After the juggernaut success of 2018’s Black Panther, director Ryan Coogler and the Marvel team had the insane task of recreating the magic, power, and culture of the Oscar-winning original.  

Then beloved star Chadwick Boseman died. It thrust Marvel and Coogler in an even more impossible position of either having to callously recast the role quickly after his death or honor Boseman's legacy while making a movie that appeals to the masses looking for escapism and thrills. 

Last Saturday, Coogler and the Black Panther cast took to Hall H at SDCC 2022 to unveil the first teaser trailer for the highly-anticipated sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and, while they opted for the latter, it's the best movie trailer in MCU history.

One of the most traumatizing moments for this movie lover was the last 10 minutes of Avengers: Infinity War when--SPOILER ALERT!--Thanos snapped his fingers and half of the world's popular vanished into dust. Our intrepid heroes had lost, and the universe had perished. It was an emotional uppercut that I hadn't been prepared for. But now that horror of that moment pales in comparison to what happened yesterday on Twitter instead of the silver screen.

As if Americans weren't struggling with enough in this political climate, Chris Evans, AKA Marvel's Captain America, took to Twitter Thursday night to commemorate completion of filming of the fourth Avengers movie, which has long been rumored to be his last yielding his indestructible shield.

After seeing Avengers: Infinity War, this fangirl is shaken, stirred, emotional and a little angry that I have to wait a year for the next installment.  In the Anthony and Joe Russo's hands, this movie is a budget-less spectacle that not only exploits the talents and chemistry of its sprawling cast, but seamlessly integrates characters from more than a half-dozen franchises and nearly 20 films.  Marvel Studios celebrated their 10th anniversary with an intense, emotional, universal adventure that dazzles as much as it demolishes.

I'd love to review this film, but I'm so terrified of spoiling the fun and the horror, so I will can say that this movie will go down in cinematic history as one of the best of its genre.  I do have some spoiler-free takeaways that I HAVE to share. 

Attending a screening of Black Panther is nothing short of a celebration.  I went to two separate screenings and it was pure superhero pandemonium. The largely black audience was decked out in vibrant African dashikis, headwraps, Black Panther shirts, and even full-fledged costumes of the characters themselves.  The theater had even hired African drummers to entertain the crowds as they waited in line for food and flooded into one of six theaters playing the film. 

When I was growing up, I worked at that very theater which is situated in an small, affluent white suburb.  It took a black Oscar-winning actor moving within driving distance before they began to regularly screen black movies.  So to witness it imbued with the spirit of Wakanda—for capitalistic gain or not—is just one of the reasons why Marvel’s Black Panther is so revolutionary.   

However, the most important question remains: does film itself hold up to the bombastic hype from fans who have waited more than a decade for Marvel to finally make a movie about a black superhero?

I would bet that work productivity ground to a halt around 8am Wednesday morning, because that's when Marvel Studios dropped the much-anticipated trailer for Avengers: Infinity War. I hope you stretched because watching, even this professional and veteran blerd sprained her fangirl. I am shook!

Avengers: Infinity War stars a boatload of celebrities, pulling in fan favorite characters from all their franchises. Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chadwick Boseman, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland and more all join forces to defeat the supremely evil Thanos.

According to Marvel, Thanos, a intergalactic warmonger, is closer to reaching his goal of collecting all six infinity stones (a running theme throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe), which threatens the universe's very existence.

Such high stakes requires a bleaker tone and plenty of facial hair, and the Russo brothers did not disappoint. "There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people...so we could fight the battles," Nick Fury and Tony Stark begin, citing the beginning of the Avengers themselves with a marked and pearl-clutching finality. The trailer (below) is mind-blowingly fantastic, and as usual, I have questions.

It would be an understatement to say that Marvel’s Thor franchise has struggled to find its identity more than any other.  The original movie, Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh, was a solid and Shakespearian start to the franchise, despite grossly miscasting Natalie Portman as Thor’s love interest.  Thor: The Dark World was a tonally muddled sophomore slump of a movie that relegated Portman’s Jane to the cliché of a swooning damsel and even left little mischief from breakout star Tom Hiddleton’s Loki, God of Mischief. 

Thor: Ragnarok is the dazzling recalibration the franchise not only needed but deserved.  With a fantastic cast, stunning special effects, a delicate mix of absurd humor and unrelenting action, and a sprawling plot that finds Thor stripped of his precious Mjolnir and held prisoner as a gladiator on a savage planet as Asgard falls under the reign of Hela, Goddess of Death, Thor Ragnarok is not only one of the best movies Marvel has ever made, it just may be one of the top 10 best movies in the superhero genre.  It’s also well on its way to becoming one of the biggest openings this year, taking in an estimated $121 million in its opening weekend, BoxOfficeMojo.com reports.
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Ragnarok solidifies some important things more than a clap of thunder...

T'Challa, I'm really happy you're finally getting your own movie and Entertainment Weekly cover, and I'mma let you finish, but the women of Marvel's Black Panther are the fiercest thunder-stealers of all time!  

They aren't just worthy of being this week's Women Crush Wednesday, but for the entire month for July!

Featured in Entertainment Weekly's Comic-Con Preview currently on stands, the gorgeous members of the Dora Milaje--the King of Wakanda's all-female Secret Service--and the royal family can do pretty much everything.  Flawlessly.  

Here are the women who are wholly redefining Black Ops and Black Excellence.  

Even though I was largely and loudly opposed to the third re-boot of a Peter Parker-led Spider-Man franchise in 15 years, (especially after falling in love with Andrew Garfield's version despite being saddled with a spectacularly cluttered script in The Amazing Spider-Man 2), Tom Holland won me over enough that I was willing to shell out the funds for a VIP ticket to a Thursday night screening.  
 
No, it wasn't his heavily CGI'd appearance in Captain America: Civil War as a pinch-hitter for Team Stark, but rather his killer performance on Lip Synch Battle, where he and co-star (and girlfriend!?!) Zendaya both turned in gender-bending showstoppers. With Holland's spectacular and sure-footed mash-up of Gene Kelly's "Singing In The Rain" and Rihanna's "Umbrella" gave the me life.
 
So I went into the movie with no expectations—except to be annoyed by Tony Stark's intricate facial hair—and was thoroughly flabbergasted.  Not only is Spider-man: Homecoming another box office grand slam for Marvel and Sony, it is a lovingly written, realistically-cast and well-acted superhero movie for the Gen Z and millennial set—something that was missing from both Marvel and DC Entertainment’s current and upcoming rosters.

If you're one of the many sweating your 'do out this weekend, you can blame it on the release of the teaser trailer for Marvel's most-anticipated new franchise, Black Panther because it is straight fire.

Marvel released the new trailer for the 2017's Guardian's Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 earlier this week, and the extended clip features Chris Pratt's Peter Quill, his band of crime-fighting extraterrestrials, some sweet '80s tunes, and a Baby Groot fresh from the pot.  

After multiple viewings, I can't decide if Baby Groot, who is still voiced by the gravel-throated Vin Diesel, is cool or too cutesy.