The Infinity Stone Podcast continues its journey through the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the end of Phase One, 2012’s The Avengers. Watch or listen along to our discussion of the biggest movie team of… that time
Watch along with Andy and Matt as they discuss (time stamps for video. Audio might be off by a minute or so):
- A visit from Hawkeye [1:52]
- How much we still love this movie. [4:22]
- It’s unique place in movie history, combining four franchises into one.
- A deep dive into The Battle of New York. [16:30]
- How The Avengers handled a cast of 8 main characters.
- Best sequences. [35:25]
- Flaws… are there any worth discussing?
- The Avengers trivia. [48:37]
- The Big Idea: starting with Thor and highlighted by this movie, a Marvel Studios hallmark has been their embrace of unambashed heroism. We’ll discuss what these means for these movies and if that ethos works. [53:43]
- Ranking the Phase One films of the MCU. [1:01:57]
- A call for feedback.
- Credits [1:11:24]
You can listen to the audio version of the podcast here:
The Infinity Stone Podcast – Episode 4: The Avengers
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Next Episode:
Tune in next week as we begin Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World.
The Infinity Stone Podcast 
I’m enjoying the podcast. I usually listen while I’m driving in my car, and through the link here and it works fine. I just enjoy listening to your thoughts on a bunch of movies that I enjoy and The Incredible Hulk.
When I first saw Avengers, it made me feel like I was 4 years old and watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. Start to finish, it just hit all the right buttons and was a great action movie. It is a perfect summer blockbuster movie. My enthusiasm for it has lessened ever so slightly, not through any fault of its own, but simply because there are other movies in the MCU coming down the pike that I like even more than this.
My rankings for Phase One:
1. Avengers
2. Thor
3. Captain America
4. Iron Man
5. Iron Man 2
6. Incredible Hulk
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Like I said before, The Avengers was the only movie I watched from MCU before this project and I believe it was 3 or 4 years ago due to all the acclaim it had (and I believe I watched it 2 times). At the time I liked it, but maybe I was a little underwhelmed because I expected something OTHERWORLDLY, plus with me not really being a movie guy, and not watching and reading that much of anything Marvel related, I wasn’t able to appreciate it for many incredible things it has managed to do (which you’ve pointed out in the podcast). But after rewatching this movie having seen the previous MCU films, it made me really appreciate this movie for being so well done and being able to combine previous films’ lead up to this. Plus of course it was incredibly entertaining from start to finish, but everyone knows that. But with me having seen this movie first, I do have to say that it does manage to stand completely by itself and manages to have a clear plot, while I do think that watching at least half of the previous movies definetely expands the experience. Overall a great movie and I can’t wait to continue this great adventure we are having.
I think the podcast is great. I’m always watching the video version on YouTube. I think the only gripe I had for this whole project was I felt that the “highlight” videos after the first week were unnecessary, but you’ve removed them this week, so you’ve fixed that. As of what you could talk about, I don’t know if I have any ideas at the moment. The only thing I can think of is maybe say what’s your favorite comic(s) of the main character from the movie(s) you are talking about that certain week. I personally am thinking about maybe picking up some well regarded comics in the future so any recommendations would be great (probably in the further future but still).
And my updated rankings are:
1.The Avengers
2.Iron Man
3.Thor
4.Captain America: The First Soldier
5.Iron Man 2
6.The Incredible Hulk
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Yeah, the highlight videos were an attempt to show people that we were doing some things that were more video specific than just audio. But no one was watching them and timestamps accomplish the same goal.
I thought about doing comic recommendations, but the issue would be that Matt & I’s experience with books of these characters are limited. But here’s what I (Andy) got:
Iron Man
-“Demon in a Bottle” is the classic 80s Iron Man story. I have it and have read it, but barely remember it.
–The Invincible Iron Man: Iron Heart Vol 1: “Riri Williams” – a new Iron Man(?) is needed as Tony Stark is in a coma. Enter 15-year-old super genius Riri Williams. Just started reading this series with my older son (we’re on issue 9) and we love it. We’re big on the newer generation of Marvel heroes (Riri, Kamala Khan, Miles Morales, Sam Alexander, Lunella Lafayette, etc).
