Screenshot from Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles

By Chris Baker

It’s a truly historic day here at the House of Ideas, as "Marvel’s The Avengers" is finally making its way to American theaters. I’ve seen it. It’s awesome. I’m pretty sure you’ll agree with me soon. (Maybe you already do.

As Interactive Manager at Marvel, it’s been my pleasure to work with Zen Studios on the video-pinball adaptation of the film, which, as one of four great tables in Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles, should be headed your way in just a few weeks. It looks a little something like this…

(click here to watch the video)

Screenshot from Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles

Cool trailer, I know, but you can see it pretty much anywhere. When Sid Shuman and Jeff Rubenstein--who preside over the PlayStation Blog with legendary Thanos-ian tyranny--demanded I present “a li’l somethin’ extra for our minions,” who was I to say no? So, here you have it, my fellow peons: Five cool things about “Marvel’s The Avengers” pinball…

5) Zen Pinball 2!

“Marvel’s The Avengers” and the other three tables within the "Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles" four-pack help to usher in Zen’s new PlayStation pinball platform on the same launch date (best I can give you now: “soon”). You can read all the details here, but the basics you need to know are 1) it houses all past "Marvel Pinball" and "Zen Pinball" titles under one virtual roof, 2) it does more stuff than those other two titles, and 3) you can switch between playing on PS3 and Vita at no extra charge. Excelsior, indeed.

Screenshot from Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles

4) Real Movie Assets

See that Quinjet? And those 3D character models? Oh, and those S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors with all sorts of high-tech-looking pictures of countries and stuff? They’re all taken directly from digital assets used in the film. So, that is the Quinjet. Those are Iron Man and Hulk. Those are the same S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors with all sorts of high-tech-looking pictures of countries and stuff.

Screenshot from Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles

3) You’re Not Just a Ball, You’re a Character…in the Form of a Ball

In terms of sheer gameplay, this is what makes “Marvel’s The Avengers” one of the most unique video pinball tables you’ll ever play. As you may have noticed, none of the screenshots feature a traditional silver ball for this table. That’s because no traditional silver balls exist at any time while you play. Instead, an Avenger of your choosing--represented by the balls you see at left--is dropped right into the thick of things, each boasting his or her own unique buffs based on character specialties. (My personal favorite: An exclusive bonus to the skillshot when you’re Hawkeye.) I look forward to watching the Zen Studios forums and seeing how sequence of Avenger selection affects the battle plan for all the hardcore Zen fans out there.

Screenshot from Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles

2) Thor vs. Hulk!

'Nuff said.

1) Movie Guys Helped Make It

This table was a true team effort. In addition to our games group here at Marvel and, most especially, the immense talent at Zen Studios, “Marvel’s The Avengers” features what may very well be a video pinball first--actual filmmaker involvement.

Screenshot from Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles

One of the coolest parts of the development experience for me was shooting ideas around with Executive Producer Jeremy Latcham, Creative Manager of R&D Will Corona Pilgrim and a few others of Marvel Studios’ finest. They were genuinely enthused about the process, and I credit them fully with coming up with some of the missions, as well as the idea of having the Helicarrier act as the setting for the board. Once things were in full swing, Will was especially helpful, providing detailed feedback on everything from character animations to the minute details of the table’s script.

All told, the film team provided some invaluable ideas and feedback. You can tell there’s a lot of talent there, the type that’s capable of creating what very well may be the best super hero movie ever, I’d say…

Avengers fans assemble…at Marvel’s new graphic novel page on Google Play! That’s right, there’s now another online platform to purchase Marvel digital graphic novels that feature some of your favorite l heroes like Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and more!

Marvel’s Digital Graphic Novels on Google Play offers a wide variety of Marvel’s content, from Avengers to X-Men. Want to read one of the comic book inspirations for the new Avengers movie? Purchase ULTIMATES VOL. 1: SUPER-HUMAN! Interested in learning more about Captain America and Bucky Barnes? Buy CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER to plunge into international intrigue and Cap’s ongoing battle with the Red Skull! If you’re in the mood for some Hulk action, pick up HULK VOL. 1: RED HULK and vent some of that pent up anger with Bruce Banner and company.

