Nick Fury isn’t done being Nicky Fury, but should he be?

Secret Invasion gave us the first real insight into Fury’s character that we ever had, but it left us with the same information about him we always knew: he plays in morally gray areas. As long as he’s on our side, that should technically be okay. Yet it definitely isn’t when he makes choices that in the long run, could have had the whole country or planet wiped off the face of the Earth. Okay, he’s no Tony Stark creating Ultron, yet, we could argue that 90% of the first three phases, and now phase 5, of the MCU lies on Fury making bad decisions that he prays pan out. So let’s get into the top 5 times Nick Fury made some morally gray decisions that almost killed everyone.

1. Messing with the Tesseract in the first Avengers

As I started this blog post with, we can actually blame Nick Fury for most of the first 3 phases’ problems and it all comes down to the first Avengers. We start the movie off with Fury experimenting with the Tesseract, which he later claims was to find an untapped, endless source of power for the world. Instead, he was going to use it to fuel weapons, just like the Red Skrull did with his soldiers in the First Avenger.

While this on its’ own is clearly not one of his better choices, his experimentation on something he knows nearly nothing about ends up bringing Loki to Earth and the Invasion of New York. We know this becomes the whole Avengers team-up impetus and that Nick brings them together, but really if he hadn’t created the problem, they wouldn’t have been needed. He’s also responsible for getting one of his best agents, Hawkeye, stuck under Loki’s mind control, so he wasn’t exactly batting a thousand.

2. Creating the Harvest and letting Gravik take it

A much newer Nick Fury blunder, we learned only recently one of Fury’s worst decisions ever. Quite frankly, the only reason it isn’t the top on the list is because the Tesseract being messed with led to pretty much the entire MCU Phase 1-3. If it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t have had most of the content we know and love. Right now, the only effects of the Harvest we know of is the creation of the super-powered Skrull G’iah, which we have yet to see the outcomes of fully.

Yet, just making the Harvest at all and then allowing Gravik to take it literally could have demolished the entire planet, a gamble Fury had no problem taking it seemed. He was insanely lucky G’iah could beat Gravik, but as I said, that doesn’t necessarily mean G’iah is good. The effects of this decision by Fury are still to come, not to mention the day will come when G’iah meets one of the Avengers and they realize what her powers consist of.

3. Backing Project Insight

Before anyone jumps to Fury’s defense with the fact Hydra, headed by Pierce, mainly created Project Insight, Fury’s bad choice was thinking putting three ships with hundreds of guns in the sky was an okay idea. Project Insight was a direct repercussion of the Invasion of New York (which, as we noted, was Fury’s fault, to begin with). Fury tells Cap when introducing him to the project that he doesn’t trust people and that the world had been unprepared for Loki. Cap smartly replies that he’s holding a gun to everyone’s head and calling it freedom.

So while Pierce may have headed the project, Fury was 100% on board with launching the ships into the sky. He once again, did it in the name of helping people but instead almost saw mass homicide take place with Hydra revealing themselves. Even without Hydra, in the nicest of ways, and while Agents of SHIELD may not be canon, it did show SHIELD being hacked constantly. For an intelligence agency that has a nasty habit of being hacked, 3 ships with hundreds of guns that they control don’t exactly seem like a good call, no matter what.

4. Making the call to let the Skrulls stay on Earth in the 90s

Taking Fury’s story all the way to when we meet him for the first time in timeline order, he makes the haunting decision that we have learned to live with today. He offers the Skrulls the ability to stay on Earth while Captain Marvel and him look for a new home for them to be relocated to. What seems like a kind choice takes about 30 years to show just how horrible the decision itself was.

Putting aside the choice itself, Fury’s biggest mistake here was making a promise he wasn’t sure he would be able to keep. He had just come face to face with aliens for the first time and decided to allow a group of them to stay on his home planet, alerting zero authority figures in SHIELD to what he had done. While it may not have bitten him in the butt right away, Secret Invasion was a clear example of how his reckless choices way back when nearly obliterated the human race now.

5. Disappearing and never intervening again with the Avengers post-Winter Soldier

We all know Fury as the man who built the Avengers, but for three out of four of the Avengers movies, Fury wasn’t actually anywhere nearby. I shouldn’t say that. He was quite literally nowhere to be found after faking his death in 2014 Winter Soldier. And in the long run of how everything shook out, his disappearance caused a severe lack of unified leadership as far as the Avengers go.

Steve and Tony may have taken point as the unofficial, official leaders of the team, but at the end of the day, the two were so different you were never going to see a successful Avengers team while they shared power. In the first Avengers film, having Fury as an unofficial leader giving orders is what worked for the team, he was one source of leadership. His disappearance and inability to follow up with the group he created, we could argue, is what eventually led not just to Civil War, but to all the fallout of Civil War. You just can’t bring people like Steve and Tony together, with two very different resumes, and think they were going to be able to lead a team together perfectly without any interference.

While he might not have always made the best choices, we all know we wouldn’t be anywhere without Nick Fury in the MCU. He has been one of those reoccurring characters that has played such a big role and we can’t wait to see him for yet another appearance in The Marvels, hopefully still coming this November. Before that, we will of course be covering Loki, which begins streaming early October. Make sure to keep up with all the Marvel content, along with ours, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

He’s the man of the Multiverse.

