Marvel Superheroes 2025 - Rumors & Discussion

[brickbride]

1 hour ago, JeanGreyForever said:

That's part of why MoM was so unpopular, because the same antiquated storylines that Marvel used for Jean in the 80s and again in the 2000s (that powerful women go bonkers and have to be put down) was still being used in the 2020s.

*cough* Daenarys Targaryen *cough* There's a reason the books were written by a huge Marvel fan.

That said, MoM grossed nearly a billion dollars despite its horror movie aesthetics and director, I would hardly call it unpopular. I also don't like Wanda and like I've said think she was pretty evil from the start. But I'll gladly agree with you that the MCU's idea of female empowerment leaves much to be desired.

Edited September 29 by brickbride

[Lego Nostalgia]

Was looking forward to Marvel Zombies and it's basically just the same Phase 4 style slop, I had little hope when I saw the Survivors they chose, like why tf would you choose Ms Marvel, Ironheart, Jimmy Woo,Katie, Red Guardian, Yelena, Spider-Man was barely in it, Blade as Moon Knight was the best character of that group, If I was running things I would have kept Blade and Spider-man and remove everyone else, add Punisher, Wolverine, Star Lord, Deadpool and Ghost Rider, I'd add Black Widow but she's dead sadly, plus the tone was the usual MCU Comedy, for once why couldn't it be dark and serious, a bunch of gore and death doesn't mean anything when they make jokes after it, WHY WOULD YOU HAVE RANDOM FBI AGENT WHO NO ONE CARES ABOUT AND IS UNFUNNY A PART OF THE TEAM 

They gotta stop trying to make Yelena happen, I miss the real Black Widow

If Avengers Doomsday never had the X-MEN and Deadpool,Wolverine, Spider-Man then it wouldn't be worth seeing, Phase 4 and Phase 5 besides NWH, GOTG3, D&W,Fantastic 4 and maybe Thunderbolts have been the only enjoyable movies after Endgame, I pray Doom kills all these Phase 4 replacements 

Big mistake killing off Iron Man

Daredevil Born Again was a disappointment too, it can never beat the Netflix version, Episode 1,6 and 9 were the only good episodes of that, but I pray S2 will be better

Lego better include the X-Men in the Doomsday sets or it'll just be a shelfwarmer, add Deadpool and Wolverine in a spoiler set too since they will be in it 100%

I never thought the MCU would fall so hard but it has, DC has the chance to win but Gunn just isn't the guy to do it, I liked Superman but the DCU plan isn't good, why the hell would you do Peacemaker after Superman and not Wonder Woman or Batman, you need the big 3 to start the universe off, Gunn just wants to do his own fanfic with little characters like his Peacemaker and decides what stuff he wants to get rid off from the old DCEU, should have been a complete reboot with no returning versions

The Batman 2 is the only DC project worth seeing to me

And the January Wave is just sad besides the Ghost Rider bike and maybe if the Sandman set comes with Symbiote Spidey

If Punisher is not included in the Brand New Day sets I will crashout

[JeanGreyForever]

30 minutes ago, Lego Nostalgia said:

Was looking forward to Marvel Zombies and it's basically just the same Phase 4 style slop, I had little hope when I saw the Survivors they chose, like why tf would you choose Ms Marvel, Ironheart, Jimmy Woo,Katie, Red Guardian, Yelena, Spider-Man was barely in it, Blade as Moon Knight was the best character of that group, If I was running things I would have kept Blade and Spider-man and remove everyone else, add Punisher, Wolverine, Star Lord, Deadpool and Ghost Rider, I'd add Black Widow but she's dead sadly, plus the tone was the usual MCU Comedy, for once why couldn't it be dark and serious, a bunch of gore and death doesn't mean anything when they make jokes after it, WHY WOULD YOU HAVE RANDOM FBI AGENT WHO NO ONE CARES ABOUT AND IS UNFUNNY A PART OF THE TEAM 

They gotta stop trying to make Yelena happen, I miss the real Black Widow

Lego better include the X-Men in the Doomsday sets or it'll just be a shelfwarmer, add Deadpool and Wolverine in a spoiler set too since they will be in it 100%

I never thought the MCU would fall so hard but it has, DC has the chance to win but Gunn just isn't the guy to do it, I liked Superman but the DCU plan isn't good, why the hell would you do Peacemaker after Superman and not Wonder Woman or Batman, you need the big 3 to start the universe off, Gunn just wants to do his own fanfic with little characters like his Peacemaker and decides what stuff he wants to get rid off from the old DCEU, should have been a complete reboot with no returning versions

If Punisher is not included in the Brand New Day sets I will crashout

That really is a wildly unpopular group of characters. I guess Marvel is hoping to build their popularity or it's just cheaper to get their actors back then any of the A-Listers. I read an interview with Elizabeth Olsen where she said that she voiced her Marvel Zombies character years ago, so that implies the characters were chosen around 2020/21 if the actors were already filming this then. Probably was too late in development to switch to a more prominent cast now that all these characters have more or less failed with the public.

After the ScarJo lawsuit against Disney, I don't think we'll ever see her back in the MCU. It's been notable that there's no leaks or rumors about her coming back for Doomsday/Secret Wars unlike some of her co-stars.

The Marvel Legends action figure line for Doomsday is featuring Cyclops and I think Gambit as well. So they're likely choices for Lego minifigures in Doomsday sets. All the hints about Nightcrawler make me think we'll see him and maybe Mystique.

Wonder Woman is in development and apparently the next big film that James Gunn is planning. The success of Superman caused Gunn to mobilize all efforts on getting that movie made next.

Wondering if Punisher appearing in a mainstream PG-13 movie means he'll be considered acceptable to be used in regular Lego sets now, rather than being essentially grandfathered into the Daily Bugle set with Daredevil and Blade.

15 hours ago, brickbride said:

*cough* Daenarys Targaryen *cough* There's a reason the books were written by a huge Marvel fan.

That said, MoM grossed nearly a billion dollars despite its horror movie aesthetics and director, I would hardly call it unpopular. I also don't like Wanda and like I've said think she was pretty evil from the start. But I'll gladly agree with you that the MCU's idea of female empowerment leaves much to be desired.

She's another good example of a wildly popular character whose fate was massively polarizing and more or less ruined the franchise. Good catch, because I didn't even think about her and how she fits the same tropes.

MoM had a lot of hype for building up on the multiverse presented in NWH with Doctor Strange probably their most profitable existing character after Spider-Man. Wanda was at her peak after WandaVision. The amount of leaks and theories about which characters/variants were going to show up in the movie was also a big deal (Tom Cruise as Superior Iron Man, Magneto as Wanda's dad). Sam Raimi's involvement was also promising because of his Spider-Man movies and hopes that he might direct a Spider-Man 4. From what I remember, MoM had a strong opening weekend but crashed on successive weekends because of bad word-to-mouth and negative feedback from audiences. Which is one of the reasons why it came close to a billion but didn't reach it. When I look at people discussing the state of the MCU and MoM online, I pretty much only see bad things written about the movie now. It wasn't like that when the movie first came out, but every year, the reception towards MoM seems to get worse and worse.

