Superhero fans may be pretty familiar with the hilarious “I’m a Marvel … and I’m a DC” series of videos, which amusingly spoof the Mac adds, as well as comic book heroes in general. The most recent installment is a funny and topical (in lieu of both of them having films this year) romp squaring Batman and Iron Man against each other. If anything, it’s nice to know Iron Man is somewhat in agreement with me about viral marketing. And that Batman can be immature every now and then.
Marvel is really going all out in creating a seamless mega-Marvel universe being spun out across its many upcoming films. First up, is the top photo from the upcoming THE INCREDIBLE HULK that reveals the first appearance of the super-soldier serum that is responsible for the creation of Captain America (and unfortunately, for the Hulk, also the Abomination).
Second, the people over at First Showing apparently has some very sharp eyes, as they’ve keenly noted that if you look closely in one scene in IRON MAN, you can actually see Captain America’s shield on one of Tony Stark’s tables in his workshop (the second picture above is the best the internet has been able to produce so far). Now though the serum in INCREDIBLE HULK makes sense, a lot of people whether the shield in IRON MAN has any greater universal significance since chronologically Tony Stark isn’t even aware of Captain America at this point. Admittedly it might be feasible that Stark does know about Captain, given the Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) cameo at the end of IRON MAN, but I think this is really nothing more than just a “Wouldn’t it be cool?” easter egg in the film. It does raise some interesting issues though for the upcoming CAPTAIN AMERICA film. Is this something Tony was working on anyway, that later just is given to Cap? Does this mean the film might depart from the cannon of comics where the shield is made form adamantium (the same thing Wolverine’s skeleton and claws are made of) and be something more techy?
What do you guys think about Marvel’s efforts to really do something unprecedented and create a larger film universe for its characters/properties? What about the shield in IRON MAN? Is this part of some bigger picture perhaps, or just a little cute gift to keen-eyed Marvel fans?