The Avengers (2012)

This is my MOST anticipated film of 2012!!
The rumor is there will be at least one, maybe 2 30second commercial spots during the SuperBowl.

As a Hulk fan I'm excited to see him back on the screen and in this movie. Allegedly according to rumor about the 'net is we are going to see a much more realized Hulk in terms of being a fully realized interactive character. Much like his comic counterpart is actual done. This was alluded to at the end of his '08 movie. Which for visual continuity purposes wish Norton was doing or at least someone from that film appear.

Loved the Captain America film and of all the Marvel films to date it played as the most romantic and romanticized film. I feel they really nailed this film, very little I'd change, nearly perfect.

Thor, likewise, had the risk of being seen as camp or silly but was pulled off well. Loki was amazing, can't wait to see him especially in Avengers. Would like to have had more of Thor in his helmet but oh, well.

Iron Man, especially the first, has had two great movies. The first movie is perfect. I don't get the grief some seem to give the second. I don't think they grasp, even when explained, that the man was seemingly dying so his behavior was that of a desperate man acting out in the moments that they point to as "losing them".

As an admitted Joss Whedon fan this only makes my enthusiasm for the film through the roof!!! Bring on May!!
 
Captain Craig said:
Iron Man, especially the first, has had two great movies. The first movie is perfect. I don't get the grief some seem to give the second. I don't think they grasp, even when explained, that the man was seemingly dying so his behavior was that of a desperate man acting out in the moments that they point to as "losing them".

As an admitted Joss Whedon fan this only makes my enthusiasm for the film through the roof!!! Bring on May!!
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I didn't care for Iron Man 2, but I personally think the villain was weak, and the writing wasn't there for it like it was for the first movie. I understand about the desperate man part, but I do think the writing suffered quite a lot on IM 2. And, Mickey Rourke. Gag. Could they have chosen anybody worse?! Couldn't even understand the guy!
 
I just picked out ONE Avengers character, Hawkeye, and read Wikipedia's condensed history of his comicbook exploits. Reading this reminded me of what is the PROBLEM with creating comicbook heroes and never letting them grow old even if they're in circulation for fifty years! The story writers are so pressed for new material that they HAVE TO contradict themselves, in a manner of speaking. A character is good, then he's bad, then he's good again; he falls in love, he falls out of love, he makes a friend, the friend becomes his enemy, he gains a new power, he loses that power, and so on. To paraphrase Ecclesiastes, of the making of COMIC books there is no end.
 
As a Marvel fan, I am so excited for this film. I'm particularly excited to see Tom Hiddleston as Loki again, and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk.
 
Favorite moment in the new trailer: the "money" shot of the Avengers standing back to back in a circle. Chills down the spine! That breif clip says to me ," yes, this is really happening." It is kind of like the first trailers I've seen from Superman The Movie in 1978 where the showed the shot of Christopher Reeve as Superman flying out of the fortress of Solitude. It told thsoe fans back in '78 that yes, you will believe that a man can fly. Now, in 2012, I am seeing that yes, these heroes can come together.

Any rate any thoughts on the giant serpent thing that is chasing after Iron Man in the new trailer? Some theories fans have posted include Midgard Serpent, Leviathan, the dragon Fin Fang Foom, or an amalgam of all three.

And CF you are forgetting something: They die and come back so many times they sound like a Monty Python sketch.

I'm kind of glad that they didn't find a way to worm Spider-Man and Wolverine into this. Not that I hate the charcters, quite the contrary actually. They are just so high profile that they would almost hog the lime-light.
 
Copperfox said:
I just picked out ONE Avengers character, Hawkeye, and read Wikipedia's condensed history of his comicbook exploits. Reading this reminded me of what is the PROBLEM with creating comicbook heroes and never letting them grow old even if they're in circulation for fifty years! The story writers are so pressed for new material that they HAVE TO contradict themselves, in a manner of speaking. A character is good, then he's bad, then he's good again; he falls in love, he falls out of love, he makes a friend, the friend becomes his enemy, he gains a new power, he loses that power, and so on. To paraphrase Ecclesiastes, of the making of COMIC books there is no end.
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It's a common issue in comics. In the Disney Comics universe, Carl Barks had a set timeline for Scrooge McDuck which everything else Duck related is rooted in. One of the problems is that Scrooge McDuck was actually in the Gold Rush and had been set to pass away in 1967, something that is glossed over and has never been addressed since the early 60s because everything else would have to be rewritten. Mickey Mouse, and other comics are a bit less constricted but Disney comics have been so heavily developed for over 70 years, that a major change would upset plenty of groundwork. Sadly the US doesn't see much of these. DC comics has their 10-15 year reboots to clear their Mythology issues, the latest was last year. Marvel, I'm not sure what their cycle is, but I'm sure they have one.
 
Well, if I were starting a comicbook line, I would do one of two things:

1) Let the characters AGE as fast as the readers do, and have successive GENERATIONS of heroes.

2) Tell the readers up front: "These stories will NOT attempt to be real-time with respect to the passage of time as YOU experience it. For instance, I may have a futuristic series which begins in the year 2140; and because any two or three issues might portray events that are in immediate succession, it could take two years' worth of comics to depict what the CHARACTERS would experience as three weeks. It could still be the year 2140 for THEM even after five years of publishing. This means that the series could go on for decades, WITHOUT any problem of the characters failing to age."
 
Sven-El said:
Favorite moment in the new trailer: the "money" shot of the Avengers standing back to back in a circle. Chills down the spine! That breif clip says to me ," yes, this is really happening." It is kind of like the first trailers I've seen from Superman The Movie in 1978 where the showed the shot of Christopher Reeve as Superman flying out of the fortress of Solitude. It told thsoe fans back in '78 that yes, you will believe that a man can fly. Now, in 2012, I am seeing that yes, these heroes can come together.

