Latest news with #JackKirby
Gizmodo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Our First Look at Giganto in ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps' Is in… a Pizza Ad?
Ahead of the release of Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the accompanying food tie-in blitz unleashes a first look at the movie's take on Giganto in a Little Caesars pizza ad. Currently, the chain is pushing its themed pizza with toppings (or lack thereof) representing different members of the Fantastic Four. Getting a cute little comic book nod in this ad was unexpected, to say the least. Giganto's first appearance came in Marvel's First Family comic book debut, which gets homaged in the commercial (directed by First Steps production designer Kasra Farahani) in a recreation of Jack Kirby's monster battle. Watch the spot below: After that first comic, the kaiju-esque green giant from Monster Isle went on to become a recurring villain in the Marvel comics canon. Fans have been waiting to see if Giganto will make the cut in First Steps—and his appearance in the pizza ad offers hope that he might, though we can't help but think he's seen better days in 2D. But maybe if he's really set to pop up in the film, this version of the iconic creature might not be fully rendered and finalized. It's an ad after all, who really notices? (We do.) The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens July 25.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fantastic Four co-writer tried to have "a classic Galactus" as the "big bad" in the 2015 Marvel movie, but "internal push back" stopped it
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The co-writer of 2015's Fantastic Four, Jeremy Slater, has talked about the MCU's upcoming take on Marvel's First Family – and Galactus. "I'm excited. I like the fact that they are taking a big creative swing," he told ComicBook. "They are telling a multiverse story, with a different world and a different set of heroes. It looks like they are bringing them in collision with our Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think that is a smart angle. I think they are getting Galactus right. "I wanted to make him our big bad and there was some internal push back," he continued. "First, he was our big bad. Then, he was just going to appear in one scene. Then, he was only appearing in the post-credits scene. Coming off the Galactus cloud from [2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer], which I was one of those fanboys probably bitching on Ain't It Cool News back then about how he was a fucking cloud, I was excited to bring back a classic Galactus and have that Jack Kirby design. It looked like they've accomplished that, so I can't wait to see him in real life." The first look at Galactus in The Fantastic Four: First Steps came from a very unlikely place – a Snapple promotion. He certainly looks very comic accurate. "The most epic of the most epic that you can imagine," producer Grant Curtis has said of the villain. "Because that's the global stakes we're dealing with, the universal stakes we're dealing with," he continued. "That's Galactus. When Galactus's gaze comes across your planet, you're not in a good spot. I think that's as big of a scope and scale you could ever ask a villain to bring with him or her. And that is what Galactus brings... One of the beautiful things about working with Kevin Feige and with [director] Matt Shakman, they are totally in on sci-fi." The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in theaters this July 25. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows for everything else that's on the way.
Geek Tyrant
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
FANTASTIC FOUR Writer Reflects on Scrapped Galactus Plans for 2015 Film; "Internal Push Back" Stopped It — GeekTyrant
It turns out the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot almost gave us the Galactus fans actually wanted to see. Jeremy Slater, co-writer of that infamous reboot, recently opened up about his experience trying to bring a proper version of the cosmic devourer to the screen—and how those plans got shut down. When asked about the upcoming film The Fantstic Four: First Steps , he told CB: 'I'm excited. I like the fact that they are taking a big creative swing. They are telling a multiverse story, with a different world and a different set of heroes. 'It looks like they are bringing them in collision with our Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think that is a smart angle. I think they are getting Galactus right.' But getting Galactus 'right' wasn't so easy back in 2015. Slater explained just how hard he tried to make the classic, Jack Kirby-designed villain the centerpiece of their movie, and how it slipped away. 'I wanted to make him our big bad and there was some internal push back. First, he was our big bad. Then, he was just going to appear in one scene. Then, he was only appearing in the post-credits scene. 'Coming off the Galactus cloud from [2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer], which I was one of those fanboys probably bitching on Ain't It Cool News back then about how he was a f*cking cloud, I was excited to bring back a classic Galactus and have that Jack Kirby design. It looked like they've accomplished that, so I can't wait to see him in real life.' If you lived through that era… you know the pain of that stupid idea. Thankfully, The Fantastic Four: First Steps seems to be correcting course. A promotional Snapple tie-in gave us our first peek at this new Galactus, and he's looking very faithful to the comics. Producer Grant Curtis described him, saying: 'The most epic of the most epic that you can imagine because that's the global stakes we're dealing with, the universal stakes we're dealing with. "That's Galactus. When Galactus's gaze comes across your planet, you're not in a good spot. I think that's as big of a scope and scale you could ever ask a villain to bring with him or her. 'And that is what Galactus brings... One of the beautiful things about working with Kevin Feige and with [director] Matt Shakman, they are totally in on sci-fi.' Marvel's The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters July 25.
