Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

garlicroastedpotato t1_j8u1xgw wrote

Reply to comment by TheWorzardOfIz in How Much Is Too Much Marvel and ‘Star Wars’? Disney Rethinks Franchise Output by verissimoallan

It's weird... because it really feels like there's no closing that Pandora's Box. Captain America was about stopping the Nazis from winning WW2 through technology. Iron Man was about stopping a CEO from weaponizing the Ironman platform. Thor was about a guy with daddy issues with his brother trying to kill him. Kind of simple stakes. And then you get to Avengers Infinity War and the stakes are.... half of all people dying if they fail. And every movie after that has had similar stakes.

I haven't watched Ant-Man yet. But one of the criticisms I've heard about it is that the stakes feel too small. Like we've become so used to all the stakes being about the end of the world that having stakes that are just, his daughter dies (or whatever it ends up being, haven't watched it yet) is just... too small.

14

Delamoor t1_j8ujsuo wrote

You've just discovered the trope named 'power creep'.

It's why reboots were, and remain, so popular.

Anime is the ultimate trope-setter in this regard. Shows like Naruto; start with throwing knives well and a few years later They're giant transforming gods fighting on the moon, because... How do you ratchet the stakes back down? Not easily.

29

fatandlean t1_j8vzl9q wrote

lol. I remember when super saiyan was the unbelievable shit. Now it’s just a hair color.

16

DisneyDreams7 t1_j8weim8 wrote

One Piece and Dragon Ball are even worse when it comes to power creep

6

GDawnHackSign t1_j8ys9i9 wrote

I think there is another issue that is a bit along similar lines. Once you get away from origin stories you aren't really showing a world we live in anymore. For the first part of Iron Man it felt like, hey this could really happen, yknow?

3

hour_of_the_rat t1_j8ue46t wrote

>the stakes feel too small.

I quit Marvel about ten years ago, but I'd prefer a bank heist over saving the world anytime.

12

Fallcious t1_j8vhxk9 wrote

My opinion on that was that the single hero shows were focused on smaller stakes that only needed one hero (+ sidekicks) to deal with. The team ups (a la Avengers) needed a world threatening enemy or situation to drive a need for the team to assemble. If Iron Man or Spider-Man could deal with it, then why bother?

The latest Doctor Strange movie was more like the earlier movies - it was a smaller threat that only really needed the involvement of Dr Strange and his colleagues.

5

Takseen t1_j8wzuwj wrote

>The latest Doctor Strange movie was more like the earlier movies it was a smaller threat

Multiverse of madness? The one where the entire multiverse was at risk from an unstoppable reality warper?

7

Fallcious t1_j8x16wp wrote

I’m going to have to watch it again, but I thought it was Strange’s reckless use of the Darkhold in the other realities which destroyed them, but in our universe he was just trying to stop Maximoff from stealing Chavez dimension jump capabilities. The Illuminati thought Strange was the biggest threat rather than Maximoff. In our reality Maximoff was up to no good and was a rising threat, but I don’t remember her actually putting our reality in jeopardy.

1

Takseen t1_j8x34yq wrote

I think she wanted to rule rather than destroy the multiverse. But in any case, having one of the other Stranges being responsible for the destruction of one or more universes is pretty high stakes.

4

garlicroastedpotato t1_j8xob0i wrote

The way incursions were introduced in the universe was via being moving between universes. This created a bridge that connected the two universes and then if one universe doesn't destroy the other... they both get destroyed.

Doctor Strange and America Chavez teleport to a planet that has survived an incursion... but was also the cause of it. Instead of beating Thanos as the Avengers did... they beat him by Doctor Strange casting a spell (via the Darkhold). Which caused an incursion. Moving between universes can cause an incursion if the footprint left is large enough.

With what Strange, America and Witch were doing in the past, it wasn't large enough to cause an incursion. But what Witch intends to do at the end "stealing Chavez's powers and travel to a universe where she has kids" it would cause an incursion. Stopping Scarlet Witch isn't just to save Chavez... but the entire universe.

It's also the sort of really bad explanation of what will end up being the main plot point for the Kang movies. Kang is going to war with other universes and can preserve his reality by destroying their's. This gives impure motives for heroes who want to fight to keep their reality but also don't want to destroy someone else's.

2

AliceCringekung t1_j8w4p7a wrote

And that’s why the Marvel Netflix shows were so good. Street-level fighting. I fear they’ll ruin it in the Daredevil reboot.

3

rtseel t1_j8w8yr7 wrote

The new DD will be mostly procedural, with one and done stories per episodes, so I think it will be pretty small in scope.

1