How did Marvel pull the MCU out of their ass?

[J Tyran]

People it's Disney.

Disney is why they managed to do this successfully.

They managed to have a company they had no relations with make them successful for 6 movies? I think you have the order of things wrong, Disney didn't buy them until after The Avengers due to how successful they managed to be on their own.

Disney bought Marvel in 2009, just over six years ago. Iron Man was released in 2008, Iron Man 2 in 2010 and Captain American released in 2011. So Disney were around for everything apart from Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, so Marvel Studios had only one good movie under their belt at the time of the buyout.

Edit, put the wrong year for Iron Man 2.

 

[Zontar]

Well the first step from Iron Man was an easter egg after the credits, and apart from that Iron Man did pretty much nothing to set up the universe.

The Incredible Hulk did even less. It was unsure if it was even in the MCU until later, it was almost like they retroactively confirmed it was in. I don't think anything that happened in it has been referenced again in the MCU.

The next movie is Iron Man 2, the one after Disney bought them. It's well known for being a movie that's basically just a prequel to the next movies, and it spends a large chunk of the movie just setting up the MCU.

So the most critical movie in setting up and establishing the MCU was Iron Man 2, the movie that came out after Disney bought them. Before that there was only a single after credits easter egg. So yeah, Disney.

Actually they already had plans for The Avengers to happen when Disney bought them, and that 'easter egg' was not just a throwaway joke.

In fact, the only thing of real difference between Marvel's original plan for Phase One between before and after the buy out was that Ant Man was supposed to be released in 2010 instead of Iron Man 2, which is the weakest movie in the MCU.

So if anything they succeeded DESPITE Disney owning them, not because of it, since Thor and Captain America didn't have that many shoutouts and references to other movies, and one of Iron Man 2's biggest problems was that it spent too much time worldbuilding with characters no one knew instead of telling its own story.

 

[Lilani]

Supes doesn't need to be edgey or dark, he needs to be the guy that through his power and intelligence accomplishes what others can't and never compromises his ideals for the sake of convenience. So in short people need to want to be Superman, but not just because of the powers but because of what he does with them and what he says about humanity and our better nature.

This reminds me of a lot of stuff I was seeing before Captain America came out. I saw a lot of skepticism and dread when it came to his character being brought to the big screen. By that point, Iron Mans both 1 and 2 were out, as well as Thor and Hulk. And before that there was a legacy of gritty Batman and X-Men films to live up to. But there was a lot of skepticism around Captain America because he is, for a lack of a better term, a bit of a "goody goody." He isn't a dick that learns how to be nice to people like Thor or Tony Stark, and he isn't dealing with powers connected to his emotions like Bruce Banner. He isn't a "tormented hero"--he doesn't fight evil and oppression for revenge or redemption or unresolved emotional issues. He fights because it's the right thing to do. Even before he gets his powers he doesn't fight to prove something, he does it because nobody else will.

And a lot of people didn't think that would make for a compelling protagonist. Somebody who has their shit together and knows what they're fighting for and why. And many others were afraid that they'd try to turn him into a tormented hero in order to appeal to the mainstream film audience. But Marvel stood their ground. They gave him pain to deal with, but they never let that become his motivation. His motivation was always doing the right thing, and the story complimented that aspect of him. That was his thing from beginning to end--emotional stability and doing the right thing no matter the circumstances. Even the ending hammers this home. When he runs into Times Square and Fury asks him if he's going to be okay, he just says, "Yeah. It's just I had a date." He's clearly hurt about it, but he doesn't lose his shit or lash out at Fury.

That's how a plot point hammers home an aspect of a character, and it's what Man of Steel failed to do with Superman. All they really did was hammer home a bunch of religious imagery painting Supes as Space Jesus without ever hammering home his actual motivation as a hero. I felt like I got Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and all the rest at the end of their movies. I knew what they were about. But at the end of Man of Steel, I still didn't "get" Superman. The story told me where he came from and what happened to him, but I still don't get what makes him more than just a set of convenient superpowers.

 

[Lufia Erim]

I think it's because nerd culture is profitable now. Everyone and their mom wants to be a geek. Or at least what their perceive geeks to be. It's also why the big bang theory is so popular also. That and technolgy and green screens.

 

[laggyteabag]

Because people like a team-up, and the MCU was designed to be just that from the start. It also helps that everything that Marvel is making links into the MCU in some way, instead of having multiple different universes, like the Flarrow Universe, the upcoming Supergirl Universe, and the new DC Movie Universe (which is separate from the Nolan trilogy, I believe).

 

[RealRT]

People it's Disney.

Disney is why they managed to do this successfully.

They managed to have a company they had no relations with make them successful for 6 movies? I think you have the order of things wrong, Disney didn't buy them until after The Avengers due to how successful they managed to be on their own.

Disney bought them in 2009.

 

[Vivi22]

As far as I know, it was Iron Man that started it all. Before that, it's my understanding that Marvel never really made that good movies.

First off, pre-Iron Man Marvel didn't make movies at all. They licensed the rights to various characters and other studios made movies.

