The Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Avengers, etc.

[DollEyes]

Captain America tossing his motorcycle? Cap & Thor kicking Ultron ass? I am so in!

[Bruinsfan]

Also appreciated Tony realizing that Cap is the leader.

I have to imagine that eventually even Stark's ego would give in to the fact that all their teammates would follow Cap's orders without question while rolling their eyes at any from him.

[Kel Varnsen]

I like it because it is a call back to my favourite part of the first movie where Tony tells Cap to call it and say what everyone should do in the final battle.

Plus after watching Agent Carter, Howard Stark loved Cap so it maked sense that even with Tony's personality some of that would rub off on him.

[KatWay]

I never got the impression that Tony was interested in being the leader or had any delusions that he was. His problem was more that he wanted to work alone and didn't trust SHIELD or the others at first. Even in Avengers 1, he always looked at Cap as the leader of a team, just not necessarily a team he was part of.

[BatmanBeatles]

Yeah, he didn't play well with others.

[Dandesun]

Current Sexuality: Captain America Throwing A Motorcycle

[Kel Varnsen]

I never got the impression that Tony was interested in being the leader or had any delusions that he was. His problem was more that he wanted to work alone and didn't trust SHIELD or the others at first. Even in Avengers 1, he always looked at Cap as the leader of a team, just not necessarily a team he was part of.

I see it less about Tony thinking he is the leader, and more about Tony actually saying that another person is the boss of him. There is probably no other situations in his life where he will openly admit that.

[Dandesun]

I wonder if Tony lets Steve hand him things?

 

But it's a good point... Tony came around on Steve fairly quickly going from 'the only thing special about you came out of a bottle' to 'a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend.' But, it's Steve. Steve's the best. Still, Tony admitting that Steve calls the shots is a pretty big deal for Tony.

Edited March 23, 2015 by Dandesun

[Sharpie66]

I knew nothing about the Marvel stories (other than what I picked up through the pop culture ether) before seeing Iron Man on tv and enjoying it. I then went to see Captain America:FA in the theaters with a friend who is a lifelong Marvel fan and startled her when I said after the Avengers at the end' "Hey, does this mean that Howard Stark is Iron Man's DAD?!?" which was something I never picked up on until that point (I forgot Tony's last name since I had only seen IM once). She proceeded to give me a history course on Marvel characters.

I only went to see the first CA movie because it was a WWII flick, a genre I grew up enjoying after my dad raised me on them. I completely fell for Steve in that movie and he remains my favorite Avenger now. But, I have a weakness for the solidly noble hero type (that's why Helo is my favorite guy from BSG).

[ramble]

I was in the grocery store today & since we're on spring break I let the kids get some chips (I'm mean & generally don't keep them in the house). They were debating two different types when I explained that the Doritos were the winner because Captain America was on the bag. Marketing: it's working on me.

[KatWay]

Unpopular opinion: I don't really "get" Captain America. It's weird because I always love the good guy, the humble with sad past experiences type, and Chris Evans is very attractive and yet....I just find Cap so bland. I like him well enough, but in the Marvel Universe I just really prefer the characters with a bit of an edge and some flaws, no matter how small. Maybe it's because the MCU overall is very vanilla (so far), so for once I actually appreciate those flawed hero types I always scoff at.

[FurryFury]

I also don't care about Cap, but then, I still probably like him more that usual for his character type (which I tend to hate or strongly dislike). But then, Natasha's probably the only Avenger I really like, all others are in "OK" spectrum for me.

[VCRTracking]

I will always love the moment in the first movie when he's still skinny and Col. Phillips throws a dummy grenade in the middle of the soldiers and he just jumps on it thinking it's real while everybody is getting out of the way. It still makes me cry. I also like that they give Cap in the films a sense of humor and kind of a I loved him in the trailer saying "You had to say it!" when Thor yells "Is that the best you can do?!" and Ultron send hundreds of drones.

