Category Archives: Avengers
I Came, I Saw, I Conquered New York Comic-Con!
When playing tourist in the Big Apple, most people prefer to take in the legendary sights like the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty or the original Ray’s Pizza on 11th. There are, like, 30 ‘Ray’s Pizza’s, and they all claim to be the original, but the real one’s on 11th. Me, I prefer the sights of nerds in superhero costumes, convention halls filled with geeky memorabilia and an exclusive sneak preview of The Avengers! I’m talking Comic-Con, baby! And this past weekend, I lived the adventure!
Comic-Con was a blast and a half! The sights, the people, the costumes; it was everything I’ve come to expect from a full-scale comic book convention. And this year, I saw more, did more and experienced more than any convention before.
Let me tell you the tale.
A tale that involves a quail...that is also a man. Quail-Man!
Comic-Con ran for 3 days, from Oct. 14-16. I attended with my brother Cip, who had never been to a real comic book convention before. This was my third Comic-Con, the second time in a row to New York City. But in hindsight to my 2010 trip, I realized I hadn’t really done anything. I mostly just dressed up in costume and walked around. So this year, I was determined to see more, speak to more people and attend more panels. I was actually going to experience Comic-Con as opposed to just being there.
This is the story of how I kicked Comic-Con’s ass – and how it very nearly kicked mine.
Hey Look, It’s the Avengers!
Hey, hey we’re the Avengers, and we like to Avenger around. Check out these awesome official photos from Entertainment Weekly. We get a mix of publicity photos and set photos of the Avengers. They’re not the greatest of photos…but just seeing them in good definition, non-grainy images is a thing of beauty.My favorite is this one of Tony Stark standing around with Captain America.
A possible movie bromance?
Just the sight of them together…it’s hard to wrap my head around. That’s Captain America hanging out with Tony Stark! This is real. They look great together. The image really works. I can’t wait for a full reveal of all the Avengers together in costume. It’s going to overwhelm the Internet.
Here we have Hawkeye and Black Widow shooting at something. Maybe aliens!
I hope it's aliens
The funniest picture is of the cast just hanging out in costume with director Joss Whedon. I don’t know if it’s just me, but Joss Whedon has been aging terribly.
Oh how I wish I was there
The weirdest picture of them all is the character profile of Bruce Banner, played by Mark Ruffalo. This is supposed to be the Incredible Hulk, and this was the best face he could make?
You won't like him when he's pouty
The Avengers…the video game?
Turns out some company called THQ Brisbane was working on an Avengers video game before they got shut down. The website Kotaku got their hands on some actual gameplay footage, showing a first-person shooter style of game, only you get to play as Avengers characters. The videos are pretty wild, with the Hulk and Iron Man and Thor so far shown. You fly and smash and throw the hammer, and it looks kind of cool. I can’t imagine it being very good, since comic book video games aren’t very good. But wow, imagine what we could have had.
Both the Thor and Captain America movies had video game adaptations. Alyssa said the Cap game was alright, but nothing special. I don’t imagine Thor was anything special either. Movie tie-in games just aren’t anything special anymore. Not since Spider-Man 2.
Still, check out these videos!
And then a second one.
What do you think? Does it look like a fun game? Would it have been cool to play as superheroes in the first person?
Hypocritical Pictures
I know I said a few posts ago that I didn’t like the behind-the-scenes photos that fans take of films while they’re being filmed. That it ruined some of the magic of the movie. I stand by that decision. However, some new pics of Avengers filming arrived on the Interwebs a few days ago and they are so crystal clear and so mouth-wateringly awesome that I just have to share them and gush over them!
I’m a hypocrite, I know. In this case, I don’t mind!
First we have some of the Avengers running.
Perhaps they have somewhere really important to go
And then several full costume shots of Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye. I am still very much loving these costumes. Though Cap’s looks a little flustered without all the movie magic. Still, I can’t wait to see it on the big screen. I’d say it’s not as awesome as the original war-based costume from the movie. But it’s still pretty cool as an updated, modern version.
Captain America's looking a little tuckered out
I like the visible zippers. Such a thing was a joke when you could see the zippers on the old monster costumes, but for this purpose, it’s perfect. Nobody wants to see the sort of costume that Captain America wore during the musical number in his movie. People want to see realistic-style costumes, not stretched spandex. The zipper adds to the authenticity. At the same time, nobody wants Captain America to just wear black leather, like they did for the X-Men movies. It worked for that team, not for the Avengers.
That being said, both Black Widow and Hawkeye stick to the black leather look. Which works, because that’s what they wore in the comics.
Scarlett Johannson looking awesome
Here’s the thing about movie Hawkeye: he’s not dressed like traditional Avengers Hawkeye. And that’s a very, very good thing. Movie Hawkeye is dressed like Ultimate Hawkeye, and I’ll explain to you the difference. In the world of Marvel Comics, there are many alternate universes. There’s the main universe, which we’ve been reading about since the 60s. And then there are other universes featuring alternate versions of characters. Those are just side stories, for fun.
The most popular alternate universe is the Ultimate Universe. Published in 2000 onward, the Ultimate Universe is a more realistic take on superheroes. Costumes, characters, conflicts and stories are all written with an eye towards being real. Granted, in the past 11 years, that idea has kind of gone off the rails. But when the Ultimate Universe first started, things were more focused. The only way to truly understand what I mean is to read the books. And someday I’ll post a bit more.
But for now, take a look at these two different versions of Hawkeye. The one on the left is the classic Avengers Hawkeye, the one on the right is Ultimate Hawkeye. Notice the realism over the fantasy elements.
Old, classic Hawkeye on the left. New, modern Hawkeye on the right
If you’re going to make a modern day superhero movie that you want people to take seriously, which version are you going to choose? That’s right, you’d choose the modern, Ultimate option. And it looks amazing!
Though honestly, Jeremy Renner looks kind of...ordinary
The Consultant – More Proof that Marvel Moviemakers are Brilliant
NEW UPDATE: I found the clip again on Twitvid at the following link.
Remember back when The Incredible Hulk came out at the dawn of the Avengers movie age, and Tony Stark appeared at the end in a fun little cameo? He was keeping the ball rolling from when Nick Fury showed up in the post-credits scene of Iron Man, all done to tease the future Avengers movie. Well the people behind all of these movies have decided to have a little more fun with this project since The Avengers is less than a year away.
This short clip has been produced for the Thor Blu-Ray release. It’s a set of book-ends to the Tony Stark scene in The Incredible Hulk, featuring everyone’s favorite S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Coulson! Why did Tony visit General Ross in that bar? What was he really after? How did the meeting go?
Here’s a little description: The two S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents are actually talking about the Abomination, the villain from The Incredible Hulk. Some overseeing agency wants the Abomination in the Avengers, but these guys don’t want that. So they send Tony Stark to talk to General Ross so that Stark will piss Ross off so much that the Abominatino idea is shit-canned. And it works.
So we’ll have to wait for The Avengers to see how the Hulk joins the team.
