The Shallow End: The Avengers vs. the Justice League

A difference in approach, but will Avengers fair any better?

By: David Frank
Published: Tuesday, May 6th 2008 at 11:30 AM

It's no secret I think the (aborted?) Justice League of America movie was as welcome as would have been another four years with Bush in the White House. I've only pointed that out 2 dozen, and counting, times in these pages, and since Iron Man made mad money—as the kids don't like to say these days but we think they do—Marvel has already proclaimed 2011 as the year The Avengers assemble. And now, I'm forced with the scenario of some snot-nosed fanboy (are you that snot-nosed fanboy?) getting indignant and confrontational to my face (actually this will never happen, because people avoid me if at all possible, but let's pretend otherwise) and saying, "C'mon you flamed JLA, where's the bile for TA?"

And I'll be like, "‘TA'? What's TA?" (because I'm stupid slow when it comes to acronyms).

"The…Avengers."

"Ohhhh. TA. Very clever. Almost like a music note." I'll say. "Hmm. I don't know. I guess I'll be somewhat open-minded, especially if Robert Downey Jr. signs up. These days, I could watch him in anything, doing the strangest of things—like a minstrel show—because he's that damn special."

"You wanna see a TA film? Screw you el douchebago! JLA rules!" the snot-nosed fanboy will yell and then run (well more likely, since the snot-nosed fanboy is probably overweight—maybe even obese—he'll shuffle) off home to watch his bronzed copy of Underworld: Evolution.

No, no, no. It could go the other way though. I forgot we're talking about a true snot-nosed fanboy here (very fickle)—the type who saw Fantastic Four an ironic (yet charming) four times in the theater (even though he said he hated it), but it was based on a comic book and it did have Jessica Alba, so actually, he sort of liked it. So what if she can't act? And he bought the DVD, maybe even 2 copies for collector's sake. So really, because I will waffle a tad—"Hmmm I don't know"—I might provoke this retort: "You don't wanna see a TA film? Screw you la douchebaga! JLA and TA rock!"

And I will not know how to respond, other than to scream, as the snot-nosed fanboy runs (or most likely shuffles) across the street, "Watch out for that cement tru—!"

Be buzzed for a comic book movie. Snot-nosed fanboys flame you. Spew some hot magma towards a comic book movie. Snot-nosed fanyboys flame you. You can never satisfy a snot-nosed fanboy with your opinion. Although you can satisfy me by hitting a snot-nosed fanboy with a very big truck—preferably traveling no less than 70 kilometers per hour.

Could I see The Avengers delivering a lesson in cinematic pain? Oh yeah. Definitely. It faces several of the same obstacles JLA does (Did? Really is this film truly dead? Could we get some confirmation from someone other than Joel Silver?). You have a eccentric assortment of characters (like Wonder Woman in JLA, how would you make Thor fit into the somewhat believable world of Iron Man?) and some silly ass costumes to translate into reality (Captain America, anyone? Just like The Flash, he's got stupid wings on his head too).

Yet, the one element (other than my man Downey) packing hope for The Avengers is how Marvel has tackled the issue of exposition. Unlike JLA, which would have been a stand-alone flick with no ties to Christopher Nolan's Batman or Bryan Singer's Superman and would have had to build from scratch, Marvel is connecting its cinematic properties by cross populating the different franchises with the same characters—played by the same actors. It's just like taking the model for continuity and exposition for comics and retrofitting it for cinema. So when The Avengers arrives, it could be considered a quasi-sequel and doesn't need to be bogged down with introducing all the characters and origins and such.

Now, I'm not saying this is going to work. But it could. And Marvel has taken it one step further with the tentatively titled Captain America movie, The First Avenger: Captain America (terrible title by the way, almost as bad as the I-refuse-to-repeat-it title for Wolverine). I don't think it takes much reading into this to detect that The First Avenger (or TFACA) will heavily establish the foundation for The Avengers—in fact, The Avengers might be played off as a direct sequel to Cap's flick (pure conjecture though).

I'm not sold on The Avengers. Yet, nor am I going to act like I'm sucking lemons when talking about it either. I'll just wait and see, and let the snot-nosed fanboys twist their Batman underpants over it for the next few years. And hopefully they'll watch out for cement trucks when taken hold by one of their typical frothing frenzies.