Marvel Cinematic Universe Wish Lists

"Do you want to see my Marvel Cinematic Universe wishlist?" my friend asked me at work the other day.

"No, not really," I responded.

She didn't take "No, not really" for an answer though, and not long after presented me with this sticky note.

I picked up a pencil and went over it with her for a minute or two.

"Did you just throw that away?" she asked.

"No, I recycled it."

"Don't! You have to write about it on your blog."

I did not intend to, but a few minutes later I decided to fish it out of the paper recycling box, as by that point I found myself cycling through my own wish list of things I'd like to see in the so-called "Marvel Cinematic Universe," a phrase I still have a hard time saying out loud with a straight face. Plus, it would be a quick and easy post for a night when I would rather not work too long or hard on a EDILW post. (Like tonight; I mean, I just got Batman Vol. 7: Endgame, and I'd really rather read that comic book than write about other comic books tonight, if that's cool with everyone.)

I scribbled my own thoughts on a scrap of paper, and presented them to her.

A few minutes later, I remembered two other, older MCU "wishes" I had, and scribbled those on another sheet of paper, leaving blank spaces for her feedback. And then I remembered another, which I've mentioned here to you guys before, but maybe not to her in person.

So let's review these, together, because I want to go read Endgame.

My friend's wish list is on the pink sticky note above (Pink? Way to live up to stereotypes!). It has four bullet points.

The first is Lady Sif shows up on Agent Carter. I made a semi-circle around that, because that seems plausible. Sif showed up on Agents of SHIELD right, and I think they met in a recent SHIELD comic Marvel published that had nothing to do with Secret Wars, a rarity this year. I like Hayley Atwell, I like Jaimie Alexander and I like Agent Carter okay (I only watched the last half or so, but it was a good half). And Asgardians are immortal, so Sif can show up in the 1950s, right?

The next is 1970s Ms. Marvel Film, Carol Danvers/Peggy Carter starting SHIELD. My friend has talked excitedly about this before, but she basically wants them to forget the whole Danvers-as-Captain Marvel-in-space movie and just adapt the first chunk of Essential Ms. Marvel into a movie. That, for the record, is set in the 1970s (when it was first published, obviously), and featured J. Jonah Jameson trying to hire Danvers to write a woman's magazine or pull-out or something for The Daily Bugle about recipes and apron fashion, and she turned it into a women's lib thing and out-negotiated him salary-wise (If they did make a movie with that character and that costume, they would have to cast a lady with great abs, I guess...although I don't know, were abs a thing in the '70s? I hope they cast Julianne Hough, because I love her, she has great abs and my friend hates her). My friend wants more superhero period pieces; based on how watchable Agent Carter is compared to Agents of SHIELD or those DC shows, I agree. Could this happen? Sure, why not? J. Jonah Jameson is also immortal.

The other half of the slash is something Marvel will probably get around to eventually; Peggy starting SHIELD. We see some hints of that in the Ant-Man part set in the 1980s, right? My friend thinks they should combine them, so that Ms. Marvel is one of Peggy's first superhero recruits, and they fight evil together.

As you can see, I crossed out the first half, assuming it will never happen (they're still going ahead with a Captain Marvel in space movie, right? And I assume any movie with a "Ms. Marvel" will feature Kamala Khan, the interesting Ms. Marvel). I circled the second half though, as that seems like a thing that will happen somewhere...maybe on TV, if not on film.

Next? Jessica Jones/Matt Murdock show up in Ant-Man 2.

"Why?" I asked, and she said there was precedent, as Jessica dated Scott Lang in Alias, which I had forgotten (having read it monthly when it first came out and never, ever reread), whereas she just read all of Alias in preparation for the awesome-looking Jessica Jones Netflix series.

Her final point was Agents of SHIELD/Guardians crossover (ship Daisy/Star-Lord!)"

I had some questions, mostly along the lines of "Huh?" and "Why?", but I think it amounts to her loving those two characters, and Kitty Pryde not existing in the MCU. I'm not a fan of Daisy, thanks to Brian Michael Bendis' Secret War, which is the worst. That explains my scribbles.

So then I countered with this, a few minutes later:

That first one is MCU Defenders/MCU Avengers War. Meaning the Netflix "Defenders" (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and...Iron Fist, I think...?) vs. the movie Avengers. Maybe Doctor Strange can gather those Defenders to battle the Avengers for, like, magic reasons; that would put at least one real Defender in the Defenders camp, right? Also, I'd just kinda like to see Krysten Ritter punching out Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth and wrestling The Hulk. Hey, who wouldn't?

That is followed immediately by "Classic" Defenders Movie which would be a movie with Dr. Strange, The Hulk, Namor, Silver Surfer and some hangers-on...maybe put Sif in for Valkyrie, and hire some sad-sack to play Nighthawk. This will never happen, of course; not only is "Defenders" being repurposed to the New York City-based, street-level heroes of the Netflix series, but the rights to Namor and Silver Surfer are tied up at other studios. Of course, Universal doesn't seem to be moving to make a Namor movie, and Fox fucked up the Fantastic Four so bad last time that maybe they'll give Marvel Studios back the Silver Surfer for, like, $50 or something.

