Marvel for Dummies.

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As someone who TTBOMK has never read a Marvel Comic or seen a Marvel Comic Movie or TV show, what might be the least painful way to get a clue what the whole Marvel thing is about. I tried watching Wanda Vision but could not even make it through the first few introductory moments.

Is that a 101 level Marvel Introductory Course?
To be vintage it must be older than me!
The next gun I buy will be the next to last gun I ever buy. PROMISE!
jim

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

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Okay wow... uhmm that's alot. What's the goal?

Trying to understand all of the MCU is going to be a challenge. Rough outlines are possible but going to be fairly useless in trying to enjoy it. They had the essential series a while back. Basically the big comic book moments for a particular character team or title bound in a few volumes but that's going to be alot of reading on your part.

Do you just want to watch WandaVision? Understand the marvel movies/tv?

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

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Rossifan1782 wrote: Sun Jan 31, 2021 8:12 pm Okay wow... uhmm that's alot. What's the goal?

Trying to understand all of the MCU is going to be a challenge. Rough outlines are possible but going to be fairly useless in trying to enjoy it. They had the essential series a while back. Basically the big comic book moments for a particular character team or title bound in a few volumes but that's going to be alot of reading on your part.

Do you just want to watch WandaVision? Understand the marvel movies/tv?
Simple curiosity. Current entertainment seems to constantly refer to the Marvel Universe and characters and so they are all references that have no meaning for me. For example there are references to the Avengers but the Avengers are just two people; John Steed and Emma Peel and that does not seem to have any relationship to any of the Marvel references.
To be vintage it must be older than me!
The next gun I buy will be the next to last gun I ever buy. PROMISE!
jim

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

7
Marvel Universe is like the Disney collection of media properties. It is all designed to get you to spend money on something because you like something similar. Links between Marvel characters can be intentional, but are based on corporate acquisitions (often after acquisition).

I like 1911s. I am interested in the 45ACP universe, the world of Beretta, and the SIG Sauer collection, myself. :)
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

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K9s wrote: Sun Jan 31, 2021 11:36 pm
senorgrand wrote: Sun Jan 31, 2021 10:43 pm Is there a Marvel wiki?
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Marvel_Database
Interesting. That helped. I had heard of Spiderman before but never read many comics period. I did see the Superman shorts at the movies and was slightly familiar with Batman but I had never heard of any of the Marvel cast of characters except Spiderman and very vaguely The Hulk.

From the comments I did learn that Wanda and Vision are the names of individual characters which helps explain partly the opening sequences of Wanda Vision but does not explain the stupid behavior displayed by the characters.

AbE:

I decided to begin by watching some of the signature movies and started with Iron Man. So far it seems to be pretty much just another variation of the Super Hero sagas.
To be vintage it must be older than me!
The next gun I buy will be the next to last gun I ever buy. PROMISE!
jim

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

12
sig230 wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 2:52 pm Well, watched Iron Man. Seemed just a Batman variation.
As a kid all the comic variants were redundant and followed the same pattern. It’s no wonder people have been so easy to program. They’ll swallow all sorts of conspiracies since they were conditioned with all these superhero fantasies.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

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sig230 wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 2:52 pm Well, watched Iron Man. Seemed just a Batman variation.
Well, the "absurd" is common to all of the Marvel/DC movies. If you can suspend belief, they can be pretty entertaining. Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is excellent, even if based on a comic book, as is the new Joker. The last of the DC Wolverine movies is actually quite good as well. Many of the more recent Marvel movies are very entertaining but I'll bet you a dollar none will stand up as a classic in 50 years. But, you need to go into it with the expectation that lots of stuff will explode, fisticuffs will be prevalent and character development will be minimal. The "origin" movies help with that, but most Marvel fans go in with at least some knowledge of who the characters are.

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

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featureless wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 3:03 pm
sig230 wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 2:52 pm Well, watched Iron Man. Seemed just a Batman variation.
Well, the "absurd" is common to all of the Marvel/DC movies. If you can suspend belief, they can be pretty entertaining. Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is excellent, even if based on a comic book, as is the new Joker. The last of the DC Wolverine movies is actually quite good as well. Many of the more recent Marvel movies are very entertaining but I'll bet you a dollar none will stand up as a classic in 50 years. But, you need to go into it with the expectation that lots of stuff will explode, fisticuffs will be prevalent and character development will be minimal. The "origin" movies help with that, but most Marvel fans go in with at least some knowledge of who the characters are.
Well I next tried Thor but it had none of the elegance or depth of any of the Norse myths and was pretty much as disappointing as all the movie adaptations of Tolkien's tales. Gave up on it fairly quickly.
To be vintage it must be older than me!
The next gun I buy will be the next to last gun I ever buy. PROMISE!
jim

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

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sig230 wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 3:32 pm
Well I next tried Thor but it had none of the elegance or depth of any of the Norse myths and was pretty much as disappointing as all the movie adaptations of Tolkien's tales. Gave up on it fairly quickly.
Wow. Yeah, I wouldn’t get your hopes up with this genre. Skip straight to Kick-Ass and Deadpool for the best of the lot, and move on.