Forbes
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The Next Wave Of Comic Book Movies: Creator Documentaries
Legendary comics storyteller Jack Kirby (1917-1994) is set to be the subject of a feature length ... More documentary. Though comics and superheroes have been at the center of the franchise entertainment boom of the past twenty years, large chunks of the global audience remain in the dark about the artists and creators who initially brought these characters to life. That's about to change as a wave of new documentaries are under development, often via crowdfunding campaigns, to bring their stories to a wider audience. Following on the heels of 2024's Frank Miller: American Genius (about the iconoclastic auteur behind Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City, The 300 and Daredevil), new projects spotlighting Jack Kirby (Captain America, The Avengers, most of the rest of the Marvel universe, and the American comic book industry as we know it), Steve Ditko (Spider-Man, Doctor Strange), painter Alex Ross (Marvels, Kingdom Come) and trailblazing publisher/activist and artist Denis Kitchen (Kitchen Sink Press, underground comix) are all in various stages of production. You might not imagine that people who spent most of their time indoors slaving over a drawing table meeting intractable deadlines would make for very good subjects of a feature film. Indeed many of these folks were anonymous for a reason: temperamentally, they are or were artists first, preferring the company of their supplies and their muse to the spotlight enjoyed by more gregarious industry figures like the late Marvel empresario Stan Lee. This is arguably why these figures deserve their moment in the sun, even if the glow is unlikely to be as bright as that which shines on their creations. Each creator contributed immensely to American art and culture, while laboring in an industry that, until recently, produced very little financial rewards or respect. Kirbyvision, with Ricki Stern ('Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,' 'UFOs: Investigating the Unknown') in line to direct, is under development by a group led by Dan Braun and Josh Braun of Submarine Entertainment ('The Andy Warhol Diaries,' 'Wild Wild Country'), with Mike Cecchini, Ron Fogelman and Christopher Longo. This film promises to be a long-overdue look at the visionary storyteller Jack Kirby, who burst on the scene as one of American comics' first marquee-name artists in the 1940s, created the visual vocabulary of superhero comics with his dynamic work on titles like Captain America and Sandman, launched or invigorated a half-dozen new genres including romance and crime comics, and, in one of the great second acts American culture, brought the whole constellation of Marvel characters to life in the 1960s, including the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, Silver Surfer, The X-Men, the Avengers and the Black Panther. After moving to DC in the early 1970s to do what many fans consider his greatest work, followed by a coda at Marvel and some independent comics in the 1980s, Kirby and his family spent decades fighting for the rights to his artwork, credit, and financial compensation they believed were his due. A legal case with Marvel was finally resolved in 2014, twenty years after Jack's death. 'If there were a Mount Rushmore of 20th century pop culture luminaries, Jack Kirby should be the first one to be carved into the mountain,' said Josh Braun. 'Kirbyvision will let audiences experience the full scope of Jack's limitless imagination, creativity and heart.' The project enjoys the full support of the Kirby family and the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center. Kirby is also the subject of a huge retrospective show running at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, providing further evidence of his cultural reach. Kirby's compatriot in the rise of Marvel in the 1960s was Steve Ditko, whose idiosyncratic style defined the initial look of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. Ditko's strong views about culture and philosophy kept him well out of the public spotlight at his own insistence, earning him a reputation as a recluse. But following Ditko's death in 2018 at the age of 90, his family began sharing photos, home movies, artifacts and anecdotes that cast new light on both his personality and his career. In conjunction with this effort, Steve Ditko: A Documentary promises to build on the scholarship of Ditko biographer Zack Kruse (Mysterious Travelers) and the wealth of new information coming from the family estate with a film that 'not only honors Steve Ditko's prolific body of work by expands on our understanding of the man himself.' Kruse set