We hit the first huge milestone in the MCU. Movie 6 is The Avengers (2012) and it’s the first time we see the MCU characters interact with each other outside of the post-credit scenes.
I had originally planned to paint Hawkeye for this movie. Unfortunately with the release schedule it was just a few weeks out and I would have had to pause this Spaghetti challenge which I really didn’t want to do.
So I dug through the Core Box and found Crossbones who I honestly knew just about knew nothing about it. But after doing a little research I found out he’s sorta-kinda in the Avengers.
The Model
I didn’t really know who Crossbones was until I watched Civil War (which is another 8 movies into the MCU). But from everything I’ve seen and researched the model looks great. He’s decked out in military gear and has unbelievably large arms and is in this pose that looks like he’s about to punch someone in the face. Hard.
I again used a zenithal highlight to undercoat the model. And I used Contract Black Templar to paint most of the clothing on him and it came out great.
The dark brown vest was mostly Contrast Wyldwood with a dry brush of Skrag Brown.
I’m really impressed with the model and how good it looks. I’m still learning contrast paints and it’s quite impressive how fast you can paint if one or two layers can be painted with a contrast paint.
I remembered how useful dry brushing can be and I need to practice a bit more as well as get some better dry brushing brushes.
Paint Scheme
Base
- Leadbelcher Silver on metal
- Wash Nuln Oil
- Contrast Flesh Tearer’s Red
- Wash Reikland Fleshshade
Skin
- Contrast Guilliman Flesh
- Wash Reikland Fleshshade
Black
- Contrast Black Templar
Brown Gear
- Contrast Wyldwood
- Drybrush Skrag brown
Leg armor
- Base Leadbelcher
- Wash Nuln Oil
- Dry brush Runefang steel
The Movie
The Avengers starts right away with Loki teleporting to earth and stealing the tesseract. And we immediately see the benefit of all of the setup the MCU has been doing for 5 movies. The tesseract, Loki, Hawkeye, Dr Selvig, and Nick Fury have already been explained and we can jumpstart the story.
The Avengers isn’t a perfect movie but it brings the MCU back towards a comedy action style movie and redefines what a super hero movie can look like. Instead of being all about action, darkness, and tension we get levity and delight.
Good Things in The Avengers
The Avengers is the first team up of the characters in the MCU and it’s the first time for almost all of these characters to meet each other. One of the things they did really well was give the nerds some epic moments like Thor hitting Captain America’s shield.
We’re also introduced to Stark tower, SHIELD helicarriers, a real intro on Hawkeye, and a bunch of other things we’ll see throughout the MCU.
And while it isn’t as funny as some later movies there’s a few epic scenes that I’ll always remember. The moment Hulk smashes Loki is epic and has stayed with me for the past 8 years.
Bad Things in The Avengers
I did really enjoy the movie and it redirected the MCU back to funny movies. But it was toooooooo long. So long. And not only was it long but it seemed pointlessly long. The ending fight scene was just random aliens. Not even a villain with a name that we care about.
I understand they had to show us how epic the Avengers are but maybe have a 10 minute final battle instead of a 20 minute battle.
The other thing is actually quite a big issue. The whole premise of the movie is that the Avengers aren’t a team, they’re fractured, and they heal and become an amazing team. Synergy and all that. But unfortunately there’s no real reason for them to have such animosity. Iron Man & Thor are immediately ready to do battle for some reason? Really you guys couldn’t talk about your issues and you had to immediately hit each other with hammers & laser beams? I like character growth but they seem like children not adults.
My Favorite MCU Movies (so far)
- Captain America
- Iron Man
- The Avengers
- Thor
- Iron Man 2
- The Hulk
Avengers is great but it doesn’t beat Captain America nor Iron Man. Cap has the best story so far & Iron Man has a great story and is hilarious.
The Avengers has some pretty great moments but is also filled to the brim with pointless action scenes.
The Comics
Since I was painting Crossbones I decided to read one of the comics about him. I read Captain America: Red Menace which features Crossbones and Red Skull.
Crossbones doesn’t exactly have a lot of depth. He’s basically an evil version of the Punisher… which means he just kills people because he wants to and because he’s able. He’s not a super interesting character – at least Bane from Batman has grand plans to take over Gotham. Crossbones just wants to kill for funsies.
While I don’t love Crossbones he’s more of an agent. He’s doing the Red Skull’s bidding and he’s really good at his job. So he makes a great villain for Captain America. Someone who is powerful enough to evade Cap and get in the occasional hit.
If you’re a Captain America fan this is a really good book and you’ll also learn a bit about Red Skull and Crossbones.
Wrap Up
I remember liking the movie way more than I did at the time. It’s good but not great. It paves the way for future MCU awesomeness.
The comic was pretty good. Crossbones is a very efficient agent of evil and is fun to watch Cap chase across continents.
And from what I can tell Crossbones in Marvel Crisis Protocol plays like a slow moving tank. He’s going to take forever going where he wants but he hits like a ton of bricks and can take a unreal amount of damage.
Happy to have painted Crossbones. Although now I’m definitely looking forward to paint villains with a story (hello Loki!).
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