Ten Things About the Avengers

I am completely stealing this list of interesting notes from this site because (1) it is really interesting and I don't want to have to keep up with bookmarking this page and (2) no one reads this blog anyway. Here is a link to the author's new book.

So here it goes:

1. The Hulk is green not because of gamma irradiation or because his skin is essentially bruising when he rapidly transforms from Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk; rather it was due to printing limitations at the time. The Hulk was originally gray, but that color of ink proved too expensive to use on a regular basis, so Marvel opted for the far cheaper alternative of green.

2. The Avengers Mansion is the Avengers' base of operations in the comics, a beautiful estate once owned by Tony Stark's parents, nestled in the heart of Manhattan. A real estate company called Movoto ran the numbers and estimated that an unfurnished Avengers Mansion based on the reported location would cost you $113.2 million.

3. Odin's Ravens are more than just a non sequitur exclaimed by Ron Burgundy; they're an enduring part of both Norse mythology and the Thor canon. Odin famously had two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, which he used to send information back and forth between Asgard and Midgard (Earth). When Thor extracts Loki from the Quinjet toward the beginning of Avengers, two ravens can be seen flying overhead, which is a nice little Easter egg for mythological-inclined viewers.

4. The Wasp is one of the founding members of the Avengers in the comics, but she is nowhere to be seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Joss Whedon revealed in a Q&A at the Directors Guild of America that his original draft for "The Avengers" heavily featured the shrinking superhero, but he wound up having to cut her. The rumor on the street is that we may see her in flashback form in Ant-Man, but only time will tell.

5. Stan Lee isn't the only member of Marvel's creative team to appear in cameo roles. In Thor, writer J. Michael Straczynski can be seen as the first man trying to lift Thor's hammer Mjölnir, and legendary Thor writer Walt Simonson appears in the banquet scene at the end, sitting between Volstagg and Lady Sif. Likewise, in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," writer Ed Brubaker can been seen as a S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist.

6. Iron Man's armor has been worn by many people over the years, including Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, and Bethany Cabe. However, the most unexpected person to ever wear the iconic armor was Peter Parker's Aunt May, who appeared as the Invincible Golden Oldie in 1982's What If? #34. To be fair, she has been a herald of Galactus too, so it's not that ridiculous if you think about it.

7. The shawarma scene's origin can be traced back to Nicholas Brendon's audition for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After an excellent audition for the role of Xander, Brendon said, "Does anybody feel like shawarma? I feel like some shawarma!" Whedon recalled, "I was like, 'This guy speaks to me!' And that's when I knew there wasn't any other Xander." Clearly, the actor wasn't the only thing that had a lasting impact on Whedon.

8. Captain America may be called the "First Avenger" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he was not a founding member of the team in the comics. Cap was still in deep freeze when the Avengers originally formed, and he didn't join the group until issue #4.

9. Star Wars actually wound up saving Marvel Comics from financial ruin in the late 1970s. In order to promote their then-unknown sci-fi story, the Star Wars team gave Marvel Comics the rights to a six-issue comic adaptation of the movie for essentially the price of free. Since two of the issues had to come out before the film premiered, there are many scenes and characters in the comics that do not appear in the final film. Case in point, Jabba the Hutt is a weird, jaundiced, bipedal walrus man rather than the slimy slug we all love to hate.

10. Agent Coulson's Captain America playing cards aren't just a clever piece of emotional manipulation to be used at Nick Fury's Machiavellian whims; they also contain an Easter egg. One of the cards features Captain America mid-punch, an homage to the famous cover of 1940's Captain America #1, which featured Cap throwing a haymaker into the face of Adolf Hitler himself. No wonder Coulson likes him so much.

The Fate of Howard Stark

I am watching the Winter Soldier of cable right now (channel surfing) and I just paused the movie on a newspaper clipping describing Howard Stark's death. This image is part of the montage when Cap and Black Widow discover the antique AI computer.

The newspaper is dated Friday, December 17, 1991 and has a quote from Obadiah Stane saying he didn't know what caused the crash. We also learn that Howard's wife's name is Maria. 

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

It is time for a blog post for a sister franchise of Star Wars under Disney - Marvel. Specifically this is a synopsis of all the episodes from the first season of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. I have DVR'ed the first full season and had watched a handful of episodes. However, I was disappointed in the acting and storytelling as the first part of the season progressed and stopped watching. However, my DVR dutifully recorded every episode and I held off on clearing it out simply because I love the Marvel movies and I knew this show would be an extension of the ongoing canon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I couldn't quite give up on the show.

I am so glad I didn't!


1.01 "Pilot"
Director: Joss Whedon
Writers: Joss Whedon & Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen



1.02 "0-8-4"
David Straiton
Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon & Jeffrey Bell



1.03 "The Asset"
Milan Cheylov
Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen



1.04 "Eye Spy"
Roxann Dawson
Jeffrey Bell


1.05 "Girl in the Flower Dress"
Jesse Bochco
Brent Fletcher


1.06 "F.Z.Z.T."
Vincent Misiano
Paul Zbyszewski


1.07 "The Hub"
Bobby Roth
Rafe Judkins & Lauren LeFranc


1.08 "The Well"
Jonathan Frakes
Monica Owusu-Breen


1.09 "Repairs"
Billy Gierhart
Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon

The lowest of the low. This episode was just plain bad - the worst of the series. The storytelling was muddled to the point that although his was supposed to be the transformative episode for Agent May's character, I didn't get it - I didn't care.

