Marvel Studios = Too Much Humor (DC Take Note)

[The Kid]

Agree. I have said this before...these movies are fun and entertaining, but how many of them do you remember anything about after 48 hours?

Iron Man 1, All the Cap movies, and Avengers 1.

The rest...I dunno. Fun but in one ear and out the other....

I will say Hela was a solid villain, for a change. I hope they get Thanos right. Outside of Loki have they had a villain that really left an impact and that they have developed?

To be fair, most comic book villains are pretty meh. Even DC has struggled with really executing a good villain post-Nolan. Zod was pretty decent but everyone else (Luthor, Joker, Enchantress, Ares) has ranged from meh to disaster.

[Frontier]

To be fair, most comic book villains are pretty meh. Even DC has struggled with really executing a good villain post-Nolan. Zod was pretty decent but everyone else (Luthor, Joker, Enchantress, Ares) has ranged from meh to disaster.

I'd say Ares was probably the most solid out of the bunch.

[k von doom]

I don't know about 'too much humour'. There are films with the appropriate amount of humour: Cap series, IM3, Thor 1, Dr Strange and ones that are lighthearted GotG, Antman, Ragnarok. Humour is ever-present, no doubt, but 'too much'? I think Marvel Studios is only guilty of that with one film and that's GotG 2, which tried really, really hard to be funny but wasn't.

[Coin Biter]

To be fair, most comic book villains are pretty meh. Even DC has struggled with really executing a good villain post-Nolan. Zod was pretty decent but everyone else (Luthor, Joker, Enchantress, Ares) has ranged from meh to disaster.

I agree that recent DC villains have been poor - well, with the caveats that I thought Zod was poor to be honest, and Ares decent. (Plus which, although Ares’ action scenes were underwhelming, we did have the hilarious flashback in which it was revealed that even in ancient times, for some reason, he sported a stupid ass giant Edwardian moustache )

Personally, I think the best comic book movie villains have not, save for Ledger’s slightly overpraised but compelling Joker, come from the MCU or DC but have been from Sony and Fox: Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2, the Brian Cox Stryker, and the McKellen Magneto. Hell, Schreiber’s Sabretooth as well, no matter how poor the movie was as a whole.

And outside the superhero franchises... Ma-Ma in Dredd.

[Kusanagi]

Personally, I think the best comic book movie villains have not, save for Ledger’s slightly overpraised but compelling Joker, come from the MCU or DC but have been from Sony and Fox: Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2, the Brian Cox Stryker, and the McKellen Magneto. Hell, Schreiber’s Sabretooth as well, no matter how poor the movie was as a whole.

The funny thing here with the X villains is one of the main complaints about those movies is the heroes (outside Xavier and Wolverine) don't get nearly enough screen time and development.

[Coin Biter]

The funny thing here with the X villains is one of the main complaints about those movies is the heroes (outside Xavier and Wolverine) don't get nearly enough screen time and development.

Which is a fair criticism of at least some of the X-movies, yeah. I wouldn’t deny that the time/spotlight given to each of the protagonists in the Avengers was very impressive; an ideal way to do an ensemble movie. They managed to make every character compelling.

Well, apart from Hawkeye, obviously. Then again, it’s Hawkeye

[Xero Kaiser]

I'm okay with the humor in the MCU. Personally, I often find myself liking the animated/movie versions of comic book characters more than actual comic book version (especially in DC's case). A more serious story can work just fine, but superheroes are generally a pretty silly concept and I like it when they have some fun it.

Agree. I have said this before...these movies are fun and entertaining, but how many of them do you remember anything about after 48 hours?

All of them?

Except maybe Thor 2.

[PBP]

Ultron in the trailer was every bit as menacing and terrifying as I remembered as a kid. Snarky Ultron was when the MCU officially got too humorous.

[Lexembert]

Yep been observing this since their first movie. At first it's OK and then it's gotten to a point that some of the humor are not funny anymore (Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, etc.)

So yeah (I won't comment on The Three Thor films + Ant-Man didn't watch them as I have no interest of them)

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

I think Marvel use humor cause they're still trying to justify their existence to none comic fans. To me that's a subtle form of Sci-Fi ghetto-ism.

[Wandering_Wand]

I'd say Ares was probably the most solid out of the bunch.

