Can Harry Potter Ever Grow Up?: Some Musings About the Wizarding World

After several weeks thinking and writing about the potential aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, I decided I needed to take a break from that area of my fandom. But I find that my mind isn't straying very far from the topic of moving on--of the legacy of different franchises and the impact to their fans.

So I'm going to make a rather bold and continuity-flouting statement: I want to see a Lavender Brown television show.

OK--I realize there's a lot to unpack there. If you're asking who Lavender Brown is, then the learning curve is going to be a bit steeper. But even if you're familiar with this supporting character from the Harry Potter book and movie series, you're probably still a little confused.

Let me take it from the top. If you've not read J.K. Rowling's novels or seen the movies, there will be some mild spoilers below--so take heed.

Lavender Brown was a Hogwarts student in the book series--one of Harry's contemporaries who also briefly (and, for fans, somewhat painfully) dated Ron. Her impact on the series, other than to foment jealousy on Hermione's part in the more hormone-drenched portions of Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, is pretty limited. She appears to die in the pages of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows--though it warrants only a fleeting reference that doesn't confirm her fate definitively. Some fans view this--and the fact that some of Rowling's comments have disagreed with status notes on her popular Pottermore site--as an indicator of conspiracy, a sign that the author still has stories left to tell where this character is concerned.

For my part, I think the answer should be yes. And if such a story were to follow, I'd hope it would be fairly dark.

To be clear, this isn't a knock on the Fantastic Beasts series--which I've watched and enjoyed thus far--or Harry Potter and The Cursed Child--which I haven't viewed or read, though I'm familiar with the overall plot. But it strikes me, as I look at the immersive entertainment universe of movies, games, merchandise and theme park attractions that constitutes the "Wizarding World of Harry Potter," that the law of diminishing returns may be kicking in.

What had been brilliant about the original book series was that J.K. Rowling had planned so thoughtfully around how the stakes of the story--the peril, the relationships, the deaths--would mature with her readers. And when I think about the journey from Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone to Deathly Hallows, I don't believe she could have delivered on that intention any better than she did. But now I can't help but ask, "Where do we go from here?"

To some extent, I realize that Fantastic Beasts is meant to answer that question. Unlike the Harry Potter series, this later offering focuses almost exclusively on adults both as protagonists and antagonists. Noting that, the series is nevertheless still generally shooting for the same demographics as the original series. The movies are full of whimsy and, despite some heavy themes, pretty light. The aim, I'm sure, is to continue to enlist a younger audience--those who have voraciously consumed the Harry Potter books like binging a TV show, unencumbered by the years of lag between the release of the novels--while also appealing to older siblings and parents who are already fans. And I can't help but wonder if, by trying to be everything to everyone under one banner, the franchise isn't selling itself short.

Consider the Marvel Entertainment model. Marvel provides you superheroics for every age and taste. Teen-rated comics too mature? That's fine--watch our Y7 cartoon offerings. Are you a parent who is getting fatigued with Saturday morning TV? Kick back with a glass of wine and watch our noir-ish, M-rated TV series like Daredevil and Jessica Jones. While the Avengers MCU movies may entertain a broad audience, your franchise can have multiple sub-brands to satisfy various segments of your fandom--allowing your fans to graduate from one platform to the next as they age.

And that's why we need a Buffy The Vampire Slayer-inspired Lavender Brown TV show.

Still not following?

Let me jump back a couple of steps and fill in some detail. Lavender is portrayed in the books as grating and arguably somewhat vapid. She's a bit of a caricature, though it makes sense that she'd be a one-note character given the role she plays in the series. To my mind, she's maybe a little like Cordelia from the Buffy series. Not a very substantial personality to start--leaving a lot of room for growth.

When she dies in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, it's unclear whether she perishes in a fall or from being savaged by the werewolf Fenrir Greyback following said fall--and that's our hook. What if she lived? What if there's a werewolf-scarred Lavender Brown out there in the Wizarding World?

It's worth noting that, in the Harry Potter novels, it's made very clear by J.K. Rowling that you can't be turned into a werewolf by being bitten or clawed by a pre-transformation werewolf not under the influence of the full moon. To that I say--rules are made to be broken. Heck, it could even be a core mystery of the series if Lavender began to fully or partially transform into a lycanthrope to her growing surprise and dismay. Could her wounds have activated a dormant blood curse?

And what about that would make for a compelling story? Well, just about everything.

As I've noted, Lavender comes across as a simple and shallow young woman who would be entering adulthood in the aftermath of both a personal trauma and social upheaval. It's well documented in the books that werewolves have a hard lot in the Harry Potter universe--suffering open discrimination, unable to put down roots, shunned by others not sharing their affliction. I'd wager that the minds at Netflix could make a compelling TV property out of much less, particularly if in replacement for their recently cancelled Marvel shows.

I would argue that this could be a huge win-win scenario for both the network or streaming service that distributes such a show as well as the Wizarding World brand itself. Because we need to see that side of the Harry Potter universe--and they need us to see it too. The young fans who waited in line at book stores to collect their copies of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows are in their 20s or even early 30s now. And they're not looking at the world--even the wizarding variant of it--from the same perspective that they were in 2009. I'm not suggesting you need to create a new genre either. Angsty, moody werewolves (and vampires) have been slouching across our screens--big and small--for much of the 2000s.

