The additional Ultron footage officially released last night: I will take a whole movie of them all—including Rhodey and Maria!! (but where's Pepper?) hanging out, playing music (there are instruments lying around), and being pretty while bantering. Also, Steve budges Mjolnir ever-so-slightly, and on reflection I agree with comments of others that either (1) he could have picked it up if he wanted but decided to save Thor and Tony's feelings or (2) he only feels worthy in time of need to use something that's so personal to Thor. Because, no way is Steve less worthy than Thor as a general matter.

ETA: interestingly, in the comics Natasha also has lifted it.

Also, at 0:51 there is a shot of a woman sitting on the right side, who is probably a Korean actress cast in a substantial supporting role. Oh look, the movies are finally getting around to giving us a woman of color!

. . . there's speculation that she'll be a villain, as she's a doctor/scientist and there's a comics character who sort-of fits that role. Let's not, okay?

The Phase-whatever title reveals: I don't want to harsh other people's squee, and I genuinely think that Black Panther and Captain Marvel are excellent news, but I'm feeling grumpy at getting half a very belated loaf. Also it seems like the only reason we're not getting a fucking Black Widow movie is Marvel's notorious cheapness on paying actors (Johansson's contract is up with the next Avengers movie or maybe Cap 3?), which, fuck that. You're allowed to have more than one woman!

At least Cumberbatch hasn't been officially confirmed as Doctor Strange yet? I have zero feelings about the character but it seems a really boring and perceived-safe actor choice; they've gone with lesser-known-at-the-time actors for all their leads so far and it's worked. Again: talking raccoon and tree with five-word vocabulary, they can do whatever they want, and that includes casting a not-over-exposed, not white, older dude.

The leaked Ultron footage with Steve and Tony talking: Theoretically Captain America: Civil War could be good if, as Feige stated, it focused on accountability and oversight (rather than registration per se), a.k.a. the things I've been complaining about the movies ducking, buuuuuut I'm not sure that the genre is capable of that kind of self-criticism and so I suspect it will suck. Similarly, making it to a Cap movie instead of an Avengers movie suggests it will be in large part about Bucky, and it's in character for Steve to be extremely, rashly protective of him . . . but he still would have killed Bucky if necessary to stop Insight, and thus it would be out of character for him to do the wrong thing to save Bucky, and then we're left with Steve being right and Tony being wrong, but I don't want Tony to be that much of a dick, and also Steve's comments from the leaked video are either talking about Insight-like things, in which case we've done that, or else make no sense at all (see: the 1930s).

Uh. That is the worst sentence I have written in a very long time, but I am squeezing out time for this, and anyway it's indicative of my state of mind.

Steve ripping a log in half with his bare hands is both hilariously dopey and mesmerisingly hot, however. And apparently he just likes his T-shirts that tight, since we can't blame SHIELD's wardrobe division for that any more.

Also, there was an announcement trailer for one of the way-down-the-road movies, which I can't bring myself to care about, but if you do, there are you.

Did I miss anything?

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