to direct and coproduce alongside Matt White, who has previously collaborated with Whoopi Goldberg and Snoop Dog. Another artist who changed the visual iconography of American comics is Alex Ross, who came along in the 1990s using a fully-painted illustrative style that gave his books a realism unprecedented in a medium that typically relied on simplification and cartoony-ness to tell stories. The Legend of Kingdom Come, produced by Ross's agent Sal Abbinanti and directed by Remi Atassi, tells the inside story of one of Ross's signature works, the Kingdom Come mini-series (later graphic novel) written by Mark Waid, which provided a chilling new context for the classic DC universe. After a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $463,000, the film screened at Chicago's Music Box Theatre earlier this month, ahead of a major retrospective of Ross's artwork set to open at the Dunn Museum in Libertyville, Ill. A documentary about underground comix publisher Denis Kitchen, Oddly Compelling: The Denis Kitchen Story, is also looking to Kickstarter to get it over the finishing line. Kitchen is an artist, publisher, historian and free speech champion who got his start in the underground comix movement in the 1960s, publishing work by Robert Crumb, Trina Robbins, Howard Cruise and S. Clay Wilson. He was a friend, publisher and agent for pioneering comic book creators Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman, and successfully transitioned his Kitchen Sink Press imprint into a mainstream independent comic publisher in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. One of Kitchen's most important contributions to the medium and the industry was the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization he launched in the 1980s to combat efforts to censor comics and their creators, and which has carried on into the present day. Buried beneath Kitchen's advocacy work and entrepreneurship is his own work as an artist and storyteller. He has recently published several collections of drawings and a career retrospective. According to the campaign announcement, Filmmakers Soren Christiansen and Ted Intorcio have captured hours of in-depth interviews with notable friends and colleagues of Kitchen, as well as archival footage, new animations of Kitchen's artwork, and his own reminiscences. The film hopes to be in release in Fall, 2025.
The National
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
How to watch all the Marvel films in storyline order
This month's release of Thunderbolts* marked the 36th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and the final film in the timeline before Avengers: Doomsday in 2026. Before the release of the 1960s-set The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July, which sets the stage for next year's game-changing team-up, there's plenty to catch up on. For those looking to begin a venture into, arguably, cinema's most popular worlds of the past two decades, it's best to start at the beginning. Here is how to watch all movies of the MCU in chronological order. A great intro to the MCU, set during the Second World War, it has Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) being recruited as part of the super-soldier experiment, causing – hey presto – the birth of Captain America. We also get a first look at an Infinity Stone, the power-wielding jewels that will escalate in importance. Rating: 4/5 While this marks the fourth iteration of the Fantastic Four assembled for the big screen – an unreleased movie from 1994, the two modestly successful films from the 2000s and the calamitous 2015 reboot – the latest version seems poised to be the greatest. Harkening back to the 1960s setting of the original comics run by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, this period film promises to adapt one of the Kirby and Lee's most popular stories – the coming of the world-eater Galactus, announced by his herald the Silver Surfer. But because it's set decades before the rest of the MCU, fans are eagerly awaiting the many intersections it may include of the overarching Marvel story – and how it may connect with the multiverse. Rating: TBD Arriving in the nick of time before Avengers: Infinity War, cosmic hero Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) gets her origin story here – all set in 1995 – as two alien races come to blows. The fun part is seeing Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury, a regular from the intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D., as his younger self, before he got that distinctive eye patch. Rating: 3/5 It all began here. Back in 2008, Jon Favreau's Iron Man was something of a risk. But casting Robert Downey Jr as the snarky Tony Stark, an