That said, this is likely just a flight of fancy. Because while I have no doubts as to whether there would be fan interest to support such a vehicle, I'd have to imagine that rights issues would be a big blocker. Lavender Brown, being a character created for the original series, would therefore presumably fall within any rights attached to the Scholastic books. I could see how carrying the Gryffindor from the juvenile book series into more adult fiction would have the potential to be at best unseemly and perhaps even cringe-worthy--despite it being a natural continuation of her story.

The key would be to arrive at a treatment that skews more towards ABC Family (er, now Freeform) rather than Marvel Netflix or (Heaven forbid) HBO/Showtime--a portrayal that's perhaps a few shades darker than Fantastic Beasts but still watchable with your teens. Of course, accomplishing that might be easier if Rowling were to leave Lavender dead as presumed--as it would admittedly be be much simpler to create a completely new character if you wanted to make a clean break with the Harry Potter books while still leveraging the same overall continuity.

One way or the other, I'm convinced that there's a story waiting to be told. I believe there's an audience interested in seeing wizarding life through a different lens--one not pointed down Knockturn Alley from the sunny side of the street, but rather one pointed out from within.

What do you think? Would you watch a TV show set in the universe of Harry Potter? Would you be a fan of a darker take? Let me know in the comments section below.

Return of The One-Hit Wonders: Part 6 of "Bring on the Baddies - More Than 60 Possible Phase-Ending Bosses Still Available to the MCU"

So here's where the trail ends--or at least the train of thought I began several weeks ago. After having (hopefully) entertained you with a variety of suggestions related to new threats that could endanger future phases of the MCU, I want to bring things full circle by pointing out some of the stories that can and should still be told using villains Marvel Studios never quite gave their due.

For as successful as they've been, Marvel movies have long been knocked for lacking compelling villains. But it might be more accurate to say that several of the films have failed to provide those characters with an opportunity to stand out. Whether it was part of an intentional subversion of expectations--as in the case of the Mandarin in Iron Man 3--or perhaps owed to a very different creative vision--as was the case with Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron--the MCU has often chosen to break with comics continuity in how it portrays these foes. And while that has helped, at times, to keep the movies fresh and the outcomes unexpected, it has also left on the cutting room floor plot threads that beg to be picked up.

Below are some of my favorites that I believe need to be revisited and, in some instances, re-imagined:

• #68 The Leader
• #69 Advanced Idea Mechanics
• #70 Baron Zemo
• #71 Dormammu
• #72 Ultron
• #73 The Mandarin
• #74 Graviton 
• #75 The Molecule Man
• #76 Nimrod and/or Bastion
• #77 The Shadow King

The Leader: To my mind, this is by far the biggest miss on this list--in many ways, my reason for having such a list in the first place. I understand that the Hulk poses some unique challenges--in terms of movie rights retained by Universal Pictures, in dealing with Edward Norton's departure from the franchise, etc. But the reality is that Marvel Studios was able to get Samuel Sterns on screen once and didn't do anything more than tease the origin of the jade giant's greatest enemy. Even if there haven't been subsequent movies with Bruce Banner's alter ego as the titular star, The Leader is an ideal Silver Age villain to adapt into the modern era--especially given his penchant for using his gamma-radiation mutated brain to predict events before they happen. He'd be a great foil for The Avengers--sparring mentally with the likes of Banner, Stark and perhaps even Shuri and Hank Pym, while also unleashing waves of physical threats in the form of gamma mutated monsters. And his repeated attempts to remake the world in his image--to gamma irradiate every man, woman and child on the Earth--would make for suitably large stakes for a phase-ending conflict.

A.I.M.: The cavalier dismissal of Advanced Idea Mechanics as nothing more than a vehicle for Killian Aldrich's machinations comes in as a close second in terms of missed opportunities. I understand that Marvel Studios execs were likely wary of some
of the more dated 60s sci-fi flourishes associated with the organization--the bright yellow beekeeper suits, in particular. But you can't overlook that the fact that A.I.M.'s scientific pursuits--unfettered by ethics--served as a great launching pad for some of the best and most interesting threats from Marvel's early days:

• MODOK - While this character and Arnim Zola are distinct and unrelated in the comics, I could easily see Toby Smith reprising his role as the former Hydra scientist given a horrifying new physical existence as MODOK. Created by A.I.M. to be a human/computer hybrid with various psionic powers, MODOK rebels against his controllers and usurps control of the organization. Tops among the scientific discoveries pursued during his tenure as leader would be The Cosmic Cube--the comics-reality inspiration for The Tesseract, but a powered-up version that functions more like the Reality Gem.
• The Super-Adaptoid - Tied to the above discovery, A.I.M. also creates an android that is capable of duplicating the powers and abilities of any heroes or villains to which it is put in close proximity. In time, it's revealed that this ability stems from a sliver of a cosmic cube being embedded within the android--leaving it with a compulsion to complete the cube and attain ultimate power, a plot that unwinds memorably in the pages of The Avengers.