[Sharpie66]

I've been enjoying the podcasts of the various Marvel movies over at Now Playing, and one thing that the hosts there all agree on is that, after Avengers (1) and CA:WS, Steve Rogers has supplanted Tony Stark as their favorite of the Avengers, which has truly surprised all of them. They are mostly lifelong comics fans, so they are much more grounded in the mythology of Marvel than I am, but Chris Evans' portrayal and the way that the MCU creators have had him written really won them over.

[Dandesun]

I loved the brief cameo in Thor: Dark World where Loki was pretending to be Cap... and the whole story behind that is that Hiddleston did the bit impersonating Chris (Tom's pretty good at impersonations) and then Chris came in and basically impersonated Tom impersonating him. But he also said that he'd been working pretty hard throughout four movies to not be that over the top.

 

I'd say his work has paid off.

 

I've said it before but heroes are a hard thing to write and a hard thing to play because there's a definite line where nobility crosses into stupid, cloying or preachy and they haven't crossed that with Steve. I give so much credit to Chris Evans. I never would have thought him capable of this when he was cast. I don't know who it was that wanted him but kudos to them because they wanted him and they pursued him. Steve Rogers in the 616 universe of the comics (the mainstream universe until... they do whatever it is they're going to do in a few months...) is the moral center of the Marvel Universe and based on who is writing him that is... a slippery slope indeed. MCU has established Steve as the best of men, a guy who just wanted to do right and be useful in a world that was less than kind. There is an air of tragedy around him and there are all of these little moments throughout the movies that just... kill you.

 

Have you ever seen the look on Steve's face when they're transferring the Tesseract into the device that Thor and Loki use to go back to Asgard at the end of The Avengers? I don't think there has ever been another moment where you see such hate on his face... all focused on this little glowing cube. Think about everything he went through and lost because of that one thing and look at his face. Or the way he just shut down when he saw Bucky... or the way he just barely manages to keep it together when Peggy goes through another bout of dementia and experiences seeing him again for the first time, how many times has that happened? As far as we know, only three people ever saw any value in Steve before he was changed by the Serum. Bucky was always his friend -- Steve thought he was dead only to find him again and have Bucky not know him AND be an enemy; Peggy saw his guts and determination and his goodness before he got big and strong and handsome and now goes through waves of knowing he's there and not whenever he visits her; and Erskine -- the first person other than Bucky to see any value in Steve at all was murdered in front of his eyes before he could do anything about it. Steve is just surrounded by tragedy and continues to do what he thinks is right.

 

Whenever he steps up and puts himself on the line... well, it's not a stretch to understand why people of the Marvel Universe love that guy; why they follow 'Captain's orders' and risk themselves because he's certainly willing to; why the Avengers look to him as their leader. As much as I love the anti-heroes and the villains; the gray morality and the struggles to figure out what's what... a truly good man who does what's right because it's what needs to be done is a beautiful thing. I suppose part of me wishes he were real... and it's not because he wears red, white and blue with stars and stripes... it's just that as much fun as it might be to hang out with some of the other guys at the end of the day, a guy just doing what's right because it's right and having the strength to follow through is hard for me to resist. I'm not made of stone, people!

 

Now I'm getting maudlin. However, TVTropes has listed Breakout Character as one of Steve's tropes. Tony's Iron Man was very much front and center in the promotional stuff but Steve is right there with him, just as important, in the Ultron promos.

 

(It also doesn't hurt that Chris Evans is, by all accounts, a stand up guy. I have to say, I loved the bit on Jimmy Fallon where Jimmy and Chrises Pratt and Evans did photobombs at the Super Bowl. And one of the guys after discovering the joke was all 'It's Captain America!' I imagine carrying that around isn't the easiest of things, either.)

Edited March 25, 2015 by Dandesun

[BatmanBeatles]

Who knew I would have loved Chris as Captain America when his portrayal of Johnny Storm made me want to hit him over the head with a baseball bat?

[Shannon L.]

