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Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Karl Mordo
***DISCLAIMER***
This was written prior to the news that Spiderman was back in the MCU. I still stand by my criticisms of both companies, but for the time being I’m “off the ledge” of sorts when it comes to my disappointment of this news.
***END DISCLAIMER***
Before I get back to the reviews I wanted to give me 2 cents on the whole Spiderman Disney/Sony issue because it is still fresh in my mind.
I’m not going to bury the lead, I’m pissed as I have always felt that comic characters that live in an inherent “shared universe” should be presented in movies as such. Back when Spiderman made an appearance in the trailer of Captain America Civil War I thought it represented a big win for fans who wanted to see Spiderman included in the MCU and in my opinion he did not disappoint. Two other stand alone movies (that made millions) and major roles in arguably the most successful comic movies ever produced, I would say that other fans would agree: Spiderman belonged in the MCU.
Unfortunately I think his resurgence of popularity came as a shock to the executives at Sony and they were seeing dollar signs once again. I mean, it was not so long ago that they shelved yet another iteration of the Spiderman character after Amazing Spiderman 2 failed to capture the imagination of audiences, but surely they were not to blame? Right? No, they were professionals and knew what Spiderman fans wanted to see. The fact that his popularity surged after sharing screen time with these other comic titans had NOTHING to do with it. Afterall, we have Venom and it did insanely well. Sure it threw out everything historically significant about the character, but again we know what we are doing. I mean, for fuck sakes they should know, they had 5 previous tries to get it right and they messed up 60% of the time.
And not to say that Disney is blamless in this cluster fuck of a situaiton. I’ll admit, I’m a disney guy and admittedly given them a free pass on some of the shit that they do, but this is just greed plain and simple. Sony has the rights to the character, they are legally entitled to them. They were happy with the deal that you had, but you saw how much money Spiderman was making and you just got jealous and wanted a bigger piece of that spider pie. And for the record, fuck them and this shitty game of chicken that they are playing. I’ve seen what is coming down the pike for Marvel and while I’m more or less ok with the Phase 4, there are a lot of people who could not give a crap about The Eternals, Lady Thor and the rest of their (perceived) virtue signaling woke garbage; the fandom will turn against them (Cough Star Wars) and if they don’t do something to fill the void that Spiderman Left, they will be in BIG trouble because I promise that Shan Chu will not cut it.
In short, fuck Sony for not understanding what made The Spiderman movies so successfull and special to fans of the Marvel Cinimatic Universe and fuck Disney for being so greedy, spoiled and for their huberious to think that Sony would just bow to their demands. I recognize that in the grand scheme of things, the fate of Spider Man should be pretty low on the scale of importance, but given that we are talking about a billion dollar character in a multi billion dollar industry, it’s safe to say that people have a meaningful connection (myself included) to this character.
Pros: If you asked me who Strange's mentor was in the movie I legit could not have told you the characters name. Not to say that he’s not good in the movie, in fact one of my favorite scenes was him teaching Strange the ropes, but as an action figure, his inclusion in the wave is somewhat lacking. Overall he looks decent and comes with decent accessory so it’s not a total wasted figure.
Cons: Given that he was the focus of the ever important post credit scene I have to assume that he was meant to have a bigger role in the MCU, but things obviously changed with Avengers Infinity war and Endgame so I would be surprised if we see him again. And again, given that I am a fan of the Movie I am glad to have a version of the character, I would have much preferred a figure of the Ancient One or Kaecilius. As a figure he also suffers from the dreaded “hard Plastic Skirt Syndrome that greatly limits his overall hip posability.
