MARVELOUS MARVEL RECAP - PHASE 2

The Avengers have Assembled, the world has been saved - now what?

Welcome to our recap of Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)!

Encouraged by the landscape-altering success of The Avengers, which showed critics and audiences everywhere that "hey, there just might be something to this insane chess game they're playing after all..." things are about to get wilder and weirder and just more all-around WOW! All our old favorites return to their respective corners of the universe for some soul-searching and shake-ups, while a whole host of new heroes make their way into the spotlight for the very first time.

Buckle up, baby, because this Awesome Mix cassette tape is just getting started!

IRON MAN 3

THE GIST: While coping with crippling PTSD after the near-death events of The Avengers, Stark must hunt down a terrorist known as The Mandarin, who has been orchestrating a series of biologically-enhanced suicide bombings. Along the way, Stark must also contend with just how much he has come to rely, or even over-rely, on his dual identity as Iron Man.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Improving on Iron Man 2 with a much tighter, wit-packed script and some truly inspired usage of the Iron Man armor(s), this one is enjoyable but ultimately not super consequential to the MCU at large. Its controversial Mandarin-centered twist polarized legions of diehard comics fans, even drawing outright disgust from more than a few, but it's worth it just to have another chance to watch RDJ swagger along in the role that'll carve his name in history.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 3.5/5

THOR: THE DARK WORLD

THE GIST: Thor must defend Asgard from the attack of a race known as the Dark Elves, who seek to use a reality-altering substance known as the Aether to snuff out life across an astrological convergence. To do this, he must free and form a begrudging truce with Loki, imprisoned after his actions in The Avengers.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: For Game of Thrones fans of swords and sorcery, this one scratches that genre itch nicely, and the bonkers, reality-warping final fight through London is a blast to watch. Unfortunately, though, this one falls at the bottom of a lot of people's MCU rankings, thanks in no small part to a forgettable, lackluster enemy threat.

If nothing else, though, it's a treat just to watch more of Loki cackling and snarking his mischievous way to a cliffhanger ending that sees him finally on Asgard's throne, impersonating Thor's father Odin through his magical illusions.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 3/5

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

THE GIST: Still adjusting from the "gee-whiz!" spirit of patriotism of his previous life in the 1940s to the 21st century's morally-jaded landscape, Rogers must ally himself with Romanoff and an ex-military parajumper named Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon, after SHIELD is revealed to have been infiltrated across all levels by HYDRA sleeper agents.

The deadliest of these, an ultra-lethal assassin known as the Winter Soldier, turns out to be none other than Bucky Barnes, Rogers' closest friend from before WWII, brainwashed and put on ice by HYDRA (who have also replaced Barnes' left arm with a cybernetic implant). Rogers must break Barnes' brainwashed programming in time to stop HYDRA from carrying out a global terror attack.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: This one is top. level. Marvel.

Many, many people list Winter Soldier as their favorite of all the MCU entries, thanks to a script that tackles 21st century fears about government conspiracies and Big Brother Watching head-on, as well as some of the flat-out best action scenes Marvel has ever put to film. The pulse-pounding, kinetic K.O.'s here were the first time a lot of people realized, "Oh wow... Captain America's a BADASS," and shifted his perception among general audiences from the white-toast boy scout of previous films to the fan-favorite moral compass of the entire Marvel Universe.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 4.5/5

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL. 1

THE GIST: Five space outlaws come together and form a rag-tag family while preventing a world-destroying artifact from falling into the wrong hands: Peter Quill, aka Star Lord, a 70s-music grooving human kidnapped from Earth during childhood by space pirates; Gamora, a ruthless killer and the escaped daughter of Thanos; Drax, a hysterically literal-minded and super-strong warrior on a mission to avenge his family; Rocket, a cybernetically-altered raccoon who spits sarcasm and adores all things explosive; and Groot, a humanoid tree who serves as the group's Chewbacca figure and communicates solely with the phrase "I am Groot" (a running joke arises from the characters' abilities to derive various complex meanings from the same repeated phrase, i.e. "I am Groot?" "No thanks, I'm all set, I already ate lunch.").

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: In 2007, if you'd have stated that a talking tree and a RACCOON would headline a big-budget superhero film, you'd have been laughed off the internet. But with the loving direction of James Gunn, Chris Pratt's transformation from a fat slob on the NBC sitcom Parks and Rec. into a matinee idol, the color palette of a 70s blacklight poster, and one of the greatest superhero movie soundtracks ever assembled, that's exactly what happened.

