Meanwhile, in San Diego …
Marvel took over the big hall at San Diego Comic Con tonight and introduced casts and made announcements about upcoming big-screen Marvel movies.
“Thor: The Dark World,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” were previewed.
Then Joss Whedon blew the roof off the place by announcing the full title of the “Avengers” sequel: “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”
For those who don’t know, Ultron was introduced in the 1960s as a robot creation of Henry Pym (Ant-Man). Ultron quickly developed a mind of his own, of course, and various versions of the murderous machine have battled the Avengers ever since.
“Ant-Man” doesn’t appear until after the “Avengers” sequel, so we’ll see if Pym is part of “Avengers 2” or if – as teaser footage tonight apparently suggested – there’s more of a direct line between Tony Stark/Iron Man and Ultron than between Pym and Ultron.
The early Ultron plots are some of my favorite from comics ever, and include some of the most clever writing in comics, including the use of Shelley’s “Ozymandias” in the page above.
For those who don’t know it, here’s the poem:
Ozymandias
I MET a Traveler from an antique land,
Who said, “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is OZYMANDIAS, King of Kings.”
Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that Colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
It still gives me goosebumps.
Here’s looking forward to 2015.
keithroysdon 