Blue Marvel Appreciation 2020

[JudicatorPrime]

I still miss the mask. His original outfit looked so cool.

With Covid-19 running rampant, I wonder if now wouldn't be a good time to give Adam some version of his original mask/helmet back? Not necessarily because he's vulnerable to the disease, but because all of the "immune to terrestrial diseases" types can still spread dangerous pathogens like viruses and bacteria as unwitting hosts. I realize writers don't generally get into the that sort of thing, but you'd think places like Asgard or the Neutral Zone would have an untold number of super-viruses that are lethal to humans. Thor's cape could be the superhero equivalent of a smallpox-infected blanket.

[XPac]

With Covid-19 running rampant, I wonder if now wouldn't be a good time to give Adam some version of his original mask/helmet back? Not necessarily because he's vulnerable to the disease, but because all of the "immune to terrestrial diseases" types can still spread dangerous pathogens like viruses and bacteria as unwitting hosts. I realize writers don't generally get into the that sort of thing, but you'd think places like Asgard or the Neutral Zone would have an untold number of super-viruses that are lethal to humans. Thor's cape could be the superhero equivalent of a smallpox-infected blanket.

Yeah, when you think about about it for a second it really is shocking that heroes aren't catching or at least speading all sorts of bugs from traveling to different planets and dimensions. I guess we can assume their ships or whatever can somehow decontaminate them. I'm sure Adam being a doctor would be smart enough to take the proper precausionts, but would a guy like Thor even bother to wash his hands traveling between earth and midgard? Guys like him are probably the ones you have to worry about.

[mugiwara]

Alien worlds and bacteria/viruses are like light speed travel and relativity
It's more realistic and can make good stories like War of the Worlds or Gunbuster, but in big universes like Marvel or Star Wars involving constant interstellar interactions, it's too much a limitation.

[JudicatorPrime]

Alien worlds and bacteria/viruses are like light speed travel and relativity
It's more realistic and can make good stories like War of the Worlds or Gunbuster, but in big universes like Marvel or Star Wars involving constant interstellar interactions, it's too much a limitation.

I suppose in a way Marvel writers have touched on those types of extraterrestrial pathogen stories. I mean weren't the Klyntar symbiotes originally intended to be viewed as a type of alien virus, albeit an inorganic one? And I'm drawing a blank now, but isn't there a character running around whose powers are attributed to an alien virus? Maybe I'm thinking of a publisher other than Marvel.

[mugiwara]

And I'm drawing a blank now, but isn't there a character running around whose powers are attributed to an alien virus? Maybe I'm thinking of a publisher other than Marvel.

I remember something like that in Secret Identities, a super hero comics from Image.

[Cosmic Emerald 23]

If you guys were in charge of a Blue Marvel MCU movie, hw would you guys handle Adam at this point in the game?

[XPac]

If you guys were in charge of a Blue Marvel MCU movie, hw would you guys handle Adam at this point in the game?

From what I understand there's going to be a SWORD TV series on Disney. I would probably debut him there, and do as much of the heavy lifting as far as introucing the character there (similar to Black Panther in Civil War) so when Adam gets his own movie it won't need to be an orign story. And of course it allows him to interact with the MCU Monica Rambeu. Then after he gets a solo, maybe they can use an Avenger movie to form a version of the Ultimates with Black Panther and Captain Marvel.

[JudicatorPrime]

If you guys were in charge of a Blue Marvel MCU movie, hw would you guys handle Adam at this point in the game?

I'd go really dark, because the 60s were a very violent era. The movie would open up with Adam Brashear being shot in the head with a Neutronium bullet while out picnicking with his wife and firstborn toddler son, Kevin. The assassin is not revealed. Somehow Candace Brashear manages to get Adam to the hospital, but after 10 hours of surgery, the doctors emerge with the news that Adam is dead. Candace cries hysterically, clutching Kevin to her breast. The camera pans down from her face to the eyes of Adam's son. For the briefest instant Kevin's eyes flash an azure blue fiery glow. The power and the legacy has been passed on to him.

Obviously, this isn't an Adam Brashear Blue Marvel superhero movie. Adam dies in the first 5 minutes of the film. This movie is about Kevin's rage and the natural, if not morally appropriate response to justice too long denied.

