The Toronto International Film Festival will include some fantastic films, but one film that heads to the top of the list is Rian Johnson’s third and newest film ‘Looper.’ ‘Looper’ features Joseph Gordon-Levitt as hitman Joseph Simmons, who kills people sent by the Mafia and gang members from the year 2077 to 2047. The advantage here is that no one will miss that individual in the year 2047, thus covering up the perfect crime. However, things take a turn for the weird when Joseph Simmons’ older self (Bruce Willis) is sent back for him to kill.

‘Looper’ is expected to be a fantastic film, since this is only the second time in history that a non-Canadian film started the film festival. According to Cameron Bailey, the Toronto International Film Festival Artistic Director, “with ‘Looper,’ Rian has taken his filmmaking to a new level, and we can’t wait to present it to the Toronto audience in the most prestigious platform we can offer.” According to Cinema Blend, ‘Looper’ was a huge hit at the San Diego International Comic-Con.

This is the second time that Johnson has showed one of his films at the Toronto Film Festival, the first being the world premiere of his second film ‘The Brothers Bloom.’ Rian Johnson’s first film ‘Brick,’ with a budget of only $500,000, won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Cameron Bailey was at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005 and witnessed the presentation of ‘Brick.’ “I saw Rian’s debut feature ‘Brick’ at the Sundance festival and was impressed by his ability to engage both the mind and the heart,” he said.

The ten day Festival begins September 6 and is considered the unofficial beginning to the Oscar season. The rest of the Toronto Film Festival will include more than sixty films, thirty-eight of which will be world premieres. Some writers/directors are returning to the silver screen while others are debuting their first works.

Ben Affleck will return again as a director and actor in “Argo,” a film based on a true story that happened during the Iranian hostage crisis. Robert Redford will also direct and star in ‘The Company You Keep.’ Other films that feature returning directors are ‘Hyde Park on Hudson,’ directed by Roger Mitchell and starring Bill Murray as Franklin Delano Roosevelt; ‘Silver Linings Playbook,’ directed by David O. Russell and starring Bradley Cooper; and Billy Bob Thorton’s ‘Jayne Mansfield’s Car.’

At least three films will also be bringing literature to life this year with Director Joe Wright’s ‘Anna Karenina,’ ‘Cloud Atlas’ (which has an almost completely all-star cast, including Tom Hanks), and – surprisingly – Director Joss Whedon’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’

Oscar-nominated screenwriter Stuart Blumberg (writer of ‘The Kids Are All Right’) will be making his directorial debut in the film ‘Thanks for Sharing,’ a romantic comedy starring Mark Ruffalo and Gwyneth Paltrow as friends recovering from sex addiction. Dustin Hoffman will also – finally – be making his directorial debut with ‘Quartet,’ a comedy about four retired English opera singers.

Some other films that have already started a buzz at other film festivals include Jacques Audiard’s ‘Rust and Bones’ at Cannes and ‘The Sessions’ at Sundance Film Festival.

Ultimately this year it looks like the Toronto International Film Festival is going to have some show-stealing productions. Unfortunately, the rest of us will have to wait until these films are released in theaters or on DVD/Blu-ray.

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Sprung from the fertile imaginations of cult filmmakers Joss Whedon (“Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” “Dollhouse,” the upcoming ‘The Avengers’) and Drew Goddard (‘Cloverfield’, “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” “Lost”), Lionsgate’s ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ begins like any generic horror film might: a rambunctious group of five college friends steal away for a weekend of debauchery in an isolated country cabin, only to be attacked by horrific supernatural creatures in a night of endless terror and bloodshed.

Sound familiar? Just wait. As the teens begin to exhibit standard horror movie behavior, a group of technicians in a control room are scrutinizing, and sometimes even controlling, every move the terrified kids make. The story behind their involvement is just the tip of the iceberg of a fantastical, I-can’t-believe-this-is-happening odyssey that explodes the conventions of the horror genre in a giddy sugar rush of bloody mayhem, wild imagination and sly humor.

Explains Goddard, “On one level, ‘Cabin’ functions as your classic horror film. It’s the sort of movie where you grab your popcorn and hold your date tight while you watch five teenagers head to the woods and encounter terrible things. But it’s also our version of that type of movie. Which means things get a lot more insane than you might expect.”

‘Cabin’ actor Chris Hemsworth, known to most audiences as the titular hero in last summer’s hit, ‘Thor’, remembers the first time he read Goddard’s and Whedon’s script. “At first I thought, Oh, this is a regular horror movie. I don’t get it. And then it just continued to unfold and open up and blow me away every page. It just got crazier and crazier and crazier until – well, until never. It just doesn’t stop. It leads you down a path that seems recognizable, and slowly it completely subverts everything you know.”

Goddard and Whedon have crafted a love letter to the horror genre that pays homage to fright classics ranging from Sam Raimi’s ‘Evil Dead’ to Dario Argento’s ‘Suspiria’. But while it clearly respects its predecessors, ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ also questions the very tropes it’s re-enacting. “I love horror,” explains Whedon. “But the plots are becoming more and more predictable. The killings are more and more disgusting. The kids are becoming more and more expendable. And more love is put into the instruments of torture and no love at all is put into the dialogue polish. The ritual of it is getting cheapened.”

The first hint that this is not your average horror movie comes with the casting of veteran actors Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins, who play control room bosses Hadley and Sitterson. The two men, using a range of influential technology, force the five friends to embody horror stereotypes. While the kids might start out as more than most contemporary horror victims, they become increasingly powerless to resist Sitterson’s and Hadley’s ideas of how they should behave.

“The control room bosses are a stand-in for us, the viewer,” explains Whedon. “But they also represent everything that we’re up against as storytellers: the need to hurt kids more and more on screen, to make them behave foolishly, to make the death of them the points as opposed to the suspense leading up to it.”

“I think the danger with horror films is that they often treat the audience as idiots,” suggests Hemsworth. “This film respects the audience by questioning our desire for horror films to begin with.”

Whedon admits he’s fascinated by this question. Why do we love horror movies so much? “There’s some part of us, some deep, dark, primitive part of us that wants to sacrifice these people onscreen. I wanted to make a movie that explained why. And so it’s been a strange experience because on the one hand, we do straight up horror. We definitely love the genre and the tropes of the genre but at the same time we have a lot of questions about why and where it’s going.”

Goddard adds, “The horror movie is merely the jumping-off point for the inherent questions about humanity that the genre suggests.  Why, as a people, do we feel the need to marginalize, objectify, and destroy youth? And this is not specific to the genre, or movies in general, or our present-day culture. We’ve been doing this to youth since we first began as a people. And this question — the question of why — is very much at the heart of ‘Cabin’.”

