Iron Man

Ballester, P., (2021, 15 mars), Le Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) et la ville simulacre. La Furia Umana, 40, Tracer les villes, Track the cities, 35.
https://www.lafuriaumana.it/index.php/74-lfu-40/986-patrice-ballester-le-marvel-cinematic-universe-mcu-et-la-ville-simulacre

Le MCU est-il en train de perpétuer la vision de la ville des possibles et des simulacres utopiques et chaotiques que les auteurs de comics ont voulu faire partager avec leur public de lecteurs ? Au-delà, la marvelisation des villes existe-t-elle à travers le MCU et sa vingtaine de films ? En outre, l’image de la ville par Marvel-Disney n’est-elle par réduite à l’architecture contemporaine et à l’uniformité des comportements urbains audibles et visibles dans le monde entier et non pas uniquement en Occident ? Il s’agit d’un essai de cultural studies qui se veut à la fois par la méthode un recensement des villes et des images de la ville dans le MCU pour connaitre, percevoir et analyser la fonction et les représentations des villes afin d’entrevoir une sorte de transposition entre les films et les parcs de loisirs, mais aussi les espaces publics et grandes infrastructures comme les hôtels de New York et de Las Vegas devenant des réceptacles à la fois touristique et culturel (pop culture) de la franchisse cinématographique la plus rentable. Entre une approche complexe mettant en lien la pop culture, la culture de masse, les super production Disney et surtout la volonté par certaines cultures de transposer du cinéma à la ville ou de la ville au cinéma une vision simplifiée et/ou héroïque du geste urbain, nous aborderons le super-héros comme un simple reflet de la ville ou à l’inverse une identité renversée de la ville le définissant, voire le caricaturant ?
I. LE CADRE DES AMBITIONS SURHUMAINES : VILLE, CHAOS ET UTOPIE URBAINE
Ville technologique, ville de la peur, ville des mystères, ville utopique.
II. LA RETRNSCRIPTION DANS NOTRE MONDE CONTEMPORAIN DES ELEMENTS FILMIQUES DU MCU
L’exemple du Wakanda et green city Birnin Zana et de l’environnement d’Iron Man, usine, exposition internationale et maison contemporaine.
III. LA MARVELISATION DES VILLES MONDIALES : DU FILM A LA REALITE, PARC DE LOISIRS & TOURISTIFICATION
Infrastructures hôtelières, maison contemporaine - la carte, le territoire et le film - parcours touristiques en lien avec les films, les parcs de loisirs Marvel.

Introduction / Richard J. Gray II and Betty Kaklamanidou -- Globalization. Exceptional Recognition: The U.S. Global Dilemma in The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and Avatar / Anthony Peter Spanakos -- "You Took My Advice About Theatricality a Bit -- Literally": Theatricality and Cybernetics of Good and Evil in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and X-Men / Johannes Schlegel and Frank Habermann -- Power, Choice, and September 11 in The Dark Knight / Christine Muller -- Gender. The Mythos of Patriarchy in the X-Men Films / Betty Kaklamanidou -- Vivacious Vixens and Scintillating Super-Hotties: Deconstructing the Superheroine / Richard J. Gray II -- Evolving Portrayals of Masculinity in Superhero Films: Hancock / Christina Adamou -- Genre. Genre and Super-Heroism: Batman in the New Millennium / Vincent M. Gaine -- Super-Intertextuality and 21st Century Individualized Social Advocacy in Spider-Man and Kick-Ass / Justin S. Schumaker -- The Watchmen, Neo-Noir and Pastiche / Phillip Dav...

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) now spans dozens of films, TV shows, and web series, dating back to 2008’s Iron Man. The enormous success of that film provided a sort of template that Marvel has followed almost to the letter in most of its successors, especially in regards to its flippant tone and wise-cracking main character. As Stephen Kearse observes, humor has become one of the defining characteristics of this immensely-popular and long-running media franchise: “As Marvel has produced more sequels and standalone spinoffs, comedy has become more essential to introducing characters and giving the universe a sense of history.” As in Iron Man, this humor often takes the form of ironic or sarcastic remarks given at a rapid-fire pace by the main characters; regardless of how dire or incredible the situation may seem, someone is always ready to lighten the mood with a quick joke or muttered aside.

