Do you have a dream of appearing in a Marvel Studios film? Are you a big fan of Captain America? And do you have well more than $1,600 in expendable funds in your bank account? Then you are in luck, because your dreams quite possibly might come true.

There is an auction up on charity site, Charity Buzz, which will allow a lucky winner and a friend of his or her choosing the opportunity to win a walk-on role on Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The auction will benefit Toluca Baseball, the little league baseball organization based out of Toluca Lake, California.

The roles are non-speaking and are not guaranteed to make it into the final cut of the film. The walk on roles come with a set visit (naturally) and a meet and greet with whatever cast members are filming during the time of your visit (which can be scheduled from April 2 to June 30, 2013). You will also be responsible for your own airfare, transportation and lodging.

As of this writing, there is 20 days left to the auction and the highest bid on the site is for $1,600. However, the estimated value of the package is $10,000. so don’t expect the price to stay that low for very long.

This auction calls to mind another time when ordinary folk like you an me got the opportunity to share the spotlight with Cap. If you were reading comics back in 1985, then you might remember the ad to the left. Yes, Marvel did an open cattle call for cast members for the Captain America musical. While the current auction is open to anyone with sufficient funds to bid, as you can see, the 1985 musical only wanted tween girls who could act, sing and dance.

As we all know, the Captain America musical ran for a year and a half, won 5 Tony Awards and 7 Drama Desk trophies, and is currently being revived on Broadway. Wait. Sorry, that’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which opened in December of 1985. The Cap musical never made it into production. I guess people shied away from the prospect of investing $4 million in a show where Cap’s biggest foe would be middle age (I am not kidding).

In a multi-part series, Comic Book Film Editor William Gatevackes will be tracing the history of comic book movies from the earliest days of the film serials to today’s big blockbusters and beyond. Along with the history lesson, Bill will be covering some of the most prominent comic book films over the years and why they were so special. This time, we go back to a time when Marvel wasn’t the biggest name in comic book films. It wasn’t even a name.

Nowadays, Marvel Comics is leading the way when it comes to comic book adaptations hitting the big screen, with a number of their comics being made into successful films. DC Comics isn’t having the same kind of luck, as any attempt at a comic book franchise outside of Batman doesn’t garner much success.

But it wasn’t always this way. From the 1970s to the 1990s, DC ruled the cinematic roost starting with the Superman franchise and then the first time around with Batman. Marvel, on the other hand, well, they weren’t having any luck at all.

To be fair, DC’s case was helped by the fact that they were owned by a major movie studio, Warner Brothers. Marvel, on the other hand, was in a state of disarray. How bad was it? According to Jim Shooter, Marvel’s licensing people during the early 80s thought the Amazing Spider-Man and the Spectacular Spider-Man were two different characters and licensed them for two separate films.

One of those licenses might have been to Cannon Films, who picked up the rights because the studio thought that a film about a man who transforms into a giant tarantula might make a pretty good horror flick (yes, Cannon thought Spider-Man was a man who morphed into a spider. I’ll talk about this more when we get to the Spider-Man films).

The closest Marvel got to a feature film in the early 80s was a Dazzler feature, which got its start as an aborted co-branding attempt with Casablanca Records meant to capitalize on the disco trend. The character would be created for the comics and be used as an alias for a real disco singer. Problems at Casablanca Records caused that idea to fall to the wayside, but a feature film proposal sprung from it and briefly interested Bo Derek as the lead. Eventually, that fell apart, too.

In 1986, the year when Marvel’s first property to hit the big screen, Howard the Duck, arrived in theaters,  Marvel was purchased by New World Pictures. New World was a smaller studio, known for B-Movies such as Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, Children of the Corn, Tuff Turf, C.H.U.D. and many more. Not an impressive resume, but gave hope that more Marvel heroes would make it to the big screen. New World Pictures did help one character make it to the big screen—The Punisher, but unfortunately only overseas.

The Punisher was set to join Batman on the silver screen in the summer of 1989. It even shared a bit of controversy over the casting of Swedish Dolph Lundgren as Frank Castle. Several changes were made to the comic book origin—Castle has two daughters , not a son and a daughter, he was a police detective and not a military man, a car bomb does his family in, not assassins, and he never wore a white skull on his chest.

The film was pretty much universally panned, although I seem to recall that it was no better or no worse than the other shoot ‘em ups of the day. It quite possibly could have done very well in the U.S. if it was released here, but, unfortunately, financial troubles at New World cancelled its stateside release.

This could have been considered the halcyon days of this period for both Marvel and Marvel Films, as it only went downhill from here.  New World Pictures sold Marvel to the Andrews Group in 1989, and the machinations of that owner almost destroyed the comic company financially. New World Pictures would not make another Marvel film.

21st Century Film Corporation would, however. As a matter of fact, they were supposed to make two. The company, a subsidiary of Cannon Films known primarily for The Phantom of the Opera: The Motion Picture, starring Robert Englund, Eraserhead and the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead, acquired the rights to make films based on Spider-Man and Captain America. They would only film the latter, and that film would be 1990’s Captain America.

The film had its moments, but it had its problems, too. The Red Skull was made Italian. I have no idea why. Indiana Jones was fighting Nazis just the year before and made millions doing it. The suit was made by the same people who made the suits for Batman, and looked good except for the rubber ears they put on the outfit. The film does somewhat stay true to Cap’s origin and the “man out of time” aspects of his mythos, but the plot, which involves an American president being targeted for assassination by the military industrial complex because of his environmental platform was a bit too out there even for a conspiracy nut like me.

Captain America, like The Punisher, was released overseas but went straight to video in the States. That, however, was better than our next Marvel film, which was never released anywhere—and was never meant to.  That film was the now legendary 1994 version of The Fantastic Four.

The tale of the first Fantastic Four film is a tragedy. It starts in 1992. Neue Constantin Films owned the rights to make a FF film and was trying to raise the $40 million dollars for a feature with no luck. The rights were set to expire at the end of the year and it was clear that Marvel was not going to let Constantin Films renew their option on them. There was a loophole in the rights issue—if Constantin was able to get a FF film in production by New Year’s Eve, 1992, their claims to the rights would automatically be renewed (Sony and Fox currently hold a similar agreement with the Spider-Man (Sony) and X-Men and, coincidentally, Fantastic Four (Fox) rights, which is why we keep getting origins and reboots on those franchises).

Constantin entered into an agreement with B-movie legend Roger Corman and his production company, Concorde Pictures, to make a quick, low-budget Fantastic Four film. The budget was an unbelievably low $1.4 million dollars.

