The Avengers: Age of Ultron

I have to give Marvel credit for this.  I have never seen more trailers for a single movie than I have for The Avengers: Age of Ultron.  Their biggest trailer, surprisingly, is their shortest thus far.  Take a peek:





Hot right?  This is the trailer that has everyone all hot for the movie now.  Not that all the previous ones weren't good.  This one just has that snap that got everyone into the first Avengers movie.  I do want to pick out a few points that this trailer has that the others didn't.

*****SPOILER WARNING*****
I'm going to be talking about plot points from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Marvel's Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and possibly Marvel's Agent Carter.  If you haven't seen any of these or aren't current on them.  You might want to stop riiiiiiiight HERE.  Last chance.  Really.  Ok, still heree?  Let's go!

1. Maria Hill

This is the first trailer that indicates Agent...*ahem* excuse Ms. Maria Hill will be in the movie under the employ of Tony Stark.  Why is Hill no longer with S.H.I.E.L.D.?  If you remember from Captain America: The Winter Soldier that S.H.I.E.L.D. was actually being manipulated by a shadow organization called HYDRA and was infiltrated to the highest levels.  The film ended with a kind of where-do-we-go-now feel as Cap and Nick Fury parted ways with Fury heading to Eastern Europe to use the cover of his death to get the drop on the remaining HYDRA cells.  I'll get back to Fury.  The Black Wi...*ahem* Natasha Romanov gives testimony to Congress regarding the the S.H.I.E.L.D. disband indicating that most former agents went into civilian jobs.  Enter Maria Hill.  But....

2. Nick Fury

Nick Fury also shows up in this trailer (Was he in the other trailers?  This is the only one I seem to remember him in.).  Technically, the world still thinks he's dead but he's been quite busy after parting company with Cap.  Fans of MoAS know that he reunited with Agent Phil Coulson (saving two stranded members of his team along the way) to help put to bed the HYDRA threat (they got some of it; cut off one head and two more...you know the mantra).  This episode was important because after what happened at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters anyone running around as agents were being hunted down by the US military.  Nick Fury entrusted Phil Coulson to be the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D.  He left him with the line "I'll be everywhere".  Wanna guess what new plot has arisen just after the midseason finale?  The fact that Mockingbird and Mack are working for "The REAL S.H.I.E.L.D.".  Did Nick have anything to do with this?  Maybe.  Guess we'll have to keep watching to find out. ;)

3.  The Black Widow

Ok so despite that speech in front of Congress (See the end of Captain America: Winter Soldier), The Black Widow is still active among the ranks of The Avengers.  If you're familiar with the comic book lore of The Avengers, you know that Tony Stark foots the bill for the whole shebang.  In the previous movie, The Avengers was a S.H.I.E.L.D. initiative.  It looks like in this movie Tony will go all in (Avengers Tower!  A Quinjet!).  Will it be before or after the Ultron threat?  Either way, the Avengers are claiming Black Widow among their ranks (as well as former agent Hawkeye).  I only mention her specifically because there was a tie-in with the Marvel's Agent Carter series.  Check out this extended scene.



Did you catch the part where she hesitates a bit when the children's ward was mentioned?  That's directly related to her "origin".  In Agent Carter there was direct conflict with an organization that trained young girls in the art of espionage and assassination.  It seems that Black Widow program lasted well into the current day.  Wait a second.  Didn't we see the captured Leviathan operative getting all chummy with Arnim Zola in S.S.R. prison?  Wonder if that could have affected the Black Widow program?  Hmmm...

I also picked her out because we weren't really sure where she was going after Winter Soldier.  The previous trailers did feature her indication her new home is with The Avengers.  Which saddens me a bit because that means a Black Widow solo movie is off the table.

4.  Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch

*sigh* This is the part that annoyed me the most with this trailer.  For all the previous trailers, their role wasn't quite defined yet.  We were lead to believe that they would fight on the side of Ultron (with the twist for people not at all familiar with the comics that they would eventually end up on the side of The Avengers).  They kinda killed that notion with this trailer.

5.  Captain America

It's about time we gave the mantle of team leader to Cap!  Stark, the biggest personality in the room  ALL THE TIME, sort of involuntarily fell into the role but during the New York Invasion it was Cap who stepped up not only leading his own team but also the law enforcement and recovery efforts on the ground.  Tony in the trailer referred to Cap as "The Boss".  I'm looking forward to Cap stepping into the leadership role since we haven't really seen him in charge since WWII.

6.  S.H.I.E.L.D.

Here's what I'm hoping for in this movie (that I'm almost certain will not happen).  I would like the team to be reintroduced to Coulson aka their inspiration for banding together and kicking the crap out of Loki and the Chitauri.  Cameos from the rest of Team S.H.I.E.L.D. would be awesome but I'd settle for just Coulson.  We're already seeing MAoS paving the way for The Inhumans movie but I don't want the series to forget they're still part of all this action going on with The Avengers.  I do know though there WILL BE A TIE-IN.  We're just not sure what it will be yet.

I admit it.  I'm about as excited as you are about this movie!  However, I think it's a huge mistake not to keep an eye on the Marvel TV projects.  I've stated this before, but it's important to remember that the TV shows take place as a direct part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Elements from the movies appear in the shows and elements from the shows have and will continue to appear in the movies.