Before
2006, I would have probably ranked Iron Man somewhere in the low 3000s in the
list of Marvel characters I cared about, nestled comfortably between The
USAgent and Night Thrasher. Aside from the “Armor Wars” storyline, where they
explored his crisis of conscience at having inadvertently becoming an
international arms dealer, it seemed like the armored superhero just kind of
coasted his way through his own title and the numerous Avengers teams he was a
part of. Last year, however, Marvel woke up and decided to tap into the
potential of the character first with a couple of redefining comics events (Extremis, Civil War) and then by making
him the first major independently produced Marvel movie to hit the big screens.
better, we’ve had announcement after announcement of quality people like Jon
Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., and Terrence Howard come onboard this project, and
now we can add one more great name to the lineup.
Bridges has just signed to play an unnamed confidant and mentor to Tony in his
corporate life. There’s a certain vagueness to that description that almost
makes me think he’ll have a character arc much like Liam Neeson did as Ducard
in Batman Begins, but only time will
tell. In any case, the quality casting down the line is great news. And when
you contrast the progress on this film with the rapid descent of DC film
projects like The Flash and Wonder Woman, it’s pretty obvious that
one of these companies is committed to at least dedicating the people and time
to get their projects right, and the other is just clueless and/or hamstrung by
corporate overlords and bean counters.
Marvel.