The Greatest Avengers Story I Ever Read

Blog Post #18

I wrote the below review about the trade paperback and added my filmmaker's opinion about how we can see an adaptation!

Avengers: Under Siege by Roger Stern
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Way back when these were originally published (1986-1987) I read the original printing of these issues Avengers #270-277-- written by Roger Stern and illustrated by John Buscema and Tom Palmer.

I had been reading the Avengers for about six months when this storyline came up and I thought it was one of the best comic book stories I have ever read. I guess Marvel Comics did too and published this storyline in this trade paperback.

Led by Baron Zemo, the newly formed Masters of Evil formulated a plan to not only defeat the Avengers, but completely decimate them.

The Avengers line-up at the time of the siege was:
Captain America
Captain Marvel
Black Knight
Hercules
Wasp

Joining later was:
Thor
Doctor Druid

The Masters of Evil were:
Baron Helmut Zemo
Absorbing Man
Blackout
Black Mamba
Fixer
Goliath
Grey Gargoyle
Mister Hyde
Moonstone
Screaming Mimi
Tiger Shark
Titania
Whirlwind
Yellowjacket

The Wrecking Crew
    Bulldozer
    Piledriver
   Thunderball
   Wrecker

The panel from the Avengers book that introduces the Masters of Evil

As you can see the numbers were stacked against the Avengers and The Masters of Evil took on the Avengers piece by piece. Just when you thought there was no way the Avengers could survive…well you have to read the book, but everything in the end was not a happy ending.

Ultimately though it was a great storyline filled with action and plot twists and as Oliver Sava, A.V.Club.com put it "Roger Stern and John Buscema's 1986 story arc 'Under Siege' finds Avengers Mansion under attack by a new Masters of Evil, leading to one of the purest superhero-vs.-supervillain team fights ever put on the page.”

FILMMAKERS OPINION
As stated this was one of the greatest superhero/supervillain battles ever and of course given the success of the Avengers movie (2012) this would make a great follow-up…but it’s just too expensive to ever make into a live action film.

The fights in the book were awesome and bombastic and possibly could be filmed, but the amount of characters, heroes and villains would just be too much.

I think for an ANIMATED film it could be a great adaptation.


*You can read this story yourself in the trade paperback "Avengers: Under Siege". Look for it at your library or book retailer.

RELATED:
Another Cool Black's Mad Meditation "Ranking the Solo Avengers Movies" click the graphic below to read it!


View all my BOOK reviews

Marvel Movies: Phase Two and Beyond

Blog Post #17

In April 2005 Marvel Studios launched a plan on developing all of the solo Avengers in their own pictures to eventually “assemble” them in one film, The Avengers in what they are now calling "Phase One" ( I ranked them all in a previous post here)

In order of release:
1. Iron Man (May 2, 2008)
2. The Incredible Hulk (June 13, 2008)
3. Iron Man 2 (May 7, 2010)
4. Thor (May 6, 2011)
5. Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22, 2011)

The Avengers (May 4, 2012) 

______________________________________

Phase Two will begin with Iron Man 3 (May 3, 2013)

THEN

THEN

THEN

THEN CULMINATING IN

Scheduled for May 1, 2015

________________________________________________

Phase Three reportedly will start with 

Scheduled for November 6, 2015

Ranking the Solo Avengers Movies

Blog Post #9

Before this year’s release of The Avengers on May 4, 2012 there were FIVE solo Avengers pictures and I must say first and foremost that I liked ALL of the solo pics. I definitely have my favorites and because I KNOW you want to know, I will rank them from least to best.

5. Iron Man 2 (2010) I'm not one of those people who didn't like IM2. I thought it was good and fun. I also personally didn't miss Terence Howard at all. I thought Don Cheadle slid right into the role, vacated by Howard, with great chemistry with Robert Downey Jr. Mickey Rourke was a cool villain, but Sam Rockwell was a riot! The ending climax felt a little short, but it was cool. Again a lot of people didn’t like IM2, but I did.

4. I liked Thor (2011) a lot too. The Asgard scenes were fantastic and Tom Hiddleston as Loki was the perfect villain. The stuff on Earth was fun and a nice intro of Thor to Earth. The end was kind of anti climatic as what we got what was essentially a robot blowing up a one horse town. It was all a nice origin story and prequel to Avengers as was intended.

3. I wasn't expecting much from The Incredible Hulk (2008). Like pretty much…everyone I didn’t like the last time the Hulk was on the big screen (2003’s Hulk) and I went to see it because nothing else new was out at the time and I thought why not. This picture far exceeded my expectations and was really good. Instead of the bloated drama of 2003’s Hulk we got a Hulk who had a worthy adversary and the end? It could have been called ‘Hell Up In Harlem 2’ because it was badass! We finally got what were looking for in a Hulk picture, “Hulk Smash!”. The fight at the end was truly awesome and ended the picture on a high note. Almost made it my number two solo Avengers pic and still may upon further viewing.

2. When I heard that Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) would be set in the past I thought *YAWN* I'll wait until he catches up to the future, but I was pleasantly surprised. They took what was essentially an origin story and infused it with good ole fashioned nostalgia and action. The movie was a little long, but they had a lot of story to tell and in the end I thought they told it well. This movie had the most heart of all the solo Avengers pics and you could really feel for Steve Rogers before and after he turned into Captain America through this underdog piece. Another nice prequel to Avengers and a great introduction to the leader of the Avengers.

1. Iron Man (2008) I’ll join the consensus and say that THIS is the best Avengers solo pic. I just finished re-watching it and it is everything that you expect an origin story to be. Jeff Bridges was a really great villain and of course Robert Downey Jr. did a wonderful job at creating an intriguing character that would start off the whole Avengers franchise.

The Avengers panorama poster released by Marvel at Comic-Con 2011

I want to give props to Marvel Studios who announced plans to develop The Avengers in April 2005 with this plan on developing all of the solo Avengers in their own pictures to eventually “assemble” them in one film.

In order of release:
1. Iron Man (May 2, 2008)
2. The Incredible Hulk (June 13, 2008)
3. Iron Man 2 (May 7, 2010)
4. Thor (May 6, 2011)
5. Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22, 2011)

So far the Avengers is a great franchise with SIX pictures (including this year’s The Avengers) that are all enjoyable and great. Marvel Studio’s plan was an ambitious idea to say the least, but a plan I think has succeeded! In the words of Marvel Comic's founder Stan Lee, “Excelsior!”

2016 UPDATE
November 7, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter

Doctor Strange opened to a far better-than-expected $85 million in North America over the weekend, despite featuring a lesser-known superhero in Stephen Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. And overseas, where the pic began rolling out less than two weeks ago, the Marvel Studios and Disney movie has earned $240.4 million for a rowdy 13-day global haul of $325 million.

RELATED
The Greatest Avengers Story I Ever Read


Additional Links
CLICK the movie posters above to check out the Wikipedia page for that film.