skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I have never attended a midnight movie premiere before. It’s just not something that’s ever been on my radar. And, frankly, I was hard-pressed to think of a movie I’d want to see a midnight premiere of. It wasn’t until we were leaving the theater after watching Captain America: The First Avenger that I realized it, but Marvel’s The Avengers is that movie for me.
Seeing this movie at the midnight premiere and sharing it with my wife and kiddo is an experience I'll always appreciate. The atmosphere was unbeatable. We arrived at the theater around 8:30 and found our line. It wasn’t bad at all, and they ended up letting us into our theater right around 9pm. We were fortunate to not have to spend the next three hours on the floor, and instead were able to settle into our oversized XD theater seats where Jack read the movie prequel comics, Tracy read The Walking Dead, and I bounced between tweeting, meeting up with friends who were still waiting out in the hallway to get into their theater, and getting pwnd by the kiddo in many rounds of Zombie Dice on the iPad.
There were plenty of folks in costume, and our theater was completely packed by 10:30. When the house lights eventually dimmed, I couldn’t believe I was actually about to see an Avengers movie. And I was rewarded for my decades-long patience.
The crowd made this an event. Cheers for the first 3D trailer we got – Amazing Spider-Man – and for Prometheus. Cheers for the feature presentation’s main titles. Someone yelled, “Cleveland!” during the first on-screen scene shot here in the hometown and the place erupted.
I’m not a fan of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, which birthed the reimagined Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, but I have completely bought into it over the course of the last five movies leading up to this. And I am a huge fan of Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson. Brilliantly conceptualized, he is to the Marvel Movie Universe what Boba Fett could have been to the Star Wars Universe. Where Boba Fett was a background character whose cachet was based solely on the mystery of his presence then squandered with a pandering, sloppy origin and overexposure in the prequels, Coulson was grown organically to provide real weight to the character’s actions and importance to the story. Nothing wasted. Nothing easy.
That consistency carried over to Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark. By far the biggest star in this thing, writer-director Joss Whedon matched the tone of Jon Favreau’s first two solo Iron Man movies seamlessly. Similarly, Chris Evans was surprisingly believable as the man-out-of-time Captain America who ascends to the leadership role over the billionaire Stark and Asgardian God of Thunder by earning their respect. Thor’s entrance elicited cheers from the sold out crowd, and rightly so. It was a brilliant moment that Chris Hemsworth pulled off effortlessly.
As expected, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow really shone under the contradictory hand of Whedon, known for not only his strong female characters, but also his penchant for framing his leading women’s posteriors in shots. I would have liked more screen time for Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill, but it was great to have her on-hand in any capacity (and, again, more ass shots).
Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner was much more thoughtful than Ed Norton’s previous run at the character (and I really enjoy the underrated Norton Incredible Hulk movie). Ruffalo pulls off the tortured scientist in every way. Hawkeye is one of my all-time favorite Avengers. (See my loving look at the character's history in issue #56 of BACK ISSUE magazine.) And the glimpse of him in Thor was great, but I have to say he’s not the standout for me in The Avengers. In fact, I’m hard-pressed to pick any one character as my favorite. This is truly a super-hero ensemble movie.
There was actually only one moment – a split-second gag – in the movie I didn’t care for. It was the only time while watching the film that I was jarringly aware I was viewing a "Joss Whedon film," and the moment was completely unnecessary and didn’t serve the story.
And there was one thing that took some getting used to: The rendering of the Green Goliath. I remember a lot of press about how you would be able to really see Ruffalo’s Banner in the Hulk onscreen. And you could, in the face and upper body, almost to a fault, but it has grown on me the more I think about the movie and the representation. And this was more than balanced by the personality infused into gamma-irradiated giant. Hulk truly shines in battle. Given what was revealed in the eight-issue Avengers Prelude: Fury’s Big Week comic book miniseries about the fate of Dr. Samuel Sterns (Mr. Blue) from the Norton movie, I really hope they pick up that thread and run with it in another solo Hulk movie.
Whedon nailed the character cameos, and Loki – Wow. Tom Hiddleston takes his performance to its scenery chewing limits, then dials it back just enough to keep you grounded. A wonderfully realized villain that builds progressively on the character we saw in Thor.
