyst to the mutant explosion on Earth? Probably not, but it’s an interesting conversation.

    What ways can you imagine Black Widow setting up the future of the MCU? Let me know in the comments!

  • ‘ANT-MAN 3’: How Marvel Studios Tiniest Franchise Could Make Big Noise in Phase 5

    With the Infinity Saga complete, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to enter a bold, new and Avenger-less era. While the specifics aren’t entirely clear, it seems that Phase 4 of the MCU will only last for 2 years and as we continue to learn more about it, it certainly seems like at least part of its purpose is to prepare us for something, to use familiar Marvel terminology, All-New and All-Different.

    Black Widow, The Eternals, Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder will hit the big screen while The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, What If…? and Hawkeye (and possibly Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight and She-Hulk) will continue the narrative over on Disney Plus. It appears as if The Eternals is going to be a deep dive into the ancient history of the MCU while also planting the seeds for future stories. As I discussed before, Doctor Strange: Into the Multiverse of Madness, in conjunction with WandaVision and Loki, seems poised to change the very nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by truly opening up and exploring the multiverse. The other projects really seem like they’ll be utilized to transition to legacy heroes (Yelena Belova, Falcon-Cap, Jane Foster/Thor and Kate Bishop) or expand the reach of the MCU into previously unexplored corners and genres (Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings). What’s interesting is that we can’t be entirely sure which of these projects takes place in the MCU’s present day of 2023 which allows the MCU to potentially go on for another 2 years without assembling new heroes to fill the void left following the disassembling of the Avengers following Avengers: Endgame.

    Enter the MCU’s smallest franchise: Ant-Man. Both Ant-Man and Ant-Man and The Wasp were smaller budget films that followed major MCU event films in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War, respectively, and were never perceived as “must-see films” despite the second film’s connection to the events of Avengers: Endgame. If there is any truth to the rumors, first shared on our podcast, that Ant-Man 3 may serve as the platform on which the Young Avengers assemble, we could see the final film in Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man trilogy grow to new heights both in popularity and in its impact on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In following up on the original Young Avengers rumors, I haven’t come across any confirmation of their appearance, but I have consistently heard from other sources to expect something on a much larger scale for Ant-Man 3, so large that the studio has already begun early pre-production work on the film. So while I still can’t confirm Ant-Man and the Young Avengers, I also still can’t entirely rule it out and am left to think about just what that film could look like.

    Given that Ant-Man 3 is happening in 2022, the film wouldn’t introduce audiences to the characters, but it could serve as the film in which the team unites. Just exactly who will be on the team isn’t entirely clear, but there are some members who should be ready to go by 2022. Cassie Lang is already in the MCU and definitely ready to rock and roll as her dad’s parter. It appears as though WandaVision will introduce two members of the team in twins Tommy and Billy Kaplan, aka Speed and Wiccan, the children of the Vision and Scarlet Witch, and Kate Bishop is set to make her debut in Hawkeye, meaning we could have 4 core members of the first iteration of the team by the end of 2021. That leaves Teddy Altman, aka Hulkling, Elijah Bradley, aka Patriot and Nathaniel Richards, aka Iron Lad, (aka Kang!) as founding members of the team that still need to be introduced. Given the introduction of the Kree-Skrull conflict in Captain Marvel, it’s not too tough to imagine a way for Hulkling to show up and given that The Falcon and The Winter Soldier will deal with the legacy of Captain America, it is possible that we find a way to get to Patriot. That leaves us with the most interesting and problematic of the Young Avengers: the young, future Kang.

    In the comics, Nathaniel Richards, after discovering he is fated to become the evil warlord Kang, travels back in time to seek the help of the Avengers. Finding them disassembled, Richards hacks into the Vision and discovers that the Avengers have identified a group of teens who could step in as the next generation of heroes if anything should happen to them. Richards assembles these heroes, the Young Avengers, and begins filling the void left by the Avengers. the Young Avengers ultimately came into conflict with Captain America and Iron Man after their exploits gained the attention of the two Avengers. While the two groups butted heads, they eventually came together to intervene in a major conflict between the Kree and Skrulls that centered around the heritage of one of Hulkling.

    Well it’s unlikely we see a direct adaptation of their comic book origins, it’s not too hard to see a way that they could slide into the MCU. The present day of the MCU, as seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home, is a time without Avengers. As I mentioned above, many of the characters will be introduced ahead of Ant-Man 3, so it’s just a matter of bringing them together. Given that Ant-Man is one of the few remaining Avengers and the only one with a film franchise, it certainly seems possible that we could see some universe shifting events including the Young Avengers take place in the third film.

