The Steves assemble with Logan Martin to discuss Marvel's 2012 blockbuster, The Avengers, along with what they are Binging and Purging in pop culture.
Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.
The Steves assemble with Logan Martin to discuss Marvel's 2012 blockbuster, The Avengers, along with what they are Binging and Purging in pop culture.
Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.
Hello returning happies and new listeners. This is Steve
Stephen:Bennet-Martin, and this is Stephen Martin-Bennet. And welcome to a lifetime of happiness.
Steve:The podcast where we take you on our journey through some of the movies, TV shows, and other bits of pop culture that are helping to keep us happy. We'll hopefully bring a smile to your face along the way.
Stephen:And it's time for Avengers, a symbol with our special guest, our nephew, Logan, Martin,
Logan:to a lifetime of
Stephen:happiness. Yes.
Steve:Welcome Logan. And this is normally the place where we would introduce how, how you know us. But since you're related to us as Stephen's nephew, I feel like that kind of explains everything right there as to how you met. Yep.
Stephen:I was there the day he was born. And that first I was the only one that could hold him where he wouldn't cry every way. Like dad held him cry, mom, very
Steve:caring. And I held him no cry. And the same is still true today. Huh?
Stephen:He's a little heavier now, but I can still pick him up. So, but what's making you happy this week. Darlin.
Steve:I am still trying to brainstorm that my love. So why don't you go first? Starling I'll have something
Stephen:for me today and it, like I was going to be something else. And then it's E three, this weekend that we're recording and it'll be past that because of the magic of podcasting and things, but we just watched the Nintendo direct and there's a lot of fun stuff coming up for the Nintendo switch over the next seven or eight months. I am so excited for and Ropa. Oh, dang. And Ropa is going to be great. I'm also super excited for a Metroid five or Metroid dread as it's called. So that was very exciting for me. And we got to see a brand new trailer for the SQL to breath of the wild. So. Good stuff coming up over the next seven, eight months for switch owners seems
Steve:like they
Stephen:from what I understood, they could have just shown up and said, here's the trailer for breath of the wild. And they would have won, but they didn't more so that works.
Steve:Excellent. Logan what's been making it. You happy?
Logan:One thing that's been making me happy. I just finished actually music, directing a brand new musical slash rock opera. If you will called worthy souls is technically on faculty over at a state college of Florida for that, which is a lot of fun and really cool to be a part of.
Stephen:Yeah, you did an excellent job. Like it was really cool to see him up on stage and conducting or rock band pretty much is how it was. And it's always great to see you play because you have so much talent and it's a very good natural talent that like there is music talent on our side of the family, and then there's a lot of musical talent on your mom's side of the family. So combining the two. You're very good. And you were very
Steve:proud uncle. Yes,
Stephen:I am very proud. Yes. I'm a Gunckel uncle, uncle.
Logan:I put it together.
Steve:it's a teachable moment. And I did remember what's making me happy and making our Nintendo Lego sad.
Stephen:Oh. And that has been fantastic. We've been building on the NES Lego set, which count where you build the original Nintendo and a TV.
Steve:Yeah, the Nintendo entertainment system, the super Mario game cartridge game controller. And now we're working on the TV right now and it's been just such a blast, you know, working with our fingers, working on something together, you know, normally every third page, you mess up when you're by yourself, but with you and I working together, we fix each other's oopsies and it's been just
Stephen:really great. This piece goes here. Can you.
Steve:I confirm. And if you've been reading what was it, the hell you Allianz, then you understand the joke there. Yes.
Stephen:Now are we have a binge and purge section where we talk about the things you should be bingeing or the things you should purge from your life. And sometimes they are new Netflix, Hulu shows or seasons of regular things that we just say, you really need to be watching this. And as
Steve:one that was worth going out to the movies, even though you could stay home, it's worth going out is to see in the
Stephen:Heights. Yes. In the Heights is a movie version of the musical by Lin Manuel Miranda telling the story of a couple blocks in Washington Heights in New York city. And it's filled with such a joy and the colors and the choreography like, oh, It like, there are so many things in, in the Heights that are really good masterclass in how to tell a story in musical theater, because we've talked about, I want songs before. Yes. And I want songs are whenever you find out a little bit of a character's past, but also their motivations that are going to pro Pell them throughout the movie or
Steve:musical, we actually discussed in our little mermaid episode of the centers, you can go back and find it. If you haven't heard it, it was quite a fabulous episode.
Stephen:Yes, absolutely. And in the Heights does a really good job with that because there are several characters right there at the beginning that do I want songs that just propel the story so much and. Yes. Kashi ear worms.
Steve:Oh yeah. Cause I mean, if many people have heard of Lin Manuel Miranda before because of Hamilton. Yes, exactly. And so I, myself, I'm not a huge history buff. I spend most of my life trying to forget what happened in the past, not remember it. And so with that being said, you know, Hamilton wasn't necessarily my gig all the way. Like some of them were the songs and like the style of the music, just that the content wasn't really for me. And so putting this into it, you know, it was definitely more of a content that I was like in for, and I really enjoyed, so yes, definitely worth of to the point where I was rewatching it the other day, while I was working on outlines for the
Stephen:podcast. And it's so good. I have the soundtrack on my phone and I've been listening to that. And like, I find myself like with the little ear worm songs, like I've been going around the house for several weeks ago on puss in CIA ferry, which means patients and face.
Steve:Yes. And we were certainly helps to say that around the house with me around.
Stephen:And was there anything else that you wanted to share with listening public? Yes. It's
Steve:a light bench. It's not everyone drop your pants right now and run out and go get it. I don't know how that would work.
