OK, if by some chance you haven't seen it and haven't had it spoiled for you yet - here there be SPOILERS for Avengers: Infinity War...
I loved the movie, even if I was a little annoyed by the cliffhanger ending, when we were led to believe that there wouldn't be one. You have to give the Russo Brothers credit for being able to balance to many characters so well, giving almost everyone a moment to shine. They also balanced the humor, action and drama very deftly. In some of Marvel's more recent attempts, the humor undercut the tension an bit too much for my taste, but here it was done just right. Gamora's death was the big shocker for me, I didn't expect it at all, even though story wise it was probably inevitable. I think it will stick, too - as will all the deaths before the SNAP! Zoe Saldana will be OK - she has two other space epic franchises with Star Trek and Avatar, after all - and her absence will make for great drama in the third Guardians of the Galaxy film. There may be some hope for The Vision to return as the seeds were planted there with Shuri's attempts to save him. As for those who turned to ash after the SNAP!, I think the question is about how they return rather than if, considering how many are slated to appear in already announced sequels. I am sure I will enjoy this movie a lot more once the follow-up Avengers movie is released. As it stands, it's a great half of a story.
27 comments:
I'm not much of a Marvel fan and haven't seen any of the movies... Can anyone enlighten me, what are the Avengers trying to avenge? Their name is not as self-explanatory as the Guardians of the Galaxy.
would love to see these folks go up against anti monitor spawn invincible supreme savage dragon witchblade evil ernie lady death morbius werewolf by night man thing
The Marvel comics Avengers are 'avenging' the same thing Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg avenged.
Anon, in the MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS film, the Avengers are avenging the death of Agent Coulson. This is the rallying point for the largely incompatible heroes to finally work as a tea, against Loki and the alien invaders. It's worth noting that Nick Fury was referring to that gathering as the Avengers Initiative long before he had any recruits, much less anyone for them to avenge, but he's a crafty bugger and was probably planning to get someone killed just to show them how high the stakes were. He's that kind of manipulative.
If you haven't sen any of the movies due to not liking Marvel Comics as a whole, may I recommend watching CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER? It works as a stand-alone and is as much a period piece as it is a superhero story.
I suspected as much
In the Avengers comic book, #1, back in the sixties, when the heroes, sans Cap, decided they should form a team, it was the Wasp who said they should "pick something colorful or dramatic like the Avengers or . . . "
And I believe it was Ant Man (Hank Pym) who stated, "or nothing. That's it."
And they all agreed on the Avengers being their name.
I've long wanted to ask Stan Lee why he called that group the Avengers, when there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of avenging going on. I've also suspected that the answer would be, "Jack and I just thought it sounded cool," and Richard's recollection supports that theory.
Ross, I agree with you on your assessment, except that I was fully aware well before the movie's release that the ending would be how it is, just based on the dynamic of how the story was going (originally set to be Parts 1 and 2, mainly).
Most significantly, I do believe that those who died by violence will stay dead, while those who died from the SNAP! will return. There may be a few exceptions (such as the Vision, as you say, and possibly Loki), but that will be the rule.
If, indeed, Gamora stays dead, then the MCU will need to introduce the She-Hulk. It just won't be the same without a beautiful green woman somewhere.
As for today's cover, nice work using the current MCU roster of the Guardians, and nice placement -- especially Star-Lord and Gamora, with their heads blocking the Anti-Monitor's eyes. That part's kind of spooky, in a good way.
I knew, when I first went to see it, that there would probably be a cliff-hanger. After all, the comic book mini-series this is based on lasted, at least, half a dozen issues! Covering all that action in just one movie was virtually guaranteed to be impossible. And, let's face it; doing cinematic justice to a literary epic has made it both fashionable and necessary to split the film adaptation(s) thereof into trilogies. Even JRRT's "The Hobbit!"
As for today's cover? A real-world publication thereof would raise a lot of intriguing possibilities. For instance; what if the interdimensional turbulence, caused by the Anti-Monitor, resulted in movie Drax meeting his Silver Age, Jonn Jonzz-like counterpart?
The mind boggles. Well, mine would, anyway! :-)
I was first reading the comic books before I learned of Flight 19 that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in 1945, but all I could notice was there was one plane for each founding Avenger.
My child's mind tried to tie the Martin mariner that also vanished into superhero Avengers lore, but never could think of a way. Ah, well.
I don't see where you have ever used Casper the Friendly Ghost. Casper was one of my favorite comic book characters as a child. I think you could pair Casper with The Spectre, Deadman, Ghost Rider, or Dr Strange. He would also work with Ghostbusters or X-Files. Or you could just pair him with other comedy characters like The Simpsons, Donald Duck, Popeye, Funky Phantom, or Count Duckula.
Anybody but the Simpsons.
