Avengers: Age of Ultron Is For Me!

Yesterday, I was checking out the Avengers Experience at SM North EDSA when an evil thought occured to me: These plebians taking selfies with the life-size displays shouldn't be here. I literally heard someone exclaim "Pa-picture tayo dito. Sino ba yan?" (Translation: "Let's take a photo with this guy even if we don't know who it is") Then rushed over to the gigantic statue of Ultron!

In that instant, I got mad.
You pedestrians don't deserve this.

Behind the Ultron statue was the banner featuring the characters. I didn't expect it but I got emotional the moment I saw it. I've seen the images online more than once but seeing them printed and displayed is something else. Here in front of me were the characters I've been a fanboy of for 15 years. It's ridiculous really but in that instant I was happy again.

If you don't know this guy, you are not worthy!

Then the muggles started taking selfies in front of the banner. Not only did these inconsiderate pricks see me trying to snap a photo of the banner but proceeded to do their thing anyway, these people also didn't know these characters like I do.

I guess that's my problem. There is a part of me that was happy that the Avengers is getting the kind of attention it never would've received ten years ago but at the same time, I feel like none of it was for big fans like me who stuck with the team back in the days when X-men and Spider-man were all the rage.

Man tears for this.

And I'm not just talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I've blogged about how I feel like the current comics isn't for me anymore. Even Avengers Assemble the TV show doesn't feel like it was made for me.

It sucks. I felt like my fandom has betrayed me and neglected to reward me for all my years supporting the franchise.

And then Age of Ultron happened.

For the first time in a long while, I finally feel like something with an "Avengers" branding was trying to appeal to me. And it succeeded in every possible it can. Here were nine Avengers and their most lethal arch-nemesis yet. Here were the Avengers doing exactly what I want to see them do: Be super heroes. None of that real world allegorical drama bullshit that so often permeates modern super hero movies to give them added "depth".

Of course, there were several creative liberties that had to be taken for the transfer from panel to celluloid but that's to be expected and they were necessary. Everything worked so all is forgiven on that front.

I should also point out that since seeing the movie last night, I've read several reviews already, most of them negative. They derided the movie for not making sense in the bigger narrative of the MCU. They also questioned the necessity of the new characters. Screw that! As far as I'm concerned, I saw MY AVENGERS kicking ass on screen and that's all that matters. Besides, only two movies really matter to me anyway: This one and the first, nothing before or in between. Taken in that context, then the movie makes narrative sense.

Honestly, there is no way I can convince anyone else that Age of Ultron is the best thing ever. And I don't intend to. You had to see the movie with my tear-filled eye. Watching the movie evoked in me the same feeling of happiness I associate with watching Earth's Mightiest Heroes. It felt to me like the first time I saw Ultimate Avengers. It felt like the first time I read Operation: Galactic Storm and Kang Dynasty, which are my favorite Avengers epics of all time. Heck, watching the movie felt again like reading the very issue that got me hooked into earth's mightiest to begin with.

In short: Age of Ultron may not have been a great MCU movie but it's a great Avengers movie! What's more is that it's an Avengers movie that felt like it was made FOR ME! There's no way I can be objective about it and I don't want to be. The Avengers is mine again!

Thank you, Joss Whedon, for this gift!

Weekly Ketchup 30 - Comic Con, Geek Life, and the Last Two Years

This week was pretty much about all the nerd news coming out of San Diego Comic Con. It's always an exciting time for the geek community, although there is that element of despair at not being there yourself, which brings me to the first thing I want to address about the past week.

I've always wondered about the average 50 hits that these blog entries receive every week. Like, who the hell is reading them? Don't get me wrong, I love the attention but it makes me wonder if I should be cautious about the things I put in here, which I am as long it doesn't compromise honesty.

Who are you?!

The reason I mention this is because apparently geek friend Jovan had strong hard-to-articulate feelings about something she read a couple of entries ago. She mentioned it to me last week but we only got to talking about it last Friday over drinks with fellow geeks Hec and Alec, who also celebrated his birthday this past week.

