Some Assembly Required

Every week during the Summer of Superheroes, SuperMike Matthews breaks down the ins and outs of a current superhero franchise. Spoilers may follow, so read at your own risk.

                                           

This week: THE AVENGERS! 

Into the Woods.

Penny Dreadful. 

Super Smash Bros. 

Alien vs. Predator. 

That episode of Johnny Bravo where Johnny meets the Scooby-Doo gang. 

Crossovers exist in every medium and every genre, and on some level, just about everyone likes them. Honestly, what’s not to like about two (or more!) of your favorite things being smashed together into one big thing? Crossovers are the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of the entertainment world.

This was, and still is, the only thing I have ever wanted.

The candy comparison is especially apt, since most crossovers really are just treats. They usually take place in a different continuity than their source material, and are simply looking to have some fun by playing around with famous iconography. They’re a chance to guess at what might happen if Abbott and Costello met Frankenstein, or if Abbott and Costello met the Mummy, or if Abbott and Costello met the Invisible Man. (A surprising amount of crossovers are Abbott and Costello based.)

Comic book crossovers, on the other hand, are much more than simple gimmicks designed to drum up publicity*. From the very beginning, comic book crossovers have played an instrumental role in both fleshing out and prolonging the worlds they present to their readers.

 * Make that: ‘more than just gimmicks designed to drum up publicity.’    – Ed. 

Think of it this way: Daredevil is one of Marvel’s more insular titles, and could probably run almost indefinitely without external input. All the same, elements of Daredevil’s character – like his close friendship with Spider-Man, or his antagonism with the Punisher – are given immediate weight by making use of established characters, rather than ones created specifically to fill those roles. Seems obvious, right? Well, now apply that logic to every comic-book hero in existence at the same time, and you’ll see that it’s a pretty big sandbox to play in. At their best, comic book crossovers allow writers to tell creative and interesting stories that wouldn’t be possible on a smaller scale, and make the most of each character’s unique personality and skill set.

At their worst, comic book crossovers will slap Wolverine on the cover of an issue that may or may not actually have Wolverine in it.

He gets it.

Zak Penn and Joss Whedon deserve a lot of credit for falling on the good side of that line with The Avengers (the film we’re actually here to talk about today), especially because the film technically belongs to a different class of crossover entirely: the Crisis of Infinite Superheroes.

A Crisis of Infinite Superheroes, besides being a term that I just made up, denotes a threat that is so large in scope that heroes from all across the globe/galaxy/universe/multiverse must be called upon to assemble and save the day. With increasing frequency, these Crises are taking the form of company-wide events that bring most or all of a publisher’s characters together for a year or more. That’s not inherently bad – again, think of the Peanut Butter Cup – but in any such crossover, there is a definite risk that such a large cast will lead to a juggling act rather than a compelling narrative.

 I do realize that the Avengers had only six members, which is, at worst, slightly above average for your basic team-up. But given that those six heroes plus War Machine represent the entire superhero community of the MCU at the time, I think calling it an Infinite Crisis is fair. – Ed. 

There are certainly traces of that juggling act evident in the movie – of the film’s two ‘new-ish’ heroes, Black Widow gets the third most screen time of anyone in the cast, while Hawkeye spends more than half the movie as a brainwashed thug – but the script truly does excel at making each character feel like they genuinely belong there.

The main villain of The Avengers is Loki, continuing his character arc from Thor. He’s decided that if he can’t rule Asgard, he’ll settle for domination of Earth, the planet that his brother loves so much. Naturally, Thor follows Loki down to Earth to stop him. Good.

The tool Loki plans on using to summon his army is the Tesseract, the same item that Cap sacrificed himself to keep out of the wrong hands at the end of The First Avenger. Good.

The Tesseract emits Gamma radiation, the same type of radiation that Bruce Banner devoted years of his life to studying. Good.

Hawkeye is trying to defend the Tesseract when he’s press-ganged into Loki’s service. Not bad.

Black Widow is S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top operative, and has a close enough bond with Hawkeye that she feels the need to help save him. Good.