Just to put that figure into perspective, the Dolph Lundgren Punisher film, which was shot five years prior and didn’t have anywhere near the special effects shots that a good FF film should have, cost $9 million to make.

This resulted in some of the corniest special effects you’d ever want to see. Most of the budget, it seems, was sunk into the Thing costume, which looks halfway decent. Johnny Storm only flames on fully at the end of the film. And the stretching effects for Reed were limited primarily to his arms and legs and then the effect was essentially putting a glove on a stick and waving it around. I’m not kidding.

That being said, the cast and crew, who were operating under the belief that the film was going to be released, gave their all to try and make the film a faithful adaptation of the comic using the limited resources they had. Several of the actors put up their own money to help promote the film and get a big time premiere at the Mall of America. But it was all for naught. The film would never be shown, anywhere, anytime.  

There are two schools of thought over why the film was not released. One was that Constantin never intended to release the film at all, and essentially lied to all parties involved in the production just so the film could be made. Another says that Avi Arad, who would become head of Marvel Studios two years after the film was due to be released and helped usher in the success Marvel has had in recent years, paid Constantin and Concorde to shelve the movie because he didn’t want such a cheap production to taint the brand. Regardless, the film was never released either here or abroad, and only exists in a popular bootleg version you can find at most comic book conventions.

All three of these films have been rebooted, sometimes more than once, by Marvel in recent years. But these versions still stand as a reminder of a time when Marvel didn’t have the world of Hollywood all figured out.

The 1990s beckon, and there’s a lot to cover. But first, we’ll take a look at the films made from international comics, starting with Jane Fonda’s most famous nude scene and the Oscar nominated adaptation of the Iranian revolution.

FACT!: The Avengers has just topped the box office charts for the third week in a row. It has made over $1 billion worldwide and almost half that ($457 million) in the U.S. alone. It currently stands as the fourth highest grossing film of all-time, and has a shot of overtaking Avatar for the top spot.

FACT!: Jack Kirby had a hand in creating many of the characters and concepts in the film–Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Loki, Hulk, the Tesseract/Cosmic Cube, Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D., and The Avengers as a team.

FACT!: Many people who have seen The Avengers have no idea who Jack Kirby is, let alone how much he contributed to the original comics the film was based on.

These three facts have come together to shed new light on an old and very polarizing issue in the world of comics–Marvel Comics’ history of poor treatment of Jack Kirby. Longtime Kirby supporters are using the new found exposure Kirby’s co-creations are getting on the silver screen to press once again that their idol gets the respect that he deserves. Comic creators such as Steve Bissette and James Sturm have advocating boycotts of Marvel products. Journalist David Brothers has wrote eloquently about his decision to give up on Marvel over this matter (and DC for their treatment of Alan Moore as well). Fans have started a petition to try and convince Marvel to give Kirby the credit and royalties they think he deserves. And comic creator Roger Langridge has vowed never to work for Marvel again.

Does Kirby deserve more respect? In the world of comic books, no, only because he already has respect in droves.  He was given the title “King” for a reason. Outside of the world of comics is a different story, because many casual fans might not know the depth of the contributions Kirby has made to Marvel Comics.

So, what did Jack Kirby do for Marvel? Well, he defined its look. He would provide up to 130 pages of artwork a month during the early years of Marvel, artwork that would appear in around 80% of the titles Marvel published at the time. His art style became the Marvel house are style, as Kirby was called on to train new artists joining the company, such as John Buscema, how to draw as dynamically as him.

And his look was diametrically different than anything else on comic book stands. Even though by then he was a 20-year veteran in the industry, his work on the Marvel books were fresh and original. Unlike DC’s house style where the characters looked porcelain and static, Kirby’s figures almost leaped off the page. His characters had character.

And the amount of intellectual property he a hand in creating is legendary.  However, how big a hand he had in their creation is a contentious point in this controversy.

Stan Lee is listed as a writer/editor on all those early Marvel books Kirby worked on. As such, when Marvel Comics became a media sensation in the 60s and 70s, they came to Stan Lee as the creative force behind the books. They looked no farther than the credits box and ran with the idea that Stan Lee was the auteur behind the comics and Jack Kirby was some guy hired to draw Lee’s genius words.

A bitter Kirby later in his life, after decades living in Lee’s shadow, would continually diminish Lee’s role in the partnership, including a notorious 1990 interview with the Comics Journal where Kirby took complete credit for Marvel’s output during that era. “Stan Lee and I never collaborated on anything!” Kirby said in that interview. ”I’ve never seen Stan Lee write anything. I used to write the stories just like I always did.”

While there are many that believe that Kirby was the sole creative influence behind the Marvel era of books, others believe a shared collaboration was closer to the truth. Lee has said in that he had a unique working relationship with Kirby in the sense that he didn’t have to write a full synopsis  of the plot for Kirby. All he had to do was call him on the phone, speak briefly about what he wanted–a sentence or a paragraph at most–and Kirby would run with it. Lee would come in later, add dialogue, and a masterpiece was born.

This is the version of the partnership that I subscribe to. It might not have been a 50/50 partnership between the two. It might have been 20% Lee/80% Kirby, with the scale sliding from issue to issue, story arc to story arc. But I believe it definitely wasn’t 100% Kirby or 100% Lee. That’s just not how the world of comic books usually work.

But Lee has often times become the focus of rage from Kirby supporters, a practice that becomes more and more unctuous as the years go by. Lee is an easy target, mainly due to genetics–first in the fact that he was the cousin of Marvel’s original publisher Martin Goodman, therefore allowing him an entry into the company and a meteoric rise to Editor-in-Chief during the 40s, second due to him outliving Kirby, meaning he is allowed to reap in the success of the partnership with cameos and media interviews and such. Lee has become the ipso facto face of Marvel Comics. If you are one that believes Kirby did everything and Lee contributed nothing, this would incense you. And you might feel justified in venting your animosity in Lee’s direction.

But Lee wasn’t the one at Marvel who promised Kirby (and Amazing Spider-Man artist Steve Ditko) that he would get a percentage of merchandise then never follow through. That was Martin Goodman. It wasn’t Lee that threatened to slash Kirby’s pay rate when he was doing the lion’s share of the work at Marvel. That was Goodman too. And Stan was in Hollywood by the time Marvel held Kirby’s artwork hostage in the late 1970′s to mid 1980s.

