The Infinity War - Understanding the Stones and the Glove in the Center of it all

The dates are available on just about any comic website:

Part 1 of the Infinity War is in theaters in May of 2018

Part 2 of the Infinity War is in theaters in May of 2019

Yay!  I mean....wait....what is the Infinity War?

The Infinity War will be the fight for the six Infinity Gems (Infinity “Stones” in the movies), or Soul gems as they were originally dubbed when introduced in Marvel Comics in the 70’s.  The Gems are six powerful, and indestructible, artifacts...the most powerful in the Marvel Universe.  The interesting thing is that although they each have a unique incredibly powerful property they can also be used together to cause even more havoc (the whole being greater than the sum of its parts).  In other words, they can grant the power of a god.

Not sure what the stones are or the power they represent?  Here’s a brief overview (and, yes, there are inconsistencies between the comic books and the movies in regard to color and power....sigh.  See below.):

Tesseract - The Space Stone

This gem was seen in both Captain America (used by Red Skull) and The Avengers (used by Loki).  The Tesseract is a blue stone capable of teleporting anything from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’.  Thor supposedly took it back to his homeworld of Asgard at the end of The Avengers.

Aether - The Reality Stone:

The Aether was represented by a red floating liquid like thingy that appears to connect itself to a host and make it...well...stronger.  As an aside, this is not how it was in the comics.  In the comics it was focused more on wish fulfillment.  The only appearance, so far, was in Thor: The Dark World.  It was given to The Collector for safekeeping by the end of the film.  No one is sure if its still there after the end of Guardians of the Galaxy where The Collector’s home is destroyed.

Orb - The Power Stone:

The destruction of The Collector’s home, as discussed above, was caused by this stone.  This stone gives the wielder immense power.  It can give superhuman strength and the ability to wipe out planets, just by touching the surface.  At the end of Guardians of the Galaxy this stone was being housed by the intergalactic police known as Nova Corps.

Loki’s Scepter/Vision’s Forehead - The Mind Stone:

Marvel tricked you!  (well...me too)  Loki’s blue-glowing scepter was the home of the yellow infinity stone!  As seen in The Avengers, the mind stone allows the bearer to control the minds of others (hence the name “The Mind Stone”).

The Soul Stone:

This one hasn’t made its appearance yet.  If you go by the stories in Marvel Comics, the Soul Stone was a somewhat sentient creature that could trap souls inside another world.  As “trapping souls” has not really been explored yet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) there is no telling what the power may be.

The Time Stone:

Visit the future!  Visit the past! Alter them both so each time it's different!  You can even speed up or slow down the passage of time!  If you are horribly scarred go back in time and don’t have 6 beers before handling an arc welder, or pick up something safer like a nail gun!  I think you get the idea.  Like the Soul Stone, this gem has not been explored yet in the MCU.

So, what’s up with the glove?  Actually, it’s a gauntlet.  And, as an FYI, there are two of them, so it should be gauntlets....plural.  If you don’t believe me watch Thor.  In the Asgard treasure chamber, along with the other dangerous relics, the right glove can be seen.  At the end of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, however, we see Thanos pick up the left glove.  I’ll wait while you go and watch the movies to try to prove me wrong.

When will we see the last two stones?  I would venture to say that they will appear in any one of the number of Marvel movies coming out between now and Infinity War, Part 2.   I make this ridiculously safe bet because I really hate to lose.

If I wanted to just go with just a “semi-safe” bet I would point the finger at Doctor Strange and/or Thor: Ragnarok and/or Guardians of the Galaxy 2 for the other“gem sightings".

The Marvel Easter Egg:  Do The Stones Spell “Thanos”?

There have been rumors that the name of the stones spell out “Thanos”.  So far we have the “T” in Tesseract”, the “A” in Aether, the “O” in Orb, and the “S” in Scepter.  That leaves “H” and “N”.  But what would the names of the stones be?  Helicopter and Numbskull?  Horace and Norris?  wHo kNows?  I’m not going to lose sleep over it, it’s just a rumor and, frankly, a terrible excuse for an easter egg.

And What Comes After?

Once Marvel hits its cinematic peak in Infinity War Part 2, the conclusion that all of the movies have led to, what happens next?  It’s anybody’s guess and, as of right now, Marvel doesn’t have much planned.  All we know is that in July of 2019 the movie Inhumans is coming out.  This is kind of like planning dinner after having a feast for lunch.  What could possibly top what you just had?  I would NOT want to be connected to that film in any way, shape or form as all the reviews will be based on what was previously seen.