Kang has been the topic of conversation since his variant’s first appearance in Loki in the summer of 2021 (yes, it has been almost 2 years). And we have only seen a few versions of him since that time, the most recent being in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But that movie has established quite a few versions of Kang, so we thought now was the time to break into his character a little more and understand where this next Big Bad will take us. As always, if you haven’t had the chance to listen to the podcast episode, take a second to click the button below to listen on your platform of choice or listen live in this blog post.

The Jonathan Majors Situation

Before I start us on the Kang train, I want to take a second to address the situation that the actor who portrays Kang, Jonathan Majors, is involved in. In all cases, domestic assault allegations need to be taken very seriously and the victim should be given support. While we do believe in someone being innocent until proven guilty, it is also critical to understand, especially in this situation, that the victim did show signs of abuse. We are not here to give a verdict in our court of public opinion, but we want to be clear if Majors is guilty, that we do not and will not further support him in any way.

The only reason we will be raising the question of how his arrest affects the MCU is due to the nature of our podcast. Otherwise, we want to ensure people worry about the well-being of the victim during this time. The future of Kang being played by Majors seems dismal, as recent updates have allegedly claimed Majors has been dropped by his manager and PR team. He has also since been taken out of several other projects he was involved in. He did meet with Marvel a few days back, prior to these latest developments, but there didn’t seem to be any decisions made at that time. Due to the changes outside of Marvel, I think it is anticipated Marvel will be dropping him as well, although we will still be seeing him appear in things he has filmed, such as Loki Season 2, as I’m not sure the plot may allow for him to be cut out. This means we can likely expect a recast coming our way long before we reach Kang Dynasty. As of now, this is only our own thoughts on the matter and where the situation stands, but we will be keeping you all updated as more information comes to light.

Who is Kang?

Starting off, here are a few quick cheat sheet facts to know about Kang.

• He is most commonly an opponent of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four
• He is actually a descendent of Reed Richards
• As a single character, he has the most known variants
• Kang, over the years of comic book stories, has become a mantle more than one singular person. Other characters to take on the Kang moniker are his three wives Ravonna (yes like the one from Loki), Mantis, and Nebula. His two sons also become Kang at one point, along with Sue Storm and Kamala Khan.
• The story of Kang begins when he first finds Victor Doom’s (with who there might also be a relation) time-traveling technology

Major Variants of Kang

Iron Lad – Not Yet Seen

I won’t go into too much detail about Iron Lad, as he was spoken about and covered in several recent episodes and posts, including Quantumania Predictions and Young Avengers. He is Nathaniel Richards, the young version of who would eventually become Kang. He is made aware of his future and the evil person he becomes and forms the Young Avengers to try and stop his future self. He eventually succumbs to his fate of becoming Kang after realizing there is no other way to beat fate. This is, of course, the whole story in a tiny nutshell.

Rama Tut – Seen

Rama Tut is one of the versions of Kang that we see in the end credit scene of Quantumania. He is technically the first variant of Kang, as he becomes Rama Tut after he travels back in time for the first time to Ancient Egypt. Unfortunately, he runs into two semi-ironic situations, the first being that he actually interacts with our frenemy Khonshu in his time there, and the second being that bad luck happened to leave the Fantastic Four stranded at the exact same place and time. This was the first time they would defeat our buddy Kang, but certainly not the last.

Scarlet Centurion – Seen

Another of the three we saw in the end credit scene, Scarlet Centurion sort of just sucks as a Kang variant. He creates some chaos and makes it everyone’s problem. His big storyline is when he goes back in time to change the outcome of an Avengers battle and convinces the Avengers that more enhanced individuals would destroy the world (think what Vision was saying in Civil War). To fight this, the Avengers became almost evil, neutralizing and imprisoning all enhanced individuals in their timeline. Later, the 616 Avengers end up in this screwed-up timeline (689) and the two groups battle until 616 is able to build the time machine they would need to leave and also defeat the Scarlet Centurion. I actually could see this coming true in the MCU just due to the concept of Secret Wars coming up. It could be a cool way to wrap Kang more fully into it.

Immortus – Seen

And finally, the third Kang variant we saw at the end of Quantumania was Immortus. Talk about a complicated variant, this guy can’t decide what level of bad he wants to be. In a nutshell, this guy didn’t start as the worst. He was actually Rama-Tut and reinvented himself as Immortus to help the Time Keepers (like the real comic ones not the weird robots from the MCU) in preserving the timelines. He runs into the Avengers and spends many comic books messing with and battling them. At one point he helps to defeat another version of himself, but then also tries to use the Scarlet Witch to make him the absolute master of time. So as you see, he kinda can’t decide when he doesn’t want to be the worst and when he does. But one important fact to remember is that Immortus still doesn’t like his variants and is the one who wants them all to die. Because of this, he uses the Council of Kangs, led by Prime Kang, as an opportunity to trick Prime Kang into killing all the other Kang variants, as Prime Kang becomes Immortus later. For your own sanity, I need to ensure you you aren’t crazy, just that a lot of Kang variants shift and become other variants.