The movie progresses through the various stages of Kevin's life. Kevin is a brilliant kid, but a problem kid. He has a good heart, but he lashes out in the most destructive ways because his reservoir of hope emptied out completely with the death of his father. He has yet to develop the tools or insight to see the world as anything but irremediably broken. His mother eventually reaches her wits' end and sends Kevin off to a military academy run by his godfather, Conner Sims.

After military school Kevin follows Connor's recommendation and enters the United States Naval Academy, where he graduates with distinction. It's during this time that he first meets Monica Rambeau (a part in my head played by Melanie Liburd), who is working as a recruiter for one of the top defense contractors, Beyonder Corp. Kevin is immediately drawn to Monica and there'll be this burgeoning romantic tension throughout the movie.

Anyway, as it turns out, the Beyonder Corp is a co-conspirator responsible for the assassination of Adam Brashear. The other co-conspirator is a rogue element within the US government (likely the NSA). As Kevin continues to investigate his father's death, he finds out about his mother working for the very cabal that killed his father. She wasn't in the loop, but nevertheless Adam's blood is on her hands. The two have a major falling out. Candace gets killed by the mystery assassin before she can disclose to Kevin the names of all of the individuals who comprise the cabal. She dies thinking that her son hates her.

Monica working for Beyonder Corp makes Kevin question her motives and integrity as well. Monica is completely unaware of Beyonder Corp's more sinister activities and finds Kevin's allegations dubious. But she conducts her own investigation and winds up almost getting atomized by a new positronic particle weapon the company is beta testing. Kevin jumps in front of the beam and takes the full brunt of the weapon's discharge. Like a ray of light hitting a crystal, the energy diffracts into a spectrum of energy that showers Monica. Thus the stage is set for Monica to eventually become Spectrum, although that doesn't happen in the first movie.

Anyway, the big reveal here is that Conner is the mystery assassin. He is a composite of Anti-Man and Jason Quantrelle. While Conner gained his powers at the same time that Adam gained his, Conner's form and psyche were completely co-opted during the explosion by six Beyonder-like beings that were imprisoned in the antimatter universe and/or Neutral Zone. There's absolutely nothing left of Conner other than the echoes of his persona, which the alien entity mimicked.

Now bristling with power -- and hubris -- Conner confesses that when they first emerged from their otherworldly prison into our universe the Beyonders were too weak to unleash the kind of universal scale destruction that they craved. They saw that Adam had somehow achieved powers from the antimatter universe that were fatal to them. They made it a point to eliminate their chief and only threat. They found it somewhat deliciously amusing that there were individuals within the government who sought the same goal, albeit for what the Beyonders deemed to be the "superficial" reason of racism. Nevertheless, the Beyonders worked with the US government, providing it with their technologically advanced acumen in exchange for access, cover and safe harbor.

For years the Beyonders bided their time until their full powers had been restored. That time was now. With Adam dead, no one can stop them.

No one?

The camera pans to the sullen gaze of Adam's now much older, more hardened son. Azure fire sparks, eyes bleeding primordial light and seething rage. In that instant the void sees "no one" and screams.

[Killerbee911]

I'd go really dark, because the 60s were a very violent era. The movie would open up with Adam Brashear being shot in the head ................that instant the void sees "no one" and screams.

Do you think that would do well? Not being critical just to be clear the question did ask what you would do, I am just curious if you think that is the best approach

More on topic I think simple origin story and he has a good one , works well enough, A hero force to retire because of his race, while telling the story in present about threat from the past now doing damage in the present. Stick one of the most charismatic actors in the world who now has pepper of gray in his hair


For extra heat stick a confrontation with Hulk or Thor and some of Avengers in it.

[Common Writer]

If you guys were in charge of a Blue Marvel MCU movie, how would you guys handle Adam at this point in the game?

I wouldn't do a Blue Marvel MCU movie, I'd just do an animated feature-length film. In that case, Adam Brashear's story wouldn't be bogged down by 11 years worth of MCU Continuity.

