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Review: The Avengers
The Avengers was phenomenal. It was amazing. It was deliriously wicked. It was the perfect blend of mind-blowing action and heart-tugging giddiness. I could wear out the Thesaurus with the ways in which The Avengers movie lived up to everything I had hoped, and shined in ways I could not have imagined. We comic book geeks have been waiting for this movie our entire lives (and more specifically, since 2008), and Marvel Comics and director Joss Whedon have delivered a superhero extravaganza!
The new kings and queen of Hollywood
The Avengers is not only now the definitive superhero movie, it has raised the bar for all Hollywood blockbusters that will ever be made from this day forth.
Rating: 5/5: Great!
With The Avengers, this grand, long-gestating experiment by the Marvel movie people has come to glorious fruition. I always had faith that they could pull it off. Iron Man in 2008 was a brilliant film, and when Samuel L. Jackson appeared at the very end and teased ‘The Avengers Initiative’, I knew there was hope. Then The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, all came along over the past few years, each one exciting and highly entertaining. I’m a fan of all of these films. But could Marvel really pull off The Avengers? Could they not only bring all of these major characters together into one film, but have it make sense and live up to the overwhelming hype?
I should be ashamed for even including those questions in my review. The answer is so incredibly ‘HELLS YES!!’ that I’m almost afraid of having my Internet License revoked.
Every Avenger gets a moment (or more) to shine. The humor is legitimately funny and delightful. The fights and action scenes are clear and exciting, with no blurring or over-editing. The Avengers are people first, action stars second; with a lot of character-based drama. Loki as the villain is far better here than he was in Thor, and easily carries the antagonist role. The climax was sufficiently chilling and climactic.
And the Hulk absolutely steals the show, smashing his way into our hearts. I could not be more pleased with this movie.
Some **SPOILERS** to follow.
Today in Superhero Redesigns
I’m a sucker for a good superhero redesign. Everybody loves a classic costume, but letting an artist have some fun and design a new look for a popular hero is just a blast. You never know what they can come up with; it may be especially awesome and warrant new action figures and everything! And then there’s always the safety of just reverting back to the old look. It’s win-win.
Both Marvel and DC have some new redesigns coming up, and I figured it’d be easy to share them both in one place.
First is the new Iron Man:
It's like a new Black Costume Iron Man!
The story is that in May, we’re going to get a new storyline called ‘Long Way Down’, during which Tony Stark retires for reasons we don’t yet know. Then this black-costumed Iron Man shows up, and it’s going to be a mystery as to who is wearing the armor. This sounds ridiculous. Tony Stark retiring as Iron Man? Please. That’ll last a couple months at most – which I guess is the point. But still, why start this storyline in May?
Did Marvel forget that Tony Stark as Iron Man is going to be headlining a little movie called The Avengers in early May? Whose bright idea is it to ditch the familiar red and gold Iron Man for this temporary-at-best redesign/new character during the one month that movie fans might want to check out some Iron Man comics?
Seems silly to me.
Over at DC Comics, the Big Red Cheese himself, Captain Marvel, is finally going to make his first appearance in the New 52.
Oh look who's all gritty and hardcore now...
So I guess DC is going to be making him into a dark badass? Because that’s a brilliant idea. Oh no wait, I was being sarcastic. How will Captain Marvel benefit from being turned into a dark hero? They’ve given him a hood and a cloak, so clearly that’s what they’re going for. Not to mention seemingly insane amounts of electricity powers.
They’ve also changed his name to Shazam instead of Captain Marvel. I am totally OK with this. Everybody knows the word ‘Shazam’, so there won’t be any branding problems. Plus DC with a hero called ‘Captain Marvel‘? This will just work better when it comes to legal issues.
The new Shazam will debut in back-up stories of Justice League comics starting at issue #7 on March 21.
