I’m still not sure what you’re getting at. What do you think is random about what’s being added to the MCU? They’ve been pretty deliberate about adding characters and slowly building out the world, with everything pointing towards a definite conclusion. Can you give an example about what you’re talking about?
If anything, I would say that the movie universe has had more advance planning than the comics ever did. With release windows and planning being what it is, they can afford to pick and choose what storylines from the last 80 years of comics they want to use.
Comics are a medium, not a genre. There are plenty of comics that have a conclusion, just like in any other media.
Besides that, comics and movies have very different expectations: In comics, characters never have to age or die and you can always bring in new writers and artists, but with movies you have contracts and actors age, so there’s an incentive to tell stories that have a definite conclusion, like the Infinity Saga.
The Infinity Stones are done. Thanos is done. Some characters are gone and will not be coming back. Those are all conclusions.
Which is why I was speaking about Marvel specifically.
For now. In 10-20 years I don’t think things will be much different wrt actors “aging”, technically if not legally. (Actors have unions, heirs, etc. for instance.) And Disney is a big corporation. Big corporations can change laws to suit their will.
Until Disney decides to renege and brings all those characters back. Just like the magazines.
You can’t tell me what Disney will or will not do in 10 years. You can’t!
Great, as long as we’re clear that it’s not a problem with “comics” in general, but with some modern superhero comics in particular. But that doesn’t change the point that comics and movies are very different in a lot of ways. There generally aren’t movie characters that stick around for 80+ years constantly making new movies.
Then this will be a worthwhile discussion when and if that happens. Right now, not so much.
Same point as above: If that ever happens, you might have a valid point. And the idea of “Marvel will never end any of these stories” has certainly been a concern over the past ten years. But now that they’ve actually concluded storylines and characters with Endgame, the evidence is against that.
I would be happy to bet you that Tony Stark as Iron Man never returns to the MCU, aside from maybe a flashback here and there. But there’s never going to be “Oh look, we’ve resurrected Tony Stark!”
Sure I can! I just did. If you can claim that they’re going to “renege” (on a promise they never provided), I can also claim that they’re not going to do that. Except my claim is based on evidence from the producers and actors involved.
Yeah, those two movies from 1922 and 1979 have really flooded the market.
We’re a long ways off from convincing CGI human performances. But they’re not going to do that, because they don’t need to. There are plenty of other characters to explore.
How many times have Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi been resurrected despite the actors being old, uncooperative or dead? And Star Wars generally has a linear story/timeframe, unlike the larger Marvel universe (to date). Sure there are other characters…
But it’s easy to do it… (or will be). Even pre-Disney Marvel couldn’t resist the urge to re-use characters how many times?
In 10-20 years movie Marvel won’t be any different than paper Marvel in any meaningful ways (other than movies being more expensive to make for the time being). Do fans even want it to be different?!
Two actors* have played Darth Vader: one in the main trilogy, and one in the prequels. Same with Obi-Wan Kenobi. And neither of those times was the character actually brought back to life as part of the story.
Storywise, the Star Wars movies have been much less linear than the MCU has.
*yes I know it’s technically more than two.
But they care about their brand more than they care about using a gimmick to undercut a storyline ending.
It depends on if you’re talking about the Marvel characters controlled by Marvel, or the Marvel characters controlled by Fox or Sony or Universal. For studios that need to keep churning out movies so they don’t lose their contracts, they’ve rebooted their characters multiple times: Spider-Man, the Hulk, X-Men, and so on.
For Marvel characters controlled by Marvel, they actually haven’t ever rebooted the characters. There have been a couple of characters recast, but that’s about it.
Then get back to me in 10-20 years when that actually happens. And yes, fans want stories to end, as evidenced by Endgame which made [checking notes] more money than any movie ever. Fans like stories with satisfying conclusions.
Movies are not comics. Actors are not drawings. They’re not going to resurrect Tony Stark or bring Robert Downey Jr. back (possible flashbacks aside). None of the creatives involved have any interest is reviving those characters. Hell, they haven’t even announced a new Avengers movie yet!
They’re not going to ruin the brand reputation by just resurrect characters for a quick buck. I’d be happy to put money on it. Otherwise, you’re just complaining about nothing.
I didn’t realize Tony Stark actually died in the movies. We’ll see. Forever is a long time… Publishing rights get bought/sold/passed around. And eventually the movie goes (hopefully) into the public domain! Yay, I win!
Marvel comics have been around for 80+ years, and they have never once rebooted continuity, although they did introduce alternate-reality versions of the characters around 2000. If you count that, that’s one reboot in 80 years. One.
I won’t say “forever”, because maybe a new generation of filmmakers will want to try a reboot at some point. But I bet they won’t reboot the MCU over the next twenty years. All of the evidence is still against it.
You weren’t even aware of the major character death in the MCU, so I’m not sure how you can realistically claim to know how they’re going to treat death in the movies.
My point is the MCU characters aren’t all going to die of old age either. There’s a likelihood IMO that there will eventually be an MCU continuation or MCU II with at least some of the same non-immortal characters (and at least some actor facsimiles, depending on legal matters) even if it’s not Disney. And ignoring the public domain (where anything can happen, like Little Women and Werewolves). The same likelihood as it happening in the paper comics.
I’ll be dead by that time, so can’t collect on the bet.
MCU characters have died of old age! Really, how are you making this argument when you don’t even know what’s already happened in the movies?!
Marvel comics have been around for 80 years so far, and they haven’t entered the public domain yet. Sure, there’s a non-zero possibility that eventually someone might reboot the MCU. But if you’re talking about characters entering the public domain, then you’re no longer talking about anything relevant to the existing MCU.
Exactly. So there’s zero reason for it to be a point of concern right now.
I’m not very concerned about the MCU specifically. My larger point is that Marvel is full of random junk, and that is eventually going to be just as true about Marvel movies as it is about the comics, whether you slap an “MCU” label on it or not.
I asked you for examples of that “random junk”, and you talked about characters never dying and stories never concluding, both of which are wrong. Do you have other examples?
Marvel Comics has published tens of thousands of issues over thousands of series with thousands of writers and artists; there have been less than a hundred Marvel movies ever made, across all studios. There will never be as much “junk” (however you define it) in the movies as there has been in the comics.
I didn’t say “never”. I meant as a rule. And I’m not talking about individual stories. In fact, there being multiple individual stories/arcs per series or character is an example of random junk.