Rock and roll provides the lifeblood for this smash hit, probably the funniest movie to ever come from the Marvel powerhouse, and its D-list characters all became household names overnight. Hooked on a feeling? You betcha.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 5/5

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

THE GIST: The squad's back together again, when Stark's efforts to create a peacekeeping "suit of armor around the whole world" backfire catastrophically, resulting in a genocidal robot named Ultron.

Ultron's solution to solving all mankind's problems is to logically just eradicate all mankind in the first place, leading to a climactic battle which decimates the small (and fictional) Eastern European country of Sokovia.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: There's a lot happening here, and while it's peak Marvel whenever the core Avengers are in the same room bouncing off each other, the total effect of this one is more disjointed and overwhelming than their previous team effort. Pausing the action no less than four times for extended dream sequences, and featuring a skyscraper-leveling slugfest between Hulk and a tank-wearing Iron Man, the film stretches itself a bit too thin trying to check off a dizzying list of franchise boxes, even as the world-ending stakes posed by Ultron's threat huff and puff mightily.

In the end, this endless smorgasbord somehow comes off feeling incidental, and there's an undercutting sense of "Hmm... I wonder if these characters who are all already confirmed for Civil War AND Infinity War will make it through this 'final' fight..."

It's notable, though, for introducing a slew of new characters to the team's roster, such as the android Vision (Tony Stark's A.I. brought to life with human form... think Siri, with superpowers) and the telekinetic Scarlet Witch, who will become team staples in the years to come.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 3/5

ANT-MAN

THE GIST: Recently released from prison and desperate to help pay child support for his daughter, expert cat burglar Scott Lang is enlisted by aging scientist Hank Pym and his daughter Hope Van Dyne to become Ant-Man.

Training in the suit created (and first worn decades ago) by Pym, which allows its wearer to shrink down to ant-size while gaining proportionate strength and speed, Lang helps Hank and Hope stop a corporate criminal who seeks to release the shrinking technology to terrorists for profit.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: A truly welcome step down in size and scale (pun intended) from the world-threatening stakes of the Avengers' outings, Ant-Man is a comedy first and foremost. It knowingly embraces the eye-rolling concept of a hero who can communicate with and shrink down to the size of ants, and plays it for laughs against what's actually a very good heist movie.

Ultimately, it doesn't impact the MCU all that much, and Ant-Man's inclusion in Civil War will introduce him perfectly adequately to binge viewers who are pressed for time - but leaving this one from your watch list will deprive you of a whole lot of laughs.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 3.5/5

PHASE 2 FINAL TALLY
"What should we do now, Guardians? Something good (The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1)? Something bad (Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron)? Or a bit of both (Iron Man 3, Ant-Man)?"

Phase 2 has not only kept the ball rolling, but sped things forward down an increasingly bendy and far-afield route. There's tough times ahead, though, for the Avengers and everyone associated with them, and things will never be the same again... but fortunately for us, that means the best of the MCU is still to come! We'll see you next time for Phase 3!!!

MARVELOUS MARVEL RECAP - PHASE 1

Greetings, True Believers! Amidst a new job and wedding preparations (which will all be covered and covered some more in subsequent posts, rest assured), I've been getting more and more hyped lately as the film event of our generation approaches nearer and nearer. For months on end, millions of comics fans around the world have circled April 25 on their calendars as the premiere date of the unprecedented Avengers: Endgame.

Endgame promises to be the superhero movie to end all superhero movies, an epic and climactic finale to a revolutionary brand of filmmaking which has stretched across ten years, more than twenty movies and streaming shows, and billions, billions, billions of dollars.

For a lot of people, prepping for Endgame might feel a bit like cramming for a final exam, especially if they're unfamiliar with the 20+  individual puzzle pieces that have brought us all collectively to this point.

So, to help those people out, as well as to provide a refresher to others who are looking for an abbreviated SparkNotes-esque recap of pop culture's hottest franchise before we're all left collectively traumatized on April 25, here now is a self-professed comic aficionado's run-through of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

For each of the twenty-one films released to date, I'll provide a quick synopsis, an analysis of why the movie's worth your hard-earned time, and a "re-watch grade" to help prioritize whether or not you should give it a second (or third or fourth or twenty ninth...) viewing before Endgame. Got it? Alright then.