[Mandalorianknight]

17 hours ago, JeanGreyForever said:

I feel like they'll either skip the beret or use the beret as an excuse to skip John altogether so they don't have to come up with a new hair/beret mold.

Lol, with my username I felt I would be a bad fan if I didn't muster some sort of defense for her. I'll just say that if you're a fan of Wanda, then you'd probably like Jean because MCU Wanda took heavy inspiration from Jean. In many ways, she's more like comic Jean than comic Wanda. And comic Wanda also has a very convoluted history with at least 3 parental retcons and her powers regularly getting retconned throughout different eras to fit the needs of certain storylines. Wanda is basically the Jean of the Avengers and that includes the messy love triangles, which the MCU actually didn't incorporate. And Wanda's ultimate fate in MoM (turning evil, but redeeming herself through suicide since she can't control her powers) is also more or less stolen from Jean's ending in The Dark Phoenix Saga. That's part of why MoM was so unpopular, because the same antiquated storylines that Marvel used for Jean in the 80s and again in the 2000s (that powerful women go bonkers and have to be put down) was still being used in the 2020s.

Oh I see, that makes more sense because I didn't know Gorr had a daughter. Reminds me of how Wolverine adopted a Japanese girl in the comics and she was barely ever mentioned after that. With Thor, they'll probably just ignore her altogether. Shang-Chi's director was put on Kang Dynasty because I think the implication of the Shang-Chi end-credits scene was that Shang-Chi was connected to Kang. Same with Ms. Marvel. I believe Shang-Chi 2 would have been made after Kang Dynasty, but now we'll have to see where that goes. WandaVision was a special case because they announced from day one that it would be a single season series only. Each character's story would continue in different shows/movies. Wanda would continue in the Doctor Strange movies, Vision was supposed to show up in the now cancelled Armor Wars, and the twins were supposed to eventually end up in Young Avengers. Monica ended up in The Marvels and not sure if that was always the plan or if they only went ahead and boosted Monica to a lead because of the success of WandaVision. Agatha All Along was only greenlighted because WandaVision was such a success, particularly the Agatha character, and they tied in one of the twins there too.

Considering how limited the roles were for Karen and Foggy, it doesn't surprise me they wouldn't bring back a more minor character like Matt's mom. We still haven't seen Elektra since the Defenders. With Kingpin, there were lots of rumors that he was supposed to end up in the Spider-Man movies as a villain so they may have gone out of their way to keep him a villain in the show to not axe that potential. I had no idea the Echo show did that to defeat the mob empire lol. I can see why nobody talks about it now, besides the low audience ratings. Marvel fell into the trap of thinking that because they had some successes with turning Z-listers into A-Listers (like GOTG), that they could make spinoffs for every Tom, Dick, and Harry and turn them all into A-Listers in the public eye. Echo being one of the latest examples of this, along with the Eternals. 

Hopefully there's a chance then. And I'd definitely love to see more comic book sets. The problem is that so many characters have such specialized looks in their classic outfits that they would need new molds, like classic Hawkeye or classic Scarlet Witch. 

Hopefully they give him the helmet, but I guess it's more likely he's just skipped altogether unfortunately.

Yeah, I know a lot about Wanda's comic history, like her own weird love triangle with wonder man, the constant parental and power source retcons... even the ultimate universe stuff... though to be fair, as that last point goes, they've done the same with dudes as well. (Though as I type that, Hal Jordan's the first one that comes to mind and he was DC)

Yeah, I vaguely remember Gorr using Eternity to revive her (also, can't wait for Eternity to be forgotten about in doomsday).

At least Electra was dead- not that that tends to stop her long, but at least there's an actual in-universe reason for her absence, as opposed to Foggy being- I mean essentially being fridged- Karen running away as if she'd had no character development, Matt's mom not even being given the dignity of a throwaway line about her absence, Ellison and Mahoney just apparently forgetting what Kingpin did and not stopping him, and Punisher... giving up offscreen for unrelated reasons? I think you're spot-on with marvel becoming overconfident after the guardians did well and assuming they could pump out whatever they wanted and it would do well.

That is true- though I think you could do a passable scarlet witch with her MoM/Wandavision mold. I guess they also don't necessarily need to be the classic 60s avengers- we already got a few somewhat clone Matt Fraction Hawkeyes from the avengers game and mcu show figures, but I wouldn't mind more figures of more recent (even comparatively, like an 80s or 90s costume) comic figures.

On 9/28/2025 at 9:38 AM, brickbride said:

If only someone were putting together a team consisting of younger versions of the old Avengers characters.

Ironically, Thor's daughter's the only one that's actually a child at this point, so the age gap is a bit of an issue. Not that it wasn't already a little unbelievable for "young" avengers with how long it took to set up, but I believe all the actors are in their 20s at the absolute earliest- and even in-universe I think by doomsday they'll likely all be out of high school. Hailee Steinfeld will be 30 by the time the movie comes out. Thor's daughter was like 5 at the end of L&T.

40 minutes ago, JeanGreyForever said:

That really is a wildly unpopular group of characters. I guess Marvel is hoping to build their popularity or it's just cheaper to get their actors back then any of the A-Listers. I read an interview with Elizabeth Olsen where she said that she voiced her Marvel Zombies character years ago, so that implies the characters were chosen around 2020/21 if the actors were already filming this then. Probably was too late in development to switch to a more prominent cast now that all these characters have more or less failed with the public.

Wondering if Punisher appearing in a mainstream PG-13 movie means he'll be considered acceptable to be used in regular Lego sets now, rather than being essentially grandfathered into the Daily Bugle set with Daredevil and Blade.

This is exactly true. Marvel had a big slew of projects in 2020/2021 developed under this "we're unstoppable and can let the writers do whatever they want with z-list spinoffs", and by the time they realized how bad that strategy really was going to work out for them, there were plenty of projects either far enough in development that finishing them would turn a bit more money than just scrapping them (Ironheart for example) or projects where the basic premise was piggybacking off of a good story enough to get some viewers no matter what (marvel zombies, which is "based" on the comics by Robert Kirkman of Invincible/TWD/Energon Universe fame).

I think there's a good chance. Deadpool's whole schtick is, essentially, being inappropriate for children, so we probably won't see comic deadpool in 6+ sets anytime soon, but punisher has been in plenty of kid-appropriate stuff in the past as a more jetpack-lasers-and-rockets style warrior, so I wouldn't be surprised if his appearance in BND means that we can have a Spider-copter and Battle Van set in 2027 or something.