Baron Zemo and The Masters of Evil: I really like Captain America: Civil War--to an extent that I struggle with quibbling about the final fate of Zemo. But he's SUCH a great villain in the comics, a strategist rivaling Captain America who is capable of pulling together a lot of the discarded henchmen from prior films and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series (Abomination, Blizzard, Absorbing Man, etc., etc.) into a force that could challenge the full roster of The Avengers. In the comics, he's destroyed the Avengers' base, achieved near limitless power by capturing various mystical artifacts, and subjected both the Avengers and the rest of Earth's population to mental domination via satellite signal. And don't even get me started on his team of fake heroes turned real heroes, The Thunderbolts. (Actually, do feel free to get me started on that. I'll definitely want to write about that team at some point--as it's one of my favorite redemption stories from the comics.)

Dormammu and The Bend Sinister: I've included this entry based on where the MCU stands right now, though I strongly suspect that Dormammu's agenda will be more fully developed in a Dr. Strange sequel. But I'll nevertheless bookmark the need here, as we didn't see anywhere near enough of Dormammu's realm, the Dark Dimension--or its indestructible nightmare inhabitants, the Mindless Ones. I'd also love to see an adaptation of one of the villain's more Lovecraftian plots where he partners with Doctor Doom to bring about "The Bend Sinister"--a transformation of the natural order on Earth that promises to give one individual ultimate power over magic in this dimension.

Ultron Unlimited: I know that plenty of people really liked James Spader's portrayal of the mad robot--and it has honestly grown on me over time, though I'd initially been disappointed by his quippy sarcastic nature. But if Marvel Studios chose to revisit the character and perhaps strip him down to the cold, merciless machine from the comics, that would be great too. More importantly, I'd love to see a plot--perhaps a time-travel tale made possible by the resolution of Endgame--where Ultron's full potential could be unlocked. In the "Age of Ultron" and "Ultron Forever" comics series, it's revealed that the automaton has completely conquered the world in the near future, forming a beachhead for striking back at the present--the former story leveraging Independence Day-inspired visuals of massive machines descending from the sky to wipe out most of New York City. And in the second Annihilation series, he takes control of essentially the entire Kree Empire. So the scope of his menace to the MCU is definitely in need of an upgrade.

The Mandarin and The Ten Rings: This is a loose thread highlighted in the post-Iron Man 3 short called "Hail to The King"--where it is revealed that A.I.M. stole the name and persona of the Mandarin, perhaps hoping to piggyback on the latter's existing reputation and infamy. A fan of Ben Kingsley, I'd like to imagine that his character is captured by lower-level agents of the Ten Rings only to have those characters learn that he was the real Mandarin all along--a double-bluff, as it were. Either way, the Mandarin would be a tricky character to "play straight" because he's so steeped in Cold War fears and cultural baggage. But I'm sure that Marvel Studios' screenwriters could find a way to adapt the character that focuses on his usage of ancient technologies and wisdom as a counterpoint to Tony Stark's futurism.

Graviton and The Molecule Man: This isn't a knock on the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show, but I'd really love to see either of these characters get a big-screen treatment with big-screen effects. Graviton once held the entire island of Manhattan hostage by lifting it into the sky--and still had power to spare for fighting the assembled Avengers. And the Molecule Man is among a handful of the most powerful beings in any given Marvel universe. So neither character really deserves to be to be rushed in and out of the MCU in a 3-to-4 episode TV series story arc.

Nimrod and/or Bastion: With the inevitable re-booting of the X-Men movie universe, we may see a re-invention of the Sentinels as shown in X-Men: Days of Future Past. However, if the current X-Men movie continuity were to somehow survive, there's much more that could still be done to evolve the Sentinels in that series as well. The Omega-level Sentinels shown in the bleak future of DFP could send a Terminator-like avatar back to the present in the form of Nimrod--a machine capable of rebuilding itself down to the molecular level and bent on restoring its timeline at all costs. Or they could jump to an even more advanced version of the character, Bastion--an amnesiac who believed himself to be a mutant-hating human and who leveraged nanotech to create Sentinel/human cyborg sleeps agents called Prime Sentinels in the "Operation Zero Tolerance" story line.

The Shadow King: Fitting that this last one should be an outright cheat on my part, as I'm using this slot to correct a glaring oversight. Amahl Farouk, though featured a couple of times in the various X-Men animated series, is not well known despite being one of the X-Men's most interesting adversaries. A telepath who was the first evil mutant encountered by Charles Xavier in the latter's youth, Farouk is arguably the inspiration for the X-Men. Xavier defeats Farouk in Egypt in a pitched battle on the astral plane that seemingly results in the villain's death. Instead, Farouk's consciousness--separated from his body--persists and grows into the malicious entity called the Shadow King. In this guise, he sets out to undo all of Xavier's good works by corrupting and eventually taking full mental control of at least half of the X-Men prior to a showdown on Muir Island involving the X-Men, X-Factor, and X-Force teams. So there's no denying he could serve as puppet master behind a Civil-War-style conflict. I realize it's a bit of a stretch to say that he's not been given his due in the movies--as he hasn't appeared in them at all. But then that's the loophole that I'm going to use to justify his inclusion here--as the plot of Fox's X-Men: First Class needlessly omits him from Xavier's origin story. (Again, I realize it's a bit of a stretch.)

