Marvel Collector Corps

2015-08-07 23.16.46-1Blaugust 2015 Day 07

In September of last year I signed up for Loot Crate because I’d heard there was Firefly and Star Trek stuff in it. There was a nice little Malcolm Reynolds figure in it but not T-shirts and there rest of the stuff in the box was pretty disappointing to me. I canceled my subscription after that and gave up on the idea of subscription surprise boxes until July.

I ran across mention of Marvel’s Collector Corp on the Marvel subreddit and was curious enough to go check out the site. At $25 per month it’s basically twice what Loot Crate costs, but it’s all Marvel stuff and looked like it usually includes at least one Funko Pop figure. I decided to give it a shot and ordered the previous two boxes, Avengers and Ant-Man, since they were still in stock. Both boxes came in today and they’re both pretty nice. I’m excited to see what the upcoming Secret Wars box has in it.

Avengers

First off, the boxes are pretty striking both inside and out with the bold black character art and the red comics printed on the inside. While each box contains a patch and pin that was pretty forgettable, the big stuff inside is really nice. The Avengers box included a Hulkbuster figure, small Ultron figure, a nice t-shirt, and an Avengers comic.

Avengers Collector Corp Box Avengers Box Inside Avengers Stuff

 

Here’s a shot of Agent Coulson with the Hulkbuster figure to give you an idea of the size of this thing.

Agent Coulson and the Hulkbuster

 

Ant-Man

The Ant-Man box is just as good including a regular Funko Pop figure and two of the small mystery boxes, plus a t-shirt and comic. I love the tiny bobblehead that came with the regular Funko one. I’m super happy with both boxes, I can’t wait to see what’s coming in the next one.

Ant-Man Collector Corp Box CollCorp Ant-Man Box 1 CollCorp Ant-Man Box 2 CollCorp Ant-Man Figures CollCorp Ant-Man Shirt

For more about Blaugust go check out the Blaugust Initiate Page.

Guardians of the Galaxy

GOTG_Payoff_1-Sht_v4b_LgA talking racoon? That’s going to suck! What are they thinking?!

That may not be word for word what I said when I heard about Marvel’s plans for a Guardians of the Galaxy movie, but it’s close. I’ve always been more of a Marvel fan than a DC one. Spider-Man has been my favorite superhero for as long as I can remember. Batman is my second, but he’s the only DC Hero I’ve really loved. Whereas Marvel’s X-men, Iron Man, Hulk, and Captain America are all titles I’ve followed at one time or another. So I’ve been ecstatic about how well Marvel Studios has been doing since the release of Iron Man 1.

It wasn’t until I saw the first teasers that my expectations changed from “this will be a train wreck” to “it might be good.” The more videos that came out, the more interested I got. At some point “it might be good” turned into “it will be good” the turned into “excited, can’t wait to see it.”

So how was it? I saw it twice this weekend. My expectations going into the show were exceeded. When I walked out, I checked the time because if there had been any more showings that night I would have bought another ticket right then. Unfortunately it was 12:30 and there weren’t any more showings so I had to wait for Saturday evening.

What do I love about this movie so much? It’s funny, it’s got smart dialog, and great characters. I loved that I walked out of the theater and couldn’t pick which Guardian was my favorite. Even Drax, whom I expected to be my least favorite, had several of the funniest lines in the movie. The casting, writing, directing, and acting all came together perfectly. It’s really amazing to me that James Gunn was able to introduce five characters all one movie, compared to Marvel using four separate movies to prepare for the Joss’s Avengers movie.

Woot! Day 3 of Blaugust

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 0-8-4

The second episode was better than the first. The various team members were all able to develop a little bit, and more importantly the team as a whole started to develop.

The most interesting thing to me about the episode was starting to understand the role Coulson is going to play in the series. He is arguably the star of the series, he is certainly the big draw for fans of the Marvel movies. I had assumed that in a S.H.I.E.L.D based series he would take more of a central role, but it seems like his role here is largely the same as it was in the movies. He is a midground character. He adds some humor and exposition and keeps the plot moving forward. Even though he’s quite capable, he voluntarily takes a secondary role in order to help his team find its legs.

 

 

**** Spoilers ****

My only complaints with the episode are the bit with Sky at the end and the Fury cameo after the credits.

While I’m glad that the Rising Tide subplot wasn’t dropped, but it felt a little cliched to me. I’m giving the writers the benefit of the doubt, until I see otherwise, but I’m hoping we don’t end up seeing the usual betrayal and change of heart scenes. I also hope this isn’t a subplot that’s drawn out over multiple seasons.

The Fury cameo really didn’t seem to fit in the episode at all. While it was cool to have Samuel Jackson make an appearance, the scene itself didn’t really add anything and the fish tank bit was goofy.

Joss and S.H.I.E.L.D.

I was reading the Entertainment Weekly interview of Joss Whedon while waiting on my wife to go to bed so I could have the TV and was reminded several times why I love his work so much, for example:

Is there anything from your previous TV experiences where you’re like, “Now I know this, therefore I’m doing it this way”?

Well, don’t work for Fox.

There’s more to that answer of course, but I had to stop laughing before I could read the rest of it.

As for the pilot episode of SHIELD, I loved it. It was everything I was hoping for. An interesting ensemble cast, some great cameos from both the Avenger’s movie and previous Whedon shows, and good dialog. I wasn’t quite sure what the special effects were going to be like given it’s a weekly TV series, but they were better than I expected and more numerous as well. Of course maybe they blew half their FX budget on the pilot but I really doubt that.

I’m really looking forward to watching the different characters develop during the next few episodes. One of the weak points of having an ensemble cast and less than 60 minutes of air time is you can’t develop all of them at once. The pilot focused on Sky, which makes the most sense since she’s an outsider so there’s a built-in reason to explain things to the audience.