While The Avengers was seen at the time as the culmination of a long-term project, teaming up superheroes who were built up in previous individual films, the structure of this blockbuster to top all blockbusters was oddly familiar to me. The task was given to Joss Whedon and Zak Penn. Penn had worked on numerous projects for Marvel, and Whedon reworked a formula that served him well for many seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
For every season of Buffy you have a big bad, and at some point they come up with a plan to isolate Buffy from her friends, to break them up and get them fighting each other. On Buffy, the fights were more verbal, but for The Avengers there was now the chance for physical altercations between the heroes. (An idea that would become its own showpiece in a later film.) Once separated, the main villain would unleash their main attack, at which point the heroes would learn if they’re to survive, save their town and defeat this evil they would have to work together. Worked for Buffy, works here too.
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