Stephen:That didn't
Steve:fly, but yes. Do like me Topia for the switch is something I've been playing recently. And while I would consider it a binge, it is certainly something worth the experience. It's more just because it was just so cute and well done. And it were kind of reminds me of that if like Nintendo's even worse. Like the Nintendo mainstream games are always better than like most games. They're always good games. Like Nintendo doesn't make bad games. They just make good games are great games, still level
Stephen:of Polish that Nintendo puts on things. And especially the ones that are slightly quirky, like me topian yeah. Oh, it has such character
Steve:with it. Cause you get to make your, your own MES. So you get to name them after things like the towns of at visit, I would make after the different TVs or movies, of course like the first one was Sunnydale and stuff like that. Yeah. From Buffy, but then the party that I'm traveling with was you me, Remy and Laura. And so I got to like go around and it's just like, and then like you get a horse halfway through. So of course I make him a unicorn because Remy's favorite animals. Next thing we know, like Remy sleeping in the barn with his unicorn, talking about how they're best friends. Well, like you and Laura are bickering over, who likes me more. And I'm like, this is the best experience ever. And you know that the gameplay itself isn't anything thinking braking, but they, the experience is certainly just it's quirky and it's fun. And so if you need a, you know, a light bit of marshmallow fluff in a video game, I would say that that's definitely what me Topia.
Stephen:That's. I mean, I watched you play it and I helped you build the Remy me.
Steve:I, my imagination. Isn't great with me characters. I have no imagination with that. I imagine with my words, not with my pictures.
Stephen:Yes. I'm more of the visual creative, and you're more of the word creative,
Steve:but yes, enough about what's been making us happy of what is making us happy about the adventurous specifically. Why did we choose this as a movie?
Stephen:So the Avengers, it was the first combination of several years of a plan like Marvel studios, Kevin faggy. They started plotting out this thing and introducing characters individually. And you could tell it was all building towards something even tangentially. They were connected and they were building and they built to the first well done. Superhero, Tema movie ever the Avengers. And we will get into all the great things about it. But we should probably talk about how we got there. So previously on Marcus. Yes.
Steve:Well, it all started with iron man in 2008 when Marvel announced that they were going to make an Ironman movie and everyone said, who the fuck is iron man?
Stephen:So you know that I've been an X-Men fan forever and a day, they announced iron man. And I was like, what a third rate character are you kidding me with this right now? I didn't go see it. Like did not. And then somebody at work bought it for me as my secret Santa gift when I was working at peanuts and I went home and I watched it that night because we had a snow storm, so I wasn't going out. And I was like, well, damn, this is good. Yeah. And then from then on out, I was. Seldom I'm sold on Marvel, because that was just good. So, but tell us how it all went down. I can't
Steve:believe it came out in 2008. I know that certain thing years ago started in 2008. And so in, I would summarize it as genius, billionaire Playboy for a philanthropist, which is what he calls himself in that movie. Tony stark is captured and critically injured in Afghanistan at the hands of Obadiah stain, his father's old business partner fancy science and an arc reactor powers, heart, and a suit of armor to aid in his escape. He makes a better one back at home while we see us chemistry between him and his assistant pepper Potts. Agent Phil coast, Colson of shield tries to get details of Stark's captivity to go after stain and introduces him to the idea of shield stay and ultimately comes for stark first, though, who wins out after a long fight the next day after his victory, he comes out at a press conferences, iron man. And that is the start of the first phase.
Stephen:And that is one of the big things because you know, Superman, Batman, they have hidden alter
Steve:egos. That's the crux of every superhero. That's superhero 1 0 1. Isn't it Logan
Logan:it's like, where's your mask,
Steve:bro. Yeah, exactly. So the fact that like, it was like, I just changed the way that you eat, determine what superheroes are, what these stories are going to be today.
Stephen:And I liked in the first one whenever Tony was first flying and he was calling. Roadie. And he was like, Hey, it's me. Yeah, I know you're calling me. No, no. I mean, the thing you're chasing that's me.
Steve:Yeah. Yes. And so before we even got a chance to move on to another character in the phase week, they continued on the story with iron man too. Where we know that he's a superhero, but he learns that the palladium corn is arc reactor that keeps him alive and gives him the power as to his armor is killing him at the same time. A former star can play sun. Meanwhile, Ivan vanco, AK whiplash goes after a stark at the Monaco, historic grand Prix, which access his audition for Stark's rival hammer to hire him, to make an army of suits to rival Starks director fury gives stark some of his dad's old info that helps them make an arc that will not kill him. Meanwhile, black widow, AKA Natasha Romanov starts off as a shield, spy playing as Tony's assistant, but later helps him take down hammer. The rival suits go after Ironman, who fights them off with his ally, the iron Patriot. Who defeats vanco before vanco blows himself up. Fury ends with telling stark that because of his difficult personality, he'll be acting as a consultant only for the ventures
Stephen:initiative, which makes sense, because stark is not a team player.
Steve:Yes. And might I add that? I love all of these movies, but that one is plot was such a cluster dump that like summarizing and like, that was just,
Stephen:and, but I think that's one of those that you go back and it aged better than it initially viewed. That's true. And that's the same with iron man three, like, which I consider the most problematic of the iron man, just because I'm like really it's the
Logan:more suits that they added the funkier seem to get. Yes. He wants a suit of armor around the
Stephen:world, but
Steve:that's a later, I was gonna say, let's get into a giant green guy that needs no suit whatsoever. My love Hulk
Stephen:smash. Yes. So In the Avengers, Bruce banner, and the incredible Hawk are played by talented actor, mark refollow he different than the movie though? Because back in 2008, it's incredible Hulk. It was Edward Norton, sometimes best known for fight club. But you know, the powers that be at Marvel said that Edward Norton you know, they needed to be recast because they wanted to find an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of her other talented cast members.
Steve:What a kick in the nuts to Edward Norton.
Stephen:Yeah. It kind of sounds like you're difficult and we can find somebody better. Yeah, that's rough. So to sum up the incredible Hulk due to an accident with gamma radiation, that's linked to a. Testing with along the lines of the world war II, super soldier serum Bruce's infected becomes the Hulk and he will go green when his pulse gets above 200. His lab mate and girlfriend, Betsy Ross, her father general Ross wants to weaponize the Hulk. Banner goes into hiding, but because of a workplace accident in Brazil, he's tracked there there's fights fights fights. He almost goes too far in the final fight against abomination the Betsy's. Please get him to stop. He flees New York city and as the Avengers starting, Bruce is working as Dr. Banner in Calcutta helping the needy. And that's the first time that he and Blackwood. Ever see each other and they have excellent instant chemistry.