Edited September 30 by Mandalorianknight

[brickbride]

1 hour ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Ironically, Thor's daughter's the only one that's actually a child at this point, so the age gap is a bit of an issue. Not that it wasn't already a little unbelievable for "young" avengers with how long it took to set up, but I believe all the actors are in their 20s at the absolute earliest- and even in-universe I think by doomsday they'll likely all be out of high school. Hailee Steinfeld will be 30 by the time the movie comes out. Thor's daughter was like 5 at the end of L&T.

She still fits the mould of being a younger copycat version of an Avenger. I'm not saying they'll go there now given that both "Thor 4" and the entire Young Avengers idea mostly weren't well-received, but I do think that was the intention - hence the bit at the end of "Thor 4" where she and Thor fight side by side. The Young Avengers will need at least one person with brute strength, but superstrength is hard to do with teenagers in an attractive way. I don't think a teenaged Hulk or supersoldier would be all that well-received, so a tiny girl wielding Mjolnir is about the best they could hope for. She could just be a cute kid sidekick to the other, more developed characters.

Edited September 30 by brickbride

[JeanGreyForever]

5 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Yeah, I know a lot about Wanda's comic history, like her own weird love triangle with wonder man, the constant parental and power source retcons... even the ultimate universe stuff... though to be fair, as that last point goes, they've done the same with dudes as well. (Though as I type that, Hal Jordan's the first one that comes to mind and he was DC)

Yeah, I vaguely remember Gorr using Eternity to revive her (also, can't wait for Eternity to be forgotten about in doomsday).

At least Electra was dead- not that that tends to stop her long, but at least there's an actual in-universe reason for her absence, as opposed to Foggy being- I mean essentially being fridged- Karen running away as if she'd had no character development, Matt's mom not even being given the dignity of a throwaway line about her absence, Ellison and Mahoney just apparently forgetting what Kingpin did and not stopping him, and Punisher... giving up offscreen for unrelated reasons? I think you're spot-on with marvel becoming overconfident after the guardians did well and assuming they could pump out whatever they wanted and it would do well.

That is true- though I think you could do a passable scarlet witch with her MoM/Wandavision mold. I guess they also don't necessarily need to be the classic 60s avengers- we already got a few somewhat clone Matt Fraction Hawkeyes from the avengers game and mcu show figures, but I wouldn't mind more figures of more recent (even comparatively, like an 80s or 90s costume) comic figures.

This is exactly true. Marvel had a big slew of projects in 2020/2021 developed under this "we're unstoppable and can let the writers do whatever they want with z-list spinoffs", and by the time they realized how bad that strategy really was going to work out for them, there were plenty of projects either far enough in development that finishing them would turn a bit more money than just scrapping them (Ironheart for example) or projects where the basic premise was piggybacking off of a good story enough to get some viewers no matter what (marvel zombies, which is "based" on the comics by Robert Kirkman of Invincible/TWD/Energon Universe fame).

I think there's a good chance. Deadpool's whole schtick is, essentially, being inappropriate for children, so we probably won't see comic deadpool in 6+ sets anytime soon, but punisher has been in plenty of kid-appropriate stuff in the past as a more jetpack-lasers-and-rockets style warrior, so I wouldn't be surprised if his appearance in BND means that we can have a Spider-copter and Battle Van set in 2027 or something.

I was wondering if they'd introduce the Wanda/Vision/Simon love triangle in the MCU with the Wonder Man show but now I'm not even sure if that's still on the table or if it's been cancelled. I know Hal Jordan was similarly deemed too untouchable for a long time at DC after he became a villain.

I thought Hela appearing in Ragnarok was meant to set up her story with Thanos in Infinity War but that never happened. So I doubt Eternity will be referenced in Doomsday either.

I didn't get why they gave Foggy and Karen such small roles. Sounds like during the extensive rewrites and reshoots that they realized there was going to be backlash from the lack of original cast members so they shoehorned in Foggy and Karen but could only give them so much. Otherwise it seems plain ridiculous if that was always the plan to have them in limited roles. Punisher at least might have been sidelined due to plans to incorporate him into Spider-Man.

Yeah, they'd probably reuse the current Wanda/tiara mold or maybe even the old Wonder Woman one. The CMF Hawkeye minifig was pretty close to the Matt Fraction version. But I think when it comes to the comics, most people associate the characters with their classic costumes from the 60s/70s. The MCU Hawkeye minifigs aren't far off from his modern costumes but comic fans would want and expect his classic look with the mask. 90s era costumes generally haven't aged well (thinking of Thor's look lol) outside of the Jim Lee X-Men designs which is probably why they don't get much attention in Lego or merch in general. Maybe Daredevil's armor could work as a minifig.

I think that's also why they didn't prioritize the FF and X-Men even after getting the rights back, because they felt they could focus instead on obscure characters and launch them to super stardom. Hence why they waited to introduce the FF right at the very end and are saving the X-Men/Mutant Saga for after Phases 4-6. In theory, the FF should have been introduced immediately after Endgame when Phase 4 began. They should have been filling in the gaps of the Avengers as the new premiere franchise for the MCU and introduced Doom from the start. Galactus and Surfer should have been saved for a sequel instead of in the debut film. I think I heard that Ironheart was actually finished a long while back but only released recently and basically dumped on Disney+ with little fanfare or promotion because they knew they had a subpar product that wasn't of interest to anyone. And doing it this way meant as little negative attention as possible when their reputation is already in dire straits. Marvel Zombies has always been popular which is probably also why they put so many lesser known characters in it, thinking the premise of the show would be strong enough to boost the profiles of the characters Marvel wanted to push.

Yeah, Deadpool's real test will be if they include him in Secret Wars sets or not. I can see Lego skipping him altogether, even if they include Wolverine in sets that might also feature Deadpool in the same scenes. I think Punisher is probably the most difficult out of the other Marvel Knights characters (Daredevil, Elektra, Blade, Moon Knight, etc.) to incorporate because he's mostly tied to firearms and guns, which both Lego and Disney don't like to promote if they can help it. Plus Punisher has become a symbol for different organizations and groups so there's some weighted political context to him now as well when it comes to vigilantism. 

[calebcold3]

Do we think we will get the return of the Marvel Advent Calendar next year? 

I think I have a good guess on what all the sets of Next Year are going to be:

• The 9 January sets
• 2 18+ April Sets 76345/76354 (Busts?)
• 2 9+ Sets in April 76347/76348 (At least one of these is probably a Smart Brick set)
• 2 Brand New Day Sets? (76349/76350)
• A Book Nook? (76346)
• Probably 4 Doomsday Sets
• A D2C Modular (Baxter Building?)

As we usually get 22-23 Marvel sets per year, that leaves 1-2 slots open for a potential Advent Calendar. 

Source for the 2026 set numbers: https://jedijacpenguin.com/everythingweknowaboutLEGO2026.aspx#LEGO_Super_Heroes

Edited October 1 by calebcold3

[brickbride]

Oscorp is much more likely than the Baxter Building IMO.

I do think we might see an AC. Disney got one this year even though the last one (like the Marvel Spidey one) did poorly so I suspect the gap in 2025 had more to do with the Spidey CMF series than with last year"s sales.

