Marvel Studios
Who needs one superhero when seven will do? The first trailer for The Avengers has arrived online, boasting the most formidable ensemble of butt-kicking evil-fighters -- and A-list actors -- yet assembled for one superheroic motion picture. Watch the trailer below!
The film follows an elite group of crime fighters working under the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate (that's S.H.I.E.L.D. for short), who band together to protect the world from threats that would likley cause mere mortals to lose control of their bodily functions. Here, that threat is Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) evil brother, who sets out to rule Earth after being banished from the heavenly realm of Asgard.
Assembled by Samuel L. Jackson's eye-patch-wearing Nick Fury and unassuming Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), this bad-guy-battling task force is comprised of regular humans (such as Scarlett Johansson's acrobatic Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow and Jeremy Renner's arrow-slinging Clint Barton/Hawkeye), enhanced humans (like Robert Downey Jr.'s bionic-suit-wearing Tony Stark/Iron Man, Chris Evans' genetically altered Steve Rogers/Captain America and Mark Ruffalo's man/raging-green-giant Bruce Banner/Hulk) and one otherworldly being (Hemsworth's hammer-weilding Norse god Thor).
And somehow each of these Avengers gets his or her fair share of screen time in the two-minute preview. Samuel L. Jackson gets his obligatory hero shot. Mark Ruffalo busts out of his shirt and into a, um, greener ensemble. Jeremy Renner shows off his deadly aim. Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans open up a can of butt whipping -- on each other. Scarlett Johansson smothers some villainous henchman between her thighs (not a bad way to go). And Robert Downey Jr. soars through the sky as Iron Man and, of course, flaunts his sarcastic side with all of the trailer's best one-liners.
His best quip of the preview? "Dr. Banner," Stark says, shaking hands with Ruffalo's character. "Your work is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." So are we.
The Avengers is set to kick of next summer's blockbuster season on May 4, 2012.