    The family friendly franchise seems like a great place to introduce the new team and provide them with opportunities to be mentored by Earth’s remaining Avengers. In a recent interview, Mark Ruffalo indicated that this sort of mentorship might indeed be something we see in the future, saying he’d like to see the Hulk interact with the new heroes that will be introduced and act as a “guru to some of the younger ones.” While I’m not sure we’ll see an actual academy with classrooms and lunch breaks, I could certainly see Scott, Hope, Clint, Rhodey, and Hulk (and maybe even Wanda and/or Vision) bringing a bit of an Avengers Academy vibe to the story. As for what that story might be, I think Avengers: Endgame may have left some a bread crumb or two.

    Tony Stark invented time travel and, as he told Cap, when you mess with time, it tends to mess back. While that certainly happened within the events of Endgame when Thanos traveled forward to 2023 to lay waste to Earth, I’m not sure we’ve seen the end of time messing back. If ever there were a time to introduce Kang, it would be in the next few years. Should Marvel Studios version of the Fantastic Four hit theaters ahead of Ant-Man 3, say in February of 2022, the great 31st century conqueror could be first introduced there, making his younger self’s appearance possible in Reed’s third Ant-Man film. Of course this is nothing but pure speculation and there’s probably all kinds of timey-wimey stuff to consider, but one can always ponder the possibilities.

    How would you like to see the Young Avengers brought together in the MCU? Let me hear your thoughts below!

  • Marvel Studios ‘THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER’: Who is John Walker?

    Marvel Studios ‘THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER’: Who is John Walker?

    As the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand, Marvel Studios continues to draw from its large stable of characters for their upcoming projects. For fans whose exposure to Marvel characters has come from seeing them on the big screen, knowledge of these characters can range from being barely familiar to Jon Snow levels of knowing; fortunately, Murphy’s Multiverse is here to help. Welcome to a Murphy’s Multiverse Meet and Greet.

    In July of 2019, Kevin Feige revealed that actor Wyatt Russell would be portraying John Walker in 2020’s The Falcon and The Winter Solider. First introduced in 1986’s Captain America #323, Walker, also known as U.S. Agent, followed an interesting arc that saw him introduced as a villain before taking on the title of Captain America and joining the West Coast Avengers for a time. Described by creator Mark Gruenwald as someone “who embodied patriotism in a way that Captain America didn’t—a patriotic villain”, Walker sometimes served as the dark shadow of Steve Rogers both in his actions as a villain and even in his interactions with his Avengers teammates once he was reformed. Like Rogers, Walker’s enhanced abilities were the result of an experimental process in a lab; unlike Rogers, Walker was not, at heart, a beacon of morality.

    Over the years Walker has continually found himself working on both sides of the law: he fought against Norman Osborn’s Thunderbolts but also found himself serving as the Captain America analogue on Osborn’s Dark Avengers. While he always believes he’s doing what is best for his country, his short fuse and reactionary nature have often led to him brutally killing his enemies, drawing an even greater contrast to Rogers.

    So how does Walker fit into The Falcon and The Winter Soldier? While Feige likes to remind us that he doesn’t like making live-action adaptations that are drawn entirely from comics, the comics do give us a pretty decent idea of what we might see. After one of a few times that Steve Rogers gave up the Captain America identity, the U.S. Government’s Commission on Superhuman Activities (an organization that could very well be run by Thunderbolt Ross in the MCU) chose John Walker to serve as their new Captain America after also considering Nick Fury and Sam Wilson for the job. The recently revealed concept art for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier indicates that the series follow the lead of the comics in this instance as Walker certainly looks the part of the government’s “New Cap.”

    While Walker is likely not the main villain of the series, he is certainly going to begin the series at odds with Sam and Bucky who are likely to be exploring their own ways of keeping Rogers’ legacy alive. This should lead to some interesting conflicts between the two sides, perhaps reminiscent of their interactions in Nick Spencer’s 2015’s Captain America: Sam Wilson which saw the two men come on opposite sides of how to ideologically carry Cap’s legacy in the modern world.

    Whatever the case, I fully expect Walker’s U.S Agent to make it out of the series and to continue to appear in the MCU. Where we might see him again remains to be seen, but with the Daniel Bruhl’s Zemo returning to an Avenger-less, a stint on the Thunderbolts, should they appear, would seem about right for Walker.

