Whilst we generally feature and talk about music fans and their dedication to their favourite band or genre, we thought we’d delve into another fandom, Movies and Comic Books, more specifically Marvel Comics.
So who would we turn to, our good friend Vanessa who regularly buzzes so passionately about the characters and movies feels so strongly about, and the Avengers Assemble movie has been a big feature for her in the past four years.
Here’s her fan story on the lead up to the movie she’s waited so long for…
You all know the feeling, you’re in a dark room, your peers surrounding you, you’re all there for the
same reason. You’re all there to see a performance that you’ve been waiting so very long for. The first sound hits your ears, the lights and your heart is pounding.
Only now imagine the event you’re about to witness isn’t a concert by your very favourite band, it’s a movie.
But it’s not just any movie. It’s the movie you’ve been waiting four years for. It’s a movie featuring characters you have loved since you were 7 years old. It’s a movie that is written and directed by the man who has essentially been your hero since you were 12 years old. It’s the most ambitious superhero movie of all time, bringing together characters from five completely different films with a high profile cast to make Ocean’s Eleven wince.
On 26th April, The Avengers will be released in cinemas across the UK and I’m going to be in that position.
The Avengers brings together the combined forces of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), along with the super-spy Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and master Marksman, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Together, they form the titular Avengers, the ultimate team of superheroes who join together to battle the foes that one hero cannot take on alone.
The film has been teased since the very first Iron Man film, back in 2008. The unassuming Agent Coulson, of Strategic Homeland, Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (“Just call us S.H.I.E.L.D.”) appears in the movie, trying desperately to reach Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark for a debriefing after his escape from a terrorist group in Afghanistan. It’s an exciting side-story in the main movie for the comic fans, made even more exciting in the post-credits sequence by the appearance of the eponymous Nick Fury, who first utters the words “I’m here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative”.
I remember this was greeted with a level of disbelief from myself and other fans. Were they really going there? Could they really go there? Who do you include in an Avengers movie? Would anyone outside Marvel fandom accept a character called Ant-Man? This was the first time the Marvel movies had really hinted at major heroes existing in the same universe as each other and it was exciting.
The next film to come was The Incredible Hulk, also in 2008. This film seemed to 
divide the fanbase, some loved it, and some – like myself – hated it. I feel it took itself far too seriously, it was about a guy who turned into an enormous green rage monster when he was aggravated, yet somehow it managed to suck all the fun out of this idea. However, when Tony Stark appeared at the end of the film to talk to General Ross about putting a team together, about the super soldier program, suddenly the film was saved. The Avengers really was happening. And it was going to have a Hulk.
Two years later, Iron Man 2 came and went. The film was generally regarded as inferior to its predecessor. Robert Downey Jr was still flawless as Tony Stark, Sam Rockwell was a delight as Justin Hammer and newcomer to the series, Scarlett Johansson as Natalie Rushman/Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow was divine. The film lacked the charm of the original and spent too much time making nods to the fact The Avengers was coming. Overall, it was still enjoyable, but it could have been so much more than what we got lumbered with.
After this entry in the Avengers series, the internet was abuzz with rumours the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon, would be taking the big film on. This was the point when my Avengers excitement reached fever pitch, after only three of five lead in movies.
Joss Whedon’s work, from Buffy right through to Dollhouse, has always been a huge influence on my life. From Buffy and Angel helping me to cope with my own inner demons as a teenager, through to the worst day of my life, when Serenity was on TV in the evening and I got a few hours reprieve from the pain I was in. This man’s work has been a constant in my life since I was 12, to think he could be involved in something like this was unbelievable.
In July of 2010, I travelled to the US to attend San Diego Comic Con, the biggest convention for sci-fi, fantasy, film and TV in the world. (Chances are you have seen it lovingly mocked on shows like American Dad!, The Simpsons and Futurama.) I got the chance to attend a panel Joss Whedon was heading with JJ Abrams (of new Star Trek/Lost fame). It was at this point, right in front of my very eyes, Whedon confirmed that yes, he was at the head of this massively ambitious project. The entire auditorium, thousands of us, all screamed in sheer happiness at this news.
Later at the event, at a panel I sadly didn’t attend, he assembled the entire cast on stage for the first time, including Mark Ruffalo as the new Hulk and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye – who, up til that point, hadn’t appeared in any of the movies. Also on-stage, somewhat curiously, was the wonderful Clark Gregg who plays Agent Coulson, a character who had been created specifically for the movies and wasn’t an Avenger or even a superhero.
