From the early 1960s to the early to mid 1970s my mind was partially molded by comic books. My grandfather was one of the culprits who had his kids (and ultimately me) reading them. My grandfather was a man with a third-grade education but was also one of the smartest men I ever knew. Later in life he memorized a word a day, but the love of reading all started for me through him and my uncles, with comic books.

Most of them were war and western formats. There were all of the historical television western characters such as The Rawhide Kid and Ghost Rider. There were soldier characters like Sgt. Rock and Sgt. Fury. They opened doors to other comics, especially (at first) the horror genre. Those included at first books like Grimm's, Eerie, and Creepy, but later on others like The Phantom and Spiderman. One of the things I found out was I got more bang for the twelve cents or so I spent with a new book coming out, The Avengers.

The Avengers was a comic by Marvel Comics that incorporated stories of the Marvels Hero cast, all in one book. I could read about my favorites over the years, working together and sometimes against each other, and there were especially two of my favorite characters of all time, Captain America and Thor. Later on another favorite, The Black Panther, joined the cast and the early work of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby who created the series would go on to live forever, in fact, so much so that one of the best, if not the best, superhero movies of all time would come out of the creation.

I had the opportunity to see the new movie The Avengers on opening night. I had heard good things about the movie but fully expected it to have a hard time living up to the hype. The story incorporates heroes from recent movies including Ironman (Robert Downy Jr.,) The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo,) Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Captain America (Chris Evans.) Included are new characters in the series including a more extensive role for Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), The Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). With every good comic book story you also need a good villain; and we have a returning villain here, the brother of Thor, Loki played by Tom Hiddleston. With so many characters, including some rather important ones not mentioned, one would think it rather difficult to make a movie involving all of them with all of the differing storylines and keep the story cohesive... and more importantly, enjoyable without the egos and attitudes shining through. That last point helps bring out the real genius of this movie, which is the direction and writing. In two words it is quite simple, The Avengers is Freaking Awesome!

I saw The Avengers in 3-D on the IMAX. Many often ask, and for good reason, if it is worth the extra cost. I would say that for 3-D absolutely, and if not getting motion sickness easily, yes as well to the IMAX experience. If having difficulty with motion sickness though, there is so much action that the IMAX experience could be a little difficult; I found the action constant and very enjoyable, though. This brings me to another aspect of this film I want to make sure to mention: the excellence in filmmaking.

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