Gosh, Dandesun, you've made me love Cap and Chris Evans even more! Honestly, I haven't seen anything that makes me think that any of the main actors are anything but stand up guys (including Chris Pratt). I know RDJ has had his problems in the past but he seems to be doing much better now. I said before that the casting agents did an outstanding job with the casting and now you've made me think about the fact that not only were the actors good for these roles, but as people they appear to be great for promoting the movies.

Oh and my favorite part of the first CA movie was when he got the flag then climbed into the jeep :)

Edited March 26, 2015 by Shannon L.

[stealinghome]

I think Steve was bland in CA:TFA, but improved immensely when he got to the modern day (though, *sob* Peggy). The Hero/The Moral Center can be a really hard role to write and act without just being boring (and there's always a segment of the audience that's going to scream boring! boring! regardless), but in Avengers and CA:TWS they did a great job of setting Steve up against external forces that allow his inherent nobility and goodness come to the fore in a way that's, well, heroic instead of preachy, and giving him internal conflicts that make him interesting without compromising his values. You get why everyone looks to him.

 

Which is to say, Cap is a character type that has to be handled just right and put in the right situations, but so far the Marvel scribes have pretty much excelled at doing that. Let's see if they can keep it up.

[KatWay]

It makes me somewhat worried about that Civil War storyline, because at this point how can this go anywhere aside from "Steve is right, Tony is wrong but only misguided, sees the error of his ways and apologises to Cap eventually". I mean, they already have him screw up in the new Avengers movie, presumably. Steve has been 100% morally correct, the noble hero in every single situation. He has no flaws. Everyone loves him. I seriously don't see how they could possibly write him in a conflict with ANY character and not have it be a very one-sided argument.

[Jazzy24]

I loved the brief cameo in Thor: Dark World where Loki was pretending to be Cap... and the whole story behind that is that Hiddleston did the bit impersonating Chris (Tom's pretty good at impersonations) and then Chris came in and basically impersonated Tom impersonating him. But he also said that he'd been working pretty hard throughout four movies to not be that over the top.

I'd say his work has paid off.

I've said it before but heroes are a hard thing to write and a hard thing to play because there's a definite line where nobility crosses into stupid, cloying or preachy and they haven't crossed that with Steve. I give so much credit to Chris Evans. I never would have thought him capable of this when he was cast. I don't know who it was that wanted him but kudos to them because they wanted him and they pursued him. Steve Rogers in the 616 universe of the comics (the mainstream universe until... they do whatever it is they're going to do in a few months...) is the moral center of the Marvel Universe and based on who is writing him that is... a slippery slope indeed. MCU has established Steve as the best of men, a guy who just wanted to do right and be useful in a world that was less than kind. There is an air of tragedy around him and there are all of these little moments throughout the movies that just... kill you.

Have you ever seen the look on Steve's face when they're transferring the Tesseract into the device that Thor and Loki use to go back to Asgard at the end of The Avengers? I don't think there has ever been another moment where you see such hate on his face... all focused on this little glowing cube. Think about everything he went through and lost because of that one thing and look at his face. Or the way he just shut down when he saw Bucky... or the way he just barely manages to keep it together when Peggy goes through another bout of dementia and experiences seeing him again for the first time, how many times has that happened? As far as we know, only three people ever saw any value in Steve before he was changed by the Serum. Bucky was always his friend -- Steve thought he was dead only to find him again and have Bucky not know him AND be an enemy; Peggy saw his guts and determination and his goodness before he got big and strong and handsome and now goes through waves of knowing he's there and not whenever he visits her; and Erskine -- the first person other than Bucky to see any value in Steve at all was murdered in front of his eyes before he could do anything about it. Steve is just surrounded by tragedy and continues to do what he thinks is right.

Whenever he steps up and puts himself on the line... well, it's not a stretch to understand why people of the Marvel Universe love that guy; why they follow 'Captain's orders' and risk themselves because he's certainly willing to; why the Avengers look to him as their leader. As much as I love the anti-heroes and the villains; the gray morality and the struggles to figure out what's what... a truly good man who does what's right because it's what needs to be done is a beautiful thing. I suppose part of me wishes he were real... and it's not because he wears red, white and blue with stars and stripes... it's just that as much fun as it might be to hang out with some of the other guys at the end of the day, a guy just doing what's right because it's right and having the strength to follow through is hard for me to resist. I'm not made of stone, people!