The stage was set. The film was coming in May 2012. It was official and it was time to really get excited.
The following year saw the release of the final two lead-in films, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.
I first saw Thor footage at a UK convention, where stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) were on hand with half an hour of exclusive footage. This included the first appearance of Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye, who got all of a two minute cameo in the film. When we first saw a pair of gloved hands reaching for a bow in the footage, the entire auditorium screamed at the top of our lungs.
The film itself was far better than I had anticipated. Thor had never really been a favourite of mine and all the footage I had seen for it – even the half an hour we got at this convention – hadn’t really excited me all that much, 
barring Hawkeye. In the end, the final film was fantastic. The mythological side and the human side balanced out nicely and both Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston did great jobs as the warring brothers. The film also featured an expansion of Coulson’s screen time, his appearance in The Avengers cast was starting to seem less unusual now.
After the credits of Thor came a big tease for both The Avengers and Captain America. We see Nick Fury talking to Dr. Selvig in an underground lair about his part in Thor. He then reveals to him, a mysterious glowing cube and explains that it’s “power, doctor. If we can tap into it, maybe unlimited power”. The scene pans out and we see Selvig in a mirror, with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki behind him in the reflection, smiling wickedly, “Well, I guess that’s worth a look”. Mere seconds later, and the nice Dr. Selvig repeats Loki’s exact sentiment word for word. This sets up Loki’s involvement in The Avengers nicely and leads into Captain America.
Set in WWII, Captain America’s villain, The Red Skull was also after t
he powers of this cube (the Tesseract or Cosmic Cube) in the belief it could help him rule the world. Captain America was one of the Avengers lead in films that I was most excited about. The character is a classic, he’s one of the first heroes that comes to mind when you say Marvel to me. Chris Evans did an absolutely fantastic job in the role. He created a Cap who managed to be both sweet, while still being the leader he needed to be. However, the film itself had moments of brilliance (Stanley Tucci’s Erskine in particular), but on the whole managed to leave me a little cold. A little like I’d been on ice for the last 70 years in fact.
The first Avengers footage that came after the film though, well that was just awesome.
The first footage was Cap in a gym, after waking up in the future, Nick Fury telling him he needs him to save the world, then a series of quick shots of action and characters from the upcoming film. It gives exactly nothing away but it managed to be the most exciting footage I’d seen in months. It proved the film was really happening and I know that myself and a few others applauded the footage when we first saw it after the film in cinemas.
But still, the long wait continued, photos appeared from the set, rumours spread about the plot but the actual thing was kept tightly under wraps.
The first proper trailer was a thing of beauty, with its Nine Inch Nails soundtrack. It looked like a comic book come to life, you could almost see the panels. The dialogue was superb, the brief interaction between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark wasn’t what I’d pictured but worked perfectly. Tony’s comment to Bruce Banner – “I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous, green rage monster” – was the icing on the cake. This was everything I wanted and more. I must have watched it at least thirty odd times that first night, each time getting more and more excited.
All footage that followed has only served to maximise my excitement, right up to the very first clip – which is the only one I’ve allowed myself to watch. The trailers raised more questions than it gave answers, plot points weren’t revealed but ideas were implanted in our heads about what we might get to see. Despite all the clips, all the little tidbits thrown about, my knowledge of the characters from the comics I’ve read over the years, I still don’t know what to expect and that is a thrilling thing for me.
As I said at the beginning of this piece, this is a film that I’ve been waiting the past four years for. It’s got an impeccable cast (three of the six Avengers have been Oscar nominated, two of them twice), playing characters that I completely adore. It has an incredibly talented writer/director, one who has had a lot of experience balancing out large casts and ensuring everyone gets the chance to shine. Every single review I have seen thus far has been incredibly positive, an 8.9 on IMDB. Many have been claiming this is the best superhero movie of all time.
On Thursday morning, I will be in the cinema and this journey of excitement I have been on will have reached its destination, when I finally get to see this film. At the moment, I am slightly worried, scared that this won’t live up to the expectations I have of it, that somehow something is going to be wrong and my dream will be destroyed.
But mostly, I am just near catatonic with excitement. It’s been a long journey for these characters and it’s been a long journey for this fangirl. While on the one hand, I will be sad to see it come to an end – what is there to look forward to now? – mostly, I’m just really excited to see the awesome place it’s no doubt brought me to.
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AVENGERS ASSEMBLE IS IN CINEMAS (IN THE UK) FROM TOMORROW (APRIL 26TH 2012).