But even if you think Stan Lee willingly and maliciously lied about his involvement in the creation of the Marvel Universe just to keep Jack Kirby down, there has to be some point when the noble quest to gain a sense of justice for Jack by calling out your idol’s enemy turns into you bullying a frail 89-year-old man. Take for instance this snippet from an interview of Lee by Erik Larnick of Moviefone during a press junket for a documentary on Lee called With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story:

Fans of Jack Kirby are concerned that his name appears nowhere on the credits of “The Avengers.”  What’s your take on their concern? I don’t know how to answer that because in what way would his name appear?

His name isn’t mentioned anywhere in the film production as a co-creator. Well it’s mentioned in every comic book; it says “By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.”

But it doesn’t appear for the film itself; and his fans feel he should get that recognition, with the movie exposing his work to a whole new audience.  I know, but you’re talking to the wrong guy because I have nothing to do with the credits on the movies. I’m credited as one of the executive producers because that’s in my contract. But Jack was not an executive producer. So I don’t know what he’d be credited as. Again I know nothing about that, I have nothing to do with the movie’s credits. You’d have to talk to whoever is the producer of the movie. Is there anything you want to ask me about the documentary because I thought that’s what I was supposed to be talking about.

This exchange compelled Heidi MacDonald over at The Beat, a journalist I admire and respect, to ask “Has the fan press suddenly GROWN a pair? Or have they just figured out that controversy sells?” I’d say the later. While it’s arguable that Moviefone, an offshoot of AOL, can be considered “fan press,” asking these questions is not an act of bravery, it’s an act of chicanery. This is not rightfully calling Lee on the carpet for supposed mistreatment of Kirby. This is ambushing an octogenarian with something specific he has no control over, and passing off his reply as him evading the question. And not to right any sort of wrongs either, but to gain site hits (which is why the snippet was released a week  before the actual article). The real kicker is that Kirby’s name is in the credits for The Avengers, something Larnick would have found out if he asked a studio flack or someone with more more than a ceremonial connection to the film.

If you are looking for an article that asks the questions Larnick was trying to ask, but does it in a more journalistic way–with a juicer pull quote–I recommend Alex Pappademas’ interview, most likely taken on the same press junket, over at Grantland.

Once again, I’m not saying that Jack Kirby deserves less credit than Stan Lee or vice versa. I’m saying that attacking the person the general public sees as “that cute old man with the funny cameos”  is no way to gain the mainstream respect Jack Kirby should rightfully have. If you are looking for fairness, you have to be fair first.

Welcome to our Marvel Cinematic Universe Timeline 2.0. In it, we have tried to construct as definitive as possible timeline for all of Marvel Studio’s interconnected films. In updating from our previous attempt, we’ve also incorporated a number of comics that Marvel have established as canon and once again tried to extrapolate where things fit in when concrete clues weren’t available.

While many historical dates have been derived from various documents and newspapers glimpsed in the films, the dates for the modern section all spread outward from the May 1-2, 2010 running of the Historic Grand Prix Of Monaco as seen in Iron Man 2 and are extrapolated from internal evidence and dialogue. The comic Fury’s Big Week collapses many of the events of Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk and Thor into a tighter time frame than I had envisioned in version 1.0.

Dating for The Avengers stems from the museum reception that Loki attacks where the banners in the background giving the dates of the exhibition as May 4 through October 11. I am speculating that the reception is an opening night affair. Some promotional shots featured computer screens with the visible date of 12/2/12. However,  in an email with one of the graphic designers who created the screens he stated that the date was just a placeholder and was removed for the film itself.

For further information on canonicity of sources and a key to sources used see the notes at the end. Where exact dating for sequences have proven to be impossible, I’ve gone with my best guess.

Going by the cosmology established by Marvel Comics for their fictional multiverse, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is designated Earth-1999999. (The main Marvel Comics universe is known as Earth-616 while their Ultimates universe is Earth-1610 and the Marvel Zombies universe is Earth-2149.)

The Time Line

965 AD – Armed with the powerful Casket of Ancient Winters, the frost giants of Jotunheim attempt to conquer Midgard/Earth. Their invasion point in Tonsberg, Norway becomes the site of an epic battle as Asgard’s ruler Odin leads an army to repeal the invasion. Odin and his forces push the frost giants back to Jotunheim where the AllFather discovers an abandoned frost giant infant whom he adopts, names Loki and raises as his own alongside his own son Thor. A truce is negotiated between Odin and the frost giant king Laufey.

1918

July 4 – Steve Rogers is born to a young couple in the Hell’s Kitchen section of New York City. His father dies of injuries from being mustard gassed during World War One, leaving his mother to raise the boy. CA:FA

1924

June – Steve Rogers’s mother dies of tuberculosis. Young Steve is placed in an Eighth Avenue orphanage. CA:FA, CA:FV#1

1930

Sept. – A teenage Steve Rogers meets James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes and the pair quickly become best friends. CA:FV#1

1934 – Howard Stark and Abram Erskine briefly meet at an engineering conference in Geneva. CA:FV#3

February – Johann Schmidt meets the newly appointed German Chancellor Adolph Hitler at the Deutsches Operhaus in Berlin where he tries to convince Hitler of his theory that the Norse myths may actually be true. Hitler is intrigued, but Ernest Kaufmann, head of the Sturmabteilung’s (SA) Special Weapons Division, sees Schmidt as a potential rival and threatens him to not approach Hitler again with his theories. One of Hitler’s inner circle, Heinrich Himmler, sees some value in what Schmidt has to offer and befriends him.

June 30 – The beginning of the three-day “Night Of The Long Knives” during which Hitler and the Nazi Party purged Germany of many political enemies including the SA. Himmler allows Schmidt to personally kill Kaufmann. -CA:FV#2

July 1 – Schmidt takes control of the SA’s Weapons Testing Ground at Kummersdorf, an estate near Luckenwalde, south of Berlin, crushing the armed resistance from SA members loyal to Kaufmann. Possessing no strong political convictions but a strong sense of self-preservation, scientist Armin Zola pledges to work for Schmidt. Schmidt stops Zola’s development of an armored exo-skeleton battle suit and redirects the scientist’s energies towards biological enhancement. – CA:FV#2

1935

September 14 – Spurred by rumors that Hitler was to announce draconian anti-Semetic laws, including the revocation of German citizenship for Jews, at the Nazi Party’s annual rally in Nuremberg the next day, biochemist Abraham Erskine attempts to flee Germany with his family. They are stopped at the Swiss boarder by Schmidt who wants Erskine’s work on ways to increase molecular density of cellular fibers through synthetic proteins. In order to ensure Erskine’s cooperation, Schmidt has Erskine’s wife Greta and his children Klaus and Marlene sent to the Dachau concentration camp. Zola is allowed to resume his work on exo-skeleton battle suits and various high-tech weaponry. – CA:FV#2

1937

April 26 – The Bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. While the Nazis were assisting the forces of Generalissimo Franco, Hydra uses the battle to test a prototype tank and exo-skeleton battle suit. (See also February, 1940.) – CA:FV#3

1940

February – Howard Stark demonstrates a prototype vibranium shield at famed Hollywood restaurant Ciro’s to an assemblage of high ranking military guests. Stark is approached by Col. Chester Phillips of Army Intelligence who shows him film footage of Hydra’s weapons testing at the Bombing of Guernica (See April 26, 1937).