Victor Timely – Seen

I chose arguably one of the most important variants to go last and that’s our buddy Victor Timely. He’s the variant from the second end credit scene, the one relating to Loki. Victor is best known for creating a small town in Wisconsin in which he’s the mayor and pulls a Kingo, pretending to be multiple generations of Timelys to continue his rule of the town. He uses the town to create Chronopolis, which is a weird time Limbo that can act relatively similar to a time machine. He also creates the original Human Torch during his time. Funny enough, Timely’s company eventually is in charge of security in both the Baxter building and Avengers Tower. And here is that weird circle of Kang once again, as Victor eventually takes on being Kang Prime, and we all generally know how that goes.

So that’s that! This is of course not an exhaustive list of all the Kang variants, but it is a good start to some of the more important ones and some of the ones the MCU seems to be singling out. From the looks of it, our buddy Victor Timely seems to be the next variant of Kang we encounter in Loki Season 2, expected right now in late summer/early fall. As far as where we are going next, GotG3 is right around the corner, believe it or not, so purchase those movie tickets if you haven’t, and get ready for something that looks like it’s going to hurt my feelings. We will of course be covering it, so keep an eye out for our predictions episode which will be coming very soon. As always keep up with all this great content, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Kang Variants”, Jamie Dunkin, We Got This Covered

They’re like Pokemon and we think we have collected them all.

We’re finally ripping the bandaid off of the Young Avengers topic and diving headfirst into who we might have joining the team up. But it wouldn’t be our show if we didn’t also hit on where and how this team might come together. All this being said, we have a ton to discuss, so let’s get right into it. If you haven’t listened to our latest podcast episode, use the button below to find your platform of choice or listen live using the link provided.

The Young Avengers Line Up So Far

Let’s start with the “simple” part of this article, which is who may be making the team that we have already seen in the MCU.

The first on our list is Billy and Tommy Maximoff, aka Wiccan and Speed. We know a good bit about both of these characters, as we have seen them in WandaVision and are set to see them (hopefully) again soon in the Agatha series. Billy takes more after his mother with his powers, able to cast spells and locate people, things we have already witnessed, for the most part. Tommy takes more after his Uncle Pietro and is best known for his speed. As Agent Hill once said with a little change, one’s fast and one’s weird. In the comics, they are better known by the last name Kaplan due to some fun reincarnation shenanigans we won’t get into.

Next is Elijah Bradley, a member we have seen, but definitely only briefly. He is the son of Isaiah Bradley, who we met in TFAWS. Elijah initially joins the team with no abilities but eventually develops super-soldier-like skills. At first, this is due to drug use, yet later, Elijah, in need of a blood transfusion has blood given to him by his grandfather, which then gives him full super soldier abilities. As I mentioned, we only met him very briefly on screen but I don’t take it lightly that they made time to show us him.

Moving right along, we meet Kid Loki. Just talking about MCU-related Kid Loki, he is bound to be pretty weird since we technically saw him chilling at the end of time. Now I know we have seen people move from different parts of time using TVA tech, but whatever they use to bring him into the right timeline will definitely be interesting. Instead of being considered a variant of Loki, Kid Loki in the comics wasn’t ‘stunted’, if you will, at his point of deflection from the main timeline. Instead, he is actually Loki trapped in a younger version of himself after dying and coming back to life (sound familiar?). Being Loki, he joins the Young Avengers and wishes to get Wiccan’s powers for himself, but eventually grows fond of the team and becomes less, well, Loki-like.

Our next Young Avenger comes to us later in the form of Kate Bishop. I think Kate is when things started to become much more clear about the direction Marvel might be going with the Young Avengers. Sounding very much like a Kate thing to do, she joins the Young Avengers by sort of forcing herself into the group. She adopts the name of Hawkeye in the comics with the blessing of Captain America, although I believe the MCU will see Clint bless her to take on his mantle.

America Chavez is next up, coming to us in MoM. As we know, she has the ability to blast a hole in timelines and move throughout the Multiverse. She supposedly can also fly and has super strength, although we haven’t seen much of that in the MCU version of her yet.

Lastly, coming from the most recent release from Marvel Studios and is the last official member we have seen in the MCU. That is, of course, Cassie Lang. Cassie, so far in the MCU, seems to be leaning towards the name Stinger, although as a Young Avenger, she is best known as Stature. She was initially planning to join the Runaways, but instead found the Young Avengers and convinced them to let her join the group. She has a love interest in Iron Lad, who will get to in just one second.

The last person I am throwing on this list as sort of a hail mary is Kamala Khan. While she isn’t typically on the Young Avengers team in the comics, Taylor and I could see Marvel pulling her in post The Marvels. I’m not sure I see her traveling in space with Monica and Carol all the time as a teenager, so I could imagine her finding counterparts in the Young Avengers and hanging around them. She’s more of a wild card in this lineup, but still worth putting out there.

Young Avengers Who Are Yet to Appear in the MCU

Continuing through the lineup, this next group is pretty well-known Young Avengers who we haven’t yet seen in the MCU.

I mentioned Iron Lad before and he, arguably, is the most important member of the Young Avengers, so it’s only right to tackle him first. We’ve discussed Iron Lad in other episodes, specifically because Iron Lad is young Nathaniel Richards, aka young Kang. His story is actually pretty sad, as he pretty much learns he is going to become the literal worse person ever and attempts to stop his future and future self by forming the Young Avengers. He wears a suit given to him by a future Kang and eventually leaves the group to fulfill his future of becoming Kang when he realizes he can’t run from his destiny. He has a romantic relationship with Cassie Lang.

