Some of the details that have trickled out about the next Avengers movie have been what we expected, while some have been surprising. But what if all that is to obscure a truly bold choice: making it a 19th century period drama? Okay, it’s almost certainly not. But if it is, we hope that these plot points figure in somehow.
In response to this post on the trailer that will debut with Age of Ultron — and joking about it being a Henry James pastiche — several commenters started spinning stories about what an Avengers set in the 19th century might look like. Here are some of our favorites:
I hear Anthony Stark is an eccentric inventor and the Ultrons help him with his latest crackpot idea – a metal suit.
Charles Dickens’ An Ultron Story
Mr. Stark is a miser who won’t give poor Peter Parker off for Christmas.
He is visited that night by the spirit of his former partner, Mr. Fury, who warns him that he must change his ways or he will be visited that night by 3 Ultrons.
Is that movie in any way linked to that indie British movie “Avengers Assemble” from a few years ago? It was a movie about a 19th century inventor who is prevented assembling his revolutionary invention by a rival and becomes obssesed with getting revenge.
Of course, these historically-inclined tales would eventually inevitably spark their own form of backlash:
Oh, everybody knows that Age of Ultron is just a ripoff of Oscar Wilde’s unfinished Spy Smasher story…
The Henry James-George Perez run on Avengers was hands down the best. Some people prefer the Edith Wharton-Alan Davis era, but they’re out of their damn minds.
Personally I thought the Dreiser-Conrad-Klimt run was highly underrated.
Klimt could draw Mr. Vision like no one’s business.
I was never a big fan of Sister Marvel’s costume redesign after Picasso took over the art.
Theodore Dreiser’s writing is awful. He’s worse than Jim Shooter.
Still a step up from Chuck Austen. Or that abysmal Doyle guy.
I do like the stretch of X-Men by Robert Louis Stevenson and Paul Smith though.