inventor-billionaire who builds himself a weapon-clad suit, was a masterstroke. An entire generation-defining movie series got off to a splendid start. Rating: 4/5 Downey Jr flexed his muscles further against Mickey Rourke's whip-cracking Russian baddie, but this is most notable for introducing Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff – aka Black Widow, the ultra-limber spy who will eventually join Iron Man in the S.H.I.E.L.D. superhero gang The Avengers. Rating: 3/5 It took Marvel three goes to get the angry green giant right. This wasn't it. Following 2003's Hulk (not part of the MCU), this reboot had Ed Norton take over as Dr Bruce Banner, before Mark Ruffalo later inherited the mantle. It pre-dates The Avengers, though it's unclear where it sits in the timeline. Iron Man does make a cameo, though. Rating: 2/5 Set six months before The Avengers, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston first appear as Asgard warrior Thor and his mischief-making, power-grabbing adoptive brother Loki, in a fine effort by Kenneth Branagh, who compared it all to King Lear. Intern Darcy Lewis, later to return in TV spin-off WandaVision, also makes her MCU debut. Rating: 4/5 Marvel's so-called Phase One came to a resounding close in Joss Whedon's titanic superhero flick, as the Avengers assemble against Loki and his alien hoards. Watching Iron Man bicker with Captain America and 'Hulk smash' were only two of the highlights of a film that also, properly, introduced Jeremy Renner's archer Hawkeye after his Thor cameo. Rating: 5/5 Six months on from The Avengers, Iron Man deals with the fallout from those events while coming up against the Mandarin, the leader of a terrorist group known as the Ten Rings. Shane Black directs with his usual wit, though Sir Ben Kingsley's role – a huge twist in the film – left some fans a bit bemused. Rating: 3/5 Directed by Games of Thrones' Alan Taylor, this second outing for Thor – which concludes with half of Greenwich in London being destroyed – was inferior to the first, owing to Christopher Eccleston's generic villain Malekith. It does introduce Benicio Del Toro's infinity stones-hoarder, the Collector, though. Rating: 3/5 The first of four essential MCU movies directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Captain America's second solo outing, digging further into S.H.I.E.L.D., comes two years on from The Avengers' climactic Battle of New York. Drawing from 1970s-style conspiracy/espionage tales such as Three Days of the Condor, it further expanded Black Widow's character too. Rating: 4/5 Director James Gunn's first entry into the MCU arrived with this insouciant tale of intergalactic rogues. Chris Pratt leads the way as Peter Quill – aka Star-Lord – but the show is stolen by Rocket, a talking raccoon, and his pal Groot, a tree of very few words. Rating: 4/5 A disappointment after the highs of its predecessor, but still a lot of fun – with the Guardians again patrolling the outer reaches of the galaxy. It also expands on the Celestials, the cosmic beings that created the Eternals, with Kurt Russell as Ego. Rating: 3/5 As the Avengers team up to fight Ultron, an AI enemy hellbent on destruction, more get recruited, including Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), Vision (Paul Bettany) and Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), aka Falcon. Doesn't hit the highs of Whedon's earlier movie, though. Rating: 3/5 Its tortured genesis notwithstanding – director Edgar Wright quit the project, Peyton Reed took over – this is one of the most irreverent MCU entries. Thief Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is shrunk to insect-size by tech invented by Michael Douglas' former S.H.I.E.L.D. employee Hank Pym, just in time to join the fight in the coming Civil War. Rating: 4/5 One of the great comic-book movies, as Iron Man and Cap come to blows and the Avengers' infighting escalates to epic proportions. This second Russo brothers' MCU effort includes the glorious introduction of Tom Holland as Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man – the third, and certainly the best, actor to play Stan Lee's web-spinning hero in the 21st century. Rating: 5/5 Taking place directly after the events of Captain America: Civil War, this origin story for Romanoff also introduces her "sister", Yelena (Florence Pugh), also trained in the so-called Red Room. To stay spoiler-free, avoid the post-credits sequence, though, until you've watched Avengers: Endgame. Rating: 4/5 Set post-Civil War, Jon Watts' effort goes all The Breakfast Club, with Peter Parker hanging out at Midtown School of Science and Technology with his pals, including love interest MJ (Zendaya). Michael Keaton pops in as the bad