Re-watching the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe

[Umbran]

That said, there was a real sense of cognitive dissonance when I went from watching Thor: The Dark World to Agents of Shield, episode 8. It was like I had gone from reading a well-established, professional fantasy author to a piece of fanfic. It was decent, even good, fanfic, but the difference was striking and a bit disconcerting.

Hm. I don't have that feeling at all.

Mind you, I start with markedly different expectations for TV and movies, what with their being different things in many ways. A lot more money gets spent on the technical bits on a movie, so I don't even try to compare them. And, I didn't find Thor to really be the best writing for movies, so don't really feel like AoS is really jarring.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I think one aspect that Avengers got right about the Hulk was that they also highlighted Banner. The whole story how he even got into the story was that they needed a scientist with his particular expertise. The getting all angry and green part was basically just a bonus (and a penalty).

The Hulk in a fight is kinda... Well, boring might be the wrong word. But he has a common superhero problem - he's seemingly indestructable. The fight can go on and and go on and go on, and Hulk won't be stopped (he might even get stronger, if I understand things correctly), and he basically doesn't get hurt.

And I think that is important in a good fight scene -that you see the combattants actually struggling and suffering, that you see how they might get defeated, that they suffer, and that they overcome their pain and injuries to eventually beat their enemy.

Superman has the same problem. And I think for him it's even worse than for Hulk. For Hulk, you can at least create the suspsense of him losing control and starting to attack indiscriminately, and his inability to stop. But Superman doesn't have that.

And it's an advantage a superhero like Wolverine has - sure, he can't be killed, and heals everything - but he still gets hurt along the way. His healing factor allows him to take great risks - but he still suffers from them. Heroes usually win in the end, but what makes them exciting is what they are willing to endure to get there.

 

[Morrus]

I dunno. Iron Man knocked Hulk out in Avengers 2. He's not invulnerable, just very tough.

 

[Mercurius]

Have Marvel and DC ever done a Superman vs. Hulk fight? If so I'm sure they copped out and made it a draw, but my money would be on old Ka'lel.

 

[Morrus]

Have Marvel and DC ever done a Superman vs. Hulk fight? If so I'm sure they copped out and made it a draw, but my money would be on old Ka'lel.

Two or three times, yeah.

 

[Mercurius]

Two or three times, yeah.

I looked it up and some article said they fought three times, Superman winning all three times.

I think a more interesting and equal match-up would be Thor and Superman.

 

[Morrus]

I looked it up and some article said they fought three times, Superman winning all three times.

I think a more interesting and equal match-up would be Thor and Superman.

They've done that, too.

 

[Mercurius]

They've done that, too.

The problem is, what haven't they done? That's one of the reasons I grew tired of comics - they (at least the superhero ones) just seemed to rehash the same old stuff, again and again. Still, I miss the glory days of X-Men in the 80s and early 90s, when I stopped reading (not long after Claremont departed).

 

[Nellisir]

The Hulk in a fight is kinda... Well, boring might be the wrong word. But he has a common superhero problem - he's seemingly indestructable. The fight can go on and and go on and go on, and Hulk won't be stopped (he might even get stronger, if I understand things correctly), and he basically doesn't get hurt.

You touch on it below what I quoted, but for the Hulk, it's both boon and benefit that he's nigh indestructable. He's almost uncontrolled as well. A boring fight against enemies isn't so boring when the unstoppable force turns against you. That creates drama and conflict.

Superman is something of a different issue. I'm rereading old issues of Majestic, and same problem there, but worse, since Majestros lacks Supes' moral code.