Phillips extends to Stark an invitation to join the Strategic Science Reserve (SSR), authorized by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and who specifically asked for Stark to be recruited. At first, Stark declines but changes his mind after an encounter with a Hydra assassination team. – CA:FV#3

November – Schmidt tests Erskine’s formula on himself. The formula reacts with Schmidt on a base level, twisting and discoloring his face into a skull-like, red visage. Two days later, Erskine escapes his captivity with the help of the British Secret Intelligence known only as Agent 13. He is informed that his family had died in a typhoid epidemic that swept through the Dachau concentration camp in 1937 and that Schmidt had deliberately withheld that information from him in order to continue to manipulate him. Erskine is recruited by Howard Stark into the SSR. CA:FV#3

1941

December 7 – The Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor kills thousands of US naval personnel and plunges the country into the conflict that has been slowly sweeping across the globe.

Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes learn of the attack on Pearl Harbor from a radio report while attending an art class in Times Square. Steve wants to enlist into the armed forces immediately, but Barnes states that the rail thin and sickly Steve would never pass the physical. Barnes spends the next two and a half weeks helping Steve get into better physical condition through boxing training, weight lifting and running. CA:FV#1

December 24 – Barnes’ training of Steve fails to pay off as he is still classified by Army doctors as “4-F,” Unfit for Service, when he tries to enlist. Barnes is accepted into the Army and the two men part. (CA:FV#1) Steve will make four more attempts to enlist over the next 18 months.

1942

March – Schmidt traces the location of the Tesseract to Tonsberg, Norway and retrieves it, killing its guardian in the process.

1943

June 14 (Flag Day) – Steve Rogers makes his fifth attempt at enlisting, this time at a Paramus, NJ recruiting station. He is again rejected as 4F status. Later in the day he is reunited with Bucky Barnes, now a sergeant who has been assigned to the 107th Infantry, the same unit that Rogers’s father had fought in during World War One.

That evening the pair head out to the World Exposition in Flushing Meadows, NY. Expositions there include Dr. Phineas Horton’s Synthetic Man and Howard Stark demonstrating his flying car prototype which utilizes “gravitic reversion technology.” Steve makes another attempt at enlisting and meets Dr. Erskine of the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR), who sees Steve’s potential as a candidate for the Super Soldier experiment and certifies Steve 1A, fit for military duty. (CA:TFA 0:10:37)

June 15 – Rogers arrives at Camp Lehigh, New York along with a number of other potential candidates for the SSR’s Super Soldier experiment. Over a period of a week, Col. Phillips and Peggy Carter of the SSR put the candidates through a series of physical tests. Meanwhile, Schmidt and Zola perfect a way to transfer the energy contained in the Tesseract to batteries to power the number of various weapons designed by Zola.

 June 21 – Following a week of evaluation, Erskine picks Rodgers as the subject for the Super Soldier experiment based on his strength of character, knowing that the serum will react to that character. Phillips is not impressed with the choice.

June 22 – Steve Rogers undergoes Erskine’s Super Soldier treatment and undergoes a transformation that increased his strength and stamina. Heinz Kruger, an assassin sent by Schmidt, infiltrates the secret SSR laboratory in Brooklyn where the experiment is being held and kills Erskine. Kruger escapes but is captured by Rogers who is unable to stop Kruger from killing himself rather than be interrogated.

Schmidt separates HYDRA from Third Reich control.

June 23 – New York newspapers carry story of Rogers pursuit of Kruger through Brooklyn, but only identify him as a “Mystery Man.” (CA:TFA 0:47:33)

Rather than risk their only super soldier in combat, the military instead uses Rogers as a public relations tool, having him appear around the country at War Bond rallies and in comic books and a Saturday matinee serial. Wherever he makes an appearance, war bond sales spike. Meanwhile, President Roosevelt orders the SSR to concentrate its efforts on combating HYDRA.

Nov 2 -  The 107th Division goes up against some of Schmidt’s new weapons and sustains heavy casualties.

Nov 3 – Rodgers’ War Bond show has been turned into a USO Tour show and sent overseas, where it is met with derision from soldiers who have actually been through months of grueling combat. When Steve finds out about the casualties sustained by the 107th, he plans an impulsive rescue mission and is aided by Carter and Stark. Flying behind enemy lines into Austria, Steve parachutes near one of HYDRA’s bases, sneaks in and frees 400 captured Allied troops including Barnes, Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan, Gabe Jones, Jim Morita, James Montgomery Falsworth and Jacques Dernier all of whom will go on to form the core members of the Howling Commandos.

Nov 4 – Rogers leads the freed soldiers back with numerous captured examples of  HYDRA weapons technology. Howard Stark designs and builds several prototypes of a gadget-laden new shield for Captain America, but Rogers instead takes a simple circular one made out of the world’s only known sample of vibranium.

1944-1945

Over the majority of the remainder of the war, Steve leads the Howling Commandos on several raids, taking out numerous HYDRA bases.

1945

During a daring raid to capture Hydra scientist Armin Zola, Bucky Barnes falls off a fast moving Alpine railroad car to his apparent death. Zola is captured in the raid and under interrogation informs tha Allies that Schmidt is preparing to a plan to attack major US cities. Rogers, the Howling Commandos and the Army attack Hydra’s last remaining base in the Alps. Schmidt escapes in his large flying wing, but Rogers manages to make it on board as well. The two fight and Schmidt is consumed by the power of the Teseract. Unable to safely land the flying wing with its explosive cargo, Rogers sacrifices his life by crashing the aircraft into the Arctic Ocean. Unexpectedly, the frozen climate interacted with the Super Soldier serum in his blood and placed Rogers in suspended animation.

