I praised the inventive “premake” trailers of Ivan Guerrero six months ago, but have neglected to keep up with his work. My friend Stefan Blitz, proprietor of Forces of Geek, luckily keeps up with dad-gum near everything — so when I’m able to peruse that site I find gems like Guererro’s trailer for The Avengers (1952).
Marvel Comics’ The Avengers, soon to be a major for-reals motion picture, didn’t hit the racks until 1963. Save for Captain America, who debuted in 1941, none of its members came along until at least a decade after the purported date of this concoction — hence the “premakes” moniker — which is the whole fun of it. Beyond the shots from Republic Pictures’ actual 1944 Captain America serial (bearing very little resemblance to the four-color source material) it’s all totally re-contextualized by Guerrero, much of it so brilliantly you want to dance. And even if you think you’ve spotted every reference there was to spot, you should watch the version with pop-up keys to the content.
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I remember the 1998 Avengers movie when they wouldn't allow critics to see it early because... well you probably know why! It wasn't very good! Actually, I didn't think it was that bad. As for Bieber, he is that bad.
ReplyDeletevw: incell - wait.. it's too close to another word I don't even want to make fun of.
ReplyDeleteY'know, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what Avengers movie you meant — and then it finally hit me. The 1998 film was based on the British ITV series of that name, which had nothing to do with the Marvel comics. Diana Rigg as Emma Peel from that show does appear in this video as The Black Widow, which aside from the Avengers/Avengers in-joke is a rather full-circle homage since the later, better-known costume used by Marvel's Black Widow, alias Natasha Romanova (or "Natalie Rushman" in the Iron Man sequel), was based on the catsuit worn by Mrs. Peel.
Ah well, I'm glad we got that cleared up! As you probably have guessed, I haven't read the comic.
ReplyDelete