MARVEL BEFORE THE MCU

Before the MCU, the rights to its main characters were scattered across different studios, that were developing very different versions of the projects. This is how they could've turned out.

>IRON MAN

YEAR: 1997

STUDIO: 20th Century Fox.

WRITTEN BY: Jeff Vintar & Stan Lee.

PROPOSED DIRECTOR: Quentin Tarantino.

PROPOSED CAST: Nicolas Cage as Tony Stark / Iron Man.

PROPOSED PLOT

>Wealthy businessman Tony Stark is shot by a smart bullet of his own design and crawls into the Redeemer, a prototype suit of armor designed to help firemen extract victims from wreckage, so its life support system can treat his injuries. Aided by Virginia "Pepper" Potts, a member of the board of directors of Stark Industries, Stark uncovers board member Jeremy Bland as the mastermind behind his failed assassination, and learns that Bland is in cahoots of Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM), an international crime syndicate that aspires to use Stark's technology to create living weapons.

>Stark weaponizes the Redeemer to stand against AIM's enforcers Whiplash, Inferno and Virus and prevent their employer, M.O.D.O.K. (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing), from corrupting his creations, in the process forging an heroic legacy as Iron Man.

>IRON MAN

YEAR: 2000

STUDIO: New Line Cinema.

WRITTEN BY: Tim McCanlies; Terry Rossio & Ted Elliot.

PROPOSED DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon.

PROPOSED CAST: None.

PROPOSED PLOT

>Weapons manufacturer Tony Stark is framed for supplying weapons to terrorists by his business rival Justin Hammer, who then masterminds an attempt on Stark's life by sabotaging his private plane in order to seize control of Stark Industries and its groundbreaking Repulsor technology. Stark, however, survives due to an advanced armored suit and adopts the identity of Iron Man to prove his innocence and prevent Hammer from providing terrorists with Repulsor-based weapons that could change the landscape of modern warfare.

>While facing Hammer, Stark must also evade elite counter-terrorism operative Nick Fury, who is deployed by the United States government to stop him under the belief he's a terrorist. Once it becomes clear that Hammer is the true enemy, Fury joins Stark's efforts to stop him, and is later assigned by the President to headline a new organization codenamed "S.H.I.E.L.D.", while Stark reclaims Stark Industries and sets out to build a better world.

>IRON MAN

YEAR: 2004

STUDIO: New Line Cinema.

WRITTEN BY: David Hayter; Al Gough & Miles Miller.

PROPOSED DIRECTOR: Nick Cassavetes.

PROPOSED CAST: Tom Cruise as Tony Stark / Iron Man; Famke Janssen as Bethany Cabe; Jamie Foxx as James Rhodes; George Clooney as Nick Fury.

PROPOSED PLOT

>Billionaire inventor Tony Stark uncovers evidence that his family's company, Stark Industries, is selling weapons to terrorists. After approaching his father Howard Stark with his concerns, Tony is severely injured when his car is sabotaged and survives due to an armored suit, which he weaponizes with help from his chief of security Bethany Cabe and his best friend, Colonel James Rhodes. Stark then sets out to uncover the mastermind behind the attempt on his life, while also evading the shadowy espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. commanded by Nick Fury, who is on his trail to seize his technology.

>Stark uncovers evidence that Howard is both responsible for selling the weapons to terrorists and ordering the hit on him. Howard reverse-engineers Tony's technology to build a heavily-armed suit for himself, the War Machine. After Cabe, with whom Tony had developed a relationship, is caught in the crossfire, Tony and Howard have a final battle which culminates with Tony being forced to kill his father. Tony then reclaims Stark Industries and brokers a treaty with Fury to assist S.H.I.E.L.D. while secretly using their resources to locate and destroys the caches of Stark weapons scattered across the globe as the armored Avenger, Iron Man.

>THOR

YEAR: 2007

WRITTEN BY: Mark Protosevich.

PROPOSED DIRECTOR: Matthew Vaughn.

PROPOSED CAST: Daniel Craig as Thor; Kevin McKidd as Elric.

PROPOSED PLOT

>Thor, God of Thunder, travels to Svartalfheim with his men to acquire weapons from Dwarf-King Ivaldi for Asgard's ongoing war with Jotunheim. They end up being ambushed by the Frost Giants, and Thor's brother Loki learns he is one of them, while Ivaldi decides to forge Thor a hammer in appreciation of Thor's bravery.

>Aided by the sorceress Karnilla, Loki discovers that he is the son of Ymir, king of Frost Giants, who was murdered by Odin in a bid to expand Asgard's territory. Infuriated, Loki manipulates Thor into believing that their mentor, Balder, is conspiring to usurp the throne. When Ivaldi arrives to deliver Mjolnir, Thor is overcome by its power and kills Balder, causing Odin to banish him to Midgard, where Thor becomes a slave in a viking village and befriends local farmer Elric and his family. The strain causes Odin to go into Odinsleep, and Loki replaces him as a ruler of Asgard, conspiring with his siblings Thrym and Ram to destroy Asgard. To prevent Thor from retrieving Mjolnir, which has been sent to Earth by Ivaldi, suspicious of Loki's treachery, Loki awakens Malekith, the Dark Elf, and sends him to Midgard to destroy Thor.

