Comic-Con: Marvel Steals the Show with Captain America, Thor, and The Avengers

About an hour has passed since I left the Marvel Studios panel at San Diego Comic- Con and my heart is still racing. After a day that started out strong and had a horrible six hour lull, Kevin Feige the President of Marvel Studios, put a rush in me that I will not soon forget. It all started with his presentation of Captain America: The First Avenger which then rolled into Thor and finally ended on one of the most powerful notes that I have witnessed at Comic- Con, but we will get to that.

After only shooting Captain America: The First Avenger for about eight days, Feige and director Joe Johnston showed us our first glimpse of our super solider in uniform. It was a quick shot, but it got the crowd going. It was said that we have not seen the final version of the suit. Lead actor Chris Evans shared his thoughts on having played another Marvel hero, The Human Torch, and if that affected his ability to play Steve Rogers. ” I just want to make a character come to life… there is no conflict”. If it wasn’t enough that they showed us Cap in all his glory after only filming for eight days, we were also shown another clip that totally blew me away. In the footage we watched, Nazi’s are seen storming a monastery in Norway and we got a Comic- Con first look at Hugo Weaving as the Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull. He was not in any make up or mask at this point in the story, but he was dressed in Nazi garb. What made this such a mind blowing clip was the fact that it tied itself into the Thor film by taking place in Norway and showing Schmidt’s quest for something that he called “The treasure of Odin”. They reveal a carving in the wall that is known as Yggdrasil or, the World Tree. The “treasure” that he was looking for seemed to be the Cosmic Cube, which is of great importance to the Red Skull’s mythology in the comics.

I was so impressed with the Captain America footage we were just shown that I had completely forgotten that we still had a Thor portion to come. Feige stays on stage and the director of Thor, Kenneth Branagh, joins him as well as cast members Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston and Kat Dennings. Here, we actually got to see a fully rendered, 3D, clip of the film. It was packed with great visuals and outlined a good chunk of the story. It seemed as if Thor was cast out of Asgard for his arrogance and stupidity which anger Odin. On Earth, Thor is banished with no power and without his hammer until he is deemed worthy again. As a treat for the fans we saw character  like the Warriors Three, Hiendall and Lady Sif. Probably the best fan shot was of the Destroyer armor walking about and attacking S.H.I.E.L.D agents in the desert. Hiddleston, who plays Thor’s step brother Loki, is being attempted in a different way.  I don’t want to ruin his story line, but the direction they are taking with him didn’t sit well with me. I really enjoyed what I saw, except for the Loki part. It was a great presentation of the content and really got me going on an Avengers kick.

Speaking of The Avengers, Marvel followed this night of huge news with the reveal of The Avengers movie line up by bringing out all of cast which can be showcased in this link.

The night left me emotionally drained because I can’t feel anymore excited about these upcoming projects. Next summer is going to explode.