Robert Downey Jr., the Russo Brothers and Stephen McFeely to return to the MCU in AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY

Confirming earlier reports, Marvel has successfully lured its most successful directing team, Anthony and Joseph Russo, back to their Cinematic Universe. The two directors will tackle the next two Avengers movies. The first of these has been retitled Avengers: Doomsday and will be released in May 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars to follow in May 2027. But the Russo Brothers and Kevin Feige also confirmed an old friend will be returning.

Robert Downey Jr., who previously played Tony Stark/Iron Man in nine Marvel movies, is rejoining the MCU as iconic supervillain Dr. Victor von Doom. The announcement was made at the San Diego Comic-Con yesterday.

The role of Dr. Doom, the ruler of Latveria who wants to bring about global order under his rule, was previously played in live action by Joseph Culp in Roger Corman's 1994 movie, Julian McMahon in the 2005 movie and its sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer, and Toby Kebbell in the 2015 film.

The Russo Brothers' longtime writing partner, Stephen McFeely, is also taking over scripting duties on both new films. He previously co-wrote Captain America: The Winter Solder, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, the four films previously helmed by the Brothers.

The move represents a near-inevitable pivot by Marvel Studios once actor Jonathan Majors was convicted of misdemeanour assault and harassment in December 2023. Majors had played the villainous Kangs and various alternate timeline versions of the same character in numerous projects leading up to the next Avengers face-off. Marvel had mused recasting, but, given his last appearance in Season 2 of Loki acted as a good pause point for the character, they have instead decided to move to a different story. It may be they return to the Kang storyline with a new actor at a later date, although perhaps they could be forgiven for just writing off the whole thing as a bad idea and moving on.

Speculation will now be rife that Doom - primarily a Fantastic Four villain before appearing with other Marvel characters - may appear or at least cameo in the 1960s-set The Fantastic 4: First Steps (as it was recently retitled), which is due in cinemas on 25 July, 2025 (although the main villain has already been confirmed to be Ralph Ineson's Galactus). It was also confirmed at the Marvel panel that the Fantastic Four will be (similar to Steve Rogers) travelling to the present to fight Dr. Doom in the two new Avengers films.

Given Marvel's recent creative woes, you can't fault them for turning back to their "dream team" to drag them back to the glory days, although some may also feel it's a shame they could not find a firmer footing with new talent to drive them to new levels of success.

Marvel tries to lure the Russo Brothers back to the fold

The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Disney and the Russo Brothers are in talks about a return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Russo Brothers have apparently been offered the job of directing both The Avengers 5 and 6 (not the final titles), due in 2026 and 2027 respectively.

Anthony and Joseph Russo initially made their name as directors in television, helming episodes of Arrested Development (2003-06) before achieving critical acclaim as frequent directors on Community (2009-14). They established themselves in film directing Welcome to Collinwood (2002) and You, Me and Dupree (2006) before joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe and directing Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), as well as working on the TV series Agent Carter (2015).

The directors are credited with being instrumental in the success of "the golden age" of the MCU, running roughly from The Winter Soldier to Endgame, when the franchise's critical and commercial success were both at their height. Endgame was the highest-grossing movie of all time shortly after release, although it was subsequently pushed back down by a re-release of James Cameron's Avatar and then the release of its sequel.

The Russos decided to get out whilst the going was good and have focused on developing other projects, directing Cherry and The Gray Man and producing shows including Amazon's expensive flop Citadel. They are currently in post-production on a new film directed by them, The Electric State, for Netflix.

The MCU has carried on into a new era, but one that has been decidedly patchier than what came before, with both critical and commercial performances dropping significantly from the Russo era.

With both sides' post-Endgame performance being questionable, them joining forces once more makes a lot of sense. Marvel needs the Brothers' proven ability to shape complex stories with large casts into box office gold.

However, the move may be seen as desperation on Marvel's part given the chaos that has recently engulfed their plans. Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy apparently turned down the gig after reading the draft script, whilst Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi) had previously been announced in the role of director but then withdrew to focus on a Shang-Chi sequel that has still not materialised. The two movies were being developed as one project, under the titles The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, culminating a story arc revolving around the character of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). This plan had to be shelved quickly after Majors was arrested for assault and subsequently found guilty; Marvel terminated their contract with him. The two films are now apparently being rewritten to revolve around a new threat, with the intervening projects (such as Captain America: Brave New World, due in early 2025) being rejigged to set up this new storyline.

The Russos are not believed to have accepted the offer yet, and negotiations are in the early stages, but there seems at least a reasonable chance this might come to pass. If it does, expect the timeline to be changed and the movies probably dropped back whilst new scripts are put into place.

Marvel changing plans to recapture the zeitgeist

In an in-depth article for the Hollywood Reporter, it has been revealed that Marvel Studios is pivoting hard as it tries to overcome a series of recent obstacles to recapture the zeitgeist it imperiously commanded for over a decade.

In 2008 Marvel Studios launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an interconnected series of superhero films which shared a single continuity, canon and cast of characters, who could pop up in one another's movies and occasionally team up for big "event" pictures. From 2008's Iron Man to 2019's Avengers: Endgame, a mind-boggling run of twenty-two films, the series rarely put a foot wrong. It dominated the box office and the cultural discourse of the time. Even its weakest entries, like Thor: The Dark World or Iron Man 2, remained watchable.

Since 2019, the franchise has faltered. Box office receipts have fallen - The Marvels became the first Marvel movie to definitively lose money at the box office in November 2023 - and critical acclaim has also dropped off sharply. Eleven further films have been released since Endgame and only a few of these - particularly Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) - have garnered the type of critical and commercial success the franchise once wracked up almost automatically. There has been much discussion over why the franchise has suddenly started faltering so badly, with several problems identified:

• The loss of the franchise's most charismatic and best-written characters and the actors going along with them, most notably Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) in Endgame.
• The failure of most of the succeeding new heroes in making an impression that they can pick up the slack moving forwards.
• An increasingly tiresome inability to break free from the "Marvel format," namely a lot of quips, some action, some moderate character development and then a large setpiece CGI battle at the end, which is rarely outstanding. The few films which did experiment with this, such as Eternals adopting a more serious tone, ended up doing poorly with audiences.
• The conclusion of the mostly straightforward and well-defined Infinity Stones storyline with a well-realised villain (Thanos) and their replacement with the much murkier, more confusing Multiverse storyline and a lower-key villain (Kang) who has not resonated as strongly.
• Simple superhero fatigue: thirty-three films and ten TV series (sixteen, if you include the recently canonised Netflix series) in sixteen years is a lot, not to mention dozens more films and TV shows about superheroes from rivals DC and numerous other studios and streamers.
• An over-expansion into television as part of the streaming wars and then during COVID, bombarding audiences with new shows every few months.
• The increasing feeling that keeping up with the MCU requires having to do "homework," watching shows and films that don't appeal to you because they're going to be referenced in the next Spider-Man movie that you do care about.
• Plans to use the always-popular Spider-Man as a lynchpin for the next generation of movies hit a snag with the Sony/Marvel legal disagreement of a few years ago, which means Marvel can't use Spider-Man as a key character moving forwards when they can lose access to him at almost any time.
• The relatively rapid transition of films from the cinema to Disney+ now means that people can sit out films that look uninteresting or middling until they hit streaming, rather than having to see them in the cinema or risk falling behind the curve.

