Ok, so here’s the set-up for the Avenger’s Tour at Treasure Island…
The world has been attacked by robots, Loki’s goblins, creatures from another dimension, the Red Skull’s super soldiers and James Spader.
Seems the Avengers need help. Seems we are recruited into S.T.A.T.I.O.N. (Scientific Training and Tactical Intelligence Operative Network) to assist them.
How cool is that?
So, we entered the super secret recruiting center. We were given portable devices (or in my case, I download an app to my phone) and these devices gave us all the necessary information about the Avengers to prepare us for… the final battle.
What does that mean? Well, first we were scanned to make sure none of us were Hydra. I personally suspected The-Youngest to be either a Hydra spy or the spawn of the devil, but he passed and we were allowed inside.
What we had to do was listen to the audio histories or facts about all the Avengers, take a test, play with everything in an Avengers room, then move on to the next one. The-Youngest was appalled that we would take a tour where there was a TEST, but I dragged him along anyway.
The first room had my most favourite Avenger – Captain America. (Yes, I have a favourite Avenger, don’t judge me!)
I think The-Oldest’s favourite is Ironman because, well, Robert Downy Jr is awesome, but also because the guy uses his mad brain skills instead of being some sort of mutant. He’s funny, he’s tough, he’s irreverent and his only real flaw is that he doesn’t play the piano, but The-Oldest is willing to overlook that, I think, given that awesome suit he built.
The-Youngest’s favourite is Thor, though he can’t explain why he likes him so much. Having seen The-Youngest in a glass store, I would have thought he’d be more Hulkie. But I think he likes the idea of being a powerful god. He likes a hammer that only HE can use to throw at people. And he likes that Thor constantly beats up his annoying brother. So, yeah, I get it.
We listen to Cap’s story. Scrawny guy with a big heart tries to join army to fight Nazis. Doesn’t quite make it, but gosh-darn-it, does he ever try hard, attracting the attention of a special group of scientists who decide to inject him with super juice and turn him into a supersoldier. He bulks up in a way that makes The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World blush when she looks at him, then goes out to fight bad guys who actually existed back in a day where we didn’t blame all the evil in the world upon ourselves and instead blamed it on, you know, bad guys.
Given the name ‘Captain America’, he fights some Nazis, falls in love, then saves America by crashing a Nazi super plane into the Artic and lies frozen for…what’s the math? 2015-1945 = 70…. 70 years. Then he’s reanimated and joins the Avengers.
I was in nerd heaven. I got to hold his shield, read all about his tragic love, listen to his anguish at having to fight his best friend who he thought died in a WW2 mission, but was, yes, secretly mutated into the evil Winter Soldier, (which, by the way, is a very cool title.) For me, that story, all that tragedy they heap on him makes him such a great character.
See, the Hulk really just has anger issues. Cool, but not deeply moving. Ironman has, well, no real tragedies in his life, and he’s super rich and funny and everyone likes him, so not that moving either. And Thor, well, look at him. He’s a god. Not much to feel for a god is there, especially one that looks like Chris Hemsworth?
The boyz, while having a good time as well, simply didn’t have the stomach for reading every panel and listening to every information podcast. They were happy to leave me in my nerdvanna.
However, the next room, the Hulk’s room, was loud and kind of scary so The-Youngest didn’t go too far in without me, not that he was scared, you understand, but because there were facts I might need to know.
The Hulk room was awesome as well, but (like I said) very, very loud. I mean, hey, it’s the Hulk. He’s not a quiet guy.
And there was a ton of Hulkie things to do. Like making a life-sized, animated picture of him roar, clap his hands together like thunder or punch a hole in the wall beside him. The-Youngest loved that. The-Oldest, however, loved reading all the sciency facts about Bruce Banner and his transformation.
After that, we learned about Vision and Hawkeye and the Black Widow and Antman and Falcon and Nick Fury and at least two other rooms filled with Avengers. Both boyz got a little bored doing all that reading stuff. (Joe, reading AND a test in each room???? Seriously????), but The-Youngest amused himself by stomping on the Antman’s ants that swarmed the floor, while I read/listen to pretty much everything in every room.
Then we moved on to The-Youngest’s favourite – Thor. He tried to yank out Thor’s hammer, stood transfixed as the room blurred with light and sound like we were moving through the Asgardian bridge to other worlds, and told everyone who tried to lift Thor’s hammer that the hammer was actually fixed to the floor.
‘Cuz they needed to know that.
The-Oldest insisted he didn’t have a favourite. He told that to all the attendants who asked, but in the last room we say, in Ironman’s room, I actually saw him get excited, taking pictures of EVERY Ironman suit and gaping up in awe at Ironman’s Hulk-defeating-super-suit.
Then we were all lead into a big room where we faced off against Ultron in a video game where we stood in front of a giant screen and used our phones or devices as weapons to defeat him.
Fun. Fun. Fun.
I had a great time.
Not sure the boyz loved it as much as I did, but they did get to be in an awesome picture with the Avengers so that’s something, and The-Youngest made it through without breaking anything, so I count it as a complete success.
Especially since The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World came back with tons of clothes that she adored (though, being true to herself, 90% of those clothes were for the boys, not her.) It’s what makes her so amazing. She always gets more excited about doing stuff for others than herself.
Like a real-life super hero. Minus the cape.