Sparkles and Marvel

you know? this whole thing can get really scary.

So, Sam fans will unfortunately know that Marvel disrespecting Sam is no new thing. But I wanted to draw attention to the specific case of the Marvel's three most recent intros. Deadpool and Woolverine, Captain America Brave New World, and Thunderbolts.

1) Deadpool. Here you see the typical Marvel fanfare. Except it's been tweaked to include Deadpool as one might expect. It also includes the same years-old shield-throwing footage of Steve and various other characters that are no longer active. (Tony, Nat, etc. even a shot of Jane Foster as Thor though, a one-off appearance)

In fact, there's multiple shots of Steve - bracing with the shield, throwing the shield, catching the hammer.

Do you know who it doesn't include?? Sam Wilson. Nothing to indicate that Sam Wilson has taken over the mantle of Captain America. But-but wait! This was before Cap 4, you say, so maybe they didn't want to use tv show footage of him as Cap?

Well, there's glimpses of She Hulk and Moonlight - so don't tell me they don't include character moments from the shows.

But most egregiously, not only does Sam not appear in this Marvel fanfare as Cap, but ALL previous shots of Sam as Falcon have been eradicated. There's not ONE single frame of him. At all.

(Edit: okay there's ONE frame 😅. Split second glimpse in the V. Overall point remains.)

Let's now move on to Brave New World.

2) Sam's 1st film. What a great opportunity to showcase some of Sam's best moments in the MCU? His flying split-kick-fllip, his kicking a helicopter, him flying through the portal like an angel, any of his TFATWS opening flight sequence, ANY of the shots of him in Ep6 as Cap. Nope. Nothing. We don't even get a fanfare at all. We get this:

Now, you can argue that this was deliberate to start the film off with the sense of paranoia and dread. Spy thriller stuff. But after the blatant erasure of Sam in the Deadpool intro, I firmly believe this choice was made by Marvel execs who knew they'd have no excuse for not showing clips of Sam in the intro to his own damn movie. So they did away with it altogether.

3) Thunderbolts. This intro was not the typical fanfare given that it went way back to comic pages flipping rather than showing clips of the MCU adaptations. And a lot of panels of Sentry, before turning black for the Void, which..fair. It's foreshadowing.

(I can only add some gifs because of 1 video limit.)

The Deadpool and Cap4 intros to me as the worst offenders here. One blatantly erases Sam's history of appearing the in the intro, and the second removes the opportunity to showcase your lead's best action moments.

At this point, given ALL the other ways Marvel has sidelined and diminished Sam, on the big and small screen, it feels deliberate. Movie audiences have not been given the visual reminder of Sam's importance, nor the feel-good association of seeing him before the latest big MCU entry. Add this to the disrespect that is Thunderbolts in general, and it's another kick in the guts.

I guess, in conclusion, I'd say it will be VERY interesting to see how the next Marvel film, Fantastic Four, opens their film. Especially after that "Reed will be the leader of the Avengers" nonsense from this week. I would predict another intro like Thunderbolts, drawing from comic book panels (given this is an alternate universe). So then, when will we see Sam as Cap in the intro? Doomsday?!?!? With the million odd characters being stuffed into that?

I won't hold my breath.

"There is a comic book. You say you're a nerd. Read the comic book. Don't be a nerd by trade, be a nerd by fact."

I love that even if the films keep acting like he’s nothing special, and the directors etc do, his cast absolutely love him. Never forget the pure joy Harrison Ford had talking about him, and that guy is always grumpy.

I’ve seen multiple videos, post on different platforms of non black micro analyzing our faces, what we say, the tone, the gesture etc. Like that’s just something black people, famous or not, are subjected to. Since the Tblt post credit situation, people juste assumed that Sam was angry at Bucky and Tblt and that a depiction that is sticking to his character for a year now in fics and fanart. Even though, in the Doomsday trailer, they stand next to each other and Sam seemed very calm, not a frown on his nice eyebrows . Like why did all those people assumed he was angry and not maybe disappointed at his friend ? why fall back to the anger… why is that the default ? Especially on a character that sooooo many people love to write as a therapist, understanding and what not

Joaquín is a grown man in his thirties.

That’s never been what the Avengers in the MCU were.  The Avengers always were off doing their own thing, had their own stories, friends, families, and lives outside of each other, and when the threat was big enough they … assembled. 

You can’t ‘Avengers assemble’ for a galactic threat, if you spend every day together.  You can’t assemble if you’re already permanently assembled.  

People acting like Shuri doesn’t count as an Avenger because she’s based in and focused on Wakanda?  You never would’ve said that about T’Challa in Infinity War. Thor was always coming and going too!    They assemble when the need is great enough.