Pugbuster with Giant Pug

Iron Man's Hulkbuster Meets Battlepug:

As previously mentioned, Iron Man's super-sized anti-Hulk suit was one of my sons' favorite parts of the recent Avengers movie... And giant dogs are always good.

Over the weekend, our older son kept telling me I should draw this "Pugbuster."  The main appeal of the idea seemed to be the name. We were all unclear on whether "Pugbuster" meant that the Pug was wearing the armored suit, or whether the suit was designed to fight a Pug the size of of the Hulk (and the size of Battlepug, one of our web comic favorites)

I am indecisive, and I enjoy drawing Pug faces, so I said yes to both scenarios.

This morning, looking at the napkins, my older son told me that I blew it- that I should have made the giant Pug Hulk green. My younger son said that the suit should have had an armored Pug face on it. I explained to him that I had considered that, but after finishing cleaning up the kitchen at midnight, I chose the easier path of just drawing a dog's face.  Drawing the rest of the suit had been challenge enough. He said, "Oh it's not hard, you just draw an Iron Man helmet and make the yellow part look like a Pug's face.....

Maybe next time.

Hulkbuster Armor with Broccoli

Don't Be Afraid of Green Things:
(But, I should have drawn the broccoli smaller.)

Iron Man's Hulkbuster suit might have been the most compelling thing in the recent Avengers movie as far as my sons were concerned. 

Endless debates of "Who would win the fight if..." are always good, and the Hulk vs. Iron Man scene in Ultron provides fodder for such a discussion.  The Hulk was presented as the most unstoppable of the Avengers in the first movie.  But in the second movie, it seems that when wearing more armor on top of armor, Iron Man might be able to tap the green guy out. 

I like the idea of layered suits of armor, like an endless series of Russian stacking dolls.

But no amount of armor excuses you from eating your green vegetables.

The Clumsy Ninja Takes on Ultron

What level does the Clumsy Ninja need to achieve in order to take on Ultron?

Of course we had to see the new Avengers movie "The Age of Ultron" when it opened last weekend. I observed the usual family movie viewing phenomenon where the kids' attention tended to wander during any scene with dialogue, and conversely, I found it hard to pay attention during the battle sequences.

"Ultron" has some nice light interpersonal moments like the scene when all the super-powered boys tease each other about who can pick up Thor's hammer. But the movie is mostly devoted to complex digital orchestrations of objects and bodies flying through space and crashing into one another and the surrounding architecture....And why would you be there to see an Avengers movie anyway if not for that?

It is remarkable what can be done with millions of dollars of CGI...But it all looks like a video game to me. To which my sons would say, "So what?"  Or, more likely, "Yes!!"

While we are on the topic on digital animation in video games: the kids are still enthusiastically working on "Clumsy Ninja." The game features some subtle and realistic interaction with the ninja character which is not just about running around whacking things. Despite their diligence, however, the kids have only managed to advance their ninjas to level 21 out of 99.

They're definitely going to have to make a lot of progress before the ninjas are ready for Ultron.

Loki, Hulk and Thor

"The other guy" looks down on those "puny gods."

Two of the most satisfying moments of "The Avengers" for our sons involve the Hulk and the Asgardian brothers.

In the first, he casually shoves Thor off the screen without even looking at him, presumably just because he can and because Thor is sort of irritating.  The Hulk later literally wipes the floor with Loki, just as Loki is delivering a condescending speech about how he is a god and is sick of the interference of these boring little mortals. Leaving Loki shell-shocked on the floor, the Hulk smirks ever so slightly and says, "puny god."

In both scenes, it is a case of a giant id smacking down a talky, pretentious long-haired adult with fancy clothes:  What's not to like about that if you are a 7 year old boy?

I sometimes resort to telling our kids that they are boring me when they are really behaving badly... (like that is going to make them stop.)  When I watch the Hulk and Loki scene, I think I ought to reconsider my tactics.

Hamster as Hawkeye in "The Avengers"

Although he was vociferously against seeing "The Avengers" again, the movie won our younger son over pretty quickly because of Hawkeye.  Afterwards, there was a great deal of pretend shooting of things in  the living room with a bow that once fired mini marshmallows before being broken long ago.

We hadn't done a "secret life of Fluffy the first grade pet hamster" napkin in quite a while, so I cast her as Hawkeye in the scene where he theatrically leaps off a midtown roof while shooting a grappling hook into the side of the building.

Strangely enough, I find the ridiculously implausible antics of the likes of Thor and the Hulk to be less distracting than the violations of the laws of physics committed by the "normal" physical specimens like Hawkeye and the Black Widow.

This morning, Ansel seemed slightly annoyed that I had sullied Hawkeye's coolness by turning him into a female rodent.

Kid Hawkeye from Next Avengers

Kid Hawkeye from "Next Avengers": TV indulgence on a school night (because the older child has been stricken with a virus) led to a brief break in our Ben 10 streak.

Lego Avenger Alien and Nightwing for Ansel

Ansel was quite impressed with "The Avengers"- and what super hero appreciating 5 year old american boy would not be?.... but still wanted Lego Nightwing to fight the alien from the movie (one of the Chitauri?) on his napkin.