Some might call me obsessive, anti-social and just flat out weird for being this way, but I’ve been a Marvel fanboy as long as I’ve been alive. Fascinated by the Spider-Man and X-Men cartoons, dazzled by Hulk toys and spellbound by the original Spider-Man movie poster.  The poster was simple…elegant..beautiful in retrospect. It also seemed to be destiny looking me straight in the eye and saying “This is your life…get used to it!” Since then, I’ve adorned my body with Marvel T-Shirts, Iron Man cosplay, written Ant-Man scripts and just been flat-out obsessed with Marvel Comics. But despite all their achievements, the holy grail in terms of cinema had yet to be created…The Avengers. The bringing together of heroes who battle immeasurable  evil. For years, I awaited the day I could see these heroes assemble. Bit by bit, end credit scene by end credit scene,  set photo by set photo, my anticipation grew for this movie to peak levels.  But could they possibly be met? Could they?

In this colossal cinematic event, Nick Fury (played wonderfully by Samuel L. Jackson) leads the organization S.H.I.E.L.D.  which helps keep superheroes like The Hulk, Iron Man and Thor in line.  However, when a mystical object ends up in the wrong hands, he knows it’s time to bring together Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for one unforgettable showdown. But before they can confront the evil in front of them, they must first confront each other and their own massive egos.

In terms of the heroes chosen for The Avengers, it’s a genuine mush pot of characters. There’s ego-maniac Tony Stark A.K.A. Iron Man (played by the unbelievably wonderful Robert Downy Jr.),  recently revived WWII supersoldier Captain America (Chris Evans), demigod Thor (Chris Hemsworth), assassins Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) and archer Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner in a surprisingly emotional turn) and, of course, the not so jolly green giant…my favorite superhero of all-time…The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo)! This gaggle of grotesque do-gooders are thrust into situations so massive it would make Michael Bay’s jaw drop. Yet, brilliantly enough, the makers of this film never let the film get too big, letting sharp writing and character arcs drive the film instead of just things going boom.

The honor of bringing this project to the screen after all these years is none other than The King of The Nerds himself: Joss Whedon! He created Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along-Blog  and even produced the recent cult hit The Cabin In The Woods.  The wit and humor he brought to those projects comes through here.  His dialogue is brilliant, positively popping off the screen  and the way he treats these legendary characters is refreshingly different from most summer blockbusters.  He doesn’t treat them as chess pieces to move into the next action scene…he treats them as characters that he uses to have these characters bounce off each other like a human pinball machine. It’s fantastic to see these guys duke out insults at each other and even better to see them work together. The way Joss writes this thing is beyond perfect (is it too early to nominate this for Best Adapted Screenplay at next years Oscars?) He brings tons of laughs and ingenuity to the picture and it’s astounding how much The Avengers is suited for Joss Whedon’s writing style and vice versa!

The brilliance of the writing can be boiled down to two specific areas… first off, remember those laughs I mentioned? Well the biggest surprise of the flick is how funny it is! Always knowing just when to put a great gag, the laughs will never fail to bring the house down.  They know when to play this thing serious and when to let the audience fall out of their seat in laughter. The other place it excels is in characterization. Each of the Avengers has their own backstory and arc to overcome. The best of these is The Hulk and his human counterpart Bruce Banner.  Mark Ruffalo plays the part perfectly and is easily the best Hulk ever. These guys have made me like a kid in a candy story with their depiction of The Hulk…they’ve got him so right it’s almost frightening. He smashes, he makes you laugh, and as Bruce Banner, you genuinely feel for the character. All these characters do well (especially Thor, who has personal connections to the baddie of the picture), but it’s The Hulk that really assembles perfectly.

As if to boot, the action is marvelous, especially in the movie’s climax, where the heroes work together. No spoilers here, but there’s this one shot in the movie that never fails to dazzle me. The camera never blinks or stops, but just flies around the battle, checking in on each of our heroes. It’s so beautifully orchestrated and pulled off, it blows one’s mind. The action delivered here puts all the Transformers movies to shame and makes something  like 2012 look like mere child’s play.  Superb stuff.

Many have said The Avengers is so big, that it ends the era of Superhero movies for good. The film perfection, however, makes me think otherwise. I believe it STARTS a new era of comic book movies, ones that are much smarter, humorous and just plain fun than their predecessors. So good is this movie, it will be seen as a model for what not just comic book movies can be, but great cinema period. There looks to be many great movies this summer (Prometheus, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises), but it’ll take something really magnificent to beat this masterpiece. Face front, true believers..you don’t want to miss this perfect piece of filmmaking that will have you dazzled, on the edge of your seat, rolling in the aisles laughing and just feeling like you just witnessed not a movie, but a cinematic experience. Excelsior people…The Avengers is well worth assembling for and then some! This is the quintessential  summer movie, the best movie of 2012 and perhaps one of the all-time greatest movies.