Movie Review: Marvel's The Avengers

When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby first created the super team they called “The Avengers”, I doubt that they could scarcely imagine the popularity it would enjoy today. Way back in 1964 when the title first debuted, Lee and Kirby were trying out a new formula when it came to superhero team-up books: create a book where the heroes didn’t always get along. Up until that point, namely in the more perfect universes of DC Comics' Superman and Batman, the caped crime fighters generally co-existed with very little drama. The Marvel Universe would differ, with the heroes having more three-dimensional personalities and the conflicts that they bring. That was the drama that readers of books like The Avengers, Fantastic Four or X-Men came to expect, a veritable soap opera with muscles and skin-tight spandex. It works rather well in comic books since the dialogue is at times heavy-handed and the costumes a bit bright, but not always in real life.

Elliott Serrano, for Redeye

May 3, 2012