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How has George R. R. Martin’s work on the next Game of Thrones book, The Winds of Winter, been going? I don’t know, but now I do know the order of his favorite Marvel movies, and what he thinks of Marvel villains. The author recently wrote on his LiveJournal page about seeing Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man, and talked excitedly about the comic he read and adored as a youth, and his trepidation with the new movie.

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Image via Marvel Studios

But, turns out Martin loves the new Ant-Man (especially its ants), though he is not (as he says) without his “quibbles.” In addition to wanting to see more of the Wasp, he notes that,

I am tired of this Marvel movie trope where the bad guy has the same powers as the hero. The Hulk fought the Abomination, who is just a bad Hulk. Spider-Man fights Venom, who is just a bad Spider-Man. Iron Man fights Ironmonger, a bad Iron Man. Yawn. I want more films where the hero and the villain have wildly different powers. That makes the action much more interesting).

These are of course just a few handy examples to back up the claim, although many of us would agree that Marvel does have a villain problem. Another criticism he makes (that I definitely agree with) is that,

There's a lot of action too, but not so much that it overwhelms the plot and characters, which was my problem with the last AVENGERS film... and the one before it, to think of it. A superhero movie needs a fair share of smashing and bashing and stuff blowing up, of course, but IMNSHO that stuff works best when it is happening to people we actually know and care about, and if you jam in too many characters and don't take time to develop any of them properly, well...

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Image via Marvel Studios

Martin also wrote more generally about Marvel movies, and where Ant-Man fits in for him:

ANT-MAN has a proper balance of story, character, humor, and action, I think. A couple reviewers are calling it the best Marvel movie ever. I won't go that far, but it's right up there, maybe second only to the second Sam Raimi/ Tobey McGuire Spider-Man film, the one with Doc Ock. I've liked most of the Marvel movies, to be sure, I'm still a Marvel fanboy at heart (Excelsior!), but I liked this one more than the first AVENGERS and a lot more than the second, more than either THOR, more than the second and third IRON MAN and maybe just a smidge more than the first (though I liked that one a lot too).

But ultimately, he set his mood as “satisfied” and also mentioned again how much he loved the ants. As for The Winds of Winter ... (silent winds blow). Our watch continues ...

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Image via HBO