In this essay, I plan to focus on irony in the MCU, especially as manifested by Tony Stark / Iron Man (who is portrayed by Robert Downey, Jr. in all of the films). Whether facing a personal crisis or world-threatening event, there is no situation Tony cannot bring himself to laugh at, in an attempt to either reduce the stakes or bolster his own courage to face it. Accordingly, there is very little he ever comes to take seriously, resulting in a detached, ironic attitude that permeates the rest of the franchise. The series’ reliance on humor is, I believe, symptomatic of a larger, and very worrying, trend in modern society to look upon all things supernatural or fantastic with skepticism and wry bemusement. Just as Iron Man—and the rest of the Avengers—cannot face a dangerous or terrifying situation without trying to diminish it, through irony, into something less serious or real, so, too, do modern humans often respond to encounters with the Good, Beautiful, or Truthful.

Cet article étudie les représentations ambivalentes que la trilogie Iron Man (2008, 2010, 2013) propose du rapport entre masculinité et technologie en les replaçant dans le contexte états-unien du tournant des années 2010. Il s’agit de montrer en quoi le mélange de technophobie et de technophilie qui caractérise ces films, s’enracine dans les contradictions générées par le développement spectaculaire des technologies militaires et l’usage qui en a été fait par l’armée américaine dans le cadre des guerres d’Afghanistan et d’Irak suite aux attentats du 11 septembre

Ballester, P., (2021), 15 march, The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the simulacre city. La Furia Umana, 40, Track the cities, Tracer les villes, 33.
https://www.lafuriaumana.it/index.php/74-lfu-40/986-patrice-ballester-le-marvel-cinematic-universe-mcu-et-la-ville-simulacre

Is the MCU perpetuating the city's vision of utopian and chaotic possibilities and simulacra that comic book writers wanted to share with their reading audiences? Beyond that, does the marvelization of cities exist through the MCU and its twenty films? In addition, is Marvel-Disney's image of the city not reduced to contemporary architecture and the uniformity of urban behavior audible and visible around the world and not just in the West? This is a cultural studies essay which aims to be both by the method a census of cities and images of the city in the MCU to know, perceive and analyze the function and representations of cities in order to glimpse a kind of transposition between films and leisure parks, but also public spaces and major infrastructures such as hotels in New York and Las Vegas becoming receptacles for both tourism and culture (pop culture) of the most profitable. Between a complex approach linking pop culture, mass culture, Disney super productions and above all the desire by certain cultures to transpose from cinema to the city or from the city to cinema a simplified and / or heroic vision of the urban gesture , we will approach the superhero as a simple reflection of the city or conversely a reversed identity of the city defining him, even caricaturing him?
I. THE FRAMEWORK OF SUPERHUMAN AMBITIONS: CITY, CHAOS AND URBAN UTOPIA
Technological city, city of fear, city of mysteries, utopian city.
II. THE RECORDING IN OUR CONTEMPORARY WORLD OF THE FILMIC ELEMENTS OF THE MCU
The example of Wakanda and green city Birnin Zana and the environment of Iron Man, factory, international exhibition and contemporary house.
III. THE MARVELIZATION OF WORLD CITIES: FROM FILM TO REALITY, LEISURE PARK & TOURISM
Hotel infrastructures, contemporary house - the map, the territory and the film - tourist routes linked to the films, the Marvel leisure parks.

https://culturesvisuelles.org/archifictions/

Les expositions universelles et internationales peuvent-elles servir de trame scénaristique pour les superproductions hollywoodiennes reposant sur le mythe de l’Amérique conquérante et les aventures des super-héros ? Dans cette étude de cas, le cinéma et ses dispositifs nous aident à penser et à voir la ville ou les villes du MCU par deux temporalités se complétant : la temporalité imaginaire urbaine des films de super-héros et la temporalité avérée des expositions universelles tenues aux États-Unis. Les films que nous analysons sont les témoins, voire la propagande d’un monde occidental se permettant de recréer une chronologie fictive au seul but d’inclure dans le scénario d’une superproduction hollywoodienne un élément de culture de masse, dite pop culture pouvant servir de cadre et de décor à tout un panel de spectateurs. Les expositions universelles sont utilisées comme des référents communs aux États-Unis par les traces de mémoire des grandes manifestations de New York, Chicago et Seattle qui s’additionnent aux souvenirs des fêtes géantes parisiennes, londoniennes ou asiatiques. Un premier regard sur des facilités scénaristiques créatrices de légendes urbaines s’analyse par les représentations du progrès et de ses affres pour des héros comme Tony Stark, tout en rappelant les liens étroits entre cinéma, architecture et exposition universelle (I.), permettant d’entrevoir la création d’une ligne temporelle fictive d’exposition universelle comme élément fédérateur d’une histoire fantastique pour les masses dans le cadre de la franchise Marvel Studio (II.). Enfin, la ville est un environnement qui offre des contre-points importants au scénario du MCU avec notamment la disparition de plus de la moitié de la population de la planète, une ville catastrophe, ville des combats, ville de la co-présence entre la vie, la mort et ses disparitions (III.).

