MAYvel 2021 (Streaming Edition); Inhumans: I can see why this couldn't even get to double digits...

 One of the main reasons I review content made for the Marvel Cinematic Universe every May is consistency. As repetitive as the movies may get, one thing that's hard to deny is the level of consistency in the quality of their content. While all the movies might not be great to watch, a bad Marvel movie is still considered better than a mediocre movie from other studios. I'd rather watch Thor: The Dark World over Venom if given the option. The same, though, can't be said for their Television content. While Wandavision and Falcon and The Winter Soldier have been great starts for them on Disney+, and there are gems in the Netflix partnership like Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, when it gets bad, it gets really bad. If you thought Iron Fist was a lousy show, allow me to introduce to you Inhumans, a show so bad I couldn't even get past the first episode out of eight. See why I did M.O.D.O.K. first?

 

First, to get some positives out of the way, I think the island shots of Hawaii are well done. For the most part, the costume design is fine, and the casting choices are solid for the roles. I also appreciate the changes made for Black Bolt; I think the use of Sign Language for him is an excellent idea. Unfortunately, though, that's pretty much where the positives end. If I were to describe my thoughts with the first episode, the episode meant to hook me in on the show's premise; it's boring. I was bored throughout the episode to the point that I would pause, change to a new tab and watch Youtube videos for a while to watch something entertaining, something lively. What doesn't help is the setting and the delivery of most lines. Attilan looks like a hodgepodge of sci-fi and the world's most boring prison in terms of architecture, thanks to it being nothing but grey building that feels like cinder-blocks with basic carvings on them for detail. At the same time, inside, it's more bland, monotone coloured rooms and hallways. As for the delivery, while the casting looks like solid representations of the characters from the comics thanks to good costume design, their direction isn't. The delivery of most lines in the script reminds me of the Star Wars prequels, along with moments of Man of Steel where it feels like the only emotion they can portray is bland stoicism. It's hard to get a reading on some scenes as a result because there was one moment when the Royal Family was having dinner, and one member tries to flirt with a waitress before going on for too long and (I think?) saying he'll kill her for some reason? Then when she walks away, he gets mad about it being his power? Was that meant to be funny? I don't even know what his power is yet!

 

However, the powers go into the most significant issue the show has. Like with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Inhumans was done on a T.V. show budget, but corners were cut to make it as cheap as possible to produce. Some establishing shots look awkward going from the actual camera to full CGI. Many of the powers are limited whenever possible (to the point where they cut off Medusa's hair, taking away her power entirely for the sake of not needing to animate her hair past episode 1 poorly). Without needing to go into more detail about the characters online, the only character after 30 minutes that I could get a feel for who he is and his powers is Lockjaw, a giant (poorly rendered) CGI dog that can teleport. Though not as accurate of a comparison as it would be if I had another show to compare it to, at least in the X-Men movies, I can get the basics of most characters down within a few minutes of their introduction, or at the very least by the end of the film. Their name, their powers, their personality. I can't even tell you the terms of the main cast in this show off the top of my head because of how uninteresting they are, and I can't even begin to describe most of their powers because of how reserved they are for the sake of the budget. 

This show was green-lit was to try and improve the image of the Inhumans and have them replace the X-Men in the comic culture so that they don't need to promote characters Marvel didn't have the movie rights to. If this one episode is anything to go by, I wouldn't be surprised if people cared even less about the Inhumans after watching the show. Nothing about it feels like anyone genuinely wanted to work on the project, genuinely wanted to bring these characters to life. This show feels lifeless, soulless, brought into existence because of an awful business decision, and suffers as a result. If you can sit through more than one episode, great, good on you, but I couldn't do it. What a downer note to end on for MAYvel 2021... Loki looks interesting at least, and hopefully, this lockdown will lift so I can see Black Widow in cinemas.

MAYvel 2021 (Streaming Edition); M.O.D.O.K: A Frost Giant's head, on an infant's body, with the voice of Patton Oswalt... ok.

Only a short one today, as there's only one episode to watch right now (here in Australia). Inhumans is still coming. However, I was pretty busy with work last week and put it on hold for now. Who knows, if my state goes back into lockdown, I could have plenty of time on my hands. Though it is only eight episodes, M.O.D.O.K caught my curiosity because of the style, and with it currently only being one episode here (of how it's being released here), I thought it might be fun to sit back, have a laugh, and watch Patton Oswalt be one of Marvel's strangest villains. Welcome to A.I.M.