Now I'm getting maudlin. However, TVTropes has listed Breakout Character as one of Steve's tropes. Tony's Iron Man was very much front and center in the promotional stuff but Steve is right there with him, just as important, in the Ultron promos.

(It also doesn't hurt that Chris Evans is, by all accounts, a stand up guy. I have to say, I loved the bit on Jimmy Fallon where Jimmy and Chrises Pratt and Evans did photobombs at the Super Bowl. And one of the guys after discovering the joke was all 'It's Captain America!' I imagine carrying that around isn't the easiest of things, either.)

Awwww.... I love Cap and you just made me love him more.

[BatmanBeatles]

I never found him bland in his first movie. He was adorkable, even after he became a super soldier. I loved the embarrassed smile on his face when he watches his propaganda films.

Edited March 26, 2015 by BatmanBeatles

[ChelseaNH]

He has no flaws.

 

I can't think of any real flaws, but he does have vulnerabilities.  I think it's important that he's portrayed not as someone who always knows what to do, but someone who has strong principles and a clear idea of who he wants to be, but still has to work out how to accomplish that.  If it ever looks like being a hero is easy, then I think they've failed the character.

[KatWay]

 

If it ever looks like being a hero is easy, then I think they've failed the character.

The thing is, Cap is not someone who struggles to do the right thing, or who even thinks about doing the right thing. Doing the right thing just comes naturally to him. So in a way it is easy for him. I love my good guys, I always root for them over the misunderstood bad boy woobies, but I like to watch some sort of internal struggle. All Cap struggles with really comes from external forces. That might be why they find it difficult to write for him without someone around to challenge him or interact (Natasha in CA: TWS, the Civil War storyline for the next installment) - because there would be no conflict otherwise, and a story without conflict (internal, as well as external) is boring.

[stealinghome]

I'm surprised that y'all think Steve isn't flawed, because I definitely think he has his flaws, as distinct from vulnerabilities. Now, is he as flawed as Tony? No, of course not (I mean, who is!). But Steve can be impulsive and hotheaded (he has a real temper), he can be TOO wedded to his ideals at the expense of reality and stubbornly bullheaded about it, he can have a tendency to unproductively sulk when he's angry with someone/thing, he's not incredibly adaptable, there's always that scrawny, un-self-confident Steve in there looking to prove something...I actually find that the movie writers, especially in Avengers and CA:TWS, have been good at humanizing him--by which I mean making him a flesh and blood person, warts as well as shining good looks--while still making him a very good person. He's not so unrealistically perfect I don't believe he could ever exist.

 

The thing is, Cap is not someone who struggles to do the right thing, or who even thinks about doing the right thing. Doing the right thing just comes naturally to him. So in a way it is easy for him. I love my good guys, I always root for them over the misunderstood bad boy woobies, but I like to watch some sort of internal struggle. All Cap struggles with really comes from external forces. That might be why they find it difficult to write for him without someone around to challenge him or interact (Natasha in CA: TWS, the Civil War storyline for the next installment) - because there would be no conflict otherwise, and a story without conflict (internal, as well as external) is boring.

I don't agree that doing the right thing is easy for Steve all the time. By far the most haunting moment of CA:TWS for me is when he's with Peggy and confessing to her that he doesn't know what's right anymore. I think that when Steve decides what's right, he commits wholeheartedly to his conviction, but I don't think he automatically always knows (I would argue that he had a similar dilemma, to a lesser extent, in Avengers).

 

I do agree that he's much easier to write for in conjunction with external forces, but I've found that simply the modern day is enough of an external force against which he can bounce off--and that the modern day often does cause an internal conflict in him.

