Marvel: from bust to boom

[Brian G Turner]

The BBC does a piece about the turnaround in fortunes for Marvel, and the recent string of cinema successes:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32379661

Interesting to see the warning near the end, though:

"The narrative snowball of Marvel - the way that everything accumulates - means it gets bigger and more popular but also more unwieldy," he says.

"That happened in the comic books. With all the crossovers, everything became completely uninviting to the new fan. Eventually, Marvel had to hit the reset button and start over again, because you couldn't hold all of it in your head.

"Ironically, that could be the biggest danger to the success of the movies. There are so many storylines that you have to navigate in telling this bigger story, that eventually fatigue sets in

 

[thaddeus6th]

I do wonder if they have a plan to disentangle things or actually seal off storylines (for example, killing off heroes or having them trapped in other dimensions/ridden with amnesia).

 

[Brian G Turner]

for example, killing off heroes or having them trapped in other dimensions

What, like they did with Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, Bucky, Loki...?

 

[Remedy]

I read that this morning, very interesting.

I'd like them to spend a bit more time developing the characters they've already introduced, but haven't had their own movie yet, like Hawkeye and Black Widow (I've not seen the new avengers film yet, perhaps they do in that). Otherwise I can see this happening soon.

Then again, the market will become saturated in Marvel films, whereas I'd quite like a few more like The Imitation Game. Edit: just realised that doesn't make sense since the Marvel Studio will only ever make Marvel films (oops)

 

[Cli-Fi]

The BBC does a piece about the turnaround in fortunes for Marvel, and the recent string of cinema successes:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32379661

Interesting to see the warning near the end, though:

Oh if only Marvel was a stock! It would be the perfect way to make money. Since they are guaranteed to make a Billion dollars off of each movie in the next ten years. I remember when Iron Man first was talked about and I was like: Who is this Iron Man guy? How could they make a movie out of that? Mostly what I am saying about Ant-man today. I don't read comics, so I am coming at it from a different perspective than most of the fanboys. I really enjoy the way Marvel tells origin stories. I really enjoy Marvel movies period. It is a safe bet for me to go to the theater, put money down on Marvel movie and leave the theaters happy. Thor was a complete surprise for me and so was the second Captain America. I expected nothing from those movies. Their TV Shows need a bit of work and maybe they have found the right footing with the awesomeness that is Daredevil for the future series' they have planned.

I am eagerly anticipating the Black Panther movie, I hope they make a TV show about the Nova Corps that definitely has series potential. There are so many quirky things that Marvel can do with its whole entire catalog. I just hope they never play it safe. I also don't wish for too much continuity so that the casual movie goer won't understand what's going on. It's hard getting people into it right now as it is with all the sequels. Plus how can you start the franchise by watching Avengers before anything else?

Yet on the flip side of that I don't think Marvel would be as powerful as it is today without Robert Downey Jr.

That's my view coming from a non-comic reading huge marvel fan.

 

[K. Riehl]

What they didn't touch on was how they control the salaries on these movies. They look at taking lesser known or formerly well known actors at the nadir of their careers and offer to build them back into a star. Downey Jr. didn't make much on the Iron Man movies but cashed in on the Avengers due to finishing the initial three movie contract. Most of the actors have tried to negotiate their multi-movie contracts and have only been partially successful.

http://www.dailydot.com/fandom/marvel-avengers-contracts-gilded-cage/

They do it with directors too. Joss Whedon has been quoted,"I made more off of Dr. Horrible than I did on the Avengers" After the success of the Avengers he was able to leverage substantially more more a multi-project deal where he would develop and write for several arenas.

 

[Overread]

I do wonder if they have a plan to disentangle things or actually seal off storylines (for example, killing off heroes or having them trapped in other dimensions/ridden with amnesia).

To be honest I don't think they care.
In fact its a hallmark of the comic-book hero for the USA in particular that they have revision after revision after revision. They don't need to complete story lines when they can restart them over and over (least we not forget those 3 or so Hulk and 3 or so Spiderman films back to back nearly all recounting the same basic concept of a story - to say nothing of legions of comics and animated TV series doing the same).

It's one thing I greatly dislike, their characters are, in all honestly, not really characters. They are a role fitted to a core concept and whilst they might have some character within their own niche they are rarely allowed to develop into a matured character. If they are then they get a longer period at the top before they are downsized and replaced.

It does mean that they can retell now without having to pad the story up quite as much; we all know Batman's core story; we all know what "should happen" to setup the character and what makes them tick.



I don't know I've just never been a fan of it myself; I can enjoy the productions, but I dislike the lack of continuity; the lack of maturity and the lack of advance. I could even say I'm a touch bored with the films; they are at their core action films and are good ones at that; but I just feel its a lot of film; a lot of budget but its going nowhere new; no where exciting or different.

 

[Christopher Lee]

Marvel is on the right path, that's for sure. They're adapted comic books to the big screen better than I ever thought was possible. Super entertaining while keeping that same nostalgic love of the characters they're handling.

 

[Last Action Hero]

The thing I like about Marvel, is that they keep the comic universe and movie universe separate. Or else it would be boring to watch a movie whose story I already know.

 

[Pwaa]

I do wonder how long they can carry this universe on. I mean it's not that hard to get into at this point I don't think, my girlfriend hadn't seen any of the films between Avengers 1 and 2, but still understood it all pretty well I think. But that's only going to go on for so long, and it's still daunting. And the thing is, in comics there's always a point where the stories either simply aren't as good or they start getting ridicules. And then there is the fact that some of the main, almost irreplaceable cast are aging.

The bigger problem for me is, when this inevitably ends and they want to re-boot (unless they completely re-write their universe so that it can write in things like actors aging or changing completely) I can see everyone saying "so-and-so just doesn't work as Iron Man" and such like. And of course they'd need to re-boot every tied in franchise at the same time, which would be no easy feat. DC are proving quite nicely that it ain't bloody easy, Batman vs Superman looks like it's going to be a car crash imo. It would be like if Marvel released Avengers after the first Iron Man and nothing else has been done.

I think they've struck lucky with this, and right now is probably about it's brief golden era, I don't think it will be long until things have to start changing, maybe we'll get another couple of good Avengers films before it's too late, I hope we do because they're ace, but Marvel and Disney are really gonna have to run with this thing while it's hot.