Image Courtesy of  The Cabin in the Woods

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Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. If you think you know this story, think again. From fan favorites Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard comes ‘The Cabin in the Woods’, a mind blowing horror film that turns the genre inside out.

Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon first met when Goddard was hired as a writer on Whedon’s seminal television hit, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” A fruitful creative partnership – and a strong friendship – formed, and the two filmmakers have worked together consistently ever since. Along the way, ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ was born.

“Joss came up with the initial idea – we were looking for something to write together, and he had this concept kicking around in his head. And as soon as I heard the words ‘cabin movie,’ I said, ‘I’m in.” The two worked together to develop the idea, and wrote the script quickly while on hiatus from their various day jobs.

Once the script was completed, the film was greenlit by MGM Studios, thanks to the support of producer Mary Parent. But due to corporate changes, the studio was unable to continue with the film, making the way for Lionsgate to step in. “You always want your movie to find the right home,” says Whedon, “and there’s no question that Lionsgate is the right home for ‘Cabin’. So many of the films that inspired ‘Cabin’ were released by Lionsgate in the first place!”

Adds Goddard, “With some places, there’s a bit of a horror disconnect, but with Lionsgate I can say something in a meeting like, ‘I’m thinking it should be red, but not ‘The Descent’ red, more ‘High Tension’ red,” and they don’t look at me like I’m insane. It definitely feels like we’re speaking the same language. They’ve been wonderful.”

Goddard’s and Whedon’s goal was to cast the film with a mixture of established actors, new faces, and “Whedonverse” veterans, and that’s exactly what casting directors Amy Britt and Anya Colloff, who had worked on both “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Angel,” set out to accomplish. But the casting process was not without its difficulties. “We ask a lot of our performers,” Goddard points out. “We ask them to vacillate between broad comedy and intense emotional drama. And often, it’s in the same scene – the same sentence, even. It’s very hard to find actors who can shift gears so quickly, the way we ask them to.”

From the beginning, Goddard had dreamed of casting Richard Jenkins in the role of control room boss Sitterson. After sending Jenkins the script on a Friday night, the phone rang on Monday morning with Jenkins’ enthusiastic commitment to the project.

“I just loved the twists. I loved the take on it. It’s fearless,” says the actor. “The control room is pretty mundane, you know. It’s like, just the guys in the office. And then you see what they’re working on and it’s bizarre. It’s just so great to throw those two worlds together.”

Jenkins’ acceptance quickly invigorated the rest of the casting process. Bradley Whitford committed soon after for the role of Hadley, which left Goddard marveling at their good fortune. “Both actors were our wildest dreams, and they were the first people in it,” he says.

Recalls Whitford, “I thought at first it was a sort of grade A, Defcon 5 horror movie. But the more I thought about it, there was something very funny and smart about it. It’s such a clever way to deal with this genre. You see with Hadley how the relentlessness of his job, and dealing with violence all the time, cuts him off from a real experience of it.”

Image Courtesy of  The Cabin in the Woods

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In order to protect the story and its secrets from being revealed in the blogosphere, the script to the horror thrill ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ was kept under tight wraps and the filmmakers wrote fake sides when auditioning the remaining principals, which of course became its own entertaining exercise. Remembers Joss Whedon, “In Curt’s case, it was a pterodactyl movie; in Holden and Jules’ scene, about tentacles in a Jacuzzi; Marty had a monologue about something made entirely of claws. So basically, it was take the exact character that you’re looking for and then put him or her in a different movie.”

The search for the younger roles wasn’t easy, as the filmmakers required actors who could play authentic, real characters as well as the stereotypes they are forced to become. The casting team was prescient enough to cast Chris Hemsworth in the role of Curt before his quick rise to movie stardom in ‘Thor’ and Whedon’s upcoming ‘The Avengers’.

Explains Drew Goddard, “Chris has a presence that’s impossible to deny, and you could feel it the moment he walked into the room. He can inhabit that star quarterback role that’s so common in these types of movies, but he has an instinctual ability to find the character’s humanity without playing the stereotype, which was crucial to casting this role.”

Remembers Hemsworth, “I got the part and I was speaking to my agent and he’s like, ‘Congratulations. This is great.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, has anyone read the script?’ And they’re like, ‘Nope.’ It was all on the bet of Joss’ and Drew’s reputation that this was going to be a good thing. And then I read the script and loved it. I think it’s a real talent to be able to write an emotional, high-stakes story and weave comedy through it. They’re impressive, talented guys.”

Both filmmakers agreed that one young adult role – Dana – had to be filled before the rest of the ensemble could be cast around her. Their search was long and frustrating, yielding no viable options, until their luck took a turn with Kristen Connolly. Whedon remembers, “The moment we saw her on tape there was no doubt in my mind at all. Her audition tape was so good we could have put it in the movie.”

“Dana’s just a regular person who doesn’t start out thinking that she’s really a bad-ass,” says Connolly. “What’s cool about Joss is that he makes heroes out of the people who you wouldn’t expect. Dana’s just a regular kid whose strength comes out of her love for her friends and out of necessity.”

Actor Fran Kranz, who worked on Whedon’s series, “Dollhouse,” impressed the filmmakers with the depth of his audition for the role of Marty. “Most actors came in to audition and it was one dimension. It was just, ‘I’m the guy who smokes pot,’” remembers Goddard. “But Fran was able to find that loneliness and innocence within the part that we thought was so important to the film.”

In a reversal of traditional horror movie morality, which usually stipulates that the druggie friend be an easy, unwitting victim, Marty’s stoner paranoia helps him sniff out the truth behind the cabin. “He ends up seeing through the manipulation of the control room guys,” says Kranz. “He senses something weird is going on.”

Adds Whedon, “Marty is the one who everybody discounts. Everybody humiliates the fool and makes fun of him; he’s the jester who gets kicked around. But he’s the guy who senses what’s going on.”

In the role of Holden, whose character becomes the stiff intellectual of the group, the buff, good-looking actor Jesse Williams seems like an atypical choice, but Goddard reveals this was exactly their intention. “We wanted to play against type, to drive home the marginalization that can happen in these movies. Jesse knew how to inhabit the awkward introspection at the core of Holden, which plays in direct contrast to his matinee-idol charisma.”

“When he puts on the glasses to play the nerdier version of himself,” says Whedon, “Jesse completely transforms. It’s some of my favorite footage from the whole film.”

