A few days ago SDCC 2024 happened, Marvel Studios came back and with them a lot of stuff to talk about. So let's reac to it !
First of all I was on vacations during SDCC, chilling at the beach and taking a huge deserved break from pretty much everything so I didn't really pay attention to it except for everything Cap, so there will be no comics talk.
I never really cared about comics news anyway, unless it's related to Hulk, 'cause I'm the kind of person who just enjoy wandering in a library and randomly pick a comics. I often say that but I'm not a "comics" fan just like I'm not a "gamer" or a "cinephile" or whatever. I'm just a random person enjoying things I randomly find, it's really no deeper than that. But I'll talk about that longer soon in a "let's talk collection" that should be posted in the upcoming days.
I didn't really look at the F4 and Thunderbolts* news either, I just saw my dear F4 simps friends being very happy and of course one specific Thunderbolts* enjoyer (yes I'm talking about you Alex, btw if you're into Captain America, Bucky, Thunderbolts you should give him a follow if you're from Xwitter, he mostly posts in French but he's a very nice lad and he's at least as passionate as me, if not more).
It's not that I lost my interest in the MCU but rather that I don't really wanna care that much. The MCU is heading to its 20 anniversary (no you're not old, you've been young longer than other people) and I went through a lot of phases myself through it, from being overly hyped to not caring anymore and even starting to disliking it until I understood that my main issue with the MCU wasn't the MCU itself but how medias (mostly social medias) and people online talk about it. And honestly since I stopped really seeking informations about the MCU and started avoiding social medias, my genuine love for the MCU slowly cameback.
I don't wanna get my hope high or expect anything 'cause it's the best way to feel disappointed and I'm just here to have a good time, so yeah, while Thunderbolts* is a movie I'm super excited about I rather not know too much.
Though I did watch David Harbour entrance and it was awesome. He's an actor I like a lot and who made me get the latest Alone in the Dark.
I don't really wanna talk about RDJ as Doom either, unlike most people I'm in a "wait and see" mindset. If RDJ is the MCU Doom and not some kind of variant or "bait" then I'll talk about it 'cause boy how bad of a decision it would be. But I'll wait to see what they'll do with that first.
You know me, I only have eyes for Sam. Brave New World is the only MCU project I deeply pay attention to because I just take every little crumb I can get to feed my obsession for him.
Simping the Leader to the point of developping such a big obsession is complicated 'cause while he's the main Hulk antagonist with Ross, there's barely anything about him to enjoy. Abomination being shown in Incredible Hulk 2008 (so a MCU movie), Marvel mostly pushed him rather than Sam so while he was very popular among Marvel readers back in the 90s, now barely anybody know who he is anymore.
So I read and watch every interviews I can get.
There's a few things to say about the whole Brave New World cast and what they say but I mostly wanna talk about Tim Blake Nelson because he's an actor I deeply love and for whom I also have a little obsession (and because it's about Sam so double win for me). He said a few interesting things in these interviews he gave and I love listening to him, he's a very passionate person but he's also quite smart with his hints so let's see what he might have given us.
Before we dive in I just wanna reshare the whole cast interviews because it's an heavy casting for me.
Of course Tim Blake Nelson who I deeply love and talk about here.
FUCKING HARRISON FORD, like, I was born in 89 so I grew up with Harrison Ford and as a huge huge huuuuge Hulk fan it's just so so weird saying "hey, Harrison Ford is portraying Ross", like, you have no idea of how I feel about it haha (good, I feel good). And listening to harrison Ford not giving a shit about anything is always fun.
Giancarlo Esposito, he's a very great actor with a vibe I love, I was super super happy to learn he would be in it, I'll often say this but I'm so happy right now.
I'm not very familiar with Danny Ramirez honestly so I can't say much about him, but I enjoyed him a lot in Falcon and the Winter Soldier so I'm looking forward to his Falcon role too.
And I kept the most important for the end, Anthony Mackie. I love Sam Wilson as Cap way more than Steve Rogers, I like Steve but I always had more interest in Sam (Wilson, it's complicated to talk about a movie with two Sam alright) in comics but also in movies. I don't know, I feel closer to Sam Wilson than Steve Rogers, maybe because he's very "normal" and that makes him more interesting to me. And I guess as someone from another group of minorities I'm just very sensitive to every kind of social injustices.
And Anthony as Sam Wilson is just perfect cast. Ever since I saw Winter Soldier he became one of my favorite MCU character to the point that I have a few Cap comics even if I never really cared enough to read comics (sorry Alex). Though ironically Captain America has always been my favorite MCU storyline, that's probably why I'm the only Hulk simp who's very happy that we're getting Ross and Sam (Sterns) in a Cap movie rather than a Hulk movie (and I explained why it makes sense here as well if you're curious). I was super excited for this moment the second they announced it and I didn't know Sam (Sterns) would be in it.
Anyway, this blog (and my life) is mostly about Sam so let's talk about him a little longer, but first I wanna share a few Tim interviews, they're very short so don't be lazy alright.
He is very respectful to everything he talks about but the way he talks about Sam, kinda implying that he understand him (at least his motives), that he's a character full a rage with a deep writing makes me so hopeful for what we gonna see. I'm used to have bad writing for Sam, we got the second half of his Thunderbolt era (it was awful), we got Hulkverine that was kinda... I love how Greg Pak writes Sam usually but it was just not it here. A few good ideas but everything was too rushed, I guess he didn't have enough time to develop what he wanted to develop (though I did enjoy that it was mostly an excuse to write an happy ending for Sam for once haha). And I'm used to have bad MCU writing (no writing at all actually) for anything Gamma but anyway, Sam is a character about hatred and he's full of bitterness, ressent and RAGE, it's the central point of his character and if you wanna properly write him without Bruce then that's what you should care about so I'm very happy Tim got it.