And that’s just the tip of the super hero iceberg. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be adding more digital graphic novels to Google Play. What that means is more Iron Man, more Avengers, more X-Men, more Spider-Man and more of Marvel's greatest heroes protecting the innocent and saving the world! So whether you've just seen "Marvel's The Avengers", or are a comic book collector about to take the digital comic plunge, Marvel’s Digital Graphic Novels on Google Play has something for everyone to purchase, read, and enjoy.

For those of you still skeptical about Spike Lee's upcoming remake of "Oldboy," here's something that should assure you a bit: original director Park Chan-wook gave the movie his blessing.

At the junket for "Men in Black 3" (via /Film), leading man Josh Brolin was asked for his thoughts on "Oldboy." He admitted that it makes him "nervous," but he wouldn't have signed on board with without the South Korean director's stamp of approval.

"I love 'Oldboy' and I’m close with Chan-wook Park and I emailed him a couple months ago, just asking for his blessing to do this movie because if he had said ‘No,’ I wouldn't have done it," Brolin said. "But I really respect his movie and we’ll make a little different movie and this whole idea of a more Hollywood version of it? Whatever. We’re just going to make a different version but have respect to the initial story and premise. I’m looking forward to it, man. I’m talking about it nervously right now because it makes me nervous."

Brolin said the movie makes him so nervous that just hearing someone mention its title makes his stomach turn. That being said, he's pretty excited to make it. Brolin confirmed the casting of Sharlto Copley as the movie's villain and Elizabeth Olsen as its female lead. He also teased that some fan-favorite scenes would make it into the American take on the story.

When asked if the infamous hammer fight scene would be in the new version of "Oldboy," Brolin responded, "Yes. And it’s a hammer and knife and all that stuff. And then will we keep the octopus, will we keep the other stuff? There’s some changes but I think it’s really good. It still makes me throw down the script half way through. Whoa."

Even though they'll be playing enemies on the big screen, Brolin shared that he and Copley have already started their relationship off on the right foot.

"He just wrote me an e-mail and was like, ‘Look, I’ve got to get this out of the way. Dude, 'Goonies' is my favorite film of all time,’ which I thought was really sweet," Brolin said during the junket. "And now I’m going to make 20 years of your life miserable."

"Oldboy" is slated to start filming in October. The film follows a man (Brolin) who is kidnapped and held in a private prison for 15 years before being released and contacted by the man who imprisoned him (Copley). He then goes on a quest of vengeance to find out the reason for his imprisonment and seek revenge on the people who ruined his life.

Are you assured by Brolin's comments? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!

Marvel Comics tells The Pulse:

Marvel is proud to present your first look at, Incredible Hulk #8, from the fan-favorite team of Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon! Dive right into the Green Goliath’s next epic as Stay Angry erupts pushing the Incredible Hulk and his raged-induced fury to its limits! The criminally insane Bruce Banner has thrown Hulk into the middle of a murderous drug war and Hulk is forced into action; but with villainous mob of this stature- Frank Castle is never far behind! Its all-out war, as the Jade Giant faces off against The Punisher who faces off against a cartel in a brawl that no fan will forget!

No fan can miss Hulk’s struggle for survival, in the explosive opener of Stay Angry; kicking off in Incredible Hulk #8, hitting comic shops, the Marvel Comics app, and Marvel Digital Comic Shop this May!

INCREDIBLE HULK #8 (MAR120594)
Written by JASON AARON
Pencils by STEVE DILLON
Cover by MICHAEL KOMARCK
Parental Advisory…$3.99
FOC –5/7/2012, ON SALE – 5/30/2012

More here at Marvel.com:
www.marvel.com

I come to Marvel’s The Avengers a little torn about how to talk about it. If you had asked me years ago if such an idea was ever possible, I would have laughed and said I’d love to see it, but no. Yet Marvel did it, sacrificing very serious story beats and emotional drama in at least three previous films (Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America) in order to make the dream of a superhero team up real. Now that it’s here, I wonder to myself whether it’s fair to judge The Avengers for the harm done to its prequels—and yes, they are most decidedly prequels—in order to make this movie possible? That hardly seems fair. No movie could ever live up to that kind of trans-media pressure, even a genius one. And let me start out this review with this: The Avengers is not a genius movie.