Thor
-The classic 80s run of Walter Simonson is the defining arc of the character and I just finished reading it. It covers The Mighty Thor (vol 1) #337-382 and is as great as everyone says it is (if you are accustomed to the older style of comics’ writing). I put Matt on to the first couple of volumes of this run and he agrees.
–Thor: The Might Avenger an all ages title by Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee retelling his arrival on Earth and his budding romance with Jane Foster. So much fun. So heartbreaking that it only lasted 8 issues. If you liked the charming, fish out of water take from the movie, you’ll dig this series.
–Thor Vol 4 & Mighty Thor Vol 2. The Odinson is rendered unworthy of Mjolnir and a new Thor takes his place. Many are unhappy that this new Thor is a woman. I’m reading this series now and loving it. “The Goddess of Thunder” trade is a good jumping on point.
Captain America
-I liked “The Winter Soldier” story by Ed Brubaker. Shares themes with the movie we’ll be watching soon while still being its own thing.
Hulk
-Never really read much Hulk. “Planet Hulk” is often regarded as his best. I might read it this year.
Avengers
-For a classic story, I liked “Under Siege” by Roger Stern and Sal Buscema.
-For something more modern, I liked Kelly Sue DeConnick’s run on Avengers: Assemble. At least until it was derailed by company-wide crossovers.
What does everyone else think? Any other recommendations? Anyone want to echo these sentiments?
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I can vouch for Planet Hulk. Fantastic story. It’s follow-up, World War Hulk, is decent, but something of a letdown compared to PH.
I mostly read the X-Men and G.I. Joe as a kid so my knowledge on the other titles is more than a little lacking. There’s an issue of Avengers during the Inferno event (I think?) where Jarvis (human butler in the comics) gets to have an adventure and save the day and the girl that’s entertaining. And then there’s Avengers Disassembled, which kicked off Brian Michael Bendis’s run on what would become New Avengers with him taking an atom bomb to the series (figuratively, but…kind of very nearly literally?), but I wouldn’t exactly recommend it as a starting point.
Also, no mention of the newer generation of Marvel characters would be complete without considering Goldballs.
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Thanks for recommendations! Like I said, there is no way I will get to any comics in the near future, but it’s good to have some starting place, and I will get back to this comment when I will have time and motivation to pick some up.
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Cap: What, no Capwolf recommendation?
Hulk: I never read it but I’ve always heard people recommend the Peter David run.
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Peter David’s X-Factor run(s) is(are) also good, as is his work on The Dark Tower. I like his writing style.
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PD’s X-Factor issue where the whole team goes to therapy (separately) with Doc Samson may be his best X-Factor issue, maybe one of the best single-issue comics I’ve ever read.
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This is the best MCU movie so far. There’s very little I could add that wasn’t already mentioned on the podcast to praise it. All 4 of the heroes (plus Black Widow) already introduced get sufficient (equal?) time here and none of them feel out of place. Even though Thor is the most involved in the plot since it’s his brother that’s the villain, he feels like a late addition to the story compared to the others since he doesn’t appear in the movie until after Cap, Tony, Banner and Natasha have interacted.
I guess the biggest problem with the film is how Hawkeye is treated. It’s no secret Jeremy Renner was not happy with this film since he spends over 3/5 of it mind controlled and acting like a villain. He’s a good guy for the first ~5 minutes, but he doesn’t interact with any of the other Avengers before he’s turned, so by the time he is cured (around 1h30m), the other 5 Avengers have met, interacted and bonded; Hawkeye is like the new guy joining a group of friends who have already known each other for years (except for Natasha, who he already knows and is the one trying to convince the group to let him join). As far as the Avengers know, Barton is just “some guy” who’s tagging along on the final mission. Cap’s first interaction with him is when he goes to tell Natasha they’re heading for NY and asks if either of them can fly a Quinjet. None of them (except Natasha) have ever fought with him and don’t know what he’s like. It’s no surprise that Barton gets such a bigger role in A2, and the line about not liking mind control.
