“Maybe it’s the shock of the new, but the most exciting actor [in The Avengers] is Mark Ruffalo,” declares Village Voice critic Karina Longworth. “Ruffalo successfully refreshes the Hulk myth, playing Banner as an adorably bashful nerd-genius who, in contrast to the preening hunks on the team, knows better than to draw attention to himself.

“As a fellow top brainiac with dangerously repressed issues, Banner brings out a measure of complexity in Tony Stark that a tired-looking Robert Downey, Jr. — who was revelatory in the first Iron Man as someone forced to become part machine in order to realize his full human potential — can no longer muster on his own.”

So that’s Longworth, Boxoffice.com‘s Amy Nicholson and myself singling out Ruffalo as the coolest Avenger. Others?