Supervillains in the movies

[G. Wayne]

I was thinking about the Iron Man movie compared to the Dark Knight, and the reasoning that TDK beats IM in the sense that the Joker is a significantly more noteworthy villain than Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger. Now granted a movie interpretation of the character could be a change for the better from the comics, but if you ask me, the Mandarin isn't that much better of an option for a memorable villain. And a superhero is defined by his villains, or something like that. And we have a really strong start for Tony Stark with Robert Downey Jr.

I got to thinking about the rest of Iron Man's rogues gallery, and the best option I could think of for a show-stealer was Dr. Doom. (Yeah there's the “iconic” Richards/Doom rivalry, just stick with me here on this.) They could do a light re-boot of the character to get him away from the Doom in the FF movies, and get him ready to be a possible major player for future Avengers movies.

But that also brought another thing to mind. When Marvel sold off the movie rights to properties like Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, is it known what exactly was packaged with them? As far as supporting characters and the villains they could use, like for the Fantastic Four, would the deal just have been to use Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben, and first come first serve with anyone else? Would Doom have been included in that deal? I read somewhere that there are no current plans for FF 3 which might render it a moot point anyway, but how did those rights selling deals work?

[Naetnalta]

Just because Dr. Doom is Marvel's best villain doesn't mean they should use him as Marvel's main villain in movies. He's first and foremost a Fantastic Four villain. I'm sure he's included in the deal with the Fantastic Four, along with villains like Mole Man and Annihilus. After Silver Surfer, I'm wondering if Black Panther went along with the Fantastic Four deal, since he also started out in their comics.

I think Mandarin would be the best villain for Iron Man, although a lot is lost by the fact that the Cold War is over. There is no more "Iron Curtain". No more missile battles. The movie origin involves the Middle East, not Asia. One good thing that ties Iron Man and Mandarin together poetically is that Mandarin descends from Genghis Khan, whose birthname means "iron worker".

One drawback is that their origins are not intertwined: super-technology vs. alien magic, but the Venom symbiote was a space alien in "Spider-man 3", which surprised me that they didn't change Venom's origin. I hated how the Fantastic Four movie forced Dr. Doom into the Fantastic Four's origin. I generally don't like when movies connect characters' origins like that. The Joker and Two-Face in "The Dark Knight" I can accept because it was done well. The Joker killing Batman's parents and Two-Face killing Robin's family, not really.

[Toku King]

They could do a fantastic adaption on "Enter The Mandarin" with some updates and drastic changes, in which they could add in Spymaster to replace Scarecrow, replace Happy Hogan with Rhodey, make Mandarin more modern, take out the son parts, add in "Demon In A Bottle", have Anton Venko as a Stark Industries emloyee(leading to a sequel featuring Crimson Dynamo), and so on.

[MichaelChen]

I think Mandarin would be the best villain for Iron Man, although a lot is lost by the fact that the Cold War is over. There is no more "Iron Curtain". No more missile battles. The movie origin involves the Middle East, not Asia. One good thing that ties Iron Man and Mandarin together poetically is that Mandarin descends from Genghis Khan, whose birthname means "iron worker".



I actually think Mandarin works better post cold war. He was always a terrorist in the old stories, though not called such. He wanted to bring down both sides. Really he was the enemy of civilization, not the west in particular.

[Ronald Bryan]

I thought Iron Man's best villain for the next movie would be a bottle of whiskey. Imagine the climactic show down at the end of the movie!

[Toku King]

I thought Iron Man's best villain for the next movie would be a bottle of whiskey. Imagine the climactic show down at the end of the movie!

I can just see Iron Man fighting a radioactive beer bottle.

[BYC]

A montage of Tony and the bottle training for the showdown would be epic.

[Wolf-Man]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/Duff_Man.png

[Monty_Cristo]

changing the villain isn't the solution, imo. and i, personally, don't see a problem at all with Iron Man. it's less and issue of Dark Knight being "better" and more of it being drastically different from other comic book film adaptations. Batman, by his very nature, is a darker character. Bruce is no longer a regular guy. he's progressed from urban legend to larger than life symbol within the confines of his movie environment. Tony Stark isn't playing at being a millionaire playboy. it's not an act. being Iron Man is his hobby; not a mission (within the movie). that gives the movie a naturally lighter tone. so why shoehorn a Joker-level antagonist into that environment? it's not going to sell more tickets; just turn off the people who enjoyed the first movie. Mandarin's the natural choice for a villain. screw alien science/magic. no one's going to know advanced science from magic anyway. just have Mandarin be a Stark-level prodigy who is demented, convinced that the world belongs to him, and that his own science is "magic." those rings would just be highly advanced/minituarized tech. and you could bring in a big @$$ mechanical beastie to simulate Fin Fang Foom.