Marvel has also had to contend with a major problem from one of its tentpole actors for the next slate of films. Actor Jonathan Majors had debuted in the TV series Loki as Kang, a charismatic villain who exists in millions of different incarnations and versions across the Multiverse, a multitude of parallel universes and different timelines. The development of the Multiverse has been a major focus of the films since Endgame and has allowed Marvel to rule that other movie series using their characters - such as the X-Men and Deadpool film series from Fox and the Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man films from Sony - exist in the same Multiverse. Kang was supposed to be the lynchpin of this story moving forwards, as different versions of the character appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Loki's second season, setting up a confrontation between Kang and the Avengers in two big movies coming down the pipe.

But in March 2023 Majors was arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, whom he had met on the set of Quantumania. Marvel refused to take any action whilst legal action was ongoing. In December he was found guilty of two misdemeanour counts of assault and harassment. Marvel quickly confirmed they had terminated their relationship with the actor. Despite initial speculation that the character would be recast - previous different versions of characters across the Multiverse had been portrayed by different actors, with three versions of Spider-Man showing up in No Way Home to great success - it now appears that Marvel is moving away from the character and storyline altogether, minimising him in future projects and pivoting to another villain (speculated in other sources to be Doctor Doom) to be the "big bad" in the next two Avengers films coming down the line.

According to the HR article, Marvel are taking a number of further steps to address their issues. The first is a reduction of output: 2024 will see the release of just one Marvel movie, Deadpool and Wolverine, which will introduce the Merc With a Mouth to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and also cement the Multiverse connections between the older X-Men films and the MCU. Only one more TV show is expected this year, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries. 2025 is expected to focus hard on the arrival of Marvel tentpole characters the Fantastic Four in the MCU, with Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn recently announced in the starring roles for the film. Marvel is hoping that the integration of the Fantastic Four into the MCU, followed later by new versions of Blade and then the X-Men, will give their franchise new legs as it - improbably - heads towards its third decade of production.

Whether these steps are going to be enough to right the ship remains to be seen, or whether at some point Disney and Marvel will have to accept that the MCU's time has simply run out and it needs to be rested for a few years before the inevitable reboot with new actors playing Iron Man, Thor and Captain America.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe Timeline (updated)

Following the release of Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, I thought it might be interesting to run down a timeline of major events in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films and the relevant backstory.

This is an update of an article published in April 2019.

Nick Fury of SHIELD, who plays a decisive role in assembling the Avengers.

Some notes on this timeline: the canonicity of the spin-off comic books, books and TV shows is open to question (particularly the films' resistance to incorporate the large-scale events of Agents of SHIELD or the Netflix series), so I've restricted things to the movies themselves and their direct publicity materials.

It's also well-known that the team at Disney have themselves retconned the timeline several times, resulting in some on-screen dating evidence that is flat-out wrong and has to be ignored (such as the "Eight years later," title card in Spider-Man: Homecoming). At other times writers seem to have assumed that movies have taken place in the year they were released and then ignored information to the contrary, creating more problems.

The Timeline at the MCU Wiki was useful in assembling the list, although their tendency to use weighted averages to try to pinpoint precise dates feels somewhat inaccurate. I have followed their reasoning in some matters (particularly the convincing arguments for putting Iron Mann in 2009 versus 2008) but have deviated from it where it feels necessary.

For the most part, the precise dating of each film and event is much less important than the order the events take place in.

NOTE: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL MARVEL MOVIES INCLUDING ENDGAME FOLLOW.

The Infinity Stones.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

Sharon Carter and Helmut Zemo join THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER

Marvel has expanded the cast and crew for its Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which is in pre-production. They have also confirmed that the series will be six episodes long and will air in August 2020.

Emily VanCamp is reprising her role as Sharon Carter, which she previously played in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. The niece of Peggy Carter (Hayley Attwell), she was introduced as a SHIELD agent who later transferred to the CIA. She became a possible love interest for Captain America in Civil War, although this plot thread was abandoned as a result of the events of The Avengers: Endgame.

Daniel Bruhl is reprising his rule as Helmut Zemo from Civil War. A Sokovian citizen infuriated by the destruction of his nation at the hands of the Avengers (as seen in Age of Ultron), Zemo conducted a campaign to discredit and ultimately destroy the team, resulting in its splintering into two factions. Zemo was captured at the end of Civil War, but noted that by splitting the Avengers his plan had succeeded (making him, arguably, the only Marvel villain whose evil scheme actually worked).

Kari Skogland (The Walking Dead, The Handmaid's Tale) will direct all six episodes. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan are also reprising their title roles as Falcon and the Winter Soldier from the movies.

The casting suggests that the mini-series will tie up loose ends from the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and pave the way for future film developments.

The Future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Back in 2014, head of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige laid down his vision for the next five years of Marvel movies. As of the release of Avengers: Endgame, that vision is now complete. Some projects fell by the wayside - an Inhumans movie was dropped and was changed into a TV series (which flopped, badly) - and others have stepped up, with the addition of the Spider-Man character resulting in several new solo movies for him added to the roster.

Spider-Man and Black Panther are expected to be key characters in Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Feige is expected to unveil a master plan for the next generation of Marvel movies - "Phase 4" - at the San Diego Comic-Con in July. It sounds like the plan is for a series of new movies that will take us up to the end of 2023, and will lean heavily on the newer generations of Marvel heroes such as Black Panther and Captain Marvel. However, this Phase will also feature a twist, as it will also incorporate a number of TV mini-series for the new Disney streaming platform, Disney+. These short series (estimated at 6-10 episodes apiece) will expand on some characters and will also introduce new characters, possibly setting them up to appear in new movies further down the road. Unlike previous Marvel TV shows (such as the Netflix series, Agents of SHIELD and The Inhumans), whose canonical status with regards to the movies is debatable, these Disney+ series are being made by Marvel Studios under Feige's direct supervision, and will be definitively be canon with regards to the films.

