Featured Release: The Avengers
This week’s “Featured Release” section will be different. Instead of highlighting a new comic coming out this week, we’ll be discussing this weekend’s release of The Avengers. First, we’ll highlight the five films that lead up to the upcoming film and the characters introduced who will be making appearances in the new movie. And, as has become customary in Marvel films, the post-credits sequence which generally sets up the following movie.
If you want have the time tomorrow and want to power through all five films, plus The Avengers, check out one of the local Marvel Movie marathons!
- The officially sponsored movie marathon is being hosted by AMC Theatres, locally at the AMC Downtown Disney 24 (appropriately) as well as at the AMC Altamonte Mall 18.
- The AmStar 12 – Lake Mary will also be featuring a Marvel marathon. Because it’s unofficial, I don’t think the special 3-D glasses will be given out.
- If over in the UCF area, the Regal Waterford Lakes Stadium 20 will also be hosting an unofficial Marvel marathon.
Iron Man
Released May 2, 2008
Characters Introduced: Tony Stark, Agent Coulson, and Nick Fury
The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. A man wanting to interview Tony Stark following his remarkable escape from a terrorist compound often recites the name of the government agency he works for. However, like many, it hit me like a ton of bricks when the character of Agent Coulson states the abbreviated name for his organization at the end of the film: S.H.I.E.L.D. – the Marvel anti-terrorism organization that forms The Avengers.
The film introduces viewers to the character of Tony Stark: the intelligent and arrogant heir to Stark Industries. Following a demonstration of his newest weapon technology his motorcade is ambushed by a group of Afghani terrorists who demand their own version of the weapon. Instead, utilizing the materials he’s given, he develops the first version of the Iron Man suit. Following his escape from the terrorists, he returns to his company with a huge mandate: moving Stark Industries from military weaponry to peaceful endeavors. This happens to ruffle a few feathers within his organization, which leads to the epic finale in the streets of Los Angeles (that’s right, L.A. – not New York).
Post-Credits Sequence: Following a news conference where Stark proclaims to the public that he is Iron Man, he returns home to find his home security system in disarray. Out of the shadows approaches Colonel Nick Fury who invites Stark to participate in the “Avengers Initiative”.
The Incredible Hulk
Released June 13, 2008
Characters Introduced: Dr. Bruce Banner and Gen. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross
The 2008 Hulk movie takes place in an odd vortex of shame. The movie acknowledges the storyline established by 2003’s derided Hulk, while then distancing itself from the previous film in every other way possible. Which ended up working out pretty well, eliminating the need to retell the Hulk’s origin story (it’s briefly covered in an opening credits montage), getting the big green machine right to the smashy-smashy.
The film picks up with General Ross tracking the fugitive Dr. Banner down in Rio de Janeiro. Assembled is a group of special forces agents including Emil Blonsky. Following the failed mission, Dr. Banner returns to the U.S. to work with a fellow researcher to cure himself of the Hulk permanently. Meanwhile, Ross gives Blonsky a “special formula” which turns the operative into The Abomination.
Post-Credits Sequence: Sulking in a bar following his failed operation to capture Dr. Banner/The Hulk, General Ross gets a surprising visitor… Tony Stark. Coming out just weeks following the huge success of Iron Man, the cameo was welcomed with a huge round of excitement in the movie theater I attended (a free employee preview screening at Universal). In the film, Stark invites the general to participate in The Avengers. Thus far, it’s unannounced if General Ross makes an appearance in the new film.
Iron Man 2
Released May 7, 2010
Character Introduced: Natalie Rushman (aka Natasha “Black Widow” Romanoff)
It is alluded that a couple of years have passed between the original Iron Man and this film. In Iron Man 2, Stark’s emerging popularity as drawn the ire of business rival Justin Hammer and Ivan Vanko – a man who blames Tony Stark’s father with stealing technology developed by his father. In addition, Stark is kind of devolving – turning the company over to trusted assistant Pepper Potts. To keep a handle on the rogue Stark, a personal assistant is hired: Natalie Rushman – who turns out to be the S.H.I.E.L.D. secret agent Black Widow.
