A recent poll by The Hollywood Reporter and found that 90% of Facebook and Twitter users (13-49) surveyed see social media as “a new form of entertainment.” Given the slant of THR, the questions focused on social media as a multi-tasking activity during the watching of TV and movies, but I think it’s fair to say that for many people, social media and the web have become more than a companion to traditional media—they are how we consume media altogether.  From time to time this confrontation between the old media and the new comes to a head. The battle over SOPA/PIPA legislation was a high-profile recent example, but the struggle promises to be epic in the years ahead. On the one hand, entertainment and media companies are resentful at being supplanted by Google and Apple and Facebook. On the other hand, digital and social connectivity has expanded the audience for entertainment products exponentially. So there are turf wars, but the size of the patches of turf are fluctuating radically. Sounds like a job for a Hollywood action movie with lots of FX!  Our movie is a twist on box office blockbuster Marvel’s The Avengers, with the big tech and social media companies taking the roles of the Avengers and the (monolithic) entertainement industry as the evil Loki. Are tech companies superheroes? Is the entertainment industry evil? Of course not, but it makes for a better movie!  To develop this dangerous concept, I assembled some of Forbes’ own tech superheroes in an undisclosed digital location somewhere south of Asgard and tried to get them to help me figure out which tech company fit in with which character in The Avengers. After hashing it out, I came up with my own list, admittedly a bit arbitrary, but you can’t have an action movie without action heroes. So, here goes:  Iron Man: This one was pretty obvious, and perhaps the origin of the whole idea. Tony Stark/Iron Man is Apple–all about design and cool gadgets. Kashmir Hill reminded me that Elon Musk (founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX) was the original inspiration for the current Tony Stark character, which makes a lot of sense as a character, but not as a superhero (PayPal Man!). Bruce Upbin said, “Oracle’s Larry Ellison (playboy billionaire with a big mouth),” but that’s for the B2B version.  Captain America: Steve Rogers wakes up from the 40s into this post-modern world. In the wikipedia back story, he is described as, “a frail young man who was enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an experimental serum in order to aid the United States war effort.” My vote is fro Yahoo!, a web 1.0 giant that has had trouble figuring out web 2.0 much less social and mobile. Alex Knapp suggested IBM, “seems old fashioned, but still packs a wollop in the modern age,” but that would be a different movie.  Thor: A god from another world whose adoptive brother is the enemy? Amazon deals in physical as well as digital media and has had a contentious relationship with publishers and other media companies for its aggressive pricing and valuable trove of consumer information. Plus, Amazon is getting ready to wield their hammer of social data in competition with Facebook and other supers.  Hulk: A brilliant scientist with an anger problem, Bruce Banner/The Amazing Hulk could be Facebook. Mark Ruffalo, referring to his role in the film, says, “He’s a guy struggling with two sides of himself—the dark and the light—and everything he does in his life is filtered through issues of control.” Mark Zuckerberg, you getting this? Bruce Upbin suggested Microsoft, “Don’t get it mad… Green with envy.” Kashmir Hill said, “Hulk could be Amazon—super smart about algorithms (a Banner) and then smashing other industries (Netflix with Prime, big box retailers with its Price Check app).” OK, alternate plot where Facebook plays Thor.  Black Widow: The only female super in the lot reminds me of the only social media powerhouse that is thoroughly female identified, Pinterest. Scarlett Johansson’s character has to fight all the time, like Pinterest battling claims of copyright infringement. Alex Knapp suggested that, “Facebook is Black Widow—so pretty and charming you almost don’t mind that it’s spying on you,” but I wanted to give FB a (much) bigger role!  Hawkeye: Everyone agreed that the master of swiftly targeted efficiency is Twitter. Jeremy Renner, talking about his role in the film, says, “He’s the only one who can really take down the Hulk with his [tranquilizer-tipped] arrows. He knows his limitations. But when it comes down to it, there has to be a sense of confidence in any superhero.” Well said, in terms of Twitter’s relationship to Facebook.  Sgt. Fury: This may be the most surprising pick, but I think it makes sense. Samuel Jackson’s Sgt. Fury is a shadowy figure who is in fact running the show, so I nominate Google. Jackson refers to his character as, “a positive in society… You just don’t want to cross him” Bruce Upbin said, “Nick Fury/SHIELD is Facebook because it’s everywhere and you never know what its intentions are.”  Loki: Finally, the movie’s evil enemy—who happens to be the brother of one of the heroes—is a personification of the entertainment industry as a whole, that is attempting to dominate the earth (or at least prevent piracy through whatever means necessary.)  Loki (the entertainment industry) needs to capture the tesseract (a mysterious source of multidimensional energy, i.e., the internet) to use to form an alliance with The Other (in this case, the U.S. Government) to take over the Earth (preserve their profits against piracy, same thing, right?). The head of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Google) gathers together the members of the “Avengers Initiative,” (the other major tech companies) to defeat the threat (i.e., SOPA/PIPA, CISPA and whatever else comes down the pike). Much pyrotechnic infighting ensues between the supers seeking advantage in the flux, but in the end they band together and prevail.  The primary plot is the more compelling one, perhaps, from a consumer perspective, but it’s inverse is equally true (or false). In the alternative universe plot, the big entertainment companies (Sony, Disney, Time Warner, New Corp., Electronic Arts, etc.) are the super heroes and the (monolithic) tech sector is Loki. Tech, in this case, is enabling the pirates (The Other) by opening up the internet (the tesseract). Much infighting ensues between the entertainment companies seeking advantage, but in the end they band together and prevail.
What if The Avengers were a movie about the epic battle between the tech companies and the entertainment industry? Who would the Superheroes be? With the help of some of Forbes.com's own tech supers, I have hazarded my guesses. Got a better idea? Let me know...