The roster of upcoming TV shows and films is as follows.

Please note that this article will contain spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.


Movies

Spider-Man: Far from Home
Directed by Jon Watts
Filming Dates: July-October 2018
Release Date: 2 July 2019

Already in the can, this is a sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and will pick up with the character of Spider-Man/Peter Parker shortly after the events of Endgame. The film will see Spider-Man being recruited by Nick Fury to look into a series of strange events during a school trip to Europe. Marvel originally hoped to release this film much later, so marketing would not interfere with promotions for Endgame, but Sony's contract with Marvel requited them to start marketing the movie earlier.


Black Widow
Directed by Cate Shortland
Filming Dates: "soon"
Release Date: late 2020?

A solo Black Widow movie has been under discussion since Scarlett Johansson debuted in the role in Iron Man 2 (2010). Shortland signed on to direct in July 2018 and reportedly the film is due to start shooting "soon." The events of Endgame leave the focus and story of the film a mystery, but reportedly the film is a prequel which will explain some of Natasha's backstory. As far as is known, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) is not expected to appear, which is unusual as their shared backstory is an obvious place for a film to pick up.


The Eternals
Directed by Chloé Zhao
Filming Dates: August-Late 2018
Release Date: late 2020/early 2021?

Chloé Zhao signed on to direct a movie based on Jack Kirby's immortal heroes in September 2018, and production is due to start in August. Angelina Jolie is playing Sersi whilst Kumail Nanjiani is also in talks to star.


Black Panther 2
Directed by Ryan Coogler
Filming Dates: unknown
Release Date: 2021?

Ryan Coogler has agreed to return to direct and write a sequel to his 2018 mega-hit. The entire (surviving) main cast is expected to return.


Doctor Strange 2
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Release Date: 2021?

Scott Derrickson has agreed to return to direct and co-write a sequel to the 2017 original. The original main cast is expected to return. Apparently the film will be "weirder" than the first one.


Spider-Man 3
Release Date: 2021?

Sony's contract with Marvel is believed to require a sequel to Spider-Man: Far From Home to be released two years after that movie, if Far From Home is financially successful. The cast's contracts are believed to include three-film options, but it's unclear if Jon Watts would return for a third movie.


Shang-Chi
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
Release Date: 2022?

Scriptwriter David Callaham and director Destin Daniel Cretton signed on in early 2019 to bring Marvel's crimefighting kung fu star (well, one of them, along with Iron Fist) to the big screen.


Captain Marvel 2
Release Date: 2022?

Not formally greenlit yet, although Captain Marvel's $1.1 billion take-home makes that a formality at this point. According to Kevin Feige, the sequel may actually be an "interquel", bridging Captain Marvel to Avengers: Endgame and exploring what Carol was up to in space during that time.


The Avengers 5
Release Date: 2022?

After Infinity War and Endgame blew up the box office between them, a further Avengers movie is of course a no-brainer. The film would likely see at least Falcon, Winter Soldier, War Machine, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther and Captain Marvel reunite to face off against some kind of threat, potentially to be joined by Thor, the "new" Hawkeye and She-Hulk (see the TV section). Alternatively the film could also act as a last hurrah for the old Hawkeye and Hulk (and Thor, depending on the timeline, see below) before their retirement.


Ant-Man 3
Directed by Peyton Reed
Release Date: unknown

Proposed but not yet formally greenlit. Director Peyton Reed has been discussing the project with Marvel, and actor Michael Douglas is reportedly keen to return as Hank Pym. It's also believed that most of the cast from the first two movies would return.


Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Directed by James Gunn
Release Date: unknown

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was greenlit shortly after the success of Vol. 2 in 2017. However, director James Gunn was fired from the project in July 2018 after controversial tweets he'd made many years earlier resurfaced. Gunn signed on to direct The Suicide Squad for DC instead. After discussions with the cast, who were extremely unhappy with Gunn's firing, Disney reinstated him in March 2019. This now means that Gunn can't start production on Vol. 3 until work on The Suicide Squad is completed before its release in August 2021. This puts Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 potentially off until late 2022 at the earliest, and possibly later.


Thor 4
Release Date: unknown

Based on Chris Hemsworth's statements, it was expected that he would be retiring from the role following Endgame. However, both Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and the Infinity War two-parter revitalised his interest in the character and he has since committed to returning. The timeline for Thor 4 is heavily dependent on the availability of Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, who has been in talks to shoot the live-action version of Akira but still hasn't fully committed, and also on the scheduling for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, as Thor is believed to play a role in that movie. Some have suggested that if Waititi passes on Akira, Thor 4 could shoot much sooner and work as an interim Guardians side-movie until the Gunn-directed Guardians 3 hits production, but this is unconfirmed.


The Thunderbolts
Release Date: unknown

Not greenlit, but apparently discussed, is a movie teaming up the Marvel supervillains who have survived this far. Apparently the roster could consist of Zemo (Captain America: Civil War), Vulture (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Abomination (The Incredible Hulk) and Ghost (Ant-Man and the Wasp), along potentially with new characters. This is a very speculative project until a director and writer can be found with passion for the project.

Disney+ Shows

Falcon & Winter Soldier
Release Date: 2020

Greenlit and already in pre-production, with shooting due to start soon. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan reprise their roles from the movies. The actors and Marvel had apparently discussed a range of options for the series, including a "buddy cop" dynamic similar to 1980s movies like 48 Hours. However, reportedly the tone for the series is going to be a ground-level thriller similar to The Winter Soldier, with a focus on stealth and espionage.


WandaVision
Release Date: 2020-21

Greenlit and in the writing stage. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany will reprise their roles as Scarlet Witch and Vision from the films. The series will apparently be an interquel, exploring how the characters' relationship evolved between Civil War to Infinity War. Some reports have suggested that there may be scenes set in the 1950s, hinting possibly at hallucinations or even outright time travel.


Loki
Release Date: 2020-21

Greenlit and in the writing stage. Tom Hiddleson will reprise his role from the films as Loki. The TV series will be anthology-like, with major events from Earth's history over the last thousand years being revealed to have been orchestrated by Loki for his own amusement.


Hawkeye
Release Date: unknown

Not formally greenlit, but negotiations are at an advanced stage for a limited series starring Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye. The series would see Barton meeting and training up Kate Bishop, a skilled archer who (in the comics) becomes a later incarnation of Hawkeye.


Hulk/She-Hulk
Release Date: unknown

Not formally greenlit, but negotiations are at an early stage for a limited series that would see Mark Ruffalo return as Bruce Banner/Hulk. The series would see Banner meeting his cousin Jennifer Walters, who in the comics is destined to become She-Hulk. The film would act as a passing-the-baton story, allowing She-Hulk to potentially appear in later Avengers movies.


