Avengers Assemble!

Today when I was checking my nerd websites for the latest in fandom I read an article that said Joss Whedon is in talks to direct the Avengers movie. The Marvel Studios movie is already set to star Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, and with any luck Edward Norton as Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk respectively. Most fanboys were ruining their pants in excitement over this news as Whedon has already made a name for himself in the nerd world with his creations of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse, Firefly, and Serenity as well as his fantastic run on the Astonishing X-Men comic series. At one point he was even working on the script for the Wonder Woman movie that is now in development hell over at DC/Warner Brothers.

This seems like an amazing idea and a good choice on Marvel’s part. The guy gets comics, and more importantly, teams of characters. The show is called Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it was a group effort of Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, and all the other supportive characters. I have yet to watch it, but Firefly seemed to be more about a group of space pirates than a singular hero. And let’s not forget Marvel’s other superhero team. Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men in this nerd’s opinion was the best arc of the series in a long long time. He was also one of the many people to take a crack at an X-Men movie script before it hit theatres in 2000. Sadly, the only line from his script that made it into the final film was the line that nearly ruined the whole movie. “Do you know what happens to a toad when it’s struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else.” Awful. Just awful. But that’s what you get from a guy who got his start writing episodes of Rosanne.

Crappy lines aside, I think Joss Whedon will bring an interesting touch to a movie that already had a lot of potential. I’m not sold on Chris Evans as Cap, but at least he’s not Channing Tatum or Paul Walker, and I’m hopeful for some good banter between him and Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark. It sounds like things are looking up for Edward Norton to return to the role of Bruce Banner and Don Cheadle, Samuel L Jackson, and Scarlett Johansson are all expected to come in from the Iron Man franchise, giving the Avengers even more star power. Even if all that doesn’t work out, Downey could probably carry the movie on his own given his current winning streak. But Marvel has been mapping out all of their self produced movies to lead up to this, and considering the quality of what they’ve produced so far, this should be at the very least an entertaining popcorn flick.

Eh, who am I kidding? I’ll love it either way.