 

How to describe this show? Based purely on the pilot, the best way I can describe it is "what happens when you combine Marvel, Modern Family, The Office, and Robot Chicken?" As strange of a combination as that might sound, that's probably the best way to describe the show. The show will primarily focus around the titular M.O.D.O.K as he balances issues at home... because someone actually married him, and gave him children (oh, I hope that becomes a joke in Deadpool 3...), a mid-life crisis, along with the after-effects of selling A.I.M to the show's equivalent of Google/ Apple/ Samsung/ Waddle/ insert tech giant here, GRUMBL. Along the way, though I haven't seen most of these characters yet, we can expect to see other Marvel characters like The Leader, Mr Sinister, Mandrill, Arcade, and others. However, one personal issue I have with the show that I want to bring up before going further, though, is the voice direction. Though I haven't seen most of the characters in action due to only one episode being available here, most of the characters I have seen I don't think have great direction; I don't hear the characters, I hear the actors. Though I joke about some voice actors having repetitive voices and standing out like a sore thumb like Troy Baker, Tara Strong, and Laura Bailey, it's hard to joke about that here when many of the significant voices are like that. I don't hear M.O.D.O.K; I hear Patton Oswalt. I don't hear Louis; I hear Ben Schwartz. But on the more comedic side of it, any time I hear Austin Van Der Sleet talk, I imagine Launchpad McQuack like this is his side hustle when not driving Scrooge McDuck around.

 

The Office and Modern Family writing style and the somewhat more tame Robot Chicken comedy and animation style made the first episode entertaining to watch. It was funny seeing things like M.O.D.O.K taking Iron Man's boot as such a big and vital trophy after it was lodged into his hoverchair, seeing the Super Adaptoid being used for mundane things like a smoothie maker and a ladder for M.O.D.O.K. The A.I.M agents were funny, shout out's to Gary and the accountant for being the standouts in the first episode. Though my tone may still change, the first episode was at least amusing enough to watch the other episodes when they're released on Friday's. One other thing to add to the list of watches for me alongside The Bad Batch. Next week, Inhumans.

MAYvel 2021 (Streaming edition); Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Thank you for the traumatizing image of Culson with his exposed brain begging to die Joss...

 Remember when Marvel was doing T.V. shows tied to the MCU before Disney+ happened? Oh, you thought I would do the Netflix stuff first? They're on my list; they need a month to themselves. No, this was chosen because of content coming up, both an upcoming review and a character joining the MCU that may tie into what was introduced here (however that is very unlikely). While there are seven seasons available, I'm choosing to focus on two for now, mainly because these were made for public television and, therefore, harder to binge for review. Welcome, to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 

 

The primary plot for the seasons mainly revolve around Skye (who would later be known as Daisy), as she becomes an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. for season 1, learning from the full agents like a revived Agent Culson (back when death didn't mean anything in the MCU, just like the comics). The first season would eventually lead to a tie into Captain America: The Winter Solider, as S.H.I.E.L.D falls to Hydra and is taken back in what feels like a surprisingly short amount of time (however that could be me misremembering the Hydra take over in Winter Soldier. For season 2, the plot shifts to build up the Inhumans, thanks to a push by Isaac Perlmutter during that time which would be too long to explain here, though it is a fascinating story. While those are the big overarching plots, due to the show being made for traditional television, most of the episodes follow contained stories, with only small pieces used to build up to the finale. The show was intended to be viewed over 22 weeks, not a few days; you'll get bored trying to binge it because of how repetitive things are in the show. "A good guy turning out to be a back stabbing bad guy" is interesting in the proper context, but it gets boring when it feels like every new addition to the cast is going to backstab somebody. 