  • EXCLUSIVE: Details on Marvel Studios ‘WANDAVISION’

    EXCLUSIVE: Details on Marvel Studios ‘WANDAVISION’

    Production on Marvel Studios Disney Plus series, ‘WandaVision‘, began last week (as I first reported and Kevin Feige confirmed) and thanks to a new source, I was able to uncover a few interesting details about one of Marvel Studios most anticipated upcoming projects. It won’t do me much good to explain it, but due to the “newness” of the source, I’m hesitant to share the information, but I’ve decided to go ahead because while it’s all interesting, none of it is so shockingly spoilery that fans will be extremely disappointed if it doesn’t turn out. With that said, here we go!

    Parts of the Show Will Film in Front of a Live-Studio Audience

    The show’s director, Matt Shakman, has described ‘WandaVision‘ as an “epic action sitcom” and star Elizabeth Olsen described it as a “mash-up” of classic sitcoms. In that vein, parts of the first half of the series will be filmed in front of a live-studio audience. The long-running sitcom “I Love Lucy” was the first scripted show to be performed in front of an audience and, in an homage to it, the cast of ‘WandaVision‘ will be performing in front of small, seated audiences. While the series will seemingly jump through time in order to pay homage to various sitcoms, the first episode seems to be set in the 50s, just like “I Love Lucy.” Obviously strict NDAs will be signed, so don’t look for too many spoilers to leak out, but it will certainly add an interesting dynamic to production of the show as the cast will be able to feed off the energy of the audience.

    Wanda and Vision Are Starting the Perfect 50’s Nuclear Family

    As indicated by the concept art, Wanda and Vision are playing at being the ideal Nuclear Family. For much of the early part of the series, we won’t be seeing the synthezoid version of Vision. Vision will look an awful lot like we saw him in Avengers: Infinity War and be holding down a job as he and Wanda build their life in the suburbs.

    Of course the perfect nuclear family means doing all those perfect nuclear family things like having kids, hosting parties and hanging out with your neighbors…

    Kathryn Hahn is Playing a Character Named “Agnes”

    Since she was announced as joining the cast as Wanda’s “nosy neighbor”, it’s been widely speculated that Kathryn Hahn would be playing Agatha Harkness. This can probably be traced back to an old 4chan “leak” which really seemed to be some educated guesses mixed in with a lot of uneducated guesses. While there’s no telling what twists and turns might develop over the course of the series, Hahn is, at least on the surface, playing a character names Agnes who seems to be Ethel to Wanda’s Lucy.

    It’s possible that Hahn’s Agnes could be a version of little-known Marvel Comics character Agnes Ames who first appeared in the 1960’s comic, Modeling With Millie. It’s also possible that Agnes is a new character created just for the series and it’s also possible that she isn’t exactly what she might appear to be. However, for the time being, all we can say is that Wanda’s nosy neighbor is named Agnes and appears to be another homage to “I Love Lucy.”

    While it’s still unclear exactly what Feige’s vision is for this show, it’s starting to come into focus. It appears that the show will, in fact, essentially be two different shows and from that I think we can deduce that there’s going to be a pivotal event that tips the scales towards the “action epic” part. Fans of the comics can probably begin speculating now, but we’re going to have to wait and see just what Feige has cooked up for us.

    Please let me know your thoughts on what I’ve shared with you here and what your expectations are for ‘WandaVision.’

    Thanks for supporting Murphy’s Multiverse!

  • ‘DOCTOR STRANGE: IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS’ Will Irrevocably Alter the Marvel Cinematic Universe

    Over the course of the first 23 MCU films, several films stand out as having steered the longform narrative. AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, CAPTAIN AMERICA:THE WINTER SOLDIER, CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, THOR: RAGNAROK and ANT-MAN AND THE WASP all featured choices, consequences and plot points that impacted more than just the events of those films. It’s hard to argue that Bucky’s reintroduction in The Winter Soldier, the implications of which rippled through the MCU for 5 years, might not have been the point from where the MCU changed forever. It was the beginning of the end of the Avengers, the inciting moment that lead to Civil War and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes being scattered around the globe when its people needed them most. The heroes, of course, came back together to defeat Thanos but it cost them dearly and we are left with a world, 4 years into the future, without a team of Avengers to defend it, alternate timelines created by their attempt to undo Thanos’ destruction and a group of survivors who have experienced a great deal of loss and trauma. While the first two films of Phase 4, 2020’s BLACK WIDOW and THE ETERNALS, don’t seem primed to explore the repercussions of AVENGERS: ENDGAME, it’s beginning to become clear which film will and, by doing so, become a game changer in the same way as Age of Ultron or Ragnarok before it: DOCTOR STRANGE: IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS.