Second, prior to Iron Man, Marvel comic book movies were the only good ones aside from Batman Begins. Anyone who tries to say that Blade 1&2, Spider-Man 1&2, or X-Men 1&2 weren't the shit back then has lost their damn mind. Hell, we can directly credit those movies for reviving interest in comic book movies after shit like Batman and Robin shot the genre in the leg and left it to bleed out.

 

[Vivi22]

So the most critical movie in setting up and establishing the MCU was Iron Man 2, the movie that came out after Disney bought them. Before that there was only a single after credits easter egg. So yeah, Disney.

Yeah, I'm sure Disney had a lot to do with that one movie that was already finished filming two months before they bought Marvel. And they probably had a ton to do with the next couple that were already well into pre-production at the time.

Honestly, it's not too hard to look up a movie and find out when it was filmed and recognize that the time line means Disney couldn't have really had a thing to do with it. Even easier than just typing up a post where you make assumptions and say things that aren't true even since it would have saved you the bother entirely.

 

[Sean Renaud]

First off, pre-Iron Man Marvel didn't make movies at all. They licensed the rights to various characters and other studios made movies.

Second, prior to Iron Man, Marvel comic book movies were the only good ones aside from Batman Begins. Anyone who tries to say that Blade 1&2, Spider-Man 1&2, or X-Men 1&2 weren't the shit back then has lost their damn mind. Hell, we can directly credit those movies for reviving interest in comic book movies after shit like Batman and Robin shot the genre in the leg and left it to bleed out.

Not an X-Men movie fan until First Class. I think counting Blade isn't really fair to anybody, he's not a comic book character. He's Blade. The same way that 300, Sin City, Men in Black and Judge Dredd are not comic movies. Yes there was a comic they were based on but the general public was completely unaware of any of them. Which gave the writers considerable leeway to change things around if they chose.

Dear God Batman and Robin. Keep trying to forget that and people keep reminding me. You'd think I'd done something to offend the Gods or something.

 

[HardkorSB]

It was this guy:

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

His name is Kevin Feige.
He's a massive nerd and knows everything there is to know about Marvel and their properties.
He became the president of Marvel Studios in 2007 and in 2008, he started the MCU.

 

[BabySinclair]

Because Daredevil, Elektra, Hulk (2003), Spiderman 3, and X-Men: Last Stand were really bad films so Marvel decided to stop farming out their properties because of how poorly the material was being handled (and how only Spiderman and X-Men were making money.)

As for Hulk 2008, the reason there wasn't a squeal is because Edward Norton costs a lot of money and he didn't particularly feel like playing Banner again. They had to wait until a larger movie to recast because recasting the main character in a squeal probably would not have worked well.

 

[gigastar]

Producers who know what theyre dealing with and remain faithful to the source material got them the comic fans.

High production value and the kind of makreting budget that being owned by Disney can get you got them the rest of thier audience.

And the real mark of success on Marvels part is that other studios are desperately trying to emulate them.

...I only wish they would approach the games with similar care and quality. But i guess thats not in Marvels control.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Iron Man came out 7 years ago, and in that time they have made 8 10 movies that were all incredibly successful. Did they change their entire movie staff or something? Or did they pour more money into the movie department?

Disney bought Marvel after the success of Iron Man and proceeded to milk their money's worth.

What I really want to know was how long they had planned for the MCU. I mean, they had no idea how successful their movies would be, what if Iron Man fell flat?

DIY Blockbuster 101: always end with a sequel hook. Nick Fury showing up after the credits is basically Princess Daisy coming back for Mario and Luigi at the end of Super Mario Bros. Didn't pay off for that movie, paid off for Marvel because Disney bought the company and proceeded to make more movies.

 

[Lupine]

Supes doesn't need to be edgey or dark, he needs to be the guy that through his power and intelligence accomplishes what others can't and never compromises his ideals for the sake of convenience. So in short people need to want to be Superman, but not just because of the powers but because of what he does with them and what he says about humanity and our better nature.

This reminds me of a lot of stuff I was seeing before Captain America came out. I saw a lot of skepticism and dread when it came to his character being brought to the big screen. By that point, Iron Mans both 1 and 2 were out, as well as Thor and Hulk. And before that there was a legacy of gritty Batman and X-Men films to live up to. But there was a lot of skepticism around Captain America because he is, for a lack of a better term, a bit of a "goody goody." He isn't a dick that learns how to be nice to people like Thor or Tony Stark, and he isn't dealing with powers connected to his emotions like Bruce Banner. He isn't a "tormented hero"--he doesn't fight evil and oppression for revenge or redemption or unresolved emotional issues. He fights because it's the right thing to do. Even before he gets his powers he doesn't fight to prove something, he does it because nobody else will.