Power Pack
Release Date: unknown

Not formally greenlit and apparently talks are only in the very earliest stages, but there has been some discussion about adapting Power Pack as an ongoing, multi-season TV show. Power Pack is a more children's oriented Marvel Comic series about four children who gain superpowers from a dying alien trying to protect their father, who has perfected a limitless source of energy. Other aliens arrive trying to seize the device, resulting in a running, desperate battle. This is a better fit for television than for film. Intriguingly, Power Pack crosses over a lot with Fantastic Four (Reed Richards' son Franklin becomes a recurring member later on), which means that Marvel might get to use its new rights to that franchise sooner than expected.


Ms. Marvel
Release Date: unknown

Marvel and Disney+ are exploring using the streaming service to set up the character of Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel. However, this may depend on the direction of Captain Marvel 2, where it has been suggested that Ms. Marvel could be introduced instead.

The X-Verse

At the current time, there are no plans to incorporate characters from Fox's "X-Verse" (plus the Fantastic Four franchise) into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following Disney's acquisition of Fox. As of now, the Fox X-Verse is expected to come to an end with the release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix in June and New Mutants in August. Films under discussion or in the planning stages, including Deadpool 3, X-Force, Gambit and a sequel to X-Men: Apocalypse have been cancelled.

According to Kevin Feige, the planning for Phase 4 was already at an advanced stage when the deal was confirmed, putting off the introduction of those characters until the advent of Phase 5 in 2023 or 2024 at the earliest. However, some fans have speculated that whilst dumping the entire X-Verse roster of characters into the MCU in Phase 4 might be untenable, it might be possible to use individual characters and villains, with Galactus cited as a worthy opponent for the possible next Avengers film or films.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs. SF&F Questions are debuting on my Patreon feed and you can read them there before being published on the Wertzone.

The Avengers: Endgame

The Infinity Stones have wreaked tremendous devastation across the universe, leaving the survivors reeling. The remaining Avengers and their allies from across the cosmos gather together on Earth for one last, possible plan to stop what has happened, at the risk of losing everything that survived.

Fifteen years ago, we experienced a genuine cinematic Moment when Peter Jackson delivered the thunderous conclusion to his Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. He wrapped up an emotional, impactful and epic story in a manner that was (mostly) successful and resulted in huge numbers of people visiting the cinema multiple times to see the conclusion to an entire multi-movie arc. I doubted we would see anything like it again, but a decade and a half later we are here with Endgame, a movie that tries something even more stupendous: paying off not just three but twenty-two movies that have been building things up and leading to this moment. The hype is crazy and if anything greater than that for The Return of the King (where you could go and read the story summary online from the book any time you wanted).

Endgame, surprisingly, delivers a nuanced and tight finale to the story that began in last year's Infinity War. Infinity War was epic and impressive, a stunning sequence of epic battles and quieter character moments that came together in several confrontations with Thanos, which Thanos won (although not without cost). Endgame picks up on the aftermath of that event with the surviving heroes regrouping, but they are caught up in grief and loss. Returning heroes Scott Lang and Hawkeye rejoin the team, whilst Rocket, Nebula and Captain Marvel join the Avengers to help resolve the crisis, but their early efforts have mixed results.

Endgame's generous three-hour running time allows directors the Russo Brothers (who can now write their own meal ticket and direct whatever film they want, ever) and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to have their cake and eat it, with huge, thunderous battle sequences and lots of quieter character beats. In fact, much of the first third of the film is taken up by people processing the events of the end of Infinity War, and how you move on when half of the people you've ever met are gone. The rest of the film is taken up by our heroes embarking on A Plan to save everyone, which near-instantly goes horrendously wrong and results in lots of the action, comedy and dramatic beats that you've come to expect from a Marvel movie, but more surprising is the amount of emotion on display. Character after character has to face up to their growth and what they've gone through to reach this point, and how they handle key moments that lead to victory, or in a few cases, their death.

Events culminate in a finale that is jaw-dropping in its scale and features some of the best, punch-the-air moments you've ever seen in a superhero movie, as well as moments of real reversals and pain. The directors walk a tightrope between being self-indulgent (the film may rival Return of the King for the number of endings it has, although I think it sells it much better) and too dark, and manages to chart a difficult course through that. It even manages to use Captain Marvel well, acknowledging her sheer power and her use as an asset against Thanos but not allowing her to dominate proceedings to the detriment of the characters we've spent eleven years with.

There's a lot of movie here and it's almost entirely brilliantly-handled. What's more surprising is the sheer degree of payoff we get in this film, and how many near-obscure characters from older movies suddenly and unexpectedly show up and play vital roles (bar one case where rather obviously the actor involved didn't want to return and they had to film around it using older footage, although it kind of works). Fans of the Marvel TV shows will also get one genuine moment of delight in a scene which seemingly officially canonises at least one of the Marvel TV shows as taking place in the Marvel cinematic universe after all. There's also the film's possibly most epic shot which was foreshadowed by a single moment (not even a scene) in an earlier movie from years ago which you could have missed by just looking at your phone for a second. Another major plot revelation hinges on a line of dialogue from another, even earlier movie which makes you suspect the Russo Brothers and Kevin Feige are genuine, outright geniuses.

Problems are mostly non-existent. This is a movie which, as I think everyone has guessed, does lean into a bit of time travel and as a result viewers can have exciting conversations over whether the story completely makes sense as a result (which Ant-Man and War Machine themselves get into a knot over at one point, trying to work out if the plot of the Back to the Future trilogy makes sense whilst Banner gets frustrated at them talking about movies rather than the science). Beyond that, for the first time, a Marvel movie hits every single beat it means to, with a fantastic villain, excellent characterisation and some titanic character payoffs, some you've been waiting a decade for. The only other criticism that could be made is that the film doesn't even remotely stand alone, at all, but then that's kind of the point of it. This is an ending to a very long chapter, and I can't even work out what happens next.

The Avengers: Endgame (*****) is long, but feels short when you watch it. Every character gets their moment in the sun, and the creators somehow make 21 previous movies worth of foreshadowing and backstory pay off in a real, meaningful way through a story that is by turns tragic, epic, moving, funny and action-packed.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe Timeline

Before the release of Avengers: Endgame tomorrow, I thought it might be interesting to run down a timeline of major events in the previous twenty-one films and the relevant backstory.

Nick Fury of SHIELD, who plays a decisive role in assembling the Avengers.

Some notes on this timeline: the canonicity of the spin-off comic books, books and TV shows is open to question (particularly the films' resistance to incorporate the large-scale events of Agents of SHIELD or the Netflix series), so I've restricted things to the movies themselves and their direct publicity materials.

