San Diego Comic-Con had a heckuva third day with panels and shenanigans from both Warners/DC, Fox and Marvel. That sound you heard this morning was me letting out the manliest shriek in the history of the world, just beating out the last time I shrieked like that around the time they announced Joss Whedon as the director of Avengers and brought the whole cast on stage at Comic-Con a few years back.
Because something crazier topped that, and it was the entirety of the Marvel Studios Panel.
Now, I am a big Marvel fan and I loved the first Avengers movie. I read the comics, read all the news sites and check out the forums. So there I was earlier today, my browser open with two tabs devoted to separate live blogs of the Marvel Studios panel and another two keeping an eye on Facebook and Twitter for all the up-to-the-information about the presentation. I had already read about the Warners/DC panel and their Superman/Batman reveal and the Fox/X-Men Movie-verse panel (Magneto and Xavier, times two! Every mutant back! Yes, this, excites me too.) from earlier in the day and had also watched the video of Andrew Garfield-as-Spider-Man on the Sony/Spidey panel so I was sufficiently geeked-up and ready for the big one.
The Marvel presentation got rolling with Tom Hiddleston arriving as Loki doing his thing and showing more new footage from the upcoming Thor: The Dark World (opening later this year). Captain America: The Winter Soldier was next with Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie, Samuel Jackson, Cobie Smulders and the rest of the cast answering questions and delivering their own clip. Then we got to Guardians of the Galaxy where most of the cast of the film including leading man Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Djimon Honsu, and Doctor Who's Amy Williams herself, Karen Gillan, she with the new, bald hairdo. After just ten-plus days of filming, they too had some footage for the lucky fans in Hall H and from what I've read, it was pretty impressive as well. And as they left the stage, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige returned to say that there was one more person there, Avengers director Joss Whedon, and at this point, I was clicking 'refresh' furiously. Whedon then announced the title of the Avengers sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Cue my reaction as described above. Followed by me trying to translate it into semi-coherent tweets and status updates that made use of the 'Caps Lock' and '!' keys.
So what is an 'Ultron' exactly? Well, this is an Ultron:
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Pleasant-looking fellow, isn't he? In the comics, Ultron is an Avengers villain. He was created by founding Avenger Hank Pym (a.k.a. Ant Man/Giant Man/Yellow Jacket) during his experiments to create artificial intelligence. Shortly after Ultron gained sentience, he turned on Pym and set out to rule the world. He is more than a match for any one hero because of his superior intellect and significant technological advantage thus his clashes with the Avengers and other heroes (he's even come up against the individuals who would later become the Guardians of the Galaxy) have been epic in scale. He is easily one of the most devious and dangerous foes the Marvel Universe has ever seen. And he will be coming to the big screen in 2015 with a movie bearing his name in the title.
This one, hefty revelation opens up all sorts of new questions and points to ponder on about the future of Marvel's movie-verse. Here are some:
1. Direct Adaptation
Age of Ultron is already over - the comic that is. The mini-series of the same name by Brian Michael Bendis, Bryan Hitch, Carlos Pacheco, Brandon Peterson and friends just wrapped up this past June. **Spoilers** In the event, the world was taken over by Ultron leaving major cities in ruins and millions dead including many Marvel heroes. The story involved time-travel and alternate timelines/dimensions, as well as starring roles by members of the Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four. **End Spoilers** A direct adaptation of a story with a scope such as this would be hard to do in the world set-up by the previous Marvel movies, not to mention budget constraints, licensing issues and the like. Expect something big, but not too crazy.
2. Will Ultron be Diesel powered?
Recently, actor Vin Diesel has been hinting that after meetings with the Marvel brass, he has a big role to play in the upcoming Avengers sequel. Much of the speculation has Diesel taking on the role of the android Avenger Vision, who coincidentally is a creation of Ultron. Vision was originally created to kill the Avengers but he turned on his master and became one the team's most steadfast members. With the revelation that the sequel will feature Ultron, does this mean Vision will be in it as well with Diesel playing him? Or will Diesel end up playing Ultron himself?
3. Avengers Assemble!
Besides Vision, other rumored new additions to the team include Black Panther, Captain Marvel (formerly Warbird) and the brother-sister tandem of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, the latter of which is the Vision's ex-wife (yes, they got married and everything) in the comics. And as noted above, Ultron was a creation of founding Avenger Hank Pym, Ant Man who has yet to debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but has an upcoming feature with Edgar Wright (director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) at the helm. Does this mean Pym and his partner/wife and fellow-founder Janet Van Dyne (a.k.a. The Wasp) are about to join the other founders (Iron Man, Hulk and Thor) already on the big screen? Sure, for the movies they could easily make it so Tony Stark is the inventor of Ultron, but in the comics the villain's brain patterns were based on Pym's, and a change like this might be messing too much with the fundamentals of the character.
4. Wolverine and Spider-Man, Assemble!
Hugh Jackman wants to do it. Andrew Garfield would like to see it as well. Remember how I said earlier that in the Age of Ultron storyline in the comics, there were other heroes involved, not just the Avengers? Well, Wolverine and Spider-Man had significant roles in the story. Yes, licensing deals with Fox and Sony prevent Marvel from using them in their movies, but what if, as suggested by Jackman, they actually make nice and negotiate a deal on how to get it all done? Spidey, Wolverine and possibly more teaming-up with Iron Man, Captain American, Thor and the rest of the Avengers? Even if it isn't a direct adaptation, a unification of Marvel's heroes would be a coup for the company and its fans. Now that would be truly marvelous.
5. 'Ultron, we would have words with thee.'
Ever since they announced Avengers way back when, I have always wanted Ultron to be the main baddie. Why? Well, as mentioned above, he is one of their main adversaries. And in one of their battles, this happened:
Oomph. The storyline, Ultron Unlimited by Kurt Busiek, George Perez and others, produced one of the greatest Avengers moments ever. The cartoon, Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes has a version of this (skip to the 3:35 mark), but can you imagine that in live-action? Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps. My perfect teaser trailer for the movie would just be audio of that one line. It would be glorious.
It's an amazing thing, what Marvel has done over these past few years. They've made their fans' dreams come true. And with Avengers: Age of Ultron, they continue to do so. The title is the only thing that is 100% set in stone, but as the saying goes, it's the journey not the destination. I'm looking forward to all of the guessing, speculating and wishing we're going to do, and the slow, patient realization of this and the rest of Marvel's movie slate. Excelsior!
**If you want to read the recaps of the SDCC panels, you can visit sites like Newsarama, Comic Book Resources and io9, as well as Marvel's own site. The men and women there do great work!
***Read comics!
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