And that's that. If I really tried, I'm sure I could dig even deeper--Marvel's back catalog is so rich with epic stories--as my choice to try to exceed 60 foes or scenarios was a pretty random bar to set. Nevertheless, I think I've proved my point--which is that, as cool as the MCU is, it only scratches the surface of what's out there in the Marvel universe.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to my ramblings--as they were fun to compile. I hope these installments piqued your curiosity and that you take the opportunity to perform your own investigations. And if you were already familiar with many of these stories, I hope that I've encouraged you to paw through your long boxes or scroll through your media for a second look at them.

Do you think I missed anything? Are there significant stories or characters I overlooked? Let me know in the comments section below. And join me next week as I break ground on a new topic.

Out of The Box: A Week of Misadventures with Action Figures in Front of the Camera

The first thing I should probably say is that this isn't a post about how good I am at staging toy photographs. As my older child likes to point out, I do a volume business; a beneficiary of the freedom offered by digital photography, I often shoot a thousand images and sift through 999 to find an occasional gem.

Admitting that, I was recently inspired by a series of videos from Adam Savage's YouTube channel "Tested" featuring Insta-famous California-based toy photographer Johnny Wu (i.e., Sgt Bananas). If you're unfamiliar with Wu's work, I highly recommend his Instagram feed as the quality of the work--the practical effects, the attention to detail, the narrative--is absolutely phenomenal. And in viewing his work, I was gripped by a common impulse of mine--to walk a mile in someone else's shoes, in their medium, to scratch my own recurring creative itch.

A lot of people blog because they're experts in certain areas. I suppose that's true of me too, up to a point. I collected comics and toys for long stretches of time going back more years than I'd care to count--eras that included my own childhood, the early years of my marriage, and then eventually various seasons of my children's childhoods. So, as I've mentioned previously, it gives me some insight into deep cuts of geek culture.

However, I've never thought of myself as a specialist. While I probably know the most about comics, my interests are at once both enormously eclectic yet also immersive. I believe--or hope--that my defining characteristic is that I'm creative. But I'm not especially picky--or at least not monogamous--in how I express that creativity. One day, I might be using chopsticks, resin and acrylic paint to make wands for a Harry Potter cosplay. The next day I might be helping my wife edit one of her science fiction novels. The day after that, I could be photographing pieces from a board game or sketching a mural on a co-worker's whiteboard.

I don't have any illusions about having world-class talent in any of these areas. But then that's not really my aspiration either. Some people are generalists because they don't have the discipline to choose a medium, a path. That's not how I view myself. The eclectic nature of this blog, of my life on the whole, reflects a conscious decision to sample all of it--to be a nerd of all trades.

In an upcoming post--after my soon-to-be-finished series on the Marvel cinematic universe (MCU)--I plan to provide something of a laundry list of my fandoms to serve as a menu of likely future blog topics. I can tell you in advance that it's a significant cross-section of the last 40 years of pop culture. I think that it's such a long list because I enjoy being part of this community of fans so much. I can't tell you how many times I've indulged in an hour-long conversation with friends or acquaintances about esoteric details related to any one of these topics. And it's those interactions that reinforce my love of the genres themselves.

So please enjoy the photos below understanding that this dabbling is, for me, a journey without much purpose other than to enjoy that journey and maybe strike up some interesting conversations along the way. If that dabbling continues for a few weeks or even a few months, I cannot say. But feel free to follow on my Instagram accessible here (Owl Cowl and Blaster on Instagram). In the meantime, see my inline comments below for some of the reasons why I chose these respective subjects or effects.

Mysterio

Annihilus

Abomination

Captain America

After seeing Johnny Wu's process and the resulting images, I noted that he worked almost exclusively with modern, highly articulated action figures. That makes a lot of sense, as these tend to have more detailed finishes to them and they would be infinitely easier to pose than figures with half as many points of articulation. I also noted that his set-up involved a decent amount of higher quality equipment that I'd be unlikely to purchase.

Rather than seeing those things as problems, it made me wonder "What's the best outcome I can achieve with just the materials I have on hand?" And so I immediately set about to figure out what that ceiling was--an endeavor that is still evolving.

First, I had to assess what those materials were and what I would be willing to use. One of the earlier decisions I made was to start from the opposite end of the action figure spectrum. In our basement and in boxes in my younger child's room, I knew we still had a lot of action figures--DC and Marvel--that pre-dated the highly articulated DC Select and Marvel Legends toy lines. And I wanted to actively focus on them--on whether I could create dioramas with those often-stiff-jointed toys that conveyed motion and/or a narrative.

I was also interested to do something very different from Johnny Wu in that I was going to eschew all pyrotechnics. If you watch the Tested videos, you'll see that his practical effects involve a decent amount of clean-up--powders, sparklers and other fireworks, etc. Given that I was just dipping a toe into the water--and acknowledging that I didn't want my wife to flip out over the prospect of open sparks or flames on our dining room table--I chose to revisit a technique I'd stumbled across when taking some pictures around Halloween last year. I'd use backlit cotton to give the appearance of smoke and flame.

Mysterio, at the top of the stack here, represented one of my first attempts. The shot spoiled me to some extent because I think it may still be the one where the cotton most resembles smoke or mist--especially in how it clings to the villain's gauntlet.

