For my final project I plan on making a creative “fan fiction” based on the Avengers. Age of Ultron specifically. I have never written a fan fiction before but after seeing Age of Ultron, the character and story of Scarlet Witch really interested me. I had an idea for an emotional story that takes place after Quicksilver’s death. In the film, she reacted very powerful way and I plan on adding to that. She immediately killed every Ultron robot around her in the aftermath because of her anger. I wanted to delve deeper in to her reaction of her brother’s death. The story would involve, without spoiling too much, how she is dealing with this day to day within herself. The pair were inseparable, so clearly one half without the other will cause some emotional turmoil for her. I will display (my own idea) of how she is dealing with it, and won’t turn out so pretty. I thought this would be a good way of personally testing out the section of fandom, our second unit. This obviously deals with Joss Whedon, as it is within his Avengers world. Whedon’s fan base is big in the fan creation world, so I thought it would be interested adding my own work into that. I shouldn’t have much trouble taking the idea in my head and translating it paper. It’s a story i’m very excited to write so I think it will be a fun experience not only or class but as a personal project.

The Cabin in The Woods

The Cabin in The Woods, a Joss Whedon production from 2012 is classified as a horror, mystery and thriller movie. This film brought in a total of $66,486,080 worldwide but had an estimated budget of about $30,000,000 resulting in a small and barely doubled profit. There is no mention of comedy on IMDB (contrary to Wikipedia) and watching the trailer, you wouldn’t expect a single humorous line to come out of any actors mouth. Yet comedy plays a constant and immense role in this film. The comedy which Whedon is famous for bringing into his works is what makes this movie stand apart from other horror movies or thrillers. We wondered if the marketing of this film was a part of the limited success of this movie. How might it have done if it had been advertised as more of a comedy, rather than your run of the mill teen horror movie? Would it have drawn more of an audience or would it have flopped just as much? Our goal in remaking the trailer for The Cabin in The Woods was to advertise it as a comedic thriller of sorts. Our hypothesis is that if it had been marketed differently, rather had it been marketed as a humorous horror film, it would have been wildly more successful, bringing in a much larger profit.

In order to choose our scenes, we focused on two main thoughts – what was scary or typical to a horror trailer and what was comedic and would be found in a trailer for a comedy. These two, juxtaposed in this trailer, are a much more accurate description of the movie itself. To enhance the comedy and dramatic effect of the trailer, we used the taglines found on IMDB. Things like, “you think you know the story” and “If the basement door swings open, go down there.” These lines are such accurate descriptions of the movie, seeing as these kids do everything you’re never supposed to do when you’re in a horror film. They are also accurate descriptions of the trailer we have created, showing that Whedon chooses to mock the horror film genre in a way by questioning what makes a good horror movie.

Author’s Statement:

(Lindsey) Since we decided to make our skit about the beginning of Civil War, we figured Spiderman should be a part of that discussion. Spiderman had a big role in the Civil War comics and there is a lot of speculation that he will be in the movie as well since Marvel recently acquired his rights from Sony. We figured adding Spiderman would be a good way to speculate how Marvel intends to make Civil War as an extension of the Avengers and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Because the Cinematic Universe is so different from the comics, a lot had to be changed around or erased from the comic storyline to the storyline we wrote for the skit. It was easy to write in Spiderman because we could practically make his storyline anything we want since this will be his first appearance in the Universe and therefore is no prior knowledge of him in the Universe. We tried to write Spiderman’s dialogue in a way we’d imagine Whedon would do so and mixed it with Spiderman’s own humor.

(Carsten) Iron Man is going to be a vital role in Civil War, as he is the head of his side of the argument against Captain America. In this skit, I will be playing as him and will be arguing as to why the protection is important for the Avengers. We made sure to add in his signature sense of humor, but also the confidence. Portraying him, I will replicate RDJ’s style so seem like the Iron Man from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Joss Whedon is great at being able to handle many characters at once, so we are doing that here ourselves here to a degree with Iron Man, Spiderman, and Captain America. With this, it will come off as the MCU/Whedon Avengers but made by fans and not  by the man himself.
(Matthew)    When myself, Lindsey, and Carsten, got together to decide what to do for our group project we all agreed to do something within the Marvel  universe Whedon has created. We eventually decided to do what we think will be the focus of Captain America: Civil War which will have Iron Man and Cap on two sides fighting each other with the other Avengers taking sides. We agreed to do this because it’s going to be interesting to see how much it differs from the comics and also how if it affects the two Avengers movies Whedon directed. Will be acting out what should be the beginning of Civil War with Cap and Iron Man disagreeing with their stances on what do to and then trying to convince Spider-Man to join one of them.  There’s no doubt that Spider-Man is Marvel’s standout superhero so it’s going to be interesting to see how our version will compare to how Civil War turns out next May.

