MARVEL SETS 4 MOVIE RELEASE DATES: Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, Avengers

[UlicBelouve]

As I have read off of comicbookmovie.com (which I cannot link to since I am at work)....

Marvel Studios has the creative license to Iron Man and Hulk, but they also have the creative license to future X-Men titles, future Spiderman titles, the Wolverine movie, and the Magneto movie. They are trying to buy the creative license to the next Fantastic Four, but since FOX had a contract for 3 movies, FOX can technically make one more without Marvel Studios having any control (and we've seen how the first 2 came out).

Likewise, while Sony has rights to Spiderman, Marvel Studios has rights to Spiderman 4. So if Tobey McGuire (hope I got that right) stars in Spiderman 4, then Marvel can use him in other movies if they want.

The goal here is to make the movie world more in-line with the comic world. Superheroes cross over in the comics, and the stories are better that way. Marvel will be the controller for the creative licenses, that way, if a Wolverine movie wants Spiderman to do a cameo (only when Marvel gets rights to Spiderman), they have less need for FOX and Sony to come to an agreement. Marvel Studios will control both, so they can have Tobey show up as Spiderman in a Wolverine movie, or Hugh Jackman show up in one of the next Spiderman movies.

Likewise, with Hulk and Iron Man as examples, if they want to have Iron Man show up in his Hulkbuster armor, they can do that storyline, and have Ed Norton as the Hulk, and RDJ as Iron Man. And THAT is what Marvel thinks will boost sales, and I agree.

This releases the "lock" on superhero team-ups. DC suffers this, in that they will likely not be able to do a Batman-Superman movie, since two different companies own the separate entities. Only way to do it would be with completely different actors too, and even that gets messy. So if DC made a "Studio", and got rights to both Batman and Superman, then they could have the actors from the separate movies star in one movie together.

Marvel Studios is aiming for crossover continuity, which should be a big deal for comic fans. I, for one, am thrilled.