TRANS-SCRIBE: Marvel Studios’ The Infinity Saga – The Avengers: The Art of the Movie by Jason Surrell

When the MCU was first starting having an interconnected universe was a huge novelty, and the small scene at the end of Iron Man where Nick Fury dropped the word Avengers felt like a long, impossible dream. However, only a few years later a group of super heroes would come together to form a team on the big screen for the first time. Yes, we'd had team movies before, such as the X-Men and Fantastic Four films, but this was the first time the team was coming together from different places, a crossover event of the ages. And whilst the first Avengers film has become fairly quaint for how small and simple it keeps things it's still a special moment in cinema; one that Titan Books are celebrating with their next entry in the Marvel Studios’ The Infinity Saga art book series as Jason Surrell dives into the making of the movie.

The opening line of the book sums up comic book movies well, 'The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a world whose foundation is based in art', and understands why the visual side of things is hugely important for a universe drawing from a visual media. The Avengers are a big name now, but have had a rough history in comics, and have not always been the crowd drawing book that you would expect. Historically, the team has often been a showground for characters that either cannot support their own book, or have low sales. Whether that's characters like Hawkeye and Captain America, or Vision, Jack of Hearts, Wonder Man, and the Two Gun Kid. Whilst their roster might not have been the best, it had some great people working on it, and getting to see a lot of characters who usually work alone come together was a great look.

This is what the MCU was going to have to imitate, the wonder and joy of seeing characters that we'd become used to being solo stars sharing a scene together. The opening of this new art book spends some time going over this, giving readers a rundown of the films that came before it, a comprehensive timeline of the MCU up to that point, and showcasing a stunning piece of art that necessitates folding out a page to fit it all on. It's great stuff, and recaptures some of the hype from the time of seeing this all come together.

Whilst other books in this collection have split the art of the film into easy to define segements, such as a huge chapter dedicated to Iron Man's armour, another on the villains of the film, and another showcasing sets and environments, this time things are done slightly differently as there's a lot more to cover here than in times previous. There are three main chapters to the book, with each of them covering the film in chronological order. The first chapter, 'Incident in the Desert', covers the start of the film, the part that establishes the reason why the Avengers need to come together. The second chapter, 'Avengers Assemble', handles the Avengers, their new designs, and the scenes where they're introduced, along with places like the Helicarrier. The third chapter, 'A Common Threat', deals with the films climax, showcasing the designs of the enemies, and the battle of New York.

'Incident in the Desert' takes us behind the scenes of the start of the film, showing us how the world of S.H.I.E.L.D., only really background players in the other films, came to be. Key characters like Nick Fury and Maria Hill have several versions of the their outfits, some of which skew more towards the comic looks with uniforms that involve more blue, and feature the white highlights, gloves, and boots that readers have been used to for decades. It's a shame that the film went for a more realistic approach, as some of these designs absolutely pop on the page, and you find yourself wondering how different the film would look if it embraced its origins a little bit more.

This chapter also gives us our first look at the first Avenger we meet in the movie, Hawkeye. Whilst Hawkeye did feature briefly in the Thor art book we didn't really see much of him, and this time we get several different costume designs for him, as well as a detailed look at his weaponry; including a couple dozen trick arrow heads that we sadly barely get a chance to see in any detail on the big screen. The introduction of the film also brings back another important character from Thor, Loki, as the film's antagonist. As such we get some pages dedicated to him, including some costume variants and a few alternative designs for the sceptre that he carries with him across the course of the film.

The second chapter, 'Avengers Assemble', takes some time looking at each of the other heroes in the order that they appear in the film. The first up is Black Widow, who has a few costume designs that are more variations on her appearance in Iron Man 2 and play with bringing her more in line with the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the movie than making her more like the comic. We then get brief introductions to Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, and Tony Stark, but as the film doesn't showcase any new looks for them at this point these pages go by pretty quickly as we keep moving through the film and instead get a number of pages given over to important locations like Stark Tower, as well as vehicles such as the Quinjet and Helicarrier; the latter of which went through several designs it seems as the film tried to settle on how realistic or fantastical to make it.

From here, however, our heroes start getting into costume and we get some new designs for Captain America, several of which I actually prefer to the one used in the movie. Thor goes through a few costume costume tweaks too, though like other returning heroes there's nothing too revolutionary or different here than what came before. One of the largest character sections actually goes to the Hulk, who gets a big redesign in this film since the recasting of the Bruce Banner character. Due to rights issues surrounding the Hulk I assume that's the reason why we don't have an art book dedicated to that film (and why the Hulk keeps appearing in other movies and doesn't get one of his own). As such, this is the first real look we get at the character in the series, and it's super interesting to see the various ideas the filmmakers went through to bring the character to life on screen.

The third chapter showcases some new armour designs for Iron Man as he has to upgrade in the latter part of the film, and shows how the falling into new armour scene was planned out and executed. The rest of the chapter is dedicated to the Chitauri designs. Originating from the original Ultimate Universe, the Chitauri were that world's version of the Skrulls, characters that couldn't be used in the MCU at this time thanks to Fox owning the rights to the Fantastic Four. You can see some hints at the Skrull origins in the Chitauri designs here and there, such as the ridges on the chin for The Other, but it seems for the most part that this is the area in which the design team got to try something completely new and as such there are some incredibly interesting pieces of concept art included here.

These were the first completely alien, almost wholly original creations for the MCU, and whilst the designs had to work in universe with the rest of the tone and style they are also able to push the boundaries a little more. I particularly liked one of the Leviathan design that was much thinner, almost serpentine, and looked more like a Chinese dragon that would have looked incredibly different had the film gone that route. The rest of the chapter is given over to huge pieces of art that cover the entire page, depicting the Avengers in battle with the alien invaders that wonderfully capture the tone and flavour of the films finale.

The Avengers felt like a huge event, and covering that in book form was not going to be an easy task, but Surrell manages to do that here. The book showcases the process for bringing things together, of how these characters who existed alone were redesigned and tweaked slightly to make them work in the same frame, and how the carefully constructed world that was being built in the background of the other films served as the perfect backdrop for it all. It also, however, opened the universe out into new and interesting directions, furthering the work done in Thor and taking the MCU into a bigger, wider galaxy. With this barely being the start of the shared universe to come reaching this point felt like a milestone, but it's also a key foundational one too, and anyone interested in filmmaking or the MCU will want to pick up a copy.