From the first moment when a live action superhero movie was brought up in conversation or in a published article, the dream has been for it to be something big. After a few false starts, there have been some genuinely sterling entries the continuing story of the comic book movie (Batman, Spider-Man, Superman) as well as some disasters (Steel, Catwoman, Daredevil). Characters have been adapted for their own movies, but a team up just didn’t seem possible. Ask any comic book fan what they want to see in the next superhero flick and they’ll say all manner of things, but they will almost all get to the beloved team movie. Whether that team is Marvel Comics’ Avengers or DC Comics’ Justice League of America, fans want to see their heroes standing shoulder to shoulder against a threat far too big for any one of them to handle.
When Marvel Comics finally got to steer their film projects, they changed dramatically. No longer were these films loosely based on the source material and no longer did they deviate strangely from what fans would expect. The Iron Man, Hulk and Thor films have been mainly dedicated to the intent on printed page and they have all been leading to a movie that no one likely ever thought was possible, the Avengers. Next Summer, all of that hard work either pays off or fails miserably when the Avengers hits the big screen.
After the credits of Captain America, there is a short trailer for the Avengers, so don’t move from your seat. If you want to see it early (and in shaky quality), then in the words of Janis Joplin, get it while you can…
Written by Zak Penn, directed by Joss Whedon and starring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, the Avengers will be the centerpiece of the SDCC this week and will premiere next Summer.