I mentioned in the blog how the past couple of years have just been this kind of lull, like a television series that was a couple of seasons too long for its own good. And her question was: What did that make of the people around me? The friends that I keep? And what did my sentiments mean for her when she's okay with the steady flow of things going on in her story?

Me and my friends saw The Avengers

This is how all this personal matter connect to SDCC: Had things worked out the way they were supposed to, I would've been at Comic Con this year. Or at least closer to it (I heard those tickets can be hard to come by). The thing is that I already left in 2011 but I felt like my story here wasn't done yet, so I chose to come back (my auntie and my mom wanted me to stay there). By 2012, after the first Avengers movie, which I really wanted to see with the geek friends, I was already good to go but was holding out on money that, as it turned out, I wasn't gonna get after all. So come 2013, when the opportunity presented itself again, I thought that was it. Like in 2011, I was supposed to bring my grandma home to Canada, but the difference was that I wasn't gonna book a flight back. I had already saved up enough money to start over and I wouldn't have had to pay for the plane ticket so I thought I was all set! I started posting "throwback" photos on Instagram of my last trip to the States as a tease and even declared that "this exiled Targaryen is returning to Westeros". And, yeah, I already signed up to the Comic Con website in preparation for this year's event, which I knew even then would assemble the cast of Age of Ultron (Which isn't to say that I want to leave just so I can attend SDCC. I'm just saying last year would've been the best time for me to have left).

Obviously, things didn't work out the way they were supposed to last year, otherwise I'd have been live-tweeting from Hall H a few hours ago, instead of retweeting and sharing the news from other sources who were on the scene as the cast of Ant-Man and Age of Ultron drummed up support (like they need it) and hype for next year's Marvel Studios slate.

I took this photo in an alternate reality

By the way, I just started watching The Newsroom this past week during periods of no Internet at the office and I gotta say it's effin' brilliant. And me being me, I felt like I was in a virtual newsroom while covering all the major announcements coming from Marvel Studios earlier. I even heard myself saying in my head: "Do we have anyone on the ground at Hall H?

Another segue: I should be pissed. I should nerd-rage. The Ant-Man movie, as announced earlier, reimagines the mythology of the character to almost beyond recognition. Ultron and The Vision wouldn't even be part of their universe. But I'm not even upset because the movie is just a movie. It's just a fraction, though a significant one at that, of the myriad of ways I can appreciate and experience Hank Pym, Scott Lang, Janet Van Dyne, Yellowjacket, and their little world. It would've been great if they stayed true to the material but I'm over it.

One thing I'm not gonna get over if it turns out to be true is the absence of Arianne Martell on Game of Thrones. New cast members of the show were announced this past week and her name still hasn't popped up. I mentioned in a previous blog that her and the Greyjoys were among the new characters I'm looking forward to seeing on the show, but it's beginning to look like they've been cut or maybe just not appearing yet next season. Of course, this is all just speculation.

Surprised that Rose Leslie and Pedro Pascal still made an appearance.

Now, to address Jovan's questions (and I don't know how to say this without alienating my other friends from other circles who might be reading this blog), my geek friends are the only reasons I would ever consider staying (I mentioned as much in that article I wrote about Manila) and they're the reason why I stayed as long as I have (more than lack of funding). Yeah, leaving has been on my mind for a while already - even longer than these past couple of years actually. As early as 2008, on one of those "getting-to-know-you" memes that went around Multiply, I said that had I left when I should have a long time ago, I never would've had the pleasure of their company and while nothing has changed that would make leaving them any easier now, I feel like our relationship has grown to the level that I can check in every now and then or come back and it'd be like I never left at all. Hey, it worked out well for Hec, Alec, and, to some extent, Dek, even if she hasn't come back yet. And with many of them getting married, having children, moving to new houses, and just moving on to the next stage of their lives, I feel like it's time to pursue the next chapter of my story. Like I said in a previous blog, I already know what I'm leaving behind and I'm grateful but it's time for me to unravel the unknown ahead.

