Geez, you go away on business for a couple of days and Marvel have the indecency to release a fully fledged teaser trailer for possibly the most anticipated comic book movie of all time; The Avengers. SO please watch the trailer and then join me after the jump for a Sidekick's view:

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There have been some truly awful Thors over the years. In researching this column (yes, I do research. It involves watching a lot of cartoons) I was reminded of how difficult it can be to bring a character like Thor to the screen. Things that work well in the comics, such as his faux Shakespearian dialect or his long, girly hair, just don’t really translate that well unless done properly. You either have to go all the way, and adapt the comic character as is (will only work in animation), or you have to make some pretty drastic changes somewhere.

To pick a prime example, check out Eric Allan Kramer’s awful turn in nineteen eighty-eight’s The Incredible Hulk Returns. While the original Hulk TV series was absolutely brilliant, Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno’s return to our screens in several low budget TV movies left a lot to be desired. Of the three, and opinions are divided, but in this writer’s opinion, this first one was the worst. Yes, The Trial of the Incredible Hulk featured a completely uninspired version Daredevil, but the Thor who showed up in Returns, and had his ass handed to him by the Hulk, was, at best, a one note joke. An Asgardian warrior who relished battle, women and drink. There was no nobility to the character, and he was incredibly difficult to sympathise with. He also looked bloody stupid.

So, as with last week’s look at Iron Man, we’re faced with a dilemma. There are few truly great Thors, and not a whole lot of good ones to choose from either. Still, I did manage to find five who, at the very least, could be considered adequate. Four of the men on this list deserve their places. This first guy though, I’ll admit, is mostly there to fill out the numbers...

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So I'm guessing Thor isn't going to make it through Fear Itself if there's a new Thunder God in town taking over from the norse goldilockes in The Mighty Thor #8. Thanks for the spoilers Marvel, well in all fairness there is a preview in the back of Fear Itself that suggests as much. So who exactly is this Vigo the Carpathian looking pretender to the crown? From the very limited research I have done, I can use google, the information after the jump could be considered even more spoilerific...or not, proceed at your own peril.

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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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Somewhere in the dark and nasty regions, where nobody goes, stands an ancient castle. Deep within this dank, and uninviting place, lives Bumchin “Allo!”, overworked servant of "the thing upstairs" “Bumchin! Write a Review!” But that's nothing, compared to the horrors that lurk beneath the trap door, for there is always something down there, in the dark, waiting to come out...(usually its Dan)

So this week I’ve decided to review some of the Ultimate storylines from Marvel. I thought it was appropriate with all the news surrounding the “Death of (Ultimate) Spider-man”.

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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.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=31051

In an interview with Empire magazine whilst at Cannes film festival, Stellan Skarsgard let slip that the now standard post-credit sequence in Thor was actually directed by upcoming Avengers director, Joss Whedon.

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Day three in our set of FCBD reviews and today we're taking a look at one of Marvel's books; Captain America/Thor: The Mighty Fighting Avengers. Much like yesterday's story in Super Dinosaur this tale is listed as 'Great For All Ages', although right off the bat the Marvel book seems to fit the classification in a much more satisfying fashion.

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Expectation seems to be everything with the new Thor movie. Whether it be the expectation of what has come before (Iron Man, Hulk) or what's next (Captain America or the Avengers Uber-movie). That being said, although Thor can be seen as bridging some gaps in the cannon continuity of the new Marvel-Film Universe(lets ignore Hulk for now), it comes alive by just being it's own thing.

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