Steve:Yes, certainly they do. And before we get into their chemistry in this movie, the Avengers why don't we have Logan give us a little background on
Stephen:Thor. Actually, I will just sum up the war for you. He gets out of a shower, puts a towel around his waist and walks across the screen. I think that's what you need to know. That that
Steve:is an important part, especially for the woman who saw it in front of you.
Stephen:Yeah. There was an old lady that sat in front of me and when he walked out with just the towel and kind of dripping wet, and this lady that was in her seventies just went, damn, I about lost it. It was so good. Yes. But let's,
Steve:let's get the view from a, a straight guy that, that can exceed past the, the many, many, many abs.
Logan:Yes. So, I mean, to be honest, I don't even remember that scene. So so let me I guess I'll just run through the whole movie first. I think it just kind of overviews and introduces us to the different people have like, as garden, the different nine realms, you know, this is kind of like taking us off of earth for a second. We're dealing with a whole new crew of people and kind of starts with Thor and kind of his crew of warriors, like going to like wage war against these frost giants that his father Odin went into battle with long lines time ago, and basically like almost destroyed, but then kind of just brushed it off and was just like, yeah, no, we want world peace instead of destruction. He, you know, oh, and I think as a whole nother, you know, bag of chips, but so essentially, you know, they're they're kind of fighting with the frost giants throughout the course of the movie luckiest figuring out that he is a frost giant. Yes, he's interesting. And I love that whole part, but so you know, there's constantly like this sibling rivalry between Loki and Thor, Loki, you know, just always kind of looking for conflict. You know, really all that I think he wanted from the get-go was just to kind of be seen as Thor's equal. Whereas Thor was just like, I want war, give me kills
Stephen:and Thor was found to be unworthy by his father because of his brash actions against the frost
Logan:giants. Yeah. He didn't think it all the way through. So essentially he gets cast to earth and, you know, right after he's, you know, sent down there, you know, Odin says to the hammer, he's like, whosoever is worthy of ruling as guard, you know, show half the power of the war and then throws the hammer. And that's kind of where it starts us off on. You know, we see Jane Foster and Dr. Eric Selvig and oh, wow. I'm forgetting the sister's name. Help me out. Darcy Darcy, Darcy Lewis. Yes. Dr.
Stephen:Darcy Lewis. Darcy, who was one of the best as parts of one division? Yes. Yes. Yes.
Steve:She's a ball of delight. The one, one of the two main girls from two broke girls. Yep.
Logan:Yeah. And by the way, you know, if you haven't been watching TV at all on 2021 watch one division that should be like been binge and purge. Thor's number one goal is let me get my hammer. I'm going to go back to as guard and, you know, try and make things right here. And. He is not worthy, so he can't pick up the hammer and he has to go through this whole kind of arc of realizing like, Hey, I've still got a lot of stuff to learn here before I'm really worthy of being king. So all the meanwhile this is happening, Loki is, you know, doing a whole bunch of stuff and as guard and coming up with lies and basically finding his own way to the throne so that he can lead the frost giants in to kill Odin and fast forward.
Steve:And so he fakes his own death at the end. Yes, he does.
Logan:So at the very end you know, They're finishing up their battle on earth. Thor says, I'll be back for you. Jane then destroys the by frost and can't go back. Low-key ends up falling into oblivion. We assume that he's dead. And then we see an, an after credit scene that he is still alive and maybe even taking on like the persona of Dr. Eric Selvig and a vocal scene with Nick fury as for Odin and all the other people, you know, that, you know, they're in their respective realm. You know, anybody who's an Asgard is an Asgard. Anybody who is in earth is on earth.
Stephen:Yeah. Yeah. Back on mid guard. That leads us to the last one before the Avengers, but technically the first chronologically captain America, the first Avenger from 2011, starring Chris Evans as captain Steve Rogers. So. Way back in the day, Steve Rogers, during world war two, wants to join the army and prove its worth. He gets rejected for his scrawny body and poor health upon hearing his pleased on why he wants to have them list. A doctor takes pity on him and puts him actually in as a candidate in the super soldier serum program. Through some tests, his heart, empathy and courage prove he is better than all the other, and that are possible candidates. And he's given the serum, which gives him super strength, speed, endurance. And muscles. Yes. Lots of muscles. Yeah. And there are fights with Nazis, his best friend, Bucky Barnes falls from a train and supposedly dies. Howard stark gives Steve his famous shield. There's romance with best MCU character agent, Peggy Carter. And then there's a fight with the red skull and he gets the Tesseract back. And then he's on this aircraft. That's destined to crash into the United States and kill a bunch of people. And Steve's like, I can control it, but I can't land it anywhere. Safely. Tesseract burns through the craft and falls into the ocean. And Steve, after a tearful and killed me goodbye between he and Peggy over the radio pilots, the craft into the Arctic where he is frozen and you think he's dead. And then all of a sudden, Steve wakes up in the hospital, but he hears a broadcast of a baseball game. That he actually saw in person. So he knows something is up. He gets up, runs out all of a sudden he's in modern day, times square. We find out he's been asleep for 70 years. Nick fury approaches him and we rejoin the Avengers already in progress. Yes.
Logan:Do you want to know how bad I am at this? I forgot one of the, like the tiny, tiny cameos. That's actually kind of important to like starting the vendor's thing. You're so
Steve:Hawkeye, you can say, do you want to do the other one? Yeah. So you're not so like, so little also, I mean, you're not wrong to forget about Hawkeye. He is the forgotten Avenger and it's sad
Stephen:though, but the question that I want to pose to everybody, is it the character of Hawkeye? Is it Jeremy Renner's emotionless
Steve:performance. It's Jeremy Renner for me, I
Logan:think it's a balance. I think that he's, he's kind of grown into the role a little bit more, but he's still under scripted. I think that they could have given him a little bit more of a role somewhere. Yeah. Or maybe, maybe that's something that we'll figure out a little bit more of. I'm hoping in the black widow
Stephen:movie coming out in July or the Hawkeye TV show that comes out next year or that one.