For his part, Williams enjoyed being cast against type. “Holden’s a smart guy and he plays it safe,” says the actor. “He’s not a huge risk taker, and not really the alpha male kind of role. It was fun to play, especially some of the awkward moments with Dana, Kristen Connolly’s character.”

Rounding out the principal ‘Cabin’ cast, Anna Hutchison committed enthusiastically to the “hot blonde” role of Jules, bringing depth to a character who is objectified by the control room bosses.

Remembers Whedon, “Anna totally got the irony of the violence and sexual situations. Everything excited her. She’d face plant like a stuntwoman. She’d throw herself all over the place. We’d tell her not to and she’d do it anyway. And every take there was something new – an ad-lib or a moment of spark, energy. She gives a huge amount as an actress.”

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When it came time to cast key secondary roles in the recent horror extravaganza ‘The Cabin in the Woods’, fan favorites Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon couldn’t resist inviting some of their favorite actors from past productions to lend a hand. Tom Lenk, familiar to Whedon fans for his roles on both “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel,” was cast as Ronald, the control room intern. He’s often referred to by Whedon as the pair’s “good luck charm.”

“Tom Lenk is one of the funniest actors I’ve ever worked with,” declares Goddard. “He delights me to no end and I hope I’m lucky enough to work with him for the rest of my career.”

Another Whedon veteran, Amy Acker (“Angel,” “Alias,” and “Dollhouse”), appears in ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ as Lin, a control room technician who works alongside Sitterson and Hadley. Says Goddard, “Amy’s our not-so-secret weapon. She embodies the technical expertise that’s so important to our style. There’s nobody better at making you laugh and breaking your heart in the same sentence.”

Production took place from March 9 to May 29, 2009 in locations in and around Vancouver, British Columbia. Apart from an initial weather-related setback, Goddard and Whedon were able to continue the spirit of child-like wonder and fun they had conjured while writing the script. “This is not a movie where it’s people sitting around in rooms talking all day,” Goddard says.

“Every single day there was something that the 12-year-old in you would look at with wide-eyed astonishment. We always tried to hold onto that feeling. I remember looking at the schedule a week before we started shooting and looking at every scene and going, ‘That scene’s going to be fun to shoot. And that scene’s going to be fun. Oh, and yep, that scene’ll be fun.”

“A lot of things happen in this movie that aren’t very pleasant, and yet this was the happiest set I’ve ever worked on,” states Jenkins. “Actors do much better work when there’s no tension. And everybody had a great time because Joss and Drew clearly love their work.”

Although a first time director, Goddard’s extensive experience writing for TV prepared him well for the role. He says, “In TV, the writer/producers get a lot of the power that directors have in the feature world. You really oversee things. You supervise your own edits and you’re on set all the time. So directing ‘Cabin’ didn’t feel like this weird foreign environment.”

In fact, the experience, according to Goddard, was more like a dream come true. “I couldn’t imagine a better opportunity than this one for my first film. ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ gave me the chance to shoot multiple movies in one because we shifted gears so much. I had to pinch myself every day.”

“Drew is very clear about what he’s asking you to do,” comments actor Jesse Williams, “and it’s clear that he’s very passionate about it. Every take matters. It’s a joy to feel that, to have somebody commanding the ship. And it’s been a long shoot. So it’s great to keep that energy up, to keep that positivity going. I think that’s a word I can’t stress enough about Drew. What a positive guy.”

“Drew is a true horror aficionado,” adds Whedon. “He was ready to commit to it, ready to buy the most amount of blood you can purchase in Canada. He’s the kind of horror director who’ll spend a day watching different blood splatters to find the right one.”

Whatever the challenges, Goddard and Whedon were committed to continuing their spirit of collaboration all the way through the shoot. “When we’re together on set it is very much a hive mind of sorts where we are just in sync with one another,” explains Goddard. “There were times when we disagreed, for sure. But passion always won. So if I felt strongly, then he would back down. And if he felt strongly, I would back down.”

Image Courtesy of  The Cabin in the Woods

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The multi-layered narrative of the new horror ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ required fully imagined, distinct designs for the film’s primary settings: the cabin and the control room. “They’re very different looks, almost from different movies,” explains production designer Martin Whist. “So for me the range that we went through on this film was phenomenal. Each one needed to be very distinct in order to keep it fresh and keep the audience surprised.”

Whist and the filmmakers created an authentic “California Gold Rush/post-Civil War” cabin after doing extensive photo research, while the control room was developed into a high-tech environment with “a NASA, Houston 1970s sort of vibe.”

“It was important to me that everything felt real even when we get ridiculous and over the top,” says director Drew Goddard. “I wanted the visuals to show restraint and elegance to them, so that when things go surreal, the movie still feels grounded.”

Costume designer Shawna Trpcic echoed the contrast between the rustic cabin and the sleek control room with specific color codes for the teenagers and the adults. “The kids are very bright and jovial,” Trpcic says. “But for the control room, I actually used a picture from a 1950s nuclear war plant as a primary reference. It had all the different castes that work within the nuclear plant, from the scientists to the lab workers.”

When it came to the film’s numerous special effects, Goddard and his writing partner Joss Whedon tried to avoid CGI effects whenever possible. “No matter how good digital effects are, you can’t beat a creature that’s really there. You can’t beat something that actually exists in front of you,” declares Goddard. “So the rule was always, ‘If we can make it, we’re gonna make it.’ And that guided everything that we did. It forced everyone to be more creative and I think the movie benefits from that aesthetic.”

Now that the film has been released, Goddard and Whedon have a moment to contemplate their work before the Whedonites and legions of genre fans light up the Internet with reviews. “I’m happiest that it is so close to what we originally intended,” says Goddard. “This is a movie that could so easily have been killed by the Hollywood system, and it says a lot about the strength of my producer that we never had to compromise our vision.”

“‘The Cabin in the Woods’ really is what Drew and I set out to write,” agrees Whedon. “Our intention was to create a two-hour experience that felt familiar to horror fans like us, but then flips it on its head, sending everyone into a fun tailspin.”

And what should horror fans, or Joss Whedon fans, expect from the film? Drew Goddard smiles. “You’re gonna see some things that you’ve never seen before in your life,” he says. “And you won’t believe some of the places we take you. But it’ll be fun. Also bloody and angry and horrific. That too. But mostly fun.”