Since coverage of all twenty-one films would call for a post near novel-length in its size, I've borrowed a page from the MCU's playbook and broken everything up into more digestible "phases."

Here, then, without any further ado, let's start our recap of Phase 1. In the beginning, there was...

IRON MAN

THE GIST: Tony Stark is a genius, billionaire playboy with no responsibilities or qualms about who gets their hands on the mass-destructive weapons created by his father's defense company - until he finds himself with a chestful of shrapnel while in the captivity of a Taliban-esque splinter group.

Now vowing to devote his life towards a higher purpose of accountability, Stark uses his smarts to create a technologically advanced suit of armor that lets him escape his captors while keeping the shrapnel from entering his heart. He refines the armor's design to become Iron Man, and later reveals his secret identity to the world press.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: This is the movie that started this whole grand Marvel project. It's doubtful if any role has ever fit an actor as well as the quip-spewing, in-love-with-his-fame Tony Stark fits Robert Downey Jr. It's a match made in movie heaven, and to this day, RDJ's performance is a central tent pole of the whole MCU. Throw in some timely commentary on the U.S.'s War on Terror in the Middle East, a truly funny script, and some of the silver screen's niftiest hardware, and you've got yourself a sky-high bar that has proved difficult to reach again for a lot of what has since followed.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 5/5


THE INCREDIBLE HULK

THE GIST: After a failed experiment exposes timid scientist Bruce Banner to critical levels of gamma radiation, he morphs into a hulking green behemoth with impossible levels of strength and "breathtaking anger management issues" whenever he becomes stressed or threatened.

Banner must elude U.S. government forces who seek to imprison or even weaponize his less-than-jolly green giant counterpart, all while trying to suppress the Hulk's violent and destructive tendencies.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: A fine smash-em-up film all on its own, this nevertheless might be the most throwaway of all the MCU fare. Actor Ed Norton does a decent job as the skittish Banner, and there's a fun fight scene at the end that breaks... well, the whole neighborhood of Harlem, but there's nothing here that won't be covered, and covered better, when Mark Ruffalo takes over the role in the following Avengers films.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 2/5

IRON MAN 2

THE GIST: While publicly reveling in his celebrity status as Iron Man, Stark is now desperately seeking a cure in private for the toxic effects which the armor's technology is having on his body.

At the same time, he must deal with a rival weapons manufacturer, face off with the disgruntled son of one of his father's forgotten business partners, and entertain the joint efforts of the eyepatch-toting badass Nick Fury and the kickboxing super-spy Natasha Romanoff (aka Black Widow) to recruit him into SHIELD, a peacekeeping intelligence organization, and their classified "Avengers Initiative."

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Once again, RDJ owns every minute of screen time he's in, and there are some fantastic action sequences - but this is a case where a sequel packs in too much, too soon, and so ironically becomes a case of diminishing returns. You can skip this one and never miss a beat.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 2/5

THOR

THE GIST: The arrogant and belligerent Norse God of Thunder is exiled from his native realm of Asgard to modern-day New Mexico, where he must prove himself "worthy" in order to once again wield his enchanted hammer Mjolnir and regain his godlike powers.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Chris Hemsworth debuts his star-making turn here as maybe the number one reason male audience members have developed insecurity complexes watching these movies - the only thing bigger than his biceps and ab muscles are the laughs he draws through his fish-out-of-water predicament in New Mexico. He regally strolls into a bargain pet store at one point, demanding in high Shakespearean tones "I need a horse!" only to have the sweater-vest wearing cashier inform him that he won't have any luck finding anything here much larger than a dog.

But threatening to steal this movie away from Thor - in truth, the whole Thor franchise, both in front of and behind the camera - is Tom Hiddleston's silver-tongued, malicious, and tragically misunderstood Loki, the trickster God of Mischief and Thor's adoptive brother. He turns in a truly great villain performance that went unchallenged as the MCU's best baddie until only the most recent offerings came around.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 4/5

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

THE GIST: Steve Rogers is a scrawny weakling from Brooklyn who spends his days getting beaten up in alleys behind movie theaters and his nights trying to unsuccessfully sneak his way into the U.S. draft for WWII. His mindset is the same on both fronts: "I don't like bullies. I don't care where they're from." But when Rogers volunteers for and receives an experimental "super-soldier" serum that transforms his body to the pinnacle of human ability, he can finally do something about those bullies.