As it happens, Iron Man is the hero with the least reason to be there, but then, if you honestly believe that Tony Stark would sit back and let everyone else take all the glory, you haven’t been paying attention.

Once all the heroes are in place, we’re given an extended period of time to simply let them bounce off of one another and watch the sparks fly, which – and this is a technical term – is just OODLES of fun, you guys. Seriously. It’s amazing. Iron Man and Cap, for instance, discover that they have an immediate ideological conflict that quickly becomes the core of the movie. Banner’s presence as a wild card keeps everyone on edge – especially Black Widow – even as he and Stark quickly bond over their comparable intellects. And, of course, Thor beats up just about everyone.

Another small touch that I really appreciate is the way that the film has each character square off against Loki at one point or another, but does so on a case-by-case basis, letting each member of the team do what they do best. He gets a beat-down from Cap, a chewing out from Thor, is out-manipulated by Widow, gets his ego deflated by Stark, is outsmarted by one of Hawkeye’s trick arrows, and finishes off by being utterly decimated, courtesy of Mr. Green.

It's really not a strong showing for the puny trickster god.

As a sequel to four different films at once, The Avengers has a lot of ongoing character arcs to deal with. It can get away with leaving some on the back burner – Thor, for instance, doesn’t change much – but it also advances a surprisingly large number of them. Besides Loki’s quest for kingship as mentioned above, we have Tony learning to be self-sacrificing, Cap adjusting to the modern-day world, Banner’s ongoing struggle for self-control… they’re subtle beats, but they’re undeniably there. Most importantly, the film’s climax introduces an earth-shattering event of 9/11 proportions, one that makes the world at large aware of the existence of both aliens and superheroes. Talk about a paradigm shift.

Given all of that, there is one pressing question still to address, and I’m sure many of my newbies out there are thinking it: with so much established in the five films that precede it, does The Avengers work even slightly as a stand-alone movie?

Believe it or not, I think it does; you wouldn’t be experiencing the best version, and would need to take a lot on faith, but all of the truly crucial plot information remains firmly within the film itself. (This guy is bad, and he wants to use that glowy cube thing to make the aliens come.) Still, even something as simple as basic brand awareness of the main characters – something that you now possess, dear reader! – goes a long way. I can certainly picture the unfortunate filmgoer whose expression, upon reaching the action scene on the Helicarrier, finally shifts from glazed confusion to one of understanding. “Ohhhh,” the man exclaims, pointing excitedly at Mark Ruffalo, “He’s the Hulk.”

"Now I get it."

So. Is it perfect? Of course not. But it’s pretty damn close, and it definitely gets my vote for the best superhero film of all time, simply because it’s SO MUCH FUN. All the same, a lot of what’s great about it comes from context that was established elsewhere; yes, this was the film that finally put our favorite heroes together on screen, but the groundwork had been underway for a long time, and still is. The MCU is a web of constant connections that never stops being woven, even if there’s no Avengers film in theaters to make it explicit. We can clearly see that in the case of Black Widow, who has now appeared in just as many films as most of her fellow Avengers, even without a franchise to call her own.

In a way, world building has become the job of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the ABC series that focuses on fan favorite S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson. Besides introducing a number of D-list Marvel characters that never would have made it to the big screen, the series gives us the chance to explore the MCU’s more obscure nooks and crannies once a week. The show's existence hardly means that Easter Eggs have been relegated to the small screen, though - in fact, Agents has frequently stated its commitment to original characters. (Whether or not that's to its detriment is a matter of debate.)

The point is, there continue to be plenty of subtle references hidden throughout the films for attentive fans to pick up on. For instance, did you know that both the Hulk and the Abomination were created using a bootleg version of Captain America's super-soldier serum? Or that the two scientist acquaintances Erik Selvig mentions in Thor are Bruce Banner and Henry Pym, a.k.a. Ant Man? How about the Stephen Strange name drop in The Winter Soldier? Or Ellen Brandt’s presence in Iron Man 3 obliquely confirming that somewhere in the MCU dwells… the Man-Thing*?

