18 replies to this topic

[JMW326]

Robert Downey Jr. has officialy been chosen to play Tony Stark (Ironman) in the upcomming Marvel Ironman Movie. He was not my first choice but definately not the worst decision they could have made (cough "tom cruise" cough) It could turn out to be pretty good. I have seen some of the rejected renderings of the armor prototypes and really like the direction they are going with it.

[Sybeck1]

My first thought is hopefully production doesn't get slowed down by Downey's favorite past time.

[Tiberius]

But if Tony Stark was an alcoholic, that might add realism to the performance. Infact he should do all the scenes as such. Perhaps they could use some of the rejected armour in the background as rejected armour, strewn about in his lab.

[JMW326]

I read that the first movie is not going to focus much on his addictions but will be explored more if they do a second and third.

[Gothneo]

But if Tony Stark was an alcoholic, that might add realism to the performance.

Exactly!

At first I thought it was an odd choice, but then I decided that he could fit the roll as he could draw on that.

[FHC]

From www.comicbookmovie.com

[The_Donster]

You know, the more I read on this movie, the more excited I get I think for the most part Favreau(The Director), has a grasp of the character and when it doubt, he seems to talk to Marvel or go directly to the source material. While my wife isn't excited about Gwenneth Paltrow getting cast, I think she'll be fine for the part. Like everyone on the cast so far, she has the talent when properly motivated. The only thing that concerns me is Downey's getting involved with things personally. While he's a phenominal actor, it always worries me when I hear this. Whether it's true or not, is anyone's guess though. I did a little scouting around and came up with this link that "supposedly" shows the classic first appearance Iron Man.

[JMW326]

I saw the picture you are talking about a couple of weeks ago Donster. I havn't found anything that says it is not realy yet. If you look at the picture FHC put up and the one you gave us a link to the face plate looks the same. The more I hear about it the more excited I get.

[Hirogen]

Iron Man is not one of my favorite heroes, but I am really looking forward to this movie. When is the release date?

[Electricbolt]

May 2, 2008

[The_Donster]

Blasphemer!! Just kidding GL I was a big fan of the shellhead during the Bob Layton period, who was the artist and possible the writer during the infamous "Demon in the bottle" arch. I also enjoyed what Perez was doing with the character in Avengers during that time too. With Marvel though, I can't really say which character I liked the most back then or even today like I can with DC(Batman ). If I was pushed into a corner, I think I would go with Hawkeye. He was a combination of Green Arrow and Wally West Flash for me. But I read alot of titles back in the day from both companies. So I'm pretty stoked about this one and can't wait to see what they do with him. As far as release date GL, I thought it was like summer next year? If someone knows when it's being released, please feel the rest of us in.

[Electricbolt]

As far as release date GL, I thought it was like summer next year? If someone knows when it's being released, please feel the rest of us in.

1 year 2 days from now

[Cpt. Phil T. Berns]

With Marvel though, I can't really say which character I liked the most back then or even today like I can with DC(Batman ).

When I was a kid, I hoped Marvel would sell Spider-man to DC. Because I would have loved Spidey to be part of the DC universe. He's a great character but he's the only good character Marvel has. I somehow never really cared enough about the others to take the time to get to know them. I did like the Hulk TV show, but discovered later that the Hulk comics were nothing like that great show. Watching movies like X-men or Fantastic Four I can never tell if they're faithful to the comics or not.

So can anyone fill me in on this Ironman?

[pickard]

[Gothneo]

he's the only good character Marvel has.

No doubt that Spider-man is Marvel's Top A list guy. I could say something similar about DC though. Really only Batman and Superman are the only good characters they have.

The thing is, when I think about marvel, I think about Teams. X-Men and Fantastic four were great team concepts back in the 60's and they are still great today IMO. X-Men was weakened a bit by taking the same route as Avengers, which was to constantly shake up the roster... FF... even when they pull in subs (like they have right now) you can't change the fact that FF is the core family, which is why I think it's the best team concept ever.

