Transmedia starts with film: The Avengers

The tale of a group of superheroes who united to save the world – The Avengers (2012) may be a single narrative, but each individual character has his or her own story to share. Characters such as the Hulk and Iron Man live in the same world and create a story together in the same setting.

The setting and imaginary world of The Avengers is based on Nordic mythology. Composed of nine separate worlds, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (in which The Avengers comic books were originally set) features Odin’s world of Asgard at the forefront, and also includes Midgard, or Earth. People travel between the nine worlds of this system using a rainbow bridge called the Bifrost, which acts as a teleport. On Asgard, there is a place where the leader Odin stores the great treasures of the universe, including a source of infinite energy called the tesseract. During World War II, a Nazi special forces unit known as Hydra steals the tesseract in a plot to take over the world, inspiring the Allies to initiate an experiment involving superhuman soldiers in their attempt to resist them.

Although the trial was interrupted by a Hydra attack, a single specimen, Steve Rogers, survives to become Captain America. When the Cold War sets in, Howard Stark (father of Tony Stark, or Iron Man) agrees to cooperate in establishing a special American intelligence bureau known as SHIELD. Many years later, Captain America awakes from his cryogenic sleep and rejoins SHIELD and the world’s heroes to battle Hydra’s new threats.