Steve:Yes. And so with the Avengers movie one of the many reasons why we chose this, cause we love cult classics and this one is just a tiny, tiny week movie. Yeah.
Stephen:I mean, no, nobody really saw it. So we're kind of introducing it to probably some people probably have never heard of
Steve:it. Well, most of you probably. So it came out in April 11th, 2012 and had a, a box office or a budget, I mean of$220 million, which is putting a lot of stake for a movie that no one's ever heard of before. I know, but it ended up with a box office of one point. Five one$9 billion.
Stephen:So it was the little movie that could
Steve:exactly yes, they did. That is B with 1,000,000,008 over one and a half billion dollars. And then movie theaters
Stephen:at that point, it had become the number one movie ever.
Steve:Yes. And I actually, at the time it was number three.
Stephen:Oh, that's right. It was number three because it had avid one was avatar
Logan:and two was
Stephen:helped me here. Probably one of the star wars movies.
Steve:Mark was in the top. No
Stephen:dress apart was only like 575 doesn't matter. It was number three. Yes. It was number three. I remember it. It set a record for biggest opening weekend ever.
Steve:Yes. And that is quite impressive. It also happens to be directed by Joss Whedon, who I know and love from the Buffy verse. Yes. He took over the original story was also Zach Penn, who did the incredible Hulk, but they switched it up and went in his direction instead. And I think he did a great job at managing all those spinning plates and there's a lot of characters
Stephen:and they took what could have been a potentially too serious and too dark of a movie and added the humor that Wieden is known for because he was originally put in in the first X-Men movie back in 2000 to punch up the script and add in humor like the scene where. Mystique has taken over Wolverine's form and they're not sure who they've run into and Wolverine says, wait, wait, it's me. And cycop says, prove it. And Wolverine goes, you're a Dick. That was a Wieden lie. And then he
Steve:added him. Yeah. That sounds like a weed in line. Yes. And so in addition to the previous adventurous, who all come back for the movie, we also add Colby smolders as Maria
Stephen:Hill. She is fantastic as Marie Hill. I really appreciate Murray hill from the comics. Yes.
Steve:So I love Colby smolders from how I met your mother. Yes. And so, as you mentioned, it was the third highest grossing film of all time at the time. It is now still number eight and Marvel is just taking over that top 10 list.
Stephen:Yeah. Marvel probably has, I would say five of the top eight
Steve:or top 10 at least. Yeah. Yeah. But with this, IMDV summarizes this movie as Earth's mightiest heroes must come together and learn to fight as a team. If they're going to stop the mischievous low-key and his alien army from enslaving humanity. And that is a pretty good summary.
Stephen:It is a pretty good summary, but a lot of the movie is spent on them coming together.
Steve:Yes. And so that's why if I was to rewrite it, it would be Nick fury, assembles, Sierra it's mightiest heroes to fight against low-key and an army of aliens set on taking over our planet. But if they must first stop fighting each other. Yep.
Stephen:And you know, that they added in a lot of those fight scenes because the audience would want to be like. Well, of course, I want to see Hulk and iron man go at
Steve:it. Or I was gonna say, and actually one of the only few ones of that, just on the director's commentary said that was mandated by Marvel, but they say you have to have Thor versus iron man. We don't care how it happens, make it happen. That's like our money shot.
Stephen:Yeah. And that was a really good one up there on top of the mountain with the lightning flashing
Steve:and powering up the suit and everything just, yeah, it worked out really well. I can see why they wanted
Stephen:it and throwing captain America into the mix too.
Steve:Yes. Yeah. Dad comes in to stop the fight.
Stephen:Yeah. I like captain America was never a character that I cared about. The first Avengers movie sold me and I think it really was Chris Evans earnest portrayal because even in the current comics, like I know that the X-Men are kind of against The Avengers. And so captain America can be quite a Dick sometimes to our X-Men. So I like MCU captain America, not a huge fan of comic
Steve:captain America. And it's interesting because the Avengers are based off of comics. The Avengers was a replacement at the last minute for a Daredevil issue. Number one, it was but the artists, bill Everett of Daredevil suppose that alcoholism resulted in him missing the deadline to be able to submit Daredevil number one in time. So at the very last minute Stanley and Jack Kirby rushed in and basically made their own rip on DCS justice league. So the, in the very first issue apparent, you know, I didn't read through every single panel. I read the synopsis, but it very much reads like something that was thrown together at the last minute. And the first issue low-key tricks Hulk into blowing up a bridge and then calls upon a rock. Who causes Ironman ant, man, and the loss and Thor to team up to clear Hulk's name and take down low-key they then decide to form the Avengers. And so immediately you have a couple of names there that we don't meet normally until much later ant man, and the loss who are two of the founding members of the Avengers in the comic, but don't come in until phase two. Yeah, well, one's phase two and one's technically phase three. Yeah.
Stephen:Well she becomes the wasp for phase
Steve:three. Yes. And then the team revolves regularly in the comics where within like by the second issue, Hulk left by the third issue and man had become giant man for good cap, the thought out of ice by issue four. And they got a lot of formal, former villains, like black widow and Hawkeye,
Stephen:or even as we know Wanda Maxim off and Pietro Maximov because hinder that Wanda, the pretender, because they were part of Magneto's brotherhood of evil mutants before they joined up with the Avengers. Yes.
Steve:And so with the, the movie itself, the Avengers a lot is happening, but it all basically revolves around the fact that Loki takes the Tesseract. And he takes over Hawkeye and that Skarsgard what's his name? Dr.
Stephen:yes. I was just referring to him as dad Skarsgard too. Yes.
Logan:With the hot guy thing too. I just want to throw this out there. Cause you know, tags on what we said. They literally like in the very beginning of the movie, you know, Loki is like, you know, literally what would you say? Like hypnotizing, the two of them. And so it's like, we have Hawkeye, who's probably had three lines so far in the MCU as an Avenger three lines and he still doesn't get to develop still.