 

One thing that worked to the show's advantage in Season 1 but really did not work for Season 2 and likely onwards was the effects. The show's made on a T.V. show budget, and the effects aren't going to look as good as they do in the movies or the recent streaming shows. I've got no issue with the budget, as when it's focusing on spy stuff, the budget works. When it focuses on the Inhuman related content, though, and the more complex power sets of other heroes that come with it, it doesn't look good at all. To me, a good effect can still look cheap, but an effect that feels cheap will never look good, and none of the effects for the Inhumans look good. It's not the worst of it, though, that will come next week... maybe, I haven't seen the episodes yet when writing this, but I have heard horror stories. Spies and espionage can be done well on a small budget, not so much for superpowers. They try to somewhat cover up the shortcomings by making the powers and transformations not very drastic a lot of the time, but that makes the transformations and more effects-heavy powers stand out more. I'm not sure if it's addressed in later seasons. Still, one thing that was very questionable about this show regarding the Inhumans is an issue that's always plagued the Inhumans, the Mutants, and other similar power-based characters. The MCU's a world where the Avengers are praised. So why are the Inhumans looked down on as if they're, well, inhuman? Some with physical changes I can somewhat understand, but the ones that otherwise look and act normal?

And now, you get to have this image in your head too

 

So, why did I review this and put Fantastic 4 off for even longer? Well, curiosity. Ms Marvel, Kamala Khan, is in the comics an Inhuman (at least she was last time I checked). When writing this, unless a leak has come out that I've missed, we don't know how she'll get her powers in her upcoming Disney+ series. Considering how long Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D went on, even after the point when Joss Wheedon was taken out of the inner circle of Marvel Directors (hence why I'm only reviewing the two seasons set between the first two Avengers films). Do I think any of this will be followed up? No, but it's at least interesting to look at one of the black sheep of the MCU, even if it's only a taste for what's to come. If you want to watch it, watch one a week. Don't binge it as I did. See you next week, for Inhumans.

MAYvel 2021 (Streaming Edition!); The Falcon and The Winter Soldier: And you thought Black Panther was political

 With 2020 causing all the cinemas to shut, and movie schedules are still up in the air when it comes to getting a theatrical release, the world turned to streaming services, and for this MAYvel, so will I. No movies this year, instead it's all about the shows on Disney +. Two that are directly connected to the MCU, and two that are... well, they're there... maybe... kind of waiting on Ms Marvel to see what they're doing with them. Anyway, let's look at the newest of the shows, while it might still be possible to cash in on Google's Algorithm. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. 

 
While Wandavision (next week) was focused more on the after-effects of Endgame on a smaller scale, Wanda's reaction to what happened, Falcon and Winter Soldier focuses on the significant scale effects of Endgame. The world is a mess; refugees worldwide are without a home, thanks to all the people who disappeared after Infinity War returning and continuing as nothing had happened. Borders are returning, and because of this, a political extremist group known as the Flag Smashers is out to try and return the world to the way it was in the five years between Infinity War and Endgame. "One World, One People." What makes this group more intimidating when compared to similar organizations in the real world is that many of its members have been given a working version of the Super Soldier Serum, and have the powers of Captain America. There is one main difference, though, their physical bodies don't change in size, compared to Steve Rogers transformation in the first Captain America movie. What happens, though, in the chase to try and stop the Flag Smashers is a mix of parties with conflicting agendas. Sam and Bucky work alongside Barron Zemo (the main villain from Captain America: Civil War), which results in Wakanda sending in the Dora Milaje to recapture Zemo he killed King T'Chaka. The American Government promotes John Walker and turns him into the new Captain America, who, alongside his friend Battlestar, is trying to capture the Flag Smashers and the Serum. Zemo wants to destroy the serum. Another villain, MCU "newcomer" the Power Broker, who initially funded the creation of the new serum, wants to regain their lost property from the Flag Smashers, and that's all for the A Plot of the series. There's a lot of stuff in these six episodes. They're dense with story, and yet this mess of plot threads are held together, thanks to the B Plot. 

 

The B plot of the show focuses on Sam and his journey into becoming the new Captain America, as was Steve's intention in Endgame when Sam was given the shield. However, it isn't without its hurdles, thanks to John Walker having the shield and sinking further into madness resulting in him killing a Flag-Smasher, instead of the original intent of arresting them, in broad daylight, on international soil, with the shield. Encase that wasn't enough of a political message forced down your throat, we also learn of the darker history of the shield after Steve was frozen in the ice. These story threads are where the comparison to Black Panther is inevitably created. While that depicted a fantastic version of Africa, a city free of colonization in the form of Wakanda, this show tackles racism in America head-on to Isaiah Bradley. While his story is slightly toned down for the series, the only thing different between his comic book history and his MCU history was that he was a trial run in the comics before they gave it to Steve.

