Sunday, July 10, 2011

Marvel's Heinz Kruger for the Uninitiated






We are only 12 days away from the opening of Captain America: The First Avenger and for fans of Richard Armitage, our first opportunity to see him on the big screen in 3D.  Armitage is playing the role of Nazi villain and Captain America’s first nemesis Heinz Kruger. We know he will make his Kruger a multi-faceted character, a bad guy who is still very human with an inner life beyond the dialog on the page. As a matter of fact, Armitage has said so:

“I didn’t want to play a two dimensional bad guy” says Armitage. “Kruger had to believe that he was doing something for the good of his country.”  Total Film, August 2011



Update - July 15:  Interview with Richard Armitage about playing Heinz Kruger:


Video thanks to Bccmee:

http://fanvideos.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/richard-armitage-interview-on-heinz-kruger/#comment-1880


But who is the comic book Heinz Kruger?   I know other bloggers posted about this when Richard Armitage was first cast, but now that the movie experience is so close, maybe it is time to revisit the background of Marvel’s Heinz Kruger, without too many spoilers of course.







Heinz Kruger first made his appearance in March 1941 in Captain America Comics #1 and appeared 19 times in the comics. He is a Nazi agent and German citizen tasked with infiltrating the top secret military base where Professor Erskine is working on the Super-Soldier Serum and Vita-Rays that will transform Steve Rogers into Captain America.  Kruger adopts the alias of Special Agent Frederick Clemson from the US  Department of the Interior. (A bit like Spooks isn't it?) He also has several special weapons, among them a special Luger able to pierce protective glass. (Remember this is 1941 technology).



He also appeared in some of the early Captain America film and television serials made in 1944 and also 1979.



We also know a few personal details about him. Kruger is married and has a wife named Elise, and he has children, but number unknown.   He is known for having a lovely and much admired singing voice, and also for building beautiful model ships, though we don’t know from which era.








Heinz is described as having blue eyes (CHECK), and black hair (YES!) but from the comic book Kruger that is pretty much where the resemblance ends (see pics if you need proof).  Interesting that Kruger had different looks in his various appearances in the Captain America comics, and apparently sometimes had a mustache and sometimes not.  I’m glad they decided on no mustache for Armitage’s Kruger.





By the way, tomorrow, Monday, July 11th,  Chris Evans, who stars as the Captain himself in "Captain America: The First Avenger," will be at the New York Stock Exchange to ring the Opening Bell at 9:29 a.m. ET with Marvel Executives and guests….Guests? Could there be a guest from the UK? If curious, you can see it on the homepage of nyse.com.



 No Heinz Kruger - Just a glimpse of  Captain America








Info and pics from marvel.wikia.com, www.marvunapp.com, comicvine.com,plopper.wordpress.com, captetowncommunity.com, aceshowbiz.com. Caps mine or RichardArmitagenet.com


Are you looking forward to seeing 
Captain America? 




Update 7/12/11


Saw today on the official Captain America:The First Avenger's website they unveiled the "Character Dossiers" of several of the movie characters, but sadly not Heinz Kruger.  I did send Marvel a tweet this morning @Marvel letting them know fans would love to see Heinz Kruger (Richard Armitage) included in the dossiers, and also wallpaper, I mean they do have Hydra! Of course one tweet in the information sea that is Twitter won't make a difference, but at least I feel I let them know what I thought :)

7 comments:

  1. Ya tan sólo unos días para poder ver a nuestro adorado RA en la pantalla grande y en 3D :) Estoy tan emocionada, sé que hará un excelente papel como villano.
    Gracias por darnos toda esta información sobre su personaje, al menos yo no estoy muy documentada en lo que se refiere a cómics, no es mi fuerte...pero tratándose de RA estoy dispuesta a ver todo tipo de género LOL

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  2. Oooo! This post looks fab! I've just scanned it briefly but I will be back to read it in depth! Thanks for finding out all about the comic book version of RA's character in CA. I am looking forward to seeing this movie. I like superhero flicks and comics, etc. I'm just a big kid at heart really! I'm not sure how I'll like seeing RA as a bad guy. I might just cheer him on (which wouldn't make me popular in the theatre). I hope I will be able to see this soon on one of my rare outings to a city.

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  3. Suddenly I'm really happy they haven't given him the look of the guy in the comic. That mustache is really ... not working for me! Ewww no!

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  4. Hi Summer, Phylly3, and Traxy! Glad you enjoyed reading about HK :)

    The things we learn because of RA!! I'm not into comics too much either, once you go beyond Superman and Spiderman I'm lost. I think it's fun though to find out a bit about the characters we'll see soon in 3D! I know he'll be a great villain, though I don't think I can ever hate him no matter how bad he is :)

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  5. I agree with Traxy...so happy they didn't put RA in a mustache! I like a hot-looking bad guy. :)

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  6. I am pretty excited about this film, and with every article and post I read This gets more and more. I just hope that I am not disappointed as I have been lots of times this year!!

    Great post and a really interesting read. I agree the moustache would have been a mistake

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  7. @custard Hello! Thank you so much for your lovely comment. I also hope I enjoy the film as well as RA.

    @bccmee He's the hottest looking bad guy ever!

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