Edited March 26, 2015 by stealinghome

[ChelseaNH]

Doing the right thing just comes naturally to him

 

I'm pretty sure there's no such thing.  Steve has strongly-held values and principles, but he's come to them through hard experience rather than some kind of divine and blissful inspiration.

[KatWay]

 

I'm pretty sure there's no such thing.  Steve has strongly-held values and principles, but he's come to them through hard experience rather than some kind of divine and blissful inspiration.

I didn't say anything about divine inspiration. Just that it he does automatically do the right thing, which obviously is a product of his life to this point. Be it the values that his mother installed in him, be it the experiences he made growing up scrawny in Brooklyn.

 

 

By far the most haunting moment of CA:TWS for me is when he's with Peggy and confessing to her that he doesn't know what's right anymore.

I took that more as having to adjust to the modern world. I didn't actually see him struggle with any morality questions.

 

Impulsive and hotheaded is something I'd associate with Thor rather than Steve. Aside from his brief argument with Tony in The Avengers (and who doesn't get riled up by Tony), he was shown to be pretty level-headed.

 

I do think they've written him as human and Chris Evans plays him like that, I just don't find him particularly interesting. Don't know, something about it just doesn't work for me. Maybe that'll change with the new movie, who knows. Or Civil War, if they'll actually make it a two-sided (as in, both have a point and are too stubborn to reach a compromise instead of one is right and one is wrong) argument. But I haven't exactly been wowed by shades of grey in the MCU.

[Dandesun]

A favorite comment of mine on Tumblr about Steve is that so many fanfic writers portray him as the lawful Boy Scout who never questions orders when CA: TFA was basically 'Steve, don't do the thing...' 'I'm going to do the thing!!' And you could make a similar argument for CA: TWS as well. 

 

Steve took a long look at Phillips' map as the General was telling him that they didn't have the manpower or equipment to wage a campaign to get the POWs and then went in to do it himself... for Bucky. He had little to no backup, he basically threw a leather jacket on himself and was planning to motorbike his way in before Peggy got a hold of Howard instead. And once he jumped out of the plane he was alone. He saved a lot of guys and got some amazing intel but, ultimately, he got all that because he went to look for his friend. Impulsive. The ultimate showdown with Hydra was him riding his motorcycle right to the front door of the base. Sure, it was a diversion of sorts... but that was an impulsive decision.

 

Plus, he was getting into scrapes like that all the time just for sticking his neck out. Bucky quipped that he wondered if Steve liked being beat up but Steve said that once 'they' made you run, they'd never stop.

 

In Avengers, he got suspicious enough (more from Bruce than from Tony's input) to go digging around the Helicarrier and actually managed to beat Tony to the punch to find out exactly what Phase 2 was. He pulled Hawkeye in with the barest vouch from Natasha to take a Quinjet "Son, just don't." and take the fight into Manhattan.

 

And in Winter Soldier he was butting heads with Nick Fury about compartmentalization and then Project Insight but still decided to keep his mouth shut with Pierce and wound up getting targeted by, at that time, SHIELD in general. Now granted, Hydra did not play that one very smart. They didn't give Cap any time to reconsider... they just ambushed him in the elevator and pretty much assumed that they'd be able to take him down and get what they wanted from him. That being said, Cap had already stashed the flash drive somewhere else. He was waiting to see what was what and, yeah, the elevator ambush pretty much made up his mind for him.

 

I'd never refer to Steve as hot-headed or even brash... but he is impulsive, more so in the first movie. He's pretty quick to decide which route he's going to take and he commits completely to that route. He's a soldier, not a spy so his decisions rely on that focused commitment to see any follow through. But, say what you will about him, he's got good instincts.

 

Sidenote, I'm pretty certain Nick Fury took Steve to see Project Insight to rile him up on purpose. Nick was already feeling uncertain about things (hence the hiring of Batroc to take the Lemurian Star hostage) and if things ended up going in the direction Nick was fearing, he needed Cap to know what was going down. Steve has acknowledged the compromises that the SSR made but he sure as hell didn't see Project Insight as being in the same league as that and he was right. (As was Nick to suspect and start digging deeper...)

