Avengers Super Heroes: On Screen Since 19440

Written by Parveen Maghera

For over 70 years, Marvel Studios has undoubt­edly pro­duced and devel­oped its char­ac­ters with great enthu­si­asm and dis­tinc­tive­ness, of which I must say, should take pride and dig­nity of its work and show­cases. With over 5000 char­ac­ters in its library, Marvel has never failed to bring to us a com­plete pack­age of ulti­mate super­heroes, which have made it to the big screens since 1944.

The Avengers super­heroes, in par­tic­u­lar, have exhib­ited their spell-binding per­son­al­i­ties on-screen for decades, some of which have relived the comic series while oth­ers brought in a brand new plot.

Take Captain America for a start. In his first appear­ance as a film char­ac­ter in the 1944 black and white film series, which com­prised of 15 chap­ters worth of 244 min­utes, the world began to antic­i­pate the real action they have always been imag­in­ing through his col­lec­tion of comics. However, the por­trayal of Captain America in the series was a far cry from that. As the audi­ence expected a real life Army Private Steve Rogers, blast­ing through World War II with his mighty physique against the “Axis Agents, 5^th Column Sabateurs and sol­diers from Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan”, what they received was a District Attorney Grant Gardner, with a .38 cal­i­bre pistol.

Nevertheless, it received a 6.7 star rat­ing which is indeed, not bad at all. Dirk Purcell, who starred as Captain America, man­aged to pull it off well despite being average-sized. The role brought a whole lot of fame to him; after all, he pio­neered the first visual char­ac­ter of Captain America. Shortly after the com­ple­tion of the film, Purcell died of heart attack, due to the strain of film­ing Captain America, accord­ing to his­to­rian Raymond Stedman.

In 1979 came the tele­vi­sion film ver­sion of Rod Holcomb’s Captain America, played by Red Brown.The story, yet again resem­bled noth­ing from the orig­i­nal comics except for the name Steve Rogers and his American-superhero apparel. Plenty of reviews claimed the film was unex­pect­edly enter­tain­ing, despite receiv­ing a lower rating.

The film pro­gressed with another sequel, Captain America II: Death Too Soon, directed by Ivan Nagy, which adapted the least of the comic plot as well and brought in the equiv­a­lent response from that of the first instalment.

Yet, Captain America did not stop here. In 1990, a new film hit the the­atres, which cred­ited the comics to a decent extent. Albert Pyun’s Captain America had a won­der­ful start, with Matt Salinger (Captain America) putting him­self against the Nazi’s Red Skull in World War II, end­ing up frozen until the 1990s and wak­ing up to a whole new mis­sion of sav­ing the President of America from the Red Skulls once again.

The film received a lower rat­ing from that of the pre­vi­ous films, sup­pos­edly due to the awk­ward and abrupt jump from the past to the present.

It was not till 2011 that another Captain America film was pro­duced, Captain America: The First Avenger, which drew a much greater scale of pos­i­tive responses and of course, what was por­trayed was worth a watch.

Chris Evans, who played Captain America, exem­pli­fied what the real-life comic char­ac­ter ulti­mately was and was cred­itably acclaimed by a large seg­ment of the audi­ence. Joe Johnston man­aged to give his audi­ences what they have always been wait­ing for – a per­fect col­lec­tion of visu­als that made the comics, come to life.

Captain America 2 is due to hit the­atres in 2014.

Iron Man, one of the many admired and adored super­hero after Captain America, made his debut in 2007 as an ani­mated char­ac­ter in The Invincible Iron Man, directed by Patrick Archibald, Jay Oliva and Frank D. Paur (super­vis­ing direc­tor). Mark Worden lent his vocals for Iron Man’s character.

This ani­mated film had the least adap­ta­tion of the comic but it sure did show­case a decent dis­play of effects for an animation.

In 2008, Iron Man: Armored Adventures was released as an ani­mated tele­vi­sion series which is cur­rently at its sec­ond sea­son. Adrian Petriw has been voic­ing for Iron Man since the series began and has worked with direc­tors Philippe Guyenne from 2008 to 2009 and Stephane Juffé from 2009 to present.

Well, it was not until the release of the first live-action film of Iron Man that awed the Marvel audience.

Iron Man the­o­ret­i­cally made his first live-action debut in Jon Favreau’s 2008 film of the same name, Iron Man, and the man behind the mask is none other than the charm­ing and charis­matic Robert Downey Jr.