https://culturesvisuelles.org/archifictions/

Can World's FAIRS WORLD EXPO  serve as a backdrop for Hollywood blockbusters based on the myth of conquering America and the adventures of superheroes? In this case study, the cinema and its devices help us to think and see the city or cities of the MCU through two complementing temporalities: the imaginary urban temporality of superhero films and the proven temporality of the world exhibitions held at the United States. The films that we analyze are the witnesses, even the propaganda of a Western world allowing itself to recreate a fictitious chronology with the sole aim of including in the scenario of a Hollywood blockbuster an element of mass culture, known as pop culture that can be used. setting and decor for a whole panel of spectators. The World's Fairs are used as common references in the United States by the traces of memory of the major events in New York, Chicago and Seattle which are added to the memories of the giant festivals in Paris, London or Asia. A first look at the scriptwriting facilities creating urban legends is analyzed by the representations of progress and its pangs for heroes like Tony Stark, while recalling the close links between cinema, architecture and universal exhibition (I.), allowing to 'glimpse the creation of a fictional World Expo timeline as a unifying element of a fantasy story for the masses as part of the Marvel Studio (II.) franchise. Finally, the city is an environment that offers important counterpoints to the MCU scenario with in particular the disappearance of more than half of the planet's population, a disaster city, city of battles, city of co-presence between the life, death and its disappearances (III.).

This book addresses what a superhero body can do by developing several “x-rays” of the superbody’s sensoria, anatomic structures, internal systems, cellular organizations, and orthotic, chemical, or technological enhancements. In short, these x-rays offer what we might describe as a metamorpho-physiological approach to the superheroes in feature films, theatrical cartoon shorts, and Netflix television series. This approach examines the ways in which the “substance” of superheroes, which includes their masks, costumes, chevrons, weapons, and auras, extends into the diegetic environment of the film, transgressing it, transforming it, and corporealizing it, making it emblematic of the shape, dimensions, contours, and organismic workings of one or more of our major organs, members, orifices, fluids, or cell clusters. Thus the superhero film, as this study claims, works to make us more aware of the mutability, adaptability, modifiability, and virtual capabilities of our own flesh.

This essay looks at the representation of violent responses to terrorism in the Avenger films, focusing on the treatment of civilian victims and "collateral damage" in Iron Man (2008), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), and Marvel's The Avengers (2012).



Gruenewald, Tim. “Superhero Films After 9/11: Mitigating ‘Collateral Damage’ in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.” Imperial Benevolence: U.S. Foreign Policy and American Popular Culture since 9/11. Ed. Tim Gruenewald and Scott Laderman. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2018. 141–167. Print.

This thesis investigates the limitations and capacities of genres of the fantastic in their ability to represent the “break” between agency and structure, specifically the transformation of the former into the latter on the scale of radical social and political change. The transformation of utopian impulse to utopian programme is traditionally understood to present a representational impossibility—a “break”—and to require a shift into a less rigorous fantastic or magical representational register. This thesis considers this apparent impossibility to be a product of an ontology of atomised individualism that informs texts from mainstream Hollywood blockbusters to more putatively radical works of literature. It argues that these representations of agency, conceptually limited to individual action, occlude the reality and possibility of communal political agency. This thesis takes contemporary neoliberalism’s transformation of social structures and subjectivities to be driving this specific limiting effect on the ability to imagine alternative patterns of social relations and on the scope and potential of the imagination as such. Beginning with the development of a new political theoretical approach to fantastic literature, this thesis seeks to identify, through a series of close readings, the mechanisms by which this ideological work is performed by sf and fantasy texts, and then seeks to identify alternative representational techniques and strategies that overcome these limitations, allowing the societal imagination to think communal political agency, and move beyond the imaginative confines of the neoliberal horizon. Culminating in the work of China Miéville, this thesis finds that the effort to represent the “break” requires techniques and tropes taken from various genres, in order to capture the becoming—the producing and being-produced—of the world, of social structures, of communities and of subjectivities. The resulting literature has the potential to recruit the reader into occupying a position of radical, critical subjectivity—one which not only understands the malleable, constructed nature of social reality, but understands their own part in its reproduction, and the potential they wield, along with others, to alter it.

