First, a little background. I may only be 17, however I have a huge wealth of knowledge when it comes to comic books-I buy a new batch every few months when I go into the city. I am currently only reading DC because...Marvel NOW! is stupid (a subjective opinion of course).I have followed this site for 3-4 years now, though have never really...'contributed' anything until now-I request that you refrain from harshness on a 'stupid teenager's' first article.
So onto the meat of it now. Two awesome things happened yesterday: 'Iron Man 3' was released here in Australia (I only went to see it today though), and the first trailer for 'Thor: The Dark World' came out. I was at first quite hesitant about Phase Two-in my opinion, 'The Avengers' was a failure (don't get me started on Ruffalo) and thus I was wary of the Iron Man threequel. However seeing the 'Thor' trailer yesterday and the film today my love of Marvel has been thoroughly reinvigorated-I have been left yearning for, well, more. It has got my mind churning about what Feige and Whedon have in store for us in the future. I will warn that much of what is below is speculative, though dear God I hope it's true!
Phase Two:
'Iron Man 3': Well this has obviously come and gone now so I can't really speculate on it-only on what it teases about the future. This is where we go into spoiler territory, so, um, last warnings. By the end of the film, Tony blows up his armours and has the shrapnel and arc reactor removed (by a blink-and-you'll-miss-him Dr. Wu). However, in the end credits it says that 'Tony Stark will return', contrasting with the 'Iron Man will return in The Avengers'-I think the word choice here is very deliberate. While there has been talk of an 'Iron Man 4' in Phase Three I don't believe it is required-the third film has fully concluded Tony's character arc across the trilogy (and 'The Avengers') and so I think a quadquel (trying to be inventive but you know what I mean) would simply be grasping at straws. He has no further need of his armour. I do believe he should return in 'The Avengers 2', but as Tony (again in my opinion) pretty much hogged all the spotlight in the last one I think only in a supportive capacity-let others have their time to shine. But I think this should be Tony's last appearance-besides, someone ELSE can take over the tech aspect of the MCU in Phase Three...
'Thor: The Dark World': Not much to speculate on here. I think it's fairly safe to say Christopher Eccleston's Malekith is working with Surtur (I'll get back to him later), not Thanos. It would be interesting for Loki to have a bit of redemption-but they'd better not kill him! Oh, and I believe the Tesseract/Cosmic Cube should again be loosed on Earth...
'Captain America: The Winter Soldier': I don't mind Cap going all secret-agenty. Honestly. This film is our bridge to basically show what S.H.I.E.L.D. gets up to. I don't believe it's likely Bucky's turn as the perennial 'Winter Soldier' will be the result of Soviet experiments in this one, judging by the lack of a certain Aleksander Lukin from the cast (though if he was in it I'd want Liam Neeson-debate at your own pleasure). So, it's more likely remnants from HYDRA will be pulling the strings. On that, remember when they were saying Josh Holloway and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau were up for a role? I doubt it was Crossbones, and HE can't be the main villain...if I were a betting man, I'd say Waldau will be showing up as Baron Zemo. Just hope they can logically explain the purple balaclava...also, I think whoever's controlling ol' Bucky should get hold of the Tesseract-just to preserve SOME similarity with the comic upon which the film is based.
'Guardians of the Galaxy': Here's where things get sticky. This film, the 'black sheep' of Phase Two, has the most important responsibility-shaping the cosmic side of the MCU AND properly introducing Thanos. Now the team has a highly-jumbled history, but after several hours of...Wikipedia searching, I've compiled a general story outline (this is where it gets the most fanfic-y). 'Guardians' is essentially supposed to be Marvel Studios' 'substitute' for the Fantastic Four (but don't say that to Kevin Feige!) so I've copied a slight bit from my idea for the FF reboot. In my opinion, after Earth is attacked by aliens, the government is gonna want to throw all it's money and resources into a space exploration mission to find and assess any potential threats-ergo Peter Quill. Quill commands a NASA ship which also consists of a certain Arthur Douglas (Batista)-however, this ship is intercepted by Thanos' fleet as he nears Earth. Quill is separated from the ship, in suspended animation, while the rest of his crew is slaughtered. He awakes maybe 50-100 years later and finds Earth has long-since been conquered by Thanos. It has been left in the control of either The Controller (who literally controls the population) or Korvac (Thanos is interchanged for the Badoon)-though I can only see Lee Pace as Korvac-so Quill goes and joins the other Guardians (Douglas resurrected as Drax) on a cosmic quest of sorts. The idea of the Infinity Gauntlet is introduced, and in the end the Guardians find a way to go back in time so they can help the Avengers before Thanos arrives...