Hulkling is next, a shapeshifter who is super strong (this is him in a nutshell). He is an original member chosen by Nathaniel and is the son of Captain Marvel (the comic book male version, although a possible loophole in how the MCU might bring him in) and a Skrull. He is in a romantic relationship with Wiccan aka Billy.

There is also a ‘Young’ Vision as I will refer to him, to not get muddled with the not young Vision. He is created from the Iron Lad suit and combined with Nathaniel’s emotions. A strange relationship forms between him and Cassie due to this connection. However, Young Vision meets his demise when Nathaniel returns and kills him. So fun.

The last two are slightly more obscure in the sense that the MCU may or may not bring them in. The first is Marvel Boy, a Kree who has enhanced speed, stamina, and strength. While he has the Kree connection, it’s unclear, other than Hulkling, who he may connect with to join the team.

Last is Prodigy. This one is a little gray due to Prodigy being a former X-Men, and well, I don’t need to remind everyone that so far we don’t have the X-Men in the MCU. I think Prodigy is contingent on the next part of our conversation, which is when and where the Young Avengers may come in. He joins the Young Avengers through Speed after he himself loses his mutant abilities.

When and Where We Might See the Young Avengers

Now that we know the lineup, the big question comes in the form of when will the Young Avengers actually happen? As we all know, they aren’t on the slate for Phases 5 or 6, although there are some solid blanks in the lineup. Is it possible they will fit in the next two phases somewhere? One of our theories points to yes and the other to no, so let’s get into it.

The one pointing to yes suggests that the Young Avengers may appear yet in Phases 5 or 6, brought together by the impending threat of Kang. This holds merit, as the true origin of the Young Avengers is the fact Nate forms them to defeat his future self. Since this is the age of Kang, I see this being a huge possibility and not really hard to do. It easily could slide into a slot that is open in Phase 6, and as the rest of this post proves, we’ve clearly seen a good number of the main members already. This would also mean they would all likely be brought together through whatever connections they already have, so Kate’s being Clint would mean Clint is how she meets, let’s say Cassie because of Scott. Essentially their mentors or Avengers connection would bring them all into the fold. Past Secret Wars and Kang Dynasty, we have to assume Kang is defeated, which strengthens the thought that the Young Avengers have to at least form before that unless the MCU doesn’t follow the track of Nate creating them to defeat his future self.

So while the first theory does have merit and I could see it working out really well as far as flow and continuity, this second theory proposing that the Young Avengers will wait until Phase 7 to form holds my heart a little. And that’s mainly because I think we will have a different team up, an official Avengers team, formed for the big battles of Phases 5 and 6, and forming the Young Avengers at the same time seems just a little too much. Not to mention, Secret Wars is going to have wide effects, which opens the door to bringing in the members of the Young Avengers that we haven’t yet seen or to clarify Billy and Tommy since they technically don’t really exist on Earth 616. To summarize why I think they’ll wait until Phase 7 it goes like this: Secret Wars is crazy and the ramifications will be widespread. But on the positive side of waiting for the team to come together, I think we would be able to really focus on them in Phase 7 and give them the time of day, maybe even have them be considered our main team. They have great storylines, so I wouldn’t be angry getting 2-3 team-up movies from them later down the line.

So it’s definitely a little crazy where we stand with the Young Avengers, but it’s important to prepare for them as they will come eventually, we’re positive about that. I hope that this little run-down has made you feel at least a little more prepared for when it happens. Next up for us is an episode all about the man of the hour himself: Kang the Conqueror. Or I guess just Kang since we will be running down his notable variants and who he is as a character. Don’t miss out on another post-Ant-Man 3 episode, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Avengers#Members

Image: “Young Avengers”, Ariel, Discussing Film

Is the future of the MCU Quantum?

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania isn’t the first time we’ve been to the Quantum Realm. It’s not even close to the first time that we’ve heard about it either. But after making its’ major world debut, it left us wondering, now what? And inside of that question, we still want to understand what the Quantum Realm is, how it works, and where it might play again. We might not have complete answers but we have many theories to play with in our latest episode, all about the Quantum Realm. Before continuing this article, listen to our corresponding podcast episode by clicking the button below or listening live with the link provided.

Let’s start with a brief look at the comic origins of the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is sort of a mish-mash of two different comic locations: the Quantum Zone and the Microverse. The Quantum Zone in the comics is the source of all energy, which is where we think we probably get the energy layer of the Quantum Realm from (more to come on layers in a second). On the Microverse side, we mainly got characters from this, which I discussed during the Ant-Man 3 Reactions episode. I will briefly focus on the Quantum Zone as we have a theory that it. The Quantum Zone has these things called the Quantum Rings, which might be a tie to Shang-Chi in the MCU. Instead of these Quantum Rings being their own entity, the MCU instead might use Shang-Chi’s ten rings and Kamala’s bangle as these special pieces. This would tie them into the Quantum Realm, but this is only one of our theories on how this could be done.

