Avengers Get All Assembley!

Still working on a proper C2E2 write up. In the meantime, let’s speculate wildly about Joss Whedon possibly, maybe, definitely directing The Avengers movie. What Whedonisms should he include in the film and which ones should he hold back on? As a fan of his Astonishing X-Men run I have high hopes in his ability to breath new life into a decades old superhero franchise, but as a person with a functional memory I know Whedon’s projects don’t always turn out as he plans. Often the suits and execs and various other meddlers twist his creative vision into piles of disjointed poo. What say you good commenter?

Dallas SciFi Expo

The Dallas Scifi Expo is this weekend. I will be sharing a table with Randy from Something*Positive so put on your Storm Trooper helmet and come say hi. I have on good authority a man called Jayne is going to be there.


Don’t Forget! [Edward shirts now at Topatoco!]

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , .

55 Comments

  2. Funny, cause the blog post says that Whedon is just a misunderstood genius, while the comic has him using his "Whedon tropes" to homogenize a superhero movie.

  4. Okay, I read that as "I will be sharing a hole with Randy" and it made me do the #thingaboutdicks giggle. Because I'm twelve. Just thought I'd share.

    I vote for 'disjointed poo' because there is so much more money at stake for a high-profile franchise major motion picture, and I can't imagine execs NOT freaking out at Joss Whedon being Joss in that scenario.

  5. What. What does this have to do with Whedon at all? Every one of his series has villains, he doesn't kill off main characters right off the bat, and…so…um, what is the joke?

      • It's true, comics just seem to appear here every few days. We think it's their natural habitat. But feel free to peruse the past comics, or visit the store. Both deliver excellent content on a regular basis.

    • The third panel seems like an obvious dig at season 6 of Buffy, where "Life" was the Big Bad (according to the show's writers).

      The second panel, though, would *not* happen. Whedon wouldn't kill someone in the first five minutes, because he waits for the audience to grow to love a character before killing him/her (okay, mostly HER) off.

  7. His 6-issue arc on 'Runaways' completely derailed the comic for me, (taking about 14 months to complete), and I never went back to it, having completely forgotten who the characters were and what was going on.

  8. You're probably right about how this will end up, but it's Whedon, so I'm still ready to gobble up his disjointed poo and wash it down with a tall, cold glass of fail.

  9. Something I realized after Firefly and Serenity, with only a passing familiarity with Buffy due to not having seen it, is that all Joss Whedon scripts seem to ultimately be about the nature of good and evil, and redemption.

    I'm willing to be optimistic about Whedon directing, because he clearly loves comics. You tend to get a lot better results usually out of a director that loves the subject matter rather than one who just thought there was a lot of money to be made in directing a movie about people in spandex.

    • Maybe it's just me, but I know more about what he WROTE than what he DIRECTED, two different creative fields. Anybody tell me what they are?

  10. I thought Joss got his superhero fix with Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Perhaps Avengers will have a cameo from Neil Patrick Harris as Heir Doctor.

  11. Well I'm hoping for the best, but I have a hard time believeing that hthe suits won't screw it up some how.

  13. You know Joel, one of the things I love about your comics is your sense of self parody. I *love* Whedon's stuff to the point where I'm eagerly awaiting both the Wash comic coming out in June and the Book comics coming out this fall (knock on wood). But if there's one thing that drives me nuts, it's Whedon fans who think everything he touches turns to gold. He's an artist and sometimes that means putting out a less than stellar product.

    That said I thought his time on Runaways was great, though I read it in a collected format so I got them all at once. The thought of the first serialized comic strip character, The Yellow Kid," actually being a superhero from that time fit perfectly for me.

    • same here. Hardcore fans of anything can be annoying, but there's something about Whedon that attracts the most psychotic (no offense Joel & Eli. Josh I'm not sure about you, tho).

      • Well any sort of popular culture attracts some pretty over the top people. I'm not one to throw stones; I'm engaged to one of those who's teetering on the edge, and I go through periods of being *obsessed* with one thing or another.

        Whedon just ends up being a polarizing character for a lot of people. I've met hardcore nerds who can't stand him because his work is too flippant. Perhaps the most interesting argument came from Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw (of Zero Punctuation). It's somewhere on Youtube and worth taking a look at, though true to form he exaggerates a little too much.

  14. Excited but cautious.

    Excited:
    -He's a great writer with a good quick sense of humor
    -He's a competent director
    -He's got a good feel for ensemble casts
    -He knows comic books
    -He's not picking the name of the Movie (I think the titles he's come up with have always created a barrier to be approachable by the general public: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and an action film called Serenity)

    Cautious:
    -He's never found a mainstream audience and Disney/Marvel are looking for that
    -He's never made the studios a decent financial return on their investment
    -Which leads to: Will the studios give him the freedom he needs?