Zod and Ares, in that order for me.
Doomsday was such a wasted opportunity…

Anyway, someone brought up a good point: I don't remember much from most of the MCU movies after my first 1-2 watches.
Winter Solider still remains my all time favorite MCU movie. Love GotG1 and IM2 (I know that's an unpopular opinion).
After the attempts at humor in Civil War (which I found to be really out of place throughout most of the film), I've soured a bit on the MCU's humor. It's fine for GotG to be obnoxious, but at some point, I feel like it has to stop.

Overall though, most of them I enjoy for the most part, get my laughs out, and then move on.
I'm seeing Thor this week, but I'm seriously afraid there's going to be *too much* humor from what I've heard.

[GhostPirate]

I'm a fan of the Marvel films. I enjoy them.

But I started becoming kind of annoyed around The Avengers movie time...that the heroes were too "jokey" and humorous throughout the movie. And it of course went nuts for for Guardians of the Galaxy, GOTG2...and now with Thor Ragnorok.

It's like every hero acts like Tony Stark's character (which totally works for Tony, as portrayed by Robert Downey Junior). So many of them act the same. The heroes seem to all not take themselves seriously.

And I'm at the point where I'm thinking "Do I even take these characters...and this movie...seriously?" Now, of course humor is necessary! It helps keep things light at times, but Thor was basically a Marvel comedy. Like they could have cast Kevin Hart as a main character. And personally...I thought Korg's character was awful.

I know the movies are meant for large audiences. I realize the humor of GOTG apparently plays well to the masses. But to me...to a fan of the actual comic books...I like my heroes to be a little more serious. Like maybe more Byrne FF, Claremont X-Men, 80s Avengers, and less Giffen Macguire Justice League (may be better examples out there I know). As a kid I liked Giffen's Justice League...but it wore off quick).

And I don't know about you guys...what first drew me to comic books was the adventures & heroic acts of cool superheroes. Humor honesty wasn't a main draw.

Anyway, just wondering if some of you agree? Disagree?

Pretty much completely disagree.

Look, to each their own. The truth of the matter is, for the most part, both comedy and entertainment are subjective. What one person might find uproariously funny lands with an eye roll with someone else (and, with the state of the internet today leads to nerdrage and/or people taking offense elsewhere).

That said, I really think you need to go back and re-read a LOT (as in all) of the runs you listed, because there was a pretty fair amount of comedy in there. It's really the whole point that in most cases, the characters with the most pathos also tend to be the most humorous. Cases in point: the Thing, Beast, Nightcrawler, etc. In most cases they even rubbed off on other characters (Thing with Torch, Beast with Simon, Nightcrawler with Wolverine), and often on the team as a whole, to the point you would often have characters who typically "played it straight" (for lack of a better term, it once meant serious characters used as a foil for more comedic ones) making jokes themselves. There's even a line by Storm in the middle of Days of Future Past where she makes a joke and thinks how absurd it is to be joking at a time like this, then follows it up with the realization that if she wasn't able to joke she'd crack. I mean, do you all ever stop to think that this relentless war to take all the actual humor out of the world might just be the reason people are actually losing it so frequently nowadays?

Anyways... it's ironic you mention Stark as being the one you have the least problem with, because from an actual character adaptation standpoint, he's the one it works least for as far as I'm concerned: Tony was an arms dealer who took shrapnel to the chest and needed the armor to survive... he's rarely ever been portrayed as a quip machine in the actual comics, and he makes the least sense to write that way for the movies. But because the same people that hate comedy apparently love RDJ it's ok. While Thor is an immortal prince of Asgard who has an amazing life and loves battle... yet HE'S the one who's supposed to be eternally dour?

...I say thee NAY!

This was also the case in most popular movies that people seem to completely ignore while making these statements. I grew up with Jaws, the original Superman movies, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Die Hard, the Lethal Weapons, etc., etc. (going back even farther, even Bogart and Errol Flynn and the rest played characters who had their own unique senses of humor, regardless of circumstances) and they all also employed quite a bit of comedy, and, whether you want to agree or not, just like the MCU, were able to do it successfully because the comedy was not only the occasional slapstick/physical comedy, but played off of story, plot, environment, irony, smart dialogue, and, most important of all, character.

But really, most of you for whatever reason choose to hyperbolize the amount of actual humor and completely downplay, usually outright ignoring, the drama, outstanding character work, pathos and ethos the MCU does provide... and it's really a shame. It's actually called "contrast". Yes, they do overuse it from time to time, but not nearly as often as would be believed by a lot of the comments here. Avengers was quite well balanced between the dramatic stakes and comedy. As was Civil War and Doctor Strange. Ant-Man, GotG, and Thor: Ragnarok were all intended to lean heavily towards comedy, and if you notice, all those movies tended to either follow or precede movies that... well, for people with sphincters that are less clenched, shall we say... tended to be darker and more dramatic. In this case after Civil War and Doctor Strange last year, and with Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War on the horizon next year, this was a year the MCU trended heavily towards comedy. Really, either you accept it or you don't.