Edited October 1 by brickbride

[JeanGreyForever]

Also expecting Oscorp. Daily Bugle is retiring and there's a new Spider-Man movie out next year. Way too big a void not to fill.

We've just gotten a regular Oscorp set and most modulars get made after at least one regular set exists first. Plenty of Spidey minifigures in the current and upcoming sets that can be reused in Oscorp.

[BrickBob Studpants]

A coupla years ago I would’ve thought “no way they’re gonna release the same building or vehicle at two scales within a year” but exactly that has happened multiple times since  Examples include the TIE Interceptor, 1989 Batmobile, Hagrid’s motorbike, and Jango Fett’s Slave One.

So yeah, Oscorp is still on the menu, in spite of the playset ^^ I’m on board with the idea, especially if it results in some new Spidey villains or allies!

[brickbride]

@Mandalorianknight

I've actually gone and watched TFATWS now. I don't even know what's the worst part about it. One of my complaints about Falconcap in BNW was that we learned nothing whatoever about him as a person, but here we do and it all makes him look pretty unlikeable, so I don't know. (Why didn't he call, say, Pepper Potts about a loan? Amongst other things. Was the crack about Bucky's "overextended life" really necessary given the circumstances? Why didn't he speak up in Walker's favour if he's otherwise happy throwing his influence around?)

As for the shield, I grew tired very quickly of hearing what Steve would have wanted. I don't much like Steve Rogers to begin with, plus I feel he forfeited all rights to make that particular decision when he decided to hare off to the past, plus I think the shield's actually at least as much Howard Stark's legacy as it is Steve's and Howard would certainly want it to be used.

I really loved John Walker in this, he's a far more interesting and conflicted character than Falconcap. Yeah, Sam and Bucky's needless antagonism towards him was extremely off-putting, especially since Walker clearly hadn't even volunteered for the position. What made it worse for me was contrasting it with Falcon's constant apologies over Karli - no matter what crimes she committed he kept telling everyone that she was just a misunderstood little girl, kept begging her to let him help her, even carried her bridal-style after Sharon Carter had shot her (while, apparently, leaving the badly injured Sharon there to fend for herself), and told everyone not to call her a terrorist. It's yet another example of the MCU's weird double standard for women - Karli lets herself be ruled by her emotions so we're to emphasize with her, while Sharon's a stoic, getting-things-done kind of female and thus apparently not worthy of viewer sympathy.

Also am I the only person who got flashbacks to Siberia when Bucky once again teamed up with his buddy in order to beat a supposed teammate half to death and leave him lying there? At least Walker had superstrength and they didn't actually leave him to die in his broken armour, but still. 

Finally, I’m glad they toned down Val for „Thunderbolts“. This version acts exactly like Yelena and even though she's only in like two scenes she's exhausting. I much prefer the more polished Val from the movie.

Edited October 1 by brickbride

[Mandalorianknight]

On 9/30/2025 at 4:01 AM, JeanGreyForever said:

I was wondering if they'd introduce the Wanda/Vision/Simon love triangle in the MCU with the Wonder Man show but now I'm not even sure if that's still on the table or if it's been cancelled. I know Hal Jordan was similarly deemed too untouchable for a long time at DC after he became a villain.

I thought Hela appearing in Ragnarok was meant to set up her story with Thanos in Infinity War but that never happened. So I doubt Eternity will be referenced in Doomsday either.

I didn't get why they gave Foggy and Karen such small roles. Sounds like during the extensive rewrites and reshoots that they realized there was going to be backlash from the lack of original cast members so they shoehorned in Foggy and Karen but could only give them so much. Otherwise it seems plain ridiculous if that was always the plan to have them in limited roles. Punisher at least might have been sidelined due to plans to incorporate him into Spider-Man.

Yeah, they'd probably reuse the current Wanda/tiara mold or maybe even the old Wonder Woman one. The CMF Hawkeye minifig was pretty close to the Matt Fraction version. But I think when it comes to the comics, most people associate the characters with their classic costumes from the 60s/70s. The MCU Hawkeye minifigs aren't far off from his modern costumes but comic fans would want and expect his classic look with the mask. 90s era costumes generally haven't aged well (thinking of Thor's look lol) outside of the Jim Lee X-Men designs which is probably why they don't get much attention in Lego or merch in general. Maybe Daredevil's armor could work as a minifig.

I think that's also why they didn't prioritize the FF and X-Men even after getting the rights back, because they felt they could focus instead on obscure characters and launch them to super stardom. Hence why they waited to introduce the FF right at the very end and are saving the X-Men/Mutant Saga for after Phases 4-6. In theory, the FF should have been introduced immediately after Endgame when Phase 4 began. They should have been filling in the gaps of the Avengers as the new premiere franchise for the MCU and introduced Doom from the start. Galactus and Surfer should have been saved for a sequel instead of in the debut film. I think I heard that Ironheart was actually finished a long while back but only released recently and basically dumped on Disney+ with little fanfare or promotion because they knew they had a subpar product that wasn't of interest to anyone. And doing it this way meant as little negative attention as possible when their reputation is already in dire straits. Marvel Zombies has always been popular which is probably also why they put so many lesser known characters in it, thinking the premise of the show would be strong enough to boost the profiles of the characters Marvel wanted to push.

Yeah, Deadpool's real test will be if they include him in Secret Wars sets or not. I can see Lego skipping him altogether, even if they include Wolverine in sets that might also feature Deadpool in the same scenes. I think Punisher is probably the most difficult out of the other Marvel Knights characters (Daredevil, Elektra, Blade, Moon Knight, etc.) to incorporate because he's mostly tied to firearms and guns, which both Lego and Disney don't like to promote if they can help it. Plus Punisher has become a symbol for different organizations and groups so there's some weighted political context to him now as well when it comes to vigilantism. 

I think the show's still planned to release, but I'd be surprised if we ended up getting the love triangle.

That is what happened- in the original, even worse version of the story, they both died offscreen. The thing about Punisher is he ends Born Again right where he ended Season 2 of his own show- active as the Punisher- so like bringing up Matt's mom but not explaining why he seemingly hasn't seen her in years, it's weird to me that the show ends him in the same spot but starts him out in hiding with absolutely zero explanation as to why he did so. Matt gives up the cowl because he tried to kill a guy we can reasonably assume punisher didn't quit out of sympathy for his pain.

A lot of the 90s stuff definitely looks odd, but even in the more recent comics there's been some very popular designs. I'm surprised we haven't gotten Rune King Thor or Thor, Herald of Galactus (Fortnite Thor) yet. While the classic ones would be nice, we get plenty of comic sets- even the iron man/BP one this year- that use more recent comic designs, or just loosely comic-inspired ones.

I think that's spot on in all three cases.