May 8 – V-E Day. As victory in Europe is celebrated, the Howling Commandos gather for a somber drink to remember their fallen comrade,  Captain Steve Rogers.

Post-World War Two -

Howard Stark continues his work with the SSR and over time it restructures into what is now known as Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division, SHIELD. While searching for Rogers and the crashed Hydra plane, Stark discovers the Tesseract on the floor of the Arctic Ocean.

Speculation – Due to the nature of their work, the SSR continued to remain classified and a cover story was arranged that Stark spent the war years contributing to the Manhattan Project. Did Stark’s study of the recovered Tesseract lead to an insight that allowed him to conceptualize the ARC reactor?

Work continued to replicate Erskine’s Super Soldier formula in what was now known as the Weapons Plus program. One serum developed by a Dr. Reinstein is cryogenically preserved when the program is ultimately discontinued. (IH 0:44:33)

1954 – Stark World Exposition

1963 – Anton Vanko defects to the US and begins work with Howard Stark in developing ARC Reactor technology. (Note – The dates for Anton Vanko’s defection and deportation are taken from Iron Man 2 dialogue. Close inspection of the old newspapers on computer displays and as props show that they place Vanko’s defection and deportation at 1966 and 1967. I’ve chose to ignore the props and go with the dialogue  as canon.)

1964 – Stark Expo held in conjunction with the World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows, Queens, NY

1967 – Stark has Anton Vanko deported as a spy. Vanko returns to Soviet Union but is sent to exile in Siberia for two decades. Presumably he is able to return to Moscow following Premier Gorbachev’s call for democratization in January 1987.

1969

December 18 – Bruce Banner born (IH 0:02:02)

1971

May 10 – Tony Stark born (The Iron Man novelization states that Tony Stark was born in 1973, but in order for young Tony to be the age we briefly see him in Iron Man 2 and to still not be old enough to assume of Stark Industries when Howard Stark dies in 1991, I have moved his birth year to here.)

1974 – Last Stark Expo until 2010. Howard Stark hides secret to perfecting ARC reactor in layout of the Expo for Tony to find. (IM2)

1975 – Tony Stark Builds his first circuit board.

1977 – Tony Stark builds his first engine.

1988 – Tony Stark graduates MIT at age 17 at top of class (IM)

1988 – 1991 -Bruce Banner meets Betty Ross while undergrads at Harvard. They begin dating and at one point volunteer for an experiment involving hallucinogenics.

1991

December 16 – Howard and Maria Stark die in car accident on Long Island. (IM)

Speculation – Was Howard Stark’s death orchestrated/ordered by Obadiah Stane in order to gain control of Stark Industries?

1992 – Tony Stark inherits Stark Industries becoming, at age 21, the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company. (IM) In addition to the company’s numerous military contracts, Stark Industries also does pioneering work in medical technology and in combating world hunger with their Intelli-Crops program. In the process he becomes somewhat of a media celebrity.

2002 – 2006 – In the wake of 9/11 attacks (Speculation), General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross convinces military to revive the BioForce Enhancement Project, aka the “Super Soldier” program, as a subprogram of the Infantry Weapons Development Program. (IH 0:32:15, 0:32:36)

Dr. Bruce Banner joins the group at Culver University in Willowdale, VA in southwestern Virginia working on way to strengthen cellular resistance to radiation, possibly at insistence of girlfriend Dr. Elizabeth “Betty” Ross, daughter of General Ross.

Ross lies to the scientists on the project, informing them that their work will help protect soldiers from depleted uranium. (IHD)

2006

Unspecified Thursday in January – Under the threat of funding cuts, Banner volunteers to test process on himself resulting in the accident that turns him into Hulk. (IH, 0:02:04, partially obscured Washington Times newspaper dateline reading “Friday (Obstructed) 2006”; see also below February 7)

Gamma pulse combined with serum that Betty was developing triggers mutation. Later, gamma pulses somehow stored in Banner’s brain’s amigdala and released during high stress moments will trigger mutation.

Betty is injured and hospitalized. Ross admits to Banner that project is being developed as weapon, not just defense. Banner goes on the run. In the wake of the accident, the military closes the entire lab building for a year and shuts down the entire Bio Tech Force Enhancement project. General Ross secretly holds onto some material, Dr. Betty Ross also secretly holds onto project data, remaining at Culver University as a professor of cellular biology. Betty also ceases speaking with her father (IH 0:44:00), angry at his treatment of Banner.

February 7 – Banner tries to contact Betty one last time, but the email is intercepted by the military. She never receives it. (IH 0:02:41)

At some point during his run from the military, Banner travels through the Dakotas (IH 0:02:06) and towards Idaho where an encounter some State Troopers leads to violence.

May 27-28 – Banner spotted via satellite recon photo in Canada (IH 0:02:10) and Hulk sighted by locals along the US/Canada who mistake him for a “green Sasquatch.” (IH 0:02:27)

The military looses Banner, who eventually arrives in Eastern Nunavut near the Arctic Circle to commit suicide in a place where his body would not be found. The attempt fails.

October 21 – Last sighting of Banner for at least five months (IH 0:02:54, I’m placing Banner’s suicide attempt before this date, or even possibly at this date, as I’m sure that the Hulk’s rampage in the Arctic would have been detected by satellite.)

2007 – 2010

At some point, the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistic Division (SHIELD) is brought in to help Ross and his task force recover Banner. Ross requisitions some high tech weaponry he knows will be required to bring Banner/Hulk down. (IH 0:02:35) Stark Industries sells them Jeep-mounted sonic cannons. (IH 0:02:36) (Is the sonic cannon an off-shoot of the same technology behind the sonic weapon used by Stane to paralyze his Ten Rings collaborators?)

Banner wanders the world avoiding population centers, eventually heading to South America.

2009

May – Following the successful demonstration of the new Jericho missile weapons system outside of Kabul, Afghanistan, the military convoy escorting Stark is attacked by the Ten Rings terrorist group under the leadership of Raza, who were working at least in part on the part of Obadiah Stane. Stark is wounded by Stark Industries-manufactured weapons and is captured.

During his three months of capture, Stark is forced to build version of Jericho for the Ten Rings terrorist group. He instead builds an armored, exo-skeleton battle suit (Iron Man armor, MK I) and uses it to escape. Following his being found by the US military, Stark is taken to Germany where he is checked out by Army doctors and then subjected to debriefings from the CIA, NSA and others.

