Blogging A to Z Day 1: Avengers

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When it comes to movies, the Avengers are the talk of the town. Their first movie being the third highest grossing movie of all time leaves everyone with high hopes for the sequel. It’s the combination of a bunch of individual characters’ movies, which have also been both good and successful – but they made a combined movie that was greater than the sum of its parts.

There’s been talk as well about the fact that Marvel Studios has made a lot of what they had left, in terms of movie rights. That the big names, the popular characters, all belonged to other studios – the Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Spider-Man. You look at the history of the Avengers in the comics, and maybe it’s true. The Avengers have never been one team dealing with the world’s threats. Instead, they’ve been a conglomeration of heroes, between who was popular and who needed a comic to belong to at the time.

Can you name all of these Avengers? From Avengers (vol. 5) #24 by Jonathan Hickman

Can you name all of these Avengers?
From Avengers (vol. 5) #24 by Jonathan Hickman

The best comparison would be DC’s Justice League, who, while having added people at times, also have a solid core team of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, and Green Lantern. By and large this iconic group is the Justice League and when they announced the Justice League movies and the associated solo movies, we pretty much could have filled in the blanks for them.

When it comes to the Avengers, I could just keep throwing out names – not only the characters who have been in the movies, but characters like Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Beast. And a whole host of characters who are coming soon: Black Panther, Ant-Man and (hopefully) Wasp, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange. And even characters so iconically part of the Avengers that Marvel Studios got the rights to them even though they are also X-Men: Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. So we’ll have them in two movie franchises, though last year’s Quicksilver is going to be a hard act to follow!

There are advantages to the Avengers as a team, and I think they are going to capitalize on this in coming years. Because the Avengers are an open group, constantly growing and changing and with a new roster, they will be able to add and subtract characters as needed by their storytelling, movie rights, and actor contracts. Rather than being a hindrance, all of those things can work in the larger narrative of the Avengers.

In other words, what do I think is going to happen in Avengers: Age of Ultron? Anything could happen!

This post was by @CompGeeksDavid of the Comparative Geeks and regular Sourcerer contributor. For more A to Z shenanigans, check out Comparative Geeks!

57 thoughts on “Blogging A to Z Day 1: Avengers”

  1. Awesome! Really looking forward to the remaining A-to-Z posts. I grew up on a steady diet of comic books, cartoons, tv, and movies with a severe overdose of science fiction books! Thanks for sharing! And sadly, no I cannot name all the Avengers in the picture 😦 I guess I’ll need remedial study! 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

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    • In his Avengers Hickman pulled in both the core group from the movies, some recent and new Avengers, some way older little-known Avengers in new form, and some brand new ones!

      So Thor, of course… Cannonball, Smasher, Shang-Chi, Captain Universe… And I’m not sure about the person in the foreground!

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  2. I do wonder how they are going to top the Quicksilver from DOFP. Hopefully I can be into the moment enough not to care, but have you read all the “rules” they had about the character? Like they can’t use the word “mutant”, etc. So excited to see what the future holds for both sides of the comic movie battles! 🙂

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    • I’m definitely not surprised they can’t say Mutant – that’s why a lot of people are thinking they’re pushing forward with the Inhumans, who have already started showing up in Agents of SHIELD. Similar to Mutants, but not Mutants.

      But the twins sound like they won’t even be that! So who knows. I feel like it’s going to take a bit of explaining and hopefully Joss Whedon does that well!

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  3. I thought the Avengers movie was well done with all the individual characters first having their own movies. I’m a little nervous about this Superman v. Batman movie. I think they are throwing in too many characters without introductions.

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    • I am also worried about that, for the reason you list. The Avengers was pretty great because we had solo movies followed by the big team movie. DC is doing the opposite – the team up movies followed by the solo movies. How will that work? It remains to be seen. Because it’s not like they’re waiting to see who’s popular – they’re already planning the movies!

      Thanks for stopping by 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

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    • I hope the second one lives up too! It’s got a lot of pressure to do so after how big the first movie was. Hopefully they’re okay with it not making quite as much money… I know I saw the first movie three times in theaters! Will the second movie get that kind of fan response?

      One month!

      Thanks for stopping by!

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  5. We are taking the day off to see it sans kids and making a day of it. I am excited to see what they do. Looking forward to see the rest of your series, too.

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    • My wife and I are expecting a baby in May (more on that here and elsewhere) so we are really hoping we get to make it to Avengers in theaters as well! Otherwise, we are going to be really unhappy… I like your plan!

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  8. I have always been a X-men fan, which is why I was sad they don’t belong to the same cinematic universe (but at least we are getting Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, right?). I am looking forward to seeing new characters on the roster, and also hoping that the Netflix shows will be great and plug into the MCU at some point.
    Great blog, I’ll be back! 🙂

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    Multicolored Diary – Epics from A to Z
    MopDog – 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary

    Liked by 2 people

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    • I grew up an X-Men fan as well, so Marvel Studios has had to win me over with the Avengers, for sure. So far, they’re doing a good job!

      I was surprised how little Agent Carter plugged in to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – they did a really nice job of having it stand on its own (well, with plenty of Captain America: The First Avenger references…). That gives me high hopes for the NetFlix shows, for sure!

      Now I just need to get NetFlix… Thanks for stopping by, and we’ll see you again soon!