As for what it means that she's content with the way things are in her life, well, considering the mess she often has to deal with, I think a little security and stability for long periods might be good for her. And since we've also established some time ago that we're not compatible travel partners (she prefers to stay in and relax; I prefer to go out and stress myself trying to take everything in at once), maybe we also differ with how we approach contentment. While she relishes in it, preferring to stay in for as long as she can, I am itching to get out and see everything else as soon as I'm settled. Of course, I can't speak for her. Again, these are all speculations.

It's so beautiful I want to cry!

Anyway, hopefully, next year I would be reporting/tweeting live from San Diego, but I want to reaffirm a vow I once made on social media that the first time I attend SDCC would be as a panelist, volunteer, or booth... babe. What? A guy can dream!

Weekly Ketchup 29 - Typhoon, Techcessive, and Avengers Now

As of this posting, my house is still disconnected from the matrix (so to speak). Lack of Internet obviously makes blogging extra hard, actually impossible but, well, here I am. Thanks to the office Internet. Otherwise, I would've had to skip a week in this little online experiment/exercise/experience I have, which I'm not willing to do. So better late than never, right?

So last week, for me, was one first world problem after another and it just wasn't a good time to be having one. Why? Because typhoon.

First, a few days before the typhoon, I decided to reset the Cherry mobile unit I use as a secondary phone, primarily for mobile Internet and for some apps that aren't compatible with or don't fit on the onboard storage of my main phone. I thought resetting would activate the many sensors I just discovered the phone had (thanks to Android Sensor Box) but weren't responding.

Then, the day before the typhoon, my mom's decade-old feature phone finally conked out and she asked to borrow mine. I lent her the keypad-enabled Alcatel unit I use as my main phone since she wasn't ready for full touchscreen yet. For some reason, I thought it was also a good idea to reset the damn thing to its factory settings.

And last, since both Gingerbread devices were out of commission, I had to use the agonizingly slow Acer phone that I use, along with my Acer tablet, mainly for apps that are only available to post-Gingerbread devices, particularly the native Google apps. See, I have this thing where I keep the Jelly Bean devices strictly on a Google diet. Even if Opera Mini, which I use on the Gingerbreads, is so much faster than Chrome.

Yes, I've turned Android into a hobby. I wouldn't say I'm addicted yet or that I need an intervention (or maybe I do) but I love the experience. I can discuss what I do with all these droids around me in another blog but for now I want to share this related photo I took as soon as the power was restored to the house.

Seriously, I began charging everything thinking we would lose power again. I wanted to post it on Instagram and caption it "The extent to which I'm allergic to boredom" or "My idea of disaster preparation". I ended up not posting the damn thing because: One, I myself found it tacky to post my excesses at a time when other people were likely suffering; and two, because I wasn't sure what sort of reaction I was soliciting by posting it. I didn't think it was funny, cute, interesting, or even urgent at all. I just found it telling of my lifestyle.

While the power was restored to our house midway through typhoon day, our connection to the ether was still severed and Globe and Sun services were spotty. The thing is that I really just wanted to rebuild the app list on the Cherry phone, which for some reason was snappier than the Acer, with the ones that I now consider essential: Feedly and Opera Mini. I didn't even need the games or social apps and everything else (Instagram, Pocket, Evernote) could just be added again later.

In a way, I'm glad I was disconnected from everything as it allowed me the time to finish another article AND the video for that birthday party I covered a couple of weeks ago. My problem was that being perpetually online has become one of my biggest distractions. To be fair, I just allow myself to be distracted when I have open deadlines (ie, none at all) and I'm just forcing myself to be productive. In this case, though, I think productivity, creativity, and inspiration were distractions from boredom, so it all worked out.

My biggest concern being disconnected last week, though, was I thought SDCC was last weekend and I might miss out on all the announcements, which was why I wanted Feedly back so bad. Turns out I was a week too early to fret but there were still news on the Marvel front, which I understandably only got wind of days after. I guessed that there was gonna be a black Captain America a few weeks ago but the female Thor came out of left field. However, since I don't really actively follow the comics anymore, it's hard for me to care but I do welcome the change. On a technology and comics related note: ULTRON!