guy, Adrian Toomes, with an axe to grind against Stark Industries. Rating: 4/5 This intro for Benedict Cumberbatch's mystic, time-bending neurosurgeon came under fire for Tilda Swinton's casting as the Ancient One, a Tibetan character from the comics refashioned as Celtic. But no question, this is the MCU's most surreal movie yet and a vital primer for Avengers: Infinity War. Rating: 4/5 Never mind its place in the MCU, Blank Panther was a genuine cultural moment, when Marvel unveiled the fictional African nation of Wakanda and Chadwick Boseman in the title role. The first superhero movie to get a Best Picture Oscar nomination, this fired imaginations in its positive, passionate representation of black culture. Rating: 4/5 The best Thor movie yet, thanks to the arrival of Kiwi director Taika Waititi, who imported his off-kilter humour perfectly into the MCU. With Thor fighting against Cate Blanchett's Hela, the Asgardian goddess of death, it also brings in Loki and Hulk for a hugely enjoyable space romp. Rating: 4/5 Be careful here. The post-credits scene ties into the finale of Infinity War, so maybe hold off on watching until you've seen IW. But timewise, this quantum realm-hopping adventure begins two years on from Scott Lang's initial involvement with the Avengers in Civil War, with him now under house arrest. Rating: 4/5 The pinnacle of the series and everything the MCU was building towards, as the Avengers confront alien megalomaniac Thanos, now in possession of the Infinity Stones and with a major grudge against the universe. Filled with genuine jaw-dropping moments, this was comic book fare on a Shakespearean level. Rating: 5/5 It became the biggest-grossing movie of all time (before Avatar's re-release before the sequel in 2022). This conclusion to the MCU's Infinity saga storyline is another epic, spanning five years. Dealing with the theme of sacrifice for the greater good, it might just be the most emotional Marvel movie yet. Be warned: not everyone makes it out alive. Rating: 5/5 Eight months after Endgame, Spidey takes a European holiday with his classmates and comes up against the Elementals and Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio. Watts's sequel neatly touches on the Americans-abroad trope in a breezy and much-needed pick-me-up after the apocalyptic events of before. Rating: 3/5 Picking up directly after Far From Home, this mind-bending multiverse movie sees Holland's Spider-Man face friends and foes from parallel universes in a film that feels like a joyous slice of fan service. Spinning a wild web, it feels like a movie that will send the MCU in an entirely new and bold direction. Rating: 5/5 Director Destin Daniel Cretton says his effort takes place in the 'present day' so that makes it the most up-to-date entry in the series. Starring Simu Liu as the titular trained assassin, who left behind a life of killing, it reacquaints us with the Ten Rings in a more satisfying way than Iron Man 3 managed. Rating: 4/5 Five years on from events in Infinity War and eight months after Endgame, Eternals comes late in the MCU ordering. But – just to confuse you – there are some flashbacks to ancient Aztec, Babylon and so on, as the world's oldest superheroes are introduced in their battle against the alien Deviants. Rating: 3/5 In the wake of King T'Challa's death, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and her daughter Shuri (Letitia Wright) along with M'Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje, the team of women who serve as special forces for Wakanda, are in a fight to protect their nation from new intervening and threatening world powers. As Wakanda rises up to embrace its future without its king, the heroes must work together to forge a new path for the kingdom. Rating: 4/5 A combination of drama, comedy, familiar faces, nostalgia and heart-warming moments the superhero franchise has become known for, Waititi returns with his signature humorous touch in this sequel to Thor: Ragnarok (2017). Thor reunites with Dr Jane Foster, who broke up with him "eight years, seven months and six days, give or take" ago, putting this timeline to between 2023 and 2025 and after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. A fun ride from beginning to end, and possibly Hemsworth's last outing as Thor, this one is all about growing up, getting older and finding the one you love. Rating: 4/5 The film takes place after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home and sees Doctor Strange continue his research on the Time Stone. However, when Strange casts a forbidden spell, he accidentally opens the doorway to the multiverse and unleashes evil. Faced with old enemies and new foes, he is forced to break the very seams of reality to