Any rate any thoughts on the giant serpent thing that is chasing after Iron Man in the new trailer? Some theories fans have posted include Midgard Serpent, Leviathan, the dragon Fin Fang Foom, or an amalgam of all three.
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The new trailer was MUCH better than the first one that was released. My heart pounded just from the trailer, so I can imagine what it will be like watching the movie. I haven't read any of the comics, so I dunno anything about those creatures you mentioned...but whatever it was in the trailer, that should be interesting to see.
 
Aravis Kenobi said:
I haven't read any of the comics, so I dunno anything about those creatures you mentioned...but whatever it was in the trailer, that should be interesting to see.
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The franchise known to us as Marvel Comics went through years when it was all about horror stories. Then it tried getting back into the superhero market, beginning with the Fantastic Four. When this succeeded, they were quick to introduce Thor, Spider-Man, and others, and also brought back Sub-Mariner and Captain America from a previous generation.

Here's where Fin Fang Foom fits into that history. A single stand-alone story from their horror period featured him, a VERY big dragon. There was nothing to say that Fin Fang Foom belonged in the same story-universe as the superheroes; but eventually, given that endless need for more material (and probably figuring that some older readers would remember him), they decided to bring him out of retirement and let their superheroes waltz a bit with him.
 
Copperfox said:
Well, if I were starting a comicbook line, I would do one of two things:

1) Let the characters AGE as fast as the readers do, and have successive GENERATIONS of heroes.

2) Tell the readers up front: "These stories will NOT attempt to be real-time with respect to the passage of time as YOU experience it. For instance, I may have a futuristic series which begins in the year 2140; and because any two or three issues might portray events that are in immediate succession, it could take two years' worth of comics to depict what the CHARACTERS would experience as three weeks. It could still be the year 2140 for THEM even after five years of publishing. This means that the series could go on for decades, WITHOUT any problem of the characters failing to age."
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there's a phrase for that, it's called 'Comic Book Time'. For example Superman may have a story that lasts 4 years, but only takes 3 months in story time, but the issues themselves will retcon major events that happen during that 4 years as it goes along.
 
Soldier of Aslan said:
There's a phrase for that, it's called 'Comic Book Time'. For example Superman may have a story that lasts 4 years, but only takes 3 months in story time, but the issues themselves will retcon major events that happen during that 4 years as it goes along.
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And as those years go by, a comic series will typically give references to REAL passage of time. For example, one comicbook may have a continued story that starts in the year 2010, and four MONTHS of story-time have not yet passed before the real-world time reaches 2012; but at some point the writers toss in a "marker," such as acknowledging the passing of Whitney Houston. Thus, in the typical approach, real-world time DOES drag the comicbook characters along with it, so we ARE left with the question of why don't they age.
 
that's what I meant. They recon (which is short for revising continuity) events or markers in, that keeps everything from getting too dated. It's not unlike how soap operas do it. Thankfully funny animal comics rarely have to do this though.
 
And thus you have a set of characters who were around when John Kennedy was President.... and they're STILL around, and HAVEN'T aged appreciably, as of, say, the Dubya Bush Presidency.
 
On that subject, it was why, though I didn't like some of what happened in the Civil War story arc in Marvel Comics ( though it did raise some excellent points about the secret identity concept) I did appreciate that in the aftermath, Steve Rogers was killed, and Bucky Barnes took his place. ( long story how he came back), namely because if Captain America is supposed to be a symbol of America, that means he has to be and should be more then just one man for all time.

A similar point was made by Tim Drake in the Batman comic books when he appealed to Batman to let him be the third Robin following the death of the second (Jason Todd) Robin. That being that Batman and Robin were symbols and they have to go on past one person's death.(Though oddly, Bruce still looked to be in his mid-thirties for all of his career while Dick Grayson managed to reach his midtwenties and prior to a reboot, Tim Drake had entered college.)
 
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The first cartoon hero to be a succession of heroes was planned that way from the start: The Phantom (nothing to do with opera). There was a family line of heroes beginning somewhere around 1700, of which each eldest son became the next Phantom when his father died or was too old to continue. He was like Batman, i.e. had no superpowers; but he allowed people to THINK that there was only one Phantom, that he could not be killed.
 
Copperfox said:
The first cartoon hero to be a succession of heroes was planned that way from the start: The Phantom (nothing to do with opera). There was a family line of heroes beginning somewhere around 1700, of which each eldest son became the next Phantom when his father died or was too old to continue. He was like Batman, i.e. had no superpowers; but he allowed people to THINK that there was only one Phantom, that he could not be killed.
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Yes! Someone else who knows of The Ghost Who Walks! I have some of those comic books ( and I saw the 1996 film, which really wasn't that bad. ) I am not ashamed to say I own a Phantom Skull ring.
 
The holders of copyright on The Phantom also hold copyright on Flash Gordon, and on Mandrake the Magician with his sidekick Lothar. Accordingly, some while back, these four characters were united on television for a cartoon series called "Defenders of the Earth."
 
For anyone who is interested Marvel Comics is releasing a four issue mini-series called Fury's Big Week. It's a ti-e in to the movie and it explains what is going on behind the scenes in shield and helps explain the timeline of events in Iron Man 2, Incredible Hulk, Thor and the ending of Captain America and how they over-lap. It's really well done. Plus two of the covers pay homage to Avengers 31 and Avengers #5.
 
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