With the upcoming release of the AVENGERS, it seems there is at last going to be a serious attempt to bring more of Marvel’s Superheroes together into one large Marvel Universe.
The Incredible Hulk showed military attempts to subdue the green behemoth with the use of Tony Stark’s inventions. Robert Downey jr’s cameo quickly confirmed that this film was taking place in the same Marvel Universe as the previously released Iron Man.
Iron Man was followed by Iron Man 2, which gave hints to both Thor and Captain America and all of these characters will join into one team for The Avengers, after which Tony Stark will continue on with Iron Man 3 and Thor and Captain America will both proceed with their subsequent sequels. All of this neatly refers to one another, which begs the question: will The Amazing Spider-Man, coming July, also fit into this picture?
It is clear that the upcoming film of our favourite webslinger is a total reboot of Sam Raimi’s earlier films, which grossed more than a billion dollars worldwide. It is also very well known that The Fantastic Four is currently being developed into a rebooted franchise as well. Again, will they fit into this same Marvel Universe?
It is currently totally unclear where The X-Men stand on this matter. The X-Men have had 3 very successful films and one spinoff: Wolverine. But is X-Men: First Class a reboot? Or does it fit in with the earlier films and just play in an earlier time period? Would it then be possible to slide it into the currently constructed Marvel Universe or would that not be desirable?
(From First Class it was clear that Wolverine shares the same universe, but beyond this all bets are off. What will happen with Wolverine in his sequel? Who knows?)
Similar questions can be forwarded with regards BLADE, the character that originated in a Tomb of Dracula comic book. Blade has also had 3 fairly successful films but it is unknown if there are any current plans to go forward with this character. (It may be that the television series of a few years back killed off any remaining interest.)
The Punisher and Ghost Rider also seem to linger in limbo at the moment. (Both have had 2 films but in both cases the sequels were inferior to the first film. And no clue if any had taken place in a universe compatible with that of Iron Man and the Avengers.) And although it has been reported earlier that DAREDEVIL was also undergoing a reboot, nothing has been released about the development so far. The same goes for an upcoming television series for The Hulk.
We know also a Dr. Strange project is being developed but nothing has been announced of that yet. And considering Conan the Barbarian was so atrociously maltreated last year with that terrible Markus Nispel film, we’d best not even want to talk about that anymore. Or about Howard the Duck, a film produced by one George Lucas. Not his proudest moment perhaps? Well, both Conan and Howard can not really be called superheroes, so that’s okay. But in the comics both have been brought together with Spider-Man and other superheroes, so it might have been cool.
Of course, if the current slate of interrelated films works out okay, it would be wonderful if one could be expecting some time soon a film of heroes battling amongst themselves. Like the Hulk fighting the Thing from the Fantastic Four, or maybe even Spider-Man taking on Super-Man. Just think of it!!! Wouldn’t that be absolutely glorious???