 * Before you say anything, he actually debuted two months before Swamp Thing, so he’s not a rip-off. Ironically, Swamp Thing is actually the manlier of the two, whereas Man-Thing is much swampier. 

Which is weird.

That’s all really cool, right? It’s all connected!

Yeah!

Now for the bad news.

We talked last week about the need for franchises to wring as much potential out of their central character as possible, and the shared universe of the MCU only makes that need even more apparent. Every movie in the pipe starts coming with a checklist. Are all of the necessary characters in play? How can they be brought together? If one or more is missing, can the existing characters stick around long enough for the rest to be introduced? It breaks my heart to say it, but sooner or later, the good folks at Marvel Studios are going to find themselves answering those questions in the negative. Chris Hemsworth can’t play Thor until Ragnarok, so the concern becomes one of getting him to stick around until it’s time for Thor: Ragnarok. Whether it’s the result of market oversaturation, or just financial unfeasibility, the MCU’s model is going to have to turn away from expansion and become a system of replacement. As the saying goes, out with the Iron Man, in with the Ant Man.

Or something like that.

What If?

Fortunately for Marvel, the Avengers are no strangers to the concept of replacement. Ever since their foundation, the team has had something of a revolving door policy toward membership, and among their several branches, they’ve built up a massive roster over the years. Two key figures who will soon be making their MCU debut – and thus come sporting some shiny new 6-film contracts – are Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, perhaps better known as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch*. In this universe, HYDRA leader Baron Strucker has somehow altered their genetics, presumably using the staff left behind by Loki at the end of The Avengers. This makes them two of the first MCU inhabitants to have actual superpowers, though Strucker’s declaration that we’re entering an “age of miracles” means that there might be more to come.

 * Some of you might have seen Quicksilver earlier this summer, stealing scenes as part of the latest X-Men movie. That’s because the film rights to Pietro and his sister are some of the few that still remain up in the air. The situation is complicated by the fact that they’re mutants by birth – Magneto’s twin children, in fact – but Avengers by choice, belonging to the latter group since 1965. 

In any case, the Avengers’ immediate future is easy enough to read, what with Age of Ultron being less than a year away. The plot of the film is still under wraps, but one thing we know for sure is the identity of the big bad, and that means we can make a few pretty safe assumptions.

Ultron, for lack of a more concise phrase, is a killer robot with daddy issues. He’s equal parts Skynet and Frankenstein’s monster, with the three key goals of upgrading himself, proliferating, and destroying his creator. Part of what makes Ultron’s debut so exciting is that he’s one of the few foes who can be considered an enemy of the Avengers as a group, rather than just an enemy of one member whose latest scheme happened to work exceptionally well. And yet, I’m sure there are many who would call his introduction a bit premature, given that the comic book Ultron is created by Ant Man, and that Ant Man is not coming to the MCU until next summer, after Age of Ultron is already out. That means the smart money is on Tony Stark to create the robot in Ant Man’s place, and I, for one, am A-OK with that – it’s just another example of the MCU making the most of the pieces it’s already put in place.

Post-Ultron, things are going to start getting pretty heavy. Some of you may remember this ugly mug from The Avengers’ mid-credits scene.

Hellboy?

That’s Thanos, the Mad Titan, and he means business. He has a long history in the Marvel Universe, but his main preoccupation is the assembly of the Infinity Gauntlet, an ancient artifact inset with six gems that, used at the same time, make the bearer one of the most powerful beings in all of creation. Two of those gems have already been identified – the Tesseract and the Aether from Thor: The Dark World – but neither is in Thanos’ possession just yet. We’re going to see him very soon in Guardians of the Galaxy, and after that, I imagine he’ll become a major player in kicking off the MCU’s first real Crisis of Infinite Superheroes.

Also, he once killed half of all sentient life in the universe just by snapping his fingers.

So there’s that.

 Next Week: We swing into action! 

As it happens, ladies, I have two Giant-Size Man-Things. And only one of them is a comic book.
(The other one is an action figure.)