How about a solo Avengers franchise?

[KangConquers]

I've been reading a lot of Silver Age comic books, and I love the anthologies of shorter superhero stories, and how characters were introduced on a smaller scale before leading into tie-ins with the rest of the MU as either a solo or team character.

I know Marvel has talked about making $25-50 M solo movies, I guess I'm taking it a step further by saying what if they created a film series that specifically deals with introducing Avengers team members who can't really carry a major franchise? You can get a trilogy out of Black Panther, but not a character like Vision or Scarlet Witch.

A franchise like this would keep minor avengers from being shoe-horned into the solo franchises of bigger characters, thus preventing future Iron Man 2 type scenarios, while still allowing the characters to benefit from the Avengers brand.

So we could have Solo Avengers: Vision, Solo Avengers: Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch etc. Instead of spending 150 M on a Vision movie.

[spideymouse]

It could be cool, and I'd definitely love to see the extra movies beyond the tentpoles. But I do wonder if you can make, say, a Scarlet Witch movie on such a low budget, without it looking... low budget. You'd need to get creative teams that are passionate enough to put out quality stuff that's on par with the big-budget films, tone-wise, quality-wise, etc. Could be a lot to ask for.

I do know at this point that Marvel Studios is still small and can only afford to spend the whole of its resources on tentpoles. Something would have to happen on a structural level in their organization in order to support the additional lower budget films.

[Chewy]

Anthologies always fail at the box office.

People will view it as C-list mini-movies and wait for the DVD, if that

[DrCosmic]

I think that the solo films already kinda Solo Avengers movies at this point. The only one that really stands on its own is Iron Man's.

I think there could be room for a sort of "second-string" team that graduates into the Avengers with the next film. I think Ultimates did a really good job with this with their Black Ops team. I think something similar with Scarlet Witch, Vision, Quicksilver and maybe Lang Ant-Man at the center could be interesting, with say Black Widow, Hawkeye and War Machine in there as well. In my crazy world, I'd throw in Swordsman, Jack of Hearts, Ares and Dr. Druid as casualties to keep things interesting. I don't know if it could be called 'West Coast Avengers' or 'Defenders' or 'Secret Avengers' or whatever, but something along those lines, without stepping too much on SHIELD's toes.

[PancakeFlipper]

Marvel certainly will keep introducing characters through solo movies and expanding the universe, though I think doing so under an explicit "Solo Avengers" moniker would seem too much like they were trying to exploit it.

I could see that concept working as a TV miniseries though. Imagine a 10 episode run that takes place in the Marvel universe, with each episode introducing us to different heroes. It could be a lead-in for an Avengers film that featured all of them in the Civil War plotline.

Not that I'm arguing that the Civil War plot should be the focus of an Avengers film, just that if it were, the world of heroes would have to be greatly expanded, far beyond what I think Marvel Studios would be capable of doing just through movies.

[jaqua99]

to be honest, I don't quite understand what you are saying kang

[cherokeesam]

As a fanboy, I'd definitely like to see benchwarmer Avengers get their shot at some solo love, sure; but realistically, there's no reason to separate Avengers for a showcase project when they were primarily known as members of the team.

In other words, characters like Vision, Hawkeye, Hank Pym, Wasp, Wanda & Pietro, Ms. Marvel and others owe almost the entirety of their comic-book fame to being members of the Avenger franchise, *not* due to any low-sales extraneous mini-series, one-shots, or "Amazing Mystery Tales to Astonish Two-In-One" anthologies. So in all respects, these characters should likewise be introduced within the Avengers movie franchise itself.

[spideymouse]

Originally Posted by cherokeesam

As a fanboy, I'd definitely like to see benchwarmer Avengers get their shot at some solo love, sure; but realistically, there's no reason to separate Avengers for a showcase project when they were primarily known as members of the team.

In other words, characters like Vision, Hawkeye, Hank Pym, Wasp, Wanda & Pietro, Ms. Marvel and others owe almost the entirety of their comic-book fame to being members of the Avenger franchise, *not* due to any low-sales extraneous mini-series, one-shots, or "Amazing Mystery Tales to Astonish Two-In-One" anthologies. So in all respects, these characters should likewise be introduced within the Avengers movie franchise itself.

I guess one reason would be to account for what they're up to in between Avengers movies. Like, what are Banner, Hawkeye, and Black Widow up to between TA and TA2 while Iron Man, Thor and Cap are off on their own adventures? Sitting around at home? I guess it could be a Natalie Portman thing where they can be mentioned without showing up, but that would get old real fast once you have 5-6 secondary Avengers waiting around, actually warming the bench between movies.