But I was thinking about this the other day, and teh fact is that both DC and Marvel owe their success to really only 1 or 2 characters. That's all they have... and I wonder what tactics they will ploy when the copyrights expire (as they did with disney's Micky).

[The_Donster]

Berns, the pic that Pickard provided is what Iron Man looks in the comics currently. Here's a link on Wikipedia to get you caught up on Iron Man. Short and sweet of it, he's a modern day Howard Hughes who has a life threatening epipheny to use his knowledge of technology to fight the forces of evil. I personally don't have any bias towards either companies to be honest. As a teenager, I probable gravitated towards Marvel and some of the super teams Gothneo pointed out. But I also read Teen Titans, Legion of Superheroes and Batman & The Outsiders too. When it came to single character books, I read Captain America, Iron Man, Spidey, Warlord and various other titles. Back on topic though, I'm really pulling for this movie and think that Favreau has a grasp of what drives the character.

[Cpt. Phil T. Berns]

No doubt that Spider-man is Marvel's Top A list guy. I could say something similar about DC though. Really only Batman and Superman are the only good characters they have.

I think the short lived 1970's O'Neil/Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow was about the best comicbook you could find. Since childhood I've always loved the DC universe. And as a child I didn't even know there were two companies. In Dutch both the Marvel and DC titles were published by the same company. But they were published in Holland and only the Batman and Superman titles made it to Belgium. Fortunately they didn't always print the stories from the US Batman titles in the Dutch Batman. There were Brave and the Bold stories as well. That's how I got to know the whole DC universe. Then I got to know Spider-Man thanks to a cartoon on the French Television. But the Spider-man comics were hard to find. And by the time they got easier to find (after Superman the movie was released and the Hulk TV series made it to our screens American superhero comics were easier to find) I think I was too old already to explore this new Marvel universe. I felt at home in the DC universe and a complete stranger in the Marvel universe where I only knew Spieder-man and the Hulk, and I didn't like the comic version of the Hulk.

I wonder what tactics they will ploy when the copyrights expire (as they did with disney's Micky).

Excuse me? Did the copyrights on Mickey Mouse expire? That seems hard to believe since copyrights only expire 70 years after the copyright owner's death. And if the copyrights belong to a company instead of a physical person they never expire as long as the company exists. I must check this out.

[pickard]

Berns, the pic that Pickard provided is what Iron Man looks in the comics currently.

Don, that's an image released yesterday from the movie production team.

Sorry I didn't label it as such; I've been kind of busy.

[TheHSBR]

The one difference between the two companies is that DC changes the man but not the hero. For example there have been many Flash's and Green Lanterns. They just recently started changing WonderWoman and the Beetle. This creates a sense of realism in the overall continuity of the books because if the book has been around 40+ years how does the hero still look like he's 35. DC also focuses on the hero being the main part of the story. Marvel on the other hand almost never switches the man under the mask. Even though it makes things less realistic (Spiderman should actually be about 50+) it gives the book stability and tradition. Marvel focuses on the man/woman behind the mask as driving the story. Ive always prefered Marvel and when I started reading DC in the last five years Ive decided that most of it is junk. I like Batman (and family) and Green Lantern (Kyle) and that was about it. I could tolerate the other stuff but nothing blew me away. Even their big event Infinite Crisis/52 did nothing for me. Civil War on the other hand |I thought was awesome. Older people in their 40/50s will gravitate toward DC because that was bigger in their childhoods. Younger people in their 20/30s gravitate toward Marvel for the same reason. It will be interesting to see where this new generation of kids fall. It could very well fall right in the middle.

Back to Iron Man....Im very worried about the recent successes of the Marvel movies. Ghost Rider didnt do too well. The Hulk was not well received. Im worried that such a great character like Iron Man will be lost in obscurity. Ive also heard that they want to stray away from the alcoholism angle. I think that would be a huge mistake because the best things about Marvel characters are their flaws. It would be something completely different that we have never seen from a good hero before. Im extited about the possibilities here but with Marvels recent track record of flops Im not too sure. Well see when FF:RotSS comes out in July how that is received.