And a lot of people didn't think that would make for a compelling protagonist. Somebody who has their shit together and knows what they're fighting for and why. And many others were afraid that they'd try to turn him into a tormented hero in order to appeal to the mainstream film audience. But Marvel stood their ground. They gave him pain to deal with, but they never let that become his motivation. His motivation was always doing the right thing, and the story complimented that aspect of him. That was his thing from beginning to end--emotional stability and doing the right thing no matter the circumstances. Even the ending hammers this home. When he runs into Times Square and Fury asks him if he's going to be okay, he just says, "Yeah. It's just I had a date." He's clearly hurt about it, but he doesn't lose his shit or lash out at Fury.

That's how a plot point hammers home an aspect of a character, and it's what Man of Steel failed to do with Superman. All they really did was hammer home a bunch of religious imagery painting Supes as Space Jesus without ever hammering home his actual motivation as a hero. I felt like I got Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and all the rest at the end of their movies. I knew what they were about. But at the end of Man of Steel, I still didn't "get" Superman. The story told me where he came from and what happened to him, but I still don't get what makes him more than just a set of convenient superpowers.

I totally agree. Especially about the failure to really define Superman by the end of the film. I feel like they tried way too hard to make him conflicted and honestly it leads to some down right silly moments between plot contrivance and lack of real honest to goodness conflict. One of these moments that always sticks out at me was Jonathan Kent's death. It was trying for sacrifice and pathos, what it got was silliness and a lack of imagination.

Inversely, one of my favorite Superman stories of all time is literally just Superman hovering beside a building for the whole comic.

Spoiler

[link] http://imgur.com/gallery/Ijdxh[/link]

 

[Veylon]

Marvel trusted their product.

They took the comics and put them on the big screen and that was it. They trusted that all these comic book characters really did belong there. They didn't need to be made cool; they were cool already. The key was and is simplicity. When the Marvel films inevitably fade, it will be because they forget the fun and optimism of the comic world.

Man of Steel kept mounding up exposition upon exposition until everything character-related was crowded off the screen. Superman wasn't trusted to be cool; everything had to be made dark and gritty because "You will believe a man can fly!" is too corny and silly for the jaded taste of today's audiences. The military had to be dragged in to borrow their gritty realism to keep things grounded. It's a dark, overcomplicated, and often pessimistic movie and it's easy to see why nobody much is enthusiastic about it.

 

[Ieyke]

As far as I know, it was Iron Man that started it all. Before that, it's my understanding that Marvel never really made that good movies.

Marvel didn't make movies AT ALL before Iron Man.

how did they end up as the biggest movie producers out there today? Asides from having amazing movies of course. Iron Man came out 7 years ago, and in that time they have made 8 movies that were all incredibly successful.

Age Of Ultron will be their 11th movie.

Did they change their entire movie staff or something? Or did they pour more money into the movie department? From what I heard Marvel is pretty stingy. What I really want to know was how long they had planned for the MCU. I mean, they had no idea how successful their movies would be, what if Iron Man fell flat?

Iron Man was their first movie
Then The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Thor
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Avengers
Iron Man 3
Agents Of SHIELD
Thor:The Dark World
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Agents Of SHIELD season 2
Agent Carter
Daredevil

They literally created Marvel Studios just to make Iron Man, and have been kicking ass ever since.

All the shitty movies using Marvel properties, like Fantastic Four, Days Of Future Past, Spider-Man 3, Origins: Wolverine, Daredevil, etc etc are all by other companies.
Mostly Fox.

Marvel Studios has an almost flawless track record, the likes of which is basically only rivaled by Pixar.

Kevin Feige is the genius mastermind behind the whole thing.
Their casting is brilliant.
Then they got Joss Whedon and gave him the reins for a long while, and suddenly they doubled their genius mastermind powers.

I meant those old ass ones, like the Captain America movie, and the bad Spiderman movie. Heh, completely forgot about the Hulk movies actually. Most people I've talked to about it either didn't know about them or didn't like them. Are they really part of the MCU though?

The second Hulk movie is 'technically' part of the MCU. Basically, accept that it happened, but don't assume you'll ever see any of the actors again.

The Incredible Hulk is not just "technically" part of the MCU. It is fully and completely part of the MCU.
Daredevil references it several times, as does The Avengers, and Agents Of SHIELD.
They just switched to a different actor playing Bruce Banner.

The only reason you haven't seen any of the other actors in it is because it hasn't had a sequel yet.

"Hulk" is completely unrelated to the MCU, which is why it's unsurprisingly garbage, while "The Incredible Hulk" IS part of the MCU and pretty good.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Well they wanted to stop some major crimes so...
Sorry. Always wanted to do that joke/observation.

What Veylon said.

One deciding factor was definitely definitely the attention paid to what elements of each major hero would make a compelling story. Tony starts out as the kind of rich irresponsible corporate jerk that is made the villain in so many movies and put him through a journey into accepting the wrongs his company has done and turning it into a force for good. With Thor they went full-blown Hamlet, and instead of rushing through Captain America's backstory so he could appear in the modern world they made the entire first movie about it, showing how he became a legend in the war.

Haven't seen Incredible Hulk, but with that I think they were just trying to make one much better than the previous effort at making a Hulk movie. Regardless it was probably the least well-received since they haven't tried making any sequels to it. The same would have happened if any of the others had been bad. Thankfully they weren't.