This paper examines media-propagated orientalism and Western hegemony in relation to the Middle East. There are countless films that portray Arabs as monodimensionally evil villains. One such film is the 2008 blockbuster Iron Man. This paper analyzes orientalism and hegemonic constructs in Iron Man and some of the effects and messages that Iron Man promotes.

Extrait de
Ballester, P., (2021, 15 mars), Le Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) et la ville simulacre. La Furia Umana, 40, Tracer les villes, Track the cities, 34.
https://www.lafuriaumana.it/index.php/74-lfu-40/986-patrice-ballester-le-marvel-cinematic-universe-mcu-et-la-ville-simulacre

Une hypothèse se fait jour, les liens entre le cinéma et les images véhiculées par la mondialisation changent notre perception du monde, une marvelisation des villes s’observent, à savoir :
a/ sur des bases de culture populaire et de film, série ou autres supports, la ville devient une scène pour des appareillages multiples,
b/ de grands groupes financiers ou du divertissement déclinent cette expression populaire dans les villes,
c/ cela s’inscrit dans des parcs, des hôtels, des quartiers, des murs de ville avec des publicités officielles, des bâtiments ou des tags,
d/ les grandes métropoles mondiales sont des sources d’inspirations visuelles, une uniformisation se perçoit à l’échelle du monde, le digital contribue à créer des univers ou représentations parallèles.

The proposal of the following article is to analyze, through Fairclough`s discourse analysis, the representation of the United States through the marvel's superheroes, Captain America and Iron Man and the images each one adopts. Focusing on the discourses they represent in the cinematographic adaption from the comics, Captain America: Civil War, using the movie's poster as principal object of the analysis.

PL: Zbyt ciężki ekwipunek żołnierzy może powodować kontuzje, urazy i trwałe inwalidztwo oraz zmniejszać efektywność bojową oddziałów. Dlatego amerykańskie siły zbrojne próbują zmniejszyć obciążenie swoich oddziałów, między innymi inwestując w badania nad nowymi technologiami. Postęp w rozwoju systemów mechatronicznych, jaki dokonał się od końca lat 90., umożliwił skonstruowanie egzoszkieletu wspomaganego – noszonego przez człowieka robota, który pozwala żołnierzom szybciej i dłużej maszerować oraz biegać, a także podnosić i przenosić ciężkie obiekty. Do najbardziej zaawansowanych współczesnych amerykańskich egzoszkieletów bojowych należą: BLEEX, HULC i XOS. Do niedawna idea zautomatyzowanego kombinezonu, który daje nadludzką siłę i wytrzymałość, pozostawała domeną fantastyki naukowej, jednak w ciągu ostatniej dekady materializuje się coraz bardziej. Popkulturowy superbohater, Iron Man, wkracza do amerykańskich sił zbrojnych i na pole bitwy. Przyszła egzoszkieletyzacja armii rodzi jednak pewne pytania natury etycznej związane z przekształceniem roli czynnika ludzkiego na wojnie oraz technologizacji i dehumanizacji żołnierza.

ENG: Too heavy an equipment for a soldier may lead to injuries or permanent disability and decrease combat effectiveness of troops. Therefore, US armed forces make all attempts to diminish the loads troops have to carry, for example by investing in research on new technologies. An advancement of mechatronic systems that has been ongoing since the 1990s made it possible to design a powered exoskeleton – a robot worn by a human who allows a soldier to march and run faster and longer, as well as lift and carry heavy loads. Among most advanced combat exoskeletons are: BLEEX, HULC and XOS. The idea of an automated uniform, which gives a man superhuman strength and endurance, until recently was possible only in science fiction movies. However, in the last decade, it has materialized into reality more and more. A pop-culture superhero – Iron Man – is entering US armed forces and a battlefield. A future soldier and its exoskeleton raises however some ethical questions, related to a transformation of a human factor role during warfare and making a soldier  dehumanized and technological.

