Avengers Assemble – Speculating on Marvel Studios Phase Two
After the influx of Marvel movie news last week from San Diego Comic Con, this week has been another pretty slow one. There’s been comic book movie news everywhere, with the part of Viper getting recast in The Wolverine, Marc Webb reportedly deciding not to return for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (surely they’re going to call that one The Spectacular Spider-Man?), the release and incredible reception for The Dark Knight Rises, and the intense apathy which seems to have greeted the first trailer for The Man of Steel. But none of that has anything to do with Marvel Studios, so we won’t mention it. Instead, we’ll just get straight down to business. Having now looked at all of the Avengers ever, and a nice selection of villains, in an attempt to guess who we’ll be seeing in Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and Avengers 2, we turn this week to supporting characters. Which of these characters, none of whom have ever been an Avenger, might we see show up in any of those films? Who stands no chance of appearing at all?
Nick Fury
First Appearance: Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #1 (1963)
Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Marvel Studios Film Appearances: Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), mentioned in The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Nick Fury has been appearing regularly in Marvel movies since Samuel L. Jackson first stepped on screen in the post-credits scene in Iron Man. With Jackson reportedly having signed an unprecedented nine movie deal with Marvel (after his Iron Man appearance, meaning Iron Man wouldn’t count towards this), then his continued presence is assured. Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and Avengers make four movies, and you have to assume he’s certain to appear in Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Chances are he’ll be recruiting Ant-Man for the Avengers too, but whether he’ll show up in Thor: The Dark World or Guardians of the Galaxy is a little more up in the air. If he doesn’t, then that would leave two more films before Jackson’s contract is fulfilled. Avengers 2 followed by a Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD film, preferably based on the legendary Jim Steranko run on the comics? Fingers crossed.
Edwin Jarvis
First Appearance: Tales of Suspense #59 (1964)
Created by: Stan Lee and Don Heck
Marvel Studios Film Appearances: Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012)
The Avengers faithful butler, who has served the team for decades in the comics now, was reworked into an AI programme in Iron Man, voiced by Paul Bettany. This version of Jarvis would go on to appear in Iron Man 2 and the Avengers, and will undoubtedly appear in Iron Man 3 as well. But what of the original Edwin Jarvis? Is there any chance we’ll ever see him show up in the Marvel films? It’s not impossible. Who’s to say Tony Stark didn’t base the programme on a real person? But, that said, it does seem unlikely.
Henry Gyrich
First Appearance: Avengers #165
Created by: Jim Shooter and George Perez
Marvel Studios Film Appearances: None
When the American government ordered the Avengers to accept a liaison officer onto the team, it came in the form of Henry Peter Gyrich. Gyrich enforced sanctions on the Avengers, capping their membership number, firing Hawkeye and forcing the Falcon, who didn’t want to be an Avenger, onto the team simply because they didn’t have a black member at the time. He caused friction and butted heads with the Avengers a lot, and continued to do so even after he left the post. He had a second tenure as the teams government liaison a few years later, though this time he wished to atone for the past wrongs he’d done the team, and even made peace with the Falcon. Gyrich is one of those characters who shows up in a lot of Marvel books on behalf of the American government, and it would make sense to have him show up somewhere in the Marvel movie universe. However, there is the slight problem that Gyrich has already appeared in X-Men, albeit very briefly and being impersonated by Mystique. Whether this is enough for the characters rights to be tied up in the X-Franchise with Fox is a question no one’s answered yet.
Maria Hill
First Appearance: New Avengers #4 (2005)
Created by: Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch
Marvel Studios Film Appearances: The Avengers (2012)
The woman who took command of SHIELD when Nick Fury was fired after waging an unsanctioned Secret War against Latveria in the comics, Maria Hill had, at best, a frosty relationship with the Avengers for a while, though she eventually mellowed and aided the team on a number of occasions. She appeared in The Avengers in the form of Cobie Smulders, who captured the character pretty perfectly, and rumour has it, she’ll be back for Iron Man 3. Expect Hill to continue appearing in Marvel movies for a while.
The X-Men
First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1963)
Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Marvel Studios Film Appearances: None
Yes, we already know they can’t appear because Fox own the rights to Marvel’s Merry Mutants when it comes to the cinema. This is a shame, because the two teams have a long history of working together (Bloodties, Onslaught) and against each other (The X-Men Vs the Avengers, Avengers Vs X-Men) and to see this happen on screen would be brilliant. Plus, there are so many Avengers characters who have ties to the X-Men (Beast, Wolverine, Namor and Storm have all been members of both teams, Black Panther is married to Storm, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are the children of Magneto and on, and on) that it would be a shame not to be able to acknowledge that. Even outside of the X-Men, many Avengers have been mutants, and how do you deal with that without mentioning the X-Men? Sadly, it doesn’t look like Marvel are going to be able to get the rights to the X-Men back any time soon, as they have done with the Punisher. Punisher films have hardly set the box office alight, since they’ve not really been that good, but the X-Men films are a definite money maker. It’s going to be interesting to see how Marvel get around this when the inevitable mutant characters begin to appear in their films.