Image Courtesy of    The Cabin in the Woods

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Angel and Faith #9 kicks off right where issue #8 ended. Faith’s father George has shown his true colors and Faith suffers as a result of his treachery. Angel has had to battle up to this point and will once again face both his daughter Drusilla and her Lorophage demon. Thus far Giles has remained a constant character within the Angel and Faith universe; his presence has pushed the boundaries and created new facets of Angel’s personality.

This issue is written by Christos Gauge with the art being excellently done by Rebekah Isaac. The cover art is done by Steve Morris with coloring by Dan Jackson. The executive producer and creator of the Buffy universe, Joss Whedon has remained a strong force with the Angel and Faith series, shaping it to make these characters more human and less like supernatural killing machines. Combined, these writers, artists and producers create an ever evolving world in the paranormal community that is Post Twilight and without magic.

Spoiler Alert!

In the aftermath of Angel and Faith #8, Faith is left shattered by memories and the pain that she feels. Buying into the cult of Drusilla, the Lorophage demon removes her pain and she is granted the wonderful bliss of not being burdened by the pain of her past. George Lehane has certainly left his mark on Faith as she struggled all throughout her life to overcome her own personal demons.

So too did the death of the professor as she fought alongside Buffy Summers early in her slayer career. Without these forces to contend with in her life, Faith is a shadow of her former self, nearly powerless to help Angel in his time of need. Not often done, the partnership of Angel and Faith suffers for the first time, using excellently plausible scenarios to further flush out the necessity of human emotion.

Dire circumstances call for dire actions as Angel charges into a den full of vampires and Drusilla’s followers in order to save Faith from herself. Confronting his daughter, in essence his creation, Angel uses his pain to empower himself. As Drusilla, her spells broken and her insanity returned to her like a violent gift from the gods, it is possible only this crazy daughter of Angelus knows the events to unfold through the use of her seer powers.

Angel, in his time as Angelus, has been responsible for many heinous crimes to society and yet here, it is these crimes that show him the path of righteousness. His regret gives him strength and makes him feel, giving him a plausible argument for which to convince Faith that she too needs this pain to learn from her past. It is he who saves her and opens her mind to the idea of saving Giles from an eternity in a forgotten prison.

The end of the comic revolves around the strengthening partnership between Angel and Faith. Up until this point there have been small pieces of the puzzling being assembled on their quest to bring Giles back from the dead. Recalling Egyptian soul mythology as well as calling on Angel to trust her, Faith dives into the struggle with her partner with the full knowledge that some really weird things are going to happen.

A dark omen from Drusilla, shadowed in the form of prophecy or foresight, may yet be the keys to unlock the storyline as the search for Giles continues. As one crazed vampire seer flees the scene from her father; one truth remains, that no matter who you are, everyone has daddy issues.

Score: 4/5

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“You think you know the story.”

This is the tagline to ‘The Cabin in the Woods’, a film directed by Drew Goddard (‘Cloverfield’) which he also co-wrote with Joss Whedon (‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, ‘The Avengers’).

It stars Kristen Connolly (‘As the World Turns’), Jesse Williams (‘Grey’s Anatomy’) and Bradley Whitford (‘The West Wing’), as well as familiar Whedon collaborators Amy Acker (‘Angel’), Fran Kranz (‘Dollhouse’) and Tom Lenk (‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’). The film’s basic set-up is one you have seen one hundred times before in horror films: a group of attractive, mismatched young college students travel to a remote area, stay in a mysterious location, and soon realise that there is more to the cabin in the woods than meets the eye.

Here enters the tagline. “You think you know the story.”

Last year, Wes Craven attempted to reinvigorate the horror genre with ‘Scream 4′ in the same way that he did with the original ‘Scream’ in 1996. However, for all its strengths, ‘Scream 4′ was basically a re-tread of the same meta-textual style that Craven had already mastered in the franchise’s three previous installments.

Now, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard? They have created a true gem of the genre with ‘The Cabin in the Woods’, a film which was filmed in 2009 and has sat on the shelf ever since distributor MGM filed for bankruptcy. Lionsgate eventually bought the film last year, and now its delayed big-screen life can begin.

Spoiler alert!

The first and most important strength of the film is its script. Goddard’s familiarity with Whedon’s voice – Goddard wrote 5 episodes of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Angel’ – results in an effortlessly snappy piece and several hilarious, not to mention ironic, interactions, primarily caused by Whitford’s and Kranz’s characters.

The script is never afraid to go for the comedy or the surreality of the situation, and it is this which allows the film to pull of its main conceit of being – SPOILER WARNING – about a ritual sacrifice for the ancient Gods, who are appeased through a ‘Big Brother’-type reality show where bets are made and outcomes are fixed as an array of undead creatures begin hunting down the five young college students to satiate the tempers of the Gods.

The script also thrives on its eagerness to play out every horror narrative cliché in the first half of the film, as Whedon and Goddard blow through gratuitous deaths and yawn-inducing twists, allowing the second half of the film to develop like a filmmaker’s playing ground.

Visually speaking, the second half of the film is when Godddard’s direction can be more fully appreciated, as it becomes more apparent that he assimilated the conventional look of a horror film early on so that he could subvert and deconstruct it piece by piece as each scene goes on. The chances he takes in the script are brought to life marvellously onscreen, while the final shot of the film is something which can only be appreciated in the context of everything that has gone before.

As for the cast, there are no issues. Whedon and Goddard have worked on enough ensemble projects to know how to cast well, and Whedon in particular is known for drawing from his own pool of actors from past projects and putting them into his new ones.

The pay-off here is a fantastic one, as Whedon fans (‘Whedonites’, for the uninitiated) get to see an underrated television performer like Amy Acker going toe-to-toe in scenes with Emmy-winner Bradley Whitford, and get to revel in ‘Dollhouse’-alum Fran Kranz facing off with – SPOILER WARNING - “The Sci-Fi Queen” Sigourney Weaver in the film’s captivating final minutes.

To say any more about the film is unnecessary. This is a delightfully fearless offering, and the most entertaining thing to happen to the horror genre in a very long time. Whedon has a busy year ahead of him, mainly with this summer’s blockbuster ‘The Avengers’, and ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ gets him off to a roaring start.

Image Courtesy of    The Cabin in the Woods

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Marvel Studios announced that “Marvel’s The Avengers” will reward its fans on Facebook for their continued support of the film’s campaign with advance screenings in cities around the world on a first-come-first-served basis. In the U.S. fans will be able to experience the film in stunning IMAX 3D.

