5 Underrated Scenes in The Avengers

I saw the movie for the 5^th time yesterday. Now that the movie has been out for 7 weeks and people have talked about all of the great scenes in depth, I thought I would chime in with 5 scenes that either no one has talked about or haven’t talked about what I saw in those same scenes. This article is FULL OF SPOILERS if you haven’t seen it yet. And if you haven’t…the Hulk hates you.

1) Maria Hill vs. Clint Barton & Loki

This is one of the first action sequences in the film. Maria Hill has just been informed that Clint is rogue and the chase begins. We get to see Maria Hill shoot at and chase the bad guy through a tunnel as it falls apart around her. We already knew that Fury and Coulson were bad asses so Whedon gives the audience an introduction by showing us what she can do. Since the script calls for her to be around the main team often, this scene helps establish that she’s every bit as brave as Thor and is willing to sacrifice everything for duty like Captain America.

2) Thor vs. Loki

All of the scenes between these two were good. Thor kept searching for the good man he once knew, happy that he was still alive but angry he was threatening Earth. There was that great scene when they have their reunion and another during the final battle. The story did a fantastic job of continuing that relationship. The scenes between the two of them were intense and heartfelt and made Thor feel more human and believable next to his teammates who also spent some of the film dealing with their own emotional issues (the story did a great job of using all their emotional baggage). It was also a nice touch having Coulson send Jane Foster away because she’s one of the only reasons that Thor would have come back and wouldn’t have made sense if he didn’t want to look in on her.

3) Natasha Romanoff / Bruce Banner relationship

The most surprising bond forms between these two characters. She’s seemingly indifferent toward most character with the obvious exception of Clint. When they first meet, Natasha has enlisted the aid of a small child to lure Bruce out to a shack on the edge of the city. When Bruce asks if they start spies that young, Natasha tells him that she started that young. It’s a moment of uncharacteristic vulnerability that’s revisited during the final battle.

When Bruce arrives he looks around and says all of the destruction looks horrible and Natasha replies, “I’ve seen worse.” Bruce replies with a sincere, “I’m sorry.” For whatever reason, Natasha trusts Bruce and through her tough exterior, Bruce seems to be the only one who can see when she’s being vulnerable.

4) “That man is playing Galaga.”

Any scene with Robert Downey Jr. is guaranteed to be interesting but on his first trip to the helicarrier’s bridge he busts someone playing video games on company time, describes Fury having to turn to see monitors as “exhausting,” tells Hill that he became an expert on nuclear astrophysics last night, and plants a virus that hacks SHIELD’s computer systems.

It’s a great scene because once it seems like no one is looking anymore, the crewmember goes back to playing Galaga. Even in a flying aircraft carrier full of superheroes, a job is still a job and there will always be some slacker playing Galaga.

5) “Suit up.”

Joss sprinkles a lot of subtle things in the scenes that let you know Cap is in charge.

For example, Clint Barton has spent the movie under Loki’s control and has just aided in assaulting the helicarrier which got good men killed (mainly Coulson) and allowed Loki to escape. When Cap discovers where Loki is going to strike, he finds Natasha and asks if she knows how to fly a quinjet. Clint emerges and tells him that he can fly it.

Instead of having a long debate about whether or not he can be trusted, Cap looks at Natasha and she nods. It’s an unspoken question, ‘can we trust him,’ and an unspoken answer, ‘yes.’ Satisfied with Natasha’s judgment, Cap asks if has a uniform then tells him to suit up.

Cap has always been good at knowing who to trust and this scene is a good example of Cap being decisive. Cap is also very quick to put Bruce at ease in their first meeting. Cap talks about his being the man to find the tesseract and Bruce asks if that’s the only thing he’s heard about him. Cap knows what he’s referring to (Bruce being The Hulk) but tells him it’s the only thing he cares about.

Quick Reviews

Here are a bunch of quick reviews on some titles I’ve picked up over the last few months. None of the following issues are books I normally pick up (though I’ll be collecting Scarlet, X-23, and Asset from here on).


Scarlet #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev

Brian Michael Bendis is one of my favorite writers and while I don’t like every title he’s done, this book is especially well done. I hadn’t heard anything about the title and by the time I spotted the second printing, the first two issues had already sold out.

Scarlet breaks the fourth wall by talking directly to the reader, telling her story. Most first issues struggle to keep my interest while they introduce a character (or a few) and try to give me the origin, an adventure, and a mission for the main character (or characters). This issue gave me a person who I got to know quickly, an origin, and a mission.

