When my college friends planned an outing to watch the midnight release of The Avengers at a theater near school, I agreed without knowing much about the movie. I hadn’t even seen the trailer, normally a prerequisite if I was going to pay downtown Los Angeles theater prices. But after a rough week of pulling all-nighters to work on finals papers, a midnight movie sounded just right.

At that point, I had seen and liked a handful of superhero movies, but I wasn’t really a fan. I hadn’t followed the release news and speculation, and I definitely wasn’t watching each movie diligently as it came out. That all changed with The Avengers.

The Avengers movie felt ambitious because it was a hero movie that focused on relationships, trauma, and how people exist alongside their trauma.

With