The movie centers on Tony’s internal personal conflict, an adapted version of the classic “Demon in a Bottle” story arc. It also introduces Stark’s pal Rhodey (who played a marginal role in the first film) as War Machine.
Post-Credits Sequence: During the film, Agent Coulson returns as a sort of babysitter for Tony Stark. About midway through the movie, though, Coulson states that he has been reassigned to another project. The post-credits scene shows Coulson driving through the desert, and pulling up to a cordoned-off area where, lying in the center, is Mjolnir – the mystical hammer of Thor.
Thor
Released May 6, 2011
Characters Introduced: Thor, Loki, and Erik Selvig
I had a lot of trepidation when sitting down to see Thor last year. I only knew the director, Kenneth Branagh, from epically long and boring Shakespeare films I had to watch in high school. Meanwhile, Thor himself often speaks in “thee” and “thou”, which my friends and I often mock. What I ended up getting is probably one of my favorite movies of the five.
Thor is cast out of the land of the gods, Asgard, following an ill-advised attack on the Frost Giants. He is sent to Midgard – Earth to us mortals – by his father, where he is to learn humility and sacrifice. With his half-brother in exile, Loki – the Norse god of mischief – takes the opportunity to seize the throne of Asgard. Is he fighting to save Asgard from the wrath of the Frost Giants or working with them to tear down the golden realm?
Post-Credits Sequence: So, in the above “Characters Introduced” area you may ask yourself “Who the **** is Erik Selvig?!” In the film, Selvig works with Jane Foster (who, in the film, is a scientist and not a doctor). The team were astrophysicists studying the anomaly, which turned out to be Thor and Mjolnir’s arrivals on Earth. In passing, he mentions a previous run-in with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents while working for a scientist who specialized in gamma radiation (an obvious reference to Dr. Bruce Banner). In the post-credits sequence to the film, Selvig is led through an underground facility which, it turns out, is operated by S.H.I.E.L.D. While there, he meets Col. Fury who reveals to him an artifact of unknown power: the Cosmic Cube. In a nearby mirror, Selvig’s reflection is replaced by that of the mischievous Loki, who’s interested in this new development.
Captain America: The First Avenger
Released July 22, 2011
Characters Introduced: Capt. Steve Rogers and Howard Stark
The last of the films is the only one which doesn’t take place in the modern age. Instead it takes place in the time of World War II. Scrawny Steve Rogers attempts to get into the Army to serve his country, but is constantly rejected for his physical deficiencies. However, what Rogers lacks in physical prowess he more than makes up for in heart. This draws the attention of Dr. Abraham Erskine, a doctor working on a serum to create super soldiers. Rogers serves as the test patient for the serum, but also ends up as the only recipient as Erskine is assassinated by agents of Hydra – an offshoot of the German Nazi government run by the evil Red Skull.
Rogers is assisted by his own Q, the industrialist Howard Stark – father of Tony. The team works to steal the Cosmic Cube away from the Red Skull while also stopping his plan of world conquest.
Post-Credits Sequence: After awakening in a S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital in the modern day at the end of the film, the post-credits sequence shows Rogers working out in a boxing gym when he’s approached by Colonel Fury. Fury offers Cap the opportunity to serve once again, leading to a montage of scenes from The Avengers.
Top 20 “Most Pulled” Comics for the Week of April 29, 2012
Presented by Comixology
- Action Comics #9 (DC)
- Amazing Spider-Man #685 (Marvel)
- Detective Comics #9 (DC)
- Avengers vs. X-Men #3 (Marvel)
- Animal Man #9 (DC)
- Swamp Thing #9 (DC)
- Invincible Iron Man #516 (Marvel)
- Daredevil #12 (Marvel)
- Ultimate Spider-Man #10 (Marvel)
- X-Men #28 (Marvel)
- Red Lanterns #9 (DC)
- X-Factor #235 (Marvel)
- Earth 2 #1 (DC)
- Venom #17 (Marvel)
- Justice League International #9 (DC)
- Avengers Academy #29 (Marvel)
- Batwing #9 (DC)
- Stormwatch #9 (DC)
- Green Arrow #9 (DC)
- The Boys #66 (Dynamite)