Going off on the Apple-esque Superior Iron Man tangent, my mom came home with a new iPhone last Saturday, which means I got my main phone back and life has slowly returned to normal minus Internet. I want to point out two things: a) This woman got a new power brick for her Macbook, a new battery for her iPod, and a new cable for her iPad just a few weeks ago (I'm not the only techcessive in the family); and b) Yet I still had to be the one to set up her iPhone and load her contacts (I'm surprised there's no way to transfer contacts from the Mac OS X Contacts via wire to the iPhone).

To close off the tech-adled week that I had, I went to my geek friends Duds and Carlo's kid's first birthday party last Sunday. The thing is: I was supposed to go to Cubao early in the morning so Mark E. can pick myself, Jovan, and Paul up and drive us to the venue. But then I overslept so I let them leave without me. Thankfully, some of the guys were still waiting in Trinoma and I was able to reach them and join them instead. Obviously, technology saved my ass in this situation but I hope never to be that guy who gets away with being constantly late or absent because texting makes it "polite" to be so. Yeah, I know a few people like that.

Medievalicious cake design by Jovan

Anyway, hopefully we get Internet back at the house this weekend so I can get back to my regular programming.

On Bendis, AvX, and Marvel NOW!

It should be a very big week for me.

My birthday is this weekend plus a couple of important Avengers issues also comes out this week (today, in fact):

Avengers Vol. 4 No. 31

It's beginning of the end for the Brian Michael Bendis era - a moment long-time Avengers fans have been waiting for. In fact: I know of some folks over at the Avengers Forever fan group who have vowed never to touch an Avengers book by Bendis, and I don't blame them.

Month after month, his issues were among the most premium-priced at P200 each and I barely get 5 minutes of enjoyment and hardly any satisfaction from them. None of his 4 to 6-issue story arcs felt like they needed to last that long. It's clear to me that he's stretching his stories with the intent of compiling them into collected editions, which is fine by me, but I wish he had given me more bang for my buck. He's already said that that's the prescribed format and some people are just better at it. Unfortunately, he's not one of them. Dan Slott and Ed Brubaker did the same during their runs on Mighty Avengers and Secret Avengers, respectively, and yet I enjoyed every issue!
To his credit, he has written some brilliant single issue stories: the FCBD 2009 Avengers, and New Avengers Vol. 2 Nos. 7 and 8. So I don't understand how he can't just restrain himself. If there was a story arc that I genuinely liked, it would be the one I started with: The Collective.

Other rants I have:

• His complete disregard for continuity (In Avengers Assemble, they don't know who the Zodiac and Thanos are. WTF?)
• His Avengers act like amateurs who have never faced universe-devastating crises before.
• They have no semblance of teamwork or leadership at all (let's all hit the same foe at the same time)
• His character management is a mess! For example: Spider-woman was a more interesting character back when she was a Skrull!

I have been burned several times yet I kept coming back for more. It's the most abusive relationship this side of Chris Brown and Rihanna. Why did I put up with it for seven years?

Because of the characters.
Which is also a problem because his work shows no respect for the characters and the fans that loved them. While I was initially incensed when I first heard about Disassembled and the New Avengers, I was curious about the new direction. I understand the need to bring in new fans, but why turn away old ones? Shake up the status quo - it's been done before - but why kill off characters or make them crazy and destroy an integral part of the Avengers mythos?

Of course, all that is moot now that most of those changes have been reversed.

Which brings me to today's second important issue:

Uncanny Avengers No. 1

When I first heard about this, I was like "NO SALE!". And I don't feel any differently NOW!

Sure, Wanda is back in action and they'll be using the Mansion as their HQ, but this is hardly my Avengers. In fact none of the Avengers titles/teams NOW! appeal to me. For crying out loud, I got into the Avengers to escape the mutants. NOW! they're all over the place! Yes, I understand that the creative teams they have assembled for all the titles are amazing, but like I previously mentioned, I'm in it for the characters and  I unfortunately don't recognize these Avengers anymore.

So yes, I don't believe I'll be supporting Marvel NOW! and its plethora of Avengers titles, including the just-announced Young Avengers. In fact: I'll hazard to say that my time of collecting new Avengers comics has come to an end. I'll just finish the current story lines of  Academy, Assemble (both fold this month), and Secret, and that's it.