Infinity Gems or Soul Gems?  Easter Eggs?  Post Infinity War Movies?  It all remains a big question mark.  All we DO know is that people will wait decades to watch the next part of a good mystery.  Just ask Star Wars.

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The Most Expensive Superhero Movies Made To Date

In a recent blog I shared that I am on the clueless side when it comes to budgets for movies I see.  So, in the interest of readers of The Comic Whisperer’s Blog I looked up the most expensive superhero movies ever made.  Without a large preamble, let’s get to it:

17.)  Thor:  The Dark World (2013):  I am not a huge fan of the Thor movies but I will admit that the comic books have never disappointed.   This movie had an estimated budget of $170 million and wound up bringing in a smidgen over $206 million.  Yikes!  They just made their money back with a little profit for snacks at the cast party.

16.)  Captain America:  The Winter Soldier:  One of my personal favorites, this movie also had a budget of around $170 million but did much better in gross revenue at $259 million.  Their cast party had a petting zoo no doubt with this kind of profit.

15.)  Guardians of the Galaxy:  This one surprised me as it also had a budget around $170 million.  I would have guessed much higher.  The resulting gross sales did NOT disappoint coming in at a staggering $330 million.  When you can almost double your investment you’ve got to be happy.  I’ll bet they had Captain America AND Iron Man make guest appearances at their cast party.

14.)  The Dark Knight:  There is some controversy here about how much this movie made, but I’m going to stick with what I found on a reliable website.  The estimated budget for the film was $185 million with gross sales coming in at $530 million.  Wow!  That’s almost a 300% return on their money.  Now that’s good investing!

13/12.)  Iron Man 2 and 3:  The special effects in these movies were incredible.  It’s getting harder and harder to believe your eyes when you watch todays special effects.  It all looks amazingly real.  To make these movies look real took some big bucks.  Iron Man 2 had an estimated budget of $200 million and has gross receipts of  $310+ million.  Iron Man 3 had a similar budget of $200 million with gross sales of $408 million.  Although Robert Downey Jr. has said he is tired of playing Iron Man and is ready to call it quits, don’t think that the Iron Man cash machine is going to slow down.  Hopefully they won’t cast Ryan Reynolds as him as well as the other characters he’s mangled.

11.)  Spider-Man 2:  Sam Ramie’s combination of Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst didn’t disappoint in this movie that had a budget of $200 million.  Box office tickets sales loved them as they brought in an amazing $373 million.

10.)  The Amazing Spider-Man 2:  Marc Webb’s rendition didn’t fare too well.  What with a budget of $200 million no one was happy with receipts of $202 million.  No webbing can cover up that wound.

9.)  Green Lantern:  It’s no secret that I am not a fan of Ryan Reynolds the actor.  I’m sure as a person he’s an extremely nice guy.  It’s nothing personal.  This movie’s return on investment should be taken personally, though.   With an investment of around $200 million this bomb of a movie generated approximately $116 million.  In all fairness it wasn’t Ryan Reynolds who killed this movie.  Poor writing, lack of a real plot, no character development AND Ryan Reynolds were to blame for this box office disaster.

8.)  Superman Returns:  Despite being a HUGE Superman fan I did not see this movie.  Apparently I had good reason.  This film had a budget of $209 million and barely hit $200 million in total sales.  Maybe Superman should have stayed where he was and chosen not to return.

7.)  X-Men: Days of Future Past:  Enough cannot be said about the comic books surrounding Days of Future Past.  As an appraiser I can also tell you that these comics have increased in value.  The movie, however, was not so fortunate.  Having a budget of $200 million this comic book success turned box office meltdown struggled to hit $234 million.  A $34 million dollar return sounds great to me but, alas, in Hollywood they don’t see it the same way.

6.)  X-Men:  The Last Stand:   The X-Men hit the list again with X-Men:  The Last Stand.  I personally liked both this film and Days of Future Past but it appears that I was one of the few.    The initial investment here was around the $210 million mark and returned a measly $234 million.  It may have very well been one of their last stands.

5.)  The Avengers:  Loved this movie!!!  Again, I wasn’t the only one.  The Avengers had a budget of $220 million which seems low based on all of the special effects they had.  The return, however, was incredible, coming in at an earth conquering $623 million!  It’s no wonder why they are working around the clock to continue the development of these films.

4.)  Man of Steel:  Another Superman movie I haven’t seen, this film had a budget of $225 million with returns of $291 million.  Not a bad haul, but a disappointment for those who are comparing the Marvel and DC box office receipts.