Dubbed "Captain America" and wielding an unbreakable shield, Rogers is dispatched to eliminate various advanced-level threats facing the Allied war effort. In the last of these missions, Rogers sacrifices himself to down a plane carrying a payload of explosives to his native New York; the craft plunges into the ice of the North Atlantic, but Rogers survives, frozen solid and preserved. He remains in suspended animation for nearly seventy years, finally resuscitating in New York in 2011 under the care of Nick Fury and SHIELD.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: The chronological granddaddy of the MCU, The First Avenger is the most pure pulp escapism you can get from watching these flicks. Like the Indiana Jones movies or Saturday morning cartoons, it's a totally immersive 1940s period piece that blends history's most natural villains, the Nazis, with scientific and occult mumbo-jumbo, and lets Chris Evans (a Captain America-like figure of goodness both on and off screen) shine as he gets in some good old fashioned socks-to-the-jaw. There's even a winkingly playful propaganda montage thrown in for good measure, complete with its own catchy show tune.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 4/5

THE AVENGERS

THE GIST: When an embittered Loki invades Earth with a marauding alien force at his command, Nick Fury and SHIELD bring together Rogers, Stark, Thor, Banner, and Romanoff, along with expert archer Clint Barton - aka Hawkeye - to stop him.

It's not an instant match made in heaven - the egos and insecurities of each individual hero are sizable enough when taken on their own, let alone in a group. The team manages to cohere just in time, however, for a jaw-dropping battle across New York City that weaves these multiple franchise threads together for the first time in movie history - and attracts the attention of one purple Mad Titan.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: It was an unprecedented idea at the time: take headliners from four lucrative but separate film series, and make them play nice together in the same sandbox. It would have been impossible not too long ago, but as written and directed by nerd guru Joss Whedon, it's cinema history. The quips are electric, the story makes sense and yet gives each hero his or her place to shine, and there are at least three scenes in the last half hour that made whole theaters rise to their feet in roaring applause. Once a comic nerd's pipe dream, it's become the golden standard for cinematic events, with more than a few rival studios trying and failing spectacularly to capture the same genie in a different bottle.

Avengers, assemble.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 5/5


PHASE 1 FINAL TALLY
"Stop whatever it is you're doing right now and watch this" - Iron Man, The Avengers
"Will this be on the test?" "Maybe..." - Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger
"Sorry, Next" - The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2

The MCU has gotten much, much bigger in its scope, tone, diversity, and ambition than fans from these early days would ever have dared believe - but all empires start somewhere, and the foundation laid here by Phase 1 for future endeavors remains as unbreakably sturdy as Cap's vibranium shield.

Next up, it's "Hail Hydra," shrinking suits, and "I am Groot..."

We're on to Phase 2!

SOLEMates

Well, 2019 is here, and I hope I'll be forgiven for believing that the rest of the calendar cycle now has its work cut out for it trying to live up to the sky-high bar which these first few weeks have set.

The Cooks of Lowell had the second weekend of the year circled on our planners since last July as the date of the 2019 Disney World Marathon in sunny Orlando, FL, a running foray that us crazy runner types had made a couple times in the past and had never come home from disappointed. This year, however, was shaping up to be a special trip before ever a step had been run in preparation, for reasons that happened to be (not coincidentally) linked.
Firstly, we were being joined on our travels by the family of my girlfriend Katie Durkin, whose mom Kate and sister Sarah -- only half as crazy -- had signed up for the Disney Half Marathon the day before our scheduled 26.2, and whose dad Jim was holding down the chEARing squad with my mom Jackie. The sane brains in both families aren't hard to pick out.

Dependent on their wonderful company, however, was the other reason this trip was shaping up to be an unforgettable one for me personally, a reason which motivated me through every single step of the months-long training cycle. It was darn near one of the hardest things I've ever had to do to keep it bottled up as a secret, but now that the word's out, let me announce here in my happiest and loudest possible tones, to the readers in the front row and the cheap seats,

LADIES AND GENTS, YOURS TRULY GOT ENGAGED!!!!

As the old folks say, when you know, you know, and I've known that Ms. Katie Durkin and I were *IT* for a very long time indeed. She is the exclamation point burst of color in my life, and after using Pennywise as an excuse to hold her hand all smooth-like way back on our first date (after she used picturebooks as an excuse to reach out and network), the laughter and joy in my days has gone UP like a house that’s balloon-propelled towards Paradise Falls.

