dshramek

May 8, 2012 2:59 pm This thread may have settled down, but I had a thought immediately after the movie and my immediate friends did not go along with me on this. I instead put it to you, the iFanbase. I think the story clearly implied but not said out loud by the movie is Loki's big plan, a plan that succeeded. One of the critiques of the movie is that Loki's plan and motivation is ultimately very simple: Open a portal to alien realm and rule the Earth with an army. I don't think that's what was being portrayed. Loki seems initially to be kind of scared of the Chitauri. Later, when he's saying to some of the Avengers, "You have no idea what you're up against" it's almost as if he's pleading with them to get their act together. I propose that Loki's story we don't see goes like this: Loki falls from the Bifrost at the end of Thor and meanders through the cosmos until he lands in Chitauri space. He recognizes that their technology is connected to the Cosmic Cube, which he may know is on Earth. Or perhaps he discovers it by astral-projecting himself through the Cube or to near the Cube through Dr. Erik Selvig (as we see at the end of Thor). The point is, he makes a deal with the Chitauri, and maybe Thanos, to get them what they want. Then he goes about his plan and enters Earth. He recruits people and goes about his plan, but seems to be stalling the Chitauri. Then he makes a plan to disassemble the Avengers before they ever get together. Presumably this is because he's afraid that they're the ones who can stop him. His disassembling plan goes horribly awry as its the one thing that gets them together to fight as a team. In the end, the Chitari are defeated and Loki goes with Thor to Asgard, his home. I think Loki's plan all along was to get home. He makes a deal with the Chitauri to get to Earth. Then he arranges it on Earth so that the Avengers are assembled to stop the Chitauri and in the end, he gets to go home and undoes whatever deal he had to make with the Chitauri. For Loki, it's a Win-Win. Consider the following: Loki's plan in Thor is more complex and involves deals and double-crossing. Specifically how Loki dealt with the Ice Giants. Loki, in Thor, didn't care about Earth. He found it useless. He wanted to rule Asgard, which he genuinely seemed to see as his home. If we consider that this is the same Loki, then I think we have a situation where Loki was seeming to covet Earth to pull off his plan of getting back home to Asgard. Also consider that he appears to be afraid of and stalling the Chitauri in the beginning. Then consider that he at times seems to be desperate for the Avengers to up their game to face what's to come. I seem to be alone in this assessment, however.

May 3, 2012 12:39 pm I guess this is going to devolve into a kind of internet-based pro-wrestling?

May 1, 2012 5:35 pm That's exactly the point. The question is: Is Joss Whedon the right guy to hire for this major financial risk the comic book movie industry is taking. If it tanks like his previous endeavors have, then it spells bad things for the future of comic book movies. As great as Firefly was, it was a failure. It didn't make its money back and the network pulled the plug. Say what you will about the network screwing with it, airing it out of order and dumping it on a Friday, but the show cost more than it was worth to the network. It was a business failure. I can think of some truly great restaurants that I loved that went out of business. It doesn't mean the food was bad, but it does mean the restaurant was.

April 20, 2012 11:38 am I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite Sketchup on iFanboy. (also I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite overused joke in gaming culture)

April 4, 2012 11:34 am I don't get fans considering Black Widow under-armed for merely having a pistol. At least she has that instead of her wrist-thingies. Oh, and also, her teammate carries a bow and arrow. "No, I'm sorry, Col. Fury. I can't help you fight Loki's army because it's kind of windy." And that other teammate? He doesn't even have a weapon, he just has to throw his shield. [Bulletproof] *Hngh!* [vulnerable, but at least that one bad guy has a concussion]

March 5, 2012 10:22 am Look at that grimace. He's so edgy. "Give in to your anger, Billy Batson. Add pouches to your uniform and your journey to the 90s will be complete."

February 9, 2012 9:58 am To be clear, I'm not jumping on the "Marvel! Why'd you magic away Spidey's marriage! Brand New Day is a betrayal!" bandwagon. I'm merely pointing out that it apparently uses previous continuity. Like Green Lantern's rainbow of magic rings being based on an earlier established throw away bit from an Alan Moore story.

February 9, 2012 9:44 am I suppose it wasn't enough to divorce her and marry her all over again, so he had to magically erase the marriage from history but leave his and Mary Jane's memory of the marriage so he could marry her all over again?

January 20, 2012 2:15 pm I think the trick to a Fantastic Four story is to think of them as adventure stories. The Fantastic Four should have the same stories as the 1970s era Doctor Who or a Doc Savage story, except that the characters also happen to have superpowers. At it's core, it's just a pulpy adventure story. They discover parallel dimensions, planet-eating space entities, lost civilizations in the Himalayas, armies of Mole-men beneath the city, etc.

January 9, 2012 3:32 pm I believe I may be able to parse some of his outrage on this. In his post, he speaks of the breast-feeding mafia and that they might have paid for this cover. It is likely an off-handed joke, but it is in the exact rhythm and structure of punditry's accusations of the "left-wing media brainwashing our kids with X" argument. It rather reminds me of the outrage that the new Muppet movie was programming kids to hate big oil companies. It may be, therefore that he's offended not by the idea of breastfeeding, but that some shadow-y agenda mongering conspiracy is pushing their doctrine on children in things disguised as entertainment media. It's fine to sell toys and sugary cereal to kids that way, but not to teach them politically charged things like this. However, is comments about Ma Kent were right out of line. I slap you with my glove, Mr. Dorman and challenge you to pistols at dawn!