I'm David, welcome to my brain. Here I write to not only show that I can but to share my opinions on various topics. Mostly Video Games, Anime, Movies and Tokusatsu. Though I am open to suggestions and never afraid to admit when I'm wrong. Have a good time in here and be sure not to mess with my memory, it's bad enough as it is.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
March to Infinity: Top Villains of the MCU Movies Part 2: The top of the pile.
Sure while the Solder himself wasn’t the big mastermind in his own movie he was still the major threat and provided a great personal conflict between him and Cap. Normally while I’m against characters that have little to no agency in their own story in this case it’s an exception since any self agency he had was striped away by Hydra. Steve’s one time best friend turned into a cold, emotionless killing machine, striped of his memories and free will and replaced with every form of killing known to man made for a fantastic conflict for Cap, trying to save thousands of lives while trying to free the man trapped inside the monster. If his internal conflict wasn’t enough to captivate you his relentless and deadly fighting prowess will certainly do the job. Thankfully Bucky was saved eventually, only for Infinity War to happen, but still whether he’s Bucky Barns, The White Wolf or the Winter Solder he’s a man you don’t want to find his cold Robot hand on your throat.
Ok now why is this guy so high up on the list when when you break it down he's just another asshole in a suit like he rest of the Iron Man villains. Well aside from the awesome costume I feel that there's more of a personal antagonistic connection between Darren Cross and Scott Lang compared to the previous examples. While Scott was personally trained and earned the trust of Hank Pym Cross on the other hand may have been taught by the man he was basically seen as the failed son due to a combination of Hanks ego and the lost of his wife Janet causing him endless grief. The result was a man who had absolutely no scruples in selling this dangerous technology to the highest bidder, in this case being remnants of Hydra. I kind of see the relationship between Cross and Lang in a similar vain of Gene and Big Boss in Portable Ops, both were in someway shaped and influenced by The Boss but where one has actually earned the respect of their mentor all the other inherited was a hollow shell of a legacy.
On paper this guy is a genuine threat. An AI granted sentience and consciousness via the Mind Stone having the persona of Tony Stark, full access to all information on the internet and able to transfer his consciousness to any Wi-Fi signal on the planet, all wrapped up in a super powerful metal body with a God Complex, odd daddy issues and a pretentious comeback to any argument you can label against him. That's not even taking the fact that he's also a one man army and an army of one since he can control multiple bodies simultaneously and even transfer his consciousness into them when his main body is too damaged. This guy nearly managed to destroy the entire earth and even though he ultimately failed he set the stage for the events that would tear the Avengers apart. Now if that doesn't make an interesting villain I don't know what to tell you.
Now aside from the aesthetics and design of the Vulture suit; which are still awesome there's some things about this incarnation of Adrian Tombs that I really do like. For one thing this isn't just some asshole billionare with delusions of grandure or a powerful alien with a god complex and a magic stone, he and his crew were just a bunch of blue-collar Joes trying to put food on the table whose operation just kept getting more and more out of control. Trying to make a living is one thing, but reverse engineering alien technology and selling these weapons to criminals, yeah a few sparks is all it takes to set the whole forest ablaze. This coupled with the charismatically threatening performance of Micheal Keaton makes this version of the Vulture one of the highlights of an otherwise ok Marvel movie. I doubt that this is the end of the Vulture however considering the ending and loose plot threads of Spider-Man Homecoming maybe he'll be back for an actual Sinister Six movie.
First of all I was honestly surprised that Marvel even could use the this guy in GOTG Vol 2 in the first place considering the then rights issues between Marvel and Fox who owned the Fantastic Four movie rights which Ego fell under at the time. But what they came up with when all those issues were cleared up was worth the headaches in the end. Diverging from his comic book counter part this Ego is the father of Starlord and planed to terraform several planets into versions of himself to satiate his loneliness and the key to all of this is with the power of another being like himself, thus he tried to create many children but they were incompatible with his power, all except for Peter Quill. I mean that alone would make him a sizable threat, a monster who was this close to destroying most of the galaxy but what really places him here was that he was the one who gave Peter's mom the Cancer that killed her. I believe that Peter's real daddy said it best about him, "That guy was a jackass!"
"An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again, but one that crumbles from within, that's dead, forever." This one sentence sums up the impact, motivations and menace that drives this former Sokovian solder. After Ultron launched his attack on Sokovia he thought that his family would be safe, at least until he found their bodies, and where were the Avengers? He knew he could never out power Earth's mightiest heroes, so he waited until the time was right, acquired all the pieces he would need, set up Cap's best friend Bucky for the murder of King T'Chaka and just sat back and watched them tear each other to pieces. Zemo might not have been the most powerful or the most cunning villain, but he did what no other villain could do, he broke the Avengers.
#3 Loki from.. just Loki
What else is there to say about Loki? He was the break out villain of the MCU and Tom Hiddleston brought this petulant, mad trickster god to life. From his first appearance in Thor where he was the well meaning but misguided prince of Asgard to the would be despot of the first Avengers movie Loki was the one who drew those butts to those seats. Much like the God Dan Kuroto Loki started off as pretty standard bad guy and while he can come off as scheming and mad he mostly became the focus of really good comedy. Though considering what happened in Infinity War I doubt he'll be making any more mischief for the Avengers; for for the trickster god that made the MCU we have one thing to say.