One of the best adap­ta­tions of the Marvel comics, this film scored a whoop­ing 86.5% of rat­ings on aver­age, with over 250 reviews on mul­ti­ple film sites such as Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. Creditably acclaimed for its superb spe­cial effects and cin­e­matog­ra­phy, Iron Man ‘mar­velized’ our comic char­ac­ters and made them more believ­able. A per­fect super­hero adven­ture, I’d say.

Following the huge suc­cess of the first instal­ment, it is not to our sur­prise that a sec­ond instal­ment of Iron Man made its way to the big screens within two years. Favreau pro­duced yet another fan­tas­tic super­hero film, Iron Man 2, with Downey liv­ing up to his title through another Marvel adven­ture. Of course it couldn’t have been as great as how Iron man was seen pre­vi­ously but with a sequel as such, com­pris­ing of an action-packed, effects-laden cli­max, Iron Man 2 main­tained the image and iden­tity of what a Marvel movie can ever portray.

Accompanying its huge suc­cess at the box office, the film won the Hollywood Film Award for the best Visual Effects of the year as well as the People’s Choice Award for Best Action Movie. Apart from that, Iron Man 2 was also nom­i­nated for sev­eral other awards such as Best Special Effects at the 37^th Saturn Awards and Favourite Action Star (Robert Downey Jr.) at the People’s Choice Awards.

Iron Man is still short of one sequel to com­plete the tril­ogy as planned with Downey still uphold­ing the title of the film. However, it would be Shane Black this time direct­ing the third instal­ment, which is due mid 2013.

Hulk, like Captain America, was first seen on screen in two stand-alone movies, The Incredible Hulk and The Return of the Incredible Hulk (also known as The Incredible Hulk: Death in the Family), in 1977.

These films were directed by Kenneth Johnson and Alan J. Levi, respec­tively. They were then re-edited into one-hour episodes to fit into the tele­vi­sion series of the name The Incredible Hulk, which was aired in 1978 onwards, expand­ing to five sea­sons over the period of five years with a team of 17 direc­tors.

After which, Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno reprised their roles from the pre­vi­ous TV series in three tele­vi­sion movies: The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988); The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989); The Death of the Incredible Hulk (1990). All of which received accept­able audi­ence responses and aver­age rat­ings, which was not of a bad start after all.

In 2003, a new Hulk movie emerged in the cin­e­mas with Eric Bana tak­ing on the role of the incred­i­ble Hulk.

Although Ang Lee’s Hulk received aver­age rat­ings, view­ers were pretty sat­is­fied with what was por­trayed, with some claim­ing to be the best adap­ta­tion of the comics so far with its bril­liant cin­e­matog­ra­phy, art direc­tion and spe­cial effects.

In 2008, another Hulk film landed in the the­atres. Louis Leterrier directed the film and Edward Nortan was brought in as our new green super­hero. The Incredible Hulk (2008) seemed to be more suc­cess­ful than the films before with an above aver­age rat­ing of 7.

This film seemed to be a mix­ture of what was shown in the pre­vi­ous films, more of which derived from the Ultimate Universe. It was well sought after, com­pared to the 2003 release.

In 2009, an ani­mated film was released, called Hulk Vs., in which Thor and Wolverine made their appear­ances as well. The film was a com­bi­na­tion of Hulk vs Thor, directed by Sam Liu, and Hulk vs Wolverine, directed by Frank Paur, neatly put together to bring to us a com­plete pack­age of mul­ti­ple super­hero action, which was indeed, worth a watch. Fred Tatasciore lent his vocal tal­ents to Hulk, Steve Blum’s to Wolverine and Matthew Wolf’s to Thor.

A year later, another ani­mated film was released, Planet Hulk which unfor­tu­nately did not gar­ner as much pop­u­lar­ity under Sam Liu’s direc­tion, as com­pared to the pre­vi­ous film. (Rick D. Wasserman voiced for Hulk.)

Mixed reviews revealed the film being one of the best Hulk ani­ma­tion movies while some claimed the film could have done more.

Thor made his first debut as an ani­mated char­ac­ter in Hulk Vs. and in 2011, he reap­peared in another ani­mated film directed by Sam Liu, Thor: Tales Of Asgard, which was Marvel Animation’s eighth film in a series of its ani­mated films. Matthew Wolf voiced for Thor once again, in this film along­side Loki, voiced by Rick Gomez.

The ani­ma­tion seemed to be a kid’s film, which many Marvel fans in gen­eral may not enjoy since the char­ac­ters were depicted merely in their younger years.