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

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wooglin wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 3:42 pm
sig230 wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 3:32 pm
Well I next tried Thor but it had none of the elegance or depth of any of the Norse myths and was pretty much as disappointing as all the movie adaptations of Tolkien's tales. Gave up on it fairly quickly.
Wow. Yeah, I wouldn’t get your hopes up with this genre. Skip straight to Kick-Ass and Deadpool for the best of the lot, and move on.
Yup, Deadpool is wildly entertaining.

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

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sig230 wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 3:32 pm
featureless wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 3:03 pm
sig230 wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 2:52 pm Well, watched Iron Man. Seemed just a Batman variation.
Well, the "absurd" is common to all of the Marvel/DC movies. If you can suspend belief, they can be pretty entertaining. Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is excellent, even if based on a comic book, as is the new Joker. The last of the DC Wolverine movies is actually quite good as well. Many of the more recent Marvel movies are very entertaining but I'll bet you a dollar none will stand up as a classic in 50 years. But, you need to go into it with the expectation that lots of stuff will explode, fisticuffs will be prevalent and character development will be minimal. The "origin" movies help with that, but most Marvel fans go in with at least some knowledge of who the characters are.
Well I next tried Thor but it had none of the elegance or depth of any of the Norse myths and was pretty much as disappointing as all the movie adaptations of Tolkien's tales. Gave up on it fairly quickly.
Yes, they don’t really have the sophistication of old mythology.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

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FWIW, we don't even know most of old mythology. Most of the oral tradition is long gone.

To use the Norse example, almost everything we have is through Eddas transcribed by early Christian writers. What we have left might be analogous to a Marvel wiki written entirely by DC fans who only watched the movies. Other traditions didn't even get that lucky.

Even for the classical Greek, Roman, or Egyptian myth cycles, consistency is a hobgoblin.

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

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I lost almost all my interest in both the Marvel and DC movie worlds. A few of the firsts, like Michael Keaton as Batman and Robert Downey, Jr. as Ironman, and the first X-Men movie with Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart were all pretty good.

But sequels are, almost always, by definition, progressively worse than the original. And if one HAPPENS to be better (like The Empire Strikes Back, T-2, Godfather II, or Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) it's a rare pearl. Most really suck and suck badly.

To me, the two GREATEST sequels were books: The Odyssey (sequel to The Illiad) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (sequel to Tom Sawyer).
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

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YankeeTarheel wrote: Sat Feb 06, 2021 2:22 pm I lost almost all my interest in both the Marvel and DC movie worlds. A few of the firsts, like Michael Keaton as Batman and Robert Downey, Jr. as Ironman, and the first X-Men movie with Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart were all pretty good.

But sequels are, almost always, by definition, progressively worse than the original. And if one HAPPENS to be better (like The Empire Strikes Back, T-2, Godfather II, or Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) it's a rare pearl. Most really suck and suck badly.

To me, the two GREATEST sequels were books: The Odyssey (sequel to The Illiad) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (sequel to Tom Sawyer).
What is "T-2"?
To be vintage it must be older than me!
The next gun I buy will be the next to last gun I ever buy. PROMISE!
jim

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

23
Stiff wrote: Sat Feb 06, 2021 2:42 pm I watched Marvel movies as mindless entertainment. Just some pretty boys and girls flashing around. Not everything has to be profound, sometimes popcorn and a loud movie is all it takes to have a good time.
Entertaining is important but so far I haven't found any of the ones I've sampled entertaining.
To be vintage it must be older than me!
The next gun I buy will be the next to last gun I ever buy. PROMISE!
jim

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

24
sig230 wrote: Sat Feb 06, 2021 2:53 pm
Stiff wrote: Sat Feb 06, 2021 2:42 pm I watched Marvel movies as mindless entertainment. Just some pretty boys and girls flashing around. Not everything has to be profound, sometimes popcorn and a loud movie is all it takes to have a good time.
Entertaining is important but so far I haven't found any of the ones I've sampled entertaining.
I guess my bar for low brow entertainment is really low.
Glad that federal government is boring again.

Re: Marvel for Dummies.

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Stiff wrote: Sat Feb 06, 2021 3:15 pm
sig230 wrote: Sat Feb 06, 2021 2:53 pm
Stiff wrote: Sat Feb 06, 2021 2:42 pm I watched Marvel movies as mindless entertainment. Just some pretty boys and girls flashing around. Not everything has to be profound, sometimes popcorn and a loud movie is all it takes to have a good time.
Entertaining is important but so far I haven't found any of the ones I've sampled entertaining.
I guess my bar for low brow entertainment is really low.
I rather believe that mine may well simply be screwed. I really enjoyed the Tolkien books and the Kipling books and even the Rowling books and even George RR Martins Fire & Ice novels but can't stand the movie or TV adaptations and have never been able to watch a single Star Wars movie in one sitting.
To be vintage it must be older than me!
The next gun I buy will be the next to last gun I ever buy. PROMISE!
jim

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