This being the kind of person one generally wants to have around in life, I'd been concocting scenarios of one sort or another where I could get down on one knee and ask that biggest of questions to my best friend, in the kind of memorable way she deserved. Both of us being Disney fanatics, the Mouse House natch seemed like it checked that box pretty neatly, so before a single registration had been filed or hotel deposit put down, the wheels in my head were already turning.
Like I said, I'm surprised my tongue didn't split in half after all the times biting it to keep the secret, but somehow, someway, we passed through TSA in Boston's Logan Airport last Thursday morning with one diamond ring and parental blessing in-tow, and we took off (with all the usual airline delays) towards those palm tree groves that make you realize, "huh, maybe those snowbird people are onto something..."

If there was one moment that threatened the whole weekend, it was this one. I've got my eyes on you, Mouse.

Taking advantage of a slight divergence in plans on Friday morning as the Durkins all headed off to the RunDisney expo for some race swag, the Cooks (and Heather's Stonehill roomie, Zoe Lavoie, who I hope has become a full Disney convert through the experience) scoped out Animal Kingdom park as the site for some real-life magic that afternoon. Knowing that Katie -- animal lover of all things in Nature, and the newest and brightest star over at the Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust offices -- lists The Lion King as one of her all-time favorite movies, my dad and I headed over to the Festival of the Lion King live show to see if any of the workers there wanted to become our new best friend.
This hero in question turned out to be (according to his nametag) Diego from the University of Virginia, who told us that he'd not only make us all "family of the day," with front-row seating for the show itself, but that he'd personally escort us backstage afterwards, in his own words, "to make some magic happen." Diego, I don't know if this can or ever will get back to you, but I don't think I'd be able to thank you or repay you enough if I tried for the rest of my days. You're a credit to everything the Disney Parks are supposed to be about, and your involvement helped cement the picturebook proposal I'd been envisioning and that Katie deserved.
"Does that work for you?" he asked as we shook hands.
Brother, you betcha.

We joined back up with the Durkins, enjoyed the goosebump-inducing show from our front-row vantage point, followed Diego backstage to meet the costumed dancers and performers, and then... well, I'll let the pictures tell it.

Job well done, memories made, now we're all set to go hom-- WAIT WHAT?? WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE STILL HAVE A MARATHON TO RUN??
Well of course... even though everything after the most important "yes" head nod in my life would've been gravy, we didn't train all those miles in the freezing New England colds for nothing! So it was off for a blissful day or two in the parks to chEAR on Sarah and Kate on their outstanding Half Marathon Saturday morning, then carbs on carbs on carbs to prepare for our 3am Sunday wake-up.

Accompanied by the cutest Lilo & Stitch father-daughter pairing you'd find this side of a Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride, we walked to the Marathon starting line together, ready to Go the Distance. I'll let the pics take over here, so scroll on through as few or as many of the most special memories a lot of us will probably notch over our running careers, and I'll see you on the other side for one final word.

If the Seven Dwarves needed re-casting, there's a top contender for Happy right in the middle here

ANYONE REMEMBER US??

Things at Mile 15 were looking grave

Like I said, the rest of 2019 has a tough act to follow now. If there's anything I'm sure of, though, it's that I've got the bestest best partner in all the kingdoms to experience it alongside. Katie, I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of your *Herculean* accomplishment in finishing your first (but maybe not your last?) marathon. Having run all the way there with you, step for step, I know what a struggle and what a triumph it was at all times, but when you crossed that finish line, you earned every stitch of your finisher ears, and every ounce of gold in your medal. Dad and Heather, the same goes for you: this is nothing new, but I couldn't be more honored to be in the most incredible family this side of...well... The Incredibles!!
Now that we're back in the slap-in-the-face cold of the frozen North, our hearts are full of love and gratitude for the outpouring of well wishes and congratulatory messages we've received since announcing the happy news over the weekend. Both of us are truly lucky to be surrounded by such caring circles, and we can't wait to share everything on this new upcoming adventure that is MARRIAGE with each of you. Stay tuned for lots more updates and happy memories, but in the meantime, thanks for reading, and for supporting us crazy kids on our travels!!


SHE SAID YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!