For our project, we chose to explore the back story of Sid, the antagonist in Toy Story, one of Whedon’s first Hollywood projects. As an essential character to the plot line, this character receives relatively little to no back story. The viewer is first introduced to Sid as the crazy neighbor that destroys toys for fun. Andy’s toys are already scared of Sid stating “Oh no! Not Sid!” We thought it would be interesting to explore where Sid developed his destructive nature and establish the basis for the toys’ fear. We hope to provide an explanation for Sid’s psychological state, his family dynamic and how his backstory perpetuates the plot of Toy Story. We chose Toy Story because as a group, we had the most experience. We loved it, we grew up with it, and it seemed like a world in which we could explore in a manner that would be similar to something Whedon would do.

We chose a story board as our medium because we thought it would be the most effect method for reimagining Sid’s story, mimicking Pixar’s animation process. We were able to accomplish a foundation for how Sid became the antagonist while simultaneously creating a Whedon-esque parallel between Sid’s destruction of toys and the psychological payback the toys get on Sid. We decided that Sid’s troubled behavior was caused by his strained relationship with his abusive, alcoholic father and his constant comparison to his seemingly over privileged younger sister, Hannah.

We explored this family dynamic through multiple birthday sequences to create a contrast between Sid and Hannah’s upbringings. For Sid’s birthday, we establish a young, only child who doesn’t appreciate his parent’s gift because it wasn’t what he wanted. His father verbally abuses him for being selfish and unappreciative, creating tension and a basis for resentment. In later sequences, we explore Hannah’s birthday, demonstrating a very different, loving and supportive father. This comparison helps to show why Sid’s actions escalated at the party and what caused him to become the character that he is.

As a piece of fan fiction, we see this story as a way to expand the Toy Story universe by blurring the lines between an antagonist and a sympathetic character. As a viewer, we are never given a chance to feel for Sid in the way we would for other characters such as Andy or Woody. In the meantime, while waiting for another expansion of the Toy Story universe, it is within our fandom right to explore Sid as a sympathetic and perhaps redeemable character. In doing this, we were able to highlighted him in a way that might spark many possible future story arches.

The Fan-Fiction that appeared the most intriguing was this fan’s, Seikan no Sozo-ryoku’s, story exploring Tony Stark’s life three months after he had retired from the Avengers, in Joss Whedon’s 2015 Film, The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Sozo-ryoku’s extension of the story world appears to have more of a dark, serious, reverent, emotional, depressing and horrifying attitude. The scene first appears with Tony back in his reconstructed Malibu mansion, that was destroyed a few years back by Killian, in Iron Man 3 (Shane Black 2013). During that time, you can see him reading all the newspaper that had been blaming Stark for all the destruction that Ultron had caused. Even Stark Industries’ stocks had crashed severely. Since, Ultron was technically one of Tony Stark’s creations.

This invention of his was originally designed as an artificial intelligence that would focus on being a guardian of Earth and maintain the peace within it. That somehow had changed when Ultron suddenly went haywire, deemed the human race not worth to live on and attempted to wipe out the entire human race from existence, instead.

Tony appears to be struggling worst mentally, than he did in Iron Man 3 after almost having a near death experience saving the world from an alien invasion in The Avengers (Joss Whedon 2012). The guilt of all the destruction and death that Ultron and all of his previous weaponize inventions, prior to him becoming Iron Man, had caused was eating him up inside. The thing that feared and disturbed Stark the most was the similarities that he and Ultron had shared. Tony felt that he saw himself in Ultron’s mechanics. It was killing him so much that he was willing to give up being Iron Man forever. However, nothing made it worst then when Ultron appears to have survived from being destroyed and appears at Stark’s mansion to finish Tony off once and for all.

This fan-produced extension seems to both comply with existing plot developments and constitute some sort of intervention. The reason is that it does appear to be a potential plot because it does appeal to Tony Stark’s potential life after he leaves the Avengers in the second film. However, when referring to future films in marvel cinematic universe, it does interrupt Stark making his appearance in Captain America: Civil War that appears next spring, since in Sozo-ryoku’s extended version, Ultron ends up killing Tony Stark.

The Fan-Fiction Extension of Avengers: Age of Ultron that I used:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11246984/1/Rage-of-Ultron

I apologize that this is late, I was having some internet problems

I think it may have been just the title card alone that drew me in, but the summary made me read it. This story on Archive of Our Own called Domestic Ultron. I had an idea that there were erotic fan fiction sections out there for the Avengers, from no more place than the actors being extremely good looking people, and there are not to many people who don’t think about Scarlett Johansson. I mean come on. But I digress.

It wasn’t the sexual nature of this first person account only described as, “Basically, you’re living with an eight-foot robot, who cannot crack eggs for the life of him”, but the visual space this person out you into waking up in bed to crashes and sounds coming from the kitchen, investigating and finding only Ultron, which of course seems of no surprise as you call him what I assume to be a pet name, Ron. This person put your emotional standing in that of one for whom the artificial intelligence created to bring about peace on Earth, by destroying the Avengers and cleansing the world of humans, knows how you like your eggs and wanted to make you breakfast.