Late August – Upon his return to the US, Stark buys cheeseburgers and then pulls Stark International out of the weapons business, terminating all contracts with the military. SI stock prices tumble nearly 60 percent. Hammer Industries maneuvers itself to pick up many new contracts.

September – Stark continues to develop a more refined version of the armor he used to escape from the Ten Rings. Stane uses Stark’s change of heart concerning what business he is in as leverage for a takeover attempt. Besides boardroom maneuvering, Stane develops his own high tech battle armor using the remains of the MK I armor recovered by his Ten Rings confederates.

October 17 – Unspecified Hulk incident (See April 1, 2010). Presumably news of Stark’s announcement that he is Iron Man overshadowed any media coverage this may have received.

Soon after, Banner heads into the Rio De Janeiro favela known as Rocinha, to find a way to clandestinely contact Dr. Samuel Sterns, professor in Cellular Biology Department at NYC’s Grayburn College (IH 1:09:11) on the Upper East Side, for help in developing a cure. They communicate using codenames of “Mr. Blue” and “Mr. Green.” Sterns is noted for his work with trimethadiones, used in the treatment of epileptic conditions. (IHD)

Acting on a suggestion from Mr. Blue/Sterns, Banner starts to research Amazonia Tracheophytes (plants that have lignified tissues for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant) for a lead on a cure. – (IH 0:02:16, IHD )

Banner also studies calming techniques at a nearby temple, gets a job at a soda bottling plant as a handyman and begins teaching himself Portuguese.

October 20 – At a benefit for the Firefighters Family Fund Stark is told by journalist, and former one-night fling, Christine that Stark weaponry has been used by the Ten Rings in Gulmira, Afghanistan. When Stark confronts Stane over this, Stane reveals that he is behind the attempt to remove Stark as head of the company.

October 21 – Stark tests his newly completed Mk III armor by driving Raza’s Ten Rings group out of the Afghan village of Gulmira.

October 24 – Under Stark’s direction, Pepper Potts uncovers proof of Stane’s collaboration with the Ten Rings. Stane and Stark eventually come to blows in their respective armors. Stane is killed. The conflict is seen by the public and the press name the mysterious hero “Iron Man.”

October 25 – At a press conference the day following his showdown with Stane, Stark rejects SHIELD’s constructed alibi for the events of the previous evening and admits to the world that he is Iron Man. That evening, SHIELD director Nick Fury approaches Stark about a project called the “Avengers Initiative.” Stark declines, Fury calls in Black Widow (IM, IMC2) to keep Stark under surveillance.

Anton Vanko dies in poverty in Moscow. His son Ivan vows revenge on Stark. He begins building his own portable ARC reactor to power an energized whip/body harness.

December 16– Iron Man named Time magazine’s Person Of The Year, narrowly beating out Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve. (IM2, In real life, Bernanke was named PotY in Time’s December 16^th issue.)

2010

As Tony Stark continues to operate as Iron Man, he manages to bring about a period of relative peace and is credited by some press as having stabilized East-West relations. Stark realizes that the paladium core of Stark’s ARC reactor is slowly poisoning him. He begins searching for a cure but keeps his condition a secret. (IM2)

March 25 – 158 Days since last “incident” – Banner has accident that leaves drop of blood in soda. (IH 0:32:12) Also, he sends sample of blood to Sterns who will conduct further experiments with it outside of the analysis that Banner needs.

April 22 – Stark Expo 2010 opens with plans to run for one year. (IM2, “Six Months Later”)

April 23 – Stark appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Weaponized Suit Defense Program Hearings chaired by Pennsylvania Senator Stern. Stern pushes Stark to turn the Iron Man suit and technology over to the military but Stark refuses. Stern calls Justin Hammer, CEO of Hammer Industries and Lt. Col. Rhodes to testify against Stark. Stark testifies that although other countries, including North Korea and Iran are working to replicate the technology, they are years away from being able to do so. He also reveals that Hammer Industries have also had their share of lack-of-success, leading to the cancellation of Hammer Industries’ contacts with the Department of Defense. (IM2)

April 24 – CSPAN footage of Stark’s testimony from the previous day becomes overnight sensation with a YouTube posting of it managing nearly 1.9 million views in less than 24 hours. Hammer Industries stocks plummet while Stark Industuries jump to a 52 week high.

Perhaps spurred by concerns that the palladium poisoning he is suffering has reached 24% toxicity, Stark appoints Potts Chairman and CEO of Stark Industries. (IM2 0:20:44, Stark Expo website displaying “362 Days Left” to attend Expo)

An agent of the Ten Rings supplies Vanko assistance in infiltrating the Monaco Grand Prix.

April 25 – General Ross’s task force raids Rochina favela is search of Banner under the field command of Emil Blonski. Banner transforms into Hulk, defeats the raiding party and escapes. (IH 0:29:02 Days with out incidence counter moves from 190 days backwards.)

April 27 – Banner wakes up in Guatemala. Over the next 17 days, he will make his way from Chiapas, Mexico to Willowdale, VA and Culver University to see if any data still remains from his original experiment.

April 29 – Stark signs paperwork to transfer power to Potts, meets “Natalie Rushman” unaware that she is SHIELD agent Natasha Romanoff. Stark promotes her from the legal department to be his new personal assistant.

May 2 – Stark arrives at the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco and in a moment of spontaneity quips “What’s the point of having a car if you don’t drive it,” and replaces Team Stark’s regular driver DiFilipo in Race G. Ivan Vanko attacks Stark along the section of the Circuit de Monaco between turns 16 and 17 along the harbor. Switching into a portable, lightweight Iron Man armor (Mark V), Stark defeats Vanko.

Later that evening, Stark visits Vanko in prison before flying back to US with Potts.

May 3 – Senator Stern appears on several news channels to spin support for the military seizing the Iron Man armor technology.

May 5 – Hammer orchestrates Vanko’s escape from prison to have him work on Hammer Industries own weapons suit program.

May 6 – Media speculation continues about Stark’s fitness to continue as Iron Man. Rhodes tries to convince Stark to hand over the Iron Man technology to the US military, but Stark continues to refuse. (IM2, date on screen at 0:45:11)

May 7 – Hammer and Vanko arrive at the Hammer Industries facility in Queens, NY. Vanko begins revamping Hammer’s own battle suit prototypes into unmanned, remote-controlled drones.

May 10 – Tony Stark’s Birthday.