It’s definitely a genius of marketing, a triumph of intellectual property management. Introducing an array of heroes in prior films, then throwing them together in a tie in? Genius. And attaching one of the most fan-beloved genre creator/directors onto it in Joss Whedon? Also genius. And it is that incredible bid, gambling with the fortunes of a half dozen franchises into one giant movie, that is a testament to just how committed Marvel is to their brand and making it into something bigger than one movie or one hero. But all we have here is one movie, and projecting my frustrations with Marvel’s strategy would be selling it short because, as much as I’m genuinely surprised to say it, The Avengers almost totally works.

All the things you’ve heard are true: it’s big, it’s bold, it’s full of humor and action the likes of which most movies never manage to capture a single moment of. It has huge personalities playing well off of each other and a story that embraces everything that this type of team-based, giant-scope comic book should represent. It is a new high water mark for not only Marvel Studios, but superhero movies in general. There have not been so many laughs and cheers in a movie I have seen ever, and it captures the same magic and wonder that I don’t think the genre has really discovered since Superman so many decades ago.

It’s amazing then that it almost doesn’t work at all. The movie starts with an incredible amount of setup, reintroducing the various plot elements from the prior movies: the glowing cube from Captain America, Loki and how SHIELD discovered the possibility of alien science from Thor, and the always-constant Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who has been hovering over even more movies than those, all the way back to the first Iron Man when this whole ball started rolling. That’s a lot of things to juggle, but even with the movie not going out of its way to explain too much, it all comes out the gate a stumbling mess of exposition and set up. The crux, as you might have guessed, is thus: Loki (Tom Hiddleson, doing great work here just like he did in Thor) has partnered with some mysterious alien folk, and he shows up on earth to take the blue cube (source of unbelievable energy and basic MacGuffin) in an attempt to avenge stuff that happened in Thor and is assumed you already know about.

SHIELD, unprepared for this assault, assembles the disparate heroes of the prior films, who slowly start to come together. I could roll call them, but if you’re on board you’ve seen all of them before, aside from one: Bruce Banner, the Hulk, who never was able to sell his own movie (despite my love for Ang Lee’s Hulk I won’t pretend it was a success in the way Marvel wanted) has been replaced for the second time, now portrayed by a muted, shy-looking Mark Ruffalo. These scenes are less introductions and more ‘where are they now’ as the movie has no time to tell you who they are and what they’re about outside of some smart asides and displays by a script that keeps a lot of balls in the air. Even with a run time that stretches to two and a half hours, this opening rushes to give you barely enough if you aren’t on board with these guys already.

Once they all assemble, however, the movie finally starts to find its feet. This is a show predicated on letting these headliners try to work as a team, and that’s really the big selling point here. Of all the things I could say about Whedon as a writer and director, he knows how to work an ensemble, giving everyone moments and balancing the various forces of a half dozen egos without once resorting to an out of character moment. It begins with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), one unable to work with anyone and the other from a time where taking orders meant the difference between saving the world or not. Watching them play off of each other is already great fun, especially when the charm and swagger of an amused Thor (Chris Hemsworth, still probably the breakout highlight of these movies) sends everyone into a hero-vs-hero fight straight from the pages of endless comics and the discussions of millions of fans.

What’s more interesting, though, is just how much time is given to the supporting cast. Despite being the also-rans, I come out of The Avengers wanting a Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) movie as much if not more than I want movies about the big names. They’re given a lot of the humanity when the egos in the room take up all the laughs, left to be both audience surrogate and the pressure valve through which the movie can step outside of its teetering personalities and settle on something much more relatable and less cartoony. Not that that’s a knock against the group, however, as that broad ensemble action-comedy is really what we’re here for.

And let’s be very clear about this: this is as much a character comedy as it is an action film. Even if the last third is devoted almost entirely to guys fighting and a lot of explosions, it’s the people who inhabit these roles that really sell the film and propel its best moments. The crazy alien menace is just a bunch of faceless props to explode: what matters in the movie is that each character acts like themselves, with reason and in keeping with who they are and what they can do. And it all revolves around the careful machinations of Loki, who nearly steals the movie by being both a menace and a threat, and still ultimately really petty. He’s a villain who you despite not because he’s all powerful, but because he’s an awful person, lacking humanity, who knows just where to stick and twist the knife. Everything that comes about boils down to people reacting to and attempting to stop him, and it’s that reactionary drama that really makes even the large action set piece at the end of the film work most.