As far as the stingers go, Avengers comes packed with two of them. One at the beginning of the credits and one before the final fade out. Both are great in their own way. The first for its nod to fans of the comic books, and the second for the way it releases the tension of the previous two hours. Brilliant.
Marvel’s The Avengers is the movie 12-year-old me has waited 30 years for. This is the movie I would wait in line for. This is the movie I would sacrifice sleep to discover unspoiled on the largest screen in the area, in 3D, with my wife and 10-year-old son beside me. If I have ever been gobsmacked, it was during the two hours shortly after midnight on May 4 when I saw The Avengers for the first time. There were so many moments that made me cheer, or my jaw drop, or simply sit there with the biggest damn grin plastered across my face, it was a completely satisfying experience.
I have always been in awe of the artist’s work. It’s talent and skill, and I recognize that’s not something I possess. But another byproduct of this Iron Man covers project is being even that much more impressed by comic book artists who only work in black and white. The cover recreations I’m doing look like indiscernible messes before I use colored pencils to finish the pieces. Plus, mixing colors to come up with skin tones and blending and things like that have been a great exercise. Not to mention the fact that coloring is just plain fun!
The first Iron Man cover recreation I did was quick and dirty. I ripped through it really fast and without regard for much of anything – including lettering and the number of fingers on a human hand. Since then, however, I’ve been taking more time with each one, slowing down and drawing purposefully. They are taking me about two hours apiece now, from first ink to finished colors. I’m really happy with how the subsequent covers have come out, and I’m excited to share them!
I loved to draw as a kid. Sometime in the mid-’70s I sat down and drew an illustrated four-page “book” depicting the lyrics to “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells”. (Man, I wish I still had that!) Around second or third grade my mom sent me to art classes at the Canton Museum of Art. Now, however, I recognize that the confidence and any ability I might have had as a kid is long gone. But I saw Bean’s FF Cover Project and thought he was on to a really great idea. So I cribbed it. Wholesale.I’m working my way through the Iron Man covers one at a time, and I’m going to see where it leads me. I have no designs on any sort of long-term art-related job. I’m not looking to draw comics or anything like that. I just want to see if I can get better at something I used to love doing and haven’t done in a very long time. Sort of exercise a different set of creative muscles than those I use when writing.
Taking my cues from Bean and the self-imposed, warts-and-all approach he came up with, I’m working in a 5 ½” by 8 ½” lined notebook with black ink and colored pencils, no real artistic talent, and a love of comic cover recreations…
I pick up quite a few single issues for the kiddo each month. The Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Super Hero Squad, all based on their respective animated shows, are always on the list, along with miscellaneous other books that either strike my fancy for him while going through Previews or pique his interest on trips to the comic shop.
In my April DCBS box, there were two reboots of the Marvel Adventures line I had ordered for the kiddo: Spider-Man and Super Heroes. I am a big proponent of all ages and age-appropriate comics for kids, and when I saw these in Previews I knew I needed to give them a try and support them.
I don’t regularly read the comics I buy for the kiddo. I’m confident as an informed consumer of what I’m letting him read, so it’s more about him having something that gets him jazzed about comics. But I couldn’t pass up giving these two books a go for myself. (Plus, I love the look in the kiddo’s eyes when I come to him asking if I can read one of his comics that says, “You want to read something of mine? Sure you can, Dad!”)
Both of these Paul Tobin-written books are a lot of fun. The Spider-Man is one-and-done, but has the feel of something that will have some continuity to it over its run. There’s dirty politicians, a young Captain Stacy, high school drama, and a cranky J. Jonah Jameson. And I think I enjoyed this single Spidey issue more than the five-issue Bob Gale-penned Peter Parker mini currently underway.
The Spidey book also benefits from two Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius backups. The kiddo and I are both big fans of Chris Eliopoulos’ work, so it’s nice to have these here, along with his Zabu (Ka-Zar’s sabretooth tiger) backup set in the Savage Land in the Super Heroes book.
