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.