Avengers!

A brief aside now to discuss something that's going to be hitting the big screen in the very near future. And this takes me right back to my childhood! You see, in my formative years, the name 'Avengers' referred to two separate series.

The Avengers was a 'spy-fi' TV series produced by a British company called ABC Television. A spin-off from another TV show called 'Police Surgeon', it initially focused on Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry), assisted by John Steed (Patrick Macnee). When Hendry left, Macnee took the centre stage and Steed became the main character, sporting a bowler hat which soon became his trademark, ably accompanied by a succession of glamorous assistants; Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), and Tara King (Linda Thorson). The shows mixed science fiction and fantasy with light-hearted adventure and parody. The show was produced between 1961 and 1969, and was exported to over 90 countries. A sequel series entitled The New Avengers (1976–1977) also featured Patrick Macnee with two new partners, Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt) and Purdey (Joanna Lumley).

And, at the same time, The Avengers was a team of Marvel Comics superheroes, whose adventures first saw publication in 1963. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the team was made up of "Earth's Mightiest Heroes", which essentially meant that the series featured a selection of Marvel's individual characters, all working together as a team. New characters were introduced from time to time, which meant that the team's roster was constantly changing. With a battle cry of "Avengers Assemble!", the series has been published constantly ever since.

Both of these still have a fond place in my heart. And, very soon, both will have had movie spin-offs.

Unfortunately, the attempt to produce a big-screen version of the TV series was a bit of a disaster, producing a quite awful 1998 film - which I reviewed a while ago.

The film version of the comic book series looks to be much more promising. The movie is set to be released on 27th April 2012 in Europe, but the UK print of the film is being retitled as "Avengers Assemble", possibly to avoid confusion with the TV series. The film will star Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner as the team, with Samuel L. Jackson backing the team up.