That's likely as well. Punisher is definitely a tough one (Electra probably used to be difficult as an assassin with a somewhat immodest costume, but now that she's got her own devil suit and is essentially just another daredevil, she's pretty easy to do.), though I do think that he could easily be done brandishing cartoony rocket launchers and jetpacks and what have you like the 90s spider-man one. The squeamishness about the symbol could also have been a factor, although Marvel seems to have largely stopped trying to kill the symbol by now. Frank's FINALLY back in the comics as himself, with the symbol, guns blazing, rather than some weird ninja villain with a samurai skull. Lego themselves used the classic symbol in the Daily Bugle set. I think all things considered blade may have a tougher time showing up in more sets as the majority of stuff he shows up in is R or M rated, and marvel's been completely unable to get anything else off the ground for him.

6 hours ago, brickbride said:

Oscorp is much more likely than the Baxter Building IMO.

I think so too- there's many more figures to draw from, the bugle's retiring, etc.

4 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

A coupla years ago I would’ve thought “no way they’re gonna release the same building or vehicle at two scales within a year” but exactly that has happened multiple times since  Examples include the TIE Interceptor, 1989 Batmobile, Hagrid’s motorbike, and Jango Fett’s Slave One.

So yeah, Oscorp is still on the menu, in spite of the playset ^^ I’m on board with the idea, especially if it results in some new Spidey villains or allies!

Jango's Slave One even twice within like 3 months. 

I think there's a lot of good potential, especially given the first one got us our first and only Daredevil, Punisher, Blade, Black Cat, and Firestar.

Now it might not be my personal Kaine, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Luna Snow hope, but I'd actually be fairly confident that Deadpool shows up this time alongside a re-used Wolverine or Venomarine.

2 hours ago, brickbride said:

@Mandalorianknight

I've actually gone and watched TFATWS now. I don't even know what's the worst part about it. One of my complaints about Falconcap in BNW was that we learned nothing whatoever about him as a person, but here we do and it all makes him look pretty unlikeable, so I don't know. (Why didn't he call, say, Pepper Potts about a loan? Amongst other things. Was the crack about Bucky's "overextended life" really necessary given the circumstances? Why didn't he speak up in Walker's favour if he's otherwise happy throwing his influence around?)

As for the shield, I grew tired very quickly of hearing what Steve would have wanted. I don't much like Steve Rogers to begin with, plus I feel he forfeited all rights to make that particular decision when he decided to hare off to the past, plus I think the shield's actually at least as much Howard Stark's legacy as it is Steve's and Howard would certainly want it to be used.

I really loved John Walker in this, he's a far more interesting and conflicted character than Falconcap. Yeah, Sam and Bucky's needless antagonism towards him was extremely off-putting, especially since Walker clearly hadn't even volunteered for the position. What made it worse for me was contrasting it with Falcon's constant apologies over Karli - no matter what crimes she committed he kept telling everyone that she was just a misunderstood little girl, kept begging her to let him help her, even carried her bridal-style after Sharon Carter had shot her (while, apparently, leaving the badly injured Sharon there to fend for herself), and told everyone not to call her a terrorist. It's yet another example of the MCU's weird double standard for women - Karli lets herself be ruled by her emotions so we're to emphasize with her, while Sharon's a stoic, getting-things-done kind of female and thus apparently not worthy of viewer sympathy.

Also am I the only person who got flashbacks to Siberia when Bucky once again teamed up with his buddy in order to beat a supposed teammate half to death and leave him lying there? At least Walker had superstrength and they didn't actually leave him to die in his broken armour, but still. 

Finally, I’m glad they toned down Val for „Thunderbolts“. This version acts exactly like Yelena and even though she's only in like two scenes she's exhausting. I much prefer the more polished Val from the movie.

Yup- it's really weird that there was just no setup for the avengers financially, and while I get that they were trying to do some sort of socioeconomic thing, it just doesn't work in universe. The man is a decorated veteran and WAS AN AVENGER. It'd be like if the bank looked at Micheal Jordan and denied his loan if in addition to a star basketball player every time he dunked the ball he saved an orphan.

Worse than that, Steve WANTED the shield to be used. He clearly intended for Sam to carry on his legacy, and sam turns around and gives it back to the US government, than gets upset when they give it to a new guy.

And of course, as you say, the weird distance between Bucky and Sam hating John and Sam being extremely defensive of Karli- someone who actively tries to murder innocent people and is by definition a terrorist- really makes things difficult for the show. 

I didn't get the siberia flashback- partly because it was self-defense for bucky- but while Sam gets plenty of flak, Bucky's definitely not blameless here either. I think he gets away with it more since the show doesn't end with him becoming Cap and he's not constantly defending terrorists, but while Sam's rude to John, Bucky's actively threatening him before he even does anything "wrong", and the second he makes a bad PR move, bucky's there to beat him up and steal the shield.

[RobbieHxC]

A lot of US Agent apologists on this forum! He did decapitate a surrendering henchman in a public space.  It's clear he's on a redemption arc in the MCU and it's fine to enjoy the character, but to whitewash all his actions simply because he's a sympathetic character is strange.   It's also completely understandable why Sam and Bucky would not be in favour of someone whose values misalign with their best friend Steve to take on his legacy - especially as it goes against what is essentially his dying wish to Sam.

Anyways, hope LEGO produces a minifigure of US Agent some day!

[Lego Nostalgia]

3 minutes ago, RobbieHxC said:

A lot of US Agent apologists on this forum! He did decapitate a surrendering henchman in a public space.  It's clear he's on a redemption arc in the MCU and it's fine to enjoy the character, but to whitewash all his actions simply because he's a sympathetic character is strange.   It's also completely understandable why Sam and Bucky would not be in favour of someone whose values misalign with their best friend Steve to take on his legacy - especially as it goes against what is essentially his dying wish to Sam.

Anyways, hope LEGO produces a minifigure of US Agent some day!

John Walker did nothing wrong. they were terrorists, too bad

7 hours ago, brickbride said:

@Mandalorianknight

I've actually gone and watched TFATWS now. I don't even know what's the worst part about it. One of my complaints about Falconcap in BNW was that we learned nothing whatoever about him as a person, but here we do and it all makes him look pretty unlikeable, so I don't know. (Why didn't he call, say, Pepper Potts about a loan? Amongst other things. Was the crack about Bucky's "overextended life" really necessary given the circumstances? Why didn't he speak up in Walker's favour if he's otherwise happy throwing his influence around?)

As for the shield, I grew tired very quickly of hearing what Steve would have wanted. I don't much like Steve Rogers to begin with, plus I feel he forfeited all rights to make that particular decision when he decided to hare off to the past, plus I think the shield's actually at least as much Howard Stark's legacy as it is Steve's and Howard would certainly want it to be used.