save it. Rating: 3/5 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania signals the start of the fifth phase of the MCU. The story begins when the family of microscopic heroes – which include Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) – are unwillingly sucked into the Quantum Realm. However, the deeper we venture into the story, and the Quantum Realm, it becomes clear that the film is less about Ant-Man than it is a vehicle to introduce the big baddie of phase five of the MCU: Kang the Conqueror. Rating: 2/5 The last instalment, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, is bittersweet. The film is a testament to director and writer James Gunn's singular vision where action, comedy and emotional storylines meet powerful music for a gripping cinematic experience. Unlike the previous films, the Guardians aren't facing off against one ominous villain whose plan is to eradicate half of all life in the universe. But on the whole, Gunn has delivered to audiences what they expected and always loved about the Guardians of the Galaxy universe: an adventure full of heart, humour and friendship. Most importantly though, what Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 achieves is ultimately a satisfying finale to a story of unforgettable characters. Rating: 4/5 While Deadpool & Wolverine was billed as the debut of the two titular characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this manic, violent and thoroughly R-rated buddy comedy features very little interaction with the MCU. Instead, it acts as a coda to the 20th Century Fox Marvel film universe, including Blade, Electra, Fantastic Four and the X-Men series, which unofficially ended when Disney bought the studio back in 2019. While there is one scene set before Avengers: Endgame in 2018 when Iron Man was still alive and numerous scenes in the in-between world established in the Disney+ Loki series, Deadpool and Wolverine probably won't enter the proper Marvel timeline until the coming Avengers: Doomsday, which is set for a 2026 release and will star Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom, or Avengers: Secret Wars, which is set to release in 2027. Nevertheless, while it falls apart a bit in the final act, it's a must-watch for Marvel fans new and old, and proves that the MCU still has some tricks up its sleeve. Rating: 3/5 Set in 2026, The Marvels is not merely a sequel to the 2019 hit Captain Marvel, which introduced Brie Larson's hero of the same name, it also continues the female-led stories established in Disney+ MCU series WandaVision and Ms Marvel, the latter of which introduced Kamala Khan, Marvel's first Muslim superhero. The breezy tone runtime makes it watchable if mostly forgettable, but the film also adds little to the overall Marvel narrative, with only Iman Vellani's committed and fun performance as Ms Marvel to buoy the proceedings. Rating: 2/5 In many ways, the Captain America franchise has been the beating heart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, establishing Steve Rogers as the grander story's moral centre. His successor and former partner Sam Wilson tries to do the same in his first solo film, to near-disastrous results. While Sam has earned a lot of good will from fans of the past 15 years, Captain America: Brave New World fails to provide a good reason why he should be Marvel's main character moving forward. Here, he mainly goes through the motions in one of the least watchable political thrillers ever put to film, which goes from boring to silly when president Harrison Ford begins turning into a big red monster because he'd been given the wrong pills. Taking place in 2027 (we know this because Sam Wilson says that Bucky Barnes, born in 1917, is 110), this sets the stage for Sam-led Avengers team to potentially debut in Avengers: Doomsday in 2026. But honestly, you can skip it. Rating: 0/5 When Marvel is at its worst, keeping up with the ins and outs can feel like homework. When Marvel is at its best, everything clicks into place even without context. Thunderbolts*, which is set in 2027 after Brave New World, finds Marvel once again at its best, uniting discarded supporting characters from other stories and turning that seeming weakness into the film's greatest asset. Told with empathy and humour, this is a story of flawed, human characters that audiences can't help but root for. And thanks to director Jeff Scheier's reliance on old-fashioned in-camera stunt work and committed performances from top-tier talents in Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan in particular, the film ultimately earns its second name The New Avengers – which ensures that these characters will be a prominent part of Avengers: Doomsday. Rating: 4/5