Annihilus, on the other hand, represents one of my bigger disappointments. Working with just my iPhone 7 camera, I found that I just couldn't capture a crisp image of this figure when illuminated exclusively by the mini-lights hiding underneath the cotton. So while I love the colors in that final product, I don't have any copies that can be used above thumbnail size.

Colossus

The Doctor Fate and Captain Marvel pictures from much further down in the stack turned out OK--the Captain Marvel one very directly reminds me of, and was inspired by, Alex Ross's art in the now classic Kingdom Come comics mini-series--but I was never able to fully realize the look I was going for with the Annihilus image in any subsequent setting.

At that point, I started to wonder how else I could use the cotton. The Captain Atom image--using a figure drawn from the Justice League Unlimited line--used it against the background of some blue and white patterned card stock which (I hope) gives the indistinct look of a cloudy sky behind the figure. The Wolverine image at bottom, on the other hand, uses a couple wisps of cotton to represent motion. (The tentacles were an off-brand play-dough.)

Captain Atom

And then I think I took it a little too far. Deciding that I wanted to use an old Captain America figure from a line of Spider-Man toys associated with the 90s cartoon--and wanting to show off his shield--I decided that I'd try to represent bullet deflection. In the picture of the good captain, I suppose I pull it off alright--which is probably unfortunate in that it emboldened me to the point where I tried several other variants. Only the Colossus and Abomination images included here can be viewed with a straight face--though I may post a couple of the others to my Instagram feed sometime just for laughs. While the images with the Marvel figures may be a bit cringe-worthy, imagine how the ones with smaller, less articulated Justice League figures must look. (Sigh.)

Doctor Fate

The final photo at the very top of the post--the Daredevil figure superimposed with the cover of one of my favorite comics from my collection--has the look of decoupage but was achieved entirely through editing. I have a few more that I will likely drop on Instagram over the next couple of weeks leading up to Avengers Endgame--as they involve characters that will be featured in the movie.

So, that's that. Love 'em or hate 'em, these images are an homage to the numerous overlapping hobbies and hobbyists that inspired me. If you have a favorite or if you want to suggest an effect I should try, please let me know in the comments section below.

Excelsior!

Captain Marvel

Wolverine

The Infected and The Corrupted: Part 5 of "Bring on the Baddies - More Than 60 Possible Phase-Ending Bosses Still Available to the MCU"

So, at this point we've looked at a variety of directions from which the next phase-ending threat to the Marvel cinematic universe could hail--space, time, various nether realms. But what if the next big challenge was to come from within the ranks of the heroes themselves?

Below, I break down a variety of scenarios drawn from the comics that involve either heroes or their allies becoming corrupted into fiends with the power to conquer or destroy the MCU.

• #54 Marvel Zombies
• #55 The Presence
• #56 The Magus and his doppelgangers
• #57 Deacon Frost and his vampire plague
• #58 Sentry/Void
• #59 The Maestro / Red Hulk / Mindless Hulk / Devil Hulk
• #60 Dragon of the Moon
• #61 Onslaught
• #62 Franklin Richards
• #63 Jamie Braddock
• #64 The Marquis of Death  
• #65 The Squadron Supreme
• #66 The Corrupter
• #67 Psycho Man, The Hate Monger and the Microverse

Marvel Zombies: Continuing a story introduced in the pages of Ultimate Fantastic Four and written by Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead, this very popular mini-series may well qualify as a modern classic. Unlike many zombie stories, this one largely focuses on the zombies themselves--because the infected retain much of their intellect in spite of their overwhelming hunger for human flesh. This leads to poignant scenes of heroes grappling with the revulsion and guilt associated with their depredations, many of which involve them savaging those closest to them. So while many argue that the zombie genre is well past its peak, this feels like a legitimately fresh take. That said, it's hard to imagine the concept fitting into a PG-13 movie plot.

The Presence: An alternative to the above horror-heavy tale, I'd offer one of my favorite stories from Kurt Busiek's run on Avengers in the early 2000s. In this scenario, the Avengers are asked to investigate the disappearance of Russia's super-team The Winter Guard during a mission in Siberia. This investigation reveals that the team has been turned into translucent radioactive zombies connected to a hive mind controlled by the former Soviet physicist The Presence. (They look a bit like the ghost army from under the mountain in Peter Jackson's LOTR finale "The Return of The King.") Close contact with these zombies--unavoidable in combat--leads members of the Avengers team to gradually become irradiated until eventually only Thor remains uninfected. Though the heroes ultimately (and obviously) prevail, this is a dire threat that the cross-time conqueror Kang explains as having wiped out humanity on other less-fortunate earths. And it would offer a gore-reduced yet visually stunning take on the genre.

The Magus: While it's probably getting a bit ahead of the game to talk about an alternate version of a hero that Marvel has yet to feature in its movies, The Magus--an evil doppelganger of Adam Warlock--factors prominently in the comic book sequel to The Infinity Gauntlet. Even though the Magus had been introduced more than a decade earlier in Warlock's own comic, he had been believed eradicated along with the potential future timeline that had spawned him. But finding his way back to the land of the living as a byproduct of the events in Infinity Gauntlet, The Magus sets out to claim the gauntlet and confronts the assembled heroes of the Marvel comics universe with nightmarish doppelgangers of their own. At one point, an expeditionary force of many of the franchise's most powerful characters finds itself in battle with a literally infinite army of doppelgangers that absorbs the fallen and recycles and replenishes its numbers. I'd love to see this depicted on the big screen--as it's clearly cinematic in scope.

