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The Marvel comic book

• And the Fandom Rejoiced: Avengers: The Children's Crusade full-stop. Basically a series that exists simply to outright overturn the much hated "Avengers Disassembled" storyline as well as allowing Allan Heinberg to finish the storylines he was banned from doing in Young Avengers (confirming Wiccan and Speed as Scarlet Witch and Vision's kids and bringing back Scott Lang, which was foreshadowed at the end of Heinberg's first Young Avengers arc).
  • Dan Slott taking over "Mighty Avengers".
  • Warren Ellis' brief run on Secret Avengers, which was basically Global Frequency Volume 2.
• Author Appeal: George Perez designed a new costume◊ for the Scarlet Witch, which reveals that she does not wear panties. He has stated that she is his favorite character.
• Author's Saving Throw: Hank Pym, whose involvement in the Civil War debacle was negated by the reveal that he was a Skrull during that storyline.
  • Earlier than that, Avengers Forever was meant as an Author's Saving Throw for the reviled "Crossing" arc, and along the way it simplified the Kang/Immortus connection so that future writers would not have to worry about it. Not that future Avengers writers have made use of Immortus anyway, and Kang was killed off by the next writer to use him.
    • Avengers: The Children's Crusade full-stop.
• Broken Base: The fan base is pretty much irreversibly split on Brian Michael Bendis' contributions to the franchise, let alone the John Byrne Avengers West Coast run.
• Creator's Pet: Jessica Jones and Luke Cage for Bendis, Mantis for Steve Englehart, Sersi for Bob Harras, Hank Pym for Dan Slott, and Sharon Carter for Ed Brubaker
• Downer Ending:
  • Vision Quest
  • The Crossing
  • Avengers Disassembled
  • Civil War
  • Secret Invasion
  • "Operation: Galactic Storm", about the Kree-Shi'ar War, ended with the Kree Supreme Intelligence detonating a Nega bomb and obliterating most of its own species in an attempt to jump start their evolution. Half of the Avengers were so disgusted with this that they executed him.
    • It goes into an even bigger downer than that: Iron Man's participation in this sparked his descent into evil and the start of The Crossing, the aforementioned Continuity Snarl of a crossover. Then it all feeds into Onslaught...
• Fanon Discontinuity: Everything since Chuck Austen took over the book in 2003.
• God Mode Sue: Mantis under Steve Engelhart.
• Ho Yay: Iron Man and Captain America. And for them it's all over the place, starting in the classics and continuing to present day. Just look at Civil War: Confessions.
• Never Live It Down:
  • For Iron Man, both his alcoholism and Civil War.
  • For Hank Pym, hitting his wife during a drug-addled Freak Out.
• One-Scene Wonder: Pilot Marko appears for about five pages in Secret Avengers #17, and you are about to read every word he's ever spoken, but he steals the book.
  Pilot Marko: Yes! Pilot Marko shoots stupid Yankee zillion-dollar plane right in its stupid bluddy face! Where is your bluddy Steve Jobs tricknology now, Rich Yankee Pigs with your tight pants?◊
  Valkyrie: (activates Extreme Separation Protocol)
  Pilot Marko: ... They throw bluddy airplane bum at Pilot Marko?◊
  (Pilot Marko go bye-bye)
  • This... This is what happens when you let Warren Ellis write the Avengers.
• Protection From Editors: Brian Michael Bendis, whose tenure on the title has seen him being able to do as he pleases, which has not been received favorably by all.
  • This has changed though, if Avengers Vs X-Men, Siege, The Heroic Age relaunch of the classic adjectiveless Avengers book, and "Avengers: The Children's Crusade" are any indication.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks Basically every single line-up change in the fluid roster has gotten some criticism, but Brian Michael Bendis' reboot and Mark Millar's revisioning stand out in terms of negative feedback.
• The Woobie: The Hulk.

