The OtherArena

[Bob Morris]

New Ant-Man and Wasp trailer out.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-new-ant-man-and-the-wasp-trailer-is-the-perfect-inf-1825665976

Probably a good thing that they are rolling out a light-hearted movie on the heels of Infinity War.

[jdw]

They also went lighter between the bleakness of Civil War (aka Avengers 2.5) and Infinity War:

Dr. Strange
GotG2
Spidey
Thor 3
Black Panther

That's not to say there wasn't some heavy shit in those movies. But there were tons of life, a lot that was joyous about them, and even destroying Asgard was balanced out by being one of the funniest movies of of the whole MCU.

[Bob Morris]

This was a good article about how we may never see anything like the Marvel Cinematic Universe again.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-marvel-cinematic-universe-should-have-failed/

[Bob Morris]

Chris Evans' latest Twitter post makes it sound like he is no longer going to play Captain America.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/chris-evans-sure-makes-it-sound-like-hes-done-with-capt-1829527935

Whether or not that means Steve Rogers dies in Avengers 4 remains to be seen.

[Dave Dymond]

[Bob Morris]

Finally got to watch Ant-Man and The Wasp and this is how I would rank the MCU films thus far:

1. The Avengers (sentimental reasons)

2. Captain America 2
3. Infinity War
4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1
6. Black Panther

7. Captain America 3
8. Spidey Homecoming
9. Iron Man
10. Doctor Strange
11. Iron Man 3
12. Ant-Man
13. Ant-Man and The Wasp
14. Thor 3
15. Captain America
16. Thor
17. Avengers 2
18. Iron Man 2
19. Thor 2
20. Incredible Hulk

[Bob Morris]

And now I add to my earlier discussion about the DC shows on CW.

Arrow Season 6: It was a mess early on, with the writers trying to juggle too many characters and plot lines, but it got better by the end of the season, with Oliver Queen basically on his own until the final few episodes, and Ricardo Diaz allowed to take center stage as the main villain. It's really a mixed bag overall, though, because they tried to doing a whole bunch of stuff, with multiple villains coming together and Arrow and his friends splitting up, that it was just hard to follow along.

It wasn't as bad as Season 4, but Seasons 1, 2 and 5 are all better.

Flash Season 4: I had mentioned earlier that a lot of the episodes got too goofy and that was a theme throughout the season. And though Clifford DeVoe was a compelling villain, his plot was so convoluted and it all built up to a disappointing final episode. They tease the idea that Barry Allen needs to find a way to out-think DeVoe and that never comes to pass. Instead, they try the concept of Team Flash winning because they care for one another, whereas DeVoe has lost all sense of humanity, and it just doesn't work.

So Flash Season 4 continues the trend of "DC CW show's worst season is its fourth."

Supergirl Season 2: Easily the best of the seasons. There are some people who don't care for Mon-El, but I liked the way they handled him -- he starts off as this self-centered jerk, but it's Supergirl who gets him to learn to stop acting that way. As he learns to be a better person, you find out he can give good advice. I got the sense that he was the type of person who could be good, but chose not to because he was too caught up in his lifestyle.

I think they also had an interesting plot line with how Lena Luthor gets introduced and how she wants to do better than her family did, plus the Cadmus storyline proved an interesting counterpoint for Supergirl and her mission to protect the planet.

Supergirl Season 3: This was a good season but with a flat ending. The Reign storyline was interesting and her character was a serious threat to Supergirl. However, they rolled out a bunch of elements late in the season that made for a less satisfying conclusion than what could have been.

I liked how the Legion of Superheroes were handled and they did a good job wrapping up Mon-El's arc. But there's too many things about how they resolved the Reign storyline that didn't work for me.

Legends of Tomorrow Season 3: This was a fun romp and they just went over the top with everything. It works better than Season 2, though, because they make Damien Dahrk a more compelling character than he's ever been. They do a great job getting across the idea that Damien cares for his daughter more than anything and is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her. It made up a lot for how he got wasted in Arrow Season 4.

They also did a good job introducing Zari into the cast and she shined in an episode that was based off Groundhog Day. While I did find a couple of other subplots to not be as satisfying, it remains the best of the LoT seasons.

Black Lightning Season 1: I thought they did a good job overall with the 13 episodes they got. It tends to play out more like an extended movie, because seldom is there a plot that is contained within the episode.

They have an interesting take on Jefferson Pierce, in which he has to balance out how he aids the community as Black Lightning and how he does in his real-life job as a high school principal. It lends itself to some good material about urban life and the challenges people may face.

Anissa Pierce is, by far, my favorite character. She's somebody who wants nothing more than to make things better for her community and the people, so it gives her plenty of motivation to utilize her powers to do that. She has such a big heart and cares deeply for her family, to the point I find her as the one who does the most to keep everyone together. One of the best supporting characters they've introduced on the DC CW shows.

[jdw]

This hits *all* the right notes for a first trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA6hldpSTF8

[Bob Morris]

The Avengers Endgame trailer definitely has me excited.

The only character they didn't show is Captain Marvel -- but that's a good thing, because it keeps people guessing as to what the original Avengers are going to do and really puts Tony Stark into the worst possible predicament.

[Bob Morris]

And on CW, the latest Arrowverse crossover will get underway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vho3Rwbuu_o

For this one, you definitely need to watch at least some of Arrow and The Flash to get exactly what's taking place and why it matters.

[Steve Yohe]

Well the chick Captain Marvel will find Iron Man & save him. There is no one else flying around in space.

What is the Watcher doing thru all of this?

Maybe they figure out that cutting the human population is a good thing. No more traffic in West LA....hell it's "a dream come thru" for Hollywood. You can get tickets for concerts. You don't have to get divorced. The air is better. You can get a job. Parking spaces will open up. The air got better. It's easier to find parts for your car. Half the people you owed money to are gone. People can put off population control & start having baby's again, at least for 50 years, and they've had time to mess everything up again..

The insurance companies will go nuts if you bring all those people back. It's a fucked world.

The next Avenger movie will be about how all the survivors are pissed because the population increased by 50%....just as things were getting better. They better bring all of them back real fast, before everyone left realizes that they are better off without them.

When F. F., Submariner, and Silver Surfer become Marvel movies, the people will hate them because they did nothing when half the Avengers got wiped out....and then brought back. Were they on fucking vacation or what?---Steve Yohe

[Steve Yohe]

After this next Avengers...will they dump all the old actors & just do reboots?--Yohe

[jdw]

The DC Murderverse is basically dead:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/wonder-woman-killed-dceu-100048696.html

While Tsujihara largely points to Wonder Woman, I think Aquaman doing a billion world wide after Justice League bombed is as big of a deal. It showed Wonder Woman wasn't a fluke and other movies could do business.

Of course at some point they will put focus into relaunching Super Man and Batman. But they're freed from having to rush them into a Multiverse, and instead try to strike the lightening they hit with Nolan's Batmans.

[Dave Dymond]

The trailer for that new X-Men Dark Phoenix movie looks terrible, in my opinion. I have no desire to see this movie whatsoever, especially since Wolverine isn't featured in this movie version of the story, when he was in the original in the comic book.

[Steve Yohe]

Sounds like they are running out of ideas.---Yohe