Steve:Well, yeah. And it's like, they got him in handcuffs. Well, Jocelyn, Jocelyn admitted. He goes when, when he was trying to figure what to do with everything, he's like, I had no idea what the hell to do with Hawk eyes.
Stephen:So, and I think that's a big thing with a lot of people and if it were a comic yeah. That's where you write somebody out. Is whenever a writer is like, I don't know what to do with them. They just leave the team and you can't do that in the
Steve:movies. Yeah. And they keep, they keep Hawkeye around. So with that black widow gets called out of an interrogation. So
Stephen:I have to stop you right there because that scene is really good. I, you know, I don't like her as a person.
Steve:It's an awesome scene of her getting interrogated. I mean, and do you like how I say she gets called out of interrogation that leads the listener here, who does not remember the scene specifically to believe that she was leading the interrogation? Was she actually leading the interrogation? Logan?
Stephen:So that's where she's tied up to the chair and the guy thinks that he's leading the interrogation. But she's like, yeah, you gave me everything I needed. Yeah.
Steve:He's doing his villain speak while he's like, you're about to die. She's
Stephen:like, yup. That's all I needed to hear. I got it on tape. So you're going to go down for this. And then she got herself out of the chair and being tied up and she beats them all up and she's doing it while she has a call from fury telling her to go find banner. And so her multitasking in there. Like it's really impressive. It was a really great introduction. And in the age of male dominated superhero with the, especially the misogyny that goes around superhero movies, anyway, I think it was important to introduce how strong she was again. Yes.
Steve:Because I mean, she's always good and be constantly fighting against her being the girl on the team. Yeah. And I mean, it doesn't always help that half the time she's like murdering people with their crotch.
Stephen:Yeah. That, which the first time I ever saw somebody do that was actually FOM, could Jansen in double of seven Goldeneye. Yeah. But, but you
Steve:notice that you never see guys murdering people with their crutches like that, you know, she'll go around snapping necks with her cross left and right. If she needs to. Yeah. But then she gets called out in a retrace Hulk. I mean, what do you think of that chemistry between Bruce banner and black widow Logan
Logan:right out of the gate. I mean, I see them as like two very different
Stephen:people.
Logan:I don't know. They've they've just got like this weird bond, like right out the gate. I couldn't even tell you what over, it just kind of develops out
Stephen:of nothing, I guess, unless I'm just completely
Steve:missing something, but I don't know. I mean, I watched it three times getting ready for this and it was only like maybe the third time where I was like, maybe it's cause they like, they see each other's pain because like when, when he tests her or like with like the, when he gets angry on purpose and she pulls her gun on him, you know, it's a climb was like, kind of like in that moment, like they see each other like, and like their trauma and that they're both running or hiding from things.
Stephen:And whenever she's talking about being trained as she is from a young age and she just has that, I did line oh yeah. And so much it's paid
Steve:because he says, you know, w what was that six year old girl running through here? One of you like to do, they start them that young. I did. Yeah. And like he says it as a joke, and that tells you all, you need to know about her character at that point. Yep.
Stephen:There are just some actors and actresses that have innate chemistry. And I think she and mark refollow have that sort of chemistry that is that easy and that impressive. And it's, I give Scarlet credit for that. And it's very well done.
Steve:Yeah. Yes, it certainly is. And meanwhile, back over with agent Colson is he's assembling, he his fan girling over captain Amar America, who automatically is down for whatever plan it is to save the day because he's captain America. But I just love seeing Colson fan fan boy over heavy asked you about the signing the cards yet. And then later on you see them like they're their first edition.
Stephen:And it'll like, Colson has always been the hard ass in his small scenes leading up to this and this humanized Colson even more. And like Clark, Gregg is a fantastic actor. And over the years with this and Marvel's agents of shield that was on ABC, he created so much depth into agent Colson. And, but you can see all of it in these first six movies. Oh yes.
Steve:You certainly can. As he's getting everything set up meanwhile, a fury goes to get iron man, so to speak who plays hard to get. And Tony stark, of course being a smart ass of, you know, oh, you want me on a team now? I thought I was just a consultant.
Stephen:And like, I think they also needed to take down his ego a bit because obviously Tony thinks you're going to have a team. Of course I'm going to be on it. Well, I'm going to be
Steve:exactly. And that was his thing was of course they're going to be the leader. He was the, the first one, quote, unquote, not counting cap, who he loves, like he automatically hates cap as well because of his daddy complex that he has with his father over, you know, being, working with kids
Stephen:because Howard and cap were friends.
Steve:Yeah, exactly. And so with those amount of issues, it just, and I also feel like they had to start off iron man. Like even though stark went through a lot of character development over those first two movies, he was the only one out of all of these adventures who already has two full movies of backstory. But then they also had to kind of take them back to a point though, where he's being known as the selfish protagonist for the ending to pay off later. So they have to have him come in and being like, no, I'm not the hero. I'm the antihero. I'm the one that doesn't think about anyone else. And that to kind of really lay that on a little thicker than they might normally just so that later on, when he saves the day, it pays off,
Stephen:but they did a good job. Setting that up with him creating stark tower running off its own power supply. So the one thing that Tony loves more than women and money is himself and by him being able to create clean energy that no one else could sets his ego and probably is what took him back a couple notches to be arrogant like he was when you
Logan:think. Yeah, I think so. I love, you know, I mean, this is probably a little bit of a different avenue, but you know, it's like, they, they kind of made him go from like just super ego. Nobody can tell me what to do to, you know, being, I guess, you know, we'll just say a member of the team while keeping that, keeping that to an extent. Yeah.
Stephen:And, and you, you even see that in later movies, like age of Ultron where. He knows better. Like I may be on the team, but I know better.