[ChelseaNH]

he does automatically do the right thing

 

As opposed to what?  Tony Stark found out his weapons were winding up in the hands of the wrong people, and he immediately suspended arms manufacturing.  He developed the Iron Man suit, and he used it to defend refugees from terrorists.  There was no internal struggle over whether he should do these things, just decisive action.  Thor doesn't have a lot of internal struggles either; he's just not the reflective type.  His journey wasn't to resolve an internal conflict, but to learn the kind of lessons that Steve already learned.  He had to learn what "the right thing" was, but he doesn't have any doubts about doing it.

 

So how would Steve have to behave to make him more interesting to you?

[KatWay]

I honestly couldn't tell you how I would change the character without either making him slightly jerk-ish (as he can be in the comics when he veers into self-righteous) or changing his persona fundamentally, since he is conceived as the guy who basically can do no wrong, I'm just saying I don't love the character like most seem to do. Thor is a good guy hero as well, but he can be short-tempered, a bit arrogant, and he's downright goofy at times. He just feels less perfect to me, while still a type A heroic hero.

 

Perhaps it's part of the origin story - Thor, Tony, Natasha (the ones I like most) all started out as less than perfect people who learned how to be good people (or better people), while Cap has the origin story of an already pretty perfect person finally getting the means and opportunity to prove this. I guess that narrative just appeals less to me. Different strokes and all.

[VCRTracking]

A new featurette about Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch:

[Eegah]

With the news that Spider-Man will be making his debut in Civil War, there's a big brouhaha among fans over how that could work, with a lot of assumptions that it'll be Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, and even if not that he'll be an already established hero in his appearance. And I say, why? I think the ideal way of doing it is to just have this young fan of Cap occasionally pop up, thrilled to be meeting him, and also taking pictures, and at the end you see him make a phone call and say "Aunt May, they loved the pictures! I got the job!" And so you get him set up before his own movie. And of course keeping Andrew Garfield would be a terrible idea. Garfield himself was pretty good, but those two movies were one of the biggest cases of moviemaking by committee in recent memory, existing for no other reason than Sony wanting to hold onto the character rights without anyone who actually cared about the material, and boy does it show. No way should the MCU be handed that kind of baggage.

[ribboninthesky1]

I'll likely see it in theaters, but I'm beginning to feel like I've seen most of the film in the trailers. 

[BatmanBeatles]

That's why I only watched one trailer.

[Kel Varnsen]

The problem with making spiderman an established hero is if he has had his powers for more than a few years, why wasn't he fighting Chaturi when aliens tried to invade New York ?

[Jazzy24]

The problem with making spiderman an established hero is if he has had his powers for more than a few years, why wasn't he fighting Chaturi when aliens tried to invade New York ?

Watch somebody asks this to him mostly Tony.

[Amethyst]

I'll likely see it in theaters, but I'm beginning to feel like I've seen most of the film in the trailers. 

 

Same.  I don't remember them showing this much footage of The Avengers before it was released.  I'm not watching anything else on AoU because I don't want to get spoiled on any of the plots.

[Fukui San]

The problem with making spiderman an established hero is if he has had his powers for more than a few years, why wasn't he fighting Chaturi when aliens tried to invade New York ?

"I was!"

Cut to a flashback of him in Brooklyn saving people and making wisecracks.

[vibeology]

"I was!"

Cut to a flashback of him in Brooklyn saving people and making wisecracks.

 

Exactly. NYC is a big city and we saw so little of it in the big showdown. If other heros of the MCU weren't shown, it doesn't mean they weren't doing their own thing where they could. If Peter was far away when the attack started, he'd protect the people he was with. Same for Daredevil, Jessica Jones and everyone else about to be added to the MCU and who are NYC based. 

[BatmanBeatles]

Peter probably had to save MJ once again.