A shame really. With my least liked writer finally leaving, I would've liked to see what they might turn up next but this is not what I had in mind. Sadly, I blame the movie for the Avengers' popularity and why every other Marvel NOW! title has the Avengers branding on it (Avengers Arena, SERIOUSLY?).

[UPDATE 10-14-2012: Marvel NOW! Secret Avengers relaunched with a movie-centric cast, which annoys me even more. So I'll just finish the current run of the Secret team.]

That's not to say that I'm no longer a fan. There's still 30 to 40 years worth of classic stories I have yet to discover (I'm waiting for the new Kree-Skrull War paperback to come out) and there's still the adventures of the West Coast team.
Which brings me to my last piece of thought:

Avengers vs. X-Men

When first announced, I thought this was a contrived, unnecessary event and given the way it eventually unfolded, my feelings about it haven't changed. Yes, I'm giving in to the Bendis abuse again (he did bookend the series) but being smarter about it - I only want to get the collected paperback edition (at a discounted price, if possible). After all, the event did involve many of my favorite classic Avengers, including the Black Panther, Hank Pym, the Vision, and of course Wanda, even interacting with the new Avengers. Who knows? I might even consider getting the paperbacks of the tie-ins.
And as far as Bendis and collected editions go, I'm also looking to snag copies of his Shattered Heroes stories (if only for Daredevil and Storm), which comes out before the end of the year, and of course his End Times saga, which would probably come out sometime next year. I figured I'd cut my losses since he writes for trades anyway.

But after that? Sadly I don't see myself diving back into the comics in the near future. I no longer feel like Marvel is doing anything for fans like me (I've been labeled a "purist", which is a title I proudly carry). I also used to treat each issue as special but I don't feel that way anymore because I have hundreds! With the way things are, I wouldn't be surprised if I reach thousands by next year! With the movie's sequel in development, I expect things are going to be the same way for the next couple more years at least.
I've always known that it has to end at some point, and Marvel NOW! just gave me the perfect reason to jump ship.

Of course, this bold announcement from the self-confessed biggest Pinoy fan of the Avengers couldn't have come at a better time: This weekend would've also marked my 12th anniversary as a fan (I got my first issue as a birthday gift to myself). It's the end times for my comic-collecting days but I know I will always be a fan of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Dangerous Liaisons

I suppose when you're a group of super powers with your headquarters located on a block of New York City, the world or at least the US government would have just reasons to keep you in check and make sure your interests are aligned with their interests. After all, unless your base of  operations is a roving satellite off-planet or a lighthouse on the moon, you're still operating on sovereign soil and certain laws have to be observed.

Avengers Headquarters

That's where the government liaisons come in - they're the middle men who mitigates your operations and make sure you're in the straight and narrow... at least by government standards. In addition to alerting you on new missions, they're also in charge of securing government permits and taking care of other legal affairs so you won't have to (because, you know, saving the world should be your tip-top priority)! But sometimes, they do overstep their bounds and dictate the system by which you operate.
And when you're a liaison assigned to the Avengers, you would have to be an equally colorful character to share comic panels with the likes of a billionaire industrialist in a suit of armor, an Asgardian god with a hammer that summons thunder, a super soldier out of time in a star spangled garb carrying a mighty shield, and the rest of these self-styled "Earth's Mightiest Heroes".

I only bring this up because while watching the movie, I couldn't help think that this guy:

SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson

reminds me so much of this guy:

Duane Freeman

Many who have seen the movie are quite smitten with Agent Coulson while many who have followed the comics harbor a special fondness for Mr. Freeman - the first and last liaison of the Busiek era (a personal favorite). Both men were fanboys, both were loved by the fans, and both shared a common fate.

Coulson in Battle Scars.
No fair! He's got more hair than Clark Gregg!

Yes, Mr. Freeman was a government-appointed liaison to the Avengers but Coulson is not. I think he'd make a great one though. If a tad overqualified - the guy can kick serious ass! There are certain obstacles to make that happen in the movieverse but with his emergence in the comics, that may not be a far possibility. After all, the current roster of the Avengers no longer have government liaisons. They now have SHIELD liaisons instead!