Steve:And especially in this one, I knew that like, if Josh was having fun writing one person's lines, the most, it was Tony stark hands down. Cause that seems to be the closest to Justin real
Logan:life. A lot of times too, where, you know, I've, I've read that he would improvise just on the fly. Like, you know, we even like little tiny things like his conversations that he would have with banner, he was like carrying around a bag of just like these blueberry snack things. And he's just munching on him while he eats and including it in the dialogue, like, you know, trying to offer them food. Like it's, he's just that kind of, and
Stephen:like Robert Downey Jr had been a huge up-and-coming actor in the nineties. Then he had some personal troubles with addiction. He got a second chance on TV in ally McBeal messed up that second chance again with addiction. And they all had trouble originally when they were starting. The iron man, because some of the insurance companies, weren't sure that they could insurance because I mean, Lindsay Lohan was going through the same thing for awhile because you like, are you going to mess up? There's a liability.
Steve:If everyone's requiring for you to show up and you're notoriously an alcoholic or an addict, who's not going to show up. That's a problem.
Stephen:And one of the great things that Robert Downey Jr has said, is that not only did these movies resurrect his career, they changed his life for them.
Steve:Oh yeah. I bet. I bet. Now, now it helps keep them sober. He, I am iron man.
Stephen:So Loki decides that he's going to start big and. He starts in Germany. Yes,
Steve:he does. And there are certainly summit Hitler alluded lines. As a man stands up in a crowd. The old man is fighting the power and not bending the knee. I
Stephen:love him. And because he, he said, well, he's like Neil. And he goes, no, the last time a man stood in the city and told everyone to kneel before him and alluding to Hitler. And I was like, damn right.
Steve:Yeah. Saying cab does a couple similar lines, but he goes against Loki and the two are facing off and are kind of at a standstill until Ironman comes in and joins and yeah, he just gives up,
Stephen:oh yes, he does give up because. He wants to
Steve:capture it said yes. And that's the one thing is as they're on the Blackbird and Nope, that's ax, Matt, the Quinjet or the helicopter,
Stephen:and they get to the hella carrier.
Logan:Ironman comes in. I could be wrong by saying this, but I'm pretty sure that's like the first time that we've truly seen, like in the movies, two of the superheroes working
Stephen:together.
Steve:Yes. Like
Logan:we technically, you know, even in Thor, we had the scene where like, haka is ready to, you know, ready to fire at Thor, but it wasn't like that, you know, they were, they were opposed. We're talking about like, you know, together, that's the first moment it's like, oh,
Stephen:outside. I think iron man too, when you had iron Patriots and iron man working against whiplash, but that w ironed, this was the first time that you and I are Patriots of tier two, like roadie is a great character, but that was tier two. This is the first time that two big names. Are sharing the screen with their powers in a
Steve:way like that. Yeah. And I mean, two, two is a duo, but three's a party. And that is when Thorim storms into question. Low-key like literally on the plane, he storms in and grabs him and flies back out leading to a false conflict fight with thorn iron man. And on
Stephen:top of a mountain where Loki's just up there and he's like, whatever. I mean, if they had had Loki up there picking up grapes and a pump from arms thinking, Daisy pedals, like he loves me. He loves me not type of thing.
Steve:Exactly. And you know, at that point they should have been like, well, something's up. Cause if he wanted, if he didn't want to be there, he would have escaped, but
Logan:he wants to watch, he wants to watch it all go down. That's what he's all about this whole movie.
Stephen:But yeah, he also, like we find out later he needed to be back on the hella carrier.
Steve:Yes. We're a whole lot of exposition
Stephen:happens. Yeah. The team catches up on the exposition and character. In the hella carrier and what do they learn, darling? They learn
Steve:the Tesseract was being targeted by these aliens now because shield has been using it to create weapons of mass destruction, which is not good. No. And then also just in case people wonder, good guys, don't make weapons of mass destruction for fun
Stephen:now. So you've got good people like Bruce and cap who are like, yeah, no guys.
Steve:And Laura being like you guys, aren't your, planet's disgusting for doing this. And we're like, bro, it's just only a few people. Yeah. But he's right. Yes, he is. We are disgusting. And it leads to a breakdown where the Hulk comes out and in the chaos, what happens to
Stephen:Colson? One of, and it's so painful because he's there and it looks like he's about to stop Loki because he has a gun on low-key. But it turns out that that wasn't low-key was. An illusion and Loki's behind him and shove something right through Colson's chest and he begins to bleed out and die, but he does get a few shots off to help the team in the long
Steve:run. Yes, he certainly does. And then not only does he end up helping the team in that way, but also in his death, very, very much positions that as you know, with the, with the blood on the cards that visual of, you know, and I love later on Maria was like, they weren't. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't, it wasn't his
Stephen:actual,
Logan:you know, I think his exact quote there was, they needed that extra push
Steve:and that they, they exactly did. And so I also spoiled her alert, but he ends up ultimately being okay. And agents of shield, he did die, but then he went to Tahiti. Yeah. So that was fine. No problems there. Watch that from
Logan:the movie. They're just like. And then in the show, he's still like,
Steve:yeah. But whether that the team comes just together in time for the Qatari invasion
Stephen:yeah. Low-key uses stark tower and the energy there and the Tesseract and opens a portal from another dimension that allows the to come to earth.
Steve:Yes. And with that they are not only working on stopping the aliens, but something that I liked after watching man of steel steel is that they actually also tried to save people's lives, which is always nice to having your superheroes.
Stephen:Yeah, because that is my big thing where I really dislike man of steel is because the whole time Superman's like, I don't kill, I don't kill. And then he has the whole fight with general Zod where they're crashing into all these buildings that have not been evacuated and, you know, Thousands of lives were not killed because of General's OD they were killed because of the fight that Superman had with general sod. Yes. But anyway,
Steve:no point to this, they could have just done it in the sky. It wouldn't have been as fun visually, but people wouldn't have had. Yeah. But what did you think of that? Shatara aliens Logan.
Logan:My first thought, I remember thinking like, just going kind of chronologically was like, where did they even come from? Like, how does low-key even know these dudes and what do they want with earth?