And let’s be clear, it’s not that big of an action set piece. From the first trailers it looked like most of the action takes place on a limited street or two, and for the most part that’s true. But what matters is that the movie offers a justification of why the scope is so limited, and sells the beats of action enough that it doesn’t matter. It’s not about being the biggest, most explosive movie ever. Good action revolves entirely about making sure each moment sells, and boy do they sell. Of all of it, special mention goes to the Hulk, who spends most of the movie being something only talked about, only to finally explode towards the end of the movie and steal absolutely every beat he’s inserted in. It’s pretty magical to watch, from Ruffalo’s really smart understated performance to this giant monster that erupts with boundless energy and abandon. Whedon manages to get the Hulk in a really compelling way: he’s not the star, he’s the catharsis. I don’t know if there will ever be a Hulk movie that really works, but he is nearly perfect here.

The Avengers comes as a surprise to me, because I really expected to not like it. A studio who sacrifices statements for set up, and a director who often struggles with scope and escaping his narrative quirks? It seemed like a recipe for disaster. And I feel like it almost did hit that point, swaying somewhere between a bar car chase that opens the movie and a bunch of clunky exposition. But what has made superheroes, specifically team stories like The Avengers, work is that at the end of the day they’re about joy and wonder and having a whole lotta heart and just putting it out there. The Avengers eventually puts it all out there, and when it does it’s amazing. It’s impossible to know if this is a new era for Marvel and the genre, or just a perfect storm, but this one movie is in many ways a fulfillment (not perfect, but definitely more than enough) of the promise of the best of what superhero comics has to offer, and I’m delighted to be surprised by it.

NOTE: Matthew Marko regularly contributes to the Screened community under the username Litrock. Please continue to look for his comments, posts in the forums and contact him under that username.

Earth's Mightiest Heroes finally made their U.S. debut in "Marvel's The Avengers," and to celebrate the joyous occasion, Gallery1988 Melrose kicked off their Avengers-inspired art gallery last night in Los Angeles with Director Joss Whedon and Clark Gregg! Check out our awesome photo gallery below!

Don't worry True Believers, if you couldn't go last night, you have from now until May 6 to check it out! Come see Earth's Mightiest Heroes before they're gone! For more information on Gallery1988 Melrose and this special exhibit, visit Gallery1988's website, and remember to buy your tickets for "Marvel's The Avengers"!

Clark Gregg (Agent Phil Coulson) at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles	Avengers-inspired art at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles	Avengers-inspired art at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles
Avengers-inspired art at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles	Avengers-inspired art by Kiersten Essenpreis at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles	Avengers-inspired art at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles
Avengers-inspired art at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles	Avengers-inspired art at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles	Director Joss Whedon at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles
Fans assembled at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles for a special Avengers-inspired exhibit	Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson) and Director Joss Whedon at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles	Director Joss Whedon and Executive Producer Jeremy Latcham at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles
Director Joss Whedon at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles	Iron Man at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles	Earth's Mightiest Heroes on display at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles
Assemble at Gallery1988 Melrose now through May 6 for the Avengers-inspired art gallery	Fans assembled at Gallery1988 Melrose in Los Angeles for a special Avengers-inspired exhibit

As a comic book fan, you can't read everything. It's impossible. Hundreds of books come out every week, and sometimes, a classic may slip through your fingers. Maybe you got into comic books AFTER something awesome came out. Don't worry, we plan on getting you caught up on some series or a concept that may have slipped through your fingers.

This week, we delve into the first collected volume of a series near and dear to my heart, and one of the comic books that reignited my passion for comic books: The first collected volume of Exiles: Down the Rabbit Hole.

In 2001... wait... 2001? Has it really been 11 years since Exiles came out? Apparently so... Anyway, in 2001, a comic came out that blew me away. It was called "Exiles." The series ran for 100 issues before it was cancelled. The first collected volume of this series came out in 2002 and contained issues 1-4.