It's also well-known that the team at Disney have themselves retconned the timeline several times, resulting in some on-screen dating evidence that is flat-out wrong and has to be ignored (such as the "Eight years later," title card in Spider-Man: Homecoming). At other times writers seem to have assumed that movies have taken place in the year they were released and then ignored information to the contrary, creating more problems.

The Timeline at the MCU Wiki was useful in assembling the list, although their tendency to use weighted averages to try to pinpoint precise dates feels somewhat inaccurate. I have followed their reasoning in some matters (particularly the convincing arguments for putting Iron Mann in 2009 versus 2008) but have deviated from it where it feels necessary.

For the most part, the precise dating of each film and event is much less important than the order the events take place in.

NOTE: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL MARVEL MOVIES PRIOR TO ENDGAME FOLLOW.

The Infinity Stones.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

The Great Marvel Rewatch: The Avengers - Infinity War

The Titan Thanos has begun his plan to unite the Infinity Stones and wipe out half of the life the universe. His plan involves seizing the Stones from remote planets, the Collector of Knowhere and from Xandar, and the several Stones that have come to rest on Earth. In deep space the Guardians of the Galaxy join forces with Thor to defeat Thanos, whilst on Earth the fractured Avengers have to overcome their differences and unite again to fight against his armies.

It's entirely possible that no movie in history has had a build-up like Infinity War. Almost every one of the eighteen preceding movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been laying pipe and groundwork for this film, from introducing the Infinity Stones one-by-one to brief appearances by Thanos to the introduction of both the extravagant space opera and mystical sides of the universe through Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange. Marvel and Disney have shown tremendous restraint and forbearance in not pulling the triggers on those stories too early and making sure they have their ducks lined up in just the right row before finally committing.

Infinity War is an insanely massive movie. Starting as it means to go on - with a massacre which leaves several established characters dead and one MIA (which weirdly goes unmentioned for the whole movie) - the film barely lets up. Characters big and small going right back to the start of the MCU ten years earlier (including some you thought you'd never see again) show up, some with large roles to play, some for an extended cameo. Despite the weight of the massive cast, directors Anthony and Joe Russo and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely somehow create a very coherent film with four distinct acts and the kind of tension filled, multi-pronged final battle on two separate fronts that we haven't seen since Return of the Jedi.

It also helps that although the movie is filled to the brim with heroes and big personalities, the film keeps its focus firmly on a central quintet. Thanos himself dominates proceedings, Josh Brolin (somehow) investing this big purple dude with some real pathos in scenes where we learn more about his backstory, his family and his homeworld. Gamora (Zoe Saldana) also has a major role to play, her family issues with both Thanos and Nebula proving a key emotional motivation for the film. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) also has a lot of screentime, clearly having feeling annoyed after the events of Thor: Ragnarok and determined to kick someone's backside. Scenes pairing him and Bradley Cooper's Rocket Raccoon (or "Rabbit" as Thor insists) are excellent, and then get better when they join forces with a giant space dwarf played by Peter Dinklage. Dinklage's screentime is limited but extraordinarily effective (he also gets arguably the best line of the movie, but it's a really tough choice). Rounding off the central focus is Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), two extremely different people who prove to be an effective team.

Lots of other characters get their moments in the sun (although Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner seems to be reduced to a harbinger of doom whilst he's dealing with, er, "performance" problems as Hulk), although the role of Captain America (Chris Evans) in the movie is surprisingly small. The directors know how to deliver a great superhero arrival scene just as all hope seems lost and also how to frame an action sequence. There's a lot of explosions, CG people being flung around and strange creatures and it all flows mostly well, with only a couple of moments where CG fatigue threatens to set in. Infinity War is not a movie any sane person can call restrained, but it's a movie that knows when and where to deploy its monstrous resources (adjusted for inflation, Infinity War is the most expensive movie ever made) to maximum effect.

It's also a surprisingly emotional movie. The weakness of films - and the reason we've seen television explode in comparison recently - is that it's very hard to introduce characters, establish motivation, emotionally invest the audience and then deliver a payoff whilst telling a good story in under two hours. Infinity War is instead able to draw on almost forty hours of previous character development in the MCU, so even when a fairly minor character bites the dust it hurts a little. When more major characters bite it, things get real (and it appears that at least some of these characters aren't coming back).

When the movie runs aground is in its ending, which is impossible to talk about without major spoilers. Suffice to say that the Chekhov's Gun maxim is employed by full force in the film and when you walk out of the cinema - especially if you know the significance of the post-credit sequence and what movie will immediately precede Endgame next year - you'll probably be able to immediately pen a fairly close outline of what happens. I mean, if they completely wrong-foot us, fair enough, but some of the choices made in the ending are completely nonsensical if you have any knowledge of what's coming and what's not coming down the Marvel production pipe later on.

Another major weakness is that the film undersells its new team of villains, the Black Order (servants of Thanos). Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw and Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight are particularly excellent, but both get limited screen time (especially Carrie Coon, one of the best actresses on TV, who is almost unrecognisable).

Finally, Marvel has gone to some lengths to say that Infinity War is a stand-alone movie and Endgame is a movie in its own right and not just the second half of one bigger story. That's quite frankly untrue, and a lot of the more dramatic and emotional moments from Infinity War will live or die depending on what happens in the sequel.

If you can step out of all the meta-knowledge, The Avengers: Infinity War (****½) is a very effective action movie with lots of solid action scenes, some real dramatic moments of power and a refreshingly ruthless attitude to its cast of massive stars. It lacks the pacing, focus and character interplay of, say, Guardians of the Galaxy or Black Panther (or even the first Avengers), but's in the upper tier of Marvel Cinematic Universe films and in balancing an unprecedentedly vast cast with solid storytelling, it's almost achieves the impossible.

Note: the original version of this review was published in 2018.

The Great Marvel Rewatch: The Avengers - Age of Ultron

The Avengers have brought down and destroyed the last HYDRA cells which survived the collapse of SHIELD. However, Tony Stark is concerned that the focus on HYDRA has made the Avengers - and the world - forget about the threat from alien forces that resulted in the Battle of New York. His new plan is to create a powerful AI and an automated army of soldiers capable of destroying any threat before it gets close to Earth. Things go wrong when Stark puts his plan into operation, and soon the Avengers have to take on a new threat...one of their own making.

Age of Ultron is the second Avengers movie and the eleventh film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making it also (at this time of writing) the film that marks the halfway point of the MCU. On release the film was a huge commercial hit (but not as big as The Avengers) but garnered a mixed critical reception.