Stephen:Well, we find out at the end. How it's all connected and it's
a
Steve:spoilery podcast. So you can say it
Stephen:now, baby. So like banjos was starting this all the way from the beginning because Thanos knew he needed the Tesseract. Exactly.
Steve:And so with that, it was all in an effort to get the tests or act, which we were abusing. But while they are doing that, the tutorial, but the second I saw them, I was like, great faceless. Mine was alien. So we could see them kill things because like the big thing about the Avengers is like, when they're fighting other humans or things, as you don't see them kill and this, they could tear them distress. I
Stephen:loved the giant armored snakes that were also troop carriers that you think that they're robots, but then you realize that they're just flying eel type of things that have been armored.
Steve:Yeah. You also seem to be like somewhat sentient and like, like a hive mind. Like they were just very interesting. I don't know,
Stephen:visually the movie was very impressive during that fight scene. It certainly
Steve:was at definitely had a lot going on for it. My, what was your favorite part of the fight scenes? The
Logan:fight scenes? I, well, I, I feel like I have to say this because it's true. Best part had to have been where they were all like back to back, you know, it's that, it's that cinematic moment where they're all coming together for the first time that
Stephen:gets you in the field, the cover
Logan:art. Like I remember still when those movies were coming out or, well, actually it was before Avengers came out, you had myself and a couple other people over and we watched all the movies in one day. We might, I think we watched Hulk also. Sometimes
Stephen:we did and we watched it at your house. It was we sat on the couch and we had snacks all day and pizza, and it was a good time. So, because I was giving your dad such crap because you had, we were almost to the Avengers and he hadn't bothered to show them to you. What a horrible father you are like, do I need to call 2, 4, 1 kids? Yes.
Logan:Well, regardless it was like all of those hours that we spent watching those movies, which you could never do nowadays. It's like, there's what 23 movies.
Steve:Now you can do it. If you try hard, you could,
Logan:you could. And then yeah, no, no, you don't need
Stephen:to buy some adult diapers, get some Ivy fluids and deck, as Sarah
Steve:said, Ivy land
Logan:So you know, it was like, all of those movies led up to that one moment where it was like, all right, you know, kept starting to make the calls, you know you know, Tony watched the perimeter Hulk smash, which is an awesome line. Yeah.
Stephen:Yeah. That was really, really well done. And it was one of the first times where. Took control of the team and it felt
Steve:natural. Yes. And then, I mean, my favorite part has had to be when Hulk takes care of Loki and brings Loki out of the picture. It like, I am a God and he just grabs my legs. Boom, boom, boom, puny, God.
Stephen:And which goes towards Ragnar rock years later, whenever Thor gets a beat down from Hulk in the same way. And Loki was watching the gladiator fight and he's like, SI, SI. Yeah, SI. That was really good. Call back to that. The whole fight is really good and our heroes are starting to win, but there's more things that are going to be coming
Steve:the weapon of mass destruction that they were getting ready on the ship
Stephen:because they were going to release a nuke into New York. Because they felt that that was the only way to stop the aliens. And our guys were like, these don't
Steve:need
Stephen:New York city.
Logan:Well, and that leads to a really, really nice Nick fury line, which was where he's having the conversation with the council about everything. And they were like, you know, well, what if we don't know New York city? And he said, well, if my guys can't take care of it, then we're already doing.
Steve:Yeah. And luckily though, thanks to Ironman, they are not too late. He hugs the nuke and flies it up in, through the wormhole, into outer space and lets it go. And the big alien target ships go, boom.
Stephen:And then the portal is also being shut down at that point and didn't make it. And you don't know, you think that like phase one has all been building up to iron. Sacrificing himself. And that is his big redemption
Steve:for being an asshole, right? Yeah. And he's like, I'm ready for it. He was ready to die, but he does end up making it and he makes it back down safe and they,
Stephen:and he Hulk catches him. Yeah. Yes.
Steve:And so you know, the, the team ends up saving the day, but at the end of the day, after some dinner and then
Stephen:because they all go get shwarma, which is really good. If anybody hasn't had it and they go their separate ways where Thor takes Loki and in handcuffs. And Bruce is going to go his own way. One of the good Bruce lines that I liked where they were like, you know, what's your secret? You know, how do you get angry? That's the thing. I'm always angry. Yes.
Steve:And so with that being said with the movie, who is your favorite Avenger? Logan
Logan:favorite Avenger. I mean, of, of the ones that we see at this point, I would say iron man, Y I think it's just the, the character himself. Like it's, it's not so much the powers I know, as a kid, I, it was, you know, it was all about who could do what, you know, I love Spiderman because the webs spider, but for iron man, it just felt like, you know, the, the constant, like comedic relief and the, like the ego and the constant funny jokes, like it always just pulled me right back in
Steve:Yeah. And what about
Stephen:you? My love, I think it has to be captain America for me, which is a big shock, but I like that he stood up for the underdog. He stands up for what's right. And. He doesn't have any ulterior motive. He's very earnest. He's very forthright. And he's fighting the fights that need fighting. Yes. And I appreciate that because you know me, like, if there's a good cause and a fight needs fighting, I'm going to be there on the front
Steve:line. Yes. And I mean, I've loved cap as well. I mean, I am in any RPG. I always am the white Knight build. I always want to do all the right decisions. If you can steal something, if it's going to hurt my karma, I'm going to try really hard to think twice about it. Like, I always liked playing the goody-goody and so he's like a living goody-goody and I love him, but he's like, he doesn't in a way that's like earnestly genuine, which makes it all right with me.
Stephen:But I do have to say that black widow gets the most improved for me. Yes. In this movie. Because you
Steve:love even when she was talking about her ledger. Oh, how that works
Stephen:whenever she is like, why are you doing this? I, I need to clear out my ledger, which means I've done a lot of bad things in the past,
Steve:unless she's, he's just has said it's like the red in the ledger, not just meaning negative blood, lots
Stephen:of blood. And so she needs karma points and I can appreciate that like somebody that knows they've done bad and now knows they can do better.
