Blue Marvel Appreciation

[JudicatorPrime]

Too bad Marvel/Disney doesn't own the rights to Mr. Glass. I would love to see him as a Blue Marvel archenemy.

[ArsonoptiX]

I wonder if they should consider changing his name for the MCU if they ever use him. Just the fact that he's called Marvel potentially makes him sound like a derivative of Captain Marvel.

Maybe for the MCU they can mash him up with Sentry, and call him the Blue Sentry or something like that.

Blue Marvel would be an excellent story if they went the whole "Supreme" vibe. The first mini set up that the world wasn't ready for a Black dude of that magnitude of power. Instead of him "cowardly" hiding...I'd rather he have went off to space in disgust and did all kinds of cool stuff. Imagine a comic/TV show having flashbacks of his time in space and what he did mixed in with the reaction he would get coming back to Earth (especially in today's climate). A writer could have fun with this all powerful guy...who seen the universe, just disgusted at how small minded we are. Even toss in the idea that Blue Marvel knows SOMETHING (which is why he came back) is coming and his sadness at the fact that we will get wiped off the map because we aren't ready/together. I wish Marvel did a better job with Blue Marvel...but I take solace in the fact that even though Hyperion gets more shine...he's usually a flunky or some yes man. Blue Marvel is more than that to me. This is the dude who people should respect...and fear. Because he'll look at you and shake his head because YOU haven't caught up lol.

[mugiwara]

The issue with BM origins is that the public knew about him. Heck, it was because everyone knew about him that he was forced to retire.
It was already hard to believe in the comics that nobody ever talked about him, but in the MCU it just doesn't work.
Nothing in the MCU suggest that super powered people besides Cap were known in the last century. Hank and Janet were secret agents. And Carol... We still have to watch the movie, but I wouldn't be surprised if the SHIELD got all "men in black" with everything happening on Earth between her, the Kree and the Skrulls.

Like XPac said, maybe they would have to add elements from Sentry, like the device that makes everybody forget about one's existence.

[ArsonoptiX]

The issue with BM origins is that the public knew about him. Heck, it was because everyone knew about him that he was forced to retire.
It was already hard to believe in the comics that nobody ever talked about him, but in the MCU it just doesn't work.
Nothing in the MCU suggest that super powered people besides Cap were known in the last century. Hank and Janet were secret agents. And Carol... We still have to watch the movie, but I wouldn't be surprised if the SHIELD got all "men in black" with everything happening on Earth between her, the Kree and the Skrulls.

Like XPac said, maybe they would have to add elements from Sentry, like the device that makes everybody forget about one's existence.

As much as I'd like to see BM in the MCU....having him on Earth (or around it/coming back to it) would be a mistake. He'd work better in the GoTG corner IF they decided to include him or they'd have to ignore the 60s part. A TV show may work better because he could then have his own corner. I'd just rather it not be rooted in the past because the Silver Age tropes would be to easy to fall into. IF Blue Marvel was to come to the screen...there has to be an addressing of life today in the Trump era. But can you imagine the soundtrack?!?! I was disappointed in BP...because as much as Kendrick Lamar is cool...that whole vibe didn't fit to me. The Run the Jewels themed hip hip (and splash in some Roots, Common, Neo Soul) would have fit the BP film better. Blue marvel should get that treatment...none of that mumble mouth nonsense. REAL Hip Hop/REAL Neo Soul and even some acid jazz, jazz rap.

[DMightyBlue]

In terms of the MCU, they may just have to go the "just got my powers" route. Keep his character ideology and background the same. But, have him actually obtain his powers in the now. Maybe he was experimenting with the Antimatter reactor when Thanos did the snap? Him and Conner get stuck between the positive and negative zones.

[ArsonoptiX]

In terms of the MCU, they may just have to go the "just got my powers" route. Keep his character ideology and background the same. But, have him actually obtain his powers in the now. Maybe he was experimenting with the Antimatter reactor when Thanos did the snap? Him and Conner get stuck between the positive and negative zones.

Not a bad idea!! I could do a whole season of him learning his powers and then season two having him at full strength. Hmm what about setting your idea in the early part of the 21st century...he goes away...then comes back to now with all the "awesomeness" of now. Marvel has done a good job of staying away from real world events with their own President and what not. So BM could come back to a post snap world and take on the mantle of being a hero in a world that is struggling with loss. Maybe even have those close to him be gone or made because he could of helped and wasn't there...OR he could land right in the middle of what is actually going on real world and have to deal with it. Black Lightening is doing really well with that.