Getting briefly into the layer idea I spoke about before, the Quantum Realm so far has been shown to us in three different ways. In the first Ant-Man, we see a mirror-like layer, then in Ant-Man 2 we see more of an energy field and now we have seen a whole world laid out for us. On top of that, in Endgame, they appear to be in tunnels that connect different parts of time. This all being said, the Quantum Realm is a lot more complex than just the civilization we’ve seen now. Are there additional layers? Can you move between layers? While we don’t have much knowledge to answer these, I’m going with yes and yes. There may be layers even further below the layer with civilization, possibly the place Kang went after being defeated. And it appears that moving between layers should be possible, as Janet was found in the energy layer but was friendly with those in the civilization layer. It’s possible she used her suit to move about, which would leave regular Quantum Realm citizens less likely to be able to move. Lastly, on the topic of layers, is there a connection between the mirror layer and the mirror dimension? Once again, we want to say yes. First, rarely do we see two things that look so similar to one another that aren’t connected. And second, with the way dimensions, realms, and universes are looking, I think things are a lot more connected than we think or have been given guidance to believe.

Let’s continue this thought a little, as dimensions, realms, and universes, which apparently are all the same thing, now leave us with some other gaping questions. If things like the Dark and Mirror Dimension are their own universes, then how were they opened before the Multiverse officially was? Once again, no concrete answers but we have theories. The first idea is that the Loki show itself sits outside of time, so technically we can neither confirm nor deny when it actually takes place in the MCU. Loki himself was a product of the 2012 timeline going wrong, which means the Loki show effects from 2012 onwards, at least theoretically. The other theory, which hurts our brains a little more, is that when Sylvie killed He Who Remains, his death’s ramifications went through both the past and the future. Meaning it would have affected what we already knew and what is to come. This would also help explain the whole Janet being in the Quantum Realm 30 years ago storyline. But even I have to say, this one is definitely a headache. Our last one is what I spoke about in the predictions episode, which is that the Quantum Realm has always existed, it’s just the basement, if you will, of our universe. I still think this one likely makes the most sense as far as understanding how there is history in the Quantum Realm. I think it sits differently than other universes and just has always been around. But honestly, who knows, we’re only guessing.

Another concept that hurts our brains is that magic might be involved here. Upon research, magic has a part in the Quantum Realm so is it possible it could be part of the source of its existence. This would be a possible way of explaining how it predates the Multiverse as well, as we’ve seen things like the Dark Dimension predate what we know of the Multiverse and Strange accessed that through magic. If we throw away all our other theories from above, we could say magic may be responsible. I mean, we’ve watched magic form worlds of its’ own, so it’s a possibility. That being said, that could be another way we access the Quantum Realm beyond time travel and shrinking subatomic.

Now that I’ve made everyone’s brains explode, I’m going to move away from how we think the Quantum works and exists and talk a little bit more about what we still think is a solid connection, which is Shang-Chi’s rings and Kamala’s bangle. We believe that it’s possible that when Cassie opened the door to the Quantum Realm or when Kang himself gets his chair back, those could be moments that correspond with when we see the rings calling out at the end of Shang-Chi. The rings have been used at about 5% of their actual powers, so the possibility of the rings being activated and able to open doors to other universes, such as the Quantum Realm, is extremely possible.

Continuing with this direction of theories, I see the Quantum Realm as possibly like the Labyrinth from the Percy Jackson series. It lives beneath our world and distance/time don’t exactly work the same. In Percy Jackson, you could enter in New York and end up in California in 10 minutes, I think that might be very similar to the Quantum Realm. You can enter at one place or time and could possibly exit at other places and times, just like Scott in Endgame. Our theory here involving the rings and bangle is that they might be using the Quantum Realm below to call each other. It’s possible the Quantum Realm is actually really old, and these artifacts are a part of it. This may be the connection needed to start helping this all make a little more since. Emphasis on “may be”.

Finishing with the big question we are all wondering: will we see more of the Quantum Realm? The simple answer from us is yes. While we don’t have many theories on how this may take place, we do have one that we are willing to put into the ring. Due to the background that Kang has with the Quantum Realm, including the one we saw in this film and his many variants, there’s a big possibility that part of the battle in the Kang Dynasty or a lead-up battle to the big one may take place in the Quantum Realm. The characters that we already met and invested more time in than we had thought would be allies for the Avengers in the battle. This makes sense to us, as we rarely see Marvel movies create such depth for characters we are only going to see one time.

Personally, my head aches a little from typing all these theories out and they are our theories. Yet, it is important that we throw all possibilities out there, as you never know what could be right. If you have any thoughts on the Quantum Realm, tweet us or comment on this post and let us know what you’re thinking. Moving forward for us, our next podcast episode is going to be about the Young Avengers, who we’ve seen so far, how we think they will come together, and when it might happen. Catch that episode this weekend and as always, stay up to date with all our content as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “The Quantum Realm”, Mars Garrett, Bols

It’s Women’s History Month, y’all!

If you didn’t know, March is Women’s History Month, a great time to look back at all the accomplishments and the contributions that women have made in history and continue to make today. As two women in the podcasting realm, we wanted to use this month to discuss the women of Marvel themselves. So strap yourself in, as I will give a very brief history of the women of Marvel (I just did an entire newsletter devoted to the comic history). Then we will be sharing our answers to Marvel female-related questions. As always, the podcast episode can be accessed using the button below or by listening live with the link provided.

