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The Avengers (2012)

Being the first true superhero team-up on the silver screen, The Avengers was surrounded by an
enormous amount of hype practically from the moment of its announcement. Naturally, this also meant that
audiences had very high expectations of lauded director/producer/writer Joss Whedon and the team tasked
with bringing together numerous superheroes in a single feature film, some of whom might or might not
have already established themselves in their own movies.
The concept of all-star crossovers did not always work out in comic books either, so the fact that
the filmmakers found a balance between Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and the Hulk, with the addition
of Black Widow, Nick Fury, and the newcomer Hawkeye in The Avengers is a more than respectable
accomplishment in itself. As the Marvel heroes slowly but surely team up against Thors stepbrother Loki,
Whedon (responsible for the screenplay as well) manages to give each character sufficient screen time to
showcase their abilities, personalities, and to tie their narratives into the current story. It is hard to tell how
The Avengers works without prior knowledge of the main protagonists, since most people have probably
seen at least one or two Marvel movies prior to it. Nevertheless, the creators make sure that the narrative of
becoming is featured in relation to almost all major characters, even the already established ones.
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Lisa Purse, Narrative and the Action Film, in Contemporary Action Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011) pp.
32-33.
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Most of the superheroes have already showcased their abilities in previous movies; therefore it is
needless for The Avengers to provide story arcs where these characters would struggle to reach their full
physical prowess. Instead, Iron Man and the Hulk need to learn to be team players, Captain America has to
readjust to the world that he woke up into, Black Widow has to pay her personal debt to Hawkeye, and Nick
Fury is forced to deal with questionable decisions. Understandably, these moments take up most of the
screen time. This means that The Avengers has a significant amount of build-up before Loki would
unleashes hell on the Big Apple, yet because the character moments are the true heart of the story, this
works to the movies advantage.

Whedons film is an immensely good crossover of comic book heroes/movies; however, this does
not necessarily make The Avengers an outstanding piece of filmmaking outside the context of an ambitious
team-up. The director outlined his take on the genre in an interview shortly after he was announced to be
helming the enormous project:
I also feel that [] we went from the really terrible Hollywood executives idea of what a comic book movie should be to a very
short moment when we sort of started getting it right, and then went directly to post-modern. Directly to Watchmen, Kick-Ass,
The all-star cast of The Avengers together with screenwriter/director Joss Whedon
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The Dark Knight, where were sort of, were taking the comic book movie for granted. Now we want to see whats behind it. Im
like Whoa-whoa-whoa! Wait a minute!, first I want to see an awesome movie about superheroes that are awesome, that I really
care about the whole time. I havent seen enough of those. I dont want to deconstruct it yet! First I want to construct it.
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Whedon seems to be aiming to bring the spirit of the Golden and Silver Age comic books to the movie
screen instead of the Bronze and Modern Age incarnations that are already more self-conscious of the
genres many conventions and frequently venture to deconstruct their own myths.
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Even though the director
made it clear that he wants to portray superheroes in a more straightforward and idealised way (all Marvel
movies do, for that matter, with the possible exception of the first Iron Man), The Avengers ended up being
quite indecisive whether it wants to engage with political themes or not. The character of Captain America,
for instance, began his career in war propaganda comic books and throughout his countless resurrections, the
superhero remained an ultra-patriotic champion who always returned to aid his country in the time of need,
whether that meant fighting Nazis, the Russians, or aiding the War on Terror. The U.S. has, however, lost
most of its moral high ground in the post-WWII era and Marvel Studios would probably have made the
character less appealing if they had kept Steve Rogers obviously pro-American moralizing attitude. Instead,
the Captains struggle to readjust to the new world where he feels old-fashioned seems to reflect the
superheros Bronze Age rendition (the very story of his body being found frozen in the North Atlantic is
from the 60s).
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During his stay at the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, Rogers even uncovers that his government
has been working on new weapons of mass destruction based on technology from Asgard. Later, Nick Fury
himself is forced to shoot down a jet after his superiors order a nuclear strike on Manhattan, while Iron Man
has to deal with a second missile that is successfully fired on the city.