The reasons for this are clear. Age of Ultron is a tentpole Avengers movie with all the previously-established heroes (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow, as well as War Machine and Falcon) back to kick butt again. This second film also introduces several new characters, most notably Vision, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, as well as the titular Ultron. This kind of integration of old and new characters is something the MCU is quite good at these days, but way back when Age of Ultron was made (er, four years ago), it wasn't quite as sleek and efficient as it is now. The result is a movie with rocky pacing which sometimes loses focus on what story it's supposed to be telling.

We know now, thanks to director Joss Whedon's candour, that the movie had a lot of behind-the-scenes interference from the studio. In particular, the studio wanted more action and all but demanded that Whedon cut out character-based scenes (such as the sojourn at Hawkeye's farm), whilst they also insisted on shoehorning in more scenes teasing upcoming films rather than retaining focus on the movie at hand. Whedon was also unhappy with the introduction of the "new Avengers" at the end of the film, thinking they lacked bite, and wanted to add Captain Marvel and Spider-Man to the roster at the end of the film. The latter plan was shot down as Captain Marvel hadn't been cast (and her solo movie ended up being delayed by a couple more years) and the Marvel/Sony legal team-up hadn't yet been completed, meaning that Spider-Man was off the menu.

These issues become apparent in the finished film, where there's a lot going on but most of it feels inconsequential. Whedon is also less adept at juggling the large cast this time around, and in fact seemingly checks out of trying to service the cast: War Machine and Falcon get almost no material of consequence, and it feels like Maria Hill and Nick Fury show up only out of a contractual obligation to the actors. Vision is splendidly played by Paul Bettany (who'd already been playing the voice of JARVIS since the original Iron Man) but again it feels like there's barely any room for him, so his importance to the plot feels a bit murky beyond his tie-in with the Infinity Stones.

Also, the Underwhelming Marvel Villain problem strikes again. Ultron is given a great vocal performance by James Spader and has some good lines, but mostly he feels like a generic robot bad guy with a very forgettable look (somewhere between a knock-off Terminator and a lesser Michael Bay Transformer). Ultron's plan to destroy the world at the end of the movie also feels bizarrely random.

Still, there's a fair amount to praise. The actors all bring their A-game and it's fun to see them doing their thing. There's a nice feeling of continuity with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, with the Avengers joining forces to spend a year non-stop wiping out HYDRA after the events of that movie. The new additions to the cast are mostly great and there's some good, fun action scenes and set pieces.

The biggest problem with The Avengers: Age of Ultron (***½) is how incidental the whole thing feels. This is supposed to be the Avengers, up against the biggest bad guys in the universe, not taking on yet another take on "evil AI" in a battle that never feels as high-stakes as it is supposed to be. The end result is a movie that's certainly watchable and at times fun, but also feels kind of unnecessary, especially given the much higher quality of the movies that came out around it (The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy just before and Ant-Man and Civil War just after).

The Great Marvel Rewatch: The Avengers

A powerful device called the Tesseract has been studied by the American intelligence organisation SHIELD for the past few decades, who believe it can be used to unlock the secret of creating infinitely renewable energy sources. Loki, a powerful entity from the world of Asgard, steals the cube and plans to use it to open a dimensional portal to allow an alien race to invade the planet. SHIELD calls in its top agents (including Clint "Hawkeye" Barton and Natasha '"Black Widow" Romanoff) and most powerful allies to answer the threat. Leading the fight are the recently-revived Steve Rogers (Captain America), the billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (Iron Man) and the mild-mannered Bruce Banner (the Hulk). The Asgardians, aware of the extent of Loki's threat, also dispatch Thor to aid in his containment. The result is mayhem as the two sides clash in the streets of New York City, with the fate of the Earth (and potentially many other worlds) at stake.

The Avengers was the culmination of Marvel's first five-year cinematic masterplan. Scenes establishing SHIELD and the Avengers Initiative were seeded into its earlier movies - The Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor, as well as the two Iron Man movies - in preparation for this film, where all the different superheroes get together to fight a massive threat. Aware it would take one heck of a director to keep all the actors, egos and storylines from spiralling out of control, Marvel called in Joss Whedon. Whedon may not have been the most bankable choice - his previous movie, Serenity, barely broke even and he had several failed TV projects in succession by that point - but he was by far the most logical one. With critically-acclaimed runs on several Marvel comics and dialogue work on the original X-Men movie under his belt, not to mention form with handling large, disparate casts from his TV projects Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse, Whedon proved a good choice.

With only two hours to play with and a dozen notable characters to do justice to, Whedon gets to the point straight away. The action-packed opening few minutes establish the premise (Tom Hiddleston returning as Loki and making even more of an impact than in Thor, though he does get a little lost in the mix later on) and we immediately get to the "getting the team together" sequence. Mark Ruffalo has the hardest task here, as he has to step into the well-worn shoes of the Hulk (replacing Edward Norton who in turn had replaced Eric Bana) and sell a difficult character to the audience. He immediately succeeds, bringing a combination of cynicism, brilliance and humanity to the role of Banner, which is the stand-out performance of the film. The rest of the team is assembled pretty quickly, apart from Thor who is unreachable (thanks to the events of his own film). Needless to say, he gets over that complication fairly quickly (and possibly way too easily) to join in with the mayhem. Unfortunately, he seems to have lost a little of the fun and wit that he displayed in his own movie, but given his personal stake in the action (Loki being his brother, well, adopted) that's unsurprising. Whedon employs his ability to get lots of different characters into a room and spark off one another to the full, with Robert Downey Jnr's Tony Stark running off with many of the best lines. Chris Evans's Captain America is a little passive in the early stages, but his clear-headedness and ability to take command of the situation eventually wins through and earns him the respect of the rest of the team.

More impressive is that Whedon doesn't neglect the large battery of secondary characters. In particular, he promotes Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye to equal billing as the "big four", giving them plenty to do. Johansson walks off with the best scene in the movie (a great confrontation between her and Loki which twists and turns through various tones and different head-games) and is much better-served than many of the female roles in the other Marvel movies (Gwyneth Paltrow has sod all to do, but does get some good lines in her brief appearance as Pepper). Samuel L. Jackson gets more to do as Nick Fury rather than just handing out mission briefings, whilst Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson also gets an amusing subplot where he turns out to be a Captain America fanboy.

