DreamWeaver

Also this. Cap knows he has impressive healing factors, strength and stamina, but is wise enough not to submit to scrapperlock. Plus, it'd still bloody hurt.

How much would it have hurt? Experiments on skydivers say that given a random posture - anything other than the "bullet" or "chaser" poses - terminal velocity is around about 120mph. In a fully streamlined pose, velocities of up to 200mph are possible.

The bulked-up Cap weighs 240lbs (according to MUWiki),plus a 12lb shield and... call it around 25lb of utility belt and lightweight armour. That works out at 277lbs/125kg, and we'll round down the 120mph a little to 50m/s.

So for every kg of Cap's body and gear, that's roughly 1.5kJ of energy to dissipate: 187.5kJ overall over a very short deceleration period.

Considering that the average human legbone can only sustain a 200J impact before snapping (though it depends a lot on the mode and point of impact), even a supersoldier like Cap's gonna feel that one.

Fun fact to chew on: IMAX ran out of screens/seatspace for Avengers, with one of my US Twitter correspondents travelling six hours to find the nearest midnight showing with seats remaining. The only other movie to come close to that is the Trek reboot.

However, the actual numbers are still pretty astounding (courtesy of Deadline.Com):
52% 3D (inc. IMAX and others)
40% traditional 2D
8% unreported/waiting for feedback

And of those:
8% IMAX
4% "premium large format" (eg: Cinemark XD, AMC's ETX)

So while the numbers will be padded a bit because of the premium formats,Harry Potter had nearly the same level of screen bookings on both regular and premium - and still didn't glue quite as many bums on seats as Avengers did.

TBH Marvel and DC have pretty well learned their lessons: RDJ, Christian Bale, Ruffalo, and others have all tapped into the vast well of backstory that dozens of artists, inkers and fans have created over the years to make rich characters. We are therefore less likely to see another Steel, Spawn, or... *blench* ...Catwoman.

We can but hope in the Word of the Whedon, and the deliverance of his Magnificent Purple Fluffy Jumperedness from the evil of executive laziness and awful scripting. Amen.

Sadly, no.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC73PHdQX04

Back to the topic at hand: Avengers does prove one thing about Mr. Whedon and similar directors. Quite a lot of people thought that Sam Raimi - previously best known for Evil Dead and Darkman - couldn't handle a big-budget Spidey.

However,the experience of working on those movies proved invaluable in keeping things on a human scale and closely tied to the humanity of each character, rather than the pure Joel Silver/Michael Bay explodeyfest they could have been.

Consider this thing: all the while Loki and the [insert name of disposable villain group here] are tearing up NYC, there are crowds running hither and yon and much grand-scale screaming.

However, we follow one of them: an unnamed waitress (actually Ashley Johnson, who was previously blessed by his Great Fluffy Purple Prevaricatoryness in Dollhouse and will shortly pop up in Much Ado).

And while you might feel the herd mentality, witness the mass panic, they're really just visual statistics that we can observe dispassionately. We, as humans, connect with one other human's fear, panic, hope, despair, and final redemption by a bloke with a big shield. Even if we don't know their name.

This is the wisdom of the Whedon. Go in peace.

STEP AWAY FROM MY FILLION AND TURN AROUND SLOWLY, PRAF...

I contend that Castle was never meant to be the new Law And Order,but the new Moonlighting.
Point (a): it's memorable - I can still quote half of Atomic Shakespeare despite having last seen it when I was way small.

Point (b): didn't work out too badly for this guy.

...well,apart from that album,which I am in no way embarrassed about owning. And keeping in a locked vault made of vibranium under the polar icecaps, so that its evil can never be unleashed on the world again.

There was one fan shoutout in the way Phil bought it (possibly), though I for one am surprised Thor wasn't nicknamed "Captain Hammer".

As for sneaking in the rest of the Whedonverse, I would *love* an Avengers Auditions scene next film as SHIELD try and sign up as many heroes as possible. Like this scene with Felicia Day:

"So, your resume includes defeating Dr.Doom, MODOK, and Thanos? Impressive."
"Yes. Got signed references and a LinkedIn recc from Uatu himself to prove it."
"And what exactly is your power?"
*sudden chittering*
"...oh god."

WAAAAASSSHH!!... oh, wait, PHIIIIIILLLL!!! *waah*

Pro Tip: never, ever be a fan favourite but expendable character in a Whedon movie. It's not a healthy career choice.

You had a lucky escape. It wasn't imagery that was the problem, it was the fugue of voices...

..and can't get leaned on as much by Senators or anyone else needing kickbacks, and can't be used to hide government darkbudget stuff.

Incidentally, I thought the MIBs were supposed to be self-funding these days through licencing alien technology? Not that I believe a word of it. Isn't that right, Siri?

If you say so,Emily... EMAIL START: Z@mib.mil - subject remains unaware of observation

Not quite, but it's still nasty with current tech.

A typical Soyuz 3-man mission costs around $50m-80m, but doesn't lift enough to warrant the money for this gig.

Each shuttle flight cost around $500-700m and up. It was supposed to be cheaper than building a new rocket each time, but the sad fact - especially after the Columbia STS-107 explosion - was that a sizable chunk of that cash went on micro-checking, assessing and repairing the birds.

Virgin Galactic's take on the old "Orient Express" spaceplane plan could work out well for getting people to LEO,but high orbit and beyond's still a pain in the ***. The goal is to bring lift pricing down to $1000/kg or less, and that's going to involve some MAJOR tech. Not to mention more risk than flying a Capissen-38 with bad motivators.

Can't... think... too...... much........ Shat...nerrrr....

Let me.. tell you.. about wha. We humans. Call. Lurrrve....

*head asplodes*