The game change of "Avengers Assemble"

   Seeing as Avengers managed to reach 3^rd position at the world wide box office and the fact that you are reading an article with “Avengers” in the title, I can be safe in presuming that you have seen this particular superhero movie. If you also happen to be a fan of “How I Met Your Mother” then you will also be aware that the shows very own Robin Sherbatsky jumped ship to play the part of Maria Hill.

   Depending on how clued up you are on the Marvel universe and its characters you may or may not be aware of how important a character Maria Hill is. Important enough in fact that when Nick Fury disappears, she takes over the running of SHIELD. Now what I want you to do is play a little game called, “How important was Maria Hill to the Avengers movie?”

   The answer is, not very much. Anything she did or said could easily have been placed on to another character or removed all together without damaging the movie in any way. If you know anything about writing, you’ll know that often, unnecessary characters and plot lines usually end up left behind in an earlier draft. And that goes double for a big ensemble piece. Why bother giving any time at all to an unimportant character when Iron Man and the Hulk are in the next room fighting for screen time?

   The reason for this is simple. Because she becomes important later. At some point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Maria Hill will most likely follow in the footsteps of her comic sister and become head of SHIELD. Now think about that for a second. A big budget, big ensemble movie has put time aside to introduce you to someone because they will be important later. It’s all so that when it does happen you don’t ask “Well who the f&*$ is this?” You will know her and you will understand her a little more.

   That in a nutshell, is why The Avengers is a game changer. The writers and producers at Marvel, Kevin Feige in particular, have a much bigger picture in their heads. In the way comics have long running stories and interweaving arcs, they plan to have their films do the same thing. This is impressive. This is a whole new game. And Avengers proved it can work and work well (to the tune of $1.4bn thank you very much).

   You could argue that planned trilogies or planned last two thirds of trilogies have done similar things. Taken small characters and turned them in to something special later on but it’s not quite the same. We’re talking multiple characters and multiple “franchises”. Maria Hill doesn’t even have to wait for the next Avengers. She might turn up to cause trouble for Captain America in his sequel or she might just have one line in a Black Panther movie. The Marvel Universe is huge and anything is possible.

   You could also argue that television got their first. Characters have occasionally crossed over in to another show, particularly if they are already part of a spin off such as Spike making an appearance in Angel. The Syfy channel have also had their go at making a shared universe. Two of their shows “Eureka” and “Warehouse 13” performed a bit of a character swap. Though crossover seems a better phrase, since “Shared Universe” sounds a tad too epic considering what it actually boiled down to.

   I’m a huge fan of character crossovers whether in a mention or an appearance so I’m more than excited by what the future of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe holds. And if this little article is anything to go by, http://www.totalfilm.com/news/avengers-amazing-spider-man-reference-revealed, we might get even more characters than we originally bargained for.