The Road to The Avengers

Well, with the upcoming Avengers movies being released I felt there was no better film or rather films, to write a blog post about then the previous Marvel films (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2) Ultimate Avengers: The Movie and the upcoming live action film The Avengers. To those who are not aware, or who have been living under a rock for the past oh, I’d say five years, The Avengers is coming to theaters May 4^th 2012. The film will be directed by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) and will star Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel Jackson, Jeremy Renner, and Mark Ruffalo. The Avengers are a team of superheroes who have to join forces in order to stop a threat so large no one hero can handle it.

From the get go, one should know that the animated movie is different from the soon to be released live action film in many ways, which you can come to realize without even having watched the live action film yet. For starters, the character known as Hawkeye A.K.A Clint Barton who is an agent of a world government agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D plays a major role in the live action film and he isn't in the animated movie at all. 

The list of team members in the animated movies includes the character of Nick Fury (leader of S.H.I.E.L.D.; a form of world government), Iron Man/Tony Stark (Billionaire/Industrialist/Scientist/Weapons Maker), Black Widow/Natasha Rominoff (Special Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.), The Hulk/Bruce Banner (Scientist infected with gamma radiation giving him untapped strength and rage), Thor (the actual god of thunder/A man who believes himself to be one), Captain America/Steve Rogers (Super Solider, super-human strength/agility), The Wasp/Janet Pym (Scientist/ Can shrink/Shoot Lasers), and finally, Giant-Man/Ant-Man/Hank Pym (Scientist/ Can grow and shrink in size/ Can Speak to bugs). Another difference in the live action film is that the characters Ant-Man/Giant-Man, and The Wasp won't be in it.

The major difference in the live action version will be that the animated movie had to explain how all of the Avengers got together, however Marvel Studios has done an excellent job of allowing that to take up no movie time in The Avengers. And this is one of the things that make Marvel Studios so amazing. The opening to the animated film is Captain America’s last mission during WW2 as he tries to stop a bomb headed for New York but soon meets his fate by plummeting into the cold waters of the Arctic to be frozen and revitalized when he is discovered by S.H.I.E.L.D. about sixty years later. This won’t appear in the live action version because all of that took place during the events of the Captain America: The First Avenger movie.

What I find so astounding is that Marvel Studios has really created its full-fledged cinematic universe. Sure it can be argued that every movie is in some way its own universe, but Marvel has created a universe where characters can come in and out of separate movies and finally the characters all come together in one giant movie. All of the hype about The Avengers and even the creation of Marvel's cinematic universe could be traced back to 2008 with the release of Iron Man into theaters. SPOILER ALERT: In the film original Iron Man film starring Robert Downey Jr., there is a man who continues to try and get Tony Stark to sit down for an interview to discuss his Iron Man suit. The man says he works for the government in a group called the strategic homeland intervention enforcement and logistics division. At the end of the film the man reveals that the group has changed their name to S.H.I.E.L.D.

            To comic book fans, hearing this was mind blowing. That one line of dialogue was an “Easter Egg” revealing that there was a whole world that was outside of this characters plot line. Marvel’s crown jewel of Easter Eggs for Iron Man was a short scene that took place after the credits of the film. The scene entailed Tony Stark walking into his house (assumed after the final scene of the film) and a man is there in the dark. He says, “You think you’re the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you’ve become part of a bigger universe, you just don’t know it yet.” Then Samuel Jackson steps into the shot saying that he is Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (who the character in the comics is actually facially based off of) and then he says to Stark, “I’m here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative.”

            Forget what I said before, when comic book fans heard this line they literally jumped out of their seats at the theaters screaming from sheer excitement and joy. This meant that not only were more superhero movies going to be made but that eventually Marvel was planning on creating a movie that would take superheroes and put them on a team. And that’s exactly what Marvel did. They made Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and most recently Captain America: The First Avenger. In each one of those films there was a scene after the credits that tied in the other films. After Iron Man 2 they showed the same agent from the first Iron Man go and find Thor’s Hammer, the end of The Incredible Hulk had Tony Stark in it, and both Captain America and Thor had scenes that tied in plot that would all build up to The Avengers.

           Marvel has actually created a universe and a movie where characters from 5 other movies are going to come together. That is really something that has never been done before in movie history. There have been sequels and prequels but they usually follow one fluid story where as these films stand completely separate from The Avengers aside from the one prequel esque scene. They are taking characters from a bunch of different movies and bringing them together for The Avengers, and after the characters go back to their own storyline with Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and Captain America 2 all coming out within the next two years.

I find it so cool that Marvel has not only been able to do this, but do it in a way that so that they don’t need to spend any time in The Avengers discussing how the team got together. All of the scenes at the end of the credits of the previous films for the most part tell how these characters will come together. I myself cannot wait for this movie and I hope to see this studio do some more groundbreaking work in cinema.