    While we know very little about the plot of the sequel at this point, it’s becoming clear that it is being set up to be the fulcrum of Phase 4 and, perhaps, the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Following its introduction in 2016’s DOCTOR STRANGE, the idea of the multiverse was largely left to marinate in the minds of fans before being brought back into the spotlight in SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME. Though Quentin Beck’s story of the multiverse turned out to be nothing more than part of his plan to deceive Peter, it did bring the idea back to the forefront of fan’s minds so when Kevin Feige revealed the full title of the Doctor Strange sequel at last summer’s SDCC, it caused an uproar. At that time, we found out that Wanda would be a key player in the film and that the events of WANDAVISION would spill directly into it. Just recently, Feige indicated that DOCTOR STRANGE: IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS would also be connected to the events of LOKI, which will somehow follow the unredeemed 2012 version of the Lord of All Liars on a trip through time, already making the Scott Derrickson sequel the central hub for MCU fans in 2021.

    While we don’t know exactly what to expect from DOCTOR STRANGE: IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS or how WANDAVISION and LOKI will impact it or be impacted by it, it certainly seems that the film is positioned to reshape how we will think about the MCU going forward. Opening up the true multiverse means almost endless possibilities for story telling going forward. Other universes mean other versions of familiar characters, territory that has been mined in the comics for decades. It might also mean new characters such as Captain Britain, the Squadron Supreme or Miles Morales. Having Strange learn to navigate between these universes could also mean he might come into contact with cosmic entities that exist outside the confines of a singular universe, being such as Eternity, the Living Tribunal or even the Beyonder, who might have a thing or two to say to the Sorcerer Supreme.

    In the way that CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER set the pace for the longform narrative for the films from 2014-2019, it’s possible that DOCTOR STRANGE: IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS could set the stage for the next several years of films after 2021. If anyone is looking for a path the connects Sony’s films to the MCU or for some version of SECRET WARS to make its way to the big screen, it seems like establishing the true multiverse is a necessary first step.

  • Connecting Imaginary Dots: Annette Bening is the MCU Mar-Vell

    Connecting Imaginary Dots: Annette Bening is the MCU Mar-Vell

    Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on January 7, 2019.

    If you’ve never read an installment of Connecting Imaginary Dots, allow me to explain the idea. Connecting Imaginary Dots was the title I came up with for my speculation pieces when I was writing at MCU Exchange. These types of pieces basically allow me to unload a bunch of junk that’s circulating in my brain in a way that should never be confused for things I actually expect to happen. I basically take a bunch of facts that are almost always entirely unrelated and do my best to connect the dots with by stretching my imagination. In the past these types of pieces have resulted in me theorizing that the Spider-Man sequel which became Far From Home might end up being a team-up outing of Spidey and Hulk in the Savage Land; to counter that, I also wrote one theorizing that Sterling K. Brown would be playing the father of Erik Killmonger in Black Panther LOOOOOONG before anyone else was considering it. The bottom line is this: these are fun spec pieces that allow me to just be a fan. With that out of the way…

    I’ve been all over the map on this one and have never been 100% certain about how things will shake out, but right now I am more convinced than ever that Annette Bening will be portraying the MCU version of the Kree hero Mar-Vell in Captain Marvel. The casting of Jude Law threw me for a loop as it was reported that he would be playing both Carol’s mentor and a character named Walter Lawson. Lawson, of course, was the alias Mar-Vell used in the comics when he was sent by the Supreme Intelligence to Earth as a spy under the command of Yon-Rogg. The trades said Law was Lawson, I thought that must mean Mar-Vell and so for a while I was set on that and I was fine with that.

    However, as we’ve drawn nearer to the film’s release, evidence has piled up that leads everyone to believe that Law is actually playing Yon-Rogg. To be fair, that doesn’t mean that he’s not also playing Walter Lawson; just because that was Mar-Vell’s alias in the comics does not mean that it can’t be the assumed identity of Yon-Rogg while he’s on Earth in the film. This isn’t so much about Law, though; it’s about Bening.

