Marvel's Film Universe: A Rant

By Mike Noyes

So, I saw Iron Man 2 opening night, and like most people I've talked to, I enjoyed it immensely. But it got me really thinking about this cohesive film Universe that Marvel is attempting to build and I realized how truly ambitious and unprecedented this is.

I mean, building a Universe in comics is one thing. It's easy (relatively speaking that is) to get a bunch of writers, editors and artists to sit down together and plot out year plus long story arcs and connect the comics in new and interesting ways.

But to do that in film? Frankly I would have thought it impossible. Hell, it's hard enough to get one film made and have it turn out good.

The really big road block is that you have different producers and different directors all wanting to bring their own take and vision to the story. Jon Favreau brought us not one, but two great Iron Man flicks. Louis Leterrier stole Hulk from Ang Lee and gave us a film worthy of the green misunderstood monster. Kenneth "Hamlet" Branagh has been chosen to bring us Thor (a choice that I find utterly brilliant). Joe Johnston (whose resume is hit or miss, but has some solid home runs on it) is bringing us Captain America. And Joss effin' Whedon has signed on to direct The Avengers film, bringing all of these films together.

To think that each of these directors can work together to not only bring their vision to the screen, but have them fit into a world where all these other visions work is just about the most ambitious thing I've ever heard of in film.

Now it has been reported that Sam Jackson has signed a nine film contract to play Nick Fury. Nine Films! NINE FILMS! That's insane! That means that they have so much more planned that we don't even know about yet!

Seeing Jackson as Fury at the end if Iron Man was the icing on a very tasty cake. Then Iron Man popped up in Hulk. Fury came back for a bigger role in Iron Man 2 and then there was the scene after the credits... but I don't want to ruin it for any fools who've yet to see the film. The powers that be are really taking the time to think not just about how to tell the best story and make the best movie, but how to fit in the little things that will become important in later films. That kind of forethought is very rare in Hollywood .

The heads over at Marvel Studios really seem to have their shit together and are doing this right. Sure it's going to take a long time; Thor and Captain America in '11, The Avengers in '12 and who knows what after that. It'll be a long time before they can get through that nine film contract of Jackson's and I plan on being there opening night every step of the way.

I've stated before my love for Brian Michael Bendis and what he's done for the Marvel Universe. For seven years now he's been dragging the heroes through the gutter and now that Dark Reign is finally coming to an end. The light at the end of the tunnel is finally glowing brightly. The Heroic Age is about to begin and heroes will be heroes again!

While I am so excited for this, it really does pale in comparison to what Marvel Studios has planned for us.

I mean hell, it's hard enough to make one series stay strong. Look what Brett Ratner did to X-Men: The Last Stand (shutter....). Look what Sam Raimi did to Spider-man in part 3! Seriously, who ever thought that Emo-Parker was a good idea? I hope with this reboot of the web slinger they decide to tie it into this universe they're building.

With Studios' and Directors' inability to even keep a single franchise on a forward momentum it makes it a little scary to think about them trying to keep and kind of coherency and consistency with several series'.

And The Avengers film? Whedon really is going to have his hands full with that one. He's going to have to take all these characters from all these other films and blend them together is some way that makes sense (at least all the origin stories will be out of the way so he doesn't have to waste time on that). That's a monumental task that I know he's capable of so I'm not too worried, but still... Even Favreau stated that he opted out of The Avengers because he was too tied up in Iron Man's world. He wouldn't know what to do with a God, a super soldier or a green monster with anger management issues.

It's been proven that what works in comics does not always work on screen. But I think that there is enough of a creative powerhouse behind these films that there is a damn good chance that they'll all turn out great. So far they're three for three, but every success raises the odds of a stinker that much higher, and with all these films being so interconnected one crack could bring the whole fragile structure down and that is certainly something I don't want to see happen. One box office flop could kill everything they are trying to build.

Like I said, I think this is just about the most ambitious thing I ever seen anyone try to do in Hollywood and I'm very excited to see what these next few years will bring.

Thoughts?