Avengers Speculation Part 2

Yesterday I covered who I feel could be members of the finished team, and those who are a long shot, and those that have a snowball's chance in hell. But what use is a team without bad guys to wallop on? If there's one thing Marvel is not hurting on, it's bad guys for there heroes to beat up. Here are the Villains I think are most likely to show up

Villains
First off, we have the villain that started this whole thing, Loki. Exiled by Odin and bested by Thor, Loki was looking for a menace big enough to get his revenge on his brother. He used his illusory powers to fool The Hulk into destroying a train track on a bridge, hoping that Thor would return to Asgard to make sure Loki was still imprisoned. Like I said yesterday about the Hulk himself, this might be good enough for a comic, but I'm sure that if he is to be involved in this movie, he'd have a better plan than that. And when it comes to Loki and big plans, there really is nothing bigger than one word: Ragnarok! If there was anything that could bring together the strongest heroes in the world, what better threat could there be than the Apocalypse? The only problem with this would be scale. Even the Ultimates only had to fight an invasion that was merely a grab for the attention of Odin from Loki. Granted it still was the greatest threat they had faced since the alien invasion, it just doesn't seem like a good enough motivation for a movie.
The point is, once you stop Armageddon, there really is nowhere to go but down. No, they'll probably have to deal with some other kind of invasion or threat. Like I said yesterday, Ultron would also make for a great villain, but you would need to first establish the character of Hank Pym, and the way it looks, we won't be seeing him until at least part two. But on the topic of established characters, what about The Leader and Abomination? Both of those characters were brought in during The Incredible Hulk, and they're both still alive, as opposed to Obadiah Stane, unless we're going by the rule of 'no body, no death.' But if he did survive, or if Whiplash does in Iron Man 2, I see no reason why a genius of the Leaders intellect would neglect to utilize them in his plans. From this perspective, we're starting to see the formation of a counter team to the Avengers, some kind of Masters of Evil, if you will.
But if you have the Masters of Evil, you probably have to have Baron Zemo. An original foe introduced in the pages of The Avengers #4 and 6, he was the reason Captain America was frozen in the first place. Whether or not he's used in the Captain America movie, or if his role will be given to the Red Skull is of course open to speculation, though I wouldn't put it past Hollywood. The point is, we'll may see some form of the Masters of Evil, whether it be headed by Baron Zemo I, II, the Leader or even Mandarin. But of course this is just one of many outcomes. As I said, there are plenty more villains out there, from Kang the Conqueror to Hydra, or even AIM. Though those last two are more organizations, rather than villains themselves, they would fit with the theme in Iron Man of villains being terrorists or weapon dealers. They certainly are extensive enough that they could be tied to all sorts of characters. Baron Strucker was a Nazi and the founder of Hydra, but he was also a leader of AIM, plus he has reduced aging and a healing factor. Would it be a stretch to think that he might fought Captain America? And the Red Skull is also a Member of Hydra, the cloned body of Captain America as of right now. The possibilities are seemingly endless with what they could do for this story. The problem is with the possibility that they could really screw things up. Ugh, this is looking boxy now. I think I'll do one more post later about any extra thing I can think of.

Avengers Speculation Part 1

With Iron Man 2 due out in little over a week, I feel that now is the perfect time to start speculation on possible plots for The Avengers. First, I think I should cover possible members of the team, then villains, and finally ancillary details.

Heroes: We've already got Iron Man, Captain America and Thor slated to be members, but what about the other founding members, Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne? Right now, it does not look likely that they'll appear, at least as members proper. They may show up as S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists, but that is stretching it for me. The thing is, they're already slated to appear in another movie headed by Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim director/writer Edgar Wright, and I'm not even sure if it will take place in the same universe. Early talks of the movie were that it would be about the first two Ant-Men, Hank Pym and Scott Lang, though this may have changed since then. Point is, if they can't get Hank Pym, then that means the next hero is next to impossible. I'm of course speaking of the intangible android, The Vision. Based on the brain waves of Wonder Man, constructed by Ultron, Vision serves as the token "Emotionless" member. He shares similar powers to the Justice Leagues own Martian Manhunter, namely Intangibility, Flight, and Super Strength. From a story point, he would be great for a sequel, if Ant-Man and Wasp do show up in The Avengers. And if he shows up, he would go great with another token twosome: Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Now we're walking in the world of fantasy, because there is no way this could possibly work from a Licensing point of view, let alone continuity. These are the the children of the X-Men's greatest enemy, Magneto. Fox is not going to let these two go, not without some sort of long drawn out fight. As for continuity, forget it, there's no way you can bring the two series together without more fuss than it's worth. In the long run, these two are never going to be in the Avengers movies. Back on the topic of founding members, who could forget the reason there was an Avengers in the first place: The Incredible Hulk. Tricked by the Norse god Loki into destroying some train tracks, the Hulks one human confidant, Rick Jones, radioed for assistance in proving the Hulks innocence. Now this may work for a twenty-two page comic from the 60's, nowadays were probably going to get something bigger. Hell, back then it was probably just a marketing ploy similar to the one behind the Justice League. No, I think that we're probably looking at at least an alien invasion. The Hulk is going to be used as a kind of secret weapon, they just need to get their hands on him , which is why Tony Stark contacted General Ross at the end of the Hulk movie. The only other members I could possibly believe would be in this are Hawkeye and War Machine, though I have serious doubts about the former and don't consider the latter an Avenger. All in all, four heroes will probably be enough to keep our attention, let's just hope they don't spread themselves too thin. That's all for today. Hopefully I'll have the energy in me to talk this in depth tomorrow.