I vaguely remember seeing this commercial back in the day, but it’s interesting to see now that we’re actually used to having The Avengers in live action on film. The costumes in this Got Milk commercial are straight out of the comics, and are pretty interesting. That Hulk actually looks kind of awesome! I know they wouldn’t have been able to use that for a movie very well, but it looks really cool. And that Spidey costume doesn’t look bad at all.

Iron Man on the other hand looks a little derpy.

Source: Reddit

Disclaimer: I’ve had a few drinks and I just finished rebuilding the site, so this post may ramble on a lot longer than it should. Feel free to make fun of me in the comments.

This past Thursday night the wife and I saw Thor: The Dark World after months of anticipation. Unlike a lot (seemingly) of my fellow Marvel movie buffs, I really really like the first Thor. Compared to an Iron Man or a Captain America, Thor and the concept of the nine realms was the trickiest thing Marvel had to try and introduce to the general movie-going crowd, and I feel like they handled it very well. Fast forward a couple years, and in my opinion, the sequel takes the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe to another level. I loved it, and it just makes me more excited for the expansion of the MCU.

The Slow Build

When you look at the MCU starting form Iron Man in 2008, you can start to realize the genius behind their whole strategy. They started with concepts that weren’t that hard to buy into. Tony Stark is a brilliant dude, he builds a suit that lets him become a superhero. I can buy that. Then they threw in that post-credits scene with Nick Fury and set this years-long expansion in motion.

Unlike Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk, Thor had to work in order to set up The Avengers. Whether or not you like the first Thor film as much as I do, you have to admit that they succeeded in selling the concept. People love Loki. People get that there are different realms, that Thor and his Asgardian bros aren’t gods, but more like aliens. This let us believe in the power of the Cosmic Cube that the Red Skull harnesses in Captain America, and the madness that Loki unleashes in The Avengers. Smart guy in metal suit to full-scale alien invasion in just four years. That’s impressive.
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Even though I’ve been hooked on comics lately, I still only consider myself a casual comic book fan. When I was fifteen or so, I read a lot of graphic novels and religiously bought new issues of Wizard Magazine, but I didn’t make it to comic book shops often enough (or have the money) to keep up with ongoing stories. When you take into account the decades and decades of history most of the major superheroes have now, not to mention all the reboots and parallel timelines it can be overwhelming to get into a new character.

Being way more of a movie buff than a comic one, I am a huge fan of what Marvel has done with their Cinematic Universe. Iron Man was a big surprise, and although The Incredible Hulk was just alright and Iron Man 2 was a disappointment, the shared universe really picked up steam when Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers all came out within a year of each other.

With Phase 2 of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe kicking off in a few months with Iron Man 3, I’ve been wanting to prepare and learn about all the new characters that will be on screen. With Phase 1, I knew the backstories of all the characters but this time around things are getting a little more obscure.

Phase 2 Character Guides

So, I decided to do some research on the main new characters in Phase 2 and share it with you all, as well as open it up for discussion. I’m sure there are plenty of comic book nerds out there who can point us in the right direction as far as what we should read before seeing the new movies. These won’t be histories or biographies. Think of them more like bibliographies. A collection of stuff I’ve found that should help better understand the characters.

So, throughout the next few months we will be looking at different characters from the next batch of Marvel movies, which are:
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The Avengers has been out for quite a while now, but Tim, Rob, and myself just had a chance to sit down and talk about it on the latest episode of Bubble Pipe Theater over on our podcast network. We discuss the movie and geek out about the next phase in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and you should have a listen.

Avengers Mini-Review

I usually forget or don’t get around to typing up my official thoughts on geek movies on here until it’s too late, but The Avengers could very well be the geek movie of the decade so I wanted to go ahead and get my thoughts down.

I didn’t get a chance to see The Avengers at midnight on May 4th but I went the next morning with my wife to a packed IMAX theater, filled to the brim with geeks of all ages. We didn’t really want to see it in 3D, but for this film I knew I wanted to see it on as big of a screen as possible, so I made an exception. My wife was just as excited as me, having loved Thor and Captain America last summer, and having watched Iron Man for the first time that week. We were ready to see them all team up on the big screen.
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The other day I realized why I don’t really buy action figures anymore. Nobody seems to sell 6″ action figures anymore. What gives? I’m not a huge fan of the Star Wars scale (as I call it), or 3/4″ action figures. They’re too small and the detail looks horrible most of the time. I like old-fashioned 6″ action figures.

With a huge blockbuster event like the Avengers on the big screens, I almost couldn’t reist picking up some movie tie-in toys until I found out that most stores are just selling the little guys. Luckily, Wal-Mart is selling some exclusive 6″ Avengers action figures soon that don’t look that bad. If you get them all, they connect at the base to form a circle. The odd thing is, Black Widow isn’t represented, while Loki is. I felt like Black Widow was surprisingly well-written and badass in the Avengers, and she definitely deserves a toy in this line.

The Hawkeye/Jeremy Renner head scult is pretty dead on, and the Hulk looks awesome. Only Thor and Iron Man have sculpts carried over from previous toy lines. Even without Black Widow, I think I’ll try to track these down for my shelf. You can check out more photos over at Super Punch and Marvelous News or check out Avengers toys on Amazon.

Make sure to subscribe to the site via RSS or by email to get more updates like this. We should have reviews of these Wal-Mart exclusive Avengers action figures soon!