Early Concept Art From The Avengers

It might've ended up as one of the biggest hits of the year, but director Joss Whedon and company had some big decisions to make during the development of The Avengers. How should the new characters look? What about the massive battle in downtown New York? Now, thanks to some early concept art, we know how Marvel's magnum opus evolved.

Several pieces of concept art generated by artist Andy Park have been released online, many of which were featured in the recent book The Art of Marvel's The Avengers, and they reveal some of the earliest designs for characters like Hawkeye and Agent Maria Hill. It's interesting to see the tweaks made to the classic comic looks compared to how it ended up on screen.

Some of the cooler pics are the designs for Thanos in space and the alien attack on Manhattan, both of which look fairly similar to what made it into the finished product.