Romanoff reports to SHIELD on Stark’s condition. Within several hours, SHIELD scientists work up a possible antidote from lithium that would at least slow the advancement of Stark’s palladium poisoning. SHIELD scientists also first detect strange electromagnetic disturbances over New Mexico, the same ones that Jane Foster has already discovered and is observing. SHIELD agent Sitwell superstitiously facilitates Banner’s crossing over the Mexico/US boarder. (FBW #1)

Depressed over his inability to solve his palladium poisoning dilemma, Stark gets drunk which leads to a confrontation with Rhodes, who dons the Mark II Iron Man armor. The ensuing fight wrecks a portion of Stark’s Malibu home. Rhodes leaves with the Mk II suit. (IM2N pg 136 places the night of Stark’s party three days after Vanko’s arrival at Hammer’s Queens facility.)

May 11 – Rhodes delivers the Mk II suit to the military at Edwards Air Force Base. Stark goes for donuts and has a conversation with SHIELD director Nick Fury who injects him with the lithium compound developed by SHIELD scientists. Fury mentions a situation in the southwest but confines Stark to house arrest.

At Hammer Industries, Vanko continues revamping the battle suits in to unmanned, remote-controlled drones.

Physicist Jane Foster, working in the small town of Puente Antiguo, New Mexico, contacts her mentor Dr Erik Selvig about a series of electromagnetic flares which are causing gravitational lensing which could result in the creation of possible Einstein-Rosen Bridge (wormhole) in the nearby desert. (Note: Puente Antiguo is Spanish for “Ancient Bridge.”) Her message is intercepted by SHIELD. Selvig heads to New Mexico to help Foster with her work.

The Mk II suit is turned over to Justin Hammer for weapons upgrading on the order of General Meade, though not before Rhodes secretly removes the suit’s ARC reactor.

Tony visits Potts at Stark Industries, makes intuitive breakthrough on how to fix his palladium/ARC reactor problem through the creation of a new element theorized by his father and hidden in the layout of Stark Expo.

May 12 – In the midst of Thor’s coronation ceremony on Asgard, Odin senses a break-in in one of the palace treasure rooms. Theintruders are dealt with by the Destroyer although since they were frost giants attempting to steal back the Casket of Ancient Winters, Thor impulsively sees the attempted theft as an act of war.

Stark builds a small cyclotron to create the element his father had left clues about. (Some material donated by SHIELD from their stores at Project Pegasus.)

Banner arrives at Culver University and spies Betty.

Nick Fury reassigns Agent Coulson from his detail with Tony Stark to investigate the New Mexico atmospheric disturbances. Coulson leaves in the early afternoon from California for New Mexico.

7:00 pm – Hammer’s Stark Expo presentation is hijacked by Vanko, who uses drones to attack crowd and Stark. After receiving a call from Vanko, Stark skips over tests on new ARC reactor element in order to race across country and stop Vanko. Stark/Iron Man defeat Vanko’s drones with help from Rhodes in modified Mk II armor, SHIELD Agent Romanoff and Stark’s driver Happy Hogan. Vanko apparently killed in explosion that destroys the Oracle Pavilion. Hammer is arrested for his part in engineering Vanko’s escape.

While Romanoff is in Hammer Industries’ Brooklyn facility she hacks the company’s mainframe, steals what development files she can and then destroys the building. – FBW #2

Banner goes to old friend and pizzeria owner Stanley to hide out. He offers him the Pizza Shop’s upstairs spare bedroom. (IH 0:34:25)

At a SHIELD outpost on the outskirts of Roswell, NM, Coulson marshalls a taskforce heading for Puente Antiguo.

Thor, Loki, Sif and the Warriors Three head to Jotunheim to confront King Laufey of the frost giants over the incursion into Asgard. A battle breaks out but Odin’s arrival puts a quick end to it. Angered that Thor’s impulsiveness has nearly started a war between Asgard and the frost giants, Odin strips him of his power and enchants his hammer Mjolnir to only be able to be lifted by someone worthy enough to wield it. He then exiles Thor to Earth to learn to temper his feelings.

Jane Foster detects another possible Einstein-Rosen Bridge (wormhole) in the nearby desert. Racing to the site with her mentor Dr. Selvig and her assistant Darcy, they discover Thor. Thor is tasered by Darcy and taken to a local hospital.

May 13 – While driving overnight to Puente Antiguo in advance of the SHIELD taskforce, Coulson stops at a 24-hour Roxxon mini-mart and foils an armed robbery attempt – FTHWTH

Director Fury orders SHIELD Agent Clint Barton off of his vacation and to Puente Antguo to support Coulson. – FBW#2

A Punete Antiguo local discovers Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, in a crater about 50 miles east of town. Unable to lift it, he calls several other people to give it a try. Coulson arrives in New Mexico. SHIELD quickly quarantines the area and erects a portable laboratory over the site to study the hammer.

Jane helps Thor escape from the hospital where he is being held. That evening they head towards the site of the SHIELD installation erected around Mjolnir. Thor is captured trying to sneak in.

In Asgard, Loki discovers his true heritage as a frost giant. Odin collapses into one of his periodic mystical comas known as the Odinsleep. Meanwhile, Sif and the Warriors Three begin to suspect that they were being manipulated by Loki.

Loki appears before Thor being held at the SHIELD installation and lies to him that Odin is dead. In the evening, Dr. Selvig goes to the installation and manages to get Coulson to release Thor into his custody. Later in the evening, Thor explains the concept of the Nine Worlds to Jane.

Banner poses as a pizza delivery man to get access to Culver University’s computer labs and research database. He decides to leave that evening but as he prepares to leave Stanley’s he is accidentally seen by Betty. She has him stay the night at the home she shares with new lover Dr. Leonard Sampson. Sampson informs the military of Banner’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, Blonski receives an unauthorized “low dose” injection of Super Soldier Serum from General Ross.

Concerned over what lengths General Ross will go to apprehend Banner, Fury orders Agent Romanoff to Virginia and Culver University to follow and observe Banner. – FBW # 2

May 14 – The Warriors Three and Sif head to Midgard to find Thor. Loki sends the Destroyer after them.

At Culver University, Betty walks Banner to bus station in the early morning. As they are crossing the campus, they are attacked by the military and Betty becomes aware of the true extent of Banner’s condition. Blonski seems to adapt well to Super Soldier upgrade, but still gets beaten by transformed Banner, getting nearly every bone in his body pulverized. Banner/Hulk escapes the military with an unconscious Betty to a cave deep in the Great Smoky Mountains.