Thor, then appeared in a live-action move in the same year. With Kenneth Branagh’s excel­lent direc­tion, Thor (2011) made big money at the box office and Chris Hemsworth nailed the first live appear­ance of Thor on the big screen.

Although the sto­ry­line was appeal­ing to sev­eral audi­ences, some claimed the film had very lit­tle to excite. Nevertheless, Thor 2011 won the awards for Best Male Newcomer (Tom Hiddleston – Loki) and Best Science Fiction/Fantasy at the Empire Awards 2012.

No doubt, with the great suc­cess this film achieved, a new instal­ment will be hit­ting the the­atres in 2013.

Black Widow, one of Marvel’s sex­i­est and stun­ning female super­hero may not have had any solo movies of her own but her por­trayal in her sup­port­ing roles in a num­ber of films was, nev­er­the­less, a worth­while watch. Of course, her con­fi­dent and sexy demeanour in her roles exem­pli­fied what a female Marvel super­hero could pos­si­bly be.

In 2006, Black Widow appeared in the first ani­ma­tion edi­tion of the Ultimate Avengers, which also starred the other Marvel super­heroes like Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk and Nick Fury to name a few. She was voiced by Olivia d’Abo.

This film was claimed to be a com­bi­na­tion of the sto­ries from the Ultimates and the old school Avengers. Brilliant story, action and sus­pense, the film was one com­plete pack of ‘Marvel-ous’ enter­tain­ment for super­hero enthu­si­asts. In the same year, the sec­ond edi­tion was released, Ultimate Avengers II which brought it almost the same response as the pre­vi­ous film.

Black Widow made her first live-action appear­ance in Iron Man 2 (2009), as an under­cover spy for S.H.I.E.L.D. Of course, it was impos­si­ble not to notice the sen­sual red-haired Scarlett Johansson in her seduc­tively armoured suit.

In 2010, Black Widow appeared in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, an ani­mated TV series in five episodes so far, voiced by Vanessa Marshall. The film also com­prised of the many other Avengers super­heroes as well, such as Iron Man, Captain America and Hawkeye.

The series, por­tray­ing the old and new Marvel uni­verse as one, is on its sec­ond sea­son and has so far been rock­ing the TV sets in every home!

And there is good news! Black Widow gained much pop­u­lar­ity from most of her films, push­ing pro­duc­ers into the idea of a solo film for The Black Widow although no details of the film’s release has been confirmed.

Hawkeye appeared in a 1966 ani­mated TV series enti­tled The Marvel Super Heroes, which included yet again our promi­nent super­heroes: Captain America, Hulk, Thor and Iron Man, to name a few.

In 2008, Hawkeye appeared Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, an ani­ma­tion film which also starred Iron Man, Thor and Hulk. The film had the least to do with the comics but a much inter­est­ing sto­ry­line, keep­ing the younger audi­ence enter­tained most of the time.

After appear­ing in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Hawkeye appeared in Thor’s live-action movie in 2011 in a cameo role as a spy for S.H.I.E.L.D. which was por­trayed by Jeremy Renner.

Loki also appeared in The Marvel Superheroes, one of the minor roles equiv­a­lent to Hawkeye’s. After which he also appeared in the Hulk Vs. Thor por­tion of the full Hulk Vs. ani­mated film in 2009. In 2011, Loki made his appear­ance in Thor: Tales of the Asgard along­side Thor.

Nick Fury appeared first in his solo film, Nick Fury: Agent of Shield (1998), starred by David Hasselhoff. Despite the fact that the film received below aver­age rat­ings, it was an accept­able film throughout.

Much of the excite­ment derived from its sub-characters, leav­ing Nick over­looked sev­eral times. It could have been bet­ter, as sup­posed. Nick reap­peared in Iron Man’s first instal­ment of the tril­ogy in 2008. This time, he was por­trayed by Samuel L. Jackson. Samuel con­tin­ued to star for Nick in the sec­ond Iron Man instal­ment in 2010 as well as Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011.

Nevertheless, Nick could get another chance to shine on screen as news of a Nick Fury film have been reported. The film is still short of a con­firmed release date.

Very well, our Avenger super­heroes have won­drously por­trayed them­selves on-screen for many years and will never stop sur­pris­ing us as new films emerge as the years go by. Kudos to Marvel Studious for bring­ing to us an amaz­ing array of kick-ass films. We will never be tired of its ever-lasting enthu­si­asm for our mighty superheroes!

The Avengers 2012, com­pris­ing of all the super­heroes here, is cur­rently being screened in the cin­e­mas. Check out our Avengers review!