I really loved John Walker in this, he's a far more interesting and conflicted character than Falconcap. Yeah, Sam and Bucky's needless antagonism towards him was extremely off-putting, especially since Walker clearly hadn't even volunteered for the position. What made it worse for me was contrasting it with Falcon's constant apologies over Karli - no matter what crimes she committed he kept telling everyone that she was just a misunderstood little girl, kept begging her to let him help her, even carried her bridal-style after Sharon Carter had shot her (while, apparently, leaving the badly injured Sharon there to fend for herself), and told everyone not to call her a terrorist. It's yet another example of the MCU's weird double standard for women - Karli lets herself be ruled by her emotions so we're to emphasize with her, while Sharon's a stoic, getting-things-done kind of female and thus apparently not worthy of viewer sympathy.

Also am I the only person who got flashbacks to Siberia when Bucky once again teamed up with his buddy in order to beat a supposed teammate half to death and leave him lying there? At least Walker had superstrength and they didn't actually leave him to die in his broken armour, but still. 

Finally, I’m glad they toned down Val for „Thunderbolts“. This version acts exactly like Yelena and even though she's only in like two scenes she's exhausting. I much prefer the more polished Val from the movie.

How can you not like Steve but like his replacements, Steve is the best and the only TRUE Captain America, when you think of Captain America the first thing that comes to mind is Steve not anyone else

You gotta do better Senator

MCU has fallen off hard and I am glad Steve is returning

[Mandalorianknight]

14 minutes ago, RobbieHxC said:

A lot of US Agent apologists on this forum! He did decapitate a surrendering henchman in a public space. 

Which was completely justified. There's a video by an army veteran going over it, but the basics are as such. John is a member of the military, not law enforcement. As a terrorist- henchman or not- military action is justified. John is pursuing a terrorist who just helped kill a US service member, who fights him until the last second, throwing chunks of concrete- which could easily be lethal to bystanders and potentially lethal force to even a super-soldier when chucked point-blank at your head by another super-soldier. He never actually gives a sign of surrender, either- he's shouting "I didn't do it (directly kill Lemar)", but aside from the fact that he's still a terrorist complicit in the deaths of a US service member and many innocents, that's not "I surrender" or even "stop, please!" or anything. He's also- again- a super-soldier and terrorist, not, like, a shoplifter or something. John has no availible methods to restrain him, and as he's a terrorist helping Karli murder innocents, letting him get away directly means letting more innocents die.

It's also important to note that the avengers- including captain america- kill and even summarily execute their enemies a number of times in the MCU, even when they weren't actively attacking them a second beforehand. John's having a crashout, yes, and it looks bad, but Iron Man blew up bands of terrorists. Cap used an automatic rifle on mind-controlled shield agents. Wanda took an entire town hostage, and while most fans seem to recognize how awful that is, the show tells us we'll "never know what (she) sacrificed" and that the real bad guy was the shield commander.

10 minutes ago, Lego Nostalgia said:

John Walker did nothing wrong. they were terrorists, too bad

How can you not like Steve but like his replacements, Steve is the best and the only TRUE Captain America, when you think of Captain America the first thing that comes to mind is Steve not anyone else

You gotta do better Senator

MCU has fallen off hard and I am glad Steve is returning

Yup. Even if he HAD surrendered, I wouldn't really feel too bad for the guy holding you down so his buddy can murder you- and successfully murders your friend- then yells time-out at the last second.

In @brickbride's defense, she certainly doesn't find falcon interesting, and I can understand how Captain America falls into the superman issue of being too perfect. 

 

I am absolutely NOT glad Steve is returning, nor am I happy about RDJ and (if true) Scarlet Johannsson. The MCU did fall off hard, as you say, but digging up the corpses of the characters people liked isn't going to fix it. The writing's not going to magically improve because RDJ's the one delivering the lines, and it's only going to make the convoluted mess of plotlines worse. Either continue with the few things people liked, like Thunderbolts, and the few infinity saga characters you haven't destroyed the reputation of (spider-man, doctor strange is probably OK...that might actually be it for major characters. Thor, Hulk, and the Ant-Family are all done. Sam's lost all goodwill. Marvel doesn't seem to want to pay Hawkeye anymore. If they'd recast T'challa, we could have had the Spidey/BP/Strange "big three" that was rumored way back when, but they didn't, and Shuri doesn't come close to cutting it.), or just give up, stop for a bit, and start again with the X-men in a new universe.

[brickbride]

On 10/1/2025 at 10:26 PM, Lego Nostalgia said:

How can you not like Steve but like his replacements, Steve is the best and the only TRUE Captain America, when you think of Captain America the first thing that comes to mind is Steve not anyone else

Do you mean me? I don't like Falconcap any more than I like Steve, and have said so at length. I do like Walker but not because I think he'd be a better Captain America or something. He's just more interesting and conflicted as a person.

I'm not into legacy characters to begin with, I know that's a comic thing but I find it unrealistic and annoying in the context of the MCU, especially when they're not operating remotely within the same parameters. ("Here's your new Captain America! Sure he has just the strength of a regular guy, but on the other hand he can fly! It's still the same thing!") I'd rather choose who I like based on the person, not the title.

Edited Friday at 05:12 AM by brickbride

[DaredevilFan]

Looks like the Doc Ock train set has had it’s retirement date pushed back, must be a good sign it’s selling well. Hopefully that means future Rami sets. Really hope the sandman is based on it with Symbiote 

[Mandalorianknight]

On 10/1/2025 at 9:33 PM, brickbride said:

Sure he has just the strength of a regular guy, but on the other hand he can fly! It's still the same thing!

This always gets me too- they act like it's some big brave show of character that he doesn't take the serum, but by the end of TFATWS his suit is basically magic. He doesn't NEED the serum.

9 hours ago, DaredevilFan said:

Looks like the Doc Ock train set has had it’s retirement date pushed back, must be a good sign it’s selling well. Hopefully that means future Rami sets. Really hope the sandman is based on it with Symbiote 

Lego putting symbiote spider-man-comic or raimi in a $25 set would immediately make 2026 one of the best years of the theme for me. $10 ghost rider bike, expanding the building/city builder style rather than being full of spider-vehicles, AND they put quite possibly the most requested minifigure in a $25 set?

[BrickBob Studpants]

2 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Lego putting symbiote spider-man-comic or raimi in a $25 set would immediately make 2026 one of the best years of the theme for me.

Eh. Not getting my hopes up before we hear more details  It’s certainly possible, but it could just as well be a regular Spidey minifig! I’ve learned not to expect too much from this theme

[Mandalorianknight]

1 hour ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Eh. Not getting my hopes up before we hear more details  It’s certainly possible, but it could just as well be a regular Spidey minifig! I’ve learned not to expect too much from this theme

Oh, yeah, don't get me wrong, I don't think it's likely at all, I was just saying that if it was, it'd be great. As I've said before I don't even think it's a raimi set.

Though... there might be something there. In 2026, we'll have releasing on the same day a $5 set, $10 set, $20 set, $25 set, and $30 set all including ostensibly the same spider-man. Now we've had some rough waves in that regard before, but- especially if you discount juniors sets, as we've got the Amazing Friends stuff going on there now- this would be a new record in terms of just the sheer concentration of this figure.