Tobin’s work in Super Heroes is the kind of story you can’t help but get excited about. Inside the Iron Man cover, it’s actually an Avengers story with Shellhead, Cap, Black Widow, Thor, Nova, Invisible Woman, and Vision on the team battling Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants. Based on the “Next Issue” teaser inside the back cover, it looks like Marvel is going to rotate the “headline” character in this book, with Thor getting his turn above the title next month.
Tobin seems to have carved out a nice little corner of the all-ages Marvel Universe for himself, and I couldn’t be more appreciative. The kiddo and I both enjoyed Tobin’s Fantastic Four Giant-Size Adventures one-shot last year, his Black Widow and the Marvel Girls trade paperback arrived in the same box as the Spider-Man and Super Heroes issues, and I have his Spider-Man and the Secret Wars trade paperback on order.
I love having some books that both the kiddo and I are digging. For me, these two single issues were like a wayback machine to the stories I first discovered as a kid. And for the kiddo, I hope these are the books that are among his earliest memories of issues leaving a permanent impression on his comic reading psyche. I hope more people buy these books and keep them going. For our part, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man and Marvel Adventures Super Heroes will stay on our pull list as long as Marvel continues to offer them.
(And, on a similar note, Roger Langridge and the ever-awesome Chris Samnee’s Thor: The Might Avenger, launching in July, is already queued up to join Tobin’s books this summer.)
In a reenactment of events from two years ago, we missed a Friday night May Cavs playoff game to go out to dinner with good friends and see an opening weekend showing of an Iron Man movie. And, although not as much as the first installment, I really enjoyed Iron Man 2.
Of course, Robert Downey, Jr. continues to own the Tony Stark role and plays perfectly with Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts. The expansion of Rhodey into the War Machine character was great to see, and the change from Terrence Howard to Don Cheadle was seamless.
I was worried the movie might suffer from an overabundance of characters, much like what happened with Spider-Man 3, but Iron Man 2 seemed to get the balance right. I liked the way Whiplash and Justin Hammer worked together (Sam Rockwell chewed the scenery as Hammer). Neither was too broad or overshadowed the other as the antagonist.
The introduction of the Black Widow was handled nicely (Scarlett Johansson was great in the role) and recalled the post-credits Nick Fury cameo we saw at the end of the first movie. I love the way Marvel is tying these movies together, creating a larger Marvel Universe: Nick Fury in Iron Man and Iron Man 2, Tony Stark in Incredible Hulk, the Captain America shield appearing in both Iron Man movies, and another post-credit tease at the end of Iron Man 2 that also plays into the larger picture.
One thing I really dug was that not all the bad guys died in the end. That’s something that has bugged me in the big screen adaptations of comic book properties. The comic book universe is an on-going world, and bad guys return as much as good guys. I get that you want to move on in the next movie to a new bad guy and not rehash a previous film, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have callbacks and cameos. So I’m hoping the surviving antagonist shows up in Iron Man 3, if only in a small part.
I’ve learned watching the Iron Man movies that I really don’t know a lot about the Golden Avenger’s rogues gallery. I knew who Obadiah Stane was from the comics, but not necessarily the Iron Monger aspect of his history. I did recognize the Mandarin from the first film and hope he returns in a future installment. I was not familiar with Whiplash or Justin Hammer at all. So it’s been fun to discover these characters right along with Tracy each time we head to the theater.
A couple of years ago when the John Favreau/Robert Downey, Jr. Iron Man movie came out, I was surprised to learn that the Golden Avenger is not considered to be a well-known character. I didn’t read a lot of Iron Man in his own title back in the day, but got plenty of him in the pages of Avengers and Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-in-One. He might not have been as front-and-center in the ’80s as he was during Marvel’s Civil War/Illuminati/Secret Invasion storylines of the past decade, but I always operated under the impression he was a first-tier super hero in the Marvel U.
Iron Man has always just seemed to be everywhere in the Marvel Universe, so I guess I took my familiarity with him for granted. But, thanks to that 2008 movie, a whole helluva lot more people know who Tony Stark is these days. And that’s a good thing.