[Naetnalta]

MechaFin Fang Foom? I'd rather not have Fin Fang Foom in the movie then.

[Omega Alpha]

So, the only reason why TDK is better than Iron Man is because The Joker is more interesting than Stane? I've heard about simplistic thinking, but that's just on a whole new level...

[Monty_Cristo]

MechaFin Fang Foom? I'd rather not have Fin Fang Foom in the movie then.

http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/1/15921/424512-378796-68620-fin-fang-foom_super_super.jpg

[Toku King]

http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/1/15921/424512-378796-68620-fin-fang-foom_super_super.jpg

That's not Foom.

Fing Fang Foom could either be used as an ancient dragon from a race of mystical monsters, or an alien creature. But he's not a robot.

[BYC]

That's not Foom.

Fing Fang Foom could either be used as an ancient dragon from a race of mystical monsters, or an alien creature. But he's not a robot.
Iron Foom would be hilariously bad. Mandarin building a Mecha-Godzilla robot to fight Iron Man would be mind-bogglingly stupid...but hilarious as well.

[Toku King]

Iron Foom would be hilariously bad. Mandarin building a Mecha-Godzilla robot to fight Iron Man would be mind-bogglingly stupid...but hilarious as well.

I just think that there's no need for it, especially since the stereotypes will be even worse.

[Monty_Cristo]

That's not Foom.

Fing Fang Foom could either be used as an ancient dragon from a race of mystical monsters, or an alien creature. But he's not a robot.

yeah, because that wouldn't be retarded as hell given the set-up in the first movie.

[kalorama]

Don't really see a need for a Cold War connection for th Mandarin. One of the charcters classic traits/motivations was his desire to raise China back to to heights of glory and power it had in the ancient world, before it was "corrupted" by Western influence. Not only does that hook still work today, it might actually work even better today.

[Toku King]

yeah, because that wouldn't be retarded as hell given the set-up in the first movie.

And MechaFoom is better?
At least regular Foom would be loved by comic fans. Everyone would hate MechaFoom.

[jesse_custer]

So, the only reason why TDK is better than Iron Man is because The Joker is more interesting than Stane? I've heard about simplistic thinking, but that's just on a whole new level...

Yeah, it is a bit of an overstatement.

[The Batman]

1) Mecha-Foom might be a bad idea, but MechaGodzilla wa really kind of awesome. Really though, if they treated Mecha-Foom like a Metal Gear and sort of the next development in armour technology they might be able to make it work. Though, at that point, why bother with the Fing Fang Foom name?

2) If we're looking for a giant robot for Iron Man to punch, what about Ultimo (http://www.leaderslair.com/marvelvillains/ultimo.html)?

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/ultimoim1.jpg http://www.leaderslair.com/ironman/ironmanv3-024.jpg

[Monty_Cristo]

1) Mecha-Foom might be a bad idea, but MechaGodzilla wa really kind of awesome. Really though, if they treated Mecha-Foom like a Metal Gear and sort of the next development in armour technology they might be able to make it work. Though, at that point, why bother with the Fing Fang Foom name?

as a nod to fans. why'd they refer to the terrorists as 'rings?' why call the computer 'jarvis?'

[The Batman]

They refered to the terrorists as "the rings" to set up the Mandarin and they called the computer Jarvis as a nod to the fans sure but also because it served, for all intents and purposes, the same function that Jarvis would've in the story.

Foom would just be fanwank.

[G. Wayne]

So, the only reason why TDK is better than Iron Man is because The Joker is more interesting than Stane? I've heard about simplistic thinking, but that's just on a whole new level...

*sigh*

My point, which was lost completely, was comparing Ledger Joker to Obadiah Stane. That was it. Front page answered my other question that everyone glossed over anyway. =-p

A fan asked about Dr. Doom's fate in all brands of media. Feige replied, "The King of Latveria will not be in the Avengers movie, because he's part of the Fox contract. 'Avengers 2' '3' and '4' we may be here seven years down the line, so I can't say."

[The Master Meglomaniac]

*sigh*

My point, which was lost completely, was comparing Ledger Joker to Obadiah Stane. That was it. Front page answered my other question that everyone glossed over anyway. =-p

But that's a silly point, Joker is one of the best written villains and batman naturally has the best rogues gallery in comics. The reasons why Joker is one of the best in the comics, because of his relationship to Batman, Doom has no real relationship with Iron man, do shoe horning him into the iron man movies would not work, they don't have an iconic rivalry.

Besides the movie was far about Tony stark then it was the villain anyway, he made the movie , not Stane. DK is a better film, but its the best super hero film period, so Iron Man not being as good isn't a mark against it.

Plus Stane is more comparable to Luthor instead of Joker and movie Obadiah Stane is way better then movie Lex Luthor.

[Toku King]

DK is a better film.

I'm not so sure about that one. I loved them both, but for different reasons.