 

 

I don't think it's out of the question that we either get a new "standard" spider-man suit (the polybag uses the 2021 version, but there's precedent- when we got our first new comic spidey in 2019, the polybag still used the 2012 version), or that one or two of the spider-men in this wave are a variant. Now that's not a sure thing, and even if we do it's much more likely it'll be some other variant than the symbiote suit they're allergic too- but I think it's our best chance in awhile.

Not to mention, this'd be year 6 of that 2021 suit, which would mean it breaks the 2012 suit's streak for most consecutive years used. (The 2012 suit did pop up in the one 2019 polybag, but didn't appear at all in 2017/2018.)

And just for fun, while looking into this I found the following numbers:
2012-2016 / 2019 (USM Cartoon) suit: 17 sets (14 standard, 2 with red hips, 1 with boots)

2019-2020 (Worldwide) suit: 13 sets (6 standard, 7 with boots)

2021-2026 (Evergreen/Classic) suit: 20 sets (18 standard, 2 with boots)

So depending on how you want to count magazines and polybags, the 2021 suit's already beaten the 2012 one in terms of total figures. Shoutout to the worldwide suit for having the most readily availible boots in the most and on average cheapest sets.

[Coryo]

1 hour ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I don't think it's out of the question that we either get a new "standard" spider-man suit

More frequent uses of dual-molded legs would definitely be appreciated, but otherwise I don't think introducing a new standard Spidey fig is necessary at this point, the current one is essentially a perfect representation of his main comic suit and wouldn't really need improving. For the sake of a little variation, occasionally using the same basic figure with a darker blue colour scheme could be interesting.

If Spider-Man is really going to appear in that many sets all at once in 2026, it would hopefully raise the odds of at least one of them getting dual-molding. Although I'm not really expecting more than one minifig in the Ghost Rider set.

[Mandalorianknight]

1 hour ago, Coryo said:

More frequent uses of dual-molded legs would definitely be appreciated, but otherwise I don't think introducing a new standard Spidey fig is necessary at this point, the current one is essentially a perfect representation of his main comic suit and wouldn't really need improving. For the sake of a little variation, occasionally using the same basic figure with a darker blue colour scheme could be interesting.

If Spider-Man is really going to appear in that many sets all at once in 2026, it would hopefully raise the odds of at least one of them getting dual-molding. Although I'm not really expecting more than one minifig in the Ghost Rider set.

Just for the sake of variety, I wouldn't mind swapping out to a different one. Nothing drastic, but sort of like how the 2012 suit was based on the USM cartoon, or how the 2019 suit was based on Worldwide. I'd be happy to see a standard like a 90s Mcfarlane design, or a more classic style like the one Norman wears in the 2024 ASM run.

Oh, it's more than that since there's the bugle too, I was just talking about this whole "nearly one set with the same spider man per $5 increment" thing. According to the leakers spider-man is in the ghost rider bike set, and the marvel $10 sets in the past have all had two figures, so I'd be more surprised if we only got one. Although I do hope it's a villain and not spider-man, since this will 100% make kids think that ghost rider is a villain.

[JeanGreyForever]

On 10/4/2025 at 3:31 AM, DaredevilFan said:

Looks like the Doc Ock train set has had it’s retirement date pushed back, must be a good sign it’s selling well. Hopefully that means future Rami sets. Really hope the sandman is based on it with Symbiote 

That makes sense. Sometime back, I posted some Target store stats for the Marvel Lego sets and the Doc Ock set was the one selling the most. The theatrical re-release of the Raimi trilogy last weekend and this weekend proves there's still an audience for these films (not to mention, all the recent speculation and rumors about a Spider-Man 4) so Lego really needs to make at least one set per film.

On 10/1/2025 at 11:32 AM, Mandalorianknight said:

I think the show's still planned to release, but I'd be surprised if we ended up getting the love triangle.

That is what happened- in the original, even worse version of the story, they both died offscreen. The thing about Punisher is he ends Born Again right where he ended Season 2 of his own show- active as the Punisher- so like bringing up Matt's mom but not explaining why he seemingly hasn't seen her in years, it's weird to me that the show ends him in the same spot but starts him out in hiding with absolutely zero explanation as to why he did so. Matt gives up the cowl because he tried to kill a guy we can reasonably assume punisher didn't quit out of sympathy for his pain.

A lot of the 90s stuff definitely looks odd, but even in the more recent comics there's been some very popular designs. I'm surprised we haven't gotten Rune King Thor or Thor, Herald of Galactus (Fortnite Thor) yet. While the classic ones would be nice, we get plenty of comic sets- even the iron man/BP one this year- that use more recent comic designs, or just loosely comic-inspired ones.

That's likely as well. Punisher is definitely a tough one (Electra probably used to be difficult as an assassin with a somewhat immodest costume, but now that she's got her own devil suit and is essentially just another daredevil, she's pretty easy to do.), though I do think that he could easily be done brandishing cartoony rocket launchers and jetpacks and what have you like the 90s spider-man one. The squeamishness about the symbol could also have been a factor, although Marvel seems to have largely stopped trying to kill the symbol by now. Frank's FINALLY back in the comics as himself, with the symbol, guns blazing, rather than some weird ninja villain with a samurai skull. Lego themselves used the classic symbol in the Daily Bugle set. I think all things considered blade may have a tougher time showing up in more sets as the majority of stuff he shows up in is R or M rated, and marvel's been completely unable to get anything else off the ground for him.

There's no connection between Vison and Simon in the MCU (presumably) so a love triangle wouldn't make sense here. Unless Vision is still pretending like he's dead for some reason and that Wanda has to move on (that's a real life lesson which only works in real life, not in a universe where nobody stays dead) and she falls in love with Simon.

I remember hearing that Born Again was originally intended as a sort of soft reboot for Daredevil and the Netflix characters before they changed that idea due to backlash. That might explain why Punisher goes through a sort of soft reboot as well, like no time has past since his show ended and he has to go through his arc again. It was basically Disney trying to remake those characters in a Disney+ format without being beholden to the original Netflix shows.

Considering the lackluster classic Thor we got once and the lack of Beta Ray Bill, I can't see any 90s Thor variants coming anytime soon. I really liked his Fortnite figure for the Herald outfit but I imagine like 99% of the Fortnite figures, we'll never see that materialize. I think Iron Man and Black Panther get more variants mainly because all their costumes are basically armor variations. You don't have to worry too much about making them look unrecognizable.

I don't think Elektra's outfit is really that revealing so much as impractical. Especially when She-Hulk shows more skin in her outfit/Lego minifigs. But most modern costumes for Elektra do cover her up more. Presumably, if Wolverine, Punisher and all the Marvel villains can get minifigs, despite all the blood on their hands, Elektra being an assassin wouldn't be a point against her. I agree with you that they'll probably just make Punisher more cartoony when it comes to his weapons. I think Blade is more hurt by being rather irrelevant at this point. HIs movies are so far back in the public zeitgeist that most kids wouldn't know of him or that he's a rated-R character.