Steve:Yes. And meanwhile, the whole character, it's just something that I feel like we can all relate to a little bit. Cause it's always that kind of fight between the monster and the man and keeping your anger in check.
Logan:I do have one weird thing though, with the hole that I found, like watching this movie was, you know, the first scene where he like Hokes out and he's in the ship, he's completely inconsolable. Like, you know, you can't talk to him, whatever. And then all of a sudden he has this hilarious line with like the puny God it's like, is he conscious while he's in it? Or is he not like, you know, I feel like they took both. I don't know that you can have both. Well, I
Stephen:think that they did a good job in some parts where banner. Doesn't acknowledge that they're the same person. Yeah. He always calls him the other guy. And so I think that the Hulk does have sentience, of course, and sometimes his emotions tower over everything else, like when he was in the ship and nothing could be done, but whenever banner letting him out down there hope didn't feel trapped. And I think that's one of the things is the whole persona
Steve:Hulk smash has just letting that inner beast out it's
Stephen:cathartic and somebody wasn't trying to control him, capture him or kill him. And so the Hulk itself was able to be its more natural self instead of being a scared caged animal.
Steve:Yes. Yes. I mean, we, we joke about how attractive Chris Hemsworth is. I certainly love Thor's character more after Ragnar rock, where I feel like the writers really got his personality and had that. Yeah. They figured it out. But I don't think, I think Thor needs to be here because it was his relationship with low-key that makes Loki such a great villain. Is that brotherly rivalry, Tom Hiddleston
Stephen:is such an amazing actor. And I love that Marvel has given him as big of a. As in the Mar MCU as pretty much any of the heroes.
Steve:Yeah, exactly. I mean, stay tuned for our coverage of low-key on our avenge and purchase section. Once we get a chance to catch up on a couple episodes
Stephen:and they, the Avengers, if nothing else proved that the whole was greater than the sum
Steve:of the parts. Yes. It certainly is now fast forward to today. And who's your favorite Avenger? Logan. Cause you, you, you hinted that it wasn't one of these.
Yeah.
Logan:So Ironman will always, I think be like one of my top faves, but I love what they've done with Thor. And I, I don't know. I think my favorite though, it has to be Dr. Strange, which I couldn't exactly tell you why. I think there's still that kind of like similar ego kind of deal. And I just love the interplay that he has with everybody else mixed with kind of like his, you know, set of powers and just the way that he like composes himself. I think that it's like, I dunno, I just, I love that character.
Steve:I think. Yeah. What about you? My love. So they've
Stephen:still done a really good job with cap and him staying true. And especially even in game, whenever camp looks like, even though he still has this whole, I could do this all day feeling. You could see that he's being beaten down and then all the portals open up. And that was just a really great camp scene. And then, you know, being able to hold the hammer and Thor's like, yeah, I knew it, but I also really enjoyed the introduction of black Panther. There's something truly special about to challah. That was the regality and his view of. The world and things I really appreciate. So while it's probably still cap like black Panthers at close second, if not right up there. And I want to throw
Logan:this in there too. This is totally an aside, but they start the, what if Marvel series? He is actually on like cast and credits and stuff as being a voice actor for black Panther in there. So, you know, technically, you know you know, condolences and everything you know, we're going to get to see more of, to challah, you know, with Chadwick, Boseman, black Panther.
Stephen:And if they could find someone to do it, Peggy Carter would be my favorite Avenger. But yes. What about you? Who's your favorite new into phase three Avenger
Steve:Spiderman. I love Spider-Man and this is the best Spider-Man of all the Spiderman set there have ever been. Spider-Man
Stephen:I agree with that. Andrew Garfield was a better actor than Toby Maguire. It Ms. Heartthrob and Tom just,
Steve:just perfect. Like it uses that like vulnerability and that sense of clarity and yeah.
Stephen:Yeah. Tom is just really good. Yes.
Logan:But I grew up with the Toby McGuire Spiderman. So I feel like I'm kind of partial to him, but I dunno, it
Steve:was like Tom Holland.
Logan:It's still
Stephen:my favorite though. Oh, I think they're definitely the better of the Spider-Man movies.
Steve:So, but this movie ends phase one. Yeah. And so what was your favorite part of this movie?
Stephen:My favorite part of the movie was the scene down on the street where they all, where they cap is giving them their marching orders. And then as Logan said, they all get back to back to back. And that is the moment where the team becomes a team and, you know, I'm a sucker for when people work together. Yes.
Steve:I know you are. What was your favorite part of that movie? I
Logan:feel like, I feel like we've already hit on all of them. I I'll say another favorite part was the one that you mentioned with you know, the puny guideline. Yes. Yeah, that, that one. I remember just being in the theater, just like losing my mind, but there's also like just a whole bunch of just really tiny, like, you know, little Ironman joke lines and, you know, just interplay between the characters. I love all
Steve:that stuff. Like when, like when iron man calls Kappa cap cycle, I like, yeah. But then even like in terms of something a little bit darker, but like, well, the visual strikes me because when low-key uses his little Sceptre that the little device to get the guys I print, like that was just like such a good visual effect. That's so much more graphic than you normally see in these PG 13 Marvel movies that like, that, that sticks out. I wouldn't say it was my favorite part, but that just sticks out visually as one of the more visually striking moments of like, oh, that happened
Stephen:us rewatching, this, we kept saying, this is better than I remember. Yes, this is better than I remember. And it aged. I know it's not that old, but it aged extraordinarily well, and it was done very well. Like everyone involved deserves the credit it's totally earned. This was a great jumping on point for the MCU as a greater thing. Yes,
Steve:it certainly was. And we would love to hear what you guys think about the episode you, our listeners, all of you. So make sure that you email us@happylifepodatgmail.com
Stephen:or you can find us on all the socials, whether that's Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at happy life pod.
Steve:And thank you so much, Logan for coming onto the podcast and joining us.
Stephen:This was wonderful. Thank you very much. And next time we do a Marvel thing. We'll make sure to give you a call. I'm done. Okay.
Steve:Till next time everyone stay happy.