[DMightyBlue]

Not a bad idea!! I could do a whole season of him learning his powers and then season two having him at full strength. Hmm what about setting your idea in the early part of the 21st century...he goes away...then comes back to now with all the "awesomeness" of now. Marvel has done a good job of staying away from real world events with their own President and what not. So BM could come back to a post snap world and take on the mantle of being a hero in a world that is struggling with loss. Maybe even have those close to him be gone or made because he could of helped and wasn't there...OR he could land right in the middle of what is actually going on real world and have to deal with it. Black Lightening is doing really well with that.

Absolutely. Having him and Conner get stuck in the event horizon for an undisclosed amount of time could be the answer to why he wasnt around. Either during the 60's Stark era, or 70's Pym era, or now.

But i like the idea of him having to get used to the way the world is now, at the same time getting a handle on his powers.

[JudicatorPrime]

The issue with BM origins is that the public knew about him. Heck, it was because everyone knew about him that he was forced to retire.
It was already hard to believe in the comics that nobody ever talked about him, but in the MCU it just doesn't work.
Nothing in the MCU suggest that super powered people besides Cap were known in the last century. Hank and Janet were secret agents. And Carol... We still have to watch the movie, but I wouldn't be surprised if the SHIELD got all "men in black" with everything happening on Earth between her, the Kree and the Skrulls.

Like XPac said, maybe they would have to add elements from Sentry, like the device that makes everybody forget about one's existence.

No doubt, there are parts of Blue Marvel's origin that needs to be reimagined, whether you're talking about comics or MCU. Grevioux didn't go far enough in my opinion to show what this country -- any country really, but especially this one -- would do to a defiant revolutionary. You can't have Cassius Clay go to jail for his beliefs and principles, yet have Adam Brashear simply retired, moved to the burbs and gifted with tenure and a White woman (spy or not) for agreeing to sit out the Civil Rights movement. No matter what the true story is, those are the optics. People died trying to get this nation to live up to its creed. How can Adam Brashear, the most powerful man on the planet, sacrifice far less and come out smelling like roses? It just doesn't work.

That's why I insist that Blue Marvel's origin ought to diverge from canon. He either resisted the President's Executive Order and was gravely punished for it, or the alien invasion actually did work. That blinding flash of light might have been BM using antimatter, or it might have been the alien fleet spacially displacing Blue Marvel as a mutually destructive weapon of last resort, which ultimately sent him to another multiverse altogether. The "man" that came back to Earth wasn't Adam Brashear at all, but a doppelganger who had mimicked his likeness and powers to approximate levels. It can be a Dire Wraith, Skrull, or some other advanced extraterrestrial construct. But it wasn't Brashear.

And the real Adam Brashear? The real Adam Brashear was a modern day Odysseus who spent the last 55 years trying to find his way back home from another time/space continuum. In fact, we've met him already, albeit in disguise. He appeared in the pages of the Ultimates and fought alongside Galactus against Logos. The real Adam Brashear is The Infinaut.

[LordUltimus]

I feel like Blue Marvel would work better as a standalone movie without any MCU connections. Maybe even an animated movie.

[ArsonoptiX]

No doubt, there are parts of Blue Marvel's origin that needs to be reimagined, whether you're talking about comics or MCU. Grevioux didn't go far enough in my opinion to show what this country -- any country really, but especially this one -- would do to a defiant revolutionary. You can't have Cassius Clay go to jail for his beliefs and principles, yet have Adam Brashear simply retired, moved to the burbs and gifted with tenure and a White woman (spy or not) for agreeing to sit out the Civil Rights movement. No matter what the true story is, those are the optics. People died trying to get this nation to live up to its creed. How can Adam Brashear, the most powerful man on the planet, sacrifice far less and come out smelling like roses? It just doesn't work.

That's why I insist that Blue Marvel's origin ought to diverge from canon. He either resisted the President's Executive Order and was gravely punished for it, or the alien invasion actually did work. That blinding flash of light might have been BM using antimatter, or it might have been the alien fleet spacially displacing Blue Marvel as a mutually destructive weapon of last resort, which ultimately sent him to another multiverse altogether. The "man" that came back to Earth wasn't Adam Brashear at all, but a doppelganger who had mimicked his likeness and powers to approximate levels. It can be a Dire Wraith, Skrull, or some other advanced extraterrestrial construct. But it wasn't Brashear.

And the real Adam Brashear? The real Adam Brashear was a modern day Odysseus who spent the last 55 years trying to find his way back home from another time/space continuum. In fact, we've met him already, albeit in disguise. He appeared in the pages of the Ultimates and fought alongside Galactus against Logos. The real Adam Brashear is The Infinaut.

Yes that "uncle tom" quietly retiring vibe just kind of.....yeah. He should of left (and in my take he does/did)...he wandered the cosmos, saved people, fought wars, maybe even ruled somewhere. And now he's back...back to see how little stuff has changed. Back after seeing a whole big universe and finding people on earth are still petty and scared about a Black dude. THAT would just be an amazing and empowering story. Again going with the Supreme vibe...giving him a bit of sinister/by any means necessary...especially if he knew what was coming.

