It seems that every time you turn around there's a Comic-Con going on somewhere, but the latest one produced a bit of news that will have millions of comics fan boys the world over masturbating frantically as they gaze at their newest Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man poster.
Are you ready? Joss Whedon is set to direct the up-coming Avengers movie. Who said so? Why, Joss himself, in what seems to be a bit of a high pressure power play. He's calling dibs on the project, even though Marvel Studios has yet to issue a press release.
I think Whedon's talents are wasted here, frankly, but I can understand how this might be a dream job for Joss. Although I never bothered with Buffy, Angel, or Firefly, I did enjoy Dollhouse to the extent it made me sorry that I never bothered to tune in to these earlier offerings. But the Avengers? Unfortunately, Whedon is a little bit too suited for the project.
One of the things about Dollhouse that I disliked, that drove me nuts about it-in fact it was the only thing that marred what was otherwise a great series-is Joss's penchant to have his characters engage in snappy repartee'-whilst in the midst of combat. Can you spell C-O-R-N-Y? We're talking Adam West and Burt Ward Batman and Robin style camp. It ruined some episodes of Firefly as much as George Harrison Hindu mysticism songs ruined some Beatles albums for many people. You still loved the albums, you just wished you could forget about that annoying sitar and whiny vocal.
Well, maybe Joss will reign in that tendency in the Avengers, but I wouldn't count on it. He is just now in the process of outlining the script. He claims he sees the Avengers as a kind of family. He then goes on to explain that to him, a family is made up of people that probably shouldn't be together under the same roof.
Such is extent of Whedon's bona-fides with the realm of nerddom, he might be the only one that can hold that comics fan world together long enough to pull in big numbers for this probably ill-advised venture. But if anyone can pull it off, he can.
Whedon's challenge will be to produce a script and direct it in such a way as to maintain an expanded audience over the course of weeks, while hoping for a big enough opening weekend to more than offset any disappointing follow-up.
Big, muscular men in tight-fitting costumes are sure-fire crowd pleasers on any day, so there's already a ready-made base audience of comic books fans. If they pick the right actors, they might pull in a respectable number of female viewers as well.
Of course, I'll be going to see The Wasp.
