With all the talk about the possibilities of the Fantastic Four and X-Men joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which possibilities I myself covered not too long ago), with the announcement today’s announcement that the Disney-Fox deal is indeed going to happen, I thought I’d do a head-fake and make a proposal for a new MCU film that’s completely under the radar. His first Marvel appearance was in an X-Men comic, but he’s featured prominently in Avengers, Spider-Man, and his own title comics for decades.
I speak, of course, of Ka-Zar.
Although this Tarzan-inspired (to say the least) character is not very well known today, he’s been around since the 1930’s. He lives in a section of Antarctica called the Savage Land, which is lush and green, and home to dinosaurs, aliens, and a type of vibranium (the same metal that Captain America’s shield is made of), so Klaw (the arms dealer in Age of Ultron we’ll be seeing more of in Black Panther) is a frequent visitor. The skrulls have been known to be there, too, and we’re going to be introduced to them in the upcoming Captain Marvel movie.
But what I think gives Ka-Zar and the Savage Land so much potential is the dinosaurs. Just look at the popularity of Jurassic Park/Jurassic World. Now imagine a film where Falcon is fighting pterodactyls, or the Hulk drops a T-rex with a single shot to the jaw, or Bucky-as-Cap runs through the jungle chased by a pack of velociraptors. It would be like having a Jurassic World/Avengers crossover without having to pay Universal for the name.
The technology has existed to do believable dinosaurs with CGI since 1993, and it’s only gotten better. This could be a really fresh direction for the MCU, and something I think could really resonate with audiences. If there were any issues rights-wise with Ka-Zar (he did first appear in an X-Men comic book), those will be all gone now.
I want to see Iron Patriot fighting skrulls riding triceratops’ in the City of the Sun God! And now it could happen.
I would love this.