New Age of Ultron Poster – Characters and Clues

The excitement for Marvel’s Avengers 2: Age of Ultron is ever growing stronger with the impending UK release on April the 23^rd and rightly so. Marvel fans have been looking forward to the sequel to the first box office smashing Avengers Assemble in 2012 when the big-screen superhero franchise got catapulted into popularity; a popularity that Marvel universe creations had been struggling with for years with the less than successful examples such as Fantastic Four, Daredevil and the infamous third instalments of Spider-Man and X-men.

     With our hearts and cinema ticket money firmly dedicated to the new wave of the Marvel cinematic universe it is with no doubt that Age of Ultron will have cinemas across the world packed full of dedicated fans ready to welcome in the next phase of the superhero continuity.

     Just to further peak the anticipation of the film franchises multitude of keen fans, Marvel Studios has released a new pre-release poster to wet our appetite for the hero-fest. This poster even features some clues and revelations of what we’ve got to look forward to the $250million budget production.

     As a friendly warning, this article may contain potential spoilers.

 

One of the most noticeable aspects of this poster is the presence of the highly anticipated hero, Vision. However as with the trailers and other posters the studios continue to tease the character’s appearance with leaving the new character a mere silhouette against the sky. However, could this be more of a hint than it seems?

     We see our new arrival to the film continuity against a backdrop of swarming Ultons pouncing upon the collected Avenger heroes. Vision however, does not seem to be the target for the androids. Could this be hinting that the Marvel hero may not be featuring in this film as a hero and the robotic character may be another pawn of the Ultron AI? Only the film itself can answer that question it seems.

     Also revealed in the newly released poster are the credits to a few familiar faces from past films. Hayley Atwell, Idris Elba, Anthony Mackie and Stellan Skarsgard are all credited no doubt to return as their respective roles as Peggy Carter, Heimdall, Falcon and  Erik Selvig. All this further revealing the huge cast the film will be using and raising plenty of curious questions as to how the plot and characters will all fit together.

   

 

     Finally is a sneaky look at the various costume changes coming to us in the new film. As we can see Captain America is donning a new set of freedom themed uniforms, a trend it seems the fashion conscious all-American hero is sticking to with each film he stars in features him in a whole new set of stars and stripes. This uniform however features itself an Avengers spin on it with the well-known logo proudly emblazoned on his super-soldier shoulders (trying saying that 5 times fast).

     Tony Stark too is featuring the next mark in his set of armour. This is unsurprising however as in his previous title, Iron Man 3, the billionaire playboy philanthropic genius destroyed his extensive collection of super suits and hung up his helmet. But what gadgets will the mechanics master be adding to his next suit’s arsenal? We can only wait and see.

    And finally, the Russian beauty Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow seems to have made some of her own upgrades as well. We see in the new poster not only the take-no-prisoners attitude stance of the master assassin but also some particularly groovy neon trimmings along her suit and already high-tech gadget wrist guard given a futuristic revamp. Could this be a sign that Tony Stark has taken some liberties and given the already deadly force of nature, Black Widow, an even deadlier upgrade?

    In overall the poster alone has raised numerous questions, hints and theories and yet Marvel still know how to play their cards close to the chest. As always the studios knows how to market their work and the anticipation is on the rise amongst fans across the globe. Will Avengers 2 meet the hype? Will our expectations be met and overcome just as the masterpiece Avengers Assemble supremely achieved? We can only hope. But hey, let’s be honest, don’t they always?

    So remember that on April 23^rd in the UK, Avengers Fans, Assemble!

From Cartoon Capes to Live-Action Heroes: Why We Love Them

Back when I was a little kid, as opposed to the big kid I am today, Saturday mornings were dedicated to waking up at ungodly early hours of the morning, waking parents to make you cereal, which to they’ll never forgive and never forget and sitting down to watch our favourite caped crusaders and masked heroes on the TV. Every week we’d sit and watch how cartoon Batman would beat cartoon Joker, or how animated Superman could possibly save the day this time and it was perfection in my opinion. But the animated television versions of our favourite heroes are of late getting a very different treatment.

With the huge popularity and fan following that DC’s live action show Arrow on the CW network DC comics have added a number of new titles to their roster of live action shows. Batman prequel Gotham, Supernatural thriller Constantine and the red blur himself, Flash being highly anticipated from the company’s archive of comic history and wowing fans with teasers, trailers and Comic-con appearances all hinting at what each show has to offer. But television isn’t the only place where our heroes have hit the screen with great success.

This coming year we have Avengers 2: Age of Ultron to look forward to with bated breath. Marvel has created a truly successful franchise of big screen heroes with their film Avengers and solo films for the iconic heroes, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the Incredible Hulk. The Joss Whedon directed Avengers Assemble went on to be the 3rd highest grossing box office film to date. This success has even gone on to encourage the latest gamble from DC in announcing this year the production their own superhero team up film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The film that will be going on to lay the foundation for DC Comics’ own Marvel style large scale film continuity for the whole of the Justice League!

But it has to be asked, why is that today’s audience prefers the grittier realistic live action films and television shows as compared to the animation that stole the hearts of our childhood? One argument I’d personally support is just that, many of us we were fans of such heroes as Batman, Iron Man, Superman and Hulk when we were but children, but now we’re fully grown adults. Maybe some of us only by law rather than mentally but it stands that we have matured with age and through holding onto our passions our love for our heroes has matured equally. From the Saturday morning cartoons of Batman and Robin our love has developed into appreciated the dark nuances of The Dark Knight, Man of Steel and the gritty yet hugely successful portrayal of the Emerald Archer from the talented Stephen Amell.

This change in tone can also be seen in our comics book storylines today. The dark storylines such as Batman’s Red Hood and Death of Robin storylines, Marvel Zombies, Kick-Ass and many more show that graphic novels are not the tame hero-saves-the-day stories of our fond youths anymore. They instead show a darker and grittier side to our characters in a way that peaks our interest. Therefore it’s my belief that our interests in how the genre of superheroes is presented to us have not exactly changed suddenly but have matured along with us, its passionate fanbase.