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I am Iron Man...
April 25, 2008One of my guilty pleasures is reading comic books -- there, I said it.
So, I'm one of the people that understand the reasons behind the up-tick in the number of comic super-hero movies in recent years.
As a reader, you can almost see it coming.
One character -- in a manner similar to how certain wrestling stars get a "push" before competing for a championship -- suddenly goes center-stage and starts to affect most of a given publication's (DC, Marvel, Image, etc.) other characters.
In this case, Iron Man (Tony Stark) has become the center of the Marvel Universe as the head of Stark Industries, leader of both S.H.I.E.L.D. (a worldwide intelligence agency) and the Mighty Avengers as well as the sole possesor of technology that gives him control of every satellite orbiting the earth.
While his involvement in last summer's "Civil War" and collateral blame for Captain America's "death" has made him as hated as any supervillian in comics, it's just the thing needed to fuel a major motion picture strong enough to lure the likes of Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges and Samuel L. Jackson into it in the real world.
Money talks.
And right now, comic book creators are talking an awful lot.
Expect the trend to continue with Captain America (who should be breathing again this time next year), Wolverine, Thor and a host of others.
Perhaps I should be embarrassed to still have this level of knowledge about something I probably should have left behind in my youth -- but, strangely, I'm not.
Posted by Stephen Smith at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