[DrCosmic]

Originally Posted by cherokeesam

As a fanboy, I'd definitely like to see benchwarmer Avengers get their shot at some solo love, sure; but realistically, there's no reason to separate Avengers for a showcase project when they were primarily known as members of the team.

In other words, characters like Vision, Hawkeye, Hank Pym, Wasp, Wanda & Pietro, Ms. Marvel and others owe almost the entirety of their comic-book fame to being members of the Avenger franchise, *not* due to any low-sales extraneous mini-series, one-shots, or "Amazing Mystery Tales to Astonish Two-In-One" anthologies. So in all respects, these characters should likewise be introduced within the Avengers movie franchise itself.

I honestly think there's too much going on in an Avengers movie to introduce a super powered hero properly. There's a reason origin stories take 30 minutes, and an Avengers film doesn't have that 30 minutes to spare. I think it'd work for non-powered characters like Swordsman or whatever, and possibly, if the movie revolved around the character introduced, like they could do Pym if the villain was Ultron, or Ms. Marvel if the villain was the Kree, but a superhero origin is waaay too much to 'squeeze in' like they did the re-introductions of the heroes we've seen before and the non-powered agents. As much as the Avengers made them famous, there's a reason they weren't introduced in Avengers comics.

[KangConquers]

Originally Posted by DrCosmic

I honestly think there's too much going on in an Avengers movie to introduce a super powered hero properly. There's a reason origin stories take 30 minutes, and an Avengers film doesn't have that 30 minutes to spare. I think it'd work for non-powered characters like Swordsman or whatever, and possibly, if the movie revolved around the character introduced, like they could do Pym if the villain was Ultron, or Ms. Marvel if the villain was the Kree, but a superhero origin is waaay too much to 'squeeze in' like they did the re-introductions of the heroes we've seen before and the non-powered agents. As much as the Avengers made them famous, there's a reason they weren't introduced in Avengers comics.

What about the ones that were introduced in Avengers? Like Viz.

[Chewy]

There are lots of ways to intro Vision if they aren't fully caught up in the Ultron/Wonder Man origin

[DrCosmic]

Ha, you're right, Kang, he was introed in Avengers. Forgot about that.

I think, like Pym, if Ultron is the villain, Vision's origin fits right in, because that's the way the character was designed, to be able to fight the Avengers and then join them, same role Hawkeye had in the Avengers film really. And to take Chewy's thought another step: anybody can make an robot. Stark, Fury... they pull Vision out of SHIELD's Phase 2 cache if they wanted.

I don't think there are many characters like that though, who are built from the ground up in a way that a host of Avengers storylines can themselves function as origin stories for the characters.

[ericadawn16]

If we have Vision, I want Wanda. They can still use her without mentioning her parentage.

[KangConquers]

Originally Posted by ericadawn16

If we have Vision, I want Wanda. They can still use her without mentioning her parentage.

Or just use her pre-reveal parentage. Have her parents be the Maximoffs, a pair of gypsies who lived near Mount Wundagore. Tie in the High Evolutionary, and you're good.

[cherokeesam]

Originally Posted by KangConquers

Or just use her pre-reveal parentage. Have her parents be the Maximoffs, a pair of gypsies who lived near Mount Wundagore. Tie in the High Evolutionary, and you're good.

Exactly.
Wanda & Pietro had that backstory for decades before somebody thought it'd be neato to make Mags their deadbeat dad.

[KangConquers]

Originally Posted by cherokeesam

Exactly.
Wanda & Pietro had that backstory for decades before somebody thought it'd be neato to make Mags their deadbeat dad.

Magneto tried to kill Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch several times in the mid-60s. They clearly weren't created as his children, it was just an idea 15 years later that worked.

In addition to the Maximoffs, there have been times and timelines where they had other parentage. In Heroes Reborn, The Enchantress was their mother. Prior to the Magneto reveal, it was thought that The Whizzer was their father. I don't particularly like either take, but the fact is, Magneto was kind of a shock value reveal, not something that has been part of their characters since day one.

[DrCosmic]

Wow. Half-Asgardians. That would be... well... that would be wicked.

[KangConquers]

Originally Posted by DrCosmic

Wow. Half-Asgardians. That would be... well... that would be wicked.

You can make them Asgardians, Mutates, Inhumans...whatever. It'd change their origin, but at the end of the day, you could still have the same personalities, and the same powers.

[marcvader]

I'm seeing the word mutates used more and more.