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Joss Whedons 2010 Melbourne Writers Festival Keynote Speech - Transcript, OMG Sqee! <http://www.omg-
squee.com/2010/09/joss-whedons-2010-melbourne-writers-festival-keynote-speech-transcript/> [accessed 10 March 2013]
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Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked (Documentary), dir. by Steve Kroopnick (The History Channel, 2003)
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Ibid.
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These moments sit strangely in The Avengers, since the movie tries to stay clear of any obvious
parallels with current anxieties and prefers a politically correct and clean depiction of war.
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When the city is
invaded by an alien race that receives no screen time whatsoever prior to the final battle, the images of
destruction are devoid of any dead civilians or significant casualties. Likewise, the heroes seem
indestructible, receiving only superficial injuries, and ultimately the whole third act of The Avengers turns
into a pummel fest, where the main protagonists can dispose of legions of anonymous invaders while they
are being awesome. I felt that I was watching a Disney re-enactment of 9/11 at the end of The Avengers,
where the legendary characters that American popular culture has always revelled in appear to stop the
destruction. Strangely enough, the police force, fire fighters, and civil volunteers who were central to 9/11
play next to no role in this event, standing in the background as confused and helpless set pieces, making
this battle for New York against a faceless enemy horde downright bizarre at times.








The attack on New York in The Avengers boasts numerous expensive set pieces and explosions, but
refrains from depicting any civilian casualties.

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The threat of Middle-Eastern fundamentalist groups and terrorism seems to have concluded in the Marvel movie universe with
the appearance of Iron Man, as Tony Stark announces in the second instalment that he has successfully privatised world peace.
See Iron Man 2, dir. by Jon Favreau (Marvel Studios, 2010)
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Ironically, the watered down destruction of Manhattan bears some resemblance with the media
coverage of 9/11, during which there was a reluctance to show pictures of the victims who perished in the
attacks.
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For most of the time, however, the political and social vacuum of the movie successfully severs any
explicit connections. The interesting result of this seemingly apolitical and escapist approach that most
Marvel movies take is that they are already a deconstruction of the old-fashioned superheroes that Whedon
said he hoped to portray. Moreover, on top of denying its own cultural relevance in the post-9/11 era, The
Avengers is also reluctant to put its characters into true danger. This rendered the film a rather hollow
spectacle for me, one that lacked any stakes or true feeling of jeopardy. The fact that even the villain who
already had a death scene in Thor survives indicates that Marvel is not willing to kill off any of its profitable
characters.
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In fact, there are rumours of Agent Phil Coulson returning for the upcoming S.H.I.E.L.D.
television series as well, which would undermine the only genuine casualty of war found in Whedons
monster project.
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So far, Marvel has (arguably unsuccessfully) tried to steer clear off the demythisation seen in such
graphic novels as Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns, and the abundance of intertwined superhero
movies from the studio is indeed starting to resemble long-running comic book series that prefer sacrificing
the integrity of their narratives rather than going out on a high note, as the aforementioned limited series did.
Moreover, even some of the most important comic book movies from the very short moment of getting it
right that Whedon cited are in a vastly different league than the Marvel productions. Bryan Singers X-Men
(2000), which has arguably started the successful comic book movie cycle before Spider-Man (2002)
popularised it even further, fully embraces the social issues depicted in its source material, and in my
opinion, easily remains one of the very best movies of the genre together with its sequel X-Men 2 (2003) and
the relatively recent X-Men: First Class (2011). Even more importantly, the aforementioned films work very
well outside the realm of comic book movies as well.

6
Stephen Prince, No End in Sight, in American Film in the Age of Terrorism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), p.
285.
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Loki is set to appear again in Thor: The Dark World
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Dave Trumbore, Rumor: Agent Coulsons Return in S.H.I.E.L.D. Series Revealed?, Collider <http://collider.com/agent-
coulson-shield-series-clark-gregg/> [accessed 28 April 2013]
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Judging by the box office numbers, the approach that The Avengers takes to its source material is
here to stay for quite some time, with many more awesome superhero movies to come in the following
years. Hopefully, the Marvel/Disney machine will continue to leave enough space for less glorious and more
thought-provoking representations, despite the major success of their products. For many viewers, ageing
and broken heroes will continue to be a vastly more intriguing and earnest portrayal of our modern myths.