Marvel News & Notes

Empire's issue for Black Widow is out and revealed or confirmed a few things (the link is from Conrad and his added speculation is marked in italics below):

• Following the events of Civil War, Natasha is hunted by Secretary Ross.
• Red Guardian is described as the “slightly budget” Soviet version of Captain America.
• Taskmaster is described as “every woman’s nightmare come to haunt her”. It’s widely believed that it’s Mason behind the mask and he’s said to be Natasha’s love interest from the past.
• Ray Winstone is playing Dreykov who is the head of the Red Room and likely the same Dreykov that Loki mentioned in the first Avengers (2012).

One of the things Conrad (link) and Murphy have done is trumpet any revelation about the film as validating the October 4chan leak about it. What's puzzling about this is the above actually debunks a couple of things from that leak:

• It posited that Winstone was playing Ivan Petrovich, not Dreykov (none of the purported leaks got this right--although all of them guessed he was playing her surrogate father)
• It said that Melina Vostokoff was the head of the Red Room, but this has Dreykov running it (possibly he did in the past and now she does, but that's not clear)

None of the leaks suggested Taskmaster is specifically a woman's nightmare--he's described as a villain and Nat's former love interest. This kind of description, if it means he's abusive, would make me believe he'll die in the end (with his role, perhaps, picked up by his daughter). Conversely, if the character survives I think Empire is overstating his villainy (as in, if Empire is merely referencing that an ex turned out to be a bad guy).

Conrad is floating a rumour that Atlantis (ergo Namor) will be teased in The Eternals, which isn't much of a stretch since its sinking is related to the Deviants (and, thus, the Eternals--aside: there's an opportunity to include an easter egg for Kull the Conquerer since Marvel has the comicbook rights back, but Cabinet Entertainment still owns the film rights, making this unlikely). Conrad did not include the source of the rumour, something he has a spotty record of doing, so where did this come from? It's from a Tweet that was mirrored on Reddit in January, where a young actor talked about 'playing the role of a kid whose father is killed by sea monsters.' Given how vague this is, it's no surprise Conrad sat on it for so long.

A thought about the IP: why are we getting this film? There are a lot of answers to this, but I want to throw in some food for thought before I give my answer. The Eternals was an ABC project (helmed by John Ridley) for years--that means it was with Marvel Entertainment and Jeph Loeb and, more importantly, Feige didn't want it. The MCU took it away from Loeb only in 2018 (the scoop that made Conrad's career), but why?

I think this was originally Inhumans--that when that film was pulled from its Phase Three slot in April, 2016, Feige still wanted to do it (the IP had been in development at the MCU since at least 2011). For whatever reason, between then and November the project was shifted to ABC (probably to take advantage of the deal with IMAX) and the show (in 2017) was a disaster. Being poorly received not only meant no future seasons, but that the brand would have to be rebuilt to launch a film franchise (many of the theories around the Ms. Marvel show is that Kamala Khan is providing a backdoor reboot to the Inhumans). Why I think the Inhumans were important in Phase Three is that, before the Fox sale, they were a window on the MCU's past and a kind of discount Mutants, in that they have innate powers for which they could face discrimination--they even have opposed factions of leadership in Black Bolt and Maximus (echoing Charles Xavier and Magneto). While the latter element is now superfluous, I think the original Inhumans MCU film would have dealt with the past performing a similar function that we'll see in The Eternals (setting up whatever is being set up). This is just a theory--I haven't seen it anywhere and there may be holes in it, but it's food for thought.

We have a Black Widow rumour from 4chan:

• Throughout the movie, there are flashbacks of Nat’s childhood in the Red Room and the Budapest incident.
• Nat was sent by the Russian government to assassinate Draco, who was negotiating with their enemies, via car bomb. [I have no idea who 'Draco' is.]
• Nat tried to abort when she found out Draco’s daughter was with him, but the Russians betrayed her and let the bomb explode.
• Draco was believed to have died, but actually survived.
• Hawkeye was there spying on Draco and received the order kill Nat, but recognized she was genuinely guilt for the girl’s death.
• The Russians went after Nat for cleanup, but Nat and Hawkeye fought them off, and he brought her to the U.S. to be recruited into SHIELD and make up for her mistakes.
• First after-credits scene is Ross’ men retrieving Alexei’s blood from the wreckage of the Red Room, which Ross orders them not to report. They also find Mason badly wounded but alive. Ross orders them to bring him Mason as he might be useful.
• Second after-credits scene is Yelena visiting a makeshift grave for Nat in Hawkeye’s farm. She says she has no family and no purpose left, Hawkeye says Nat wanted her to have both, and gives her Nat’s old stingers.
• Jeremy Renner is in it more than people expect, but he's the only one. No Chris Evans, no Samuel L. Jackson, and just archive footage of Robert Downey Jr.

