Acmecast #207 - Reindeer Games!

Lord Retail is joined by a cavalclade of Acme alumni including John Bethel (ep #106 Good Ol' Children of the Atom, ep. #185 America Still Needs Your Help), Jay Howerton (ep. 120 People v. Acmecast), Ryan Rubio (Acmecast #166 Weapon X-Files, Acmecast #141 Gijoey), and newcomer Devin Turner to bask in the glory of the Marvel cinematic universe, past, present, and future!

Show Notes:

• Editor's Note: I don't like to over-analyze the episodes that I didn't host myself, but if I could throw one thought out there, it would be that Jon Favreau doesn't get enough credit for establishing a visual style that is able to be both unique to each director and character (Star-Lord's dancing intro in Guardians, the period piece of Captain America: the First Avenger) and transcendant of all genres and actors.
  
  Jermaine touches on Warner Bros. not getting the interconnectivity of the movies, the DVD shorts, TV shows, etc., and I think that's 100% true, but they've also clung to the super-stylized take that Christopher Nolan brought to Batman, even when it's not appropriate for Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, etc., as emphasized by the leaked inter-office memo concerning Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
  
  Even though they haven't gotten too far into the detailed reasoning behind Edgar Wright and the other cast members leaving Ant-Man, maybe Wright, whose body of work has always been 100% his, Simon Pegg's, Nick Frost's and Jessica Hines', couldn't play ball with the visual language to which Marvel movie-going audiences have become accustomed. Wright's other comic adaptation, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a favorite of mine, made just $47 million worldwide, whereas the least successful Marvel cinematic movie, Hulk, still grossed $263 million.

• I also just want to clarify the creative credits for Annihilation and Annihilation Conquest:
  • Drax the Destroyer came out in 2005 before Annihilation began and was written by Keith Giffen.
  • During the Annihilation minis from 2005-2006, Giffen wrote Silver Surfer, Abnett & Lanning wrote Nova, Javier Grillo-Marxuach wrote Super-Skrull, and Simon Furman wrote Ronan.
  • Giffen then wrote the unifying Annihilation mini series in 2006, which the Nova ongoing series by Abnett & Lanning spun out of in 2007
  • The Annihilation Conquest minis started in 2007, with Quasar written by Christos Gage, Star-Lord by Giffen (introducing the Guardians of the Galaxy as we know them today), and Wraith written by Grillo-Marxuach.
  • Abnett & Lanning then stepped in for the climax mini series in late 2007/ early 2008, from which the Guardians of the Galaxy spun out.