[XPac]

Yes that "uncle tom" quietly retiring vibe just kind of.....yeah. He should of left (and in my take he does/did)...he wandered the cosmos, saved people, fought wars, maybe even ruled somewhere. And now he's back...back to see how little stuff has changed. Back after seeing a whole big universe and finding people on earth are still petty and scared about a Black dude. THAT would just be an amazing and empowering story. Again going with the Supreme vibe...giving him a bit of sinister/by any means necessary...especially if he knew what was coming.

I didn't agree with Adams decision either... but I can't help but think it had the potential to tell some really interesting stories we just never got to see. I would have been curious to see the reaction people like Luke Cage had to his decsiion to just quietly retire. It would have been an interesting conversation to have.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I feel like Blue Marvel would work better as a standalone movie without any MCU connections. Maybe even an animated movie.

Agreed. I think the whole idea of 'What influence should one Superman have on society' is best left to a stand alone movie ala Logan

[JudicatorPrime]

I didn't agree with Adams decision either... but I can't help but think it had the potential to tell some really interesting stories we just never got to see. I would have been curious to see the reaction people like Luke Cage had to his decsiion to just quietly retire. It would have been an interesting conversation to have.

Luke confronted him about that in Mighty Avengers. In some ways, a story like that comes across as victim shaming. Adam was in a no-win situation, especially if you're talking about this with hindsight and from the perspective of the Black community. As interesting as those stories might have been from a literary standpoint, they completely suck if you are trying to create a pop hero that appeals across the board to all demographics. Grevioux created Adam for a specific narrative, but in order for the character to thrive well after that narrative, something must change.

[JudicatorPrime]

The challenge of writing a character like Blue Marvel is showing how he could have still played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights movement without ever needing to use his powers. Adam could have been depicted as someone who fought against "principalities and powers" without ever flexing an arm, or clenching a fist. But that isn't the story that Grevioux wanted to tell. It's not the story or message that Marvel wanted to buy and propagate. In truth, Grevioux was hamstrung by the very narrative that he wanted to present. He couldn't have Adam Brashear contribute in any way. Thankfully, in the real world, men and women didn't take a hard pass just because they didn't have capes and super powers. The fact of the matter is, they didn't have a choice. Their survival and the the lives of generations to come depended on them being actively engaged.

The minute that Grevioux determined that Adam wasn't going to play a part in the movement, he should have chose one of three paths for Adam:

1. Death. Figure out a credible way to kill him.
2. Incapacitation. Imprison him on a "black site" for the rest of his natural life using dark magic, powerful psionics, neutronium toxins that renders him comatose, whatever. Be creative.
3. Exile. Send him to space, another dimension, whatever, and make it impossible for him to return to terra firma.

The above choices would have made Iron Man's job of tracking down Adam much more difficult, but much more entertaining as well. Especially, if he had discovered that Adam had been killed and the Avengers had no answer to stop Anti-Man. Make it a "What if?" story where the world perishes for all I care. Anything is better than the subplots and outcomes that Grevioux gave us.

[Cosmic Emerald 23]

Yeah I agree, after going over his origin again, I find his decision to be "uncle Tom"ish, but on the other hand it was a no win situation. Let's say he decides to keep being a hero, the public already knows who he is and what he can do, so they're already terrified because they know he could wipe them all out in the name of civil rights if he wanted to. Add his defiance of the government on top of that, then the oppressors get REALLY scared, because then they would know they have an unstoppable Black man flying around who doesn't play by the "rules". You know how human beings are; we fear what we don't understand and we hate what we can't conquer. The race war would explode out of control with Whites going on mass acts of terror against the Black community including but not limited to firebombing, public beating, raping, lynching, etc. Adam has no way to be in every place at once, so countless innocent people are bound to die in a country at war because of his decision. I can see him heavily thinking about that and how much it would weigh on his conscience knowing that he would be subjecting his own people to more punishment by being a hero.

This is why I'm growing less and less fond of his origin because it just gets really messy to the point where no matter what decision he makes, he still loses (in a bad way) in the comic world and in the real world. Imo putting characters back in those times (especially Black Superman strength level characters, lookin at you too, Icon...) just doesn't work because then you have to explain why they didn't just fly in and end whatever race related conflict that was going on at the time, but you can never believably justify it. In the comics universe, those historical events (slavery, Civil Rights Movement, etc.) still have to happen, but they can't believably turn out the same as they did in the real world if you have those powerful heroes there. Making Adam a modern day hero would've been a better choice because then you wouldn't have to focus on race related issues of the time and have him be more of a mass appeal character.