Though, to be frank, most of you bemoaning the comedy completely lose the high ground when you make comments that infer, and often bluntly state, that comedy, at least of the non-graphic nature, is strictly for children. It's a complete fallacy. The actual fact of the matter is that the MCU draws a LOT of the adult crowd that, my turn to be blunt, work for a living and go to movies for enjoyment and entertainment, not to pay to have Hollywood preach the socially acceptable version of whatever the current hot button topic du jour is at them for a couple hours. And there's something additionally enjoyable at being able to share that with both friends and family (as in: not all actual adults need racy and/or graphic humor to be entertained). That they have pretty much reinvented super hero movies in a way that has become a renaissance of sorts for action-adventure movies in general is exactly why they're so popular.

All that said, I really enjoyed Ragnarok, and I say this as someone who grew up reading these characters in EVERY iteration. Not just Lee and Simonson and PAD stories, but I enjoyed Wein and Thomas and Defalco and Gruenwald and Jurgens' versions too. As with the Tony Stark example earlier, these aren't strict adaptations, but they still feel like the essence of the characters to me, stripped of the ironically often laughably corny melodramatics of the comics, with added intentional humor to flavor the stories and make the characters more relatable for most of us.

Finally, while I hate to sound harsh... after 16 movies maybe just realize the MCU isn't for you? I mean, right now there are literally 2 other major studios and well over a half a hundred other comic book movie options from classic to recent out there to choose and enjoy.

[Agent Z]

A whole lot of pot calling the kettle black in this thread

[TomServofan]

I would love to see the MCU strike that perfect blockbuster balance of humour and seriousness. After watching Ragnarok, I was talking to my friends about how the movie is a pretty good comedy, but there should have been a lot more seriousness paid to a movie named Ragnarok.

Examples of movies that are both light-hearted and serious and IMO, perfect blockbuster movies: Jaws, Jurassic Park, Iron Man. In these movies, I did not feel one aspect of the weigh-y stuff did not over power the humour, or vice versa.

Ragnarok just seems to be forcing humour onto this movie because the MCU seriously does not know what to do with Thor.

I had some serious issues with the third movie, but the message to Feige and co. will be that it got about $120+ million on the opening weekend, so the mass audience wants to see more Guardians of the Galaxy stuff humour. Not a good message, IMO.

I'm a fan of the Marvel films. I enjoy them.

But I started becoming kind of annoyed around The Avengers movie time...that the heroes were too "jokey" and humorous throughout the movie. And it of course went nuts for for Guardians of the Galaxy, GOTG2...and now with Thor Ragnorok.

It's like every hero acts like Tony Stark's character (which totally works for Tony, as portrayed by Robert Downey Junior). So many of them act the same. The heroes seem to all not take themselves seriously.

And I'm at the point where I'm thinking "Do I even take these characters...and this movie...seriously?" Now, of course humor is necessary! It helps keep things light at times, but Thor was basically a Marvel comedy. Like they could have cast Kevin Hart as a main character. And personally...I thought Korg's character was awful.

I know the movies are meant for large audiences. I realize the humor of GOTG apparently plays well to the masses. But to me...to a fan of the actual comic books...I like my heroes to be a little more serious. Like maybe more Byrne FF, Claremont X-Men, 80s Avengers, and less Giffen Macguire Justice League (may be better examples out there I know). As a kid I liked Giffen's Justice League...but it wore off quick).

And I don't know about you guys...what first drew me to comic books was the adventures & heroic acts of cool superheroes. Humor honesty wasn't a main draw.

Anyway, just wondering if some of you agree? Disagree?

i've been saying for a while but since the movies make a bunch of money people seem to think they have the correct formula and anything the deviates is bad.

After watching a Marvel movie i want to see a DC movie because i know it's not going to be a jokefest.

The MCU have characters who act like real human beings! unlike DC (except Wonder Woman) films and are unashamed.

[Agent Z]

The MCU have characters who act like real human beings!

Human beings actually sound different and don't respond to situations in the same way as each other.

and are unashamed.

This word keeps getting tossed around in regards to superhero adaptations like it means something. Hate to break it to you, but there is stuff from the comics that does not deserve to be put on the screen.