It’s Croc Talk! Black Widow continues her pseudo wrestling moves. Diamond Cutter? Hurricanrana? Reverse Sister Abigail? Definitely not a Rock Bottom. And mace in the face! As for Happy… well, he’s still learning. But Happy’s happy. Ivan gets some suit foreshadowing. Oh, and Tony actually has a plan, plus a really cool move!
Black Widow continues kicking ass, and we get the Black Widow hero pose! Where have the Marines been? Hammer’s fake glasses are too perfectly broken. Where the hell is Grid W? And once again, shout out to Heidi Moneymaker!
Natasha’s magic curls. Weird building alerts. And Favreau proves he’s a great actor, not just director. Even when he’s in trouble as he takes on a stunt performer. But it’s not just any stunt performer. It’s Duane Johnson’s cousin!
Who’s in charge here? Ivan continues his destruction as he controls Rhodey in War Machine, and Tony saves a boy. Which boy? Well, you know… there’s much speculation about that.
Forgive us our digression on incredible science fiction toys, this is the first minute in which a cosplay toy exists in-movie, and we’re going to celebrate that. Beyond that, the drones are fully in action now, and we’re here for it, anchor spikes and all.
We start with wrestling. Apparently there are fans of wrestling in the MCU and we think they should finally elevate that fandom with the hidden Marvel wrestling industrial complex. We’ve got a fun callback for Bucky and Steve at the Stark Expo, Natalie is inarguably replaced by Natasha at long last, and we have a picture wrap on Justin’s glasses.
JARVIS hacks. Finally, with the Mark VI, the AI has the juice it needs to do some more serious war-time jiggery pokery. Now, let’s get this out of the way: There are a LOT of stray bullets in this sequence. And we never would have thought we would write this, but in spite of the further mass casualties, and the absence of physics to account for the mutations load-outs, the look damn cool. We talk stand-ins and lighting, fun zooms, and seriously giant pixels.
There are three rules for using a microphone. You only need the first two. Let’s review. Also, we explore masculine vulnerability in an act of trust between robopals. We explore some incredible graphics work in the HUDs from a long lost animation company, which is great, until the drones wake up and we realize that mass casualties can be a distraction from pretty pixels. Turn up the volume on this minute because the sound design is extraordinary!
Political faux pas! Rob breaks out his political history to catalog a connection between IM2 and the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Then, Rhodey is in the War Machine! We have some digression on Expo Security, a confused audience, and then — WHAT? — it’s the MARK VI ARMOR! That’s right, in the space of 60 seconds we are introduced to TWO armors we haven’t seen before. Cue the swoon.
Army. Navy. Air Force. Marines. Yeah, you remember the old commercial, don’t you? Regardless, we get to see the drones and they’re amazing. And they don’t look like battle droids. Anchors Aweigh plays followed by Into the Wild Blue Yonder. The Halls of Montezuma plays for the Marine drones. But where is Ivan? Is he in the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit?
Rob Kubasko has spent the last three decades as a designer for clients ranging from local campaigns to international public relations agencies. He’s also a nerd of the highest calibre and brings his love of comics and film to a variety shows. He served as co-host of the