Maria Hill, Victoria Hand, and Sharon Carter from Age of Heroes No. 3

For a long while, liaisons like Mr. Freeman have served as a colorful addition to the Avengers' cast as the other civilian aside from Jarvis who is deeply involved in the Avengers' business. After Disassembled, we haven't had much in the ways of government liaisons, and after Civil War, we've pretty much established that anyone who leads SHIELD also leads the Avengers. That's pretty much absolute power right there.

'Nuff said.

This is why I found it baffling that they returned to the liaison system at the onset of the Heroic Age. The Avengers and SHIELD, both under Commander Steve Rogers' command, are at the very top of the security food chain. But I suppose that having liaisons around was a means to make sure that there is no such thing as "absolute power" in the first place - that there is still some level of accountability on both ends. Or maybe there were just too many squads running around that they cannot be left unchecked.

Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill
Hey, she actually worked!

The great thing about these women was that they were completely different from pencil-pushing men straight out of Washington whose background was more on politics than actually ensuring the safety of the world. Hill and Carter have both accompanied their respective teams on missions while Hand had, more often than not, found herself in the thick of things whether she wants to or not but she's proven herself more than capable of holding her own regardless. Even when confronted with the return of her former boss.

Hill from Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Both Hill and Hand are creations of my least favorite scribe and I should be morose that one of his pet characters got the big screen treatment when the Wasp, an original Avenger and a personal favorite, doesn't even get a cameo! But I digress. If anything, he made the character truly memorable and deserving of her place in the periphery of the Avengers mythos. Her love/hate attitude towards superheroes truly helped in that direction - much like another memorable character who has made a career out of his unfavorable relationship with the Avengers.

Henry Peter Gyrich

I actually like this character because his less than welcome presence adds internal conflict and drama to stories involving him! He's every bit the pencil-pushing arrogant government type I described above.

We haven't seen much of him in recent comics but then again with his past dealings with the team, it's no wonder that Commander Rogers don't have any place for him in his new world order. Although he's the least liked of all the liaisons, his is the image that pops in my head when they say "Avengers liaison". I enjoyed reading about him during Geoff Johns' run and his time at the Initiative and I hope he shows up in the comics again soon.

Maybe make it hard for the Secret Avengers to function since Agent Carter is no longer with them?

He already appeared on Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Now that I think about it, I think he's also appeared on the other animated series but was under the name of another government liaison in the comics who wasn't as prolific as Gyrich! 

Raymond Sikorski

Of course, Raymond Sikorski was instrumental in the formation of the West Coast team and was the liaison to both squads during that era. He wasn't a fanboy or anything but he did make it easier for the team to cover both coasts. Maybe the reason they used his name for the show was because he was the most recent liaison and therefore the name that followers of the comics were familiar with at the time at the time of the show's production. But his likeness and sour demeanor towards the team was definitely Gyrich!
Just another one of the show's many absurdities I suppose.

The Gyrich-Sikorski hyrbrid from United they Stand also reminds me of Stephen Colbert!

All this is why Coulson will so work as the Avengers liaison! He's pretty much a suit just like Gyrich and an ass kicker like Hill (Hey, they're both agents!) plus he's got Duane's fanboy spirit (those who've seen the movie will know what I mean)! And he can probably manage multiple A-teams like Sikorski! Definitely a winner combo!

It's a long shot that it's gonna happen in the movie but maybe in the TV show?

There is an opportunity there since, for the time being at least, they're keeping the Avengers and SHIELD entities completely exclusive. The character hasn't appeared on the show yet but he has already appeared in the comic tie-in so there's hope of seeing more of him!

This one looks more like Clark Gregg!

And There Came A Movie Unlike Any Other

"I won't believe that this is happening until my ass is firmly planted in the cinema!"

I remember saying that when I shared the first wave of promotional images on Facebook and Google+. 

Well, I've already seen it twice since the movie came out here last Wednesday and I still can't believe that it happened.