 

In contrast, here, he was already frozen, and they were trying to recreate it. While the exact specifics aren't something I can personally attest to, due to what minor differences there are between the racism of America and the racism here in Australia, this still hits hard because of the situation. The show is very respectful to the character and doesn't hold back in showing how badly black people were treated then, and even how bad black people are treated now as Sam himself interacts with racist people on screen. This series was initially meant to air in August last year, and I can't help but wonder how the previous year's events would have impacted how people view this character as the racial tension due to George Floyd's death would have only been two months old by then. 

 

The production values are surprisingly consistent, considering this was in post-production during COVID Lockdowns. It's what you'd expect from a Marvel movie. However, I will give an honourable mention to Madripoor. It's probably one of the most exciting places they've made for a Marvel production so far that doesn't lean heavily on the sci-fi aesthetic (compared to somewhere like Wakanda or Sakkar). The translation of Sam's Captain America costume from the comics to real life is also very impressive. It's a great looking costume, and I appreciate the white accents to break up the blue, compared to something like Steve's costumes from the movies, which look very monotone in retrospect. But, with how similar MCU projects are in terms of presentation (there have been 25MCU movies and two canonical shows. I think you can get a good idea as to how these things look and sound), I'll be ending the review of it here. This show was a great watch, thanks to the character interactions and how the world around the characters interacts with them. Would I recommend binging them now that all six episodes are out? No, these do feel catered to the release schedule Disney + has, that being one a week (most of the time). The show is worth a watch, though, and it's going to be interesting to see what happens next for these characters in the MCU.
 
The Mediaholics Toybox is joining in on the MAYvel fun this year with Marvel Legends reviews. For those interested in that, you can check them out at any time, with new ones going live on Sundays. In the meantime, I'll see you next week for Wandavision.

MAYvel Phase 3: Spiderman Far From Home: "We felt the need to remind you that Iron Man is dead."

And so Marvel's Phase 3, and the Infinity Saga comes to a close. 11 years, 23 movies, and with the next batch of content looking to be even bigger thanks to the Fox acquisition, it seems like the only thing that's going to stop Marvel is a Pandemic. Let's see how well that actually works out, because... actually probably better I don't finish this joke... With this being the last movie of Phase 3, I thought it was fitting to end MAYvel Phase 3 here, the original plans of reviewing the 90's Spiderman and X Men cartoons will happen at another time.

MAYvel Phase 3; Avengers Endgame: See, they're only mostly dead...

So... where do you go after Infinity War? Most of the characters people know are dead, and those that are alive are either stuck in a different dimension, stuck in space, or stuck on Earth with no idea what the hell to do. The answer? Time Travel, that also conveniently sets up Disney+ shows that are still apparently coming for characters that are actually dead, not mostly dead. So... sucks for Vision I guess? Oh, wait he's in Wandavision... As you can probably tell, I was struggling to come up with an intro to this, so frag it, here's my review of Avengers Endgame.

MAYvel Phase 3; Captain Marvel: "Oh boy, another movie no one can agree on and one where every opinion is hated!"

Because those are always fun to cover, and in no way at all nerve-racking, even if I cover media after they're done in the spotlight.

I was not looking forward to MAYvel Phase 3 this year purely because of this movie. Not because I hated it, I was honestly pretty impartial to it when I first saw it, but because it was another one of those movies that no one could agree on, where there was no middle ground in the discussion around the movie, you either loved everything about it or you hated it with everything you had because you're sexist. Yes, this movie is in the same camp as Ghostbusters 2016, in that it was held up as one of the greatest movies ever made because of female representation in the media and discussion surrounding the movie, and it was hard to discuss the positives and negatives of the movie without coming off as an apologist, or a sexist. Without going into details on the movie itself, I do think that kind of talk does a disservice to movies and media as a whole, as it not only brings to light the biases many people have about what they want in a movie, rather than the quality of a movie, and it also drags down positive representation of characters as people assume that it's bait for specific demographics, instead of being an interesting character and story to tell. That, combined with the increased pressure by automatic comparisons between this movie, the previous year's Black Panther and 2017's Wonder Woman, the release on International Woman's Day, and it felt like very little talk around Captain Marvel was actually about Captain Marvel. So, a year later, was it all worth it?

