Entry 129: Asterisk in Much Ado About Nothing

I won’t put too many spoilers in this but I believe in giving spoiler warnings when needed. It is not my place to say whether this is a massive spoiler or won’t ruin your experience… so if you don’t want ANY spoilers for THUNDERBOLTS, do not keep reading.

So for me, for a Comic Book Movie to be “QUALITY”, I want it to fit into at least one of the following categories:
(1) So unerringly faithful to the Source Material as to be impeachable (or, y’know, the actually possible equivalent)
(2) Such a spectacular marvel of visual wonder as to dazzle me (yes, “it’s so pretty” has value in a Comic Book Movie perspective)
(3) Is such an evocative film that it rivals its more traditional Drama Film competitors (because a good movie is quality and some Comic Book films are just good movies); or
(4) Tells a timely story containing important themes or morals that are relevant to the audience without getting preachy or heavy handed (obviously, the qualifiers here are incredibly subjective).

Without giving too much of the film away, I would say that THUNDERBOLTS, for me, fit Category 4. Without being offensively reductive, there is room to argue that the two themes of the movie are
(A) No matter what evils or harms you have perpetrated, you are not beyond redemption; and
(B) It is not good to be alone. Being alone is how you can be swallowed by darkness. Isolation leads to pain. Find a community, find your people, find your team. Find those who will wrap their arms around you while you’re fighting your demons. It’s the only way to survive.

Obviously… I think both of those themes are timely and important… while also not being so heavy handed or preachy that they won’t stand the test of time. While those themes are particularly relevant in our current moment… the power of those themes has value in almost every era. But underlining the sense of “Stop isolating yourself. Get out there and find your community” is just… I rail against all of the Social Media Gender War bullshit surrounding Loneliness and it is starting to appear the Gender focus is strictly an American Social Media push as international periodicals are talking about “The Loneliness Epidemic” and leaving gender the fuck out of it because.... we’re seeing this thing spread across generations, across continents, gender be damned. So… yeah. A movie whose earnest theme is “Community can help heal”… it’s the right time for it.

That being said? Another “Comic Book Debate” but… I consider The Sentry to be one of Marvels many Superman pallet swaps (in some respects). Obviously Sentry’s powerset is not identical, but “nearly invincible, invulnerable flying guy in a cape” reads pretty Superman to me. So, I thought it was also pretty fitting (and intelligent) for Marvel to get their Big Screen Superman up and in front of audiences prior to Gunn’s Superman film… because if, and I hope this isn’t the case but, if the Superman film bombs for technical issues? Marvel can just sit there and laugh. If DC tries an excuse campaign of “You have no idea how difficult it is to do a Superman figure in modern film”, then Marvel can just say, “Well, we didn’t have a problem!”

ALSO that being said? This is a bit of a huge spoiler, but this is directly from the comic books for the character so… arguably a spoiler for a 25 year old comic book.... but Sentry having a GOOD Golden Side and the opposite Void being the BAD Dark Side? I’m sure comic book forums were saying this at the time but.... excuse me, Adam Warlock would like his storyline back, please! Again, this is from the comic books so you can’t fault the film but… Warlock, a Gold Individual, using an Infinity Gem, attempted to purge all evil from his soul… thereby creating his evil opposite, a Dark Individual, that became a villain they had to stop, he had to re-absorb, so he could become whole… that whole schtick. Sentry’s existence also brings forth Void’s existence. It isn’t exact one to one but… similar enough it should be referenced. PARTICULARLY when discussing the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For many reasons. Perhaps no reason more strongly than… Adam Warlock not being involved in the fight against Thanos is almost criminal. Almost criminal on par with Ant Man not fighting Loki (I wrote about that before here). But only slightly less strong? As much as I enjoy James Gunn’s approach to the Guardians of the Galaxy… he completely botched Adam Warlock. I see the humor in how he was set up in GotG 3 and all and “Ha ha, super powerful character is almost like a teenager!” but… that betrays everything that Adam Warlock has been in the comic books. And with Will Poulter not being announced in the Avengers Doomsday line-up? It’s highly likely that the MCU will never properly redeem this very powerful character. So… if you’ve fucked up Warlock to the point where you simply cannot tell his story… I’m even more glad that they put Sentry into the MCU and kept his… rather glaring but important “weakness”… in the MCU as well.

