Avengers Assemble!

To celebrate the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, I decided to focus my next few pieces on characters from the Avengers side of the Marvel Universe, and what better way to start things off than with the trinity: Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. These three characters were among the very first that I drew way back when I started taking this little hobby of mine a little more serious, and looking at this piece right here just amazes me with the progress I've made these past few years.

Captain America was the first of the three that I worked on, using a draft that I sketched way back which I've been keeping in my stash waiting to see the light of day. I opted to go for his modern Marvel Now costume, which I think is a perfect amalgam of his classic outfit and his MCU costume which adds a bit more armor to give his look a more militaristic feel. The blues and the reds just meshed in so well, and I decided to make him look a bit younger than he's usually portrayed in the comics to give him the more youthful vibe of Chris Evans. The shield was something I put extra effort in, and I'm happy that the end result came out well with how the light is bouncing off from Iron Man's arc reactor lights.

For Iron Man, I decided to mesh together the Mark VI and Mark VII armours from the films, with the Avengers armour taking up most of the design. I absolutely love how that armour looks on Stark, and I used my Figma Iron Man figure as reference to fully capture all the little details throughout the costume. One of the changes I made however, was that I opted for a triangular arc reactor instead of the Mark VII's round arc, and I just really always loved Iron Man armours with triangular reactors like Extremis from the comics. Thankfully my progress in terms of inking and coloring paid off here, and I'm glad Iron Man looks more like a shiny piece of metal armour as compared to my old drawing from way back. The gold parts were particularly difficult to color, but in the end I was pretty satisfied with how it came out and he already looks outstanding on his own.

Finally to finish the trio is Thor, who I drew in his new Marvel Now costume as well plus the armor sleeves which he wears in the main Avengers book as opposed to his sleeveless look in Jason Aaron's 'God of Thunder' series. The costume is primarily black, so to make sure Thor wouldn't look poor next to his Avengers mates I made sure his cape and armour plates helped him pop, and I love how the inks and colours give such a regal and mythological vibe to it. I pondered putting in some lightning effects coming out of Mjollnir, but I opted against it because it may detract from the image as a whole considering how busy it already is with three characters all vying for attention in one single piece.

I purposely worked on this with today as my deadline right in time for the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, even if it's already been out for a week here in the Philippines and I absolutely loved it. I find Ultron more compelling than Loki, and the film's plot much richer than the first film, plus the added bonus of more Hawkeye since he's my favorite Avenger! Sound off in the comments below on what you guys thought about the film, and of course what you guys think about this piece! I hope you all love it as much as I do, especially when comparing it to my old drawings of Cap, Iron Man, and Thor!