Unlike X-Men and Spider-Man, I didn't avoid buying Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin in single issues because I was moving to trade-waiting (this was coming out soon after I was fully re-immersed in comics), but, rather, I hesitated because I was buying so many single issues at the local comic shop at the time something needed to be cut. I did, however, promise myself I'd pick it up in trade at some point. It ended up being one of the 20 or so collected editions I snagged at Wizard World Chicago last year. Final-day-of-the-con bargains meant I paid a whopping $2 for the trade paperback. Money well-spent.
This Joe Casey-written, Eric Canete-drawn story was a lot of fun. It is basically an Iron Man “Year One” story set in modern times (not unlike the Iron Man movie in some respects, I suppose). Based on the events that took place between the Mandarin’s debut in Tales of Suspense #50 (February 1964) and issue #55, just under a year after Iron Man himself was introduced in issue #39, Enter the Mandarin is a retelling of how Iron Man and the Mandarin first crossed paths and what took place. I’m not familiar with that original story, so I can’t say how much of a reimaging this is versus a complete revamp of the history, but I was really entertained by what Casey came up with here.
(It's interesting Casey seems to be staking his claim outside of the First Class franchise for this approach to expanding the all-ages, "between the panels" story of the early Marvel Universe with the five-issue Avengers: The Origin mini scheduled for April 2010.)
My only complaint is with Comicraft, responsible for the lettering in this series. Always present in any current Iron Man story is the data readings from his armor. And in Enter the Mandarin, it’s presented as white letters with a royal blue outlines. Very hard on the eyes. I found myself skipping a lot of the armor info because it was just difficult to read.
Canete’s art is fantastic. His art deco inspired covers are perfectly stylized, and his interiors contain a lot of motion and energy. I loved issue #5’s cover, and its rendering of Iron Man against a Chinese dragon representation of the Mandarin. As expected in a collection like this, the only extras are three pages of Canete cover sketches and inks for issues #2, #4, and #5.
With its obviously current technology and references to email and Wired Magazine, it’s clear the story is set in modern times. But Casey gives the reader a classic Iron Man tale that hits all the right notes: technology versus magic, a playboy Tony Stark alter ego, Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan, and the conclusion is satisfying enough to stand alone, but open-ended enough to leave room for the story to continue.
Comic books are released with cover dates that are months in advance. For example, last week I picked up Mighty Avengers #20, dated February 2009. This was the case even back in the days of the Original Collection. Case in point: the February 1985 issue of Fantastic Four (#275, my all-time favorite) contains a holiday festive subscription solicitation because it would have been at my corner convenience store in December 1984.
The deal here is less robust than others I've highlighted. Here we are only offered a baker's dozen for the discounted price of admission, but they do try to work the gift-giving angle with the postscript by telling us to "Give Marvel comics as a gift." The available title list reveals this was really in my heyday of comic book reading: Alpha Flight, Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, G.I. Joe, Marvel Team-Up, The Thing, X-Men.This is another one of those ads that has stuck with me over the years. I remember wondering why Iron Man's Santa getup was obviously made of metal... rivets and all! I think it's great that whoever drew it took the time to include joint-like details at the elbows, shoulders, and along the lapel so that Santa Shellhead could enjoy some flexibility in the jacket. I do wonder who is under that armor, though. After all, in his own title at this time (Iron Man #191, February 1985), James "Rhodey" Rhodes was sporting the iron hardware and Tony Stark had just recreated his original Iron Man suit. Regardless of who's under that mask, though, it's still a pretty memorable ad.
With today's Marvel Noise podcast comes another edition of "Marvel Unbound", a new entry here on Random Thoughts Escaping, and fresh opportunity to chat about it in the Marvel Noise forum's "Marvel Unbound" thread. Enjoy!
With Marvel's efforts to build the Iron Man property into a full fledged franchise, there are a glut of Iron Man books available -- both monthlies and collections. And in an effort to navigate those waters I asked the folks on the Marvel Noise forum where I should go for some good Iron Man tales. There were two items that everyone seemed to consistently recommend: the classic Demon in a Bottle story arc, and Warren Ellis' Iron Man: Extremis. I'm really looking forward to reading Demon in a Bottle, but I'm waiting for it to hit stores in trade paperback first, so I picked up Extremis instead and blew through it in literally one sitting.
