Guys, I have an idea for a new Marvel movie, especially since they want to play up their lesser known characters. I call it, “Marvel’s: Black Best Friends to the Rescue” and it will star all of Marvel’s black best friends, such as Falcon (Partner to Captain America), War Machine (Black Iron Man), Goliath (Lab assistant and black Giant Man) Heimdall (He’s movie Thor’s black best friend), and Luke Cage (Iron Fist’s black best friend). I’ve already started writing the script, so call me, Marvel!

So, a couple of weekends ago, some friends and I went to the midnight premiere of the film, “The Avengers”, which I have written about before. Mainly my fears about the movie ruining the idea of a superhero film. And though I did enjoy the movie just as much as anyone else in the theater, what with the scenes of destruction and superhero on superhero action, the movie lacked the necessary ingredients for me to actually call it a “good movie”.

It was a fun movie, just not a good one.

Which is fine, but the thing is that this movie is the biggest opening movie of all time. Of All Time. Meaning that, this might become a model for future movies down the line, which almost certainly means a Justice League movie of the same type.

But the problem is that the movie wasted its own potential. One the in between the action scenes were full of humor and banter but no matter how funny and entertaining they were, I still felt that they served no purpose other than the machines that set up bowling pins. And Joss Whedon could throw the twelve pound ball down the lane and watch us all squeal like little girls when the pins get knocked down in a “spectacular” fashion.

Maybe I’m over thinking this, but at the same time, I’ve always been a fan of at least having something else in entertainment, layers if you will. Not once did I feel that “The Avengers” was about something other than fighting and looking cool. 

If Marvel wants to make live action comics every couple of years, that’s their right to do so, but remember that the comic book industry is flawed in its execution in the first place, which is why they moved to movies to increase their funds. You can have fun movies, and “The Avengers” might be the ultimate fun movie, but do not sacrifice substance and care for spectacle and glamor.

“The Avengers” is going to ruin itself.

Let that sink in.

You good? 

Want to know why?

I’ll tell you.

Here’s the thing, films and movies, especially the good ones, are written, to some extent, so that the main character(s) has to go on a journey to fix a problem, along with any flaws or issues they may have. When reading scripts, readers often read the first ten pages, some of the middle and the end to see if the character they are introduced to goes through any refinements to their person. Otherwise, you question what’s the point in reading the script.

Most of the great films people know of feature these changes, whether the audience knows it or not because that’s just the things we know. We see it so much it becomes ingrained in us. 

Now, superhero comics are different. At the end of an issue, or an arch, many heroes do not go through changes. Sure the villain may hit them where it hurts and the hero may vow to do something differently, but not so much that it affects the way the company tells stories.

Batman cannot, say, stop fighting crime to open up rehabilitation centers for former criminals when he realizes his mission is flawed because it doesn’t sell issues. The X-Men can’t go to protests and rallies when their umpteenth member dies because that’s not exciting. But how does this affect “The Avengers”?

Well, the film Iron-Man was the first in the Marvel cinematic universe canon and was a big hit. It featured a playboy billionaire being trapped by a terrorist cell, only to realize he wanted to help more people, instead of hurting them with the weapons his company creates. He begins the movie in one place, and by the end, is at another place entirely. We, as an audience, have watched him grow as a character.

Which is why I was excited for Iron-Man 2. I heard rumors of an adaption of “Demon in a Bottle” where Tony Stark (Iron-Man) battles not with a colorful villain, but with alcoholism. The next step in Tony’s character evolution I thought. Instead, what we got was a half-assed attempt at adapting the story. Tony does drink too much, but it’s played for laughs when he pees inside of his suit. 

Come to find out, Marvel did not like the idea of its poster boy being portrayed as an alcoholic, and fired Jon Favreau, or rather he quit. But “Demon in a Bottle” has and is considered as the quintessential Iron-Man storyline, why would Marvel not go through with it?

The film was, among other things, a huge set up for “The Avengers” and so, with that in mind, it seems that Marvel did not want anything to go wrong with it. So that meant that Tony never went through hell again to face his problem, as they needed the snarky playboy, instead of an actual character.

The same thing happened in “Thor”. Thor’s father, Odin, banishes Thor to Earth, after Thor decides to eradicate an entire race based on the actions of three Frost Giants. 

Seriously. It’s never really touched on, but it was attempted genocide.

Thor is banished because he is haughty, arrogant and spoiled, though powerful. Being on Earth, without powers, will teach Thor humility and to fight for peace instead of war. However, because the film was to help set up the Avengers, Thor spends three days on Earth and actually learns nothing of humility. He may be powerless, but he still kicks more ass than Jackie Chan when he doesn’t want trouble. By the end of the film, he actually didn’t learn anything about being humble, as only THREE DAYS had gone by.

I think it was said best, by someone on the internet no less, that Marvel wanted these films not to be origin stories to show how a hero became that hero, but to set up “The Avengers”, a film sitcom where two dimensional characters fire off one liners and punch a lot bad guys in the face. It’s like “Two and a Half Men” but with super powers. This is the reason why Jon Favreau, Patty Jenkins, Ed Norton all either left their respective projects, or were fired, because Marvel wants moving comic books and not films. 

Marvel began their cinematic universe by taking a risk with a B-List hero that only a few people had heard about and in turn decided that one risk is enough. Now they’re going to ride their train for as long as possible, until we all get sick of it. It’s going to be the situation where they’ll never let us forget that one time where they did something good.  Constantly hoping that we remember it by replicating it over and over until we turn on them.

I hope I’m wrong, I really do. There are so many characters who deserve to be shown to the greater audience, because those are the characters that draw people to the comics. Don’t waste these opportunities simply because you want to cookie cutter your way into relevance.

I am angry at the world.

Not in the sense that you would think. A rebel without a cause, a bad boy with a leather jacket and a penchant for finding myself in awkward and dangerous situations.

No.

I’m angry, much in the same way an old man is angry at the world. He’s seen a lot, been through hell and back, if he’s lucky, and he’s come out the other side. And the one thing he wished he would see before he returns to whatever eternal bliss he thinks he may find is a better world.

A better world.

Sure, he sees the rise of technology, people brought closer together, new medicines are created. The hate that once sat at the bottom of his heart may have gone the way of the dodo thanks to the pills he has to take every couple of hours. To many, it would seem that this world is a better world, and in many respects it is. But in many respects, it isn’t.

The technology is better, the materials, the hardware. But the people are not. Groups who were once hated and beaten and killed, scorn other groups now that they have a taste of what it is liked to be accepted. And to be accepted is to hate. To be accepted is to steal and lie and cheat. We knowingly allow cheaters and liars to stand over us and watch us, because that’s all we know.

We know we can change. We just don’t want to.

And because of that, I’m like an angry old man, watching a world destroy itself slowly, because everyone should be better. We tell ourselves we should be better. He should be better. But he isn’t. And we aren’t.