It’s that time of year! The Multiversity Year in Review is here, and from now until Thursday, December 22, we will be talking about favorites in a variety of categories. Let us know what we missed in the comments!
3. Luke Cage
(Jess Camacho) By this point we’ve seen Daredevil and Jessica Jones take to the streets to fight crime in the Marvel Universe. While they each have their own voices and set of problems, there was something much more special about Luke Cage getting his own series. Luke Cage was timely and it had a voice that wasn’t heard in the Marvel Cinematic Universe until now. It tackled racism, abuse in the prison system, and the seemingly inevitable corruption in politics. It featured a soundtrack that captured the heart and soul of Harlem and actually felt modern compared to everything else Marvel has put out. Luke Cage was more stylish and progressive than any Marvel show and that’s a big part of why it’s such a successful adaptation. It adapted more than just characters. It adapted a message and a feeling instead of a look and it featured some of the most compelling characters the MCU has seen yet.
As a narrative, it was a mixed bag. The first half of the first season was much stronger but the cast and writing of each character is undeniably great. Mike Colter as Luke Cage is one of the best finds of the Marvel adaptations. He found the perfect balance between heart and brute strength and remained a likable lead all the way throughout. Colter made it easy for you to cheer for him but it was the women he was surrounded by that stole the show. Luke Cage had a cast that cable dramas would kill for. Simone Missick, Alfre Woodard, and Rosario Dawson as Misty Knight, Black Mariah and Claire Temple respectively brought something to this show that no other Marvel show has. They brought meaning to the world around Luke and gave this show depth that it needed to succeed. Luke Cage may not end up being as popular as Daredevil but it did the things that no other Marvel show has wanted to do. It gave us a New York City that actually looks and feels like New York City.
(Leo Johnson) While most of the MCU movies have been at least generally good, if not great as far as comic movies go, the Captain America movies have stood out as some of the best solo movies. Captain America: The First Avenger was a fun WWII war movie. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was more a modern spy thriller. Both were some of the best solo movies in the MCU slate.
Captain America: Civil War, honestly, is an Avengers movie in all but name. But it still has the quality that the Captain America solo movies have consistently had. It gives payoff on a some of the threads that have been slowly emerging throughout the other MCU movies — the tension between Tony and Steve, Steve’s relationship with Bucky, the world’s view of superheroes, etc. Along with introducing Black Panther and Spider-Man into the MCU it features pretty much every Avenger short of Thor and Hulk. There’s a lot going on in the movie and it probably shouldn’t work on paper, but it ends up working so well. The status quo it sets for the MCU going forward is a game changer and something we probably won’t see resolved until Infinity War.
In a year where superheroes fighting each other was at the box office a lot, Captain America: Civil War is the only one where there was real hope and levity in there as well. While the drama and superhero civil war might have been the main thrust of the movie, the lighter moments — like those between Bucky and Sam or pretty much anything that featured Tom Holland’s Spider-Man or Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man — are what really made the movie enjoyable and worth watching. That’s part of the charm of Captain America: he can fight some of his best friends over ideological differences, but he can still remain hopeful while doing it, something we need more of.
Continued below1. Supergirl
(Alice W. Castle) It’s been a pretty bleak year. From the dour slate of movies that have sluggishly dropped week after week detailing the failings of our beloved franchises to the way everyone on TV seems to be having a simultaneous freak out over everything ever to the complete and utter dissolution of democracy as we know it, it’s been a rough 365 all around. There has been one shining glimmer of hope, though, and that’s Supergirl.
At the beginning of 2016, we got the latter half of Supergirl‘s first season on CBS. The show really began to find its footing and rolled out episode after episode that developed the characters and world in a way to rival the best. Then we got the first half of the show’s second season as it moved to CW and joined the pantheon of the Arrowverse. While there some stumbles along the way, Supergirl found a new home that allowed it to develop the world and themes even more intricately and tie it into the larger Superman mythos in a concrete way. We’ve even seen Superman himself show up in one of the best live action incarnations of the character I’ve ever seen.
Standing against a year the seems to be heralding the apocalypse even more with each passing day, to see the last children of Krypton wearing the crests of the House of El and smiling as they use their incredible powers to help those in need was exactly the injection of pure hope that this year needed.
Editor’s Notes:
Mike: With Netflix playing a major role in how this category shook out, I’m not surprised that superheroes dominated this category. I mean, they’re comics greatest export, right?
Brian: I wish this category had a more diverse batch of projects represented but, as Mike said, most of what gets adapted is of the superhero fare. That being said, the CW shows are providing some incredibly fun television, with Supergirl clearly leading the pack. I’m behind on my Marvel programming, but I love how they are diversifying their output by doing such stylized shows over on Netflix.
This is a category that will only grow stronger as Hollywood runs out of ideas faster and faster, so I look forward to seeing where we stand a year from now.
Matt: I guess I’ll give Civil War that it was the first Marvel movie in a long time where the climactic battle wasn’t atop some flying/floating/crashing object. I think next year, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets might get a vote from me simply by not being another piece of superhero media.
