Ol' Ironsides

Iron Man came out in France last Wednesday and I caught it on Friday afternoon with the missus. It was a good one, more on that in a minute. On Monday, Marvel Studios announced: Iron Man 2 for April 2010; Thor for June 2010; The First Avenger: Captain America in May 2011; and The Avengers two months later, July 2011. I think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was the first time I personally realized that Hollywood CGI had caught up to the superhero stories I’d loved as a kid enough to really make them convincing. So about Iron Man (featured in his specialized “Hulkbuster” armor above): y’know how New York City itself is a character in Manhattan or Sex and the City? For comic geeks like me, I imagine that the Marvel Comics universe was like its own Iron Man supporting character. Like when Robert Downey Jr. flies out of the earth’s atmosphere to break the altitude record set by the SR-71 Blackbird, only comics heads know that particular plane belongs to the X-Men. Or the Roxxon billboard in the background of the battle scene: Roxxon is the nefarious Exxon-like energy company that commits all kinds of crimes in the Marvel universe. Even the joke (revealed at the end, though I didn’t think it would be) with the agent from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, and how he eventually acronyms it down to S.H.I.E.L.D. Comics nerds know all about that espionage organization and artist Jim Steranko’s out-of-this-world work on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the 70s. As far as easter egg inside jokes go, the Ghostface (a.k.a. Toney Starks) video playing in the background of an Iron Man party scene was pretty funny too. Anyway, glad there’s a sequel lined up. Director Jon Favreau obviously knows the material and his audience. Now will someone line up Frank Miller to direct a Daredevil relaunch?