 

10 hours ago, Coryo said:

For the sake of a little variation, occasionally using the same basic figure with a darker blue colour scheme could be interesting.

In his first appearance, his costume was red and black. Like an actual spider's colors before the black gradually turned into blue due to comic book coloring. A red and black classic Spider-Man would be a nice variant. Or the dark blue like you said.

[JeanGreyForever]

On 10/1/2025 at 3:22 PM, RobbieHxC said:

A lot of US Agent apologists on this forum! He did decapitate a surrendering henchman in a public space.  It's clear he's on a redemption arc in the MCU and it's fine to enjoy the character, but to whitewash all his actions simply because he's a sympathetic character is strange.   It's also completely understandable why Sam and Bucky would not be in favour of someone whose values misalign with their best friend Steve to take on his legacy - especially as it goes against what is essentially his dying wish to Sam.

Anyways, hope LEGO produces a minifigure of US Agent some day!

It's been a long time since the show came out so I don't remember the exact plotline (especially since most of the show was incredibly boring whenever the two leads were onscreen), but I do remember disliking John Walker at first. He seemed deranged and like the Super Soldier serum he was taking was a form of steroids that were affecting his mind. When he kills someone in cold blood, it wasn't supposed to be a heroic feat but a public confirmation that he's past the point of no return and desperately needs some help. There's a reason he's on the Thunderbolts with assassins and former villains. But even when I disliked him in FatWS, especially due to his entitlement in thinking he should be the next Captain America, I always found him interesting and he had a lot more depth than the actual leads of the show. So it's been fun seeing him get more of a spotlight and gradually become worthy of the Captain America mantle.

From Sam's POV, I can see why he would distrust John if his last impression of him was that public freakout/murder. Thunderbolts showed that Bucky didn't have much of a high impression of John at first either before he learns to trust him. I imagine the same will occur between Sam and John in Doomsday.

On 10/1/2025 at 8:14 AM, brickbride said:

I really loved John Walker in this, he's a far more interesting and conflicted character than Falconcap. Yeah, Sam and Bucky's needless antagonism towards him was extremely off-putting, especially since Walker clearly hadn't even volunteered for the position. What made it worse for me was contrasting it with Falcon's constant apologies over Karli - no matter what crimes she committed he kept telling everyone that she was just a misunderstood little girl, kept begging her to let him help her, even carried her bridal-style after Sharon Carter had shot her (while, apparently, leaving the badly injured Sharon there to fend for herself), and told everyone not to call her a terrorist. It's yet another example of the MCU's weird double standard for women - Karli lets herself be ruled by her emotions so we're to emphasize with her, while Sharon's a stoic, getting-things-done kind of female and thus apparently not worthy of viewer sympathy.

Finally, I’m glad they toned down Val for „Thunderbolts“. This version acts exactly like Yelena and even though she's only in like two scenes she's exhausting. I much prefer the more polished Val from the movie.

Lol, I liked Karli. All the female characters you morally despise are the ones I like! Maybe because I recognized her as Enfys Nest from Solo so I viewed her as a freedom fighter like she was in that movie. From what I remember of FatWS, I felt more sympathetic towards her like Sam was since I didn't view her as a terrorist. The morally gray characters (John, Karli, Sharon, Zemo) were the most interesting ones in the show and the only reason I was able to stomach it. Of course, all of them except John have been MIA and something tells me we're never going to get back to Sharon's arc ever again.

I despised Val in FatWS and thought the brief screentime she had was still too much. I don't know if it was the writing or the acting, but the mere presence of the character would annoy me. I expected to hate her in Thunderbolts so I was shocked at how much I enjoyed her there. She was a horrible person but actually funny, and by the end I was even rooting for her to get away with it all like she did. If this had been FatWS, I'd probably have been hoping she'd have been killed off immediately lol. 

[JeanGreyForever]

On 10/1/2025 at 3:57 PM, Mandalorianknight said:

I am absolutely NOT glad Steve is returning, nor am I happy about RDJ and (if true) Scarlet Johannsson. The MCU did fall off hard, as you say, but digging up the corpses of the characters people liked isn't going to fix it. The writing's not going to magically improve because RDJ's the one delivering the lines, and it's only going to make the convoluted mess of plotlines worse. Either continue with the few things people liked, like Thunderbolts, and the few infinity saga characters you haven't destroyed the reputation of (spider-man, doctor strange is probably OK...that might actually be it for major characters. Thor, Hulk, and the Ant-Family are all done. Sam's lost all goodwill. Marvel doesn't seem to want to pay Hawkeye anymore. If they'd recast T'challa, we could have had the Spidey/BP/Strange "big three" that was rumored way back when, but they didn't, and Shuri doesn't come close to cutting it.), or just give up, stop for a bit, and start again with the X-men in a new universe.

I'm happy for Steve and hope that means Peggy is coming too (either the real Peggy or Captain Carter. I imagine there will be a team-up scene between Steve and Captain Carter in Secret Wars). RDJ as Doom is stunt casting at its worst. Reducing Marvel's biggest villain to what's probably a Tony variant is one of the worst decisions they could have made. I think that would have worked better if they made RDJ Kang since Tony and Kang have a lot of connections in the comics. I didn't know there were rumors about ScarJo coming back but she's someone I'd rather stay dead. I don't really see what can be gained by her returning, unless it'll be a variant of her we encounter (like in the What If? series where one of the Natashas bonds with Captain Carter).

Unfortunately, Thunderbolts grossing the least out of the MCU movies this year, plus it being one of the least streamed MCU movies on Disney+, means that even with all the positive critical attention, it probably won't have much of a future. I think Thor is done as a solo hero. He'll probably continue as a supporting character especially since Chris Hemsworth has no Hollywood career outside of Thor and he seems game to constantly return. But I'm not expecting Thor 5. Hulk's biggest asset is that he was never a solo hero, so the fact that he can't have his own solo films means he can have a lot of longevity as a supporting character. I think they won't retire Hulk for that reason and Thor will end up in a similar position, where as damaged as their characters are, they can keep returning in supporting roles. Ant-Man characters are all over. No one ever cared for Ant-Man and I hope Quantumania's failure means that his screentime is reduced as much as possible in Doomsday. No point wasting time on a useless character from a failed franchise that has nothing left to offer the universe. MCU's failure was relying on irrelevant characters like Scott and it will continue to die a slow death if they keep bringing Scott back. Hopefully his part in Doomsday is just getting killed off since Evangeline Lily has retired, and the Hank and Janet actors both wanted to be killed off already. There's literally no one in the Ant-Man family left that warrants keeping Scott around. Killing him off also helps set up Cassie for the Young Avengers, assuming that hasn't already been shelved. Hawkeye also seems done due to the payment issue. That's also fine with me since MCU Hawkeye was always a bore and lacks the personality he has from the comics.