I sum Scarlet up this way – she is the female Punisher. Losing someone close to you and looking for revenge isn’t a new idea but Bendis’ breaking of the fourth wall and his ability to tell character-driven stories sets this title apart. I can’t wait to read the second issue (if I can find it).

Batgirl #14 by Bryan Q. Miller, Lee Garbett, and Trevor Scott

Batgirl and Supergirl team up to take on 24 Draculas set free from a 3-D film by a science experiment gone wrong. I like the fact that Stephanie and Kara (Batgirl and Supergirl) know each other away from their super-hero alter-egos and hang out.

This is a fun one-issue team-up story. It’s nice see Stephanie interacting with characters outside the Bat-family. Hopefully the writers will mix her in with other characters outside Gotham in the future.

Wolverine: Weapon X #16 by Jason Aaron, Davide Gianfelice, and Dave McCaig

This issue deals with the aftermath of Nightcrawler’s death during the events of ‘Second Coming.’ Kurt requests Logan do one last thing for him in his will. While Logan is busy fulfilling Kurt’s request, the readers are treated to conversations the two have had before and throughout their friendship.

I bought the issue because I’m a big fan of the Logan/Kurt friendship. I go back to the Chris Claremont & John Byrne days so I have a great affection for that configuration of X-Men. But I admit that I haven’t been a big X-Men fan in years. I did get and read ‘Second Coming’ because I’m a huge New Mutants fan. When Nightcrawler died, I thought what all X-Men fans thought, “I wonder how long he’ll stay dead?”

Despite all that, it was a great story and a terrific way to end the series.

Batman #703 by Fabian Nicieza and Cliff Richards

I picked this one up because it’s the first issue after Grant Morrison’s run so I wanted to see if a new writer could bring this title back to life for me. During the course of this issue, Damian learns something unexpected about his father while Dick sees the similarities between his time as Robin and Damian’s.

If I knew that Bruce wasn’t coming back in the next month or two I might have been more involved or moved by the story (I think bringing Bruce back so soon takes away from the impact of his ‘death’). It was an okay read but I won’t be back until Bruce is back and things are back to normal.

Iron Man: Kiss and Kill – Iron Widow by Joe Ahearne and Brian Ching / Glitch by Karl Kesel and Eric Nguyen

Judging by the cover, this was a story featuring Iron Man, Wolverine, and Black Widow teaming up. Instead, it was two stories – one with Black Widow and one with Wolverine. Both were boring. It’s been months since this first came out so I’m sorry I couldn’t warn you sooner.

Amazing Spider-Man #640-641 by Joe Quesada, Paolo Rivera, Danny Miki, and Richard Isanove

These two issues occur during the ‘One More Day’ story arc when Aunt May is in the hospital but the world is looking to find and arrest Peter.

I bought these two because I thought I’d heard that the Peter/Mary Jane split that happened in ‘One More Day’ would be undone and I wanted to read about that. What I got instead was a retcon of the original ending where Peter and Mary Jane originally made a deal with Mephisto. In this, Peter goes to Dr. Strange and Dr. Strange is able to convince Reed Richards and Tony Stark to try and erase everyone’s memories like they did with The Sentry.

In this version, Peter and MJ are the only two who now remember that he’s Spider-Man. So for those of you who were actually enjoying the last year’s worth of stuff will be unhappy to know that none of that stuff ever happened now. Also, the way to take the sting out of a crappy storyline (Clone War?) is to ignore it ever happened and put out good stories not retcon old ones. Still, this does solve the ‘how will they get back together’ thing.

Ultimate Spider-Man is still the only Spidey title worth reading (it’s one of my favorite titles).

Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man #1 by Paul Tobin, Matteo Lolli, and Christian Dalla Vecchia

I’m not sure if this title is a continuation of the old title or a true #1 because the story starts with our hero aggressively going after a crime boss and Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker have already dated and broken up. Every so often I picked up issues of the old title because they were quick, one-issue stories that were fun. This title isn’t fun. Gwen is narrating about wanting to interview Spider-Man for an unnecessary amount of pages (plural). I didn’t get a good introduction to Sophia, Peter’s girlfriend, so no opinion there. I won’t be picking up issue 2.

