Board 8 > Han continues watching the MCU (digi)

(+) Yeah! (+)

After Season 1, the movie tie ins don't really matter at all to the show's plot. Civil War kinda but still not really.
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

The villain was strong. The Mandarin was set up really well from the beginning, and they didn't really even try to hide that Killian was involved with the shit. I can't remember how I felt the first time I watched it, but I feel like they hid Mandarin being a figurehead pretty well. That said, at the end of the movie, Killian yells "I'M THE MANDARIN" which is unnecessary, like, we've figured it out dude. Trevor Slattery A+ though.

That was the worst plot twist ever
In anything
I can't name a worse plot twist in existence
"I am a actor"
Really now
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I can't name a worse plot twist in existence

Star Ocean 3.
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Planet of the Apes (2001)
Dark Knight Rises
That movie where the guy happens to be working in the WTC on 9/11 at the end
The Happening
The Village
The Number 23
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Imagine how much better Dark Knight Rises could have been if Bane had just been working by himself all along.
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Well I guess I exaggerated
But it was really dumb, glad to see Mr Lasastryke think the same way

Iron Man 3 was also the first MCU film I have seen in theater, I hated that twist so much that I refused to watch another Marvel movie in a theater for 2 years
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Mandarin plot twist was literally amazing

I could how you could think it was bad if you actually bought into what fake Mandarin was saying in the first act. If you bought into his generic talk about "lessons" and american greed etc. If you thought that was compelling rather than by the numbers.

He was designed to be so, so generic and I was really disappointed with how much they wasted Ben Kingsley. And then bang - all those generic threats and silly, OTT "mystique" was the whole point. He was designed to be that way because he was a "custom made terror threat".

But I mean if you thought that stuff in the first act was actually good, then yeah I could see how you might have problems with the twist.
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Mandarin twist was fine but that scene being a bunch of poop, fart, and sex jokes is terrible
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mnkbear907 posted...

After Season 1, the movie tie ins don't really matter at all to the show's plot. Civil War kinda but still not really.

Doctor Strange also has a thematic tie-in, and Infinity War kinda the same as Civil War.
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sure, mandarin was generic in the little screentime he got but kingsley did great in portraying the character from the comics and there was a lot of potential to do more with him. and i could have been on board with the twist if it actually had a point, but the whole mandarin plot went absolutely nowhere. you have killian going "i am the REAL mandarin" and according to that one-shot han was talking about (which i haven't seen) they hint at there being another "real mandarin" who never comes up again? what the hell?

i had way less of a problem with, say, lex luthor in batman v. superman. another significant villain from the comics who was turned into a dumb joke character for a movie adaptation BUT at the hint they hint that he's under darkseid's influence, which makes you assume that's the reason he's acting that way. at least that had a point. the mandarin twist just came across as marvel giving a giant "fuck you" to mandarin fans for no reason - it's like what they did to deadpool in wolverine 1.
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I guess I'm just not a big enough Mandarin fan to care!
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StealThisSheen posted...

That movie where the guy happens to be working in the WTC on 9/11 at the end

FUCKING THIS

MY FUCKIN OLD ROOMMATE IN COLLEGE MADE ME WATCH THIS SHIT WHEN I DIDNT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT AND I GOT SO MAD
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

according to that one-shot han was talking about (which i haven't seen) they hint at there being another "real mandarin" who never comes up again? what the hell?

Well it's unlikely to ever be important again, maybe they planned something with it, maybe not
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Nanis23 posted...

Mr Lasastryke posted...

according to that one-shot han was talking about (which i haven't seen) they hint at there being another "real mandarin" who never comes up again? what the hell?

Well it's unlikely to ever be important again, maybe they planned something with it, maybe not

Here's the reason they made that one shot - after the movie came out there were a lot of babies crying about how the twist was soooo bad and it RUINED and WASTED the Mandarin, one of the greatest villains of all of Iron Man fandom or something

Sound familiar?

So they released this to say "okay, maybe there's a real mandarin out there. Maybe we'll make that movie someday. Quit whining, babies."

