Marvel

For a long time I’ve been a Marvel fan, growing up watching the various incarnations of Spiderman, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Ironman and X-men on Television, and later getting into comic books as a teenager. So when I first heard that Patrick Stewart was going to play professor Xavier in X-men all those years ago I honestly couldn’t have thought of a better person to play that character, likewise when I heard Robert Downey Jr. was going to take on the role of Tony Stark, I could see no one else playing Ironman, its just one of those rare pieces of perfect casting.
Then in 2008 came Ironman, directed by actor, writer, director Jon Favreau and staring Downey Jr., along with Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard (who would later be replaced by Don Cheadle, for the sequal, which baffled a lot of people, including Howard, and reasons I can‘t figure out, maybe Cheadles more heroic or something stupid like that) and with the film, Marvels first ever solo outing, set the benchmark for the new wave of Marvel movies.
Ironman 2, although I found it entertaining enough, as a bit of a comic book geek, the inclusion of War Machine, Black Widow, Justin Hammer, Whiplash and S.H.E.I.L.D. appealed to me, the film seems like a bit of a stop gap, enough to keep the character fresh in the public mind, before he appears in the up coming Avengers movie. However the action sequence at Monaco raceway was brilliant comicbook destruction, as well including Favreau as Starks minder, making the scene slightly more impressive as hes directing it while staring, but then again Mel Gibson managed to star in and direct the whole of Braveheart, so maybe its not quite a s impressive as I first thought.
Personally I’m looking forward to the Avengers, a movie master plan from Marvel, which started with the first Ironman movie, and continued with the Edward Norton starring Hulk, with Avenger set ups in both movies, in Ironman with the appearance of Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury, and in Hulk with the cameo of Downey’s Tony Stark. This trend then continued with the discovery of Thor’s hammer, in a post credits Ironman 2, eluding to the next marvel release the Kenneth Branagh helmed Thor.
Thor will no doubt hint at Captain America: The First Avenger, which is set for release sometime after Thor and before The Avengers, which will then feature Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johanson), Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), War Machine (Don Cheadle), and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, replacing Edward Norton).
The Avengers is currently being written, and will also be directed by Joss Whedon, the brain behind the sci-fi/fantasy TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Doll house, as well as the Firefly spin off film Serenity. Whedon as also penned a run of the X-men comics, so is no stranger to the world of Marvel.