Throwback Thursday : Wolverine

Once upon a time, Wolverine was even cooler than he is now, he was 5'2" of adamantium & mutant fury, could go toe-to-toe with the Hulk and was the most popular character in the Marvel Universe.

Then one day, some goof decided to make him more "normal", whatever the hell that is, but it really did a lot of damage to the character and caused a cascade that dropped Marvel's sales for years.

There were several attempts to make the character part of some animated shows but they never pulled it off.

To me, the best think about Logan was the complete lack of an origin, it was guesswork, hints, teases, and a lot of crazy rumors.  There were stories about him in a photo during the War Between the States and his flashbacks to something resembling Feudal Japan, then there are the connections he has around the world that couldn't possibly be made in a regular human lifetime.

The origin they gave him was, and still is, absolutely terrible, in fact, putting it into movie form only showed how bad it is, let's hope that Kevin Feige goes back to the classic Wolverine that made "the little guy" the biggest in the Marvel Universe.

With Wolverine, the only thing you knew, was that you never knew, and that was what made his stories so damn good.  In ways, he was like the Batman, he would pull off stunts against the Hellfire Club and miraculous returns from the dead or four... 

Why "fix" something that wasn't broken?  Not sure why Marvel ever went for it, it made zero sense, and today makes even less.  It's the most outrageous parts of the MCU that are the best, and the best has yet to come, we hope.... 

Coming up, January 1st 2022, my ULTIMATE MCU list....

 

X-Men : the movie 2000

The mutants were finally coming to the big screen but it didn't take long for a lot of fans, myself included, to realize that Bryan Singer should have never been allowed near an established franchise.

Today, we're pampered, we're spoiled by how organized the MCU is, and looking back, we realize what a sad cluster**** this film was, in so many ways.

Parts of it were perfect, Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier was about as great as it gets for an older Professor X, he fit the bill perfectly.  Rebecca Romijn as Mystique was another excellent casting, that's lasted beyond many of the others, and she still looks amazing in body paint.

Hugh Jackman has portrayed Wolverine ever since, and although a lot of people rave about him, I have never been that impressed.  It also ruined the character when we saw Wolverine hosting the Tony Awards.  I was a lifelong fan of Wolverine, the real one, the original, but this was based on the new rendition of the character, a watered down version.  The classic Wolverine was so much better.

It was cool to see the characters come to life, especially when I knew one of them from his days in professional wrestling, Tyler Mane as Sabertooth, but the story was sophomoric at best, with a soft plot and poor dialogue and worse character interaction.

As a stand alone film, it gets 🌟 and a half out of five but as part of the MCU it's only half a star for the casting of Xavier, Rebecca Romijn in blue body paint and simply getting the characters to the screen.

 

Super Sunday: Roller Disco & Magic, MCU in 1970s Vegas

 

At first the Marvel Cinematic Universe acted as if super hero’s were a “new” thing, but still hinted that they’d been around for a while.

Then we got, Captain America in World War II and Captain Marvel in the 80s, so it really wasn’t new, but who else could have been out there?  So why not give the 70s some space in the MCU?

We know in the mutant part of the MCU that Wolverine has been around for a long time, we just don’t know how they will address that when they shift the mutants from 20th Century Fox to Disney.

Let’s go back to Las Vegas in the 1970s and the possibility of two other great Marvel characters could have already been influencing the world; now don’t go all Austin Powers or Xanadu on me, but Roller Disco was a HUGE thing at one point, and I’m sure the parts of Vegas that got into it, got into it big, so why not introduce part of the mutant-verse into this, The Dazzler, Vegas’s queen of Roller Disco & super hero, for the era, she would have been perfect.  No camp, no over the top comedy, a straight period piece for Super Hero’s in Las Vegas of the 1970s. 

Cool as she was, a stand alone movie might be a bit much, so why not take the opportunity to add a lesser known Marvel hero, but one that fits perfectly into the world of Las Vegas, the Jack of Hearts?  One of my all time favorites he could be billed as Vegas’ premier magician during showtimes but a full blown super hero in the off time.  

Even though their comic book pasts don't give them much in common I think that the era and location turn them into a perfect pairing.

Perhaps the introduction of a villain from the X-Men world would be a nice foe for them, like Mojo, looking for fresh entertainment for his enslaved world goes after these two, only to have him discover the plethora of incredible entertainment from this earth era, who not only have to save themselves but also all of Vegas/Hollywood from Mojo’s mad desire to take both over to keep his power.

Part of the film could touch on the back stories of the characters, in flashbacks or just the character telling the story to the other, but I think it would help build them up.  Jack Hart could recall the days when he had to construct his containment suit to control his powers.  Hart could also reveal that he is part alien.

It would also be great if Jack was using Vegas as a cover to aid and teach meta-humans (and mutants), it's the perfect city for it, easy to hide the fantastic in a city of over the top entertainment.

Many aren't aware that The Dazzler, once simply called, The Disco Queen wasn't originated by Marvel, but commissioned by, Casablanca Records (we need to work that legendary label in somewhere).  This could give the film several tie-ins with 70s On 7 with Sirius XM.

It would also be cool to put in some cameo's, but do so without the camp, of stars from the age, Elvis Presley or Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack, or someone from the genre like, The Bee Gee's, as if they don't have enough film credits. 😆

This also provides two, well experience, supers for cameo’s in movies and streaming shows.

Super Sunday : The Angel

 Among the MANY classic mutant characters that Bryan Singer completely screwed up, The Angel stands as one of the worst.  It started off great, one of the few bright points of the third X-Men film, a good backstory of problems with his bigoted father and him finally breaking free to seek shelter in the Mansion but it quickly ended there.  

Warren Worthington III is one of the original X-Men and should have been treated far better… but then again, Singer pretty much screwed up everything X he touched, although Quick Silver and First Class were good, but that was probably more the writers than him.  

The Angel is worthy of a beautiful and uplifting film, if not a two

film arch that ends with him joining the X-Men.  No need for Archangel at all, at least not for a while, no need to rush into anything, he also needs some time with, The Defenders.  This could also be the chance to introduce Mutants into the MCU, Strange forms the Defenders in the teaser at the end of Angel 2, then later joins the X-Men.

The main problem with getting any super hero movie done right are directors like Singer (clueless) and studio execs who don’t care about story telling and only think about toy lines and $$$, often with no clue about the characters or how films are even made.

For Angel, a love story, not some teeny-bopper nonsense that Disney or Singer would do, a good one, with actual heart and, INSPIRATION, that should be a big part of it.  

Billionaire heir apparent and his bigoted father war over a woman that Warren has fallen for, maybe another mutant, and in a final outburst of defiance he shows his father who he really is, saving his girl and others.

This all came to me one day driving around and Faith Hills, If My Heart Had Wings, came on the radio, it’s perfect for a story with Angel.  Keep the original by Hill, if not add some more power to the background music, don’t let some hip-hop fool revamp and pervert it.

This is one of those great opportunities that Marvel has, but is probably overlooking and not seeing the potential of the character, it could be an incredible movie.

https://youtu.be/sFeD1sHuA-Q