This unprecedented screening event will enable Facebook fans of “Marvel’s The Avengers” in cities that have assembled the most fans on Facebook to win the first access to screenings of the film, weeks before the May 4th release in theatres. This event will kick off on April 14th at 10 a.m PDT with the top five cities in the U.S. with the most fans on Facebook: Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston and Miami.

The next five cities to garner the most Facebook “Marvel’s The Avengers” fans will be awarded an early screening as well – to be announced shortly on Facebook. Fans can rally for their city to be the chosen location for this special opportunity by going to https://www.facebook.com/avengers for details. International fans should visit their local “Marvel’s The Avengers” Facebook page for more details on how to win a screening in their city.

Participating fans are encouraged to celebrate this movie event by coming to their local screenings dressed in their finest Super Hero costumes inspired by “Marvel’s The Avengers” —  the winners of the Best Costume contest will be awarded reserved seats.

“Marvel’s The Avengers”—the Super Hero team up of a lifetime— is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since.

In “Marvel’s The Avengers” the world’s greatest Super Heroes assemble when Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) join S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to protect the world from the dangerous and powerful villain, Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

An exciting event movie, packed with action and spectacular special effects, “Marvel’s The Avengers” is from Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures, produced by Kevin Feige and directed by Joss Whedon from a story by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon with screenplay by Joss Whedon.

“Marvel’s The Avengers” will be released in the U.S. in 3D and IMAX 3D on May 4, 2012.

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The Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), presented by American Express, on March 28 announced that Marvel’s The Avengers, presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures, will close its 11th edition on Saturday, April 28. Closing night will take place at Tribeca BMCC PAC and is sponsored by BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Gin.

Honoring the spirit of the Tribeca Film Festival, the screening will allow the opportunity for Marvel’s The Avengers to celebrate everyday heroes from police agencies, fire departments, first responders and various branches of the U.S. military.  These local heroes will have an opportunity to attend the screening and meet the cast.

Marvel Studios’ producer Kevin Feige says, “We are proud that Marvel’s The Avengers is the closing film of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and we are excited to welcome local heroes to the screening as special guests. We all know and love our iconic Super Heroes, but when it really counts, it’s our real-life heroes who save the world every day by making it a better place for all of us.”

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston, with Stellan Skarsgard and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and directed by Joss Whedon, Marvel’s The Avengers is an engaging, character-driven story packed with action, adventure and special effects.

When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins to assemble the iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow.

Marvel’s The Avengers is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since.

“Marvel’s The Avengers is an exciting ride that absolutely transports audiences,” said Jane Rosenthal, Co-Founder of the Tribeca Film Festival. “It is the perfect way to end our 11th Festival.”

Comments director Joss Whedon, “Showing at Tribeca is both an honor and a double homecoming for me, who grew up in Manhattan, and for the movie, which wrapped production there.  I’m thoroughly psyched to be closing the festival with our intimate little think-piece.”

“Marvel’s The Avengers” is produced by Marvel Studios’ Producer Kevin Feige and executive produced byAlan Fine, Jon Favreau, Stan Lee, Louis D’Esposito, Patricia Whitcher, Victoria Alonso and Jeremy Latcham. The story is by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon, and the screenplay is by Joss Whedon. The film releases May 4, 2012, and is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

The 11th annual Tribeca Film Festival will take place from April 18-29, 2012.

Visit www.tribecafilm.com/festival for more information about TFF’s 2012 programs and the full line-up of films.

Image Courtesy of   https://www.facebook.com/AvengersUK

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I hate to say it, but I think Issue 7 is where Season 9 jumps the shark. Issue 6 tempted us with a potentially juicy plotline with plenty of character development. But in this issue, Buffy and Spike kvetch about their relationship for the billionth time, giant bugs fly around in spaceships, and the issue ends on a truly facepalm-worthy note.

At the end of issue 6, Buffy decided to have an abortion after discovering that she had become pregnant. Rather than follow up on that dramatic decision right away, Issue 7 opens with a pointless scene involving Buffy’s inane roommates (apparently, their names are ‘Tumble’ and ‘Anaheed,’ but I prefer to think of them as ‘Hipster Chick’ and ‘Guy Who Looks Like Stephen Stills from Scott Pilgrim’).

Earlier, they freaked out when they learned that they were living with the Slayer and decided to vote her out of the apartment a la Survivor. But lo and behold, both of them ended up voting in Buffy’s favor when push came to shove. They go to tell Buffy about her reprieve, only to find her stuff in boxes.

It turns out that Buffy has found some new digs. She is now living on an alien spaceship belonging to Spike, her on-again/off-again vampire sex toy. Not only does Spike have a spaceship, but it is crewed by a bunch of giant talking bugs. After some more pregnancy angst (which seems like more of a plot device than genuine emotion), Buffy segues neatly into relationship angst with Spike.

Buffy whines about her desire for a normal life, Spike complains that Buffy is using him, and I roll my eyes because we have all heard this conversation a billion times before. Seriously, these two are stuck in some sort of emotional Groundhog Day where they are doomed to have the same arguments over and over — and over again. Come to think of it, that pretty much describes all of Buffy’s relationships.

Since this is, after all, an issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there has to be a battle. Sure enough, Detective Dowling soon comes under attack by a bunch of zompires. Like all law enforcement officials in the Buffyverse, he is incompetent and unable to defend himself, so he radios Spike for help. Spike naturally obliges (he is, after all, the new Sensitive Spike™, complete with soul), though he makes Buffy stay behind because of her ‘condition.’ Buffy watches the battle from aboard the spaceship until she remembers that she is the title character and jumps into the fray.

Naturally, she kicks butt, and afterward she and Spike end up having a romantic scene amidst the carnage, and we get to see them natter on about their relationship some more. *Sigh* Just as it is revealed that they both want normal lives, Plot Contrivance rears its ugly head, and a random zompire jumps up and rips Buffy’s arm off. Instead of screaming frantically before passing out due to blood loss, Buffy just stands there looking confused. No, it is not because of her hardy Slayer constitution. Apparently, Buffy is a robot!

This issue felt like a gigantic letdown. Having Buffy grapple with an unexpected pregnancy could have interjected a strong human element to the comic. Instead, we are subjected to a mélange of tired tropes. Spike’s spaceship and its bug crew seem like they were lifted from the pages of a bad sci-fi comic, and Buffy-like robots were done to death on the TV show. To series newcomers, the ending might have been a shock, but series veterans are liable to roll their eyes at yet another Buffybot.