3.)  The Amazing Spider-Man:  Is it me or are the Spider-Man movies getting harder to keep track of?  Different people playing Spider-Man, Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man movies, different Mary Jane’s, what’s a comic book fan to do?  It harkens me back to the football games my dad used to take me to.  Program vendors were yelling, “Get your program here!  You can’t follow the players unless you have a program!”.  I think I need a program.    This film had a budget of $230 million and had box office returns of $262+ million.  Not good, but not bad.  This franchise will continue to grow.

2.)  The Dark Knight Rises:  Yet another part of the Batman franchise makes it’s way onto this list.  With a budget of $250 million this outstanding film brought in $448 million.  If the Batman vs. Superman movie factored in box office take, it appears that Batman would be the clear winner!

1.)  Spider-Man 3:  The most expensive superhero movie ever made had a budget of $258 million and returned a smidgen over $335 million.  It is becoming abundantly clear that the amount of money you spend is not always translated into total revenue earned.  It’s a shame, really.  In Hollywood, it appears, that you don’t always get what you paid for.

All this being said we are still waiting on total receipts for Avengers:  Age of Ultron.  The budget for that film was an estimated $250 million.  Let’s see if that works out well in box office returns.

I think it’s safe to say that with the release schedule of Marvel and DC, among others, we will continue to see increases in budgets as production companies try to trump one another with rising returns.  As fans we can only benefit from this competition, so I plan to enjoy it.  Just remember to stay until the credits are over and the lights come up in the theaters or else you might miss the important stuff!!

Ant-Man: The Best Single Action Hero Film?

I went to see Ant-Man with my wife and son at the local theaters.  It was far more than I had anticipated.  Far more.  Movie goers agree; as of this writing Ant-Man was #1 for two weeks in a row at the box office.

I have to admit that I was quite surprised with the line for the movie...there was none.

No line for the snack stand, no line for tickets, no crowd in the lobby....nothing.

How could this be?  You couldn't view a web page or drive down the highway without seeing ads for this movie.

Then we went in the theater and it was PACKED!  We were lucky to find 3 seats together.

As a person who has been reading comic books for over 40 years I was only seeing the movie because of the hype.  In the comics Ant-Man was never much of a hero in my book.  A guy who could shrink and grow bigger.  So what.  Hank Pym and his wife Janet had that market cornered and in the newest run of Ant-Man comics he got his head handed to him by Taskmaster in the first few editions.

After leaving the theater, however, I have a completely different impression of him.

The computer generated graphics were one of a kind.  At no point did one look and say, "This isn't real".  It was real.  It was flawless.

The casting?  Perfect!  Every single character was cast perfectly! (unlike some of the other movies where some actors had no business being there.)

The writing?  Perfect!  A serious film laced with comedy at the right moments.  Not kitschy comedy or slapstick, stupid stuff.  Comedy that related to the topic and got a laugh...all perfectly timed.  (I was afraid that this was going to have the typical gratuitous humor filled with puns and wordplay.)

The computer generated imagery?  Stunning.  Ants came to life.  People grew and shrunk.  Thomas the Tank Engine toys broke through walls.  All of it done without any blurring or choppiness or camera cuts that you couldn't follow. (I'm referring to the Age of Ultron movie where the camera cuts were so fast and often that you couldn't keep up with what was going on.)

This movie rivaled Guardians of the Galaxy in it's casting, content and computer generated imagery.  It may have even surpassed it.

Whether you are a super hero fan, a comic book fan, or a fan of movies that just take you away for 2 hours go see this movie.  Heck, even if you're NOT a fan of comics and superheroes you will appreciate this film.

My hat is off to Marvel, Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll and all the others that made this movie just flat out awesome.  In my opinion, this is the best single action hero movie put out by Marvel.  I liked Captain America, but this was a step above.

As a hint to those who are going to see it, stay to the very end.  I mean the very end, like when the credits are done rolling.  The scenes that follow are critical to upcoming releases.

Will there be an Ant-Man II?  You bet there will and I'll be there.

P.S.  If you are so inclined, there is a club you can belong to that will send you custom Ant-Man stuff that you can't get anywhere else.  It's called the Marvel Collector Corps.  I'm not paid to advertise it, I'm just a member who is thrilled with the contents of the boxes I get.  Here are some of the pics from this month's box.  It's an Ant-Man T-shirt, a collector's edition Ant-Man comic and some bobbleheads.