Extremis, the formula, is described as a Super-Soldier Serum injected via bio-electronic nanotubes into the subject. Naturally, the serum falls into the wrong hands and sets in motion some pretty graphic action and fight scenes that aren't for the squeamish.
Collecting issues #1 through #6 of this series from 2005, Ellis' storyline lays the groundwork for the Iron Man we see in Civil War. It propels his armor technology into the new millennium. Through the turn of events, Tony Stark injects himself with the Extremis cocktail and ends up with an enhanced healing factor, his suit fused to his body, and the ability to store his suit's inner layers in the hollows of his bones.
I'm not a huge fan of Adi Granov's art in the book -- it felt a little too photo-realistic for my liking. And that style only amplified the gore portrayed on some of the pages. I did enjoy Granov's covers for the series, as well as in the only extra in the trade paperback: A tangentially related gallery of the nine covers of Iron Man, Volume 3 he created for issues #75 through #83.
After being turned off by issue #7 of Powers' original run -- the issue where Brian Michael Bendis uses Ellis as a part of the story -- I was glad to have Iron Man: Extremis suggested to me. It seems as good a place as any for me to have begun my exploration of his work. I'm glad I read the book and now know how Tony Stark became the Iron Man I picked up and began reading in this post-Civil War world. I can completely understand why it's recommended as a "must read" in the Iron Man canon, it just wasn't my favorite Iron Man story. Although I appreciate what this reboot did to bring the Iron Man mythos into the 21st century, the art and gore detracted from the story for me.
Because our Cavaliers couldn't finish off the Wizards in Game 5 on Wednesday night, we ended up missing the Cavs' convincing win in Washington on Friday night because we were out with good friends seeing Iron Man. Wow, what a great movie! It lived up to both the hype and my personal expectations. Robert Downey, Jr. was born to play Tony Stark, taking the character seriously while never losing sight of the fact that the source material is a comic book. (And while I never would have pictured Tony Stark of the comics listening to Suicidal Tendencies while working on his armor, it was absolutely appropriate for Downey's Stark to be doing just that at one point.) Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Terrence Howard all were fantastic in their respective roles as well. The A.I. Jarvis was a little disconcerting to me until I read a post on the Marvel Noise forum that pointed out that it allowed Paltrow's Pepper Potts to take on a "keeping Stark's life in order" role, which helped make that dynamic even more satisfying. We stayed until after the credits for a scene I didn't much care for. I'm not a fan of Marvel's Ultimate Universe, so the Sam Jackson cameo was more off-putting than exciting for me. In all, a fantastic movie, and based on the weekend's numbers, it looks like we should be treated to at least a sequel, if not a franchise!
Saturday was Free Comic Book Day, so my son and I went to the local comic shop to stock up on some of the freebies! I came away with Hellboy, G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, X-Men, and Dan Dare, while my son scored with Sonic the Hedgehog, Little Archie, Donald Duck, and Gyro Gearloose. He also got his picture taken with Batman on the way into the shop, and on the way out Batman came up to the car window and told him to stay in school. Sage advice, indeed, from the Dark Knight.
Sunday I surprised my son with a trip to the Canton Comic & Sci-Fi Convention. These shows that Jeff Harper puts on are a far cry from the mega-super-duper events that have taken over the industry. Jeff's conventions are designed for collectors and fans to fill collection holes and find some real bargains, and are family friendly. For a couple of bucks my son hauled in a Superman Adventures, a Spider-Man/X-Men Team-Up, a Web of Spidey with Venom, a Sensational Spider-Man with Swarm, and a Bone Holiday Special. As a bonus, when he opened the Sensational Spider-Man he found an Iron
Man trading card inside. Double prizes! And when he saw the animation style cells Brett Pinson over at Boomtown Press was doing, my son was completely sold. He decided to buy one of Pinson's small animation style cells of Darth Vader. And the weekend was complete!
I have never attended a midnight movie premiere before. It’s just not something that’s ever been on my radar. And, frankly, I was hard-pressed to think of a movie I’d want to see a midnight premiere of. It wasn’t until we were leaving the theater after watching Captain America: The First Avenger that I realized it, but Marvel’s The Avengers is that movie for me.
Posts
