After months (or was it mere weeks?) of waiting, Iron Man has arrived on DVD! Next month we get The Incredible Hulk! Then we have a long, long wait until 2010 for the next feature films from Marvel, which will be the following:
'Iron Man 2' (May 7, 2010), 'Thor' (July 16, 2010), 'The First Avenger: Captain America' (May 6, 2011), and 'The Avengers' (July 15, 2011). As well as 'Iron Man 3' already being confirmed through a distribution agreement between Marvel and Paramount, but no release date.
Who knew Iron Man, of all characters, would be Marvel's new flagship? I'm very excited for the new films to be worked on and love that the seeds were planted in these first two films. There is foreshadowing all over the place: Captain America's sheild is visable in Tony's lab; the Avengers Initiative is set up in both Iron Man & Incredible Hulk; a report of Captain America being found frozen is on a newspaper's front page in Incredible Hulk.
Not to mention the in-jokes and nod to the comics: "Jarvis" is actually the Avengers' human butler, not a wise, helpful computer program; the X-Men's team jet, The Blackbird is visible in Iron Man's visor when referencing a recent project's ability to withstand flight distance; believe it or not, apparently Thor himself is the cause of that lightening that pisses off the Hulk when he and Betty are in the caves; James Rhodes will clearly be War Machine in the next Iron Man film after his '...next time' line in part 1...and a whole lot of other references I'm too tired to think of.
Until 2010, I luckily have the comics to keep my fix going until the movies bring these great characters and stories to the (cheap-ass) masses. If you were to pick up any ol' Marvel comic today, you might be a little confused, so here's what's going on right now with these characters:
The Secret Invasion is currently in full swing, Skrulls (shape-shifting aliens who hate humans and especially Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four) have been hiding among us for months and possibly years in a plan to take over Earth, disguised as regular humans and a large number of heroes.
...Iron Man is the current director of S.H.I.E.L.D., making him Earth's top cop and the 'face' of the Registration Act (recently passed making it illegal to use superpowers without being registered). It's possible the Act was passed due to hysteria caused by the Skrull invasion, and arguing heroes (pro-registration and anti-registration) are currently working together to save the planet from the invaders.
...Incredible Hulk has just returned to Earth after being jettisoned into space for the safety of the planet (by the self-appointed "Illuminati" - Iron Man, Professor X, Blackbolt, Sub-Mariner, Dr. Strange and Reed Richards). In space, he crash landed on a distant, inhabited planet and basically pulled a "Gladiator", becoming king of it's people. After a year of that, he returned to Earth with an army and tried to kill everybody, until it was all worked out with hugs.
...Thor has brought Asgard and it's warriors to Oklahoma. It sounds funny, and it is (especially when he gets mail) but damn if it doesn't work as he tries to re-connect with the people of 'Midgard' (aka Earth). Oh, and Loki's a woman now, for some reason.
...Captain America, recently killed, has been replaced with his long-ago sidekick Bucky. Everyone and their dog cringed at the idea but it's one of the best books on the shelves. Steve Rogers is most likely to return before the movie comes out but until then, the book is such a great spy-thriller story, I think Ed Brubaker can do whatever the hell he wants and I'll just keep on buying it each month.
...The Avengers are knee-deep in Skrulls right now, it turns out the "New Avengers", "Mighty Avengers" and "Avengers Initiative" books were all launched a few years ago specifically to foreshadow this invasion. Luckily, nobody saw it coming and the books were all good to begin with, giving us a mystery worthy of "Lost".
With the films heading in the right direction as a cohesive universe, could a slew of tv series be in the future? Hell yeah.
