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About

“Marvel’s The Avengers” is a 2012 American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, directed by Joss Whedon and starred by Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson. It is based on the comic series of the same name published by Marvel Comics since 1963 featuing a number of super heroes of the same company as a team to “fight the foes no single super hero could withstand”. The original line-up of the team consisted of Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man and Wasp and was formed in the first issue of the series, in order to battle Thor’s half-brother Loki. Other classic members of the team are Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Black Panther and Vision.

In the movie, Nick Fury (Jackson), director of the peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D., recruits Iron Man (Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) along S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to stop Loki (Hiddleston) from his plans to conquer Earth. The movie was premiered on April 11, 2012, at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California.

Reception

The film received positive reviews from most film critics, because of its accurancy to the comic books, story, dialogue and humor, and set or tied numerous box office records, including the biggest opening weekend in North America and the fastest film to gross $1 billion worldwide. With a worldwide total gross of over $1.46 billion, The Avengers ranks as the third highest-grossing film of all time behind James Cameron’s Avatar and Titanic^[1]. The film is scheduled to be released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on September 25, 2012. A sequel to be written and directed by Whedon is scheduled for release on May 1, 2015.^[2]

According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 92% approval rating with an average rating of 8/10, based on an aggregation of 279 reviews. It offers the consensus: “With a script that never forgets its heroes’ humanity and no shortage of superpowered set pieces, The Avengers lives up to its hype--and raises the bar for Marvel at the movies.”^[3]

Online Presence

Thanks to its wide fandom, the Avengers were constantly referenced in different websites such as Memebase^[4]^[5], 9gag^[6] and others^[7], usually creating mash-ups of the characters of this movie with other popular memes and fictional figures such as Angry Birds and Pokémon, or parodying many lines and dialogues from the movie and different concepts used on it through captions or fan arts.