    Bening was added to the cast of the film amid conflicting reports from the trades. One trade said she would “most likely” be playing Carol’s mom and another said she was a scientist. As with Law’s role, there’s no reason both things cannot be true, but I do believe we can identify the role in which she was cast. We were the first to reveal the character breakdowns for the film way back in November of 2017. Unfortunately, much of the work I did was lost in the hack of our site earlier this year, but here is the relevant info:

    [UNKNOWN MALE /SCIENTIST] Supporting Lead Male (40-59) Intelligent, but can throw a punch. Open ethnicity. Sounds like he may be tied to a well-known character.

    As I’ve said before, I originally wondered if this character might not be Rick Jones, but that clearly isn’t the case. What is most likely the case is that the studio gender-swapped this role and cast Beninig in it. She’s the right age (60 now, but was 59 at the time of filming) and even if Marvel Studios had hoped for a male, you don’t turn away an actress of Bening’s caliber if she comes in to audition for the part. We know that Bening has a stunt double for the film, so we’ll certainly get to see her “throw a punch” or two and, as time has gone on, the clues have lined up as to what well-known character she is playing: Mar-Vell.

    It’s a leap of faith, to be sure, but I think the breadcrumbs lead me close enough to make it. I don’t have to be correct here, but I cannot imagine a Captain Marvel film or a Marvel Cinematic Universe that does not have a Mar-Vell. It’s incredibly uncomfortable to me to imagine how Carol ends up with the name Captain Marvel if she doesn’t have a Mar-Vell, but beyond that, there was a reason Carol eventually took on the mantle: Mar-Vell was a noble, romanticized hero whom she greatly admired. While it’s clear that Law’s Yon-Rogg is going to be her mentor in the film, it’s also clear from the quick snippet we’ve seen that she has a relationship with Bening’s character as well. Bening’s character has a much larger role in the film than what the marketing has lead us to believe so far and I’m willing to be that it’s her relationship with Carol that helps Carol decide to step up and take charge by doing what she believes is right and that sounds a lot like what Mar-Vell would do, even if it meant defying orders and turning her back on the Kree.

    I know there are a lot of people who think otherwise. I know people believe Bening is playing Yon-Rogg, the Supreme Intelligence or someone else entirely inconsequential. I don’t like any of those arguments. I have no idea why the Kree Supreme Intelligence, a 54-foot head in a jar that holds the collective intelligence of the greatest Kree minds in their history inside its genetically engineered head would feel the need to speak to Carol through an avatar. I also don’t know why said avatar would need a stunt double. Additionally, and on a personal level, I absolutely need Marvel Studios to embrace the ridiculousness that is the Supremor and give me a 54-foot head in a jar. So process of elimination says she’s not the Supreme Intelligence.

    She’s also not Yon-Rogg. I don’t believe that Hasbro and Funko mistakenly mass produced a million toys with the wrong name. I also don’t buy the super convoluted theories that suggest Law is both Yon-Rogg and Mar-Vell. In this instance, I’m a fan of Occom’s Razor: the simplest answer is that Bening is Mar-Vell.

    While it may end up being the wrong assumption to make, it is the simplest and, I believe, there’s at least a tiny bit of evidence to support it beyond what I’ve discussed above. In his earliest appearances, Mar-Vell was draw with white hair. It was a great coincidence that the human doctor whose identity he assumed (Walter Lawson) had white hair and looked just like him. Add that to him being a pink-skinned Kree and he was the perfect replacement for Lawson and the perfect spy.

    While his hair later became blond, it’s the white hair that always stuck with me as a kid and it’s the white hair that might provide the smallest clue as to whom Bening is playing. A quick Google search of Annette Bening will provide you with evidence that for most of the last 4o years, she’s been a redhead. Sometimes it’s blond; sometimes it’s brunette; mostly it’s red. You know what she’s not done? She’s not done white, not until she took the role in Captain Marvel.

    Why? Why cast an actress of Bening’s caliber in a small, meaningless role and then make her dye her hair white? I don’t have an answer for that question other than “you wouldn’t.” I’m aware that it’s not much, but combined with everything else I’ve been tossing around in my brain, it’s enough to convince me that in the MCU, Bening is playing Mar-Vell, a Kree scientist who may of may not have been on Earth and who may or may not be Carol’s mother, but who definitely has a relationship with Carol and plays an integral part in helping her become the hero she is meant to be!