Top X List: Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie

To close off MAYvel (on this site at least), I figured it was only fitting to look back at what's been, and see how they stack when compared to each other. It should be said that all of these are purely subjective, based on how much I enjoy watching the movies, 

21. The Incredible Hulk

I'll start things off with the movie everyone forgot was in the MCU until Civil War brought back General Ross. While not a bad movie in terms of execution, it isn't really memorable either, as the only interesting thing is the behind the scenes dramas that went on with the movie, and everyone's attempts to take control of it. It's a shame that we can't get a dedicated Hulk movie now thanks to Universal's hold on the rights, but at least he gets to stay in the MCU. It would be cool to see more Hulk villains though going forward because while I don't know how many could hold a movie on their own, they can at the very least work as hired muscle for a bigger threat. It would also be a good excuse to get the other Hulks into a movie. 

MAYvel Phase 2; The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: The darker side of the MCU

While it's hard to argue against Marvel's dominance at the box office thanks to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men movies and the original Spider-Man trilogy, their endeavours into the small screen have been... mixed at best. While there have been standouts, it's hard to compare those standouts favourably when compared to the competition like Batman the Animated Series, and this is just me comparing the cartoons. However, there was one that many consider equal to the likes of Justice League, and the DC Animated universe, though the problem was a restructure of the plan, to bring the shows more in line with the MCU.

MAYvel Phase 2; Ant-Man and The Wasp: Still the best use of product placement I've seen in a series of movies.

So while giant spaceships were falling out of the sky and most of the heroes were either off-world or in Africa, it would appear that Ant-Man is having issues with ghosts and the government, and sadly not the ghosts of all the heroes. Time to return to the size changing shenanigans with Ant-Man and The Wasp.

MAYvel Phase 2; Avengers Infinity War: One week after it's sequel came out. Perfect time to review it!

Put it this way, to those who hated Captain Marvel, the same rule holding it to 2020 is the rule that kept Infinity War to today.

Welcome to MAYvel Phase 2, the one-month marathon that goes into two months because of how much media Marvel has put out that doesn't include the actual comics. Unlike last year where almost all of Phase 3 was reviewed, from Ant-Man to Black Panther. This year, only two MCU movies are being reviewed, Infinity War, and the Ant-Man sequel. Two shows are going to be reviewed as well, along with a list marking almost every MCU movie from worst to best. Endgame won't be on that list because I don't want to spoil the Endgame. So don't worry, there won't be any spoilers of the movie in this review, and in the Toybox reviews this month, which will be reviewing the Avengers Endgame sets. So then, before you go to see Endgame, even though you probably already have, let's look at its direct lead-in, Avengers Infinity War.

Operation M.A.Y.V.E.L Phase 1; Black Panther: Does no one remember Blade? Luke Cage?

The first black-led Superhero film in the MCU? Fine, I can give you that one, first black lead Superhero in the MCU? That belongs to Luke Cage. First black led superhero film made by Marvel? Blade holds that title. Sorry for that General media outlets and people who simplify media stories. You might want to do some more fact checking first. On a completely unrelated note (honest), "Oh goodie, another film that got a lot of political attention and therefore became a politically charged topic to the point where it feels like I'm going to be put to a firing squad no matter what I say!" How many of these things am I going to get away with? On the plus side, this is one of the safer ones compared to Last Jedi and Ghostbusters 2016. So, let's close off MAYvel for 2018 with the newest Marvel movie to get on DVD, so new in fact that it only came out here last week, throwing off my schedule for June! Ok fine it was one of the reasons for the shakeup...

Operation M.A.Y.V.E.L Phase 1; Thor Ragnarok: WE HAVE A CODE GOLD PEOPLE, I REPEAT, CODE GOLD!

We've got full Goldblum people, this is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill!

Also, there are moments in this that are not suitable for younger readers or work. Nothing graphic, just words you might not want to talk about yet. Parents have been warned.

In order to recover from what many believe to be the worst of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far, it would appear that not only did Thor need to be hacked to the bones, losing his mother, father, his hammer, his eye, half his cape, his friends and his home, but also the Shakespearean style to the Thor movies, and going the complete opposite, a Sci-fi space romp where most of the film is on a junk planet with a little bit of Roman gladiatorial combat. Look, this movie is weird, and its time to take the same drugs Taiko Waititi took when making the film, here's New Doug Ragnarok... I mean Thor Ragnarok.

