I enjoyed Mantis' inclusion in Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, as her kind and innocent personality offset the rest of the often grumpy team. I was surprised to see how much of a role she played in Avengers: Infinity War as well, I wasn't expecting that. I do remember her being very gifted ant hand to hand combat in the comics, I'd like to see some of that showcased in her future appearances.
Frankly Mantis in the movie was nothing like the Mantis in the Avengers. Pom Klementieff does have the legs to pull off the classic costume even if it was just her PJs before putting on ugly uniform.
ReplyDeleteI can easily imagine Katana telling Mantis in no uncertain terms how inappropriate her costume is for a warrior. And rightly so.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the Marvel Cinematic versions of Mantis and the Grandmaster were needlessly dummed down.
ReplyDeleteI do like the character of Mantis (and lovely Pom Klementieff) in the Marvel movies, but I had a very brief discussion with Steve Englehart last year, where he and I agreed that she sure isn't the "Mantis" that he created.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that the "formula" for the Marvel movies includes a set amount of "comic relief", which is something the comics either don't do or do badly, so it has to be shoe-horned into the movie. And there are characters with name recognition that can be hard to take seriously. For better or worse, Mantis (post Englehart) is one of those characters, so it's easy to give her those moments. And the movie version of her is still an improvement over the "Believer" shill her character was stuck with in the GotG cartoon series.
ReplyDeleteAnd after the movie version of the Collector, a serious version of the Grandmaster wasn't going to work, although I do think Goldblum could have tried a little harder to look interested in the part.
Ross, I hate to find fault, because I love all of your genius creations here!, but Mantis would not use the first person pronoun. Mantis would say,"Will you join this one, Tatsu Yamshiro..."
ReplyDeleteI first began reading the Avengers just before Englehart's extended Celestial Madonna story-line got underway. I just caught the final installment of the Avengers-Defender War. Let me tell you that was pretty heady stuff for a twelve yer old from a small town in southern Indiana. It's still my favorite era of the Avengers.
ReplyDeleteA particular highlight for me was the original Legion of the Unliving story. Thor versus the Frankenstein Monster especially got my young blood pumping.
One of the reasons I love this blog is because it reminds a lot of us of when comics were still fun.
@Jay: there was a little too _much_ comic relief in the second GOTG movie! Whereas, this is the first I've heard about any TV cartoon spin-off. So, to call it "forgettable" would probably be a masterpiece of understatement.
ReplyDeleteGive the butt-kicking Mantis, anyday!
@Anon: The Marvel cartoon shows on Disney XD (various seasons of Avengers, GotG, and Spider-Man) have been around at least as long as the movies. They are, of course, YA versions and storylines, but they are normally very well done. Several characters (Ant-Man, Black Panther, etc.) and plots have been test driven on the cartoons before their movies started filming.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree, the butt-kicking (and overtly seductive) version of Mantis is definitely the preferred one.
@Jay Johnson: My local cable provider doesn't carry Disney XD. So, this is the very first I've also heard of any of these cartoons, myself.
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