That's the first thing I want to talk about and the first important information about Sam, he has "a good reason" to do what he does, a reason that we might understand. He's full of rage and "pathos". Not gonna lie, I didn't understood what Tim was saying (I'm French alright) and I had to ask an american friend but it's apparently pathos. Pathos is a very interesting word, at least in French, I don't know if it's used the same way in English but for us it's a word that is synonym of pain and passion but it's also a way to move people, to make them feel pity.
Now of course it's just an interview and sometimes (often) movies don't properly reflect those but having Tim understanding Sam so much and putting so much focus on these specific points is a very good thing to me and it makes me even more excited about Sam's MCU writing.
I always wondered how they could write a good MCU Leader. In comics Sam became the Leader because he was craving love and attention. He had nothing, he had no friends, he was rejected by his family and blamed himself and his failures for that. He was a kind hearted lad who got destroyed and mentally abused for decades and who became the Leader as a mean to avenge himself and create a world where he would belongs while still deeply hating and blaming himself for everything so of course he's full of rage.
But in the MCU he seems to had a good life before his mutation and I always wondered what they would do with our boy, to make him relevant as the Leader. Maybe they'll use that torture part that was hinted in the MCU comics right before Avengers, idk, we'll see.
The second thing Tim highly insisted on is how there will be little to no CGI, how he wanted to wear the props, to feel how it feels to be Sam, for him but also for the actors with whom he would interract. When that information first came out like a year ago or so I said (maybe some of you remember, though I deleted all my tweets ever since to "start over") "hah, I'm sure this is a special request from Tim Blake Nelson himself" and I was right, I mean, it's no surprising, Tim is someone who's very passionate in everything he does so of course he would ask something like that.
He joked about how his neck became stronger so I guess Sam will have a big head, I know some of you worried because of the hat but remember that Sam's head had a lot of appearances. He's talking about "deformations" as well so it made me wonder if they'll lean to a more body horror aesthetic (so similar to Peter David Era when he was bald), 'cause he seems kinda bald in the trailer.
As for his writing, Tim couldn't say more without spoiling obviously so it seems he didn't say anything truly relevant to have us theorize about.
But he might have left a very important hint, two in fact, that nobody talked about because they were too busy talking about Doom.
Tales to Astonish
Don't pay attention to the Immortal Hulk picture they used to illustrate that interview and rather listen carefully to what Tim says here. The way he says it, the way he's carefully picking his words, thinking and smiling at the same time (Tim is someone who talks a lot through his body, if that makes sense, like, his movments cannot lie).
"you can go and look in the comics for hints of what we're up to and I think that the expansion of that into film language is going to astonish"
Now the interesting thing here is the last word he used, astonish, right after telling us to look in the comics for hints. Sam's first appearance was in Tales to Astonish 62, back then Hulk didn't have his own comics anymore, he was published in Tales to Astonish.
One year ago I pointed out that Sam's purple pants reminded me of Tales to Astonish (you can check it's still in my instagram lol), I talked about it recently here as well.
And when you think of it, Sam became the Leader before even knowing about Hulk and Bruce and before he developped his obsession for them, he was conspiracing again the US Gov as a spy, helping URSS by stealing their scientific weapons to get money until he would betray URSS too. Back then he was often drawn with a roundish head and less hair. Like, not bald but not full of hair either like we're used to see now.
So idk, maybe he'll be inspired by this era, maybe his writing here is just an introduction to Sam and he'll come back later...
World War Hulk
And speaking of which, listen to this :
Ok first of all the crowd's reaction is moving to me. For years I thought I was alone with my obsession for Sam so, idk, seeing people being so enthousiast about him makes me a bit emotional ngl.
I might be over interpreting again but did Tim just said "no spoilers, I want them to bring me back"... ?
So... Is he implying that he can comeback after Cap 4 ?
I mentionned that already but soon after D23 we got a random leak that I didn't really pay attention to until it happened to be true, someone said way before it was said and confirmed by Marvel that Ross would be in the movie, most likely the big baddie to fight, President of the USA and played by Harrison Ford. Considering it was pretty much true, we can assume that what they said about Sam was true too, that he wouldn't show up too much but have a key role and then comeback as the main antagonist of another project.
I do believe in that leak (I mean, 2/3 of it got confirmed in the meantime) but I didn't really pay attention to it anymore 'cause with all the cancelled projects and shit we got these last few months 'cause Disney is kinda terraforming their projects I just thought "welp it's probably part of the cancelled projects now anyway, it's easy to cancel something you never announced after all", but with that little sentence Tim said, heeeeh, maybe we can hope ?
Anyway, I'm probably forgetting a few things that I wanted to point out and that I may have pointed out somewhere else but I really wanted to talk about that SDCC, it gave me so so much as a Sam and Tim simp.
I'm just living my best life through them and I wanted to share that with you haha
So I'm gonna conclude with that pic of Tim Blake Nelson being interviewed because his height, his body/face shape is so accurate to Sam, it's crazy.
(no offense I'm 1m58).
I'm just loving it.
Anyway, next week the movie will be "only" 6 months away so we're slowly entering the promo era and I'm deeply looking forward to it, I'm living a dream atm.
So until next time, enjoy~