Deacon Frost: We've talked about zombies, but you can't forget their undead brethren the vampires. While the OG vampire Count Dracula has been a major player in Marvel comics dating back to the days of his own book, Tomb of Dracula--and in spite of his repeated skirmishes with Doctor Strange and Blade--I'm guessing that the MCU would favor its own unique creation over one borrowed from public domain. I'm supposing then that Deacon Frost--Blade's arch-enemy--would be the natural stand-in. The recurring Captain America villain Baron Blood would be another possibility.

The Sentry and The Void: This character's story took a while to pay off, but there's no denying that the results were pretty spectacular. Robert Reynolds is portrayed as a hero from the early days of Marvel continuity--but one who has been wiped from the memories of both his peers and the general public alike. It's eventually revealed that this massively powerful being--who touts himself as having the power of "a billion exploding suns"--was complicit in wiping everyone's memories to save the world from his arch-enemy The Void, with whom he has some mysterious connection. Coming out of his self-imposed retirement, Reynolds demonstrates a shockingly wide range of abilities--near limitless physical strength, flight, near-invulnerability, apparent serial immortality, etc.--as well as an equally shocking amount of mental instability. The core mystery behind the character's origins and his ties to The Void would make for a slow burn that could culminate in his betrayal of his teammates--much as Reynolds would end up fighting all combatants in the climax of Marvel's Siege crossover in the comics. 

Various incarnations of The Hulk: There is no shortage of stories from Marvel's back catalog focusing on the power of The Hulk.

• The Maestro - An alternate future version of the character who has wiped out all of his former teammates.
• The Red Hulk - A mysterious counterpart to Bruce Banner's alter ego, this ruthless assailant operated much like Scourge from the pages of Captain America in the mid-80s--full of malice and cunning and fueled by inscrutable motives; he'd later prove to be a pawn of the group called The Intelligensia--a cabal including Modok, The Leader, Doctor Doom, The Wizard, and the Red Ghost
• The Mindless Hulk - My favorite bet for a phase-ending threat, this is the mindless engine of destruction that resulted from Bruce Banner being separated from the Hulk persona; this version of the character was literally an avatar of unfocused rage capable of leveling entire cities and tossing the Avengers' most powerful characters like rag dolls
• The Devil Hulk - I'm less familiar with this one, but I believe the idea is that this is the ultimate version of the character--the full destructive potential combined with an independent evil intellect, a force of nature unchained

The Dragon of The Moon: Another combination of an enemy from within and an enemy from without, the Dragon is an ancient being that seeks to enter the world through its pawn--the aptly named would-be hero Moondragon. A human raised by monks on Thanos's home world of Titan, she is a mentalist and martial artist whose haughty demeanor and arrogance leave her vulnerable to the at-first-subtle influence of the dragon. In time, this influence spreads until it takes her over completely and puts her in mortal combat with her teammates among the New Defenders--resulting in the deaths of half the team, herself included.

Onslaught: While this isn't necessarily a popular story, it was nevertheless a landmark event and one that could be commemorated in the MCU--though presumably not until well after mutant-kind has been incorporated into the movie continuity. A gestalt of the consciousnesses of Magneto and Professor Xavier, the Onslaught entity--once revealed--opposed both the X-Men and Marvel's human heroes while exhibiting massive, reality-warping psionic and energy powers. The story saw Earth's human heroes shunted to a pocket dimension where they relived updated versions of their origins before finally finding their way back to Earth-616.

Franklin Richards: Another option that would have to wait on the introduction of characters whose movie rights were--until recently--retained by Fox, you could cover any of the numerous stories involving Franklin Richards, son of Reed and Sue Richards, whose reality-altering powers will one day rival those of Galactus. Over the years, Franklin has been treated as a macguffin by various villains who seek to tap his enormous potential (Doctor Doom, Onslaught, others); and he has served as a threat in his own right, as universe-bending power in the hands of a child can obviously present a precarious situation.

Jamie Braddock: The mutant brother of Brian Braddock (Captain Britain) and Elizabeth Braddock (Psylocke), Jamie poses a threat similar to that of Franklin Richards--though much smaller in scope, as he can only twist reality in his immediate vicinity. But I could picture Marvel up-scaling his abilities if they wanted him to serve as a stand-in for Franklin. His mental instability--which fluctuates between whimsical and terrifying--might also make him a more interesting foe. (When I read through his dialogue bubbles, it brings to mind--for me, at least--a drunken Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of The Caribbean.)