>Upon learning of Loki's crimes, Thor's lover Lady Sif and the Warriors Three Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun travel to Midgard with help from Sif's father, Heimdall, and help Thor locate Mjolnir, which he retrieves while Elric sacrifices himself to protect him from Malekith. Thor then destroys Malekith and returns to Asgard, challenging Thrym to a battle in Loki's name. Once Thrym is beaten, the Frost Giants retreat and Loki flees to Earth with a pregnant Karnilla to plan the Ragnarok. Thor earns Odin's forgiveness and welcomes Elric into Vahalla, and declares that Midgard will henceforth be under his protection.

Honestly much better than the lame rehashed shit we got with Disney.

>THE INCREDIBLE HULK

YEAR: 1999

WRITTEN BY: Jonathan Hensleight.

PROPOSED DIRECTOR: Joe Johnston.

PROPOSED CAST: David Duchovny as Bruce Banner; Gregory Sporleder as Novak, Lynn "Red" Williams as Jenkins.

PROPOSED PLOT

>Dr. Bruce Banner and his girlfriend, Betty Ross, are scientists employed by her father, General Thaddeus Ross, to create weapons for the United States government. Bruce has anger management issues due to a traumatic childhood in the hands of his abusive father, Brian Banner, and is conducting genetic experiments on three death row inmates - Novak, Jenkins and Slater - selected by General Ross, splicing their DNA with insect DNA.

>The leader of the criminals, Novak, masterminds a riot and, in the chaos, Bruce is caught in the explosion of an experimental gamma bomb and turned into a monstrous green creature known as "The Hulk", which General Ross becomes obsessed with capturing. Aided by Betty, Bruce initially attempts to leave, but is forced to come to terms with the monster within to save New York City when Novak and his men, turned into monsters by the gamma bomb explosion, begin wreaking havoc in the city.

>BLACK WIDOW

YEAR: 2005

WRITTEN BY: David Hayter.

PROPOSED DIRECTOR: David Hayter.

PROPOSED CAST: Milla Jovovich as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow.

PROPOSED PLOT

>During the Cold War, Natasha Romanoff, the adoptive daughter of KGB operative Ivan Petrovich, is conscripted to the Red Room by Ivan's superior, Sergei Konslov, and genetically enhanced to become a supersoldier. Blaming Ivan for her predicament, Natasha leaves him and develops a relationship with another Red Room operative, Alexei Shostakov. Once the Cold War ends, the Red Room is decommissioned, and Alexei kills the other operatives on Konslov's behalf, including Ivan, but Natasha manages to escape to the United States.

>Years later, Natasha is located by Alexei and his men, and her friend Freddy, an undercover CIA operative, reveals that Konslov is alive and has placed a bounty on her head. Aided by seasoned agent Anton Sweetwater, Natasha travels to Kazakhstan to kill Konslov, who has become a warlord by selling soviet nuclear weapons. However, she is betrayed by Sweetwater, who is killed in the process, and captured by Alexei and Konslov, who plan to reverse-engineer her DNA to create new Black Widows for Freddy, who lied to Natasha in order to lure her into a trap. Ivan, who survived Alexei's attack, returns and sacrifices himself to rescue her. Natasha then rescues Konslov's test subjects, and kills Alexei and Konslov. Freddy bargains to secure that the women captured by Konslov are given new lives in America, and recruits Natasha to become a contract operative for the CIA under his command, and she accepts, embracing the identity of "Black Widow".

Informative.

>there could've been an entire universe centred around Blade
we're in the wrong timeline

Iron Man is a Paramount movie.
Disney only bought into it when The Avengers was coming out.

Blade sucks

is that the one involving the toaster?

BEFORE KEVIN FEIGE
>films were actually decent
>used film and awful digital with shitty colour correction
>style was a necessity
>humour worked on good chemistry between actors
AFTER KEVIN FEIGE
>DUDE QUIPS LMAO
>HOW MANY CAN WE RELEASE A YEAR. MORE!!
>It looks and feels like a saturday morning cartoon? SO FUCKING WHAT THE GOYIM WILL STILL FLOCK OPENING NIGHT

fuck you ur probably a vampire

Why don't they shoot his face?

David Hayter?

>black man in a hoodie unphased by bullets
Powerful......simply powerful

he did write the first 2 X-men movies, aka the good ones.

Kevin Feige was a mistake.

First 2 X-Men movies?

...

is this from the first movie

>cage
Shit nigga, he was supposed to play Superman too.

>Duchovny as Banner
That would have been so fucking awful.

The magic Disney touch.