1.10 "The Bridge"
Holly Dale
Shalisha Francis

This is the episode that turned the series around for me. Up to this point there were a few high points but for the most part the episodes were mediocre. Whether it was better writing, better directing, or better acting, they seemed to have fixed the problems starting here.

1.11 "The Magical Place"
Kevin Hooks 
Paul Zbyszewski & Brent Fletcher

I am so glad the creators decided not to string us along for several seasons on the mystery of Coulson's miraculous recovery. It was also nice to see Shepherd Book back on TV!

1.12 "Seeds"
Kenneth Fink
Monica Owusu-Breen & Jed Whedon

Having seen this episode weeks after Winter Soldier, I noticed some of the hints bein dropped in this episode about the future. I think this is the first time in the series that Hydra is mentioned by name. This was mostly a standalone episode but contiuned the overall story arc and spawned a new potential villain for the future.

1.13 "T.R.A.C.K.S."
Paul Edwards
Lauren LeFranc & Rafe Judkins

This reminded me a lot of the train heist in another Whedon TV series, Firefly. I love the time freezing type weapons introduced here. A heart wrenching third act.

1.14 "T.A.H.I.T.I."
Bobby Roth
Jeffrey Bell

Big revelation on the source of the medicine used to bing Coulson bak from the dead. Perhaps this will tie into Guardians of the Galaxy?


1.15 "Yes Men"
John Terlesky
Shalisha Francis

This seemed like a one shot episode and a promo for the lesser known Asgardian women. While it was that, it was still very entertaining.


1.16 "End of the Beginning"
Bobby Roth
Paul Zbyszewski
We find out Fury has returned to the Triskelion from Agent Hand, who then orders Agent Sitwell to go to Lemurian Star (set-up for Winter Soldier movie). The Clairvoyant found and eliminated - or is he?

Deathlok (Mike Peterson) - gets a rocket launcher and continues his cyborg transformation
Thomas Nash - An index reject, paralytic, supposedly the Clairvoyant? Ward kills him.
Edison Po - Clairvoyant says he is the one who came up with the name. First seen in Girl In The Flower Dress.
Agent Hand - Takes over the plane and tells team to kill everyone except Coulson.
Agent Blake - First appeared in short Item 47.
Agent Sitwell -


 1.17 "Turn, Turn, Turn"
Vincent Misiano
Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen

Phew! What an adrenaline rush. This is the episode that ties into The Winter Soldier and, man, is it a tie in! Huge revelations and truly a game changer. So much happens here it will take several days and episodes to sort this all out.

1.18 "Providence"
Milan Cheylov
Brent Fletcher



1.19 "The Only Light in the Darkness"
Vincent Misiano
Monica Owusu-Breen


1.20 "Nothing Personal"
Billy Gierhart
Paul Zbyszewski & DJ Doyle


1.21 "Ragtag"
Roxann Dawson
Jeffrey Bell


1.22 "Beginning of the End"
David Straiton
Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon








http://www.sfx.co.uk/2014/04/18/marvels-agents-of-shield-1-16-end-of-the-beginning-tv-review/

1.16 End of the Beginning
Writer: Paul Zbyszewski
Director: Bobby Roth

MCU, I'm In!

I know this is a Star Wars blog but since Lucasfilm is now owned by Disney, as is Marvel, I figured it wouldn't be too far afield to venture into the Marvel Universe every so often.

I saw Thor 2 this past weekend and really enjoyed it. I've seen all the recent movies in the series which is dubbed the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) - except for the Incredible Hulk remake. I think it is an ingenious idea to carry story line threads through several different movies. It provides an extra incentive to see the latest installment even if the particular movie is not one of your favorite characters. 

That is how I felt about Thor 2. I am not a big fan of the first film. It had just a little too much fantasy for me. But having loved all the Iron Man movies and at least enjoyed the other MCU films I wanted to see how things continued with Thor 2. The box office numbers show I wasn't alone!

This inter-connectedness of stories reminds me very much of the marvel comic books I read as a kid in the 1980s. I would discover new characters and new  books as the stories would intersect with my favorite titles. It's pretty incredible to think that this same concept that involved a handful of writers, artists, and editors is now being used by hundreds if people across a wide spectrum of disciplines to achieve the same result. 

This is also a brilliant move in what it leaves out. There is no mention of Spider-Man, the X-Men, or the Fantastic Four. This is intentional as Disney does not have exclusive or perhaps even direct rights to those properties. As the MCU continues to build on itself, now including the Agents of SHIELD television series, these other characters will seem increasingly isolated and thus less attractive. This could ultimately play out that the other studios that own the rights might end up cashing them in rather than compete with the coming juggernaut. Disney has the inside track and I am on board with it!