Cinema Hype

This just in: If your superhero movie does well, plan for sequels. (Who knew, right?) After a $99 million opening weekend for Iron Man, Marvel Studios has announced the greenlighting of Iron Man 2, set for release in 2010, in addition to Thor (as in, “by the hammer of”; how very Liz Lemon!) the same summer and both The Avengers and Captain America for 2011.

Surprise! Except…not. The bonus scene after the credits for Iron Man features Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, leader of the Avengers, so it’s not like some studio exec just woke up this Monday morning with a yen for many, many sequels. In fact, the comic-book version of Ultimate Nick Fury (as opposed to just plain Nick Fury; it’s complicated) is intentionally modeled after, and looks just like, Samuel L. Jackson. How weird! How meta! How…obviously intended for film adaptation!

This kind of thing is, though, the very reason that I—in spite of/because of my complete ignorance about comic books—appreciate Marvel Studios and their attempt to seize their characters from the jaws of unaffiliated filmmakers. Adapting work they already own (and, ostensibly, respect) gives them the freedom to be as good and as accurate as they want to be, and even better, to build their movies as they have their comic books: as a continuous and self-referential universe. Continuity, the feeling that the events of a story matter somewhere outside of that story, win big points with me personally and doesn’t seem to hurt in terms of building a fan base, either. So although I have no nostalgia for Iron Man or any other Marvel character, I am wholly enthusiastic about getting to know their universe. Well played, Marvel Studios.

Iron Man, Ironman, Thor, Captain America, Nick Fury, Ultimate Nick Fury, Samuel L. Jackson, Marvel Comics, Marvel Universe, Iron Man 2