marvel on the march

at the safeway across the street from my house i spotted these little superheroes in a gumball machine. one of my kids bought the iron man. as they learned to tell which one was coming next by spotting it in the spindle at the bottom of the case, they informed me that captain america was next. having a soft spot in my heart for the star spangled avenger, i kicked down a dollar to add him to the collection. hulk and thor came courtesy of my friend cory who brought them to work. and now all our avengers are assembled.i really like the design of these characters. they remind me a little of the mighty muggs that were around in toy stores the last couple years. although these are a little more reasonable at only a dollar, and their packaging is ingenious as well. the body of each comes inside the two halves of the head. so what comes out of the machine is just a little plastic ball.

as the release of the upcoming avengers film is still over a year away we still have time to remember them as they were. as a kid i think i dreamed of a time like this. when hollywood would really sit up and take notice and do the superhero film treatments seriously. and as they keep rolling off the line i've got to say for the most part they've gotten it right. but as i finished watching "the watchmen" the other day something seemed missing to me. i mean it was a great adaptation i thought, but still something was missing. later as i went back through the original graphic novel i realized what it was.
the central relationship we readers have had to these stories in the past is our imagination fused with the fantastic storytelling and art in these books. in film all of that gets filled in. don't get me wrong, it's great, just different. i guess it's always been like that as books get adapted to film. at least now those doing the adpatations are the very nerds and geeks like me who had that hollywood dream when they were kids too.