Not only did they make a movie about my favorite comic book title ever but they made a great movie period. I'm not gonna go into  details as to how and why because that's what Rotten Tomatoes is for.

What I want to answer is: How does somebody whose online persona has the word "avenger" in it and who celebrated 10 years of being a fan feel about THE MOVIE?

Frankly, I was disappointed.

I didn't expect it to be brilliant.
I didn't expect it to be mindblowing.
I certainly expected a movie that only an Avengers fan would love.

None of those expectations were met. And I'm glad that they weren't because as a huge fan, I feel a sense of entitlement to this franchise. The fandom is not the loudest and not the biggest in the world, to be sure, so this is a make or break moment for us. The Spider-man, X-men, Batman, and Superman fandoms can live their bad movies down on the strength of everything else they got going for them. While the Justice League fans will always have their TV shows, us Avengers fans will only have this one shot at a blip in the radar of pop culture.

Who better to steer us towards that direction than a geek god like Joss Whedon! I remember jolting up from my early morning stupor two years ago when they formally announced at SDCC that he'll be helming the movie. Of course, that event also finalized Mark Ruffalo's replacement of Edward Norton in the role of Bruce Banner as well as the movie roster, which did not include Ant-man and the Wasp.

Did I mind Norton's departure? Not really, though I would've preferred he reprised his role if only for the additional star power to match Robert Downey, Jr.
To be honest, they could've cast a completely new set of actors because I don't really care about the individual movies or characters. I only care about the team. Same reason I didn't mind that Captain America's ears weren't exposed or that Thor didn't have his helmet on.
Regardless of casting and costume differences, everybody in the end did right by their roles including Cobie Smulders. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get Robin Scherbatsky or, worse, Robin Sparkles out of my head but she did right as Maria Hill!

As for Pym and Jan, if they couldn't get their movies out in time, it didn't really make sense for them to be included here because we'd have to spend time detailing their powers and origins instead of moving the story forward. Hawkeye and the Black Widow made sense because as SHIELD Agents, they're already right smack dab in the middle of it all and their powers don't really require much defining. Their scenes are actually the ones I looked forward to the most in the movie.

Yes, Hawkeye is from SHIELD and not from the circus, Nick Fury is black, and the Avengers were forcibly rather than coincidentally assembled. I suppose we owe much to Mark Millar and the Ultimates for paving the way to make this movie happen, but I do wonder what the treatment would've been if it was based more on the 616 timeline.

We'd probably still have Loki but would he still have been allied with that alien race? We'd probably have Skrulls instead, which I've been very vocal not liking the idea of. If not Loki, I would've preferred Ultron (with or without Pym) or Kang or both. That would be fanboy heaven for me!

Speaking of, the identity of the alien invaders and the cameo at the mid-credits were spoiled to me before I watched it. The only solace I find from that is that neither were all that surprising revelations - the former has already appeared in a previous adaptation and the latter has long been rumored.

I already miss those days of rumor-, speculation- and news-mongering. That's almost four years of my life since the first Iron Man movie. I can look forward to a sequel but if this doesn't get one, I'd be perfectly fine with it. How can we possibly top this? We have to do it right or not at all.

I feel strongly about this because as a vocal fan, this movie definitely pushed my personal branding. Everyone I know probably remembers me when they watched it so I also feel a certain level of responsibility. Case in point: My friends applauded ME when we watched the movie together! People I know have been letting me know how much they enjoyed it! I'm just glad they had a good time and that I'm somehow a part of it.

So thank you, Joss Whedon and Marvel, for this gift to the fans of Earth's Mightiest Heroes to hold over the heads of everybody else.

Damn you too for setting the standard so high!

Unofficial Ultimate Guide to the Books

This topic is brought to you by an impulse buy I made over the weekend:

Left: The Avengers Assemble
Right: The Mighty Avengers - An Origin Story

Yes, I'm talking about the Avengers on paper but beyond the comics: the books!
That seems kinda redundant considering that the source material is already in print form and we're living in the age of Wikipedia, but I like having easy access to references whenever I need to look something up.
Or whenever I just want to look or read something that isn't a comic!