First, I will share a very brief history with you all. Starting with the comics, the very first female superhero to make her debut was Invisible Girl/Woman aka Sue Storm. She is an icon and she is the moment, as she began everything for all of the female superheroes we see today. As time went on, more female superheroes were added to the roster, but it wasn’t until the mid-70s into the 80s that female characters would begin to actually take on more assertive roles and step into leadership. This was also the time we would see female characters become more powerful with many of the main characters leading this endeavor being the women from the X-Men franchise. As for the MCU, we all are pretty familiar with the first official Marvel female hero: Black Widow. If we work from timeline, we could easily put Captain Marvel first, however, for a story truly about paving the way, Black Widow is the person who did that. While she may have been missing from the female fight scene in Endgame, the scene itself wouldn’t have been possible without Natasha Romonaff hitting the scene in Iron Man 2.

Now, let’s get into some Q&A with the hosts regarding female superheroes!

Question 1: Our favorite female character introduced in Phases 1-3

Katie: Natasha and Wanda

Taylor: Okoye

Question 2: Our favorite female character introduced in Phases 4-5

Katie: Yelena, Kate, Thena

Taylor: Kate and Kamala

Question 3: The female-led property currently on the slate that we’re most excited for

Katie: Agatha Coven of Chaos

Taylor: Echo

Question 4: What superpower we’d like to have from a female superhero

Katie: Physically, Black Widow, archery abilities from Kate Bishop, but if I could truly have any power, 100% Scarlet Witch

Taylor: Mystique’s ability to change her appearance to be whatever she wants

Question 5: One female character from the comics we want to see join the MCU soon

Katie: Spider-Gwen or Sue Storm

Taylor: Storm or Black Cat

So there you have it folks! Our picks are in for the above categories, focused all on the girlies this month. We hope you enjoyed this fun little discussion and feel free to answer some of these questions in the comments to this post, as we would love to hear who you all are thinking about! We are continuing with our release schedule of every two weeks right now, so get ready as our next episode is all about the Quantum Realm coming out of Ant-Man 3. We will be breaking it down with what we know and talking about the future of the Quantum Realm, so tune in, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Women of Marvel”, Rebecca Fleenor and Caitlin Petrakovitz, CNET

Another ranking episode is coming your way to finish out the year.

2022 has reached the end of its line, giving us plenty of content to discuss and rank. And the fun thing about being able to do this ranking back to back with the Phase 4 rankings is that we can cover some of the shows and films that we didn’t really have a moment to talk about before. That isn’t to say we didn’t enjoy plenty of what 2022 content brought us, but it didn’t all make the overall Phase 4 ranking. So now we can take a closer look at what 2022 gave us and how we believe they will rank against one another. For the full podcast episode, click the button below to find your streaming platform of choice, or begin listening live by hitting play on the link provided.

The 2022 movies were both hits and failures as far as Taylor and I were concerned. Our rankings here should not be any surprise to those who listened to our last episode, as the 2022 films are what made our highest and lowest of the entirety of Phase 4. Pretty much, don’t expect too many surprises with these three movies.

Katie

Taylor

Now the shows are definitely where things are a little more interesting. As I mentioned earlier, our coverage of Phase 4 avoided many of the shows in 2022, as we felt that 2021 had had a stronger year in our opinion. But looking only at 2022 content gives us a great chance to zero in on what we got this year and how it all compared.

Katie

Taylor

2023 is bound to be just as full of content and will have some pretty exciting things debuting. It wouldn’t be right of us if we didn’t share with you all what we are most excited to see in the upcoming year. While usually Taylor and I don’t agree, as we have different tastes in some of the things we want to see, we are pretty aligned on what we want 2023 to bring us. Below I have included our most and least anticipated pieces of content going into the new year.

Movies

TV Shows

We are so happy to have been able to spend the last year with all of you and are excited to go into yet another content-filled year. While this year is going to start a little slower, it is going to pick up speed and we are going to be flying by spring, so don’t take this slight content lull lightly. Use this time to catch up on anything you might have missed and also listen to all of our episodes that correspond with the Marvel material. Once again, Taylor and I want to thank you all for continuing to support us this year and growing with us. We wish you all a happy New Year!

Image: “MCU 2022”, Tristan Zelden, Nerd Stash

Well as shocking as it may be, in just under two years we have wrapped up an entire MCU phase. I know we all have thoughts and maybe even some whiplash on how quickly we have blown through one phase, not to mention when you look at the actual numbers, it’s honestly staggering. We got 7 films and a whopping 8 shows (not counting “I am Groot”) and 2 special presentations. Keep in mind, we used to only get 2-3 movies a year, let alone the 1.5 years it took to get all of this. Now I know for some, this was too much content and became more of an overload than anything, but of course, I don’t get to pull those shots and decide to lighten up the load, that’s all Kevin. But we can certainly give our two cents on whether we liked all that content, which is what we’re here to do. To hear both of our explanations for why we may (or may not) have picked certain content, listen to our full podcast episode by either hitting the button to find your listening platform of choice or listening live by clicking play on the link provided.

Phase 4 Movies – Our Top Picks + Honorable Mention

Let’s start on a high note and talk about the two films that took the cake for Taylor and me, along with an honorable mention that was very close to taking one of those top two spots.