Another (very) minor problem is that the film tells us that Loki allowed himself to get captured in order to set off the Hulk. But it also seems that maybe he did it to turn the team against each other by affecting them with the spear, but I’m not sure if that’s what’s actually happening. When they’re all in the same room arguing, the camera angles seem to imply that they are being affected by “something”, culminating with Banner picking up the spear without realizing it, like it’s turning them all against each other, with Banner about to take the spear and attack them (as Banner not as the Hulk). But then Hawkeye and Loki’s goons invade the Hellicarrier, so really did Loki have to let himself get captured at all? Couldn’t he have just sent Hawkeye and the goons to do the damage they did? Banner still would have turned into the Hulk and wrecked havok; the only difference is that Thor got kicked off the Hellicarrier, and Coulson was killed, and I don’t think either of those were Loki’s goals when letting himself get captured.
Still, minor quibbles. This film is entirely rewatchable and enjoyable.
p.s. I watch these on YouTube. Keep doing the podcast end/post-credit scenes.
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Yeah, the “Loki is causing the Avengers to fight amongst themselves” concept, if that is in fact what’s happening in that scene, never quite lands right, especially on repeat viewings. I’m still not 100% what is supposed to be happening there. But ultimately the movie kind of just glides past that point and it’s like que sera, sera.
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I always knew that Loki was the villain that brought the original team together in the comics but I never knew the story. I just skimmed the summary on the Marvel Wiki and it involves Loki using illusions and trickery to convince other heroes that Hulk is on the rampage and tried to crash a moving train (when he actually saved it from crashing). So I guess the film might be paying homage to that part of the story by having Loki’s plan be to turn everyone against the Hulk, but it doesn’t sound like the comic involves him turning the heroes against each other. I guess it was just a part of the film that never fully manifested itself, a plot point that was given up on …
… like the blonde waitress that keeps getting screen-time during the final battle, and who tells the camera “Captain America saved my life.” If they were going to remove the subplot of Steve getting to know her in the start of the film, they should have removed the repeated shots of her in the battle because before I heard about this abandoned subplot I was wondering “Who is this woman and why are we focusing on her so much, especially when she sees Cap without his mask on?”
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I never knew that about the waitress, I just recognized her as Chrissy Seaver from Growing Pains.
That’s kind of like when in The Goonies, at the end of the movie they start talking about the scary octopus that got cut from earlier in the film.
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I’m very much enjoying the podcast, and it reflects exactly the level of fandom where I am — deeply enjoying the movies, but not at all invested in the comics. In general, I don’t really enjoy reading comics. I feel like my brain wants to move at a different pace, if that makes sense, and I don’t really “soak in” each frame because I’m too eager for the story to continue.
Anyways, I don’t usually wind up having something deep to say in comments (and dare I say, I kinda miss disqus?) but I find myself having thoughts WHILE listening where I definitely would have piped in had I been in the room. Unfortunately, I don’t really get a chance to listen right away, so I usually don’t get to it until the next week when the kids are back in camp.
Although I will say, I’m starting to wonder if I should try watching some of these movies with my 8YO. Not a comics reader at all (unless you count these “Jedi Academy” graphic novels she was reading), but she loves Star Wars & Harry Potter (up to book 3, I won’t let her read 4). She saw Wonder Woman and liked it, but needed a lot of explaining. I’ll bet she’d do pretty well with Captain American and Thor since they are somewhat traditional hero-quest stories, but Iron Man might be a bit too adult for her in that regard. (Don’t mind me, thinking aloud…)
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My Rankings of Phase 1:
1) Avengers
2) Captain America
3) Thor
4) Iron Man
5) Iron Man 2
6) Hulk
Does that match Andy exactly? I’m too lazy to listen to the podcast again and find out 😛
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It does. So it must be right.
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Lemme know if you want any comic recommendations for your daughter.
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