The latest Marvel Studios film, Captain America: The First Avenger, has been out in the UK now for just over a week. It’s doing quite well at the box office, and has had, for the most part, some pretty solid reviews. But among the film going fans, be they comic geeks or not, opinions seem to be a little divided. Not in an extreme manner, we’re not talking huge arguments between those who loved it and those who hated it. But whereas there seem to be widely agreed upon opinions on the previous films in the Avengers franchise, there appear to be two differing groups when it comes to Cap. You have those who loved it (which includes myself, who actually holds it up as the best Marvel Studios film to date), and those whose opinion is best described as “It was okay. I liked it, didn’t love it.”

Like I say, it’s not like there are any massive differences, but it did get me thinking. There’s no such thing as a universally held opinion. You’ll always find someone who disagrees with you. But a quick poll of the other Avengers films should yield the following results, generally speaking: Iron Man is awesome, and a great start to Marvel’s shared film universe. The Incredible Hulk is dumb, but fun. Iron Man 2 is hugely flawed, too much of a set up, yet also quite likeable. Thor is a spectacular blend of superheroes with epic fantasy and some Shakespeare thrown in for good measure.

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Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a 90lb weakling from Brooklyn who wants nothing more that to fight for his country in WW2. Unfortunately, he’s a 90lb weakling, which is not exactly a quality high on the list of your average Army recruiter. However, what he lacks in brawn, he more than makes up for in fight and spirit, which is what catches the eye of Emile Erskine (Stanley Tucci), an enigmatic German scientist with a Super-Soldier serum that should be right up Steve’s alley. It is a resounding success, but while Steve is put to work as a USO sideshow, selling war bonds and socking “Hitler” in the jaw up and down the Eastern seaboard, Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) and his ultra-Nazi offshoot Hydra are harnessing the power of an ancient artefact with an aim to make Hitler’s plans for world domination look positively anaemic. A punch-up between the two seems more than inevitable.

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Link: http://marvel.com/news/story/16183/tuesday_qa_marc_andreyko

I feel bad, I feel like I've abandoned a long standing friend. I didn't even know that Captain America was changing it's name to Captain America & Bucky, I left the book disillusioned and disinterested after the Retrun of Capatin America storyline. Now this press release lands on my desk and suddenly I'm back, interested and ready to go another 12 rounds with Cap's plucky but deadly sidekick. You see, that's the draw for me, Bucky. Ed Brubaker has revived the character of Bucky into someone I not only care about but I'm infinitely interested in his retconned backstory, even though it's all history or not as the case may be. Brubaker is skilled in telling Bucky's history in such a way that it not only informs how we see the character now but also adds darker layers to a hero who not only stands next to Cap, he was Cap.

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So here it is, your first look at the movie version of The Avengers. Underwhelmed? I know I am.

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Link: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/45326

You scamble around looking for any kind of hint of what superheroes' costumes are going to look like in their upcoming movie adaptations and then two come along at once. This first one (above) is obviously from Captain America: The First Avenger, if you go over to AintitCool they've got even more renderings showing old wing head in various poses and Bleeding Cool have got the comic book covers those poses were 'swiped' from. On the subject of wings, I notice this Cap costume is sans wings on the head piece, the angry fanboy in me is crying out that this is an abomination but then the realistic non-crazy side of me bitch slaps that fanboy and tells him to stop being a fool (is it me or is this post getting a little worrying?!). I like the straps and the utility belt, he's a soldier and these touches make him look like someone ready to go to war. I imagine the shoulder straps are for the shield but as I've just finished Band of Brothers there's a part of me that hopes they're from his parachute after just dropping into Nazi-occupied France with Easy Company. As for the shield it looks pretty spot on when compared to the comic book version but after the sneak peak we got inIron Man 2 we'd already guessed that was going to be the case.

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