Hank McCoy (Before the Fur)

Well the internets are just blowin’ up right about now. I haven’t even SEEN The Avengers yet (headed out tonight), but little bits and pieces have already started to slip through to me. Hell, there were spoilers about the last scene up by FRIDAY AFTERNOON. Things don’t stay secret very long, it seems…

So I’m NOT going to open up my big mouth and talk about the final scene after the credits that I myself haven’t even witnessed yet.

What I am going to say is this: WOW. Can they really pull this off? Again?

It’s no surprise to me that Joss Whedon landed this thing (which, let’s face it- could have been a disaster if it wasn’t handled with absolute care). I mean, has the guy ever done anything wrong in his life? Everything he does is brilliant. The Warner Bros. execs for the unproduced Wonder Woman movie are out there crying themselves to sleep right about now.

But a SECOND arc? Another go around of stand-alone movies and then an Avengers 2?

Can they really sustain an on-screen universe like this? And keep adding in? New characters, plot lines, whatever?

I mean, sooner or later something’s gotta give. An actor will bow out, the films will get needlessly complicated, whatever. I’m just going to be blown away if they keep this going for as long as they can. Now that they’ve brought everyone together for one big shebang, can they hold our interest for more?

I know Whedon commented that he imagined the second arc as "smaller" and more "personal." There’s a way to do that and still have it be of cosmic proportion, I’m thinking. If anyone can helm this thing, it’s him.

It’s just where do you go from here? Are The Amazing Spider-man and X-Men: First Class kind of meant to be in-universe reboots I wonder? I don’t think there’s anything in them that rules this possibility out. I mean, there’s nothing in the first X-Men movies that rule them out either. But there’s a certain feel to the newer Marvel films that seem present in these new incarnations.

But seriously if they make a new Fantastic Four movie (which they are supposedly), could Doom show up in an Avengers flick? Could Cap head up a team with Hugh Jackman and Andrew Garfield? Would someone please, PLEASE make a Dr. Strange movie before my HEAD explodes?

All I’m getting at here is I wonder how far they’d be willing to take this thing. I mean, partly I would assume that you can only crank out so many crossover films before the fans are like "Avengers 6? Whatever."

BUT, if they made the right moves, took their time, and let one of these big boys out every couple years? I mean, Marvel would really be doing at the box office what they do on the comic book rack. It’d be the same business strategy: every summer there’s some colossal Marvel crossover that everyone runs out and gets their hands on. You spend the whole year reading books and getting hyped up for it. It’s addictive. And it works.

I just can’t believe it, but it seems like you can do the SAME THING at the box office and get the same results. If Marvel just takes their time and sticks with the right people maybe we could see another ten years of standalone films and crossovers. I just never thought I’d see the day.