So many ways to assemble

It's hard to deny that in recent years The Avengers franchise has more or less surpassed Spider-man and the X-men as the main seller of Marvel comics. In one way it's understandable. The team has always been a gathering of some of the company's greatest heroes, and quiet a few off-beat figures as well, and writers generally pit them up against foes that no single superhero could withstand in confrontations that have had comic book readers on the edge of their seats for over 40 years. Readers still speak fondly of such classic storylines as the Kree-Skrull War, Under Siege, Korvac Saga and Ultron Unlimited. With such a strong legacy and premise it was only a matter of time before the franchise ended up on top of the sales charts.

Unfortunately it happened when the title relaunched in a new direction with writer Brian Michaels Bendis at the helm. Personally I'm not a fan of Bendis' writing style but obviously lots of other people enjoy it so I'll save my Bendis rant for some other day. Anyway, with the Avengers selling so good and a new comic book movie poping up seemingly every year nowadays it's logical that people would speculate about an Avengers movie. The main question for such a movie would be this.

How the hell would that work?

Unlike the members of the X-men and the Fantastic Four, the Avengers don't have have a shared or similar origin. They're heroes from all over the Marvel universe that gather together to kick ass and be awesome. So to make an Avengers movie you'd either have to just ignore telling anything else but the team's origin story and leave the non-comic book audience wonder where the hell all these characters come from. Or you tell short versions of each character's origin and that would just be a big mess. So what's the solution?

The most awesome in geek-cinema history yet!

We've already had two Iron man movies, that were both awesome, one new Hulk movie and in 2011 we're going to get a Thor movie and a Captain America movie. There've been hints in the Iron man and Hulk movies for a larger universe and characters have appeared in both movies. All of this is to show that they're in the same universe. Besides being stories in their own rights these movies will lead in to the big event in 2012 when they all join together for the Avengers movie!



In short, the origin of the most important characters, who tend to have the most complex origin stories, will have been told to the non-comic book reading movie goers so that the movies can focus on the gathering and first adventure of the team. Not only is that sort of brilliant from a marketing stand point, I can't think of any other instance in cinema history where a project like this has been attempted.

And it's real. There's a schedule for when each movie is going to be released. The entire main cast has selected and revealed, a few of which we've already seen in the Iron man movies. They all even appeared together for a panel at the San Diego Comic Con International along with the director and one of Marvel Studios film producers.

Who's the director you ask? None other than Joss Freaking Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer! ...I should be more excited about that than I actually am. The thing is that at the height of my BtVS fan-frenzy the announcement of Whedon directing The Avengers movie would've been like a god-send for me. But in later years I'm more capable of seeing the flaws in his story-telling skills. That's not to say that I dislike his work. I still admire the guy immensely. I'm just a bit vary about what he might do with the movie.

Then again, with a project like this I have no idea at all who would be able to direct it in a way that would be satisfying to both common movie goers and fans of the comics. At least Whedon has shown great enthusiasm for these characters and he's a fully capable director and a gigantic geek with the full force of Marvel Studios at his disposal. There's a good chance that it'll all end up being awesome as all hell.

But first things first. For now we wait for the Captain America and Thor movies. Those will be very interesting to see next year.

So, am I done with this for now? Hell no! With The Avengers movie coming and Disney having bought Marvel comics you can bet your beepy, whatever the hell that is, that there's a cartoon based around the team coming. In fact, it's going to premiere on October 20 this year. But they've already aired a number of mini-episodes on youtube. I've watched them all and they are awesome.

The quality of both the writing as well as the animation is top-notch and the voice-work is excellent with each actor catching the characters' essence really well. These mini-episodes have served as sort of an introduction to the characters while at the same time introducing several plots that I'm certain will be touched upon during the cartoon's planned 52 episode run.

What amazes me the most is the number of stories that the creative team have planned here. In these mini-episodes I've seen seeds for storylines involving Asgard, time-travel, super-villain prison jailbreaks and much much more being planted. Overall, it just looks great and I can't help but compare the possibilities of the cartoon and the movie.

The target audience for the cartoon will most likely be able to accept the incredibly different places that all the characters on an Avengers comes from than movie audiences. So having the team gather together will probably be easier in the cartoon. And since a movie has to tell one story rather than one it is limited to only one, possibly two, major Avengers villains. The people behind the cartoon on the other hand can just pick any bad guy that they want to build an episode around. And with 52 episode that'll be a lot of villains.

But still, the movie is a much bigger project and I will admit a geeky glee at trying to figure out which villain could possibly be worthy enough for the honor of the Avengers first silver screen adventure.

All in all, I'm excited about both the movie and the cartoon. They carry a long and mostly awesome legacy on their shoulders so they're being handled with care and consideration. Whatever the medium it's a good time to be an Avengers fan... despite Brian Michael Bendis...

MOVIE REVIEW: Iron man 2

This movie is Awesome.

Really, for comic book fans the only thing that they need to know about the sequel to the hit movie adaptation of the comic book hero Iron man is that it delivers the good by building on what the first movie set up and that it is Awesome.

When it comes to everybody else I shoud probably go a little bit deeper than that.

