Avengers Assemble!

I'm getting pretty psyched about how all the Marvel Studios Avengers-related movies are coming together.

I'm not enough of a fanboy (anymore) about Marvel Comics to pore over every little magazine and internet detail about the upcoming Thor, Captain America, and Avengers films... I basically don't have the time and energy... as a kid I'd probably be all over this round the clock.

But I'd be lying if there wasn't a frission of giddiness and thrill over the possibilities. I enjoyed Iron Man 2 somewhat less than I did the first one, BUT seeing the Black Widow and Nick Fury (even if its the Ultimates version) brought in pretty plausibly... and more importantly really start to expand the continuity...it was like the best old days of reading my favorite comics again.

I liked The Incredible Hulk, but wasn't so keen about the tacked-on tie-in with Tony Stark at the end. It'd have been better to have him integrated into an earlier part of the film, forking over anti-Hulk weapons or whatever, though I understand the need to keep Downey Jr to a minimum in there. Now with the way the groundwork is being laid in the main narratives of the Iron Man movies, it's exciting.

I don't know how they are going to resolve the military finding Mjolnir versus either of Thor's 'origins' in the Marvel and Ultimate lines... but y'know what? I don't want to read up on it to find out. I want to go in cold. Just like I did in the old days of comics before all the internet oversaturation. When all you had was MAYBE a little preview page blurb next to Stan's Soapbox.

In celebration of my excitement, I think I'm going to break down and finally buy Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I think one or both of my kids will want to go through it with me because they are all jazzed up too.

I'm most excited for The First Avenger: Captain America. My hands-down favorite superhero as a kid. And finally after years of way-below-par movies about the guy, a chance at a really good film if the other Avengers have been anything to go by. See Emil Blonsky's proto-supersoldier in the Incredible Hulk film and then improve on THAT... and you can get some idea what they can do with him physically. I know Hugo Weaving is the Red Skull... and beyond that I don't want to read or know a goshdamn thing! And whether they draw on the Marvel version or the Ultimates version, for Cap they basically amount to the same guy! The Ultimates one is just a bit less tempered by modern thinking... like what the Marvel Cap might've been like during the 1940s.