The Incredible Hulk is coming out at about the same time as I’m writing this thing. I’ve got super-heroes on the brain once again.
Marvel’s word of the moment is cross-pollination. Everyone, myself included, has apparently jumped on that bandwagon and accepted the term. When Tony Stark shows up in The Incredible Hulk, they (and we) call it “cross-pollination of franchises.” It’s cross-pollination of franchises when Captain America’s shield shows up in Iron Man.
Apparently, Marvel super-heroes are like flowers. Who knew?
Of course, all of this is possible because Marvel Comics has jumped into the movie business with both feet; they now self-produce. This thing allows for the next batch of Marvel flicks to all take place in the same universe. Its something that is commonplace in the world of comics, but much rarer in the world of movies.
In 1987, Alan Moore wrote:
The very first thing that anyone reading a modern horror comic should understand is that there are great economic advantages in being able to prop up an ailing, poor-selling comic book with an appearance by a successful guest star. Consequently, all the comic book stories produced by any given publisher are likely to take place in the same imaginary universe. . . . For those more familiar with conventional literature, try to imagine Dr. Frankenstein kidnapping one of the protagonists of Little Women for his medical experiments, only to find himself subject to the scrutiny of a team-up between Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. I’m sure that both the charms and the overwhelming absurdities of this approach will become immediately apparent. ..
I guess the action movie equivalent to this one universe notion would then be to have John McClane team up with John Rambo to stop the super evil villainy of Mr. Blond, Hannibal Lector and Brad Wesley from Roadhouse.
I’d see that thing.
It’s not to say that this Marvel comics movie “cross-pollination” is unprecedented. The classic Universal monsters started bumping into each other as early as 1943’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman. This film served as their first sequel to The Wolf Man and their FOURTH sequel to Frankenstein.
The next year, Universal threw Dracula into the mix and featured all three monsters in House of Frankenstein. The film dips in quality from Frankenstein meets the Wolfman, which itself is inferior to the originals of each of those franchises. The year after that they cranked out House of Dracula, a mostly redundant film featuring the same monsters as House of Frankenstein. Finally, they completed the trip to self parody in 1948 with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Cross-pollination has pretty much been relegated to b-horror pictures since then. The Demonic Toys have met both Dollman and Toulon’s puppets of Puppetmaster “fame”. Freddy Kreuger has battled Jason Vorhees. Predators have hunted Aliens.
Sadly, Ash has yet to have met the Tall Man.
At any rate, what Marvel is doing that does seem unique is planned cross-pollination. From the get-go we see evidence of Captain America in the Iron Man-iverse, and Iron Man in the Hulk-iverse. When Aliens meet Predators, or Jason meets Freddy, or Puppets meet Toys, it’s a ret-con job. Previous cross-pollinated films are, at worst, acts of desperation to liven up mostly dead franchises. At best, these things are fan-fiction turned canon.
A couple of years from now, Marvel isn’t going to say, “What else can we do with Iron Man? I know, let’s have him meet Thor!” Marvel is going in and saying, “Pretty soon, you’ll get to see all these characters together. We’re just going to introduce them first in their own movies.” It’s a build-up to a team-up. Marvel is actually planning ahead, a rare feat in the entertainment business as fans of professional wrestling can tell you.
Even if everything fails and the movies sag in quality, you kind of have to feel good for Marvel Comics. I mean, 15 years ago what was the best movie starring a Marvel super-hero? Honestly, my money would be on Marvel’s previous attempts at super-hero team-ups. I am naturally talking about the TV-movies The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (featuring a half-assed attempt at Daredevil) and The Incredible Hulk Returns (featuring a half-assed attempt at Thor).
It’s telling isn’t it? Twenty years ago, you got the guy from Street Hawk playing a sidekickish Daredevil in a TV movie where no one could be bothered to put Daredevil in a red suit with horns. That was as good as it got. Five years ago, you get an 80 million dollar Daredevil feature film with a big name cast that brings in 100 million dollars at the box office and its considered a turd.
In the end, I just hope that new Hulk doesn’t suck a big green dick.