In one of the last panels, ‘Buffy’ says that “I think this means I’m not pregnant,” which suggests that writer Andrew Chambliss could be using the Buffybot as a way to extricate himself from the Buffy-is-pregnant plotline. I suppose it could have been worse: she could have woken up and realized it was all just a dream. Still, it will be a shame if such an intriguing plotline is cut short so abruptly.

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Parents lie, and parents regret. This is a fundamental concept that takes on new meaning in Angel and Faith- Daddy Issues, Part Two. Feeling emotion both positive and negative is the driving force between the first and second part of Daddy Issues. In the first part of the issue, readers saw the surprising twist at the end where Druscilla, Angel’s Daughter, enters the picture.

The London crime fighters not only have to deal with Druscilla, who can think normally, but also with Faith’s father, who just dropped into the picture as well. Now, we will see what new tricks and treats lie beneath the surface of Daddy Issues, Part Two.

From the mind of Joss Whedon, this Angel and Faith comic is also excellently scripted by Christos Gage, who delves into an expected treachery, which hurts that much more, in a parent and child relationship. The art, and one of the Variant Covers, is done by Rebekah Isaacs, while Dan Jackson handled the colors excellently. As with part one, Richard Starkings did the lettering with help of Jimmy Betancourt from Comicraft. Steve Morris was responsible for the primary cover.

Often forgotten, the father of Faith, George Patrick Lehane, was an alcoholic as well as afraid of his daughter. He expressed concerns that he had been hallucinating due to D.T.S, which indicates that he might have suffered alcohol-withdrawal related ‘Delirium Tremens’ also known as  ‘the shakes’.

He shows improvement with battling alcohol and is even calling Faith pet names that she does not hate. This gives the reader welcome insight into her past, her disbelief at his sobriety as well as the desperate welcome hug that she gives him. Now, if only his entire story was not just a trick, Faith would have less daddy issues of her own.

Druscilla, a beautiful and elegant woman, possessed a purity of evil so dark that only talking to her could reveal her true nature. She is powerful, not because she is stronger than Angel, but because she is unpredictable. Her power to see into the future has led her to find Angel again. She recognizes in him parts of his past that bring Angel shame and wants to help him return to his former guilt-free self. Her control of the Lorophage Demon has given her, not only an occult following, but also returned a semblance of sanity to her broken mind.

Angel laments the pain of his past dealings with Druscilla in his role as both the killer of her entire world and as the Vampire who sired her. He knows that he broke her mind and her spirit, then raised her into an immortal vampire. He alone takes the blame for unleashing her special brand of insanity against the world, having once called her his ‘Masterpiece’.

In London, the city that has haunted him after many years, he is confronted by the deeds of his past on a constant basis, shaping both him and the story.

The city of London itself is ever present in his memories with brief flashes of Angel’s history in his Angelus persona, with Darla and Druscilla’s history playing out along side his own. In these memories, Angelus is seen systematically removing every solid support within Druscilla’s life, everything from religious faith to family is gone.

Flash forward to reality for Angel, as he visits the site where he destroyed Druscilla’s family, and the reader is confronted by the insane vampire herself. Here, in her home, she tries to do her version of good and remove Angel’s guilt.

Through all this, fans find out that there are indeed multiple parts to Angel’s growing personality as he evidently exhibits small traits from Rupert Giles. Sharp-eyed readers will recall past issues of Angel and Faith where Angel, a supreme predator, sports glasses and asks for a spot of tea. Much of Part Two is spent exploring the issues regarding Angelus’ masterpiece gone wrong and Faith’s similarly treacherous father.

The next issue is sure to push the series forward as the true reason for George Lehane’s appearance is revealed, and the soul fragments of Giles inhabiting Angel’s body shape the series in new and unexpected ways. The Angel and Faith series, as a whole, makes the reader really think about the characters as people instead of as abstract characters, giving them depth, life, and real responsibilities.

Daddy Issues, Part Two continues to delve deeper into the past of both of the leading characters, proving that as we grow older, sometimes parents need help, too, despite the issues we have with them.

Overall Score: 4/5

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[WARNING: This content contains spoilers.]

The life of a parent is never easy with children running amok, killing every which way and surviving murder attempts. The Angel and Faith series has always featured the paranormal, world-saving duo of Angel and Faith Lehane. In ‘Angel and Faith: Daddy Issues, Part One’, the concept of fatherhood is exemplified through the relationships that Angel and Faith experience. The challenges that a father must face to teach his children life lessons will come back to haunt Angel in the most challenging of ways.

The storyline was created by Christos Gage while Joss Whedon famously handles executive producing duties. The artwork is, as always, excellently done by Rebekah Isaacs. It is her artwork that is prevalent throughout much of the Angel and Faith Series. With colors by Dan Jackson and letters by Richard Starkings as well as Jimmy Betancourt of Comicraft, this Angel and Faith release is as good as expected in a series that is gaining serious momentum. Steve Morris was responsible for the cover, while Rebekah Isaacs handled the variant cover.

Faith Lehane has always been the most rebellious Slayer of any that have come before her in the series. Thus far, she has stuck by loyally with Angel as they try to bring Giles back from the dead. Her sharp wit and impulsive nature make her quick to anger and practical to a fault. Yet, there is another emerging side to her character not often exhibited and, therefore, makes the character of Faith that much more complex.

In Angel and Faith #6, Faith takes on the role of mentor for a younger group of Slayers, giving them the benefit of Faith’s experience. This is a decidedly different role for the normally taciturn Slayer as she reminds one young and passionate slayer that sometimes a crazy guy is just a crazy guy and not a Vampire. She flashes back to her early Slayer days when Buffy failed to prevent Faith from staking a human she mistook for a Vampire.

There is often a warring argument inside the mind of a parent, one between protecting their children and preparing them for the real world as they grow up. Rupert Giles experiences his father’s choices in a very specific way when he and a young group of Watcher Trainees are sent out on a mission to take down what was reported to be a single vampire. A Watcher is not strictly a hunter of Vampires by definition, but is instead a trainer of Vampire Slayers. However, the resulting chaos and bloodshed put a young Rupert Giles at odds with his own father and the Watcher’s Council.

The recounting of Rupert Giles’ experience with his father and the Lorophage Demon leads to several other startling discoveries by Angel, as the Vampire with a soul reads through Giles’ journal. The city of London has never been a favorite of Angel’s because the memories of the horrors he committed still linger in his mind today. His search to bring Giles back continues as the Watchers’ journal guides him like a compass on his path to redemption. In this way, Angel has a mentor, or father figure, in Giles even while trying to bring the man back to life. The lessons and information in Giles’ journal have been instrumental to the storyline of Angel and Faith thus far.

