Man, this little newsreel glimpse of Captain America cut out of The Avengers, along with an entire sequence setting up Steve Rodgers in the modern world, is more entertaining than any given two minutes of the guy’s actual movie!

Emerging today is another chunk of The Avengers that didn’t make it in the final cut, which Marvel has been cleverly leveraging to gather much buzz for their home video release of the film. This one focuses on Captain America, and had it stayed in I would have better understood Whedon’s pre-release insistence that Cap was his window into the story. I also love how authentically the newsreel footage is shot, and the juxtaposition with Cap’s old life and his new one.

That said, the scenes do move a little oddly, are a little disconnected from the giantĀ narrativeĀ to follow, and might steal some of Captain America sequel, if they’re still going to incorporate the man-out-of-his-time stuff. Check it out:

As you can see it also features a barely-comprehensible Stan Lee cameo that was wisely altered- his appearance that actually ended up in the film is much better.

NOTE: While I took other site’s “Source: Marvel” at face value, this apparently isn’t an official promo the way the alternate opening was. If Marvel starts complaining or yanking, I’ll be pulling this down but quick.

via /Film