But i guess it doesn't matter because then the babies complain about not having it now. Babies are gonna cry no matter what you do.
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yeah that short seemed like a reaction to fan backlash at wasting Mandarin. It was totally a retcon.
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

he format of the movie, being told as a story from Tony's point of view, is pretty solid, although a little weird because we haven't seen something like it before. The movies are all told from a 3rd person omniscient point of view, but this one is a 1st person omniscient... which makes it a little weird when scenes without Tony happen. But I digress. This leads to two amazing moments... one is ending the movie with the same line that the first one ends with "I am Iron Man", but with so much more meaning and completion to it. Tony's arc throughout the entire 4 movies ends really solidly here - he has his place in the world, he understands who he is, what his self and Pepper mean to him. His conclusion is really good. So of course I expect them to ruin it with Avengers 2.

The reason the movie is framed this way is because of the director - Shane Black. Trivia time!

As I'm sure you are aware, RDJ had a lot of trouble with addiction in the 90ies and his career tanked big time by the early 2000's. He had a ton of trouble getting roles in the mid 2000's as most studios wouldn't take on the risk of his relapse. Iron Man is often credited with his "return" to acting, but it's more like his breakthrough back into mainstream blockbusters rather than his return to acting entirely. There were some roles he got thanks to personal connections of people willing to take a chance on him, and some cases where the studio withheld a lot of his pay until production was over in case he fucked things up.

One of these movies was Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which was directed by Shane Black. It's an excellent movie where RDJ plays a small time thief from NY that somehow gets swept up to LA to be in a movie but gets caught up in a twisted plot of mystery, murder, romance, and gunplay. Val Kilmer also stars and he's excellent too.

RDJ's character, Harry, is basically Tony Stark if everything was going wrong in his life and he was a screw up instead of genius. Which I guess doesn't sound like Tony Stark but he feels very similar to me.

As you may have also heard, casting Tony Stark was very controversial... like most movies there was a lot of pressure to get a young good looking guy like a Channing Tatum type to star and draw audiences. At one point Tom Cruise was considered... but he wanted the mask to be see through so you could see his face the whole movie. Imagine where we'd be now.... Anyways, Favreau pushed to get RDJ in, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is often said to be the role that helped him get it.

The structure is very similar to Iron Man 3. RDJ narrates the story the same way. I guess RDJ really liked working with Shane Black and pushed Marvel to bring him in for IM3, and Black brought his distinctive style to the movie. IM3 is kind of a spiritual sequel to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

I highly recommend Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It's a great movie. But since you are pushing through through a 20 movie 18 season mega franchise it might be a while before you can fit that in your queue....

Thoughts on IM3 itself later
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CoolCly posted...

Here's the reason they made that one shot - after the movie came out there were a lot of babies crying about how the twist was soooo bad and it RUINED and WASTED the Mandarin, one of the greatest villains of all of Iron Man fandom or something

Sound familiar?

So they released this to say "okay, maybe there's a real mandarin out there. Maybe we'll make that movie someday. Quit whining, babies."

But i guess it doesn't matter because then the babies complain about not having it now. Babies are gonna cry no matter what you do.

what an incredibly mature response to people's criticisms of the mandarin twist
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I mean the "criticisms" weren't exactly mature in the first place
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StealThisSheen posted...

I mean the "criticisms" weren't exactly mature in the first place

what's immature about the criticisms i pointed out?
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I'm not talking about your criticisms. I'm talking about the people that caused the response in the first place.
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ok that's fair.

still don't get why it's apparently ok to complain about the treatment deadpool got in wolverine 1 but not about mandarin, though. there was a massive outcry about deadpool (possibly bigger than the mandarin outcry), yet nobody is saying "OH MAN THERE WERE SO MANY BABIES CRYING ABOUT HOW DEADPOOL WAS RUINED AND WASTED."

i guess it's because deadpool is way more popular as a character than mandarin, but does that make it ok to bash mandarin fans into the ground like this?
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I mean, at least IM3 had the dignity to make it absolutely clear that "the Mandarin" in that movie was a complete sham.

Meanwhile Wolverine: Origins expected us to accept that as a serious take on Deadpool.
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Does Pepper retain her powers after Iron Man 3 or does she lose them? I can't remember.
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Anagram posted...

