Who
will be included in an Avengers big screen movie? It is difficult to tell
at this point . . .
However bloating the membership to more than five or
six members (and believe me – they were usually much more in the
comics!) will mean that the storyline might lose focus and some popular
characters be given short shrift, something which jinxed the
X-Men movies to a degree. (On a personal
note, we would like to see the Scarlet Witch included in the line-up, but
that is just because we’d like to see that yummy costume on the big screen
– hubba, hubba!)
Whatever tack a movie version of The Avengers
might take, one hopes that screenwriter Penn will at least steal a few
plot ideas and concepts from Mark Millar’s Ultimates comic book
series even it does mean having to pay the comic book writer some
extra royalties or giving him a writer’s credit. (Come on! It’ll be worth
it!)
First appearing in March 2002 as part of Marvel’s
“Ultimate” imprint – a re-invention of Marvel’s superhero characters
within a more “adult” environment free of any previous back stories and
continuity – The Ultimates are basically The Avengers retold within
a contemporary setting. The line-up features Iron Man, Giant-Man, the
Wasp, the Hulk, Captain America and Thor. Here they are bandied together
under the tutelage of SHIELD’s General Nick Fury making them government
operatives unlike the private sector-funded Avengers of the comics of old.
George W. is president of the U.S. and issues such as “homeland security”
are the order of the day – just as they are in real-life post-9/11
America.
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"Hulk wants Freddie Prinze Junior!" |
Millar’s Ultimates boasts several neat
ideas and has a very cinematic feel to it which makes it ripe for
plunder. Unsurprisingly the series have already formed the basis for two
recent direct-to-DVD animated Avengers movies. Millar’s
Ultimates is however also very dark and cynical – which is why the DVD
adaptations of the material turned out to be more “kiddie-friendly” than
hard-core fans would have liked. And which is also why the fans of Millar’s take on
The Avengers
shouldn't exactly hold their breath for a faithful movie adaptation of his comics.
So what’s the problem with Millar’s revisionist vision? For
starters, Millar’s heroes are much less heroic than one would expect of a
big screen Hollywood superhero movie. Giant-Man for instance is portrayed
as a Prozac-popping wife-beater. Bruce Banner, the Hulk’s alter ego, is a
wimpy passive aggressive nerd. When he finally “Hulks out” the Hulk is a sex-crazed
raging maniac. “Hulk’s gonna get you no matter who they send, Betty!” he
tells Banner’s fleeing girlfriend, here depicted as an alpha female PR
agent. “Hulk hornier than a – ” (Our favorite line in the entire book?
“Hulk wants Freddie Prinze Junior!”)
The
most interesting take on the characters though have to be Thor as a
Seattle 1999-era anti-globalism, neo-hippie type. Yup, you read that
right. When first asked to join The Ultimates, he refuses. “Oh, it
matters not whether you are wearing capes or combat boots, little man. You
are all just thugs in uniform who will smash any threat to a corrupt
status quo.”
When one thinks about it, some of Millar’s ideas have
already been used for the big screen. Nick Fury of SHIELD is portrayed as
a Samuel L. Jackson look-alike in The Ultimates (remember this was in
2002), the actor who actually plays the character in the
Iron Man movie. In the comics Fury was of
course a White cigar-chewing hard ass with a permanent five o’clock
shadow. By the way, in one of the most monumentally bad miscasting off all
time Fury was played by David Hasselhoff (no, really) in a very
bad 1998 made-for-TV movie . . .
But the point is that Millar’s take is too cynical and
dark for what will be a summer blockbuster. It is simply too family
unfriendly. The Wasp for instance in one scene distracts the Hulk by
flashing her boobs at him – see if that ever makes its way to a
multi-million dollar movie! Still, there are loads of good
ideas to be found in The Ultimates such as a fantastic-looking WWII
assault led by Captain America to prevent the Nazis from launching a nuke
at the White House. (Something which should at least make its way into any
Captain America solo movie then.)
Any Hollywood scriptwriters would ignore Millar’s
version at their own peril. You reading this, mister Penn?