Like I said, it builds on the previous movie which ended with our portagonist, Tony Stark/Iron man, announcing his secret identity to the entire world on national television. The sequel begins with Tony riding the fame that's come with this revelation, apparently after scaring terrorists all over the world into a temporary peace, and opening the "Stark Expo" where the inventions to be used to improve the world are demonstrated.

However, as with everybody who becomes popular people are starting to, for better or worse, want a piece of Tony. But we'll get to those soon. Besides this problem Tony has another rather fatal problem. The power-core that's keeping him alive and helps to power his suit is slowly killing him. So it's a bit understandable that he's stressed out at the start of the movie.

This is still Robert Downey Jr's movie and with good reason. Downey's Stark is still as entertaining before as being hero hasn't made him any less eccentric, but there's something else that one might miss if one blinks. With death looming over his head Tony is trying to secure his legacy in various ways that he hides well by passing them off as his eccentric ways or unloading his work onto other people. In short, Tony's trying to do something responisble while masking that he is in fact being responsible and it's rather well-acted. At the same time he is looking for some sort of stupid thrill, like people that know that they're going to die soon tend to do (I'd imagine). Which leads to some of the more questionable choices in the movie.

Really, the movie is more of a character portait of Tony Stark than anything else. How he deals with the world knowing and wanting his secret while trying to maintain his own life as best as he can. So yeah, it's great that Downey is able to play the role as perfectly as he does.

Alongside his personal problems Iron man is faced with two widely different opponents, just like in the frist movie, in the form of the revenge craving russian Ivan Vanko (Micky Rourke) and jealous former rival weapons developer Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell).

Of the two Ivan is by far the more intimidating as he has the intelligence and skills to match Iron man and an overall frightening appearance with metal teeth and stripey hair. Rourke plays him as a very ruthless and sinister individual that you're not meant to pity, despite his sad introduction. You're supposed to fear this guy.

Hammer on the other hand is a bit disappointing. He is much less sinister than his comic book counter-part and rather dorky. He has the resources to be a big time villain but falters due to his personality. That doesn't mean that he's entertaining or a bad villain. He's just not what I expected, but I'll chop that up to lack of experience as this is his first step into villainhood. But really, he's just an annoyance to the hero and a vehicle for Ivan Vanko to reach greater heights of comic book evil. That they have these roles however is a sign that Iron man 2 isn't just repeating the previous movie.

In the first movie the more passive villain was the foreign terrorists that held Stark captive while the American bad guy turned into that film's ultimate physical threat. In the sequel it's the foreigner that acts as the powerful physical threat while the american takes the more passive role in the duo. In short, they're not just rehashing ideas but mixing it p a little.

On the other side of the equation we have Iron man's allies.

Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role as Tony's confident Pepper Pops. I really love this version of the character along with Paltrow's acting. She's a strong woman in her own right that can match wits with just about any one in the movie while at the same avoding being a super-mega badass. Nothing against that type of female character, but it's nice to see that a woman can be strong without having to be able to kick your ass. Also, her interactions with Tony Stark are among the most enjoyable moments in the movie.

Now if you do want an ass-kicking lady as well Iron man 2 supplies that as well in the form of Scarlett Johansson's secretive secretary. Really, her action scenes are among the most impressive in the entire movie. She switches between cool professional and skilled but awkward seamlessly and it's all around a good performance. Also, she is REALLY hot. So... yeah.

Samuel L. Jackson once again, he's in the after-credits scene in the first one if you didn't know, plays the role that was pretty much made for him, litterally, Nick Fury. Jackson gets to do the thing that he does best, if you ask me. He talks a lot. He's cool, funny and and smart. Everything you'd expect from Jackson AND Nick Fury. He's just great fun to watch.

Lastly there's Don Cheadle who takes over from Terrance Howard as James Rhodes, who in this movie becomes Iron man's partner War Machine. Personally I don't really see the need for the change as I think that both actors did good jobs with the role. The road that's taken to turn Rhodes into War Machine is an interesting one and well-woven into the main plot of the movie.

Speaking of the plot it does take move along at a surprisingly calm pace compared to the first one. But it doesn't feel at all slow. The situation is carefully built up and supplies the audience with everything before moving into high gear with some truly comic book style action scenes that become even more dynamic due to the previous leisurely pace.

The action scenes has been greatly improved for this one, they were good in the previous movie but could've been better. A greater sense of urgency and speed has been added along with better coreography. But at the same time some of them feel a bit cluttered and blurry. Jon Favreau seems to be on a learning curve when it comes to these things. The point is that he's getting better but he's not quite there yet. There's still loads of good stuff here for action fans.

Where the action was the first movie's weaker points the sequel's seem to be the jokes. They just feel less sharp and witty in this one. Again, they're still funny or so bad that they're funny, but they could be better.

Another criticism is that one of the mistakes in Superman Returns appears in this movie as well. There's way too little interaction between Downey's Tony Stak and Rourke's Ivan Vanko. The one or two scenes where they do talk to each other is great stuff but I wanted more damnit.

All in all, a great movie and a worthy sequel to the first movie. It continued the story in a well-done fashion and expanded on the Iron man movie universe. Oh, and stay behind to watch the after-credits scene. That one expands the Marvel movie universe... and makes nerds shout with joy to the terror of non-nerd movie viewers. ':)

Overall score: 9/10.