Does Pepper retain her powers after Iron Man 3 or does she lose them? I can't remember.

They treat her and remove it.
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

Anagram posted...

Does Pepper retain her powers after Iron Man 3 or does she lose them? I can't remember.

They treat her and remove it.

Thanks. I havent seen any of them since theaters.
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

Anagram posted...

Does Pepper retain her powers after Iron Man 3 or does she lose them? I can't remember.

They treat her and remove it.

What a waste of a plot,

PerfectChaosZ posted...

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Anagram posted...

Does Pepper retain her powers after Iron Man 3 or does she lose them? I can't remember.

They treat her and remove it.

What a waste of a plot,

It is
She is actually no longer important ever since Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3 should have been released later and affect more the MCU imo
But nope
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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is terrific fun. Love that movie
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.
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I need online ranked mode to be confirmed. Then I reach maximum overhype.
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@Gmun can we have a Nanis bumping alt?
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NeoElfboy posted...

I'll try to explain since you obviously know nothing about Canada:

In Canada, provincial parties and federal parties are distinct from each other despite sometimes using the same names. In fact, in my province, the Liberals are the right-wing party.

In fact, Ontario specifically has a history of liking to elect a left-wing party at one level and a right-wing party at another (probably to achieve some balance).

The Ontario Liberal party had been in power for a decade and a half and were unpopular; they were expected to lose this election for a long time even back when the Trudeau Liberals were extremely popular.

... I'm not sure with I bother. I know you're not actually interested in understanding the political situation in Canada, and probably just hate Trudeau because he's a feminist or something similarly inane.

Would also note the actual left wing party had the biggest gains (+10%) since the Wynne's libs were so unliked the left-wing evacuated. Unfortunately Libs historically control the left since Ontario is a centrist stronghold that sees NDP votes as wasted votes, so large chunk of voters clung on to the Liberal's sinking ship (again, NOT the left party. Liberal does not mean left, see Japan) because even if NDP are doing well in the polls with the tides turning left, nobody has riding data to feel safe to switch in there area, particularly in the outer-GTA, the 905 (including my city!).

In Canada the left wing are always split, it's how we had Harper for 10 years despite the country hating his guts and devoting everything to toppling him last federal election. This was Ford's election to lose and the only question being asked from day 1 was if the Libs would even retain official party status (they lost it).

If you want more facts, provincial elections are largely ignored by most Canadians and heavily stacked by the elderly

<a class="img_container" target="_blank" href=""><img src="" alt="P4EwTGB"/></a>

Also another FUN FACT: for the conservative primaries, Doug Ford lost both the popular vote AND the number of ridings but still won the full thing as the OPC primary was a completely chaotic clusterfuck of people not being able to vote due to new changes in the system. Honestly if Doug lost the primaries, we wouldn't have even needed to hold a provincial elections since the Conservatives would've just sweeped house.

Oh right another fun fact especially for vlado because you would inexplicably think this is a bad thing: The provincial election had very very little to do with immigration, and Doug Ford actually had decent minority support, particularly with Wynne's sex-ed curriculum angering Muslim communities. So congratulations to Vlado for cheering on traditional Islamic values guiding Canadian provincial politics!
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Oh my god Han save us from those bumps
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@GuessMyUserName

please add a check to filter bump posts that are too long
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I found the post to be very informative.
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Yeah, that's a little bit too much.
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That post confused me so much. It was the first post I saw going through my notice and I thought I stumbled into a politics topic somehow.
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post length is actually a good idea hrm

I'm gonna delete that one >_>

I may revamp the method of pulling random posts altogether so the script reads the originating topic and I can thus block poli threads altogether that way, or Vlado topics lmao, but now that there's multiple bots with different backgrounds yeah
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tweak


if pinfo['tauth'] == "Vlado":
..... print("Vlado topic!")
..... posttext = get_random_post(usr, checkcount+1)
elif "politic" in pinfo['topic'].lower():
..... print("Poli topic!")
..... posttext = get_random_post(usr, checkcount+1)
elif "save my" in pinfo['topic'].lower():
..... print("Save My topic!")
..... posttext = get_random_post(usr, checkcount+1)
elif len(pinfo['post']) > 500:
..... print("Long post!")
..... posttext = get_random_post(usr, checkcount+1)
else:
..... posttext = pinfo['post']

hopefully this works... post size is still WIP as we gradually find out what length is too big/small >_>
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Onto agents of shield, episode 5. Finally.