Yet, what issue about fatherhood would be complete without a personal blood relation to both Angel and Faith themselves. The surprise inclusion of Faith’s father, on his search to find his daughter, is sure to spark the interest of fans. The possibilities of what the inclusion of Faith’s biological father can mean for the series is overshadowed only by the inclusion of Angel’s daughter, Druscilla. Fans of the Buffy universe will remember that Druscilla is the not quite sane Vampire sired by Angel for the purpose of specifically torturing a pure and innocent girl into decadent insanity.

The fear is palpable as it rips through Angel when he finds out that following Giles’s journal to hunt a demon leads him on a path to reuniting with Druscilla. There are questions that plague fans regarding Druscilla; most mainly wonder if this insane Vampire seductress is actually insane or a masterful actress. No one really knows and in a series like Angel and Faith, knowledge is power.

The sixth issue of Angel and Faith is out for pre-order now and will hit local store shelves near the end of January. This issue is filled with surprise guests as well as the usual variety of violence and mayhem. The story seems to be gearing up for a big showdown as Angel and Faith continue to try and save Giles in a world without magic. How will Giles continue to affect Angel and Faith? How will Druscilla and Faith’s father factor into the story? All of them are good questions that will hopefully be answered in the next issue of Angel and Faith.

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Dark Horse Comics has released Issue 4 of their ongoing continuation of the cult TV show, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. When we last left our heroine, she had been betrayed by her erstwhile ally, Severin. The issue begins with a flashback showing Severin working his mojo on a vampire in a bid to gain information about his girlfriend, Alessandra. He seems to be able to steal magic from vampires, but in doing so, he kills the underlying human.

A mysterious stranger told Severin that he needed to destroy Buffy. As he lunges to attack her and steal her power, he taunts her in typical Buffy-villain fashion. As they grapple, both the San Francisco Police Department and her former vampire love interest, Spike, converge on her. The former plan to arrest her, while the latter is trying desperately to save her.

This issue turned out to be a bit of a letdown, actually. The writers seemed to be treading water throughout much of the text, and the fight between Buffy and Severin was not terribly dramatic. A bunch of panels showing Severin gripping Buffy while mysterious green energy dances around them does not make for a very compelling fight. It almost felt like the fight scenes were being used as filler in between the scenes that were happening elsewhere in the city.

I do not want to give away too many spoilers, but the end of the issue wraps up the ‘Buffy as fugitive’ plot arc in a way that just felt rushed. It seemed to end because the writers needed it to end, rather than ending in a natural fashion.

The dialogue also seemed to suffer in this issue. There were a number of instances where writer Andrew Chambliss seemed to be trying too hard to capture Joss Whedon’s famed Buffyspeak (worst line of the issue: “I’ve just got to keep with the fighty until you use up all your snap, crackle, and pop.”) With Whedon, it seemed natural; with Chambliss, it tends to feel contrived.

In my review of Issue 3, I noted that the characters sometimes did not resemble the actors who played them on TV. That problem is even more pronounced in Issue 4. Willow has a brief walk-on part towards the end, but you would be hard-pressed to tell that she was once played by Alyson Hannigan. Buffy’s resemblance to Sarah Michelle Gellar is also at an  all-time low in this issue, and she still tends to look like she is twelve years old.

OVERALL GRADE: B-

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Dark Horse rolls out the announcement of all four titles that will be featured in two different comics to be given away to thousands of fans on May 5, 2012.

First comes a special flip book featuring both Felicia Day’s gaming web series turned comic, The Guild, and Dark Horse’s best-selling comics continuation of Joss Whedon’s iconic television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Buffy has never needed a vacation as badly as she does now, with the world overrun with zompires and other fallout from Season 8.

After an old friend suggests arelaxing getaway from all things that go bump in the night, it turns out to be harder than she could ever expect for a Slayer to get a day off!

Felicia Day, creator of The Guild, continues to bring on the funny with high jinks from her diverse group of gamers when the Guildies struggle to find a meeting place they can all agree on. A little in-game battle becomes the deciding factor, and the circle follows the decree of the winner: the beach?!

Next up is one of the biggest flip books we’ve ever published, when Zack Whedon brings you tales of the coolest guy in the galaxy and the most charming rebel in the ’verse! That’s right; we’ve paired Star Wars with Joss Whedon’s Serenity.

Han Solo and Chewbacca have a falling-out after a deal with their slickest—and shadiest—customer goes bad. But when the client gets designs on the Millennium Falcon, Han and Chewie present a united front that can’t be beat.

Meanwhile, Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds is no stranger to jobs gone wrong himself. But when the chips are down, he’s able to rely on the amazing, odd, and diversely talented crew of Serenity.

Dark Horse Free Comic Book Day 2012: Four great stories for the price of, well, none!

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Series creator Joss Whedon brought Buffy the Vampire Slayer back to life with this comics-only follow-up to Season 7 of the television show. Now the wait is finally over for Buffy fanatics everywhere as Dark Horse announces the deluxe, oversized, dust-jacketed hardcover collection of Buffy Season 8.

This hardcover edition contains the first two arcs of the series (Buffy Season 8 #1–#10), written by Joss Whedon and Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Runaways), with art by the acclaimed Georges Jeanty. It includes two one-shots, a cover gallery, and exclusive, never-before-seen sketch material.

After the destruction of the Hellmouth, the Slayers—newly legion—have gotten organized, but it’s not long before new and old enemies begin popping up. Buffy, Xander, Willow, and a very different Dawn are introduced to the season’s big bad, Twilight, and are only beginning to understand the incredible reach of this mysterious threat. Meanwhile, rebel Slayer Faith teams up with Giles to handle a menace on the other side of the Atlantic. It’s a dirty job, and Faith is just the girl to do it.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 Volume 1 is on sale May 30, 2012.

Meanwhile, Whedon has teamed up with Andrew Chambliss (Dollhouse, ABC’s Once Upon a Time) and Season 8 artist Georges Jeanty for the life-affirming, world-changing Buffy Season 9. Dark Horse Comics has announced the first collection of the season with Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 Volume 1: Freefall.

Season 8 ended with a bang that cut the world off from magic—culminating in another set of world-ending problems. Buffy has left her best friend, Willow, powerless, and brought an end to a millennia-long tradition of super powered girls. By day, Buffy is a twenty-something waitress with no real direction, and even though magic is gone, she’s still a vampire Slayer by night. Bigger problem? Vampires are becoming an epidemic . . . of zompires.

