Avengers 2 named at Comic

A superlative day of show-and-tell at Comic-Con ended with near hysteria during the Marvel panel on Saturday evening as Joss Whedon snuck on stage at Hall H to reveal for the first time the title of his 2015 Avengers sequel: Avengers: Age of Ultron.

The naming ceremony offered a fitting climax to what had been an hour-long tease and a thrilling day overall at Comic-Con. The presentation began when Marvel Studios bossman Kevin Feige dropped in to present footage from November release Thor: The Dark World. Just before they rolled the tape, Feige pulled off a masterstroke, leaving the stage in the hands of someone frankly far more qualified to get the crowd going.

Plunged into darkness, an indication of what was to come came when the dulcet tones of Tom Hiddleston blasted out through the speakers. "Humanity! Look how far you've fallen. Lining up in the heat. Chattering together in the dark - like beasts!" Hiddleston entered in full Loki regalia and for the next several minutes had the crowd eating out of his hands with a string of insults and commands that oozed a supreme kind of pantomime villainy.

"It seems I have an army," the British actor boomed after he had commanded the squealing masses to chant his name multiple times. Then he swept his arm towards the screen. "Feast your eyes!" The footage from Thor: The Dark World promises far more fantasy than the first movie as the god of thunder brokers an uneasy peace with his mischievous half-brother Loki and battles all manner of supernatural foes.

The only way to follow that was for Feige to bring on the key cast from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel Jackson, Anthony Mackie (new to the set-up as The Falcon), Frank Grillo as Crossbones, Emily Van Camp, Sebastian Stan and Cobie Smulders bunched together on the stage table and talked about the super soldier.

When asked about the character's migration from 1940s America to the present, Evans said: "He comes from a world where people are a little more trusting and the threats were not as deep. It's hard to know who is right and who is wrong and sometimes the action you have to take to deal with these threats compromises our civil liberties and that's hard to swallow."

He did not raise an eyebrow when he said this and there was no reference to the NSA, so we moved on. An extended sequence indicated that there would indeed be a lot of action as Johansson had assured the crowd. One scene in particular was memorable, as Captain America enters an elevator in a top-secret facility only to be surrounded by a gang of thugs that swells in size every time the lift stops at a new floor.

Our hero senses danger and an almighty fisty-cuffs ensues in the cramped environment. Needless to say, there is only one man standing at the end. A mid-air battle sequence involved plenty of snappy technology and first footage of The Falcon in action. The crowd lapped it up.

Next Feige brought on his key cast from Guardians of the Galaxy, most of whom have just begun shooting in London and were due to fly back to the set that night. Among the heroes and villains were Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as the alien assassin Gamora, Rooker as Yondu, Benicio del Toro as The Collector, Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, Karen Gill as Nebula and former wrestler Dave Bautista as Drax.

Director James Gunn introduced footage and immediately it became clear that the irreverent tone and tongue-in-cheek dialogue in places could make Iron Man look straight-laced. Guardians of the Galaxy will open in summer 2014.

Whedon got the last laugh, walking on to the stage just when everyone thought it was over. He presented a teaser that revealed the nature of the Avengers' next foe: Ultron. 'Nuff said. Nothing more to be said. The room was in raptures.

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