As promised, see last night's blog first-

from TNY 5/14/12 today!

Anthony Lane on "The Avengers":

"I think Whedon (director) missed a trick;  for old times sake, why not zip back to the first Marvel movie and wheel out Howard the Duck?"

"If you are not a Marvel fan, then watching "The Avengers" will feel like being mugged by a gang of rowdy sociopaths with high muscle tone.  Absolutely no quarter is given to the ill-informed. the first scene is set in an undesignated patch of outer space, where some masked moaner yaks on in a rich and threatening baritone.  I couldn't understand a word until he asked, "The humans--what can they do but burn?" If he is referring to our cooking skills, this is grossly unfair, for we can also poach, broil, gently simmer, and steam en papillote. The speech however will make perfect sense to those familiar with last year's "Thor," whose villain Loki is revived for the new film. Loki is a tall well-spoken megalomaniac who bears a magic spear, although, for anyone who enjoyed Hiddleston's spry and convincing turn in "Midnight in Paris," the world would appear to be at the mercy of F. Scott Fitzgerald with a monkey wrench."

"And is always is the world. One of the failings of Marvel--as of other franchises, like the "Superman" series--is the vulgarity of thinking big. As a rule, be wary of any guy who dwells upon the fate of mankind, unless he can prove he was born in Bethlemem. Superheroes who claim to be on the side of the entire planet are no more to be trusted than the baddies who seek to trash it, nor is the aesthetic timbre of the movies in which they both appear."

Since I was once--and perhaps still-- fascinated by these plasticine figures, I suppose I am not to be trusted, either... but it was always in the back of my mind that superheroes, like rock stars in the adolescent phase of our minds, were simply God-substitutes; which says all too much about us re: our god-preferences.  Science fiction is not much different--it approaches profound matters with all the sublety of Thor's mallet. However, as one sage once said, it is bad enough to be king; worse yet to be emperor; and sheer hell itself to be God...and our thrilling saga continues....