These four issues consisted of a dynamite creative team, and some people say it was the best team the book ever had: Mike McKone on art (Uncanny X-Force starting with issue 25) and Judd Winick as the writer (Batwing, Catwoman). These first four issues also feature Mark McKenna on ink.

It was this insane mixture of the traditional super-hero comic with incredibly familiar science fiction elements. For me, it stood above the rest. Exiles mixtures a time-tested, classic team comic book, filled with memorable characters with multi-dimensional travel.

What's most appealing about this first volume is the sense of familiarity most Marvel fans will have with these characters. The original team, within these first four issues, consists of Mimic, Morph, Blink, Nocturne, Thunderbird, and Magnus. Now, all of these characters come from different universes from within Marvel, and none of them are from Marvel's main universe, 616.

This comic brought back a fan favorite character from the realm of Age of Apocalypse, Blink. As well as what looked like to be Morph from that same time line, which you quickly find out that there are an amazing amount of parallel universes and from time-to-time, character will recognize each other with out ever having truly met. Fans will also be familiar with a few of the world's and tasks these characters have to accomplish, since they were once major events or stories in the Marvel U.

All these characters follow the "guidance" of a character called the Timebroker, who readers know little to nothing about for most of the series. The goal of this team is to travel to other universes and fix something that has gone wrong or that universe will cease to exist. If the team does not comply, it will affect their universe or their lives drastically, and in most cases, said character will die.

One idea that readers will get accustomed to right away is that no one is safe from death... no one. Because none of these characters are from the 616 Universe, it gives this book more leeway to do whatever they want with these characters.

The book is a lot more than a group of people accomplishing goals. The book deals heavily with character's pasts and their ability to cope with the human experience, even if they are super-human. Friendships are made, some that blossom into romances. Friends and lovers accomplish great feats, and others perish in battle.

If I could say anything about this book, it's that it's Marvel's grand experiment to do whatever they want with characters and stories, with minimal fan repercussion. While Down the Rabbit Hole may not get heavily into these topics, there's a wonderful set-up to future story lines, and a brilliant set-up to how this book works. I won't reveal much, but as a set-up to an on-going series that breaks most standard comic book rules, it's four issues that will keep you hooked.

All-in-all, it's a trade that will get you hooked to a series featuring characters new and old you'll quickly fall in love with. While the series had it's up and down moments, this first collection, along with the rest of Winick's run on this series, is fantastic and worth checking out.

Exiles: Down the Rabbit Hole is a brilliant mixture of super-hero comics you are familiar with and science-fiction, blended together into one of my personal favorite Marvel series of all time. This is a trade that is too awesome to miss.

Have you guys read Exiles: Down the Rabbit Hole? What do you guys think?

Mat "Inferiorego" Elfring is a comedian, writer, and host of the internet show no one watches, Barely Watchable. Follow him on Twitter: @inferiorego

BOOM! Studios tells The Pulse:

BOOM! Studios is proud to announce HIGHER EARTH #1 has gone to a second print seven days before its release on May 9th!

HIGHER EARTH #1 second print features white-hot creator/writer Sam Humphries (ULTIMATE COMICS: ULTIMATES, OUR LOVE IS REAL) with Francesco Biagini (ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST) on the art. HIGHER EARTH #1 second print is now available from Diamond Comic Distributors. This new ongoing series, a science fiction epic of infinite possibilities, debuts with a full first issue for only $1!

Comic book fans should keep in mind first printings of HIGHER EARTH #1 may still be found at a comic shop nearest you. Not sure where to find your nearest comic retailer? Use www.comicshoplocator.com to find one!

Created and written by Humphries, HIGHER EARTH is his sci-fi follow up to last year’s indie sensation OUR LOVE IS REAL. “Space is dead. Why conquer other planets when there’s a perfectly good Earth in the universe next door? Heidi, a girl born in garbage. Rex, a soldier gone rogue. The only thing between them and their destiny is an empire of a hundred different Earths, across a hundred alternate timelines. One majestic planet dominates them all: Higher Earth.”

HIGHER EARTH #1 second print ships with a must-have all-new cover by Zach Howard and a Diamond order code of MAR128272.

More here at BOOM! Studios web site:
http://boom-studios.com