Rogue Pun: Nerding Out in Edinburgh, with the Just Us League

Anyone from the live-comedy fraternity who saw the mighty Marvel movie Avengers: Infinity War a few months back will have gotten a bit giddy over one particular scene: Paul Bettany's Vision and Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch (then a few reinforcements) battling interplanetary baddies around the streets of Edinburgh, before crashing into Waverley Station. Boom! Worlds colliding.

"Yeah, that was an amazing scene," says Gary Tro, from dynamic duo The Just Us League, "but we're amazed that they weren't flyered."

It's a fair point. Tro and his sidekick Javier Jarquin will be rattling into Waverley (or the airport, or a car park) soon with their new Edinburgh Fringe show MARVELus: All the Marvel Movies... Kind Of (2018 edition), at the Gilded Balloon Teviot - although it must be tempting to take the whole audience on an Infinity War tour around Edinburgh instead. Actually, they've got some other local haunts in mind.

"Edinburgh has some awesome comic shops: Deadhead Comics, Forbidden Planet etc, which we'll definitely be popping in to," he says, but "I'm sure we'll also be popping along to Waverley Station, to appear from behind a train à La Captain America."

They'll probably turn it into a tourist attraction eventually, like that Potter business at Kings Cross. Anyway, we asked Gary and Javier about the show, they answered, then gave us their Top 5 Marvel movies. Boom again.

Tell us the Just Us League's origin story - what cataclysmic event brought you together?

In 2012, whilst gigging together at a comedy club somewhere in the East Midlands, Gary Tro and Javier Jarquin were bitten by a radioactive friend, giving them the power of super-friendship. They teamed up, performing as a two-person improv troupe.

Then, in 2016, after watching Captain America: Civil War together, they began discussing how funny it would be to try and recreate the Hollywood blockbuster films on a fringe stage. And, with a crack of lightning, MARVELus: All the Marvel Movies... Kind Of was born! A crack of lightning that would take many months of writing and previewing.

How does this new Fringe show differ from your previous outings?

This is a brand new show with a brand new story! This show is a showreel in the hope that we'll be cast in a Marvel movie (Gary is hoping to be cast as Namor, Jav is just happy to not be an X-Man). Also, the last show took us from 2008's Iron Man to Civil War, whilst this one packs in even more; Iron Man to Avengers: Infinity War. SO MANY FILMS TO PACK IN!

Is there a Peter Parker-like reason that you feel compelled to do these shows?

Much like Peter can't see a crime and turn a blind eye, we can't see a hole in the market and not fill it. I'm not sure about our power but we definitely see it as our responsibility to represent our fellow nerds through the show.

How geeky is MARVELus? Would random folk who've only seen a few films enjoy it too?

Yeah, it's pretty geeky. If you haven't seen any of the Marvel films, then it might not be for you. That said, we have had people with next to no knowledge of the MCU tell us that they loved the show. We leave no person behind and are happy to stop to explain why things are funny.

Who do you reckon are the most underrated characters in the Marvel comic canon?

Gary: There's an X-Men character called Forgetmenot whose mutant 'power' is that, if you're not looking at him, you forget he exists. He was only introduced into the comics a few years ago but, narratively, he'd been on the team for ages, everyone just kept forgetting. That really tickles me.

Javier: Cyclops. Apart from his raw power level he is a super complex character who's been through so much. He's always just written off as a square and at odds with the much more popular Wolverine (YAWN). Cyclops is awesome. Come at me. I'll fight you over this.

DC vs Marvel fandom can get tense - do things ever get heated at your shows?

Our audiences are the very best type of nerds... stone-cold legends. All of them! We did have a nine year-old at a preview who lost his shizz when we mentioned that we didn't have a Deadpool sketch. We were like "Dude! What are you doing watching Deadpool anyway?!"

Your name references a DC supergroup - what do you reckon the DC movie franchise should do to turn things round?

Urgh... if we knew that, we'd be millionaires! Gary's genuinely never watched the Justice League film. He's tried three times and fallen asleep every time.

The JustUs League's Top Five Marvel movies

Gary:

Thor: Ragnarok - It has EVERYTHING!!

Guardians of the Galaxy - No one saw it coming.

Avengers: Infinity War - A masterpiece.

Spiderman: Homecoming - I love when a villain has a good point.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - No one saw it coming again.

Javier:

X-Men - I love the X-men and was just so happy they made a live action movie and didn't ruin it (yet. X3 would do that years later though).

Iron Man - Kicked off the MCU. It was beautifully and simply done. If this movie failed, there would be no MCU.

Captain America: Winter Soldier - MOST PERFECT SEQUEL EVER.

Avengers: Infinity War - Trying to comprehensively culminate the MCU into this was an overwhelming achievement. The fact that it is awesome on top of that is mind blowing.

Captain America: Civil War - Friends torn. Ethics give way to emotion and the climax is a contained, raw fight in a bunker instead of a city being levelled. It's the movie Batman v Superman wishes it could be.