Everyone saw The Avengers over the weekend. Why wouldn’t they? It had a bunch of superheroes fighting a god that is invading the Earth with aliens from the other side of the galaxy by harnessing the power of a magic cube.
Why wouldn’t people go see that?
However, I’m willing to bet that most of the people that saw it over the weekend aren’t all that familiar with comic books. If you’re one of them, you should totally go to your local comic book store and ask for some suggestions. The employees may be geeky, but they’ll probably be helpful. If they’re condescending, tell them TJ sent you.
Anyway, you probably have some questions about things in the movie. I’ve compiled a list of questions about The Avengers, and hopefully I can answer them satisfactorily. If you have more questions, feel free to Email me or post in the comments.
YAR! HERE BE SPOILERS!
Thanos and Death -- Image: figures.com
Who was that purple guy during the credits?
That was Thanos, one of the major bad guys in the Marvel Universe. Thanos was born on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn. As one of the Titanian Eternals (basically, a race of space gods), Thanos is immensely powerful. His Super strength; immortality; no need for food, water, or oxygen; super intellect; cosmic energy; etc make him one of the most powerful baddies in the Marvel Universe.
He is in love with the personification of Death. In the Marvel Universe, each natural force has some sort of Cosmic Entity attached to it. Death is a woman (how a skeleton has breasts, I know not), and Thanos is totally crushing on her. In order to get her to notice him, he decides to kill half of the universe.
First he tries to get the Cosmic Cube (Tesseract in the films), and fails.
Then he tries collecting a bunch of cosmic gems and forging the Infinity Gauntlet (which was one of the Thor film’s props shown at the San Diego Comic Convention)
Really, this is one of the best crossover comics of all time. I’d be glad to see it come to film. I think we’ll be seeing a shift towards some more magical movies (Dr. Strange?).
Where were Spider-Man and the X-Men? Fantastic Four? Daredevil? Etc.
Once upon a time, before Marvel started their own movie studio, they sold the film rights from some of their biggest franchises to various film studios. Sony got Spider-Man. Fox got Fantastic Four and X-Men and Daredevil. Lionsgate got Punisher. Columbia got Ghost Rider.
Many times, movie deals like this have the caveat that the film rights will revert to the original rights holder if nothing is done with the film. This is why, for awhile anyway, you will see a constant stream of reboots. That’s why there was an X-men reboot (though it was actually pretty good); a Spider-Man reboot is coming this summer. And of course, there are rumors of other movie reboots happening all the time.
It’s cheap. It sucks, but you’re not going to see Spidey or Wolverine show up to help the Avengers. You also won’t see an awesome Daredevil vs. Punisher movie.
Film studios are terrible.
Ms. Marvel - Image: Marvel.com
Are there any female Avengers with super powers? Where are the butt-kicking women?
In the comics, Black Widow is biotechnologically augmented to be more resistant to damage and aging, plus she’s a super spy, so she’s pretty cool.
However, for the heavy hitters of the female persuasion, you can take your pick, really.
Carol Danvers is a member of the US Air Force. After being caught in an alien explosion, she is given crazy superpowers, including flight, energy blasts, super strength, invulnerability, and others. Her chances of being in the next movie are probably pretty high.
There are others, but I’m running out of room; She-Hulk, Spider-Woman, Scarlett Witch.
Rank the Avengers according to power level.
Hulk. Thor. Iron Man. Captain America. Black Widow. Hawkeye.
UPDATE: How did Hulk get his powers?
The Hulk got his powers while experimenting and trying to replicate Captain America’s super-soldier serum. He experimented with Gamma radiation, which ended up giving him his powers.
I think that’s all for now. If you have any more questions email me or ask in the comments. I’ll update this as needed.
How did Hulk get his powers?
The Hulk got his powers while experimenting and trying to replicate Captain America’s super-soldier serum. He experimented with Gamma radiation, which ended up giving him his powers.
I have had heated debates with friends about this–opinion please?
Why did the Hulk go nuts the first time he transformed, but had his act together the next time?
Hey there… Bit late i know but decided to butt in anyway
I think Banner went apeshit on the ship because of Loki’s influence (the whole god of mischief thing). He sorta let himself get caught so that he could bust the avengers up from the inside and ensure his success (not to mention get some attention), using the Hulk. You might remember the scene where they all argue and Banner picks up the scepter without even noticing he did… So with the stress of being attacked not to mention Loki messing with their heads Banner loses control… The transformation in the final battle was intentional….
Yeah. It’s kind of weird that he got his impulses under control in time to fight aliens and that they didn’t have to keep fighting him after they won. Also, the entire plot of The Incredible Hulk was that they army couldn’t find Hulk, but it turns out Shield new where he was the entire time.
This article takes a poke at some of the movies flaws.
http://www.cracked.com/article_19841_if-avengers-was-10-times-shorter-100-times-more-honest.html
I read that earlier this week. Pretty amusing, even though I did LOVE The Avengers. My theory is that you see Loki walk though the helecarrier and make eye contact with Banner. Banner rubs his forhead.
Then right before he goes all green and grouchy he absentmindedly picked up the spear thing-y,Lokis power source.
I think the first time he couldn’t get it together cause Loki was in his head, and the second time he changed intentionally.
But I’m not gonna lie, I sadly have no comic book frame of reference from which to draw.
Most of my comic book knowledge comes from The Ultimates. But since black Nick Fury and Black Widow and Hawkeye portrayals borrow heavily from that material I tend to think I have some knowledge. That said, there was a period in The Ultimates where the Hulk learned to control it long enough to help save earth from an alien invasion (sound familiar?).
I can totally see Loki getting into his head and that being the reasons he rages all over the ship, but I don’t understand why he could control himself at the end of The Avengers, but couldn’t hold it together in either Hulk movie.
Fair point. I saw all of the other lead-up movies except for The Incredible Hulk so I am really lost there. Good to know I am not alone in my confusion.
It sounds like, then, that they pulled that from The Ultimates and left us less than comic book savvy veiwers to guess lol. (Then again it IS a comic book movie so thats fair)
Maybe the Hulk is just afraid of cramped, dark spaces.
My other reason would be: because the story demanded it.
“Really? They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container? Oh no, this is much worse.”
I can see what you mean about cramped, dark spaces. But wouldn’t that have been alleviated by reaching the upper deck (i.e. big glass window with thor and a missle)?
And I appriciate that something HAVE to work to make the story go, but they made such a big deal about his uncontrolable nature when he is the Hulk that it seems there should have been more effort put into explaining the difference.
(well not missle, plane-gun-thing…but still)
The only thing I can think of that made remote sense with the Hulk.
The earlier movies he was new into the Hulk and wasn’t accepting it as part of him till the end of the second movie.
Though he was not there for the motivational Nick Fury speech, I think he came to realize and accepted it as part of him after the incident particularly when a stranger offered him some clothes when he came to. That last part is a bit of a stretch. Also the idea of Loki in his head would also work out I think. Another thought, he was super stressed with everybody arguing with each other and then when he went through the floor and landed hard on the lower level he lost control of it due to all the physical and mental stresses. Where in the end he chose to transform, because he is “always angry”.
I do not know much about the comics, but that is what I came up with.