Resumo: A contribuição de Stan Lee para o cenário quadrinístico e a cultura pop na segunda metade do XX e início do XXI é inquestionável. Entretanto, ao pensarmos o seu lugar social nos EUA durante a Guerra Fria, verificaremos que os seus personagens representavam ideais alinhados aos interesses de sua nação em oposição ao “avanço socialista pelo mundo”. Nesse cenário, Stan Lee produziu discursos e os representou por meio dos super-heróis que criou e/ou ajudou a criar com a Marvel Comics, os quais obedeciam aos pressupostos de sua comunidade discursiva. Sendo assim, objetivamos analisar a sua contribuição para o desenvolvimento e a difusão do capitalismo e da liberdade estadunidense por meio da primeira aventura do Homem de Ferro, a qual pretendia fomentar a luta contra a “tirania e a opressão” do socialismo na Guerra do Vietnã, em meados da década de 1960.

Abstract: Stan Lee was one of the most important persons to graphic
novel and popular culture universes between the second half of 20 th and the begining of 21th centuries. However, when we think about his social place in the USA during Cold War, we verify that his characters represented ideals from his nation in opposition to “the socialist advance around the World”. In this context, Stan Lee created and represented his discourses through his superheroes at Marvel Comics. Nevertheless, Stan Lee’s discourse and his superheroes representation obeyed his discoursive community. Thus, our objective is analyze Stan Lee’s contribution for the development and diff usion of the USA’s ideals of capitalism and freedom in the mid-1960s during Vietnam War, through Iron Man’s first adventure.

This research discusses how superhero and supervillain characters in the fi lmIron Man 3 (2013) shows a power relation as a form of superhuman superiority. The power relation that occur through the confl ict between characters are seen as an establishment of social stratifi cation among superhuman and normal human / society as cultural study. This study is conducted thematically through characterizations analysis method by comparing the defi nition and ideology on the superhero and supervillain in superhero characters, Iron Man and the Iron Patriot, and supervillain character, Mandarin. This study aims to fi nd the root of power relation to the establishment of class structures in the society. By reviewing the defi nition and ideology on these characters, this study is expected to give a broader view of superhuman characters and help the reader to understand the value delivered from superhero character. As a conclusion, the potrayals of the superhero and supervillain characters in the fi lm Iron Man 3 (2013) as the highest power owner have a function to limit and control the values in the society.

Can World's FAIRS WORLD EXPO serve as a backdrop for Hollywood blockbusters based on the myth of conquering America and the adventures of superheroes? In this case study, the cinema and its devices help us to think and see the city or cities of the MCU through two complementing temporalities: the imaginary urban temporality of superhero films and the proven temporality of the world exhibitions held at the United States. The films that we analyze are the witnesses, even the propaganda of a Western world allowing itself to recreate a fictitious chronology with the sole aim of including in the scenario of a Hollywood blockbuster an element of mass culture, known as pop culture that can be used. setting and decor for a whole panel of spectators. The World's Fairs are used as common references in the United States by the traces of memory of the major events in New York, Chicago and Seattle which are added to the memories of the giant festivals in Paris, London or Asia. A first look at the scriptwriting facilities creating urban legends is analyzed by the representations of progress and its pangs for heroes like Tony Stark, while recalling the close links between cinema, architecture and universal exhibition (I.), allowing to 'glimpse the creation of a fictional World Expo timeline as a unifying element of a fantasy story for the masses as part of the Marvel Studio (II.) franchise. Finally, the city is an environment that offers important counterpoints to the MCU scenario with in particular the disappearance of more than half of the planet's population, a disaster city, city of battles, city of co-presence between the life, death and its disappearances (III.).

Avengers: Endgame, the final Avengers installment starts brilliantly, continues to awe its audience just like a slow magic potion and then the hell breaks loose, it closes down with a thunderous consequence and a brief silence prevails making us feel satisfied and accomplished.

