What’s Everybody Mad About This Week?!: Scorsese does it again and Pokémon get abandoned

Welcome to What's Everybody Mad About This Week?!, a SYFY WIRE series that rounds up the biggest geek culture uproars of the week and adds a little bit of context for those who missed out.

There's no denying that the internet, no matter how you feel about it, is a breeding ground for debate in all forms. Not all of it is healthy, but we're looking to fill you in on all the latest, best debates so you can pretend to know what your friends are talking about.

This week we have what is hopefully the last of the Martin Scorsese vs. the MCU drama, some Pokémon news, and reactions to the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel.

Credit: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

Pray with me, friends, to the deity or flesh and blood creature of your choice, that this is the last time this column will cover Scorsese’s comments about the MCU. I am so very tired.

This week, Oscar-winner director Martin Scorsese once again tried to clarify his thoughts on the MCU after having triggered a huge backlash from superhero fans by deigning those movies — especially Marvel movies — “not cinema” a while ago. He clarified his thoughts by way of an op-ed in The New York Times.

Here’s an excerpt that pretty much sums up what he says:

The fact that the films themselves don’t interest me is a matter of personal taste and temperament. I know that if I were younger, if I’d come of age at a later time, I might have been excited by these pictures and maybe even wanted to make one myself. But I grew up when I did and I developed a sense of movies — of what they were and what they could be — that was as far from the Marvel universe as we on Earth are from Alpha Centauri.

In short, Scorsese said what I’ve been saying all along, which is that liking or not liking movies “is a matter of personal taste” and to each their own. Again: It would be weird, in my opinion, if Scorsese was a Marvel superfan. Right?

Still, people were sad, angry, and willing to continue fighting amongst themselves.

People are still mad. (Please let it end.)

Source: Nintendo

So a while ago, there were rumors circulating that the new upcoming Pokémon games, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, wouldn’t include all Pokémon from past generations, breaking a long-held tradition of being able to mix and match your favorites across generations to create the ultimate, gym-smashing fighting force.

Well, this week there was another leak that points to the initial rumors being correct. Sword and Shield will not include all the Pokémon from generations past, which has a lot of fans not happy online. In fact, I'd deign to say they're mad about it.

Others, meanwhile, spent their time roasting the newly revealed evolutions that came along with the leak.

Finally, in slightly more positive news, we finally, finally got word this week about when we can expect the sequel to 2018's Oscar-winning smash-hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. You can expect this insanely anticipated sequel to swing into theaters in… April 2022.

[Insert anguished cries.]

I know, I know. The internet at large was overjoyed to get an official release date and… less overjoyed to learn that it was so far away. But this reaction wasn't so much "mad" as it was a little pouty — which is fair. I, too, am sad I’ll have to wait so long for this sequel.

But think about it this way: You don't really want them to rush this movie, right? You want it to be just as good as the first. And given people’s general skepticism over sequels and their quality, the team behind the movie will probably have to work even harder this time 'round.

For now, we wait.