Reel Hooligans Assemble! (Endgame Pt. 1 & 2)
Seen Avengers: Endgame? Want to hear me sit down and get all nerdy with the Reel Hooligans? CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD!
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Avengers
Avengers: Endgame
- Title: Avengers: Endgame
- IMDb: link
More than the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that began back in 2008 with Iron Man, Avengers: Endgame is the coda to the series that climaxed in the last chapter and now offers an opportunity for one last hurrah, for heroes to take their final bow, and for Marvel to usher out one set of lead characters and set the stage anew.
For my money, the most successful films of the past 11 years have been The Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Excluding Winter Soldier, a great standalone film which cares nothing at all about larger continuity (it basically wrecked Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. after all), both Avengers and Infinity War faced enormous obstacles in pulling together various threads of the MCU into a single story. And both succeeded brilliantly. Avengers: Endgame comes off like their less-successful younger brother. I’m not going to call Endgame the Frank Stallone of the Avengers franchise as it may outshine Avengers: The Age of Ultron, but it’s a messy final chapter that offers plenty of memorable moments while failing to live up to what has come before.
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West Coast Avengers #1
- Title: West Coast Avengers #1
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Kelly Thompson
- Artist: Stefano Caselli
Although past members have included Iron Man and the Scarlet Witch, the West Coast Avengers have always been the B-team (or maybe the D-team). With the relaunch of the title, writer Kelly Thompson keeps to this theme allowing Hawkeye (one of the original West Coast Avengers) to be added to the group surrounded by characters you are unlikely to see in the MCU.
As a joke that gets old halfway into the first issue, the team includes not one but two Hawkeyes as Kate Bishop puts the new team together. As with most Marvel team books, I care for about 40% of the characters. On the plus side, the group has Hawkeyes and Miss America, but I’m less than impressed with Kid Omega, the reality-TV angle, or Bishop putting her boyfriend on the team. The addition of Gwenpool is a wildcard that could help or hurt the comic (possibly both at the same time).
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Avengers #1
- Title: Avengers #1
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Jason Aaron
- Artist: Ed McGuinness
Avengers Reboot! With the release of Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel Comics decides to reboot the Avengers. Again. For like the 19th time. I maybe be exaggerating. The new comics starts off with a flashback to the elder Avengers featuring Odin and characters I don’t care enough to look up in a comic concept I hate with a fiery passion (hey, you know the hero/team/villain you really like, well, let’s strip away everything unique about them ’cause somebody else did it first).
From there we jump to modern times with Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man all sitting around a bar thinking how great it would be to get the old band together. And then Celestials start falling from the sky. Wow, good thing they didn’t wait until next week to get drunk and nostalgic. We also get appearances by Black Panther and Doctor Strange, She-Hulk, Carol Danvers, and… Ghost Rider? WTF is Ghost Rider doing in an Avengers comic?
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Avengers: Infinity War
- Title: Avengers: Infinity War
- IMDb: link
2012’s The Avengers brought together all the elements from the planned Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was a payoff movie, and one that was executed brilliantly by Joss Whedon. It also gave us the first on-screen appearance of Thanos (now played by Josh Brolin) whose foreshadowed war on the universe would be put on hold for several years. Until now. Since The Avengers, too many of the Marvel movies have been forced into world building while telling their story. For the first time in years, there is no horizon which frees sreenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directors the Russo Brothers to simply tie the elements together as Whedon did six years ago and tell one hell of a story. And you know what? They do a damn good job.
With some notable exceptions (Natalie Portman, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, and Marvel is still completely ignoring their television properties) everyone is on hand to deal with the threat of Thanos who finally gets around to collecting the Infinity Stones which will allow him to complete his life-long quest of killing off half the lives across the universe with the snap of his fingers.
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