A primeira década dos anos 2000 viu um aumento significativo no número de produções cinematográficas protagonizadas por super-heróis. Este salto quantitativo se deu após cerca de duas décadas das primeiras adaptações de personagens do gênero dos quadrinhos para o cinema. Na esteira da consolidação de uma " ficção super-heróica " no cinema mainstream, as tradicionais franquias passaram por um processo de complexificação, o que resultou estabelecimento de dois universos cinematográficos estendidos: Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) e o DC Extended Universe (DCEU), como se tornaram conhecidos. Estes universos estendidos integram vários filmes em suas continuidades, de modo que cada narrativa fechada em um filme está atrelada a uma conjuntura narrativa maior. A fim de desvelar as possibilidades estéticas exploradas por estes conjuntos de filmes, o presente trabalho propõe uma análise pontual da mise-en-scène dos filmes que inauguram cada uma das continuidades: Homem de Ferro (Jon Favreau, 2008) e Homem de Aço (Zack Snyder, 2013) respectivamente.

जीवन परिचय: लौह पुरूश, सरदार वल्लभ भाई पटेल (31 अक्टूबर, 1875- 15 दिसम्बर, 1950) को भारत की आजादी की लडाई तथा राश्ट्र निर्माण में उनकी अहम भूमिका के लिए हमेषा याद किया जाएगा। एक सामान्य घराने में जन्म लेकर भी उन्होंनें अपनी निर्भीकता, देषभक्ति तथा संगठन षक्ति के बल पर वह कार्य कर दिखलाया, जिसे करना बड़े से बड़े राजनीतिज्ञों के लिए भी सुगम न था ।

The dissertation is focused on how American movies portray cultural fears and anxieties, as well as positive national stereotypes, by analysing the Marvel character of Iron Man.
The decision of concentrating on this hero resulted from a personal interest on Marvel films reinforced by the Anglo-American culture course held by Professor Vallorani.
In the first chapter, it's showed how heroes can be used as cultural tools for sharing values and symbols in a national group; not surprisingly, in order to do so, movies are exploited and they play an important communicative role.
It is mainly focused on the United States, on the network of shared meanings for American people at the moment and on the common frame of reference they have been sharing in the last few years; as a result, it's examined the turning point on heroes after 9/11: from powerful and naive to ambiguous and intelligent.
In the second chapter, it is analysed how these fears are presented through some key points in the first Iron Man film (2008). Some current topics tackled here are xenophobia, arms smuggling, illegality, corruption, secrets, and terrorism, all of them springing from the anxiety of feeling unprotected. it is also underlined how the medias’ storytelling process plays a crucial role in determining power by amplifying or distorting information, and as a result, it was meant to describe the distrust people feel towards official sources. This is because of the evidence between facts and fiction, as the producer himself declared it in an interview, and the whole path I present is supported by real events.
In the last chapter, the focus is on national talents and positive skills such as the American Know-how and can-do spirit, especially in technological and energy field, which have reached an important role in human application. These positive points were useful to the public, because they furnished a direct connection to describe all sort of dreams connected to the potential application of these attributes, not only in everyday life, but on human bodies as a strength. While walking this line, it is emphasised the fact that those goals were reached not alone, but by the joined effort of multidisciplinary skills of the struggles PMCs, with all their productive work-ethic attitude, an external help from collaborators and allies, or in other words, other super heroes and countries.
As a conclusion, we can assert that in the process of building a film, while some bad events are used to connect with a specific public, there is nothing better than a hero to help us believe in who we are, and what we can achieve.

This was a version of a journal paper of mine that was published in 2004. It looked at the state of Hollywood in 2003 by observing directorial trends in the blockbuster season. The question is asked: how is authorship used today as a way of crafting a commercial identity for a film? The debate has moved on from the 1950s origins of the concept of the ‘film auteur’. Along these lines, Jon Lewis said in 2003: ‘[..u]nlike thirty years ago, when blockbusters were produced and/or directed by auteurs, most successful blockbuster directors these days […] are significantly less well known than the films they’ve made’ (Lewis, 2003a: 66). I used this talk and the journal piece to challenge that, by suggesting that if we looked at how mainstream Hollywood operated over five or six years, we could actually see some sort of ‘return of the auteurs’ to the centre of medium-to-high budget narrative filmmaking. I feel, with Lee's expanded success with other adaptations, and the emergence of several other filmmakers (including Joss Whedon and his stewardship of 'The Avengers' [2012]), this has continued to be the case.

"At the end of the first Iron Man film, Tony Stark proclaims, 'I am Iron Man,' and we all know it because we've seen the cartoon, read the comics, and by the end of that movie seen the results of his labor. A shiny, red and yellow, ammunition wet dream of a machine. But is it enough to think that Tony Stark is Iron Man just because he created it?" [more]