Your Dream AVENGERS movie(s)?

[Van Plexico]

How would you folks prefer to see an Avengers trilogy of movies (similar to the X-Men trilogy) play out?

Which villains in which movies?

Here are my quick thoughts:

Movie 1: Obviously, this has to be the "origin" movie. I think the focus should be on Cap, just as the focus of X-Men 1 was on Wolverine. Tie it all together with Zemo-- the villains will be the Masters of Evil. Subplots would include Tony Stark wanting to use his money and mansion for something constructive and positive, and the Hank/Jan romance, along with Hank creating Ultron. Keep Thor mysterious, I think (that would be a whole other movie) and leave Hulk out entirely (he had his origin movie already, and it would just confuse folks). So the structure of the first Avengers movie would be Cap's failure and redemption, with the help of his new allies. At the end, with the MOE defeated, they officially form the Avengers.

(This may be made obsolete if they make a Cap movie first, and use up part of this storyline.)

Movie 2: This is the Ultron movie! Lots of set-up with Hank Pym from the first movie leads to a big Ultron blowout. If the first movie was more about Cap, this one is more about the Pyms. Start out with the Grim Reaper and the Vision. Maybe end it with the Pyms' wedding (or start it with that--and then things go bad!). The Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man would also be natural additions in this movie. Maybe do "Bride of Ultron" and parallel that with the growing Vision-Scarlet Witch romance, and their tension with Simon. (I'd love to see Vizh and Simon throw down with each other over her, like in #158!)

Movie 3: The Kang movie. Now you have a pretty good-sized team: the big 3, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Wondy, the Pyms. You can have an all-out Kang invasion and let 'er rip. Wrap up all the side-stories set up in the first two, such as Vision/Wanda. Maybe have Hawkeye come into play here, too.

Those are just some "top of my head" thoughts. And of course there are lots of other characters that I'd love to see, too-- but you can only fit in so many before it gets out of hand.

What do you think? What do you want to see?

[Shiryu]

I would use a low profile villain for the first movie, so that he wouldn't steal screen time from the main characters (for example in Batman Begins, R'as is only there at the end). I agree on everything else the boss said on movie 1, including leaving Hulk out, but Thor would probably benefit from his own movie first or he should be left out, otherwise the big three would overshadow each other and all the others.
The second movie, with Ultron and the introduction of the Vision could be very good. They may also put Wonder Man in and exploring the brotherhood releationship between the two of them, as well as the bad side of science with Ultron.
For a third movie, I too would like to see Kang and a proper war, but I'm not sure if all would fit in 2 hours + of movie. May be I'd use the Masters of Evil here...
The problem with these movies is the big number of characters. The more you have, the less screen time they have.

[Ultron]

I would totally skip everything and just run with Avengers 162 - The Bride of Ultron. It's comics, but it's also Greek theatre tragedy. Plot runs like an up and down all the time, perfect for an entertainment\action flick.

I would use Roger Stern's Assault on the Mansion on the 2nd Movie.

If the franchise was still alive, i might go back to the past \ origins on the 3rd.

[Van Plexico]

There is definitely something to be said, Ultron, for just jumping right into the action and skipping the origin stuff. I used to argue all the time that I'd rather see any superhero movie just start up with things already in place (for example, Daredevil, Spider-Man 2... and X-Men surprised me by pretty much doing this, too).

The last few years, though, I've come to decide that, with a lot of Marvel's characters, their best story *is* their origin story. That's certainly true for Spider-Man, with the whole "power/responsibility/Uncle Ben" thing. Probably true for the FF, too.

I don't know if it's true for the Avengers, though. Basically, their origin is just "we got together to fight ____, and then stayed together." So, sure, why not just jump in? But if you did "Bride of Ultron" first, you'd need some degree of set-up and backstory, to make sense of it. Maybe a combination of it and the earlier Ultron saga involving the creation of the Vision and the Grim Reaper's involvement. Roll all that together into one big movie.

[Adrian J. Watts]

I'm deliberately avoiding reading your responses until I've posted mine, so that I'm not influenced by them.

Bear in mind that this does not, in any way, reflect who my favourite characters are.

Movie One:
TEAM origin, but not character origins. Massive threat to the world, THOR descends from Asgard in a shambles (a la Vol.3 #1) and enlists the help of Earth's greatest champions: CAPTAIN AMERICA, IRON MAN, GIANT-MAN, THE SCARLET WITCH and WONDER MAN. The threat is seriously one of cataclysmic proportions - like, world will LITERALLY be destroyed. While the group helps THOR determine the threat, GIANT-MAN develops an assistant for the team, someone to defend the mansion while they're gone; a robot named ULTRON. Once the Avengers stop the threat of LOKI (or a cooler equivalent, even MAGNETO for some cross-movie continuity) they return to the mansion to find ULTRON having incapacitated GIANT-MAN. WONDER MAN engages it and is killed, his body is stolen by ULTRON.

Movie Two:
Cameos abound as the Avengers face threats as solo heroes - MOONSTONE is taken out by THE SCARLET WITCH, SCREAMING MIMI is defeated by GIANT-MAN, BARON ZEMO is defeated by CAP and IRON MAN faces HAWKEYE AND THE BLACK WIDOW. (All tiny cameos, like some very short, dialogue-less scenes showing the final strokes in each battle, or even just the victorious Avengers standing over the villains.) In retaliation, ZEMO gathers MOONSTONE, SCREAMING MIMI, HAWKEYE and THE BLACK WIDOW and forms the MASTERS OF EVIL, who attack the AVENGERS individually and then as a team at the mansion. The mansion is destroyed and GIANT-MAN is so distraught over the incident that he leaves the team. HAWKEYE is convinced to reform and take his place.

Movie Three:
ULTRON returns with the VISION. Another dual-plot film, as while ULTRON and the VISION attack, the Avengers must also face the all-conquering might of KANG. While THOR and CAP face Kang off-world, the other Avengers fight Ultron and the Vision and find that GIANT-MAN is working with them. They realise that they must defeat ULTRON and the VISION to go help an overwhelmed Cap and Thor. GIANT-MAN is beaten and tossed aside by the Avengers, only to be found by a young lady named JANET VAN DYNE. Just when thinks are at their bleakest, GIANT-MAN returns and destroys ULTRON. The VISION vows to help the Avengers and they all (minus Jan, although GIANT-MAN promises to come back so they may express their true love for one another) head off into space to fight KANG. While the other Avengers fight his armies, CAP tackles KANG alone, and is victorious. Barely. The Avengers return to Earth and are officially proclaimed EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES.

- Adrian

[spiderwasp]

I agree with many of the ideas I've read here so far. I definately think we should jump into the action rather than bothering with a bringing together of the team. Maybe it would work if the team (Something like Thor, Ironman, Giant man, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Hawkeye) weas already functioning and the kickoff was finding Captain America. This would be a little out of order from true continuity but that was the first really pivotal moment in Avengers history and, in a movie, it would then be anticlimactic to bring in the other characters. Cap's man out of time story could be the main focus and tie in with Zemo leading a Masters of Evil group. Of course, they would need to change the group's name the way the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants just became the Brotherhood in X-Men. I love Stan Lee but I always wondered why he thought evil groups would decide to call themselves evil.