Before we went to see The Avengers: Age of Ultron, I had some homework to do. Ahead of seeing a new comic book film, Luke usually gives me a bit of a background from the source material, but I still tend to come out of the cinema with the questions, either because the film wasn’t faithful to the source material or something was included for fan boys/girls but not explained for the uninitiated. So, as my maternity leave came to an end and my bus journey to work totaled three hours a day, I was armed to the teeth with Avengers books!
It proved to be great research for what comes next too, as the third Captain America film is based on Civil War – one of my favourites of the selection. I want to keep this post spoiler-free for those who haven’t yet seen Age of Ultron and don’t know much about Civil War, so if it’s more info on the storylines that you’re after, I really do recommend picking up these books.
Because the Marvel universe is so huge there are loads more characters in the comics compared to the films, with the X-Men, Fantastic Four and more popping up as Avengers, as well as other superheroes who haven’t been mentioned in the current Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Plus some of the characters that you know and love from previous cinematic outings may seem to have undergone personality transplants, such as Nicky Fury and Reed Richards. If, like me, you started out with the films, you might have more questions about what took place before these books – a big question for Luke as these stories originated decades ago. I had more than a few queries about Norman Osborn.
I was surprised that I found myself getting emotionally invested in ‘new’ characters, having assumed that I’d just be interested in finding out more about those I’ve been watching on the big screen. I’d previously read a few Black Widow stories which I really got into (Luke has a subscription where every month he receives a couple of hardback collections of various character arcs – great homework!) and I’m keen to continue my education. A chap called Luke Cage and his wife, Jessica Jones, came up, who I knew virtually nothing about before and wanted to know more. Luckily, we have a massive Avengers character guide too, so I was able to find out a bit more about their backgrounds after jumping straight into the middle of the story.
The best bit was the divide between The Avengers themselves in the Civil War storyline, which was sort of hinted at with Tony Stark’s creation of Ultron in Whedon’s second Avengers film. I’m interested to see how the changing relationship between Iron Man and Captain America play out on the big screen.
Ooh, sidebar: I also read The Dark Knight Returns after seeing the Dawn Of Justice trailer and not being able to answer friends’ questions – I was very disappointed in myself! I was originally really excited to see the film after hearing that Ben Affleck was cast as Batman (I think he’s hugely under-appreciated) and now I’m even more keen. I might have to do a bit more Justice League reading beforehand though. I’m so into the Flash and Arrow TV shows that I might need to add them to my reading list – I was especially confused to see an old Oliver Queen pop up at the end of that book! Must read more!