Operation M.A.Y.V.E.L Phase 1; Spider-Man Homecoming: Yes yes Marvel, very clever name, no one would have ever figured it out,

I don't know if I have the right to talk since this marathon is called MAYvel...

Though you have been getting rather risky with your story ideas. Do you have that much of an ego now that you're willing to put Batman into a Marvel movie while WB still owns the rights? Though to be fair this is the eighth movie with Peter Parker in it, and the third in the MCU (Remember that kid with the Iron Man mask in Iron Man 2? Apparently, that was a very young Peter Parker). Anyway, now that Peter is legally back with Marvel (under shared custody for now), it was only a matter of time before he got his own solo movie, and they did not waste the chance, though they did take every chance they could to separate this movie from the last five solo Spider-Man movies. Did it work though? One way to find out.

Operation M.A.Y.V.E.L Phase 1; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: The word Ego is used 13 times in this review, for 3 different things

A movie where a bunch of assholes comes to grips with the fact that they are a bunch of assholes. That statement could probably sum up this movie, in albeit a vague way, pretty well. Many call this movie one of the best the MCU has so far, and while I can see where they're coming from, there is a big reason why I personally don't see it. Allow me to explain why, as MAYvel starts to come into the home stretch, where Marvel started putting out three movies a year, and this is the first one from last year.

Operation M.A.Y.V.E.L Phase 1 (Maybe? Kinda?); Lego Marvel Superheroes 2: TT, we need to talk

I have a love-hate relationship with the Lego games. Two of my favorite games when growing up was Lego Star Wars Complete Saga, and Lego Batman 1, and motion sickness inducing camera aside, I do enjoy BIONICLE Heroes (though that's for another time). While simplistic, the games are still entertaining. However, things did change during the last generation of consoles. While it is a case by case situation, some of the changes made to the game since Lego Batman 2 turned me off of the games, and when I did try them again with Lego Dimensions, the flaws of the engine started to become really apparent to me. I got this game a few weeks ago as, encase it wasn't obvious, I've been on a marvel binge, and the game was heavily discounted. So I figured why not, and I'd even get the DLC because the two together was still cheaper than the normal retail price... See if you can guess where I'm going with this based on the title alone.

Operation M.A.Y.V.E.L Phase 1; Doctor Strange: Strange, isn't it?

Remember when there was no magic in the MCU? When all magic was just more advanced science? Well, now its time to backpedal on that, because we have a movie all about alternate dimensions, spirits exiting the body, cities being bent around themselves to the point where it looks like a Bayonetta arena is in between what could either be the same building 20 times or 20 buildings so close to each other that it looks like walls. Many have given this movie a somewhat valid comparison of "What if Iron Man was on a s@&* ton of drugs", but where are they coming from? One way to find out.

Operation M.A.Y.V.E.L Phase 1; Captain America; Civil War: You can't run away from your problems Marvel!

One of the biggest problems leveled at Marvel has been the villains. From killing off a lot of the iconic villains in their debut movies to many of the villains being rather boring compared to the heroes. If I asked you to name three MCU villains that aren't named Loki, Thanos or Killmonger, would you be able to? In order to combat this, Marvel decided to turn a chunk of their heroes into villains for a story that really went to show how bad Batman in Black vs. Batman in Blue: Dawn of the Jesus Symbolism... yes I am still calling that movie Dawn of the Jesus Symbolism. It's friend against friend for this film though. To quote the marketing material for the film, are you Team Cap or Team Iron Man?

Operation M.A.Y.V.E.L Phase 1; Ant-Man: Ants, lots, and lots, of ants.

Look, if I'm doing this, I'm going all the way with it. And before you ask, yes I am working on an acronym for it. While calling it phase 1 is a small lie, as this is basically the Marvel Movie Marathon version 2.0, this is basically a reboot of it so Phase 1 it is. As for why MAYvel content is starting in April? I'm doing one a week, and Infinity War launches the day this post gets released (I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing as today is also ANZAC day...). Anyway, Ant-Man, the (depending on who you ask) final movie of the MCU's Phase 2, or first film of Phase 3, and the Marvel movie that suffered the most in production hell. Shall we delve into one of the Marvel movies from the mindset of "we can do whatever the f!@$ we want and still make s@$( tons of money!"?