If we were to go live-action, I would cast Robert Townsend (Yes, Meteor Man himself) as Doctor Adam Brashear. I would also cast Charlie Hunnam (Pacific Rim) as Conner Sims aka Anti-Man (since Anti-Man never ages). Then cast Theo James (Divergent) as JFK. John C. McGinley (Scrubs) as Dr. Bolivar Trask. Finally, I would cast Laura Linney (Ozark) as Marlene Frazier/Candace Brashear.

The movie itself would be an adaptation of the original six-issue mini. I would have Don Cheadle (who was also in Meteor Man) reprise his role as James Rhodes, who races to find the only man who could defeat Anti-Man. He'll play the role that Tony Stark did in the original storyline.

[JudicatorPrime]

Do you think that would do well? Not being critical just to be clear the question did ask what you would do, I am just curious if you think that is the best approach.

Never underestimate the appeal of a good revenge story.

No one knows Adam. Everyone knows Superman. But would they even care to know him if, say, Superman was born a slave who had won his freedom for the briefest instant, but instead returned to his masters and submitted himself to their unjust laws and system for 40+ years of his life, doing very little -- certainly nothing on the grand scale commensurate with his intellect and powers -- while all around him freedom fighters of every hue came and gave their last full measure for the cause of freedom?

Think of the history. They killed JFK. Adam stayed retired. They killed MLK. Adam stayed retired. They killed RFK. Adam stayed retired. A bomb goes off in a Birmingham church, killing 4 little girls. Where's Adam? Retired. And that's just the real life history, we haven't even started to discuss the horrific things that happened in the Marvel Universe while Adam was at home on his sofa canoodling with his NSA-embedded wife. Does anyone really find THAT character compelling, must-see-movie material?

In my treatment Superman dies, because the simple truth is a noble man with his vast power would rather be dead than submit to an unjust system, even if the mechanism of that unjust system came in the form of a presidential order. For someone like Superman, compliance spells complicity. But Superman also dies, because there can be no messianic beings -- no second comings -- to right the deeply systemic issues that plague our country. This is not a system that can be changed by supermen. This is a system that can only be changed by avenging sons and daughters, politically active and positively engaged to the utmost of their ability, and by those who crave with every iota of their being equal justice for all.

My treatment isn't a fairytale. It's a reckoning.

Edit: And yes, I think Kevin Brashear makes for a far more interesting Blue Marvel than his father. Given the times, we no longer have to ask what would happen if Superman was Black in the Civil Rights era. The Civil Rights era is NOW.

[MoneySpider]

Someone posted a video of their version of Blue Marvel vs. Thanos:

[The Cool Thatguy]

Do you think that would do well? Not being critical just to be clear the question did ask what you would do, I am just curious if you think that is the best approach

More on topic I think simple origin story and he has a good one , works well enough, A hero force to retire because of his race, while telling the story in present about threat from the past now doing damage in the present. Stick one of the most charismatic actors in the world who now has pepper of gray in his hair


For extra heat stick a confrontation with Hulk or Thor and some of Avengers in it.

No, God no.

Will Smith brings the same character to all his action movies.

Just no.

[ed2962]

If you guys were in charge of a Blue Marvel MCU movie, hw would you guys handle Adam at this point in the game?

I would just do the first mini-series. A sequel would explore his "missing" years of the 70-80's...Adam reacting to on one hand the the progress of minorities in the 70's/early 80's, then facing how the inner city was devastated by crack and the economic recession mid-80's, AIDs, and of course the threat of Nuclear War. He'd wrestle with how much responsibility he has to get involved. I'm not sure what the "villain" would be, but I'm thinking something like a Shuma Gorath style threat. Something big enuff to challenge him, yet would be a secret from most of the world.

[Tendrin]

Fair points, all.

I reckon Sentry's a dead man (for a bit again, at least) after King In Black anyways. Might be for the best.

I really think Adam needs another mini. Not an ongoing that turns INTO a mini because of sales, but a decent mini, a la Sentry Reborn. Just dedicate half a dozen, maybe eight issues, or even an OGN to raising his profile from a niche character. Blow some wind into his sails.

I really doubt that Cates would go through the trouble of officially bringing Bob back just to feed him to Knull. It was his idea to bring Bob back in the first place.