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Here's a thread for those who HAVE SEEN THE AVENGERS AND WANT TO DISCUSS IT. By which I mean, HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. If you haven't seen the movie yet, skip this thread until you have. The movie is fantastic and you don't want to ruin it.

Almost too hard to say what I liked, as it was nearly everything. I really enjoyed the teaser opening, which didn't feature the Avengers at all, but rather Nick Fury and Shield agents. The series of films as a whole has been a pretty much unprecedented job of worldbuilding, and laying off the superheroes at first actually adds to that; there's more going on this in this universe than just them. And if the SHIELD guys are that incredibly good, it really jacks up how more amazing the superheroes are.

As well, I've wondered for years why things like Godzilla movies and superheroes movies haven't used such teaser openings. Imagine the Japanese military actually defeating a more minor kaiju. That would make them finally look somewhat effective and hence make Godzilla look all the more incredible when he showed up. And rather than cramming in 15 bad guys into the plot like, say, Spider-Man 3 did, how about streamlining the plot but eating up the first 15 minutes with an unconnected sequences of Peter Parker running across, say, the Rhino robbing a bank while he's on his way to work. Anyway, the Avengers teasing is used exactly right, I think.

Now we'll jump right to the end. The (first) teaser ending introduces Thanos. The line about how attacking the Avengers amounts to "courting death," and Thanos' subsequent smile, is far more revealing if you know the character. To the uninitiated, it looks like someone relishing a great battle. But in the comics, Thanos is a demi-god literally in love with Death, who is an embodied cosmic entity in the Marvel universe. Everytime he tries to take over / eradicate the universe, it's in hopes of winning Death's love. So "courting death" takes on an entirely, much more layered, meaning in that context.

Sweet, sweet movie.

I was delighted to see Thanos. He means more cosmic adventure. Hopefully. He's also not an obvious choice. I don't think he's been in the mainstream Bendisized Marvelverse. The friend I saw the movie with, who is not as big a Marvel nerd as I am, didn't recognize him. Since his chin looks skrullish my friend thought he was a Skrull.

This version of the Hulk also made me happy. I grew up with the dumb, monster punching Hulk of the 1970s. Neither the TV series or the previous films had enough monster punching. "Puny god." Indeed. This version of Banner was also a nice change from previous ones. Yes, he worries about what he might do as the Hulk but he's dealing with it.

I enjoyed the movie immeasurably. I was a bit put-off by the opening sequence--I actually said "Uh oh, this isn't working" in my head. But that was short-lived.

And I really hated that they killed off Clark Gregg. He's such a great character--fun, unpretentious, kind of put-upon but always wanting to do his duty. Although, since Nick Fury lied about the trading cards, I'm hoping he lied about Agent Phil too and we'll see him again. (He's "rumored" to be in a possible Nick Fury movie.)

Otherwise I really can't think of anything to complain about.

I finally saw "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer" (a short film on the Captain America DVD). Now I'm really unhappy that they killed off Agent Coulson.