Ward likes board games! More points.

Not sure if May is hitting on Coulson or just wants to fight.

"English isn't my first language, but that word means something different than what you think."

Scorch is a dumb name though.

Half naked Skye top tier.

Ugh cringe minecraft reference. Fitzsimmons so bad this episode.

There's some good intrigue and plot here. I'm into it.
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I am one episode ahead of you in SHIELD
Not sure what I think of the format
I prefer my shows to have a centeralized plot
Yeah each episode being different from each other is interesting, but sometimes you stop and ask "what's the point?"

I hope it will change later
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Nanis23 posted...

I hope it will change later

It does

It does have a centralized plot so far - just isn't touched on every episode.

I really liked episode 6. Got some much needed Fitzsimmons time and development. Got really emotional at times.

I forgot to mention, last episode, somebody got immolated alive. On cable television.

Anyway, good use of suspense here. Some silly effects. Ward diving through the air was funny. Fitz was still sad at the end though.

1 more episode before Thor 2 tie-in, though. Gonna watch it now.
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

On cable television.

Just to nitpick, it's broadcast television. Which is actually generally stricter, though the networks have been getting away with more and more over the years. ABC still tends to not get as graphic as Fox/NBC/CW though.
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Sitwell is here :D
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Oh boy, a Fitz episode. Is this where he stops being last on my list?

Simmons shot Sitwell xD

I can see Fitz climbing the ranks... but not just yet.
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it took me a while to like Fitz as much as I do now
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I love Iron Man 3. So good.
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Alright boys, it's time.

Thor: The Dark World

The movie starts the same way Thor 1 did... with storytime. Dark elves are silly. They are dressed silly, the fight with "aether", which is such a copout for naming things. What is their motivation anyway... plunge all worlds into eternal night? Eh, that's not so bad. As long as it's pre 2am night, before the bars close.

Poor Loki, couldn't just be a good dude.

Sif is such a babe. The mixture of tech in this fight scene is weird though... rocket launchers vs. Norse fighters. Cosmic demi-god with magic hammer.

"Is that why everything's on fire?" Gets body slammed.

This big rock dude is continuing the trend of Thor vs big guys in his movies. First the Destroyer, then the Thing. Who's he going to fight in Thor 3, the Hulk?

The rainbow road just exists again, I guess. Are they just handwaving its destruction in Thor 1 away? I mean, Thor did show up in the Avengers without any hoopla, but they kinda left it open "there are more ways to travel then just the blahblahgate". But I guess blahblahgate is just back? Or maybe there are different ones that lead to different places.

Odin trying to tell Thor to go for Sif. The Allfather and I are of the same mind, it seems. Asgardians are great - drink for ages. Yes. Take me to Asgard. The land of my forefathers (I'm mostly Polish tho)

Did they feel the need to put a subtitle on London? We can obviously tell it's London, by the famous Ferris Wheel and Capitol Building.

Hey there Natalie. And Darcy is back too. Hopefully there's a point to these two. This guy is just on a date with Natalie Portman and doesn't care and why is Selvig naked why are they doing this to me.

This kid just lifted a truck and it's floating there on its own. I've seen this before, in Agents of SHIELD.

Oh, man Natalie teleported, then the aether went into her (wink). Is Natalie the bad guy?!

Why is this guy called a dark elf, he's pretty pasty tbqh.

Natalie Portman floating in a field of red space. What am I watching? Is this Annihilation? Star Wars? Any Natalie Portman movie? Darcy kinda ruins all the moments to try to be funny. They had a really cute and well-put together romance reunion thing and she just had to ruin it. And then she explodes. Natalie Portman explodes now. This is good. Heimdall is a bro too.

Why are many of the worlds called something-heim, but then there's Asgard and Midgard? Are the 9 realms the gards or the heims? Are heims just planets?