It was not only funny how the writer gave Ultron a childish disposition, just as it seemed at the early moments in the movie as he emerged. It is truly this sense that AI would be like computer with the temperament of a child. The story was humorous, witty, and definitely not something I was expecting to emerge from the Age of Ultron film.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3923752/chapters/8786536

uploaded at 12:06 AM, sorry for the tardiness

The Avengers 8bit video takes a funny approach of recreating some of the beat scenes from the Avengers movie. 8bit video games tend to be fairly fun and humorous which really does show in the video. The video is fairly consist with the characters and locations they interact within the movie. It does add some new details that didn’t actually play out in the movie. One example is on the carrier when Captain America is running towards the fan and Hawkeye is shooting arrows at him. Something little like that shouldn’t mean very much, but I wondered how it would have played out if it actually happened in the movie. The one scene from the video that was spot on was the attack on New York. The video has all the great moments from the battle especially the long take with all the avengers fighting in different areas around Manhattan. The 8bit video shows all the important details of the plot in 3 minutes.  It may not have had the character development that the movie had, but does show all the cool actions scenes. The audience for this video should be anyone who enjoys the Avengers or superhero movies in general, and also for people who enjoy videogames. Growing up with a Gameboy I can honestly see that this video reminded me of the times I spent playing pokemon  for hours a day. If there was an actually 8bit avengers game I would definitely buy it ASAP.

The fanfiction I chose was a story exploring the sexual tension between Black Widow and Hawkeye. The writer of this piece is clearly a huge fan of the Marvel world and took this writing very seriously. They attempted to write this in a way that Marvel could sell this as their own story. For the most part, the story explores the characters created by Whedon pretty accurately. The author emphasizes the two in a way Whedon doesn’t. The author stresses that Black Widow is this super serious, brick-wall type while Hawkeye is this sarcastic, funny guy. Though they both have flickers of that in Whedon’s work, he doesn’t emphasize those traits as much. Hawkeye is funny at times, but comes across very serious as well in the Avengers and Black Widow is pretty closed off and serious, but nothing like she’s made out to be in this story. This clearly spins off of the Avengers, but the author either resurrected Coulson on his own, or knew he was brought back to life in the Agents of Shield tv show. In general, I would say a piece like this is written to appeal to big fans of the Marvel industry, especially those whose favorite characters are either Black Widow or Hawkeye, as they are the only people really mentioned in this piece. There is no mention of the Avengers in this, so it makes me wonder if this piece was written to be either before or after the Avengers assemble. It might even be written by someone who is a huge fan of the comics and has never seen the movies as it really had not direct ties or acknowledgement.

The fanfiction i used –

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8367383/1/Vietnam

This particular fan fiction story that I read (which is a work in progress) had a very interesting and valid plot to continue on the Marvel universes story. Basically, Loki has apparently died but Black Widow is convinced that he is still alive and has only pretended to be dead. She wants to go to Asgard and warn the people there, but doesn’t have the connections or influences that she used to have when SHIELD was still around. To make up for this, she visits “The Council”, which I mistook for the council in the Avengers and Captain America: Winter Soldier. What she really meant is the watcher’s council from the Buffy universe. In this story, they were pressured to be affiliated with SHIELD but refused in the end, mostly because they don’t have the same interests as shield. They send her to Asgard, and starts to warn everybody that Loki could possibly still be alive, and the story pretty much ends there. The tone overall is very serious, and is a very interesting story. Black Widow, seeing as how she talked with Loki to reveal his plan in the first Avengers, knows what he is capable of and that he will do anything to continue with his vengeance on Earth and Asgard. The council being thrown in is, of course, something that only a fan could write in because of legal issues and continuity errors of the two universes being mixed together, but it works well in this. Because of SHIELD being compromised and really just being Hydra, all their sub-organizations and affiliates would have suffered the same fate. The watcher’s council not being included in that was therefore a safe place to go, knowing that they are free of Hydra influence. They are hardly needed, other than a way for Black Widow to go to Asgard. For people that know of Buffy and the council, it makes sense and they know what is going on (somewhat). This is a predominantly Marvel story, so the average audience will be Marvel fans and not know what is going on in the beginning of the story.

With the second phase of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe coming to an end and the dates of movies created for Phase 3 released, fans are more than excited for what’s to come. Fans are specifically interested in the Avengers and who exactly is going to join the team because of the licensing problems Marvel is having. This very well made fan trailer paints a very clear picture as to what fans hope to see at the end of Phase 3 with the 3rd Avengers movie. In the trailer, we not only see the original lineup of Ironman, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, but we also see other Marvel characters who were apart of the Avengers at one time or another in the comics. These characters include Spiderman, Wolverine, Star Lord, Venom, and a number of others. What’s interesting about this fan trailer is that it really seems like it’s an actual trailer for the 3rd Avengers movie. It follows plot lines by including clips from a wide variety of Marvel movies, not only the Avengers. It also plays on the idea that Thanos is going to be the next super villain in the series by including after credit clips from some of the movies. With almost 80,000 views already, the trailer has reached out to other Marvel fans who are eagerly awaiting what’s to come for Marvel. Many comments praise the trailer for how well it portrays fans’ fantasies about Infinity War. So, even though it is just a fan trailer, it may accurately predict what will be the future. If Marvel sorts out (or is willing to sort out) it’s licensing issues in order to fulfill many a fan’s dreams and do it’s own company creative justice, I believe the creator of this trailer is right on the money.