Dum Dum Dugan
First Appearance: Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #1 (1963)
Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Marvel Studios Film Appearances: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Nick Fury’s right hand man, Dugan fought alongside Fury in the Howling Commandos during World War II, and subsequently acted as the deputy director of SHIELD for much of Fury’s time there, as well as serving under both Maria Hill and Tony Stark. Of course, the Howling Commandos, including Dugan, appeared in Captain America, with Neal McDonough wearing the bowler hat and moustache. However, these Howlers were fighting without Nick Fury, who didn’t appear in the Cap film until the final, modern day scenes. Whether Nick Fury was active in World War II and fought alongside the Howling Commandos in film continuity is currently unknown, though he certainly never met Cap before the events of The First Avenger. Does this mean we won’t get Dugan in another Marvel film? It’s unlikely they’ll bring the character into the modern era, but there’s still plenty of war time stories to tell in Captain America sequels, so don’t be surprised if Dugan features in flashback scenes in The Winter Soldier.
J. Jonah Jameson
First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #1 (1963)
Created by: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Marvel Studios Film Appearances: None
Ol’ JJJ may be best known for his role as an antagonist of Spider-Man, both as owner and publisher of the Daily Bugle newspaper, and in his later role as mayor of New York City, but he’s cropped up in many other Marvel titles over the years, to help or hinder the various characters within. Whenever a story requires a reporter to appear, they usually work for the Bugle, and if it’s a big story, you can bet Jameson will be getting involved. It’s a shame he’s tied into the Spider-Man film rights at Sony, because he would be a superb supporting character in any Marvel film. Especially if they got JK Simmons, so perfect in the role in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, back to play the part.
Fabian Stankowicz
First Appearance: Avengers #217 (1982)
Created by: Jim Shooter, Bob Hall and Dan Green
Marvel Studios Film Appearances: None
Starting out as a truly inept supervillain, the Mechano Marauder, Fabian Stankowicz fought the Avengers a few times. And when I say fought, I mean had his ass handed to him. Each time he showed up intending to battle, and defeat, the entire team, and each time he was beaten by one member acting alone. Iron Man and the Wasp both bested him in his first appearances, and he was later beaten by, and I promise you, this actually happened (Avengers #239, 1984), David Letterman, who attacked Fabian with an oversized doorknob prop when he attacked the Avengers while they were appearing on his chat show. Eventually tiring of life as a joke villain, Stankwicz leaped at the chance when Captain America offered him a chance to reform, and a job on the Avengers support staff. He became the teams resident tech support guy, and aided them right up until they were presumed killed by Onslaught. With the Avengers gone, Stankowicz took it upon himself to protect the world, and using discarded Sentinel parts, created giant robot versions of Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and Giant Man. However, in doing so he spent over a year in total seclusion, and went a little crazy. His Sentinel-Avengers malfunctioned, and had to be taken down by the now returned Avengers. Stankowicz has yet to be seen again in the comics. He’s a long shot for a movie appearance, but if a SHIELD agent with tech skills is required on screen at any point, then there’s no reason it couldn’t be Stankowicz as a nod for the fans. Hope the Letterman story doesn’t get adapted though.
Doc Samson
First Appearance: Incredible Hulk #141 (1971)
Created by: Roy Thomas and Herb Trimpe
Marvel Studios Film Appearances: The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Doctor Leonard Samson is the Marvel Universe’s resident psychiatrist. He’s worked with the Hulk, the Avengers, X-Factor and the Thunderbolts, among others. Oh, yeah, he also has gamma irradiated blood which turned his hair long and green, and super strength which was, for a while, directly in proportion to the length of his hair. No Marvel, that name wasn’t too on the nose at all. He’s often shown up to council the Hulk, then have a big fight with him in the comics, and did appear in a pre-gamma mutated form in The Incredible Hulk as the new guy in Betty Ross’s life, played by Ty Burrell. Whether we’ll even see Samson again, let alone see him going toe-to-toe with the Hulk, entirely depends on whether we get another Hulk film somewhere down the line. This is very much a case of wait and see.
Agent Phil Coulson
First Appearance: Iron Man (2008)
Created by: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway
Marvel Studios Film Appearances: Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant (2011), Marvel One-Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer (2011), The Avengers (2012)
Created for the Iron Man film, Agent Coulson swiftly became a fan favourite, thanks in no small part to the performance of actor, Clark Gregg. Coulson reappeared in Iron Man 2 and Thor, before headlining two of his own short films (or one-shots), then reappearing in The Avengers, where the character appeared to have died. However, the fact that we don’t see Coulson actually pronounced dead on screen, and that we know that at least a part of the story of his death is a manipulation by Nick Fury, has led to much fan speculation that Coulson is, in fact, still alive. One fun rumour is that Coulson will become the character whose brain patterns are used in the creation of the Vision, but this seems unlikely, given that there are much more credible rumours that Clark Gregg is appearing in both Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World. Wherever he appears next, it seems certain that we haven’t seen the last of Agent Coulson.
To be continued…
About the Author
PJ Montgomery Writer of various things, lover of comics, films, books and computer games, loveable rogue and proud Sidekick.
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