Okay, I just had a MAJOR "geek moment"...

Five minutes ago, I watched the newest trailer for the "Avengers" movie.

Then I watched it three more times.

I've been looking forward to this movie ever since it was rumored to be in the works, and have been devouring the little bits of foreshadowing of it in movies like "Iron Man", "Thor", and "Captain America", as well as the initial trailer, which was pretty exciting.

But this one…

Holy moley!

There are so many cool moments in this new trailer, but there is one which almost made me cheer out loud. It comes near the end of the trailer, and it shows Iron Man plummeting from the sky after engaging in savage aerial combat with the forces of the evil Loki. He looks seriously damaged, possibly doomed… but suddenly, out of nowhere, the Incredible Hulk leaps up, catches him and brings him safely back to Earth, using a convenient building facade to slow their descent, the Hulk's mighty emerald fingers tearing a huge rent in the concrete and steel as they fall.

Wow.

It truly is a great time to be a comic book fan. I can scarcely believe a movie like this is actually being made… that -- barring some unexpected disaster -- I will be sitting in a theater in May of this year watching the whole thing, not just a tantalizing two minute and twenty-one second-long trailer.

It's not quite the same thing, but watching this new "Avengers" trailer evokes the sense of "Geez -- I guess almost anything IS possible! " feeling I had many years ago when the two biggest comic book companies in the US put aside their usual fierce competition and collaborated -- the result being the ground-breaking team-up of DC's Superman and Marvel's Spider-Man.

Hmm… that just made me think… could something THAT crazy ever happen at the movies? You never know… -- PL

Cap versus Thor...?

Like many people, I am looking forward to the "Avengers" movie scheduled to be released next May. And I am enjoying the little teasers and such that are emerging from the production, including the official teaser trailer which was released a few weeks ago.

There has been a lot of speculation about one particular quick bit in that trailer, a glimpse at a scene which shows the mighty Thor leaping through the air and bringing his hammer down on Captain America's shield (as shown here in two screen grabs I made from the trailer).

I have read some speculation that this could be indicative of some sort of dissension or conflict in the ranks of the Avengers.

But while thinking about this the other day, it occurred to me that another possibility might be tied into another speculation about the possible plot of the movie, one which says that the Skrulls might be involved.

The Skrulls, as fans of Marvel comics are surely aware, are a race of shape-changing aliens, first encountered, I believe, in the pages of some early issues of "Fantastic Four". If the Avengers are in fact battling shapeshifters in the new movie, could one of the characters in this scene actually not be the real deal… but a Skrull impostor?

I don't read a lot of the fan sites online, so it is entirely possible that this idea has been bruited about already. But I thought it was an intriguing possibility. -- PL

       P.S. Of course, it's also intriguing to consider what the result would be if that is the real Thor with the real Mjolnir… and that's the real  Captain America with his real shield made of Vibranium. Would the force of Thor's hammer blow be absorbed and dispersed by the unique qualities of that rare metal found only in Wakanda, the jungle kingdom of T'Challa, the Black Panther?

       Guess we'll have to wait and see...