The movie based on the comic book

• And the Fandom Rejoiced:
  • Joss Whedon is directing the movie. Expect lots of nerdgasms to occur.
  • This extended to the score, with Alan Silvestri returning from Captain America: The First Avenger (whose music was a hit with many) and thus becoming the first composer since Marvel began backing their own films to score two movies.
  • Now that the movie is out, we are shown with The Stinger and guess who shows up? THANOS.
  • More of a case of "And the Viewers Rejoiced," but some people in the audience cheered at Captain America's line of "There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure He doesn't dress like that." in reference to Thor and Loki.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Years of superhero movies have taught viewers to expect that a final battle between The Avengers and Loki would happen towards the end of the movie. It doesn't happen quite that way: see Crowning Moment of Funny below.
• Awesome Music: Alan Silvestri's score, particularly the Avengers anthem. Try to listen to it and not feel ready to repel an Alien Invasion. Go on, try. We'll wait.
• Catharsis Factor: The Hulk giving Loki the beating of his life. After seeing the latter spend the entire movie being such a Smug Snake—and especially his callous murder of Agent Coulson—this was very satisfying to watch.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: Everything. Okay, maybe not everything. But the mere fact that this movie was made, with all of its characters, all of its actors, and all of the plot lines leading into it... and it ended up being one of the great Comic Book movies of all time. Big ups to everybody involved, from Kevin Feige and Whedon on down.
• Crowning Trailer Of Awesome:
  • Shown as The Stinger to Captain America: The First Avenger. It's as awesome as one would think, and then some.
  • Also the Super Bowl trailer, especially the extended cut.
  • The second official trailer. Holy effin' crap.
• Crowning Moment of Funny: So very, very, VERY many, but one of the best is the Hulk's incredible and hilarious beatdown of Loki as if he was a rag doll immediately after this gem.
  Loki: "ENOUGH! All OF YOU ARE BENEATH ME! I AM A GOD YOU DULL CREATURE! AND I WILL NOT BE BULLIED BY—!" (Interrupted by the Hulk snatching him up by the legs and slamming him back and forth against the floor as if he was a flyswatter and the Stark Tower was crawling with roaches, leaving him prone and stunned in the resulting rubble.)
  Hulk: "Puny god."
• Draco in Leather Pants: Go on, look at Tumblr. Search for Loki. We dare you. The fangirls have gone nuts about Loki ever since the first Thor film.
• Ear Worm: Like the sun, we will live to rise...
• Ensemble Darkhorse: The Hulk (and Mark Ruffalo as Banner, remarkable for The Other Darrin.)
• Fan Dumb:
  • Some fans complained about Black Widow's lack of a Russian accent. She identifies herself as Russian in the film but talks about having been raised in the United States and then spending a lot of time abroad. Additionally, she's an international spy who has mastered multiple languages. So obviously, she can speak with a perfect accent. If she couldn't, she wouldn't be very good at her job. The comic character has never been described as having a Russian accent and in fact, has passed herself off as an American citizen more than once so it is safe to say that the original version speaks English with a US accent.
  • Some fans were enraged at Cap's line about Thor ("There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure He doesn't dress like that"), claiming that Joss Whedon was having a case of religious Writer on Board. Putting aside the fact that Cap has always been a deeply religious Christian (and therefore such a line isn't out of character for him), Joss Whedon himself is a staunch humanist who once derisively referred to the Abrahamic God as "the sky bully."
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Thorbuster" for Coulson's unnamed BFGExplanation
    The name came from an Iron Man suit Tony designed based on Norse weaponry in case he had to take on the pantheon.
  • Shawarmavengers, for the second stinger.
• Fridge Brilliance: Loki gets his mouth sewn shut in the Norse myths after a trick with the dwarfs goes awry. At the end of the movie, there's a muzzle over his mouth as he's taken away to Asgard.
• Fridge Horror:
  • Considering that it took going unconscious to break Loki's Mind Control, take a look at Hawkeye and Selvig throughout the movie. This is especially true for Selvig—he never changes clothing and starts noticeably growing stubble. It's clear that Loki is forcing those he controls to stay awake constantly in order to complete his project. It also explains why Hawkeye looks worse and worse. It may also have affected him while fighting with Natasha.
• He's Just Hiding: Coulsen is speculated to have actually survived his encounter with Loki. The fact that Nick Fury was later revealed to have at the very least lied about where his Captain America cards were located, as well as his actor stating that Whedon has him booked for more Marvel movies also leads credence to this.