Katie

Taylor

Phase 4 Movies – Our Least Favorite

As much as Phase 4 had its’ ups, it also had some down moments for Taylor and I. Weirdly enough, we happen to agree on the two movies that deserve the bottom two slots, although not quite which one is the absolute bottom.

Katie

Taylor

Phase 4 Shows – Our Top Picks + Honorable Mention

The shows, in my opinion, are part of what made Phase 4 so special. For the first time ever, we got more than just films to feed our MCU wants and instead got weekly releases of some really solid shows.

Katie

Taylor

Phase 4 Shows- Our Least Favorite

Of course, it doesn’t go without saying that there were a few pieces of content we got as far as shows that we also didn’t love quite as much as some of the others.

Phase 4 has been quite the doozy, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t just as excited to see what Phase 5 is going to bring us. We had the opportunity to cover a lot of what is to come in Phase 5 when we covered SDCC, so make sure to listen to our full podcast episode to hear what we are most looking forward to as far as movies and shows in the next two years. We have one final episode coming out this year, which will take a look at only 2022 content and we will, just like this, rate the content we got during this year. Remember we are back on our bi-weekly episode schedule for now as we await some new content to come in 2023. As we move into the holidays, I want to wish everyone on behalf of LTMFT a happy holiday season and to take this time to catch up on all the Marvel content, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Marvel Phase 4”, Meredith Loftus, Collider

I love Marvel news almost as much as I love Bucky.

Another exciting round of announcements hit us from Marvel, paving way for even more thoughts and theories on how the next two phases of our beloved MCU are going to shake out. There have been trailers, show announcements, and some cast announcements that we as fans need to keep a close eye on as we finish out Phase 4 in the next two months. Let’s get into what Marvel has revealed and what each of these projects may mean for the greater MCU.

Now, we already touched on the two shows that had trailers revealed, but let’s get into some of the other great announcements made in the video summary above. If you haven’t seen much about D23, make sure you watch the video, especially because I will only be discussing news and not necessarily every project mentioned.

The first one, which I have to go to right away is the Thunderbolts cast. Excuse me while I write in all caps for a moment, BUT YOU GUYS HAVE NO IDEA HOW FREAKING EXCITED I AM FOR THIS MOVIE EVEN MORE NOW THAT MY MAN BUCKY IS ON THE TEAM. I also recently binged the entirety of Stranger Things, so my love for David Harbor has grown so much and I think he is an unexpected but fun addition to the team. I mean you essentially have three Caps on one team, how about that? I also just know the dynamic is going to be good, especially with Yelena, her father, Bucky, and John. It will be interesting to see how Ghost and Taskmaster work their way in there as well. I also want to point out that Kevin did say in the world of this MCU, the Thunderbolts exist. This statement very much highlights that this might be the starting group for the next phases, something I mentioned and hoped for the second we started talking about the possibilities of the Thunderbolts coming. I will be a monster when it is time to cover this one, mark my words, because like Seb said, these are my kinds of people.

Alright now going more in order, I will only touch on some of the news we got that is actually new. If I don’t touch on it, that just means it is the knowledge we generally knew prior to D23. To start with the newest Ant-Man news, we pretty much got confirmation that this next film will be crazy and might blow our minds more than we think. My best recommendation is to be prepared for this film to blow something wide open for us and the future of the MCU. What we thought MoM was going to be is what I am banking Quantumania will actually be. It will be a great way to start off the next Phase and a new year.

While I touched on Secret Invasion with the trailer, we did get confirmation that Rhodey will be in it as well and that Armor Wars is still taking place. I know Armor Wars was something we brought up after Comic Con since it wasn’t put on the slate when the next two Phases were announced. We didn’t really get anything new about it, except the fact that it is still happening and on its way. I am pretty excited to see Rhodey in Secret Invasion as well and I can’t wait to find out the order in which these shows come out and their impact.

The news on Daredevil: Born Again is that it literally is going to be a new start for Daredevil. I think this was some pretty surprising news to many since for the time being, we definitely all thought it would be a continuation of what we already know. I was even prepping to watch the Netflix Daredevil show, as I had thought we would be picking up where that left off (I will still watch it, don’t worry). Instead, it seems a new suit isn’t the only thing new coming to Daredevil in the MCU, so while we have some of the same cast, things are going to operate a little differently. This will be something to watch out for and see if it sets a precedent with some of the other shows/characters that will be making their way into the MCU.

Lastly, the new Cap film is seeming to set up a new Falcon and a new Young Avenger. This isn’t exactly new news, since this was sorta assumed after TFAWS, but it seems we are getting this as a confirmation. The biggest news, though, coming from this film is that there aren’t any Avengers. This also is more of a confirmation and probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone, as the content we’ve gotten so far doesn’t yet seem to be adding a path to a team-up. That means, for now, we are getting a relatively solo Cap film for our new Captain America.

To wrap us up here, once I again I reiterate that if you know there were other announcements (which there were) and they aren’t here, it just means that they weren’t really anything we didn’t already know. I promise I’m not just leaving things out. But this has been D23, it has been awesome to see what Marvel is giving us in relation to Comic Con news as well. Once again, a ton to look forward to but in the meantime, continue watching She-Hulk airing every Thursday and keep up with all the Marvel content, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “D23”, D23 Team, D23

Don’t you love Comic Con?