    • short answer, no.
      long answer,NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

  16. funny.I love the look of comic!Joss. but where is the EFE? why isn't he trying to derail this? I still don't believe and won't til I'm on the theatre,eating my popcorn and commenting the movie

    • No Evil FoxExec here, because 20th Century FOX isn't involved. This is all MARVEL, here, & their crazy executives ([cough] Quesada! [cough]) will most likely step in to keep joss from "Jossing" on one of their most recognizable properties.

  17. Hey, don't get all weepy. The last thing he did for the House of Mouse (that I know of) was the screenplay for Toy Story, and as far as I know, that went pretty good.

    Waitaminit: House of Mouse? House of M? IT WAS PLANNED ALL ALONG!!!

  18. This week, I actually used the phrase "doing a Whedon" when describing Valve's upcoming killing off one of the Left 4 Dead characters. I think "Whedoning" is also a usable word.

  19. @IEC Joss is known for setting you up then knocking you down emotionally. Jenny Calander, Joyce, Tara, Fred, Wash. Just a few of his characters that were main characters that he's bumped off as a major twist.

    @Jonathan B The nature of Good and Evil and Redemption are prominant to a certain extent, but he also delves into Metaphors and so much more of that Grey Area between what is Good and Evil, and what just needs to be done. He really get between the lines.
    If you're yet to watch Buffy, I recommend you start off with Season 2's Becoming Part 1, and tell me after watching it, that you didn't 'need' to go on to Part 2, and that after both you didn't want to start the Series from the beginning ; )

    • Man, I remember seeing the episode when they killed off Jenny Callendar when I was like 14 or 15 and I was just *crushed* by it, mostly because I didn't quite understand why a character I liked had to die like that. Going back and watching it as an adult I finally got it and had a bit of closure.

      The whole thing surrounding Joyce still gets me. The man knows how to treat death in a manner that makes you think.

  21. Whedon in a nutshell
    * He'll gratuitously kill a character you like (because you like them) for no other reason than to rip your heart out.
    * The hero will do something heinous to be 'edgy' but it will be fixed (no it won't.) when we're told that hero was 'in a bad place.'
    * Hero will isolate themselves and feel really, really depressed about having super powers and being gosh darn special.
    * There will be great snappy dialog and a huge emotional moment but the plot will make no sense if you actually stop to think about it.
    * There will be fans who deconstruct it in minutia to give 'deep meta' about what the movie was 'really' saying,
    * The 'worldbuilding' will be underwhelming and inconsistent but that's 'cause 'continuity is for wusses.'
    * Some character will have an inexplicable personality change to push the plot forward
    * Some character will be clinically depressed… because someone has to.
    * If anyone has sex they will go evil or die.

    • Granted, the plot does tend to veer a bit. But I have to challenge you on your critique of the worldbuilding: Firefly provides some of the most complete, intriguing and original worldbuilding I've ever seen. I feel like most of your complaints apply more to Buffy (which I honestly don't like) and Dollhouse (which I found alternately intriguing and annoying) than to Firefly.
      But I definitely agree with you on the "deep meta" crap. What is with that?

      • cynical fan, thank you for breaking down Whedon's method in his madness, but I think that applies if he wrote it.
        mortalcoil, A recent episode of South Park explained the deep meta crap as readers/viewers projecting what they think is the story's "meaning" or "message" into the material, even when the author didn't intend to put one in. You can try to deconstruct it all you want, but I just want to see Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and Nick Fury team up to beat up, I don't know, Loki or HYDRA or some gang of supercriminals just because it's fun to watch. And I think I hit on the reason Whedon can't get involved: it's supposed to be FUN TO WATCH.

  22. Oh and there will be a tiny, thin-boned, doe-eyed waif of a girl that will kick men's asses… cause it's 'hot'

  24. The maker of this comic is me, Joel. Nice to meet you. I dont tolerate negative or trolling comments on this site so if you would like to express an opinion like this in the future, please do it via email.

    • The comic isnt really in error. It was a prediction, that was based on experience. That fact that it didn't come true doesnt somehow negate the idea or the joke.

  26. Wow. With Whedon now saying he more or less left because he was tired of battles over his "character-piece" scenes. Turns out this comic is a DELAYED prediction. Hollywood is just too Hollywoody for Whedon.

    • I think Avengers 1 was an excellent movie and I know Whedon helped shape the MCU into something more magical than it would have been otherwise, but it was never a good match. It was never going to last.

Leave a Reply