Casper and Richie were part of one of the most defining discussions about comic books in the Radio-active Man episode with Daniel Stern and Cloris Leachman.
Bart and Lisa talked about why Casper and Richie resembled one another. Brilliant conclusion from Marge, and she has so few.
Any image of Casper or Richie with the Simpsons, I'd just think of that episode.
It's interesting how the Funky Phantom would come up (only in passing, but in two separate discussions) as I'm in the middle of binge-watching Sleepy Hollow (the Fox TV series) for the first time. I'm suddenly struck by how much the cartoon's Jonathan Muddlemore has in common with the latter series' Ichabod Crane: both are Revolutionary War soldiers who, thanks to supernatural events, are active in the present day in keeping the world safe. (In one episode of The Funky Phantom the team even encountered the Headless Horseman!) Sleepy Hollow did apparently have a comic book mini-series, so possibly we could see these two guys united on this blog.
Answer Man, there have definitely been some Harvey comics characters on this blog, including a fantastic cover with Richie Rich and Scrooge McDuck, but I also don't remember seeing the Friendliest Ghost You Know. Perhaps Ross could have him meet the Ghost Who Walks, another character who could match with pretty much anyone.
Anther idea for a Disney/Harvey cover: Wendy the Good Little Witch and Wendy Darling from Peter Pan.
Or for something really outlandish, Harvey comics characters vs. Two Face!
Don't know if Gamora's death will stand. With all of time, space and reality to play around with - who can tell. By the way, how about a cover with the "Disfigured Face League" featuring Dr. Doom, Dr. Phibes, and Darth Vader?
@Richard Fuller: you could always incorporate the guy the Avengers were chasing when they first found Captain America floating in that iceberg. The Sub "Mariner!"
Ba-DUM-tish!
Anonymous, LOL!
Still no idea where that would go. Or how. Whew!
You could assemble DC Comics characters to combat the Guardians of the Galaxy: Adam Strange vs Peter Quill, Green Lantern Ch'p vs Rocket, Swamp Thing vs Groot, Lobo vs Drax, and Starfire vs Gamora.
Harvey comics was one of the biggest hold-outs on characters meeting one another.
Casper met Wendy in the Enchanted Forest, then Richie and Casper had their team-up title, which often would include Wendy.
Little Lotta and Little Dot would meet up, but you would never have random encounters of Dot with Hotstuff, or Baby Huey with Richie, or Spooky with Billy Bellhops (! -- well, that wouldn't have hurt, I guess).
Richie would never even take Lotta or Dot to the Enchanted Forest. Used to boggle my mind as a kid. Hotstuff did turn up in one Casper and Richie issue, so that was four Harvey characters, Richie, Casper, Wendy and Hotstuff.
Say Richard, have you heard about Harvey Street Kids? It's a new animated series from DreamWorks set to stream on Netflix sometime soon. It features Dot, Lotta and Audrey as the Harvey Girls (ho ho) and is said to evoke the animation style of Tex Avery.
As for Casper, what about teaming him with Charlton's Timmy the Timid Ghost? Of course Timmy would be scared of Casper...
Bradley, no, never heard of it. I'm so old school, it isn't funny.
Richie actually did have a title called Richie's Girlfriends, in which he had individual stories with Gloria, Dot, Lotta and Audrey. They were reprints at best.
Hot Stuff would make a great Fox cartoon. He would fit right in with Bart, Stewey, and the Belcher kids.
How about teaming Bozo the Clown with Krusty the Clown. You could even expand it to an entire team by including Obnoxio, The Joker, and Ronald McDonald. Send in the clowns!
...at one time i tried to work out an Avengers team using all Harvey characters(ie Wendy stood in for the Scarlet Witch, Little Lotta was the Hulk replacement, Stumbo the giant was Giant Man, Richie Rich was Tony Stark with his robot maid Irona as Iron Man and his butler Cadbury as Jarvis and Casper was the Vision...)
...but i had some trouble filling in other key characters....
...i continue to be impressed with how you, Ross can do it day in and day out so seemingly easy...
@Jackel You can have Sad Sack as Steve Rogers Captain America, Little Audrey as The Wasp, Little Dot as Ms Marvel, Baby Huey as Namor, and Hot Stuff as Hawkeye.
@greenjeans That's good, but you left out Thor. I say just make Baby Huey Thor since Namor isn't often an Avenger.
hey answer man and greenjeans...
thanks for you ideas...
i love Sad Sack as Steve Rogers and Lil' Huey as Thor....
....maybe Richie's girlfriend Gloria as Black Widow because of her glorious red hair...
Wasn't there an April Fool's edition of some comic fanzine that listed a parallel-Earth Avengers composed of Harvey characters? Why not incorporate them meeting the Silver Age GOTG?
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