However, what makes The Avengers really work is that it's a comic book movie which remembers that it's a comic book movie, featuring guys in ridiculous costumers unleashing ludicrous amounts of violence against CGI monsters, and having fun with that idea. There are genuine comic book moments of awesome throughout the picture, most notably the revelation of the SHIELD Helicarrier. It may be ridiculously impractical as a mode of transport (as rapidly proven in the film) but it's an impressive design. Most of the action sequences are excellent, and Whedon does his best to keep the CGI under control and investing us in the characters and their actions. This falters during the concluding action sequence in New York City, which occasionally teeters on the edge of a Michael Bay-shaped abyss of confusing explosions, but Whedon just about manages to stop it slipping into total anarchy. The characters get moments to show off their heroism and Whedon's typical humour grounds things nicely (a moment between Thor and Loki during the final battle getting the movie's biggest laugh).

The biggest casualty of the film is that the bad guys suffer a little. Their motives for invading Earth are never really explained and it's unclear how exactly Loki was able to win them over (though the post-credits sequence does give a clue). Using the Cosmic Cube/Tesseract as the movie's maguffin is a good idea (since it's been well-established in several previous pictures) although we still don't get any explanation of its origin or purpose...yet.

On almost every other level, Whedon pulled it off. The film has massive action set pieces but also moments of humour, characterisation and humanity. It does a good job handling the major heroes but it doesn't neglect the side-players. The effects are impressive but don't overwhelm the picture (though coming close on occasion). Most notably, he managed to combine these crazy characters and their different realities and tones into one story successfully.

The Avengers (****½) is, simply put, a ridiculously entertaining and fun movie.

Note: the original version of this review was posted in 2012.

Disney planning Loki and Scarlet Witch TV mini-series to launch new streaming service

Marvel and Disney are looking at two limited-run mini-series starring popular Marvel characters to launch their new streaming service.

Disney have been developing their own streaming service for some time now, planning to launch it in late 2019. The new service, as yet unnamed, will compete directly with Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, but will have a lower price point. The current plan is to have both original content on the service as well as providing customers with access to the formidable Disney back-catalogue of TV series and films, including material produced by American network ABC. When Disney’s acquisition of 20^th Century Fox is completed, this will also allow Disney to transfer Fox’s colossal back-catalogue of TV series and films to the new service as well. This will be a long-term process, however, as many of these shows and movies are currently licenced to Netflix and other services, and will only be able to be moved as those deals expire.

Disney are planning a big-budget Star Wars TV series, to be helmed by Iron Man director Jon Favreau, to launch on the service in 2020. A live-action version of The Lady and the Tramp is also being planned for the service, and a TV version of the popular movie series High School Musical. Disney also promised new shows featuring Marvel characters to run on the service.

The first and higher-profile project under discussion is a limited-run series which will see Tom Hiddleston reprise his fan-favourite role as Loki, which he has played in five of the Marvel movies (all three Thor films and The Avengers, where he was the primary villain, as well as a brief appearance in The Avengers: Infinity War). It is unclear if the series will be set before or after the events of Infinity War.

Disney and Marvel are also considering similar a limited-run mini-series for Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), who has appeared in four movies to date (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War and The Avengers: Infinity War). If successful the format could be expanded to characters who are not big enough to headline their own film but too big to appear in an ongoing show. Presumably characters like Falcon, Bucky/Winter Soldier and Iron Machine could fall into that category as well.

Meanwhile, the long-term fate of the six TV series that Marvel produces with Netflix remains unclear. These shows – Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher and The Defenders – are produced by shot and produced by ABC but are funded by Netflix and air on that platform, which Disney is planning to directly compete with.

Slugfest: Inside the Epic 50-Year Battle between Marvel & DC by Reed Tucker

In 1961 DC Comics was the biggest comic company in the United States. Its superhero comics - Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman - were the most popular in the world and it had absolutely no competition of note. But that same year Atlas Comics was branded Marvel and its editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby released a new comic called The Fantastic Four. Within a decade Marvel had displaced DC as the biggest comics company in the US and snatched away a lot of talent and critical acclaim that had gone to DC. DC fought back, starting formidable Superman and Batman movie franchises and releasing a series of artistic, critically-acclaimed comic books in the 1980s and 1990s from the likes of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. But in the early 2000s Marvel finally entered the movie scene in force with X-Men and Spider-Man, and never looked back.

This non-fiction book looks into the 50-year competition between DC and Marvel, the two titans of comic book publishing. Reed Tucker has exhaustively interviewed many key players involved and scoured the archives for interviews with those who are no longer with us. The result is a potential interesting book that examines the corporate battle between the venerable establishment figure and the plucky upstart newbie.

Or at least it's a potentially interesting book that tries to do that. The opening chapters expand on this, detailing how Stan Lee took over a moribund company and injected some 1960s inventiveness, irreverence and character development to win over young fans from the older, more moribund publisher. We're told that Marvel focused more on the characters' internal lives, on the distrust with which they are treated by the government (helping young readers identify with similarly confused and mistrusted characters) and gave their writers and artists much greater freedom to express themselves, throwing away the style guides DC saddled their readers with. Marvel also used real locations, particularly in and around New York, which excited readers more than stories set in completely fictional locales like Gotham and Metropolis.

All of this stuff is great, but Reed never really moves on from this basic assumption: Marvel was the plucky underdog with greater creative energy and freedom, and DC was the staid old man taken by surprise by what the youngster was doing and whose attempts to replicate it by "getting down with the kids" were embarrassing. That applies very well to the 1960s and the early 1970s. However, some of Reed's conclusions and anecdotage are questionable: he challenges the wisdom of DC poaching Jack Kirby from Marvel and putting them on the Jimmy Olsen comic book, but this was both Kirby's own choice (so he wouldn't cost anyone a job on another comic, as the Jimmy Olsen book didn't have a permanent artist at the time) and also allowed him to set up his own, more original books later on by introducing characters like Darkseid.

By the time the 1980s have rolled around, Reed is still expanding on Marvel being the plucky underdog beating the boring old figure of DC, but seems to contradict himself by then talking about DC's artistic achievements with books like Swamp Thing, Watchmen and Sandman, as well as how Marvel had become the biggest-selling comic book company, making DC the underdogs. Aware that this is getting repetitive, he switches to studying the film business and how DC got some great movies made whilst Marvel flirted with moderately successful TV shows but otherwise couldn't get a decent movie on screen until twenty-two years later. This is interesting, with some great stories of bizarre behind-the-scenes battles and the film companies not "getting" comic books at all, but again it lacks depth.

The book is ultimately a bit constrained by its premise, and it's to Tucker's credit that he remains laser-focused on the interrelationship between Marvel and DC. It would have been very easy to get sidetracked in the internal history of the two companies and discuss more creative decisions, but Tucker stays on point throughout. This does mean the book veers towards the more corporate side of things rather than the creative one, which I think will be of less interest to those keen to learn more about the origins of superhero characters or how the books developed. But it has some value: this is an under-told aspect of the comic book story and Tucker keeps the story ticking over nicely.