The breakdown is plausible, although it's not radically different from other things we've heard. It's a little depressing that virtually every leak includes David Harbour's death (Red Guardian). The character in the comics is also short-lived, but it seems like a waste of an actor. However, for Nat to make her sacrifice in Endgame, she has to think she has no family left, which seems to have sealed his fate.

TI's Braxter has a scoop that was echoed at the same time by Daniel (almost certainly derived from the same information): two Sony Marvel IP are in the early stages of development: Solo and Man-Wolf (the latter was scooped by LotLB last June). The former looks like Cable and was clearly influenced by the Jason Bourne films as he's named James Bourne. On the other hand, Man-Wolf is an older character, J. Jonah Jameson's son who, through a bizarre event, becomes a werewolf. Daniel said there was a third, unknown property also being put into development, but as I said last time Sony develops a lot of projects that go nowhere. Will any of this see the light of day? I doubt it. This story received an update from TI's Richard Nebens who speculates that Solo will play the role of Nick Fury for Sony's Marvel films (which is a funny choice as Fury has never had his own film).

Murphy put out an odd Tweet:

I know a lot of you who are patrons may not have seen the post so heads up: for the time being, I've unpublished my Patreon. I'm not foreseeing being able to pass any info along to anyone in the near future so I'm not taking your money. Should things pick back up, I'll restart.

This is coming off Murphy saying there were no scoops while production is shut down about a week earlier, which isn't exactly true--the wheels of the industry keep on rolling even when filming stops. This suggests that all of Murphy's information is related to the mechanics of production--casting calls, set photos, etc--as opposed to inside sources. If that's the case it's more than a little self-serving for him to say there can be no news from anyone for awhile (unless the intent is to say that none of the scoopers have inside connections--a possibility outside Roger Wardell).

The next day something just as unique came from Conrad:

Unless you’re writing for a big site like Comicbook.com or IGN [Conrad used to work for IGN], a site like this isn’t a full time paying job. It’s a hobby. People who run sites like this usually have to have day jobs to pay the rent and bills. ...the Governor of California [Gavin Newsom] issued a state-wide stay at home order, which shuts down any non-essential businesses. That doesn’t mean this site is shutting down because of that, but it does potentially have grim repercussions for this site. While some people who are put out of work do still get paid, a lot of others don’t. Unfortunately my wife and I fall into that category of being self-employed with businesses forced to close we have no income to pay our bills or our house. Meaning not only are we not able to make an income to eat, we stand the chance of losing our home. And even before that happens, the web hosting for this site would have to go away. It won’t happen right away, we have enough food to last a week or so. But it’s pretty grim. I know this time is tough for everyone, and there are a lot of people in similar situations as us. But if you can, please consider supporting the site via Patreon.

I mentioned previously that Conrad's Patreon is largely dead (he's never had more than 43 since starting it in 2018), but in response to this post his numbers have jumped. I don't know what Conrad or his wife's businesses are or how far the bill that just passed in the US will support them. While I have issues with Conrad, I wish him the best as he and the rest of us work our way through the pandemic.

An update to my X-Men expectations in the MCU article from the fall, since the screen time of Dark Phoenix is finally posted (changes in bold and by how much in brackets):

Second Iteration (2011-17; Vaughan, Singer, Singer)

Professor X 106:15 (+21:45)

Magneto 86:15 (+13:00)

Mystique 61:45 (+10:00)

Beast 53:15 (+15:00)

Jean Grey 50:00 (+35:00)

Wolverine 30:30

Quicksilver 18:00 (+3:00)

Havok 15:45

Storm 15:45 (+6:00)

Nightcrawler 13:45 (+5:45)

Banshee 8:15

Psylocke 6:00

Angel 6:00

Kitty Pryde 4:45

Iceman 3:00

Colossus 1:30

Sunspot 1:30

Dazzler 0:30 (+0:30)

Fox Totals (minimum 10 minutes)

Professor X 137:00

Magneto 124:00

Wolverine 111:45

Jean Grey 88:00

Mystique 82:00

Beast 61:00

Storm 44:30

Cyclops 44:30

Rogue 29:15

Nightcrawler 23:15

Iceman 19:45

Quicksilver 18:00

Havok 15:45

Kitty Pryde 10:30

It's amazing that through seven films Fox couldn't find time for Storm, and that in a film that's focused so much on Jean Grey that Cyclops is minimally involved (granted that the consensus from people who liked Dark Phoenix is that it made strange story choices).

