Marvel Studios pulled off a historic coup at the box office
this weekend with the opening of “The Avengers” featuring an entire slate of
iconic characters. Combined with the returns from its earlier European release,
the blockbuster has raked in $641 million dollars in twelve days, and that’s
just for starters. The foundations for this massive undertaking began with the
2003 release of “The Hulk” and its 2008 sequel “The Incredible Hulk” along with
“Iron Man” in 2008, “Iron Man 2” in 2010, finally “Thor” and “Captain America:
The First Avenger” in 2011. Director Joss Whedon scored big with a topnotch
cast uniting all of the big stars from those films: Robert Downey Jr., Chris
Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel
L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, Stellan Skarsgård, Gwyneth Paltrow and two new
ensemble members: Cobie Smulders and Mark Ruffalo taking over the role of Bruce
Banner/ The Hulk in spectacular fashion.
It proved to a worthy effort beyond the sheer amount of
earned dollars. Nick Fury (Jackson) as director of an international peace
keeping agency called S.H.I.E.L.D. pulls together a who's who of superheroes to
save the world from disaster, with Iron Man (Downey Jr.), The Incredible Hulk
(Ruffalo), Thor (Hemsworth), Captain America (Evans), Hawkeye (Renner) and
Black Widow (Johannson), answering the call when global security is threatened
by Thor’s evil brother Loki and his alien cohorts, the Chitauri. Every character
gets a proper moment to shine and all of the actors play well together, plus
there are some real crowd-pleasing scenes that will bring a smile to your face.
As is usually the case, stick around for a couple of post-credit moments including a brief teaser for the eventual
sequel that features an awesome villain that only true Marvel fans will
recognize.
I won’t go into further details lest I spoil the flick for
anyone, but I highly recommend that you give this film a chance to win you
over. However as an aside, I feel for the longtime fans who’ve called for a boycott of
this movie in support of the Jack Kirby estate. Jack “King” Kirby died in 1994
and as the co-creator of Captain America , Thor, The Hulk, Iron Man,
and The Avengers, Kirby was the single most influential figure in the early
days of Marvel Comics. His influence extended beyond his artistic contributions
as well, with his personal point of view and philosophy of drawing reflected
throughout the entire publishing company. It is Marvels sad legacy that they
have neglected to enshrine the “King” with as much lavish accolades as they did
with his writing partner Stan Lee. Rather than boycott the film and deny yourself the
entertainment, keep calling on Disney (the current owner of Marvel Comics) to
finally make things right with the Kirby Estate. In all likelihood “The
Avengers” will be a billion dollar box office titan in short order, and there
will be no better time for the company to put this stain to rest and honor the late creator of
so many classic characters. It would be the “heroic” thing to do. And shame on
Stan Lee for his recent comments that he didn’t know how they would list Jack
Kirby in the films credits, since his old partner hadn’t produced any of the previous films
based on his creations. Hey, Stan, you’ve claimed sole credit long enough, and
nobody is particularly buying that shit anymore, so grow a pair and come clean
for once in your well-heeled life. Nuff said!
5 comments:
everything you said about Kirby...ditto
I thought it was good, not as awesomely amazing as I'd been led to believe it was going to be, but certainly a great crack. as for the big reveal, I'd pretty much sussed that one out way back when I saw Thor for the first time ( yeah, me and every other comic geek out there, I know ).
&, yep, agreed about Kirby.
Stan needs to visit Grantbridge Street and put himself on the cunt list.
Did you miss the two lines in end credits? "Based on the comics created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Captain America created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby."
And Stan would have no control over how Kirby's name is listed. He might be listed as a producer, but it's more like an contractual honorary title than an actual job.
No, I most certainly did not miss those credits at the ass-end of the film (since I also caught the Indian diner scene with the gang munching on shawarma).
Nothing about seeing that credit negates Lee's disrespectful comments about the late Jack Kirby. Stan the "Man" did in fact say an approximation of what I referred to in this post and his doing so was widely reported, so what is your point?
None of the flap over Kirby's status would EVER have kicked up in the first place had Stan opted to take a different life path. Lee wouldn't have had to give up anything, but he chose to perpetrate AND reinforce the notion that most of the artists who co-created the Marvel universe were little more than trained "wrists" bringing "his" ideas to life on a piece of paper. It was bullshit then, and it is bullshit now or are you completely unfamiliar with the Marvel Method under which much of their collaboration occurred?
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