Why Marvel's The Avengers is the Best Superhero Movie Ever

Welcome back to Why It's the Best, ComicBook.com's ongoing column explaining why a given TV show, Movie, Comic, and more, is the best of its kind. To be clear: I am arguing definitively why Marvel's The Avengers is the best superhero movie ever. In future columns, I will argue definitively why another is (in the past, I made arguments for The Flash and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. being the best comic book shows on TV). Think of this as debate class, and today, I'm pro-Avengers.

But that's an easy task, since Avengers is the best superhero movie ever.

What You're Watching

The culmination of four years of meticulous planning and building, this is what Marvel Studios wanted from the day they started working on Iron Man – a team-up movie uniting all of their solo stars. Marvel's The Avengers pit Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and S.H.I.E.L.D. against Loki, Thor's adopted brother who made his first appearance in that character's solo film. As the team fights to save the world from the god of mischief and his alien invaders, the real villain behind it all stands revealed, but not until the middle of the credits.

What Makes it Unique

"I am Loki, of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

This was the full realization of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, far beyond Nick Fury and Agent Coulson cameos. It is the climax of what would become known as Phase One of Marvel's plan (phase 2 continues on with Age of Ultron, and ends with Ant-Man in 2015). Rather than throw a bunch of heroes together at the start, Marvel Studios went for the slow burn, introducing each hero in their own film (aside from Black Widow and Hawkeye, who took on supporting or cameo roles in other solo movies first). When they all came together, you had something truly new, making everything else feel like it was just the first act. Not only did the movie bring together the heroes from the previous films, it also brought in the Tesseract, the cosmic super-weapon from Captain America: The First Avenger, and Loki, Thor's villain. Nothing like this had ever been done before, and nothing exactly like it could be done again.

Why It's the Best

I've got two words for you: "Avengers Assemble." When you've watched four year's worth of movies, and have built your anticipation, this movie becomes the ultimate release. From the first of the now-standard Marvel post-credits scenes, when Nick Fury introduced the Avengers Initiative, all any fan wanted to see was this promise's fruition.

And then it actually did.

Everything about The Avengers shouldn't have worked. There were big stars (which usually means big egos). There were people who carried entire films on their own, but were now expected to be part of an ensemble. There's the juggling act, and the pressure to get everything right: after all, by the time Avengers hit, there were several more films planned. But it all came together, under the guidance of director Joss Whedon and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.

What makes Avengers the best, though, isn't what they pulled off, but the exact way they did it. There was Agent Coulson, Phase One's connective tissue, who became the film's heart. There were expert performances from ever single Avengers. There was the start of #ScienceBros, crazy action, and some major mythology building. But two things in particular stick out: Loki, and one very important scene.

Before Loki, I never realized just how important a villain can be. After Iron Man fought, essentially, two dopplegängers, as did Hulk, audiences were introduced to Loki in Thor. There, we saw the strength of a villain that you could actually relate to. 

When Loki returned for Avengers, we already knew him, and we knew that despite his ill intent, we liked him. He has a classic "younger sibling" syndrome, and he has relatable issues: he was taken, lied to, and could never prove himself the way he wanted to. Of course, the mass-murdering and alien invasion over Manhattan doesn't exactly endear him to the viewer, but there's something about his particular brand of sinister that you just can't stop watching. It doesn't hurt that Tom Hiddleston is dreamy, either.

The Avengers' other standout is its handling of Captain America, "The Soldier. The Man out of time." Comic book fans know him as the leader of the Avengers, but MCU fans were much more used to Iron Man. Indeed, Cap, fresh out of his 70-or-so-year cryosleep, became the viewer's character. He's introduced to Black Widow, and then to Bruce Banner. He's the one that stops the initial meet-and-fight between Iron Man and Thor. He's the first to confront Loki. He's Coulson's idol, and he easily shows why he refuses to ever back down, no matter what.

But Captain America doesn't assume his destiny as the Avengers' leader until Iron Man utters the words, "Call it, Captain." That's all anyone needed to say. From there, Captain America used his training and strategy to orchestrate the coolest scene in the whole film, when the Avengers truly acting in concert by passing the battle from one to the other in a montage of alien ass-kicking. As the point-of-view character becomes the leader, the fans feel just a bit of what it is to be that miraculous hero.

And don't worry, Iron Man fans, he has his heroic moment at the end there, too.

The Final Word

Marvel's The Avengers had, really, only two possibilities: it would either be a phenomenal success or a spectacular failure. Luckily for Marvel Studios, and for fans, it was the former. This movie proved a few things, too: you can have humor in a major superhero film! Watching heroes beat each other up (just a little) is pretty awesome! A good villain makes your movie! Finally, years of planning does actually make the difference, and in tortoise fashion, slow and steady does win the race. Of course, with the mid-credits sequence, the movie also teases the next big thing (as Marvel is wont to do), and the larger universe that's at play. Sure, we had those solo movies, but this was the real beginning of the MCU, and it's easy to see why Avengers is the best superhero movie ever.

Do you think The Avengers is the best superhero movie ever? Did its sequel, Age of Ultron, usurp it? Let us know in the comments!