Pilot Season: Asset by Filip Sablik, David Marquez, and William Farmer

Asset is the story of “Madeline” (probably not her real name) who is an assassin who manipulates other people into killing her target. In this issue she convinces a guy she’s dating that she’s being abused by her ex-boyfriend so he kills the ex. “Madeline” uses dating sites to find the perfect asset to manipulate.

The story is good and the idea of using dating sites to find people to use as assassins is unique. I’m definitely voting for this title as I’d like to see where it’s going.

X-23 #1 by Marjorie Liu and Will Conrad

X-23 is an interesting character when she’s starred in her own mini-series’. This is the first issue of what may be another interesting series starring X-23. There’s a lot of great stuff with her and Storm discussing Nightcrawler, Emma and Cyclops discussing the impact of putting X-23 on the X-Force squad, and the New X-Men’s reaction to seeing her again. But by the end of the issue, X-23 has relocated from Utopia to a mutant halfway house. What’s her job? We’ll probably find out in issue #2 but the series is off to a great start.

But is this a great jumping-on point for readers? After the main story, Logan narrates X-23’s story from her first appearance to that first issue so that readers are all caught up.

Iron Man 2 and Kick Ass reviews

The quick review is just where I go over elements of the movie and name something good and something bad about that element (because what am I Roger Ebert?). Then I expand on something bad and something good. Now that we got the rules down, here we go.

IRON MAN 2

Quick synopsis: Tony’s back and dealing with the political aftermath of publicly coming out as Iron Man. Ivan Vanko designs his own armor and goes after Tony for revenge. The element that Tony uses to power the arc reactor is poisoning his blood. James Rhodes, disturbed by Tony’s erratic behavior, takes the Mark II armor which the military turns into War Machine. Tony has to figure out a way to cure himself, defeat Vanko, and save the day…and gets to make out with Pepper.

IRON MAN

Good: Lots of fun action scenes

Bad: A little too much running in the final scene when the drones were able to be taken out in one shot.

TONY STARK
Good: Great dialogue – still as quirky as ever.
Bad: Getting drunk at his birthday party in the Iron Man armor (Peter Parker singing and dancing in Spider-Man 3 anyone?).

WAR MACHINE
Good: I like the origin – stealing the armor and having Tony’s enemy upgrade the weapons was a nice twist.
Bad: Being taken over by Vanko. Kind of useless considering he didn’t really get to do much damage to Iron Man.

JAMES RHODES
Good: Self-confident throughout the film – consistent – you completely understand why this guy has the code to Tony’s armor room.
Bad: Rhodey saw what the element core was physically doing to Tony and didn’t figure out what was going on as Tony’s best friend.

PEPPER POTTS
Good: Fantastic dialogue, a new role as CEO, and more screen time are not wasted. It’s always good to see her.
Bad: I know it would have ruined the ‘you’re dying?’ reveal at the end, but, as the person who knows Tony the best, she should have known something was very wrong with him.

HAPPY HOGAN
Good: He’s always eager to follow whatever order is given him and get involved when needed.
Bad: Nothing. Happy is just there to provide friendship and support to the characters without dragging the plot.

IVAN VANKO
Good: He didn’t say much so you hung on every word – even when he seemed amused you always got the sense that he was dangerous.
Bad: Not enough screen time and a final battle that was over much too quickly.

JUSTIN HAMMER
Good: I can’t think of a good Justin Hammer scene.
Bad: Ugh. Everything. He’s just an annoying weasel that you never take seriously and a weak foil for Tony.

NATASHA ROMANOV
Good: The costume. It’s what every fanboy hoped for.
Bad: Taking Happy down with a ninja-krav maga-Mr. Miyagi move (way to keep your status as a spy on the down-low).

NICK FURY
Good: There’s a good conversation at the end about The Avengers Initiative.
Bad: The whole scene at the donut store and at the mansion – having Tony find his own solution would have been better for the character.

EASTER EGGS
Good: Tony’s Malibu Mansion is the site of the West Coast Avengers Headquarters, Captain America’s shield (I bet we find out why it got destroyed in the Captain America movie), Thor’s hammer.
Bad: It would have been nice if Nick Fury had said whether Bruce Banner or Natasha Romanov were on the Avengers roster – guess we’ll have to wait.

ACTION FIGURES
Good: Every film version of the armor – really detailed, articulated, and awesome – and great figures of the comic book versions of the characters.
Bad: Some of the concept armors are odd looking (Inferno Armor?).