'The Avengers 2': Not completely sure yet on this one. I think the Guardians should come back to the present to help the Avengers repel Thanos' invasion. Gathering the Infinity Gems (one of which was on Loki's staff...) should be of top priority. Big invasion movie with lots of cosmic stuff. Now in terms of the Avengers' line up I am worries.Tony shouldn't be part of the team, so Rhodey should be 'loaned'; other than that, Cap, Thor and Hulk should return. I have a feeling Black Panther (thankyou Morris Chestnut) and Ms. Marvel may join the lineup, but Hawkeye and Black Widow should return also. The post-credits scene should be as follows: Tony is on a laptop, messaging someone, and their conversation is about defending the Earth from future invasion-they should create an A.I., a 'computerised global protective network' with the goal of protecting the human race. It should be called U.L.T.R.O.N. The person on the other end of the conversation is revealed-it is Hank Pym.
Phase Three:
'Ant-Man': Remember when I said that someone would pick up Tony's 'technological slack' (okay, not in those EXACT words) in Phase Three? Enter: Ant-Man. First of all, Hank Pym needs to be four things: suffering depression, isolated from the world, a physicist/roboticist (not a biochemist/entomologist!) and a pacifist. I do like some of the 'edge' he has in the Ultimate books, however I also think he should be against violence. This brings me to my first controversial point: Ant-Man should NOT be Hank Pym. It should be Scott Lang. I'll explain this a bit more later, but in all honesty I would choose to make a few stubborn fanboys cry than illogically make a pacifist a superhero. Second point: bring A.I.M. back. I don't think they were fully explored in 'Iron Man 3', and I think that was done intentionally to reserve them for future movies. Third point: people need to get real and realise there will only be ONE Ant-Man movie, so my policy is try to squeeze as many related characters in as possible. Here's how I see the story:
During the time of 'The Avengers', Hank Pym was working with Vernon Van Dyne-with S.H.I.E.L.D. funding-on a way to stop the Chitauri. A Chitauri kills Vernon. Hank enters a depressive state and becomes increasingly caustic towards Janet Van Dyne. He begins working in what is basically a 'basement laboratory' in an abandoned shed in New York City-Eric O'Grady basically acts as his Phil Coulson (babysitter/S.H.I.E.L.D. intermediary). Janet, who is wealthy, starts funding Hank as well. Tony contacts Hank and suggests the idea of Ultron-he begins working on this under semi-secrecy, while also beginning to investigate previously-unknown subatomic particles which can shrink objects ('Pym Particles'). A.I.M. has 'reformed', publicly-owned by the highly persuasive and charming Jason Cragg (AKA the Voice), while its head of scientific development is Dr. Elihas Starr-a former rival of Pym's who competed with him for a position at S.H.I.E.L.D. He is the main villain. He finds out about Ultron-which is for the moment a computer program housed in a robotic body-and hires mercenary David Cannon, AKA Whirlwind (secondary villain) to masquerade as Janet's chauffeur, 'Charles Matthews'.
Unemployed-but-brilliant technician Scott Lang comes to A.I.M.and pleads with them to treat his daughter Cassie, who suffers some disease-they agree, on the condition that he infiltrates Hank's lab and steals info on Ultron. Scott attempts to do so, but is caught and stopped by Pym. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrive, though when Scott explains his situation they demand that he infiltrates A.I.M. to find incriminating evidence. He does this by Pym giving him the Pym Particles so he can shrink-the helmet is for communications (Pym acts as his tech support), not for ant language. Deemed to be in an unsafe environment, Ultron is moved via a truck, however the convoy is attacked by A.I.M. soldiers (think the plane heist in TDKR but with a truck, A.I.M. agents, Whirlwind and Hawkeye) and they take Ultron. In the climax, Ultron would awaken and-seeing the inferiority of humanity-would attempt to connect himself to the global computer network and exterminate all human life; Pym would be the one to shut him down. Cassie would be 'fixed'; in A.I.M., there would also be cameos from Howard Mitchell (Hijacker) and Alexander Gentry (Porcupine); and Janet would not become Wasp.
As for the other Phase Three films (on that, I only see them making three phases), I can see 'Doctor Strange', 'Thor 3', 'Captain America 3' and one other film before the third 'Avengers'. 'Thor 3' should go with the Ragnarok storyline-Surtur killing Odin and Loki returning to villainy-and be released in 2016, along with 'Doctor Strange' (whose magical aspects could spin quite well out of the 'Thor' universe and would use Dormammu and Baron Mordo as villains). 2017 should see the third 'Captain America'-maybe reintroducing the Red Skull and killing Steve Rogers, with Bucky taking the helm-and the other film (not a Hulk film) before the Avengers come together again in 2018.
I hope you like this-it took me a bloody long time to write!
Thanks.