Marvel’s The Avengers

reviewed by Steve A. Vineberg in the June 27, 2012 issue

Writer-director Joss Whedon, the creator of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, saves the world from destruction yet again in the first of the summer blockbusters, Marvel’s The Avengers. The adventure is moderately enjoyable but rather exhausting.

If you haven’t seen previous Marvel comic book movies—Iron Man and Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger—or if you’ve seen them but haven’t retained the plot threads, it may take you half an hour or so to get your bearings.

Against killing children

We have become a society of people who cannot prevent our own children from being killed in their classrooms—and who do not much mind the killing of other people’s children by weapons of war.

by Wendell Berry

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The new Bonhoeffer movie isn’t just bad. It’s dangerous.

By egregiously misreading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s moral crisis, it primes viewers for violence.

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Ted Cruz on stage at America Fest with pyrotechnics and multiple screens with his face projected behind him

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His challenges to the left and right alike are devastating and timely.

by Julian DeShazier

Marvel’s The Avengers

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