“Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and "Heroes and Villains"

With the arrival of Zack Snyder’s Justice League and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+, what’s the ideal read to join these tales of superheroes? Consider Ray Keating’s Heroes and Villains: A Pastor Stephen Grant Short Story.

Stephen Grant, onetime Navy SEAL, former CIA operative and current Lutheran pastor, finds himself in an entirely unfamiliar setting – a comic book, science fiction and fantasy convention. But he still joins forces with a unique set of heroes in an attempt to foil a villainous plot against one of the all-time great comic book writers and artists. Reviewers love the adventure...

 

“An entertaining, immersive jaunt with a formidable protagonist.”  - Kirkus Reviews

 

“Keating's creativity and storytelling ability remain on point, for a fun and different take on Pastor Grant, and one that's just as satisfying as longer books in the series.”  - Self-Publishing Review

 

“Heroes and Villains … is an enjoyable romp complete with the gritty realism of the Burton Batman films, the camp of the Adam West adventures of the 60's, and the modern humor of LEGO Batman. If you know the adventures of the Avengers from the movies or the pages, dream of the day of decent DC films, or love the experience of Comic-Con, Heroes and Villains is the read for you! … How I'd love to see Pastor Grant on Netflix!”  - Lutheran Book Review

 

“This is a fantastic novel... If you are a comic book fan who is fed up with the political correctness that's going on, you have got to pick up Heroes and Villains... I highly recommend this book... I'm definitely going to be paying more attention to Ray Keating, and getting more of his novels.”  - Jacob Airey, host of StudioJake

Marvel Movies Box Office Battle on National Superhero Day

by Ray Keating

Analysis

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 28, 2020

Today, April 28, is “National Superhero Day.” And on this date, it seems fitting to get into one of those arguments many of us engaged in as kids. You know, who is the best superhero? This superhero could beat up this other superhero. Oh, yeah? And so on. 

Except we’re going to narrow our fighting words, so to speak, to how powerful the various Marvel Cinematic Universe’s superheroes have been at the box office. Where do Disney’s MCU movies rank in terms of the amount of revenue raked in at the box office? 

The answer can be found in the following table, which ranks each of the 23 Marvel movies (so far) according to the estimated worldwide box office numbers in 2019 inflation-adjusted U.S. dollars.

Rank –  Real Box Office	Release Date	MCU Film	Worldwide Box Office –  Estimated in Real  2019 US Dollars
1	4/26/19	Avengers: Endgame	$2,797,800,564
2	4/27/18	Avengers: Infinity War	$2,085,474,952
3	5/4/12	The Avengers	$1,691,224,912
4	5/1/15	Avengers: Age of Ultron	$1,513,352,493
5	2/16/18	Black Panther	$1,371,318,517
6	5/3/13	Iron Man 3	$1,333,823,823
7	5/6/16	Captain America: Civil War	$1,228,486,127
8	3/8/19	Captain Marvel	$1,129,729,839
9	7/2/19	Spider-Man: Far From Home	$1,129,210,469
10	7/7/17	Spider-Man: Homecoming	$918,001,794
11	5/5/17	Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2	$906,473,402
12	11/3/17	Thor: Ragnarok	$890,667,135
13	8/1/14	Guardians of the Galaxy	$834,535,230
14	4/4/14	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	$771,499,819
15	5/7/10	Iron Man 2	$728,266,984
16	11/4/16	Doctor Strange	$720,510,624
17	11/8/13	Thor: The Dark World	$707,414,562
18	5/2/08	Iron Man	$694,849,347
19	7/6/18	Ant-Man and the Wasp	$634,435,712
20	7/17/15	Ant-Man	$559,663,516
21	5/6/11	Thor	$510,687,219
22	6/22/11	Captain America: The First Avenger	$421,175,245
23	6/13/08	The Incredible Hulk	$315,349,958

Source: Data from the-numbers.com. Calculations by author.

I guess no one should be surprised by the fact that The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have proven to be mightiest at the box office.

Of course, what a ranking like this leads to is the inevitable “Yeah, but...” debate. In particular, yeah, but this doesn’t mean that this ranking necessarily reflects a ranking of the best MCU films. Let that debate begin! I’ll start by noting that I think that the top five MCU movies (not necessarily in order) are: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: The First Avenger, Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, and Guardians of the Galaxy.

And thankfully, there are more Marvel movies on the way to add to the incredible box office tally – in 2019 dollars, the MCU films have earned a total of $23.9 billion, so far – and to spice up the debate about which are the best and worst movies in the series.

And if you’re looking ahead, here’s the latest announced Marvel universe movies with scheduled release dates (according to Disney and various media reports):

Black Widow – November 6, 2020

The Eternals – February 12, 2021

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – May 7, 2021

Spider-Man 3 – November 5, 2021 

Thor: Love and Thunder – February 11, 2022

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness – March 25, 2022

Black Panther II – May 6, 2022

Captain Marvel 2 – June 8, 2022

Ant-Man 3 – no date announced

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 – no date announced

Enjoy, and happy National Superhero Day!

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of The Disney Planner 2020: The TO DO List Solution (now available at a deep discount) and the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.

National Superhero Day is the perfect time to read Ray Keating’s HEROES AND VILLAINS: A PASTOR STEPHEN GRANT SHORT STORY. The Kindle edition is on sale for only $2.99!