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  9. I love my superhero’s. I love them all. Avengers, well there is a bunch of dudes who do better as solo who suddenly need to work together. I think you have summed them up pretty good here. But now that I think about it, there is not really a female hero cast member is there? That is needed.

    The Justice league, those I love too. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

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    • Black Widow! But she hasn’t gotten her solo movie yet (if ever?). And the upcoming one is Captain Marvel, whose power source they are beginning to explore and get audiences ready for in Agents of SHIELD.

      Also, hopefully Scarlet Witch will stick around for a while!

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  11. Twenty-two days and counting; twenty-two days and all my questions will be answered; twenty-two days and I get to spend time with Cap, Hulk, Tony, Thor, Hawkeye, and Natasha; twenty-two days and James Spader’s voice will be resonating around the cinema.. Sorry, David, I couldn’t resist! Did I overegg the pudding?… Is it the 23rd of April yet? Great post. You are so right – anything can happen. I can’t wait!

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  12. I finally got around to watching Days of Future Past and loved how Quicksilver was portrayed. We’ll see what happens in the Avengers flick. I’m frankly amazed at how many fantastic movies Marvel has continued to put out. Hopefully Age of Ultron will be another one! If they keep this up, they’ll have a franchise that can live for a very long time. 🙂

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    • I think so. I’ve been thinking about a lot of the film franchises with a baby on the way… Which will hold up? What age? Where to start? And being able to watch things like Star Wars all in order, or the Hobbit then Lord of the Rings!…

      Marvel’s movies have already reached a point where they are not easily marathoned. Will be interesting to see how that goes in the future!

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  13. I can’t wait for the movie to come out. Our local theater is doing a double feature, and since none of my girl friends like to go to these movies, I either go alone (I love my alone time with my superhero movies 🙂 ) or with my movie buddy, Matt. We decided we’re buying our tickets ahead of time and going to make a whole day of it. I can not wait. Did I say that already lol

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    • Oh man, now a double feature! That sounds like a lot of fun! Will have to remember to do this even if the theater isn’t 🙂 The thing that there isn’t enough time to do is watch everything! But Avengers and maybe Winter Soldier should cut it.

      Too bad your girl friends don’t like to go to these movies with you… their loss!

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  14. Wait, what happened with Quicksilver? Did I miss something?! 😮 I’m stupidly excited about all of the Marvel releases. Marvel has a tendency to have a more diverse showing, not just of the usual definitions of “diversity”, but also in the character development, and personality area. DC has always seemed full of very solid, unchanging characters (I rarely see the characters change over time), that focus more on plot. Marvel, while sometimes have watery plot, has some truly amazing character studies (which I’m aware they do on purpose, like with X-Men’s Forge).

    Alex Hurst, A Fantasy Author in Kyoto
    Out of Print, Fiction authors and their shorts

    A-Z Blogging in April Participant

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    • It’s that we’re getting Quicksilver in two different movie franchises. They made this deal because he’s the mutant son of Magneto (so, Days of Future Past), and he and his sister are also longtime Avengers (so Age of Ultron).

      The problem is, we’re bound to compare them (I am a comparative geek…), and the X-Men version set the bar pretty high.

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        • It was early days for them, the twins were introduced in the first handful of X-Men comics 50 years ago. Within that timeframe almost everyone has been an Avenger… It’s when they get Wolverine into the Avengers that I will be truly impressed 😉

          They’re getting Spider-Man, so it’s a start!

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            • I didn’t like Rogue from X-Men 1 because they made her so “emo” and uncertain. The Rogue I knew growing up was Remy LeBeau’s crush: independent, hot-headed, impulsive, and at times, willfully dangerous. I know they made her weaker to amp up Wolverine’s presence in scenes, but it just made me sad, since I’ve never really liked Jean Grey, and they took my two favorites (Rogue and Storm) and made them… passives.

              Liked by 1 person

            • Yeah the Rogue in the 90’s show was older, and had Captain Marvel’s powers… Guess they didn’t have the rights to that one!

              I think the missed opportunity with Storm was in X-3, when they could have gone with some of the story lines around her and the Morlocks, who did make it into the movie… Ah well. There’s still time and movies to come!

              Liked by 1 person

            • Yes! It’d be great to see the Morlocks expanded… and to finally get a Gambit! (not just a 2-second cameo, haha)

              Liked by 1 person

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  16. I absolutely love all the Marvel movie mayhem going on. My son and I will get all the movies from the library before A2 comes out and watch them in order. (We don’t own them all).
    In my opinion…
    Marvel hiring Whedon was genius. LOVE LOVE LOVE!
    DC is screwing it up. Their picks for TV shows are awesome and then they picked different people to do the films. Classic mistake. It will cost them.
    Great post!
    Heather M. Gardner
    Co-host: Blogging from A to Z April Challenge
    Blog: The Waiting is the Hardest Part [http://hmgardner.blogspot.com/]

    Liked by 1 person

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    • It is hard to go wrong in choosing Joss Whedon. I don’t even have to say something like “I’d love to see him do Shakespeare” because that’s already a thing!

      Some of their other choices have been great too – I’m excited with everything the Russo brothers are going to be doing, after watching Winter Soldier!

      And yeah… We’ll just have to wait and see how much of DC’s plans become reality. I could see them canceling many of the movies before this is all said and done. Marvel? Not so much.

      Have fun with the movie marathon 😀

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