When we last talked, “The Avengers” wasn’t in theaters, and as of today, it has made ALL the money. Well at least a billion dollars worldwide. Will this mean cheaper Marvel comics for fans and an office with more than one bathroom for their employees? No and no. Does this mean a ton of tie-in merchandise? Yes and yes.
First off, there’s the comics “Fury’s Big Week” is one of 2 tie-in books, which ships in trade format this week. Collecting the 4 issue Avengers Prelude comic, is details Nick Fury’s actions prior to the Avengers flick. The 2nd tie-in series is “Black Widow Strikes“, and issue 2 ships this week as well. Written by Fred Van Lente, it’s an insanely great book (let alone tie in) and is worth a read if you dig the Black Widow/Avengers movie-verse. “Fury’s Big Week” retails for $14.99, and “BW Strikes” goes for about $2.99 per issue, and will be on shelves this Wednesday.
Moving on to the toy ends of things, we have the inexpensive Avengers Mini Figures. Standing at 2″, these $4 figures consist of the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye and Loki all sporting their movies designs. Granted the lack of Phil Coulson, Black Widow and Nick Fury sucks, these are small inexpensive figures, so what do you expect. They’re good for the kids or desks, otherwise I would go with the the 4″ inch figures, which we’ll look at soon. There’s also a 6″ line in the “Marvel Legends” mold, but those are Walmart Exclusives, so screw that. Diamond Select is also coming out with a whole slew of Minimates that tie into the movie, and they’ve just announced that Agent Coulson will be getting the Minimate treatment, making it the best toy to be released this year.
The 4″ Marvel Avengers figures are the line Hasbro’s been pushing the most, and probably the more in-demand line, as it maintains the same scale that previous Marvel movies/Marvel Universe toy lines have established. As of now, there’s about a dozen figures on the shelf, consisting of the big guns of the Avengers movie-verse. There’s no less than 3 variants of Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor each on the shelves, which makes sense, as they’re the big trinity of the Avengers. And to be fair to Hasbro, they did show some diversity, as each of them have a version faithful to the movie, the Ultimate Universe and one “Concept” figure that are a mixture of both. Rounding out the line are movie faithful versions of both the Hulk (who’s definitely now everyone’s favorite character from the movie) and Loki, as well as a figure of…Ultimate Hawkeye from Ultimates 3. Why you ask? Probably because Hasbro hates me, and Joe Maderia’s design for that character does scream G.I. Joe wannabe.
However, that plastic sin against me will be “avenged” come July, when the next assortment of figures drop. Iron Man, a weird variant suit, Loki and Hulk are repacked in this wave along with a Skrull warrior (which is obviously a hint who the movie’s villains are, and will probably be dropping in July as well) and movie faithful versions of both Hawkeye & Black Widow, which complete the roster. Will I be buying Widow and Hawkeye upon sight? You know it. And if you’re interested in these figures, or what’s been released so far, let it be known that they sell for about $12.99 each. And this isn’t the last of Marvel’s summer offerings, as there’s at least 1 wave of Marvel Universe figures dropping this summer, as well as some Amazing Spider-Man tie-in figures coming out in the coming weeks. But man, believe it or not, there’s only so much Marvel I can talk about per day.