• Ho Yay: A lot of the lines between Stark and Banner sound kinda flirty. Couple that with the scene where the Hulk saves Iron Man twice in rapid succession, and the fact that these two are the only two members of the Avengers to hit it off the instant they meet...
  • Perhaps it's less suspect in Asgard, but the way Thor cupped Loki's cheek and neck while asking him to come home seemed a bit affectionate (in a not so brotherly manner) to mortal audiences.
  • Cap and Thor. Seriously. That searching look Thor gives Cap when Cap goes on fighting after he's hit...it's like a light went on inside his head.
  • As in the comics, Cap even gets this with Stark. During their arguments, one can't help but think, "Just KISS already!"
    • You know it's bad when a prominent article (tweeted by director Brad Bird) singled out their exchanges as "crypto-erotic tension".
  • Agent Coulson's fanboy tendencies toward Cap is played for laught, but the way he tells "I watched you when you slept" can be interpreted in some way...
• Hype Backlash: With so much hype, this was bound to happen to some.
• Iron Woobie: Bruce Banner.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Few people really believed that Iron Man was going to kick it.
• Magnificent Bastard: Loki zig-zags between this and Smug Snake.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "I have an army!" "We have a Hulk."
  • Also, variations of this piece of dialogue:
  Steve Rogers: Big man in a suit of armor, take that away and what are you?
  Tony Stark: Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist.
  • Many prefer "Stark Naked".
  • "I still believe in heroes."
  • "I understood that reference!"
  • "Puny god."
  • Loki calling Black Widow a "mewling quim." It's produced some interesting◊ reactions◊, to say the least.
  • Tony Stark & Bruce Banner: SCIENCE BROS◊
  • "I watched you when you were sleeping." (Usually accompanied by references to Edward and Bella.)
  • The phrase "green rage monster" to describe the Hulk.
  • Hawkeye's ass. Jeremy Renner only seems to be encouraging this.◊
  • Cap's ass. That shot of him from behind going at that punching bag must be the most gif'ed thing on Tumblr.
  • LOKI'D!
  • "Kids in 2012 your Aunt Robin decided to join the Avengers...◊
• Narm: The UK's Market-Based Title "Avengers Assemble".
  • To a mild degree, Captain America's costume in some shots.
  • This troper was in hysterics during Agent Coulser's death. Why? Because it looked like Samuel L. Jackson was going to kiss him and seemed to be staring lovingly into his eyes, and it wasn't helped with lines like, "I'm clocking out," followed immediately by "NOT an option!!".
• One-Scene Wonder: Harry Dean Stanton as the random security guard. "Son, you've got a condition."
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The Hulk. Two previous attempts to bring the character to the cinema screen proved somewhat lackluster (middling box-office gross, lukewarm reviews), the role got recast once again, and the character had already developed a reputation of being the most boring of the team. However, a combination of Mark Ruffalo's acting and clever screenwriting turned The Hulk into an unexpected favourite of the movie, making the possibility of a new Hulk film much more likely. Might be one of the fastest turnaround times for this ever. Shortly before release producer Kevin Feige said there were no plans for a Hulk movie. Shortfly after release it was let slip that a Hulk movie may be in development for 2015 and that Mark Ruffalo had signed on for six more films.
• Special Effects Failure: Minor one, repeatedly after the scenes once they're on the helicarrier, the arc reactor's light is not visible through Tony Starks's shirt when it should be. It comes and goes.
  • Also, when Iron Man runs Thor up the cliff during their fight scene, Thor is quite clearly CG.
• Take That:
  • The album of Alan Silvestri's score. How can a soundtrack be a Take That, you ask? Well, soundtrack fans have long complained about digital releases having extra material not on the CD (most recently with Silvestri's Captain America: The First Avenger, which doesn't have this on the disc and was only available as a download). The digital album of the score of The Avengers lasts 64:25... but the physical CD runs 76:17, and several of the tracks on the download last longer on the CD (in particular "Tunnel Chase"—not the first time Silvestri's used that title—and "Stark Goes Green"), capped with the CD having a whole extra cue ("Interrogation"). Of course, if you're strictly download-only...
• Too Cool to Live: Agent Coulson.
• Ugly Cute: The Leviathans.
• Villain Decay: Loki isn't quite as menacing as he was in Thor, but he's still a lot of fun to watch.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: A movie about a superhero team required an equally awesome team of visual effect studios to get right, with ILM and WETA spearheading the effort.

The TV series with Patrick Macnee

• Hilarious in Hindsight: Doesn't Steed look rather like a certain Prime Minister of the UK in the page picture?
• Memetic Outfit: The Spy Catsuits.
• Recycled Script: Several scripts from the Cathy Gale period were remade as Emma Peel stories after the series took off in America.
• Replacement Scrappy: Tara King.
• Seasonal Rot: Sixth season, with Tara King.