The Marquis of Death: While discussing characters with massive reality-shaping powers, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Clyde Wyncham. Wyncham first appears in the mini-series "1985" where he is shown to be the only mutant on Earth-1218--an institutionalized, brain-damaged individual who unintentionally begins to draw beings from other more fantastical realities to his "real world" Earth where superheros and super-villains only exist in comic books. An alternate future version of this character--one who has unlocked his full potential and has full use of his cognitive abilities--becomes the self-styled Marquis of Death, an ally to Doctor Doom and destroyer of countless Marvel realities until confronted by both the Fantastic Four and the Clyde from the "1985" storyline. The Marquis is one of very few villains whose powers dwarf Thanos's abilities--as they also dwarf those of pretty much everyone else on this list including Franklin Richards.

The Squadron Supreme: Mentioned elsewhere in this blog--in one of the earliest installments, in fact--the Squadron was originally something of a parody of DC's Justice League. They've since taken on a life of their own however--first in Mark Gruenwald's thought-provoking 12-issue Squadron Supreme mini-series and then in various ongoing series in the 2000s. Reflecting the fact that DC heroes are somewhat over-powered compared to their Marvel counterparts, the Squadron members are all potential world-beaters--Hyperion (i.e., Superman) specifically. So any story that would involve the Squadron visiting the MCU and meting out their often-brutal brand of justice would set the stage for a cataclysmic showdown.

The Corrupter: The Corrupter is a fairly small-time villain with the ability to influence the minds of others. To the extent that he has been responsible for some major throw-downs--between the Squadron Supreme and the Avengers, for example--he could be the catalyst for a phase-ending battle even though he's not capable of posing that level of menace on his own.

Psycho Man and the Hate Monger: Psycho Man and the Hate Monger, on the other hand, do have the potential to wreak havoc on a global scale by manipulating emotions in a way that could drive whole civilizations to tear themselves apart. A tyrant from one of the many microverses within what the MCU now calls "The Quantum Realm," Psycho Man enjoys corrupting characters by bringing their baser emotions to the surface--as he most famously did in turning Sue Richards, the Invisible Woman, into the being known as Malice. (Yes--I know--there's a more complicated back story there with a disembodied entity that moves on to inhabit other characters, but we'll stick with the simplest version here.) Teamed with any incarnation of the Hate Monger, they'd make a terrible twosome easily capable of raising armies to challenge the heroes of the Marvel cinematic universe.

So are you ready for next week's dramatic conclusion? How many of the stories I've touched upon seem like plots you'd want to see in the MCU? Would any of them rival your interest in Infinity War and Endgame? Let me know down in the comments section below.

Next time: Part 6 - The Return of The One-Hit Wonders!

Blasts from the Past--or the Future: Part 4 of "Bring on the Baddies - More Than 60 Possible Phase-Ending Bosses Still Available to the MCU"

So we've looked at foes that could pierce the veil between dimensions or that could menace the MCU from across the dark ocean of space. But another source of future stories could be the wide expanse of time--foes looking to restore some forgotten power or empire or who seek to strike at the present from the far-flung future.

Here are some threats from the Marvel comics catalog that could look to conquer or destroy the MCU from across time:

• #42 The Sleepers
• #43 The Serpent Crown and the armies of Atlantis
• #44 The Zodiac
• #45 The Sphinx
• #46 Knull
• #47 Mangog
• #48 Sin-Se-Neg
• #49 Kulan Gath
• #50 Them
• #51 The Scarlet Centurion
• #52 The Warlord
• #53 Zarrko, The Tomorrow Man

The Sleepers:  These are a personal favorite of mine because of their appearance in the 1960s Marvel Superheroes cartoon I later watched in syndication as a child. Three giant robots lying in wait to exact the Red Skull's final revenge if the Third Reich ever fell, they were a menace on a much bigger scale than anything that Captain America had otherwise fought. So while he was conveniently able to disable them in the comics and in the cartoon, one could easily picture a movie plot where the combined prowess of all the MCU's heroes would be required to overpower them once their doomsday trigger had been activated.

The Serpent Crown and the armies of Atlantis: You can consider this a two-for-one deal, as either the crown or simply the discovery/emergence of Atlantis could separately pose a massive threat to the MCU's earthbound heroes. That said, the two are heavily intertwined in Marvel comics history, with the crown having been in play at the time of Atlantis's sinking and having been used more recently to erase the memory of Atlantean heir Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner. The crown was a mystical artifact tied to the serpent god Set who used it to retain influence in this realm. It could grant the wearer vast mental powers including both telepathy and telekinesis, though these gifts came at the cost of the user ultimately becoming Set's thrall. In the comics, the crown would eventually influence the barbarian usurper Attuma to lead Atlantis into an all-out war on the surface world in the aptly named "Atlantis Attacks" storyline.

The Zodiac: The Zodiac checks both boxes when it comes to this category, as it involves both a time-lost artifact and an element of time travel. The Zodiac is an international criminal organization with vast resources that is typically in pursuit of an object called the Zodiac Key. The group has 12 leaders each representing a zodialogical sign, though one is usually ascendant--typically Scorpio, who is revealed to be Nick Fury's brother Jake. In a great segment of Dan Slott's somewhat controversial run on Amazing Spider-Man, it's revealed that the key--which has been shown to generate great bursts of energy--is actually designed to open a secret vault containing every detail of future history over the following 12 months. The scope of the organization--which could easily rival Hydra--and the nature of this "macguffin" could easily lend themselves to a high-stakes, multi-story cinematic arc.

