Iron Man vs. Thor

[wingsandsword]

Depending how closely they adhere to the comics, the Tesseract is not Asgardian technology. It is a renamed "Cosmic Cube" - renamed to avoid the cheese factor, I assume.

In the Marvel universe, several civilizations have created Cosmic Cubes. AIM (of Red Skull fame) made one by accident. The Skrulls (the Chitauri of the movie are the Ultimates-line version of Skrulls) also made one, as did others - Asgard notably *not* having made one in the main continuity.

I know the Tesseract is a Cosmic Cube, but in this continuity it seems to be of Asgardian origin. Besides Thor and Loki treating it as such, the Red Skull in Captain America referred to it as "The Jewel of Odin's Treasure Room", so if it's not Asgardian in creation, it is apparently believed to at least previously belonged to them and they are how it got to Earth.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to be a blend of Ultimates and main Marvel continuities mostly, with a few new elements thrown in here and there. Sometimes because one sounds more cool or would look better on screen, sometimes for legal purposes.

For example, Marvel can't have the Skrull appear in one of their movies. The movie rights to the Skrulls are tied up with the Fantasic Four, which along with Spider Man are the two big-name Marvel licenses they don't have in-house anymore. However, they didn't license away the Chitauri version, so Chitauri replace Skrulls in the Cinematic continuity

I don't think they are letting themselves be tied down by any prior comic continuity. It's probably best to treat it as a separate world in the multiverse. Mainstream Marvel may be Earth 616, Ultimate Marvel may be Earth 1610, we don't know the number for Cinematic Marvel.

 

[Nellisir]

The movie rights to the Skrulls are tied up with the Fantasic Four, which along with Spider Man are the two big-name Marvel licenses they don't have in-house anymore.

Did they get the X-Men back?

 

[Razjah]

Most of the fights went about how I expected them. I really enjoyed Captain America's reply to Thor being a god, "There's only one god, Ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

In general, I thought there was a great deal of characterization in the fights-a lot more than most Hollywood films seem to have.

 

[Bullgrit]

To answer myself:

I have no problems with any of the movie -- loved every minute of it -- including the individual fights. (Just bought the DVD last night.)

Iron Man vs. Thor -- I would have said Iron Man could not stand up long toe-to-toe against Thor, especially with his hammer. But with Thor's lightning over-charging Stark's armor to 400%, yeah that helped even things up. Plus, at the end, the armor was visibly damaged, but Thor wasn't even winded. If Cap hadn't ended the lunacy, I think Iron Man would have lost just from attrition.

Captain America vs. Loki -- I would have said Cap should have fought better, really showing up Loki (a trickster, not really a fighter). Loki wouldn't have gone down, just due to his Asgardian endurance, but Cap should have outfought him and kept him pressed till Iron Man showed up. I think Iron Man showing up should have been more like a tie breaker than as the cavalry.

Hulk vs. Loki -- Yeah, that was good.

As for combining the physically weaker heroes with the physically powerful heroes, I think Whedon handled it well. For instance, no other hero could have successfully interrogated Loki like Black Widow managed.

Bullgrit

 

[Cor Azer]

Did they get the X-Men back?

While certainly not authorative, this implies no.

 

[Nellisir]

While certainly not authorative, this implies no.

I hadn't heard anything that implied that the X-Men rights had reverted, and I think it'd be pretty big news (Wolverine in next Avengers!). So....

 

[Someone]

The movie was quite well done (the third act was imo masterfully scripted and directed)

(What I couldn't help thinking was where the hell were Spiderman, the fantastic 4, Daredevil, and the Punisher. And I'm sure I missed a couple hundred other NY based superheroes or so.)

 

[Orius]

And the Hulk vs. Loki . . . "fight"?

That was one of my favorite scenes.

It's probably also why Loki couldn't Charm Person (or whatever) Tony, interference from the reactor (again hinted at the little "tink" sound when Loki tried to charm Stark)

That finished off another good scene -- particularly Stark's false-sympathetic crack about "performance issues".

 

[the Jester]

First off, I loved Avengers- I thought it was pretty near to the Platonic ideal of a superhero team movie.

The match ups were great. I was amazed at how many they included without taking up half the movie. I thought they were all about right.

 

[Baron Opal]

I thought that the fight between Cap and Thor ended exactly right.