After removing one pingback and placing the entries in Random.org, we have a winner:

Congratulations to entry #14 – Katie K. Email me at clueintocleveland (at) gmail (dot) and I’ll let you know how to redeem your tickets for tomorrow night’s event.

If you still need to purchase tickets for Lorain County’s premier wine and food tasting event, get them before it’s too late. L’Amour du Vin will take place tomorrow night from 6-9pm at the Avon Oaks Country Club. General admission is $60; $90 for the VIP Lounge. Learn more and purchase tickets at http://lamourduvin2012.eventbrite.com.

Now onto today’s primary business:

Cheers to you, Scott – Happy 30th!

Behind most of the photos taken on this blog is a fantastically silly, sweet, not-so-subtle and all-around swell guy: the one and only Scott T. Hicken.  And today’s a day of celebration in our household because Scott turns 30 (I know, I’m robbing the cradle).

All Scott wanted for his birthday this year was the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One Collector’s Set, complete with the briefcase and Teseract cube from Avengers. But then this happened, leading to a change in packaging and release date tentatively scheduled for Spring 2013.

Birthday Fail!

So I got crafty:

Take one and a half shoeboxes, some electrical tape and a pair of scissors…

…print out a couple of S.H.I.E.L.D. logos…

…glue it all together and – voila – my (very) makeshift take on the Avengers briefcase:

Add in a few gifts and a note from Scott’s favorite no longer deceased S.H.I.E.L.D. agent about a certain cosmic cube…

…and you have one mostly salvaged birthday.

The only thing that’ll make it better is when the full collector’s set does come out and Scott gets his actual birthday gift. In the meantime, we’ll be watching the Avengers Blu-ray that Amazon kindly sent to everyone who pre-ordered the collector’s set (EXCELLENT customer service move, by the way, Amazon!).

Happy birthday, Scott!

Among many, many other things, thanks for sharing your love of comic books with me and getting me back into something I was obsessed with as a kid.  And thanks for always putting up with this blog and me in general.

At the risk of crossing my Marvel film references, you’re my own Mr. Fantastic.

(Feel free to send your birthday wishes to Scott on Twitter @Husbanonymous.)

I’m too excited to sleep!

Yes, that’s me waiting for the midnight showing of Marvel’s The Avengers to start.

After a few years of looking forward to this blockbuster and several weeks of working hard to avoid as many spoilers as possible, it was finally time at 12:01 am this morning to sit down and watch the Holy Grail of comic book movies.

Honestly, the last 24 hours were the most nervewracking in my countdown as my impatience finally got the better of me.

Scott at the PlayhouseSquare Golf Par-tee before Avengers

It didn’t help that Thursday was a scheduling nightmare with me waking up at 4 so I could work 7 to 6 and then some mini-golf at PlayhouseSquare’s Partners Par-Tee.

Afterwards we headed home for a large gulp of coffee. Even more than the jolt of caffeine, @PoiseinParma’s advice on Twitter is what helped me get through the day:

She’s going to make an excellent yogi one day soon

I even gained a bit of sympathy for Twi-Hards along the way (however, I still detest the books and movies). I  finally get their complete obsession as I’m pretty sure 3/4 of my tweets yesterday had to do with The Avengers and comic books (in my defense, though, The Avengers stands tall above Twilight in terms of quality).

So, how was the movie? It was everything I wanted out of The Avengers and then some. You won’t find any spoilers here, though I’ll admit one scene ranks as the most deserving ass-kicking between 2 people I’ve ever witnessed in a movie.

And as with Iron Man and the other movies leading up to this, be sure to stay til the very very end of the final credits.   We watched so many people leave right at the beginning of the credits who missed out on some exciting and hilarious extras.

Even my Traveling Hulk got to enjoy the movie

While I am completely biased (so take this for what it’s worth), I think non-comic book fans will enjoy The Avengers a lot too. Although the action sequences are a thing of beauty, Joss Whedon really succeeds by making it a funny, endearing, quirky ride.

This is not surprising for those of us who have been Whedon fans for awhile. If The Avengers was your first taste of Whedon and you want some more, I personally recommend the shortlived but cult favorite Firefly (as well as its followup movie Serenity) and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

The man is a master storyteller and writes pitch perfect characters. The Avengers was no different with Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner/Hulk portrayal being the best Hulk I’ve seen to date.

E 9th St in downtown Cleveland, where a lot of the footage for Avengers’ epic NY battle was filmed

Of course, if you’re from Cleveland, you may be eager to see whether there were enough shots of our city to justify shutting down parts of downtown last summer. Without wanting to spoil things, I can say The Avengers utilized the city much more than Spiderman 3 did – especially with a certain Berlin exterior scene.

Plain Dealer columnist and comic book writer Michael Sangiacomo put together a nice article that covers a few of the The Avengers scenes featuring Cleveland.

For those who haven’t read the comics or are familiar with all of the characters, Sangiacomo also offers this helpful primer on The Avengers.

Scott and I enjoying some Steak ‘n Shake after the movie (I got a mint shake in honor of my favorite Avenger)

All I know is I was so jazzed after seeing it that I am STILL awake enough to stay up and write this blog post after inhaling a late-night burger and milkshake. And I definitely plan on seeing it again…very soon.

I hope you do too…and feel free to share what you thought of it in the comments below. Good or bad. I may dress up with Hulk gloves in my free time; however, a well-articulated opinion even if it’s different than my own won’t make me ‘hulk out.’

Of course I’ve been awake for 24+ hours so I don’t think I’d have enough energy for you to see me get angry, even if I wanted to.

Not tired yet of all this comic book talk? Check out my earlier post on comic book creators from the Cleveland area.