[Bruinsfan]

Peter would have had to be in Midtown Manhattan during the fifteen or so minutes the climactic fight took place  within. Otherwise by the time the news started broadcasting about the invasion, he made his excuses and changed into the suit, and web-slung his way from Queens, all the fighting would have been over already.

[SnoGirl]

Personally, I wish we would have seen a female Spider-Man. I'm not a comic book reader but I really wish Marvel would have been like "Let's throw them all for a crazy loop and not do Peter Parker." Let's add another boy, at least there are a handful of great lady heroes like Peggy and Natasha in these stories, I just wish there were more...

Edited March 30, 2015 by SnoGirl

[vb68]

 

Personally, I wish we would have seen a female Spider-Man.

 

I'm sure they will get to Spider-Woman eventually.  She (Jessica Drew) is a great character.

 

There is a rumor going around that Captain Marvel has been secretly cast.   

Edited March 30, 2015 by vb68

[KatWay]

At the rate they're casting new heroes, they're going to have to phase out some of the old ones eventually, right? Because the comics are a different medium, but I can't really see a film with 20+ Avengers working that well. There'd either be a lot of meaningless cameos or five lines of dialogue for everyone.

[manbearpig]

I still don't see why Marvel are even bothering with Spiderman. Is it all just down to money? Another Spiderman reboot is the last thing I want to see. Then again neither the Raimi trilogy or the Amazing Spiderman did anything for me.

Edited March 30, 2015 by manbearpig

[Kel Varnsen]

At the rate they're casting new heroes, they're going to have to phase out some of the old ones eventually, right? Because the comics are a different medium, but I can't really see a film with 20+ Avengers working that well. There'd either be a lot of meaningless cameos or five lines of dialogue for everyone.

I am curious to see how many people end up in Avengers 3&4. I would assume you have all the main Avengers. Plus a fair number of the new guys from the recent movies possibly (Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Winter Soldier, Falcon, War Machine). Plus I would assume at that point they they would be crossing over with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

[JBC344]

My understanding is that Avengers 3 and 4 will sort of be the last incarnation of the current Avengers and that the upcoming "phase 3" movies will be moving to see who of the new characters will transition into the new Avengers set.

[vb68]

 

I still don't see why Marvel are even bothering with Spiderman. Is it all just down to money?

 

Well Spiderman is such an iconic character  I can easily understand why they wanted the rights back.  He's basically their Batman..

[Kel Varnsen]

Well Spiderman is such an iconic character  I can easily understand why they wanted the rights back.  He's basically their Batman..

Yea he is one of the few marvel characters, other than maybe The Hulk that is a household name.  The first Iron Man movie made over 500 million dollars, the first Thor movie over 400 million. Those characters don't (or at least didn't at the time) have anywhere near the kind of name recognition that Spider-man does, so I can totally see why they would want to have some level of control of the character.

[stealinghome]

Yeah, I can totally understand why Marvel wants to have control over Spidey--it's all about the money. Even TASM2, which got at best mixed reviews and is considered creatively more a disappointment than a success, made over 700 million, putting it roughly on par with CA:TWS, T:TDW, and GotG. I just don't like it--I've never particularly been a Spidey fan (not a hater, just don't get the love) and I do think the current MCU has benefited creatively from not being able to "fall back" on Spidey. I'm worried that, as the X-Men movies have done with Wolverine (and the MCU to a lesser extent with Iron Man), the MCU will now start shoving the character in everywhere, even where he doesn't really belong, just because of name recognition.

Edited March 30, 2015 by stealinghome

[missbonnie]

I also don't care about Cap, but then, I still probably like him more that usual for his character type (which I tend to hate or strongly dislike). But then, Natasha's probably the only Avenger I really like, all others are in "OK" spectrum for me.

See, I couldn't stand his character either. I thought the first movie was ridiculous, possibly because it looked silly for a guy to have a big head on a tiny body. However, because I watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., I went to The Winter Soldier and absolutely loved it. Now, I am totally onboard with the character, but I will never be a fan of the first Captain America movie.