With The Avengers still alternately hammering and smashing box office records wherever they go, anticipation has already started building up for the next phase of Marvel’s multi-year plan to ultimately become so successful that Dan Slott can write a Squirrel Girl movie and have it hit #1. Sequels to Captain America, Iron Man and Thor have all been announced, and while Chris Hemsworth
(pictured yesterday)
has been talking up the possible villains for Thor Too, most of the recent debate has swirled around director Shane Black’s vision for Iron Man 3. You’ll remember Iron Man 2 with fond memories, of course, and how wonderful all the subplots and persistent minor characters were. That scene, with Iron Man talking endlessly to Nick Fury about things that were in no way important to the plot or progression of the film? Classic right? Well now it looks like Shane Black is going to keep sub-plot fans rolling in clover, and just throw anything he can at the screen to see what happens.
On top of reports that Ben Kingsley has been in talks to play the classic certainly-not-racist villain ‘The Mandarin’ in the movie, now come reports that James Badge Dale, a man no stranger to endless subplots after a season of nothing happening in Rubicon, may be playing ‘Iron Patriot’ in the film. You may be confused at this news, as Iron Patriot was in the comics a costume worn by Norman Osborn during Marvel’s sadly under-subplotted ‘Dark Reign’ branding, and Normie surely isn’t allowed outside of the Sony studio. Well, yes, it is rather strange, but it looks like Marvel have co-opted the design to fit in with Iron Man’s themes (militarisation, patriotism, big metal suits with blammblamm guns)
Hopefully with all this – oh and Extremis too, that’s showing up at some point too somewhere – appearing in the movie, Black will still be able to find a few minutes for Tony Stark to grow an emo fringe and start belting out swing numbers to Bethany McCabe, even while Pepper is sat right there you guys.
Funny you menion Unicorn – how awesome would it be to have Hammer return with his army of super-villains like in the older comics?
I really like the Extremis idea. But why not have a genius mole inside Shield worm his way back through Stark’s hack and steal armor designs. He sells them on the black market to Mandarin who finances low-budget bad guys to fight Ironman while he develops his own armor. You’ve got elements of Armor Wars and the archnemisis. Sell a crap-load of toys, done.
That would be very awesome. I remember that Michelline/Layton run fondly. It would be a great opportunity to bring out a bunch of bad guys that might not sustain an entire movie. Hammer’s super-villain hitmen — Not badass enough to survive one match with ol’ shellhead, but enough to provide a good skirmish.
Haven’t these people learned from the Schumacher Batman films and Spider-Man 3 that throwing progressively more characters at the screen doesn’t make for a better film?
I have a soft spot in my heart for Spymaster. The constrictor would also be cool too (they could say he adapted the tech created by Ivan Vanko)
The antagonists for the shumacher films were always cobbled together with the loosest of strands. And Spiderman 3 was a conglomeration of 3 movies, with no room for characterization and too much room for dancing. Armor wars would work because it does both: lots of characters with a unifying theme and simple plot.
I would love to see Hammer’s hi-tech goon squad take on Iron Man in a movie. Make it as destructive to a city as the end battle in Avengers.
Bring on the Raiders!!!
(those 3 blue guys w/gimmick weapons)
ome very interesting villains here and, of course, appropriate to Iron Man.
I think IM3 will do well but as an individual super hero movie I don’t believe it will be up there with the Avengers. The same comments apply to Thor2 and Captain America2.
As an Aussie sci-fi writer: http://www.amazon.com/David-Scholes/e/B002D657LQ
I’ve written a solid collection of Marvel (espec Thor) fan fiction, why not check it out? http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1276881/David_Scholes
I read this because of the Chris Hemsworth picture. Not big enough. :)
I’ll find bigger pictures next time, promise!
“That scene, with Iron Man talking endlessly to Nick Fury about things that were in no way important to the plot or progression of the film? Classic right? ”
Actually, I thought those were the most interesting scenes in the film, aside from the suitcase armor.