Next? Champions" TV series. You know, Black Widow, Iceman, Angel, Ghost Rider and Hercules*. Yes, I know that 3/5ths of the team aren't really in the MCU, as Sony owns Ghosty and the X-guys are with Fox for now, but surely all of the studio heads and lawyers can agree that a Champions project is so awesome it has to happen eventually (actually, I think Marvel lost the rights to use the title "Champions," didn't they...? That's why the series from early in Matt Fraction's Marvel career had to be re-titled The Order, right?). I think this should be a TV series–and not a classy, well-made Netflix one, but a cheap ABC series–because I think that premise really just screams "old-world network television," doesn't it? They'd have to re-cast, of course, as I don't think they could get Scarlet Johansson or Old Man Nic Cage to do a TV show...

That is followed by Legion of Monsters movie, which I think is pretty self-explanatory (probably wanna include Blade and/or Elsa Bloodstone to human it up a bit), and J. Jonah Jameson/Daily Planet Netflix. I know Sony and Marvel Studios recently worked out a deal so they could import Spidey into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so I assume the same goes for Spidey's supporting characters? How great would a show set in the offices of The Daily Bugle be...? (Yes, I put "Daily Planet" on my sticy note...but she didn't even notice! Ha ha! It's hard to keep all these fictional major metropolitan newspapers straight sometimes, you know?).

I assume that Whoever They Get To Play Peter Parker would be too busy being a movie star to appear in a Netflix miniseries, but so what? Same goes for the fact that MCU Ben Urich is, um, indisposed, currently. We really just need J.K. Simmons yelling at people, while Elizabeth Banks comes and goes in a black wig. NO, WE CAN'T RECAST. J.K. Simmons' J. Jonah Jameson is the most perfect example of a real actor playing a comic book character in the history of comic book film adaptations.

On the side, I later scribbled two other notes.

The first was Secret Avengers! I was thinking of the Ales Kot/Michael Walsh Secret Avengers Vol. 1: Let's Have a Problem that I read last week or so (recommended!). While doing so, I was struck by the fact that the line-up was pretty TV-friendly, as Spider-Woman was the only character with super-powers, and those powers of hers are pretty negligible. That line-up, by the way, is Phil Coulson, Maria Hill, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Nick Fury II, Spider-Woman and MODOK. It read an awful lot like what I imagine a good version of Agengs of SHIELD (the TV show) might be like. About half of that cast already appears in the films, though.

The second was Thor B-Team, which we'll get to later.

A while later, I wrote two other ideas, leaving room for comments:

The first, as you can see, is Invaders?

I included a question mark, because I'm not sure they would use that name, as it is a dumb name for a superhero team. I included the explanation of 1940s Avengers of Captain America, Bucky, Namor, etc.

Basically Avengers, but set somewhere in the middle of Captain America: The First Avenger.

My friend's response was a simple frowny face, and I guess including Spitfire or even Peggy Carter (sans old lady make-up!) wouldn't turn that frown upside down.

My other one was (Peggy Carter's pre-Avengers), referring to a team set in the flashbacks of Ant-Man, back when the original Ant-Man and The Wasp were fighting America's Cold War enemies in secret for SHIELD. Then I added Secret Avengers? because what else would you call that team? Marvel already owns and uses the term "Secret Avengers," and that team would was/would have been literally secret Avengers.

My suggested line-up was Ant-Man Michael Douglas, '70s Captain Marvel, The Wasp...?

"I assume you mean Mar-Vel?" she asked, and I said, "No, Carol Danvers," and so she corrected my note. Stupid Captains Marvels! It's so hard keeping all 50 of you straight!

As for others in the line-up, she suggested Sif (she likes Sif a lot, in case you couldn't tell), as well as Howard/The Howling Commandos, referring, of course, to Howard Stark and the Dum Dum Dugan lead team from Captain America: The First Avenger and Agent Carter.

Also, T'Chaka, Black Panther's dad, The Black Panther.

I don't know. Maybe Ant-Man I, The Wasp I (Evangeline Lily can even play her own character's mom!), Old Man Dum Dum Dugan and some "period" superheroes...maybe Gorilla-Man...? Let's all give this some thought, readers and Marvel Studios.

Finally, there's this, which I've talked to both you and my friend about before:

Since the most interesting characters and actors in the two Thor movies have been the sidekicks and villain, I'd really rather see a Thor movie without Thor, Jane Foster or Odin. So Jane's sidekick Kat Dennings teaming up with Thor's pals Sif and the Warriors Three to fight Loki or something.

My friend overruled Loki though, as we've seen enough of him, and would rather see Enchantress. Also, she wants Beta Ray Bill in the movie. I don't know about that; I think Beta Ray Bill is going to be one of those characters like MODOK, where when he finally appears in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie we'll be approaching some kind of critical mass of superhero movies, a sort of, "Can we take any more?" sort of situation.

The terrible thing about this game, however, is it can go on forever. I mean, I didn't even mention Fin Fang Foom, who just now occurred to me! It must suck being the person in charge of all this shit in real life. Like, it's easy to to think of ideas for characters and teams to rearrange and stick in films and TV shows, but it takes forever to actually make them. So, if you're the guy who's thinking "Moon Knight Netflix series" or "Agents of Atlas movie," it's not something that, even if green-lit immediately, could conceivably be made until 2020 or something, and by that time you'll have had time to think of 100,000 other ideas.

It must be crazy-making...but I guess that person is well-paid, and there are certainly worse jobs to have. I mean, we just did this shit for free, you know?



*Actually, I do hope Hercules shows up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe somewhere eventually; a Thor/Hercules team is a buddy movie waiting to happen, you know? Hell, maybe they can make that the plot of Thor 4, since the Thor movies are all so boring anyway.