We have been given an enormous amount of content announcements from Comic Con and as promised, we are going to cover all of it for you guys. If keeping up with the announcements was a little difficult (cause there were just so many), no worries, as I will be using this blog post to pretty much re-announce everything to all of you and make it as easy as possible to see where the MCU is going. Before we get started, don’t forget to listen to our full podcast episode with Davis joining us once again to help comb through the news. You can click the button below to find your platform of choice or start listening live by hitting play on the link below.

Phase 5

Phase 5 shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to people, with the exception of I think the second half having some shockers. The first of those is Blade, which we knew was coming but I think it was not expected to be coming within the next year. For those who aren’t sure why many weren’t shocked, we did have confirmation that Blade’s voice was the one heard in the end credit scene of Eternals. So will we get Kit Harrington’s Black Knight in the Blade film? I would like to think that this movie is going to be an origin for Blade, but if it isn’t then I do think we will be seeing the Black Knight appear and this movie picks up from that end-credit. It could be the beginning of Midnight Sons, which we talked about with Moon Knight, but I’m not sure if we are going to get that before the ending of Phase 6.

The second big shocker is Daredevil returning in an 18 episode series. I know this drove some people absolutely crazy as we have had Daredevil make his MCU appearance already. Of course, many wanted more and didn’t want one cameo to be it, and now here it is. But on top of his own series, Matt Murdoch has been cofirmed to be in She-Hulk, which makes sense with the whole lawyer thing, Echo (also makes sense with King-Pin), and Spider-Man: Freshman Year. I think Marvel may be setting him up for a bigger role in the future, as he is so beloved by fans, and Midnight Sons (as mentioned before) could be a great outlet to eventually put this superhero.

Next, another known and rumored film that is now confirmed is Captain America: New World Order. I am personally so excited for this since we are going to finally see Sam being full time Captain America. It’s been too long in my opinion since I have seen our new Cap since he has taken up the mantle and I really could use some old friends. As much as I truly do love all the new heroes, some old friends are still a breath of fresh air with all the content being thrown our way. And for those of you who know me, you know I hold a very special place in my heart for all the Captain America films and their storylines, so I’m really hyped to be getting another film to that rebooted franchise. We’ve come a really long way from taking down Hydra, that’s for sure.

This final one has been my personal favorite for this phase being announced and that is Thunderbolts. We as a podcast theorized the Thunderbolts or Dark Avengers coming way back when Yelena and John first made their appearances. I love a good anti-hero, as many of you know from me fangirling so much about all my favorites. I think the possible characters for this team is going to be an explosion of chaos and comedy, but it is also going to provide us with a much darker story. I hope they don’t hold back on this one, as it has so much potential to help usher in some of the darker heroes into the MCU.

Phase 6

I don’t believe Fantastic Four was surprising to anyone, but the fact we haven’t gotten a cast yet definitely is. If you were like Taylor and I, we went into SDCC assuming we would have a cast, or at least part of one, and honestly we both expected to see Fantastic Four a little further in the timeline. Knowing it is all the way in Phase 6 blows me away and also convinces me we are a lot less likely to get another origin story film from this movie. Keep in mind, this is the third Fantastic Four movie in the past 20 years or so (the same track Spider-Man was on), so I’m pretty actively convinced we won’t be seeing this group get their powers but will be thrown right into it all. It’s location in accordance to Secret Wars, which they play such a big part in, confirms this theory even further.

Since I already mentioned it, let’s talk about the next two Avengers films. I’m actually really surprised that the next two Avengers are at the end of Phase 6 and are only 6 months apart. There is a part of me that feels upset over this, since I love the team up films and we won’t get a full one until the next big battle (because Kang Dynasty is essenitally the Infinity War of the Mulitverse Saga). But I’m also really intrigued, as this makes the next Ant-Man super important as Kang is supposed to be in that. Clearly there is a loss to Kang in the next Ant-Man and Avengers films and it leads to Secret Wars (click here to see our podcast and post about Secret Wars) which all creates this vacuum of chaos for our heroes. I’m really excited for these culmination films nontheless and it will be interesting to see who our team is in Kang Dynasty and how vastly different it might be by Secret Wars. I also think Secret Wars is going to blow the doors wide open for Phase 7 (yes, I said Phase 7) and it will be so much bigger than Endgame ever was as far as repurcussions.

Marvel Theories

So what are some thoughts that we have coming out of all of this? Don’t worry, we have a ton.

Now, I know that all these announcements have been amazing to hear, but remember there are still shows out there that have been confirmed but not slated on these timelines, such as Armor Wars. There are also various shows and movies that are highly rumored to come around, but also didn’t make an appearance. This includes a solo Scarlet Witch film and possibly the Mutants (even though Secret Wars is likely going to be their way in). All this being said, we still have Disney+ day, which will likely fill in some of the gaps for Phase 6, since I honestly don’t think there’s any room in Phase 5 for anything else. We will certainly be busy the next few years, so make sure you subscribe to our podcast now and follow this blog to continue with us through the content of the MCU. With all of this, make sure you keep up with everything as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “SDCC 2022”, Discussing Film