avengers-age-of-ultron-fan-made-poster-feature

fan-made poster by Matt Broox

United to face a threat too great for them to tackle individually, the Avengers are one of the most popular super hero teams of comic-dom. Created by Stan Lee at the request of publisher Martin Goodman to compete with the popularity of the Justice League of America over at National (later DC Comics), the team consisted of the heavy hitters of Marvel; Ant Man and the Wasp, the Hulk, Iron Man, and the mighty Thor. Later, Captain America was defrosted from the past and became the most important team member. Thanks to the feature film Marvel Universe, the Avengers have gained new popularity and are a household name and a major franchise, even spawning a TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The long-awaited sequel too the hit film will not only raise the stakes by involving a threat far deadlier than the one posed by Loki in the first film, it will also introduce two new team members; Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Whedon cryptically stated that both The Empire Strikes Back and The Godfather Part II played important roles as inspirations for the sequel, citing that there will be a death in the film.

Finally, a teaser has been revealed that, while not providing any real details, serves to whet the appetite of fans.

SDCC2013 Trailer

Once more drawing inspiration from the comic books, the sequel will center of the evil robotic despot Ultron. The strange part is that in the comics, the robot was created by founding Avenger Han Pym (alias the Ant Man) but this character has not been in the movie version and will not be part of Whedon's sequel. Along with the new origin for a classic villain, Whedon has taken an unexpected side step from Thanos, the villain seen in the post credit sequence of the first film (no doubt the focus of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie).

Details are scarce, but as principle photography begins we will surely see lots of news items.

Avengers Age of Ultron has a release date of May 1, 2015