Ian On The Red Dot

I watched The Incredible Hulk last night and it was awesome. Much better than the first one with Eric Bana - there were no pretensions about creating a movie with philosophical musings, just raw brutal exciting action.

The two comic heroes that I first fell in love with were Superman and Batman. Till today, Batman is my all time favorite hero. Why? Because in the Tower of Babel JLA story arc, Batman was shown to have devised ways to defeat every single hero in the JLA which had a pretty impressive roster. Also, in the Marvel versus DC storyline, it was the two humans who trained themselves to be heroes (i.e. Captain America and Batman) that saved the day and not aliens or people who were ‘accidentally’ blessed or divinely bestowed with powers and abilities. Lastly, I love heroes teetering on the dark side especially one who said, “I don’t believe in killing but I have no problems causing extreme pain”.

At the end of the Hulk movie, there will be a cameo from Tony Stark pitching to General Ross about the Avengers. If you have watched the Ironman movie and stayed till the end of the credits, you will have seen the scene where Colonel Fury approached Stark about the Avengers Initiative.

Totally awesome. The next couple of years will be good times for comic book fans hoping to see more movie adaptations.

Now, you might be wondering why I brought up Batman and Superman. The reason is because DC has always been trying to get two movies made - ‘Superman versus Batman’ and ‘Justice League Of America’. The problem with the approach taken by DC was that they wanted to make a movie where we would be introduced to the characters for the first time.

So, the first time you see our generation’s Green Lantern will be in Justice League Of America. The problem with such movies is that the roster of heroes is greater than one which usually means there won’t be enough time to establish the back stories of these characters and make them more than just another run-of-the-mill hero with powers. It is hard for the audience who are not fans to establish any sort of positive connection with the characters and root for them - the characters become bland.

Marvel is taking the right approach. One movie at a time to establish the characters’ back story can create a connection with the audience. Each movie about an individual hero like Ironman and Hulk hints at the bigger movie to come and are all threads of a bigger, more rich tapestry.

Basically Marvel is creating the Marvel universe with each movie. DC isn’t. Now, they might have a chance with Superman versus Batman with two very strong actors in Christian Bale and Brandon Routh in the titular roles for their individual story arcs. I’m surprised they don’t seem to be working to thread these narratives together.

I always cringed when people said Marvel was better than DC because I loved Wayne and Kent. Yet as I read more of the comics especially the older ones and see what Marvel is doing with the movies, I’m being to get won over that Marvel might be a better story telling company. Fan boys flame away!

So Marvel is teaching us something. It is good to have a view of the bigger picture. However, the execution of it can and probably should be done in smaller parts that ultimately can fit together. Good software engineers know this concept of modularization. A great business, a great website, a great online service, a great life - all can be reached with similar principles.

Final note - Those who were disappointed with how the X-Men story arc ended may have hope that the Avengers movie could revive the X-Men’s storyline with a cross-over.

Also, if the Hulk and Abomination were fighting in New York City, where was Spiderman?