The added totals reaffirm my contention then that, because of what was emphasized by the Fox films, I think the MCU will initially de-emphasize Magneto and Jean Grey/Cyclops (the latter's central drama has been ruined twice now by Simon Kinberg in less than two decades). I don't think we'll get the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby iteration of the team and instead lean into the Len Wein/Chris Claremont original, possibly with some retro insertions of newer X-characters. For more on all of that, you can check out the article linked above.

For a couple of weeks I've been meaning to get into a list via CBR that collates the most popular Marvel characters over the last 12 years (presumably 2011-19), determined by votes on that site (the list doesn't discriminate between popular in comics or otherwise, so this is a holistic poll). I've gone through this kind of thing before and I'll reference that list below with the number after the slash. Those characters leaning primarily on comicbook popularity are in green; film/TV appearances over the time period are in brackets, with a 'c' if it was a cameo or very limited screen time:
1/3. Spider-Man (2012, 2016, 2017, 2018x2, 2019)
2. Captain America (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019)
3/7. Wolverine (2011c, 2013, 2014, 2017)
4/44. Daredevil (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
5/2. Thor (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019)
6/6. Hulk (2012, 2013c, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019)
7. Doctor Doom (2015)
8/5. Iron Man (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
9. Cyclops (2016, 2018c, 2019)
10. Magneto (2011, 2014, 2016, 2019)
11/32. Thing (2015)
12/22. Hawkeye (2011c, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2019)
13/1. Deadpool (2016, 2018)
14/4. Doctor Strange (2016, 2017c, 2018, 2019c)
15/21. Nightcrawler (2016, 2018c, 2019)
16. Storm (2016, 2018c, 2019)
17. Kitty Pryde (2014)
18/27. Jean Grey (2014c, 2016, 2019)
19/18. Silver Surfer
20. She-Hulk
21/15. Punisher (2017, 2018)
22/10. Captain Marvel (2019x2)
23. Emma Frost (2011)
24. Iron Fist (2016, 2017, 2018)
25/46. Rogue
26/40. Beast (2011, 2014, 2016, 2018c, 2019)
27/9. Black Panther (2016, 2018x2, 2019c)
28/12. Scarlet Witch (2014c, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019c)
29/20. Gambit
30/30. Winter Soldier (2011, 2014, 2015c, 2016, 2018cx2, 2019c)
31/45. Moon Knight
32. Thanos (2012c, 2014c, 2015c, 2018, 2019)
33/17. Black Widow (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017c, 2018c, 2019)
34. Mister Fantastic (2015)
35. Multiple Man
36. Namor
37/37. Nova
38/49. Luke Cage (2015, 2016, 2017x2)
39. Venom (2018)
40/19. Vision (2015, 2016, 2018)
41. Loki (2011, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018c, 2019c)
42. Invisible Woman (2015)
43/25. Colossus (2014c, 2016, 2018)
44/43. Iceman (2014c)
45/47. Psylocke/Captain Britain (Betsy Braddock) (2016c)
46/39. Nick Fury (2011cx2, 2012, 2014, 2015c, 2018c, 2019x2)
47. Spider-Woman
48. Ant-Man (Hank Pym) (2015, 2018, 2019c)
49/35. Human Torch (2015)
50. Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan)
/8. Groot (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019c)
/11. Rocket (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019)
/13. Star-Lord (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019c)
/14. Ant-Man (Scott Lang) (2015, 2018, 2019)
/16. Ghost Rider (2012, 2016)
/23. Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers)
/24. Cable (2018)
/26. Professor X (2011, 2014, 2016, 2018c, 2019)
/28. Drax (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019c)
/29. Captain Marvel (Mar'Vell)
/31. Spider-Man (Miles Morales) (2018)
/33. Odin (2011, 2013, 2017)
/34. Gamora (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019)
/36. Blade
/38. War Machine (2013, 2015c, 2016, 2018c, 2019)
/41. Quicksilver (2014x2(c), 2015, 2016, 2018c, 2019c)
/42. X-23 (2016)
/48. Valkyrie (2017, 2019c) - the listing is for the comic accurate version
/50. Wasp (2015, 2018, 2019c)

You have to take these lists with a grain of salt, but what they do is open a small window into who is registering with the fanbase. The unsurprising thing is that, beyond those characters who have appeared in successful films/shows, the most popular are part of the Fantastic Four or X-Men IP. The only exceptions are She-Hulk (coming to Disney+), Moon Knight (coming to Disney+), Namor (heavily rumoured), Nova (heavily rumoured), Spider-Woman (heavily rumoured), and Kamala Khan's Ms. Marvel (Coming to Disney+). How much do the rumours impact votes is hard to say, but certainly before the Fox purchase went through Feige was doubling down on anything in the vault that remained that people cared about.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)