Avengers: The Ultimate Guide

Somewhat of a cross between an encyclopedia and a coffee table book, this guide is an easy read and contains tons of casual information about the team and its members. It's infamous among fans for revealing the true identity of Ronin, which was yet to be revealed in comics at the time! Talk about spoilers!

Most of the information is pretty basic (with tons of typos) but where it really shines is the layout and illustrations! The Avengers are presented in the order they joined plus they have a section devoted to the alternate reality/future versions of the team like A-Next and the Ultimates.
One of my favorite things about this book that I have not found anywhere else is the 3D rendering of Avengers mansion!

I like the cover, which is actually from a page of Kieron Dwyer's art for the World Trust storyline. Though I would've preferred it if they had commissioned an artist to do an original art.

This book was also my first Avengers-related item beyond the comics. I remember I had to empty my bank account (I didn't have much yet - just started working) just to get my copy at Fully Booked Gateway.

Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game Guide to the Hulk and the Avengers

This one I picked up on a whim from Comic Odyssey's bin at a comic convention and for an unbelievably discounted price too! I wouldn't have picked it up otherwise since:
a) I'm not really a gamer;
b) I'm not happy about the cover.

For what it's worth, it's actually a much more in-depth guide than the "Ultimate Guide" is. It's got the history of earth's mightiest up to the time of its publication, hero and villain profiles, plus the schematics of Avengers mansion, a cross section of the Quinjet, and the original Avengers charter - all of which you can get from various sources online but is compiled in one easy to browse volume.

Looking around the net, I find that there's another cover of this book that I actually like more:

It has the Thunderbolts on the cover, which is actually lifted from the cover of a novel. It's easy to mistake this edition for another RPG guide book that I also want to check out:

The Avengers Roster Book

It's got original art for a cover! How refreshing!

Avengers: The Ultimate Character Guide

If we take the RPG book and remove everything else but the character profiles complete with numerical statistics, we'll get this book!
What's great about it is that it was pretty updated - it had profiles for members of the Dark Avengers, the Initiative, the Young Avengers in addition to heroes, villains, and supporting characters up until Siege and the onset of the Heroic Age! Sadly, and I'm not the first person to notice this, it didn't have an entry on James Barnes either as Bucky, the Winter Soldier or Captain America!
Seriously, though: What is it with these books and their covers? Is it that expensive to do an original one?

Official Index to the Marvel Universe

I mentioned in a previous blog that I also picked this up on a whim (ie, another impulse buy).
I like it because it provides an extensive, though text-heavy, summaries of all the issues of the first three volumes of the Avengers and the first volume of the New Avengers plus annuals, one-shots, specials, and mini-series. In a way, it also served as a checklist of sorts, so I know which back issues I wanna check out. I recently ordered a bunch of special issues from Milehigh Comics based on what I gathered from this book.

I do hope they release a similar tome for the West Coast Avengers, and the other spin-offs like Mighty, Dark, Young, Initiative, etc.
Cover-wise, there's really not much to ask for in a book like this so I'm good.

That's all I have so far, but I intend to expand the collection some more and include the following books when they come out:

The Avengers: The Ultimate Guide to Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Avengers Kit

The Art of Marvel's The Avengers

And speaking of the movie, somebody compiled the tie-in books in a neat blog. The books are mostly targeted towards much younger readers, which seems to be the trend. This makes it kinda awkward for me as a grown man to be looking for this storybook at the children's book section:

Captain America Joins The Avengers

Like "The Mighty Avengers" (see above), this book has nice illustrations and it's interesting to see how they adapted the comic to a storybook. Though I'd wager that the same text and illustrations from both storybooks are what's in the only compelling reason I'd want an iPad:

Avengers Origins: Assemble! Storybook iOS App

For a more adult flare though, there's this interesting nugget which is also available for the Kindle:

The Avengers and Philosophy: Earth's Mightiest Thinkers

Outside of these, there are also novels and I'd like to thank our friendly neighborhood Wikipedia for the complete list. Though I have yet to get into one myself, I find novelizations of comics and movies a bit odd considering they were already graphic in nature. Shouldn't it be the other way around?
But what do I know? I read Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia after the watching the movies!