Avengers Assemble

I saw the Avengers movie and was very happy with it. I was able to enjoy it without worrying too much about how the movie deviated from the continuity in the comics. I have a tendency to nitpick comic movies for mistakes. (“The Juggernaut is not a mutant! Nooottt a muuutaaaaant!”)

Since I’ve been reading the Avengers for 30 years, I can be a continuity snob about the team. When I heard of the cast, I was a little dubious that the founding members of the team in the movie were not the same as in the comic. In the movie it’s Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye. In the comic it’s Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp. I realize they changed the cast out of necessity, since if you wait for the rest of the Avengers to find Captain America in suspended animation in the ice after their founding, it would take too long to introduce the character, although it does have more resonance if it’s the Avengers, not SHIELD, who find him. I also understand that Ant-Man and the Wasp are not well-known characters and might not translate onto the screen. But it’s a shame not to include them, especially the Wasp, who has been the heart of the team in many ways (and whom a lot of people online want to include in the sequel).

Joss Whedon’s movie nailed a lot about the spirit of the Avengers team. He deftly captured the bickering of the members, which has been a constant since 1963. That may have been why Marvel’s heroes always appealed to me more: They act like real people, not always getting along, in contrast to the sometimes bloodless heroes of DC. There were nice allusions to Cap’s tension with Iron Man and the Black Widow and Hawkeye’s fling. There was a great montage at the end of the news footage of the destruction of New York, showing how the citizens of the Marvel Universe sometimes distrust their heroes.

I absolutely loved the post-credit sequence with the Avengers eating silently in a ruined diner after saving the world. It captured the tentative beginnings of friendship among the six members.

Some characterizations were spot on, like the idealism of Captain America and lonely darkness of the Hulk, nicely captured by Mark Ruffalo. Samuel L. Jackson is good in anything. Others were not so accurate. Thor didn’t have quite enough bluster for me. I needed more scenes of him throwing Mjolnir and screaming “I say thee nay!” The character of Hawkeye (sexy, sexy Jeremy Renner) was wasted. Hawkeye has the most distinctive personality of the team but he spent half the movie brainwashed and was blah the rest of the time. His portrayal should have been more of a smartass douchebag like Tony Stark (and Iron Man in the comic is not really like he is in the movie) but I guess there was only room for one smartass douchebag on the team. I really liked Scarlett Johansson. The Black Widow is a fantastic character and she nailed her badass portrayal. I would love a solo movie.

There were a few missed opportunities as I would have loved some subtle Easter eggs nodding to the Avengers’ rich history. They could have had a scientist named Dr. Pym, a socialite named Janet Van Dyne or SHIELD agent Carol Danvers. These would have been little things to put a smile on the faces of longtime fans.

The constant turnover of membership has always been a theme of the Avengers comic and I’m wondering who they’ll add for the sequel. My top choice is Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch. She was my favorite character in comics but the way they treated her a few years ago bothered me enough that I mostly stopped reading comics. The Scarlet Witch was one of the pillars of the team with a long track record of heroism but the Avengers author had her betray the team in a way that really defamed her character so a movie portrayal would be some nice redemption. Anyway, I would also love to see the aforementioned Wasp, Hank Pym as Ant-Man or Giant Man, Ms. Marvel, the Vision, the Black Panther or Photon. The Avengers have had dozens and dozens of members so the opportunities are endless.

My favorite little scene was the one near the end where all the Avengers assembled into a circle before fighting Loki’s demons. As the camera panned 360 degrees around my childhood idols, I was a kid again, buying comics at the 7-Eleven for 60 cents each.