Slugfest (***½) is a readable and intriguing book about the titanic competition between the two biggest comic book companies in the United States. It's also a bit on the repetitive side, with not as much depth as perhaps might be wished, and a lack of information on the creative choices as opposed to business ones. It's still a good story, well-told and interesting, but one for hardcore comic book fans only. The book is available now in the UK and USA.

UK to air AGENTS OF SHIELD soon after USA

Channel 4 (and 4 HD) in the UK will be broadcasting Joss Whedon's new show, Agents of SHIELD, within a few days of American transmission. The exact day of the week is still being worked out, but the show launches on Tuesday 24 September on ABC in the USA.

This is quite a coup for Channel 4, although it remains to be seen if they can translate the massive success of The Avengers at the box office to good ratings for its TV spin-off show.

The Avengers

A powerful device called the Tesseract has been studied by the American intelligence organisation SHIELD for the past few decades, who believe it can be used to unlock the secret of creating infinitely renewable energy sources. Loki, a powerful entity from the world of Asgard, steals the cube and plans to use it to open a dimensional portal to allow an alien race to invade the planet. SHIELD calls in its top agents (including Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton and Natasha 'Black Widow' Romanoff) and most powerful allies to answer the threat. Leading the fight are the recently-revived Steve Rogers (Captain America), the billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (Iron Man) and the mild-mannered Bruce Banner (the Hulk). The Asgardians, aware of the extent of Loki's threat, also dispatch Thor to aid in his containment. The result is mayhem as the two sides clash in the streets of New York City, with the fate of the Earth (and potentially many other worlds) at stake.

The Avengers is the culmination of Marvel's five-year cinematic masterplan. Scenes establishing SHIELD and the Avengers Initiative were seeded into its earlier movies - The Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor, as well as the two Iron Man movies - in preparation for this film, where all the different superheroes get together to fight a massive threat. Aware it would take one heck of a director to keep all the actors, egos and storylines from spiralling out of control, Marvel called in Joss Whedon. Whedon may not have been the most bankable choice - his previous movie, Serenity, barely broke even and he's had several failed TV projects in succession - but he was by far the most logical one. With critically-acclaimed runs on several Marvel comics and dialogue work on the original X-Men movie under his belt, not to mention form with handling large, disparate casts, Whedon proved a good choice.

With only two hours to play with and a dozen notable characters to do justice to, Whedon gets to the point straight away. The action-packed opening few minutes establish the premise (Tom Hiddleston returning as Loki and making even more of an impact than in Thor, though he does get a little lost in the mix later on) and we immediately get to the 'getting the team together' sequence. Mark Ruffalo has the hardest task here, as he has to step into the well-worn shoes of the Hulk (replacing Edward Norton who in turn had replaced Eric Bana) and sell a difficult character to the audience. He immediately succeeds, bringing a combination of cynicism, brilliance and humanity to the role of Banner, which is the stand-out performance of the film. The rest of the team is assembled pretty quickly, apart from Thor who is unreachable (thanks to the events of his own film). Needless to say, he gets over that complication fairly quickly (and possibly way too easily) to join in with the mayhem. Unfortunately, he seems to have lost a little of the fun and wit that he displayed in his own movie, but given his personal stake in the action (Loki being his brother) that's unsurprising. Whedon employs his ability to get lots of different characters into a room and spark off one another to the full, with Robert Downey Jnr's Tony Stark running off with many of the best lines. Chris Evans's Captain America is a little passive in the early stages, but his clear-headedness and ability to take command of the situation eventually wins through and earns him the respect of the rest of the team.

More impressive is that Whedon doesn't neglect the large battery of secondary characters. In particular, he promotes Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye to equal billing as the 'big four', giving them plenty to do. Johansson walks off with the best scene in the movie (a great confrontation between her and Loki which twists and turns through various tones and different head-games) and is much better-served than many of the female roles in the other Marvel movies (Gwyneth Paltrow also gets some excellent lines in her brief appearance as Pepper). Samuel L. Jackson gets more to do as Nick Fury rather than just handing out mission briefings, whilst Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson also gets an amusing subplot where he turns out to be a Captain America fanboy.

However, what makes The Avengers really work is that it's a comic book movie which remembers that it's a comic book movie, featuring guys in ridiculous costumers unleashing ludicrous amounts of violence against CGI monsters, and having fun with that idea. There are genuine comic book moments of awesome throughout the picture, most notably the revelation of the SHIELD Helicarrier. It may be ridiculously impractical as a mode of transport (as rapidly proven in the film) but it's an impressive design. Most of the action sequences are impressive, and Whedon does his best to keep the CGI under control and investing us in the characters and their actions. This falters during the concluding action sequence in New York City, which occasionally teeters on the edge of a Michael Bay-shaped abyss of confusing explosions, but Whedon just about manages to stop it slipping into total anarchy. The characters get moments to show off their heroism and Whedon's typical humour grounds things nicely (a moment between Thor and Hulk during the final battle getting the movie's biggest laugh).

The biggest casualty of the film is that the bad guys suffer a little. Their motives for invading Earth are never really explained and it's unclear how exactly Loki was able to win them over (though the post-credits sequence does give a clue). Using the Cosmic Cube/Tesseract as the movie's maguffin is a good idea (since it's been well-established in several previous pictures) although we still don't get any explanation of its origin or purpose.

On almost every other level, Whedon has pulled it off. The film has massive action set pieces but also moments of humour, characterisation and humanity. It does a good job handling the major heroes but it doesn't neglect the side-players. The effects are impressive but don't overwhelm the picture (though coming close on occasion). Most notably, he manages to combine these crazy characters and their different realities and tones into one story successfully.

The Avengers (****½) is a ridiculously entertaining and fun movie. It's in the cinemas right now.

Joss Whedon to direct THE AVENGERS movie

According to Airlock Alpha, Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse and Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, has been recruited by Marvel to direct the long-gestating film version of The Avengers, slated for release in 2012.


(note to British readers: this is the American superteam consisting of lots of superheroes, not the classic British TV series about a guy called Steed fighting crime, which was made into a terrible movie about a decade ago)

The film is the culmination of a long-term plan by Marvel, which is building up to this movie through several groundwork-laying films, such as Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, this year's Iron Man 2 and next year's Thor and Captain America. These movies are all linked by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) showing up at some point to recruit the hero for a new team he is putting together. The Avengers will see the team going into action for the first time, teaming up the respective movies' stars.

Whedon has been looking to get involved with a major superhero movie for some time, after he departed from the Wonder Woman project over creative differences. His last-directed film was 2005's Serenity.

And yes, that's a lot of Big Damn Heroes.