The Sphinx: The Sphinx is a character with immense physical strength and energy manipulation powers bestowed by the ancient Ka Stone which also curses him with immortality. Empowered by the stone in ancient times, The Sphinx uses it to influence history for millennia until he is so bored with existence that he becomes obsessed with finding a way to end his own life. This leads him into conflict with the hero Nova, from whom he learns of the living computers of Xandar--a repository of information so extensive that it is bound to have the solution to his quandary. In the end, he gains enough knowledge from a visit to Xandar to learn that he is stuck in a temporal loop that will forever see him flung back into the past to relive his immortal life--a cycle that his subsequent schemes attempt to break.

Knull: This one could be hard to reconcile from a rights perspective, as it's a character that would presumably tie to Sony's Venom movie franchise. The god and source of all symbiotes, Knull hails from the void that predates the known universe and is powerful enough to have clashed with the likes of the Celestials. A very recent addition to the Marvel comics catalog, he's already made a big splash in sparring with their other cosmic characters; so I imagine either studio could generate a lot of interest/excitement around a Knull-based plot if usage could be worked out.

Mangog: A manifestation of the hatred of "a billion billion" beings killed in an invasion repelled by Odin, this creature lies dormant under Asgard until freed by Ulik the troll. Perhaps also a threat that could be explained by the destruction of Asgard itself--its prison having been reduced to a cinder by Surtur?

Sise-Neg: An enormously powerful character, Sise-Neg was a 31st century sorcerer who engaged in a backwards trip through time to absorb magical energy--making him more and more powerful the further back he traveled. Shadowed by Dr. Strange and his oft-time rival Baron Mordo, Sise-Neg would eventually make it back to the dawn of time itself--at which point he essentially became omnipotent and the impetus of creation. (It's in the name--Sise-Neg is Genesis in reverse.) So this would focus on mystical elements likely to be prominent in future MCU phases and would provide a suitably vast scope to match Infinity War and Endgame.

Kulan Gath: Another favorite of mine, Kulan Gath was a Hyborian-era sorcerer who came into continuing conflict with Conan. He would manifest himself in modern times when a necklace containing his essence was donned by the night watchman at a museum--allowing him to regain his physical form. Opposed at first by Spider-Man and a briefly reincarnated Red Sonja, he would later transform all of Manhattan into a Hyborian-era city--a transformation he would threaten to spread across the globe. In the end, it would take the combined forces of the Avengers, X-Men and Dr. Strange to defeat him and restore reality. He has popped up time and again with the same agenda--so Marvel Studios could leverage several variants on this theme as source material.

Them: I actually had some difficulty finding info on this enclave that I had recalled from my childhood comics, as the particularly nondescript (yet menacing) name of "Them" had apparently been used to describe a couple of different shadowy groups. In this case, I'm referencing the ruling council of the ancient hidden city of El Dorado. This group was able to wield mystical powers stemming from a living flame that served as the city's basis for existence. Most dangerous of the council members was an aged version of the villain Tyrannus--former master of an underground kingdom that often clashed with the Mole Man and his subjects. So this would be another scenario involving immortals seeking to restore the greatness of a bygone era by supplanting the modern world.

The Scarlet Centurion: One could argue that these aren't distinct characters--that this character, Rama-Tut, the Warlord mentioned below, etc. are all just various incarnations of the time lord Kang. But from a plotting standpoint, this particular foe would fill a very specific niche. The Scarlet Centurion was a time traveler who visited an alternate Earth (Earth-689) and convinced the Avengers that the only way to prevent a global cataclysm was to defeat and de-power all other super-humans. So I could picture a Marvel Civil War-like outcome where those heroes convinced of the accuracy of this prediction would clash violently with those doubting the centurion's mission and motives. (It could presumably even be mixed with plot points from the Marvel Civil War II story line from the comics--as you could simply replace the prophecies of the Inhuman character Ulysses with the centurion's first hand knowledge and evidence.)

The Warlord: As mentioned above, this is yet another incarnation of Reed Richards's time-tossed father Nathaniel. But in this case, I'm thinking of a specific story line from John Byrne's run on Fantastic Four--the one that introduces the character as having marooned himself in an alternate timeline where human civilization had devolved into a weird mash-up of cowboys, dinosaurs, and killer robots following the destruction of the moon. Yes--you heard me--cowboys, dinosaurs, and killer robots. 'Nuff said. Someone needs to make this happen.

Zarrko, The Tomorrow Man: In some ways a poor man's Kang, Zarrko was a scientist from the 23rd century who clashed with Thor early in the latter's career--back in the pages of a comic that was then still called "Journey Into Mystery." But Zarrko was involved in multiple eons-spanning plots that could be adapted into a phase-ending MCU set piece--like the time that he tried to collapse all eras of time into one, or the one where he enlisted the aid of Marvel's heroes to stop the Time-Twisters, the last living beings from the end of the universe whose periodic interactions with Earth's earlier timelines would result in global destruction. So a lot to choose from there.

That brings us close to 60 potential threats/themes already, and there are two more general categories to come. Which ones have seemed most interesting or promising to you thus far? Did any of my summaries lead you to look up unfamiliar characters or plot lines? Let me know in the comments section below.

Next time: Part 5 - The Infected and The Corrupted!