Written by series creator Joss Whedon and Andrew Chambliss of the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, Freefall collects Buffy Season 9 #1–#5, on sale August 1, 2012.

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This week saw the release of the latest installment in Dark Horse Comics’ popular continuation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past fifteen years, BtVS was a cult TV show that aired from 1997 until 2003. Sarah Michelle Gellar played Buffy Summers, a high school student with a supernatural calling.

As ‘the Slayer,’ she had the duty to protect the world from vampires and other supernatural nasties. Buffy’s friends, Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and Willow (Alyson Hannigan), were in on her secret, too, and they were often called upon to help Buffy out each week as she battled the forces of darkness.

As the seasons wore on, Buffy romanced not one, but two vampires, Willow became a lesbian, and the Summers family was enlarged by the addition of younger sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), who was actually a sophisticated hiding place for a magical MacGuffin known as The Key.

When the series ended in 2003, Buffy was finally able to destroy the Hellmouth that had turned her hometown of Sunnydale into an evil-magnet for seven seasons. Although Buffy vanished from the small screen, series creator Joss Whedon decided to continue her saga in comic book form.

Teaming up with Dark Horse Comics, he produced a popular series of comic books that functions as an eighth season of the TV show in paper form. Season 8 ran for 40 issues until it came to a dramatic end in January 2011. At the end of the series’ final arc, Buffy smashes a powerful artifact that acts as the source of all magic in the world.

In Season 9, Buffy must adjust to a radically different life. The line of Slayers will come to an end with the demise of the present generation. With magic gone, Willow (who had evolved into a powerful witch during the course of the TV show) can no longer use her spells. Buffy’s life takes a turn for the mundane, and she now works as a waitress in San Francisco, while the other members of the Scooby Gang have scattered.

Although much has changed for Buffy, vampires are still a problem. In Issue 3, Buffy encounters a mysterious stranger named Severin. He has the ability to kill vampires by generating bolts of energy with his hands, something that should not be possible since magic has supposedly vanished from the world.

It soon becomes apparent that the demise of magic is affecting vampires in an unusual way, and newly-sired vampires are even more terrifying than the older versions. Eager for answers, Buffy tries to reconvene the Scooby Gang, but her old friends are reluctant to return to the fray.

The events that ended Season 8 have allowed the writers to ‘reboot’ Buffy in Season 9. Without magic, the characters get to experience something resembling a normal life for the first time in ages, and the new emphasis on mundane life is reminiscent of  Season 1  of the TV show.

Back then, Buffy was a high school student trying to juggle the supernatural business of fighting evil with the more pedestrian demands of life as a teenager.  You can also see echoes of that in Season 9. At one point in Issue 3, there is a nifty callback to the first episode of the show, which I really appreciated.

Overall, I think Issue 3 was quite well done. The story unfolded at a brisk pace and left the reader eager to read the next installment. Scriptwriter Andrew Chambliss has done a decent job of imitating the writing found in the TV show. The only complaint I have is the artwork.

Georges Jeanty’s ability to make the characters look like the actors who played them seems to vary from page to page. He does a nice job of making Willow look like Alyson Hannigan, but Dawn does not really look anything like Michelle Trachtenberg. Also, on some pages, Buffy ends up looking like she is twelve years old. Although these hiccups are fairly minor in and of themselves, they do distract from the overall effect.

OVERALL GRADE: A-

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Since 1998, Marvel Productions has been releasing superhero movies after the other- but how could this once bankrupt company, grow to such a colossus?  In 1997, Marvel, a once vast comic book company collapsed. Forced to re-organize, the newly formed Marvel Enterprises started their movie production division. In 1998, they created Blade with Wesley Snipes, and the rest is history. Now, after considerable success at the box office Marvel is releasing one of their biggest projects: The Avengers.

The Avengers is a team assembled by S.H.I.E.L.D leader, Nick Fury. S.H.I.E.L.D. is a law-enforcement/ espionage agency that keeps the peace throughout the world.  With Captain America coming 4 issues later the team of superheroes first consisted of Wasp, Ant Man, Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk.

With release scheduled for May 4, 2012, the movie started production on April 25, 2011. Crafting a star studded cast together, Marvel will be bringing most of the actors back that they used in their other movies, such as, Chris Hemworth Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Paul Bettany as the voice of Jarvis. Along with these old faces come new ones. Jeremy Renner will play Hawkeye, and Cobie Smulders will perform as Maria Hill.

If you know the Avengers, then you are probably wondering, “where is the Hulk?” Well, after Edward Norton’s falling out with Marvel, they replaced him with Mark Ruffalo. What is exciting about this new Hulk is that it is not all CGI. Mark Ruffalo will put on a motion-tracking suit and, in post-production, artists will draw on the Hulk according to Ruffalo’s movements. Oh, and Lou Ferigno is voicing the Hulk, no big deal.

The original writer of The Avengers is Zak Penn. He has written movies like X2, X-men: Last Stand and The Incredible Hulk but bringing all these characters into one movie proved a challenge to Penn. He told Craveonline.com, “My job is to kind of shuttle between the different movies and make sure that finally we’re mimicking that comic book structure where all of these movies are connected… There’s just a board that tracks ‘Here’s where everything that happens in this movie overlaps with that movie.’” However, though Zak Penn made the original script, the official writer is the director, Joss Whedon.

Joss Whedon, has written many hit movies like Toy Story, as well as underground cult TV classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer—he also directed part of the series. With his reputation, many cult followers believe he will stay true to the comic’s story. Whedon was a fan of the comics as a kid, and has given a hint of what the movie will focus around. Whedon, had said at the 2010 Comic-Con,”these people shouldn’t be in the same room let alone on the same team — and that is the definition of family.”

In an interview for IamRogue.com, Tom Hiddleston, playing Loki, alluded to how each character interacts with each other.  “These are seven big egos, and I’m referring to the characters not the actors. They all want to be the alpha male, or in Black Widow’s case the alpha female. So he has made a virtue of that by having them all compete for the top dog slot,” Hiddleston said.

It seems like Loki will not be the only obstacle the Avengers need to overcome.  They will have to learn how to work together for the salvation of Earth. Its one large dysfunctional family of superheroes that the world relies on, they will need to learn how to rely on one another in order to make their team work.

Considering the fact that The Avengers has been in the works since 2005, it’s safe to say that this hero ensemble is long overdue and maintains its position as one of the most anticipated Marvel pictures yet.  With Joss Wedon behind the wheel and still riding the wave of Marvel Enterprises’ success in comic adaptations, movie fans can look forward to being blown away in summer 2012.

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