If you haven't noticed with this list most of the top ones are characters that I can empathize with or detest the most. The former were misguided but you could see how their circumstances lead them to become the antagonists that made our heroes lives that much worse while the later is often too big of a threat to just ignore. These two views can't be intersected more than with Erik Stevens Aka Killmonger. Born the son of Wakandan Prince N'Jobu Erik having lost both of his parents; plans to continue his father's plan by taking over Wakanda to conquer the world by giving their advanced weapons technology to oppressed Black people all over the world, leading to his own brand of conquest, violent revolution and vengeance. While his grievances against both Wakanda and the western world is more than justified; he plans to just continue the cycle of death and madness just with a different hand on the trigger.
I also have a good rule for villains, any standard villain can easily oppose the values of the protagonist but a great villain is also one that the hero can learn from. If not as a cautionary tale but by acknowledging that while their cause is justified their actions or motivations are just as abominable as the ones they're trying to oppose. T'Challa by fighting and learning of the plight of Killmonger knows that Wakanda can do real good for all the people of the world, not just for those of African descent. Of course this would be for nothing without the excellent acting of Michael B. Jordon, this coupled with the upcoming Creed 2 means that yes, we can let him off the hook for Fant4stic. I could go on but if I did I'd just be plagiarizing Wisecrack so I'll just cut out the middle man and point you to their video on why Killmonger is the best villain since Heath Ledger's Joker.
Here we are at last, the absolute best villain of the MCU, Thanos the Mad Titan. Now while Killmonger is the most empathetic and understandable Thanos not only has the same empathy and understanding behind his actions, he also has the power to not only make things hard on earth but the entire universe. Now like everyone I got more than annoyed when for all of his talk Thanos just did little over the course of the MCU past Avengers. Sure he may have backed Ronan and Loki but other then that he really didn't have that much of a direct presence. But as soon as he got his big purple ass off of that chair and we saw him hovering over the Asgardian escape vessel that was when we knew that he was here to play, and he came to win!
Just like Killmonger Thanos' actions while abominable are actually understandable and most horrifyingly, logical. Having seen his home planet of Titan destroyed by overpopulation Thanos made it his goal to insure that no planet had to suffer that same fate, by wiping out half of the populations of the planets he conquered to save them from themselves. However he eventually realized that going planet by planet wasn't enough so he sought the Infinity Stones to wipe out half of the sentient life in the universe. The worst thing about this is that he succeeded, but not without cost, for him to get the final Infinity Stone he had to kill the one person he truly cared about, Gamora.
Now I know that eventually this outcome will be undone because how could Spider-Man have a sequel if he's a pile of dust; but when we were watching this movie and we saw Thanos snap those fingers all we could think about was "Mr Stark, I don't feel so good." What really sold me on this version of Thanos aside from the scene were he acquired the Soul Stone was the last scene where Thanos sat down on that porch on that farm and had that look on his face that said "I did it". To be honest only one other movie has made me feel this way and hit me that hard watching a villain take this somber victory was when Homura was taunting Sayaka at the end of Madoka Magica Rebellion. Both Thanos and Homura overcame terrible hardships, made unconscionable decisions, gave up everything that they cherished all to achieve their goals, for Thanos to save the Universe, for Homura, to give the one person she loved a chance to be happy, the price was the uprooting and destruction of everything.
Thankfully they changed his motivations from his original comic book incarnation. Where there he was a nihilist who literally wanted to court Death only to fail and be upstaged by a murderous Canadian tumor. Here, he's fully aware of how monstrous his actions are but feels that it's his duty to cary out this horrible task, even if he's only remembered as a demon. That kind of conviction coupled with his goals actually being based on something that happened to him and not just some hypothesis or theoretical outcome not only justifies his crusade but actually gives him a sympathetic perspective as he genuinely hates himself for killing Gamora to acquire the Soul Stone. Of course he's nothing without the acting of Josh Brolin, his acting coupled with the brilliant script makes a giant purple emo into a powerful, terrifying and nuanced character, in a word, Fantastic.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support. Captain America The Winter Soldier is owned by Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company. Based on the character created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Ant-Man is owned by Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures. Based off the comic book character created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby.
Avengers Age of Ultron is owned by Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and is written by Joss Weadon. Based off the Characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Spider-Man: Homecoming is owned by Sony Pictures Releasing, Marvel Studios, Pascal Pictures and Colombia Pictures Guardians of the Galaxy is owned by Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Motion picture studios based off "Guardians of the Galaxy" created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. Captain America Civil War is owned by The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Studios and is based on the Comic "Civil War" Written by Mark Millar Marvel's The Avengers is owned by Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige. Based off the comic by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
One Piece is owned by Eiichiro Oda, Toei Animation, and Viz Media
None Piece is owned by PurpleeyesWTF.
Black Panther is owned by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Marvel Studios and Ryan Coogler. Based off the character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Avengers: Infinity War is owned by Walt Disney Studios motion Pictures and Marvel Studios Based off the original comics Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
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