The Avengers (****) | ||||||
directed by Joss Whedon | ||||||
written by Joss Whedon, from a story by Joss Whedon and Zak Penn, based on the comic book created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby | ||||||
Rick Norwood
In the Marvel Age of Comics, The Avengers was Marvel's answer to DC's Justice League of America. The
difference between the two is that you can still read Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's The Avengers with
pleasure, while the early Justice League comics by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowski can only be read with
difficulty. I have in my collection a Justice League script by Fox (with copious rewriting by editor
Julie Schwartz) and the characterization is so minimal that, no matter to whom Fox gave a line
of dialogue, Sekowski just put the word balloon into the art wherever it fit, so Aquaman might well be
given a line intended for Superman. It really didn't make any difference.
In The Avengers comic book the contrast could not have been greater. Try giving a line
spoken by Thor to The Hulk!
I'm glad the film omits the other original Avengers, Ant Man and The Wasp. They were silly characters at best, and
only existed because Stan Lee wanted a Marvel version of the DC character The Atom.
The theme of heroes who don't get along, but who learn to work together, is in both the original comic
book and the movie. It would be foolish to pretend that the comic book was a good as the movie, but the
comic book did come first.
Stay for both credit cookies.
Rick Norwood is a mathematician and writer whose small press publishing house, Manuscript Press, has published books by Hal Clement, R.A. Lafferty, and Hal Foster. He is also the editor of Comics Revue Monthly, which publishes such classic comic strips as Flash Gordon, Sky Masters, Modesty Blaise, Tarzan, Odd Bodkins, Casey Ruggles, The Phantom, Gasoline Alley, Krazy Kat, Alley Oop, Little Orphan Annie, Barnaby, Buz Sawyer, and Steve Canyon. Visit his web site at comicsrevue.com. |
If you find any errors, typos or other stuff worth mentioning,
please send it to editor@sfsite.com.
Copyright © 1996-2014 SF Site All Rights Reserved Worldwide