Interview with Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige on building the Marvel movie machine

[GreenScar]

Personally I am so happy that Avi left and Kevin took over when Marvel Studios was created. From the interview it sounds as though it's a learning curve (upstarting a studio) that he feels they are getting a handle on. If your a fan of Marvel, I think we're in good hands. Check out the interview.

JM: You have a Runaways flick in the works, which is about as far afield as Marvel has ever strayed from superheroes in movies. Is Marvel looking to broaden its film reach? Might we one day see a Marvel flick that has nothing to do with superheroes?

KF: I’d argue that the term “superhero” is much too broadly used. Spider-Man, that’s a superhero movie without a doubt. But I’m not sure that Hulk is a superhero movie. I’m not sure that Iron Man is a superhero movie. I think towards the end of the movie, Iron Man pretends to be a superhero—he’s entertained by that notion. I think X-Men is a sci-fi movie.

But one of the things that I’m proud of our accomplishing over the years and want to continue to focus on in the upcoming years is expanding the definition of what a Marvel movie is and what it can be. And in that, we’ll help expand the definition of what a “comic book” movie is. So absolutely, you’ll see movies that are not just people running into alleys and opening their shirts and putting on a mask. Runaways is a great example of that. It’s a great concept, and one of the best original concepts to come out of publishing in...what? Easily one of the best of the last 5-6 years.

[Blu Titan]

An interesting read. It is true that the Hulk in not a superhero. "True" superheroes are Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Captain America. Characters are all part of an imaginary universe so any classification is due to the vision that the artists had when they created a particular character.

[EricJ]

Stan Lee once outlined Marvel guidelines for young writers on what a superhero HAS to have:
1) An Origin, usually caused by some traumatic Event
2) A motivational Reason for superhero-ing, as a result of the event changing his entire outlook in favor of self-sacrifice (eg. Ben Parker, Bruce Wayne's parents)
3) Clearly outlined powers
4) Clearly outlined limitations (eg. Kryptonite, non-bulletproof)
5) A secret identity securely rooted in a day-to-day "normal" existence (eg. Clark Kent, Peter Parker)
6) A social life to attach his "human" side to (eg. Lois Lane, MJ) and give him someone to personally protect in a crisis,
7) A Villain who strikes at the hero's main motivation for heroism (eg. Magneto for social intolerance, the Joker for civic anarchy, the Ironmonger selling weapons for profit), and who may or may not have been instrumental in the hero's origin

Any score above five officially qualifies the Hulk as a superhero. And the X-Men, Iron Man, Darkman, and (lame gay/anarchist leanings aside) V for Vendetta.
Methinks the Marvel producer was just trying to be pretentious, get the subject off of "the Avengers-movie machine", and get out of Batman's shadow for the moment