The biggest problem I had with the movie: Nick Fury gives Tony the means to create a new element. Fury suggests that has information straight from Tony’s own father that will help him solve his problem. Tony’s problem is he has a power source in his chest that’s toxic to him and his father not only foresaw Tony putting an arc reactor in his chest but created an element and hid the formula in a model for him to create sometime in the future? That’s more stretching than Mr. Fantastic himself could do.

As for Nick Fury, if he knew what the solution was to Tony’s problem, why not just give it to him? And it’s hard to believe that he knew the solution because if he did, he wouldn’t have banned Tony from leaving the mansion (which Tony disobeyed and ended up with the formula for the element in doing so). So was Fury just giving him his father’s stuff and hoping for the best? In the comics Fury always knows what he’s doing so he could have known that Tony would escape from the mansion and figure things out – on the other hand, he could have just been the bad ass from the comics and said, “Your father discovered a formula for a new element – one technology couldn’t create” and given him the trunk.

The thing I liked the most about this movie: The way Tony and Rhodey moved in the armor. I didn’t like the party scene but when Tony crouches in the armor it looks like someone wearing the armor can move normally. I remember those first X-Men/Spider-Man movies where people walked around stiffly. Now someone can move around in their costume/armor as though they’re wearing pants and a t-shirt.

So did I like the film? Despite the flaws, the back and forth between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts (thanks to Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow) is some of the best comic book film dialogue around. Plenty of action and I was entertained enough to dismiss the many large plot holes. It was awesome seeing the Avengers references and the film origin of War Machine was great too.

This never happened in the film but is still a great picture

KICK ASS

Quick synopsis: Dave, a huge comic book fan who gets bullied, decides to try being a superhero. On his first outing as Kick Ass, he gets beaten so badly that it damages some of his pain centers so that he can’t feel pain as intensely. He meets other heroes: Big Daddy, Hit Girl, and Red Mist. Kick Ass is in over his head but with the other heroes’ help, he’ll save the day.

KICK ASS
Good: Great origin story and the Aaron Johnson’s performance was amazing and I really believed that he was alternately brave and timid throughout the movie.
Bad: The ENTIRE ‘playing along with Katie thinking he’s gay’ storyline.

DAMON MACREADY/BIG DADDY
Good: Great origin story and a quirky performance from Nicholas Cage who is charming enough to pull off shooting a little girl, even if it’s in the chest.
Bad: I hated that he dies at the end – just an awesome character.

MINDY MACREADY/HIT GIRL
Good: Despite the fact that she’s raised to fight and to kill, she is surprisingly cheery through much of the movie.
Bad: I understand Big Daddy’s origin, but turning your daughter into a killer is bad juju.

FRANK D’AMICO
Good: Is the main villain without being too irritating playing a standard mob boss.
Bad: Is a little boring. The standard, “What? Who? Find them. Kill them.” kind of stuff.

CHRIS D’AMICO/RED MIST
Good: He’s a spoiled kid who just wants his father’s approval but when he becomes involved in the family business, he finds himself taking over.
Bad: By the end of the film, when he takes his father’s place, he’s still the most unthreatening character in the film.

KATIE DEUXMA
Good: What starts out as a friendship turns into a romance where Katie is the only person who knows Kick Ass’ true identity.
Bad: Again, the ENTIRE ‘liking Dave because he’s gay’ storyline.

MARCUS WILLIAMS
Good: After Big Daddy’s death, it’s only appropriate that her God Father, who was her father’s partner on the police force, raise her.
Bad: Can’t think of anything. Without him, we wouldn’t have found out Big Daddy’s origin.

The biggest problem I had with the movie: The first twenty minutes of the film were really boring but necessary to set the plot in motion. At first I didn’t like the fact that Dave’s two best friends didn’t know his secret identity but his girlfriend did but when he’s getting tortured on the internet and you see Katie crying and really going through hell, you’re reminded why heroes have secret identities. It’s not only to protect them from the villains but to protect their sanity as well.

The thing I liked the most about this movie: THE ACTION SCENES!!! When Big Daddy fought his way through a warehouse of bad guys I start to wonder why none of the Batman movies had a fight scene that cool. The entire final act is one fantastic fight scene where the action is clear (not that choppy fight garbage where you can’t tell who is hitting who or doing what (i.e. Prince of Persia playing in theatres now)).

So did I like the film? This is a fantastic superhero film. Lots of great origins told very quickly and effectively without dragging the plot and a great story with a lot of different motivations and a really satisfying ending.

Kick Ass gets up close and personal with Big Daddy and Hit Girl