March Marvel Madness: THE AVENGERS

Greetings, True Believers! Welcome to March Marvel Madness! Every day this month, I'll be looking back on a theatrically-released movie based on the characters of Marvel Comics. It's all to commemorate the April 4th release of the next Marvel film adventure, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Comic book movie history. 'nuff said.

Marvel Studios brings its heroes together for one epic adventure in The Avengers. Directed and co-written by Joss Whedon (Serenity, TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer), the film stars: Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Chris Evans as Steve Rodgers/Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo (replacing Edward Norton) as Dr. Bruce Banner/Hulk, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, Jeremy Renner (who debuted in Thor) as Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Sam Jackson as Nick Fury, and Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson. They are all brought together to take on Loki (a returning Tom Hiddleston), Thor's exiled brother, who has come to Earth with an alien army to make it a kingdom of his own.

What else can possibly be said about Marvel's The Avengers that hasn't been already? Two years after its release, it remains extremely popular. It's the third highest grossing film of all time. It has a 92% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The only way to fill out this post is to make it personal.

This is more than a superhero movie for me. Yes, I have been dreaming of seeing a crossover comic book movie since I was in junior high, when I really started getting into superhero comics. Honestly, I always figured it would be Superman and Batman that would be the first two to cross paths on film. Alas, Warner Bros. didn't understand what they had in order to be the forerunner. Now, they're the ones trying to catch up. And they seem to be doing a good job trying, don't you think? Anyways, I digress. I figured I didn't have too much to worry about with The Avengers. The film was following up five Marvel Studios productions that were all pretty damn good. Plus, they had Joss Whedon at the helm. I was sure it was going to be great. I had no idea it was going to be that great!

It did more than just satisfy a personal need to see a superhero team-up movie. Went above and beyond being the most Marvel Marvel movie ever made. The feeling I get every time I watch The Avengers is the same feeling I got when I was four years old when I saw the original Star Wars for the first time. On a drive-in screen, no less. Try to picture that for yourself, and you will understand what it's like for me watching The Avengers.

Marvel's The Avengers
5 out of 5 Cap shields