Avengers...Cast from the Past

I've been waiting a loooong time for any Avengers-type movie to come out, and being the dork I am, I had in my head what I considered at the time to be the perfect cast.

So using the characters that wound up in the film, I've gone through and made some revisions...

1) Captain America



I'll admit it...Chris Evans is Cap. But fifteen years ago, I had another guy in mind - Brendan Fraser



This was around the time when The Mummy came out, and whenever I read The Adventures of Captain America, I could see Brendan playing the part. He had the seriousness, the awkwardness and acting chops to carry the role.

2) Hawkeye



This is probably the biggest call to come from out of nowhere.

Jeremy Renner did a decent job, and granted - there wasn't as much of the character than the others, but Clint always struck me as a brash punk. To paraphrase Die Hard 2, "he's an a$$hole...but he's our kind of a$$hole." And charming as all hell, with a carny attitude that would cheat when he had to (and he has). So I always pictured Ben Browder.



Yeah, he was in Stargate-SG1, but I remember him from Farscpae. To be honest, I can see Browder in The Avengers as it stands. Again, not to take anything away from Renner's talent, but he was simply miscast. However, if Browder was interested in joining the MMU, he could play someone against Renner's Hawkeye...someone to but heads with...Hmmm...



3) Iron Man



Fifteen years ago, if you told me that RDJ would even have a chance of playing Tony Stark, I'd tell you you were out of your mind.

While Sean Connery was the second choice to play Bomd (Patrick McGoohan turned it down) there's no question - he owned that role. He defined it. And even though other actors have played Bond since (just as others will play Stark down the line, let's be honest) Connery will forever be linked to the character.

The same is true for Robert Downey Jr.



I recently heard that Marvel Studios is giving him $50 million to continue playing Stark. That may be true, it may be rumor, but RDJ deserves every penny. Not only did he define the character, he helped start the MMU.

Fifteen years ago, the only way it might have worked is if Marvel went with an unknown, the way Christopher Reeve was discovered for Superman.

But RDJ is Tony Stark. He is Iron Man. We're done here. Let's move on...

4) Hulk



Bill Bixby left us far too early, and while he would have been too old for Banner fifteen years ago, he left his imprint on the character - the way Lynda Carter did with Wonder Woman.

So who could have taken his own spin on it? Another of RDJ's group of actors...Anthony Michael Hall.



It was The Dead Zone that convinced me. Now - Dead Zone didn't come out until 2002, but I never would have thought this guy could do what he did with a character once played by Christopher Walken.

I also saw him play Bill Gates in Pirates of Silicon Valley, and while that role touched on the nerdy characters he's played in his youth, he showed a level of maturity that comes with age.

His portrayal of Bruce Banner would have been cool. Sort of a blend of Norton and Ruffalo.

5) Thor



Both Thor and Kingpin are very tricky characters to cast. You need the size necessary to convincingly play the part, but also the talent behind (or underneath) the size to successfully portray the character...



Dolph Lundgren.

Hear me out. His Frank Castle wasn't bad at all, and fifteen years ago would have been a good age for him to play Thor. He played He-Man for crying out loud...F**KING HE-MAN!!!


6) Black Widow



Women have a heck of a time getting good roles in Hollywood to begin with. Action roles even more so. Comic-book action roles are almost non-existent, especially serious ones.

In 1997, Batman & Robin came out. At the time, it was the movie to see...until people started seeing it. Uma Thurman and Alicia Silverstone had a chance to show what women can do in this genre, but Joel Schumacher went the campy route instead and we all suffered.

Kill Bill wouldn't come out for another six years, but I'd like to think that if Marvel Studios was around, Uma would have turned down Poison Ivy...and made a fantastic Black Widow.



This movie wouldn't have been be the powerhouse The Avengers is, but it sure would have been something to see...

In Marvel Studios I Trust

My Thoughts On Captain America...The Movie

Okay. So a while back I explained my opinions on the Thor movie and how it would connect to the Marvel Movie Universe. I’ve thought it through, and figured how to do the same thing with Captain America:

First the plot – the first act would be about Steve Rogers, growing up in New York in the thirties, enlisting in the army, getting selected for the ‘Super-Soldier’ program (that is mentioned in Incredible Hulk) and ends with Steve completing the process and getting the new body. Act 2 would be about his army days, sneaking around, being an inspirational leader on the battlefield, meeting Bucky and having him learn Steve’s secret identity, and would end with Cap being defeated and/or captured by the Red Skull. The final act would be Steve’s victory against the Red Skull, defeating whatever Nazi plans he had, and the movie would end with Cap (and Bucky) continuing the never-ending battle for victory in WWII.

So basically, it’s the plot of the 4-part The Adventures of Captain America mini by Fabian Nicieza and Kevin Maguire from 1991/1992.


But the major difference is in the post credits…

There’s a shot of a newspaper headline dated at least a year after the movie takes place, but still during World War II, that reads: CAPTAIN AMERICA MISSING!!! Then we see darkness, but obviously underwater. Lights are shining from around and behind the camera into the water in front of us. Then we see an iceberg, with a familiar shield encased in it, and an arm, and the rest of Cap’s body. Coming into frame, on either side, we see the sources of the lights – Iron Man’s glove, and Thor’s hammer…

That’s it. That’s all you need. The movie itself connects to The Incredible Hulk, and the post credits connect to Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and Thor.

Done deal.

My Thoughts On Thor...The Movie

I saw Iron Man 2 last week (which is FANTASTIC by the way), and know how Marvel managed to connect it with Thor, the next installment of the Marvel Movie Universe.

Here’s my question: How will Marvel connect Thor with the previous two movies (Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk)?

Here’s my answer…

The explosion of the Arc Reactor – which was a unique achievement that has never existed before, and therefore no one could predict the ramifications of its detonation – was somehow noticed by the gods of Asgard. Either it woke them out of some form of suspended animation, or brought them back into existence, or just made them aware of the power humans now have and they feel threatened. This would cause some of the gods, most likely Tyr and Loki, to want to attack humanity in self defense. They would enlist the Frost Giants, Dark Elves, trolls and others as their army. Other Asgardians, including Odin, Thor, Balder, Sif, Valkyrie and the Warriors Three, would try to stop them, believing that humanity should be left alone. The resulting battle, with humanity at stake, causes the tremendous storm we see in The Incredible Hulk.

But how does this explain the presence of Thor’s hammer at the end of Iron Man 2?

Instead of Odin sending Thor to Earth to learn humility (as it was in the comics), Thor winds up on Earth during the battle, and forgets everything about his Asgardian self. It could be from an injury, or it could be from a spell cast on him by Loki. While the rest of the movie deals with Thor recovering from the injury/spell and rediscovering himself, the battle ends with Loki’s forces victorious, and preparing to invade Earth…

Now I have to figure out how to connect this with the Captain America movie.