Now for a bit of crowing. This is me being nakedly vulnerable so forgive this moment of earnest sincerity. I am constantly in doubt about my intelligence and my abilities. When I became an attorney, I was horrified by how it was something (apparently) requiring such little intelligence that I could do it. But, as ever, the more I interacted with other people, the more that horror shifted to me realizing.... perhaps it is not that being an attorney requires such little intelligence but that this world has such an intelligence deficit that the standards must be lowered, as even someone like me seems intelligent by comparison far too often. SO… because of my own insecurities about intellectual pursuits… I do feel a need to crow when I have an example of deductive reasoning.
NOW… one of the trailers prior to the movie was FANTASTIC FOUR. Not a surprise, pump the primer for the next film coming out. Obvious and expected. But trailers are not credited in the FILM’S credits. And yes, I appreciate that even in Marvel movies, audiences aren’t reading the credits as they wait for their Post-Credit Scene. But I almost always do. Yes, the Key Grip was likely some studio executives hapless nephew, but the Costume Designer has to thread the needle between realism and comic book, so a little recognition for the contribution, please? BUT I noticed while reviewing the Music Credits that the very last credit said, “Fantastic Four Theme used with Permission: Marvel Studios”. We hadn’t heard the Fantastic Four Theme in the movie yet. We knew what it sounded like due to the trailer, but they would never credit the trailer in the film like that. SO… when the final post-credit scene rolled around… it was pretty obvious what this was about. And “extra dimensional” then “outer space” and a sleek silver spaceship.... I held up four fingers as the theme started before the camera even zoomed in to show the number 4 on the ship. AND/BUT… as soon as the camera showed the Number 4… there was an entire row of theater goers who audibly gasped and then debated whether the reveal gives away the ending to FANTASTIC FOUR. Which… yeah, I felt a little “advanced” for having read the credits, thereby knowing what was coming. But, to discuss the argument a moment?
What we know from trailers about F4 is as follows:
Susan Storm is pregnant (or believes herself to be). Those who know the comics know exactly how powerful Susan Storm’s first born child is!
Galactus and his herald the Silver Surfer (in this film, the Shalla-Bal version) come to Earth to threaten its existence. Galactus is the devourer of worlds so… literally “planet ending threat”.
That’s what we know. SO… the F4 spaceship shifting dimensions and coming to the MCU Prime Timeline/Multiverse Coordinates? Not a spoiler. Because the question still remains:
(a) Were the Fantastic Four successful in defeating Galactus, but he escaped into a dimensional shift thus threatening MCU Prime?
(b) Were the Fantastic Four unsuccessful in defeating Galactus, so he destroyed their world forcing them to find refuge in the MCU Prime?
(c) Was Franklin born and posed such an Omega Level threat that Reed is traveling the Multi-Verse to find somewhere safe for the fledgling family?
(d) Were the Fantastic Four moments away from defeating Galactus when suddenly Loki- God of Stories shifted them into the MCU Prime universe for mysterious reasons?
Like.... oh, F4 spaceship hopping dimensions really doesn’t spoil the film!
And we know dimension hopping is a key set up for the next film (or a few) because the Avengers Doomsday cast reveal specifically included X-Men characters from the Fox Universe. PLUS The Marvels ended with Photon waking up in an avowed X-Mutant multiverse outside of the MCU Prime.
And then I think about my father and the discussion we had just about “Superman in the 1980s”. As soon as I said Lex Luthor and his “son” Alexander Luthor, my dad’s head spun 360 and he had to sit down because “too many storylines”. So… again… sometimes I wonder… maybe my brain just works different?

Then I began to write something… of a similar if completely different subject until I realized just exactly how much it did not belong in this space and should be placed elsewhere. So with that, I shall wrap this up and go to that other space!