Dark Elves existed before the universe? The big bang was basically just Yggdrassil growing? I'm so glad these guys have no subtitles. Really makes their scenes worth it.

Loki is being all emo and lame. He's not being as sympathetic as I want. Just being kinda a dick really.

Who loved Natalie better? Thor or Anakin?

Heimdall is such a bro. I like how the Dark Elf ships are designed to fly around Asgardian architecture. Dark Elf technology seems to be way superior to Asgardian though, even thousands of years after they were defeated.

Awwww they killed Frigga and it's all Loki's fault :(

"Where is she?" "I'll never tell you."

She was literally right around the corner.
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Stan Lee cameo as some old guy in jail who wants his shoe back.

I feel like the writers of this movie didn't watch the first Thor. I feel like Odin has been misrepresented this entire movie so far. At least Loki is sad now.

God, Heimdall is SUCH a bro. Best part of this escape sequence by far. The bickering between Loki and Thor is pretty good too.

Loki is the clear opposite of a bro. Unless this is some sort of trick, he'll struggle to be redeemable after this.

Oh it is a trick. I'll admit, I didn't figure it out until after Loki was pacing after saying he wanted to watch Asgard burn. He wanted recognition and admiration, not death and destruction.

And Loki gets taken out the same way he took out Coulson. Fitting?

Not a big fan of the Deus Ex that let's Thor and Natalie go back to London.

OH NO IT'S ANOTHER TRICK DAMMIT LOKI YOU ASS

Did Loki kill the Asgardian looking for him and take his place? That's rude.

Aliens in New York? How can we one-up that?
Greenwich: Hold my beer.

This aether power is kinda lame. It's just... darkness. It's not particularly cool or seemingly powerful or anything.

This whole climax sequence is eh. The teleporting around is kinda cool, but all the places they go are just Thor locations. Would've loved a good cameo of some other location. They brought in Cap, they should've brought in Stark Tower or something, idk. Darcy continues to be bad, although Selvig isn't too horrible, now that they've gotten past his whole nudist phase.

Defeating Drizzt was ok... smart point from Thor. "Can't destroy aether... can destroy you". Though the method for controlling tp anomalies is kinda silly as well.

Not a big fan of the Deus Ex that just saves Natalie and Thor's lives.

In the end, Thor chooses banishment and herohood ahead of his birthright. I suppose that is fitting for having him establish his part as a true hero in the MCU.

AND LOKI AUGH IT WAS YOU ALL ALONG YOU SLY BOY YOU

Does this mean Loki killed Odin? Better not have.

Theeeeere's the Marvel Cosmos tie-in, with the Collector. Ohhhhhh the aether was an infinity stone. Is this the first time they said the Tesseract was, or did that happen in Avengers? Wait... IS THE COLLECTOR WORKING FOR THE PURPLE MAN IN THE FLOATING CHAIR?

Post-post credits scene was meh. Thor is back on Earth. Yay I guess. Get rid of Natalie Portman already. And the Jotunheim creature running amok still is dumb, the Agents of SHIELD should have captured it already.

Thor will return.

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In the end... it wasn't bad. There was enough coherence to make it not Iron Man 2 levels of meh. But overall... it wasn't strong. A lot of things were done poorly. The setpieces were mainly dull. The characters were... varied in their worth. Darcy especially was awful. Most stuff on Earth was. The villains weren't very compelling. Too much deus ex machina. Didn't explain some things (where is Odin?).

Pacing was alright though. Plot was... ok. Seems like it was very much used as a reason to unearth another Infinity Stone. By my knowledge, that leaves Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange for two more. There are six stones? I guess I'll wait and see.

Thor was solid himself, and the combat and action sequences were pretty exciting. Hate that Sif has to take a backseat to Natalie Portman. Music was good, though not amazing.

HOT DAMN LOKI THOUGH

Ugh every time he's in a movie I get why everyone goes gaga for Tom Hiddleston. Fuck man. What a great character.

Placing this one is a little hard, but I guess they all will be soon.

Movies
The Avengers
Iron Man 3
Iron Man
Captain America: The First Avenger
Thor
Thor: The Dark World
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Iron Man 2
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