News of the battle can not be contained and quickly spreads across cable news channels and the internet. Culver U. journalism student and campus newspaper reporter Jack McGee, who witnessed and captured the fight on cell phone video. McGee’s friend Jim Miller names the transformed Banner “the Hulk” in an interview with WHIH news. His remarks will be played repeatedly over the next several days. (IH 1:04:42, IM2 1:53:10)

Meanwhile, Stark has a debrief with SHIELD Director Fury. Stark is offered an advisory position with the Avengers Initiative on one condition.

SHIELD continues to monitor the Hulk incident, the situation in Puente Antiguo, New Mexico as well as several other hot spots in North America and Europe.

Thor and his fellow Asgardians fight the Destroyer. During the battle, Thor proves himself worthy of his godly heritage and his powers are restored, allowing him to turn back the Destroyer. Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three head back to Asgard where Thor reveals Loki’s plan to seize the throne of Asgard. Unfortunately, in the ensuing battle between the two, Thor is forced to destroy the Bifrost to prevent Loki from destroying Jotunheim and committing genocide against the frost giants. This action strands him in Asgard, unable to return to Midgard/Earth. Loki falls into space.

Barton and Coulson recover the remains of the Destroyer and transport it back to the SHIELD installation at Roswell. – FBW#3

Banner and Betty hide out in a motel outside of Ashwood, North Carolina in the foothlls of the Smokies. (IH 1:43:41 – Based on return address on package Banner receives from pawnshop. I am placing Ashwood here on the western side of the state for geogrpahical proximity to the Smokies. Although there is an actual Ashwood in North Carlona, it is on the eastern most side of the state along the Atlantic coast. Getting Betty and Bruce across the state some 400 to 500 miles in such a short time in order for them to procure the pickup truck is problematic.)

News of the previous day’s battle continues to spread. Within 36 to 40 hours of his on injuries, Blonski has recovered. (IH 1:07:30)

May 15 – Ross has meeting with taskforce staff. (IH 1:08:51, Ross states that Banner has been on the run “for five years” but I’m assuming that Ross is rounding up.)

SHIELD helps with search by adding the recently discovered “Mr. Blue” and “Mr. Green” code names to their email searches and quickly detect communication between Banner and Sterns.

Banner and Betty plan their trip to New York and Sterns. Betty pawns her mother’s necklace to finance purchase of beat-up pickup truck. They drive to NYC.

May 16– Banner and Betty arrive in NYC, bypassing roadblocks at the Holland Tunnel by bribing a boat owner to take them across the Hudson River, leaving them in lower Manhattan. They head uptown to meet with Sterns. Sterns and Banner try an experimental process to cure him, though it only succeeds in reversing the transformation, not ridding Banner of it completely.

The military captures Banner, but Blonsky forces Sterns to inject him with blood products Sterns had developed from Banner’s blood sample. Blonsky is driven insane and mutates into the Abomination. Sterns is infected with Banner’s blood through an open wound, possibly gaining his own mutation.

Banner convinces Ross to let him try and stop Blonsky. The two fight in Harlem, with the Hulk finally defeating Blonski before being allowed by Ross to flee.

Romanoff, who has followed Banner and Betty to New York City, discovers Stearns undergoing a mutation of his cerebral cortex in the ruins of his Grayburn College laboratory. He is taken into custody to be studied by SHIELD. – FBW#3

May 17 – Given the events of the past week, the World Security Council reverses its funding decision for SHIELD and increases the organization’s budget in order to expand their research on the Tesseract and to further fund the Avengers Initiative. The WSC insists that Blonski be made a part of the Avengers Initiative over Fury’s protests.

A few days later, impressed with his work on Einstein-Rosen bridges and other cutting edge theoretical physics, Nick Fury approaches Dr. Selvig to join SHIELD in an advisory capacity to study a powerful cube-like object in their possession. Fury is unaware that Selvig is under the control of Loki.

Troubled by the idea of Blonski on the Avengers team, Coulson and Sitwell conspire to send Tony Stark to discuss the prospect with General Ross. The following day, Tony Stark meets with Ross about “putting a team together.” However, Stark’s flippant attitude so enrages Ross that he refuses to release Blonski from Army custody to SHIELD. (TC)

June 16 – Banner has settled in a cabin deep in the woods of Bella Coola, British Columbia. He apparently is gaining control over the Hulk. SHIELD interferes with General Ross’s task force from discovering Banner’s whereabouts.

At some point Agent Romanoff is assigned to track bootleg Starktech stolen from Hammer Industries. He search leads her to Russia where she discovers that the 10 Rings had been buying components to build Stark Industries Jericho missiles through a number of fronts including billionaire industrialist Richard Frampton’s Sojourn Enterprises. Romanoff destroys the missiles and Frampton and a spy named Sophia who fashioned herself after Romanoff’s more bloody, pre-SHIELD career are killed. A:BWS

2011

April – Unspecified Hulk incident as referenced by Romanoff on May 2, 2012. Possibly incident on India/ Pakistan boarder when Banner encountered a group of bandits, transformed into the Hulk and stopped them from harming a local village. – A:TAA

May – Steve Rogers is found cyrogenically preserved in the crashed Hydra airship in the arctic by two snowmobilers who are part of a Russian oil expedition. SHIELD dispatches a recovery team and brings Rogers back to their Manhattan. Meanwhile, SHIELD scientists discover a way to channel Tesseract energy through the remains of the Asgardian Destroyer. Fury assigns Barton to security at Project PEGASUS and shares his concerns that Dr Selvig has been reportedly acting a bit oddly of late.

Natasha Romanof is on a deep cover assignment in Asia. (Speculation – Possibly related to the Ten Rings?) – Date based on “One Year Later” epilogue to FBW #4

At some point, Rogers is revived and told that he has been in suspended animation for nearly seven decades. He remains hidden from public view while he struggles to assimilate into modern life and overcome the loneliness of being a man out of time.

Unknown – The World Security Council reverses its funding decision about funding Fury’s Avengers Initiative.

2012

May 1 – Loki is given a scepter-like device from a mysterious cloaked entity known as the Other. The Other grants Loki the use of the Chitauri, a war-mongering alien race, to help him subjugate Earth in exchange for retrieving the Tesseract. Loki uses the small amount of dark energy that the scepter posses to remotely activate the Tesseract and teleport to Earth, arriving inside Project: Pegasus. He steals the Tesseract, ensnaring a small handful of SHIELD agents in his mental control including Dr Selvig and Clint Barton. The SHIELD base is destroyed during the escape but Coulson and Fury manages to save material that is part of Phase Two of their Tesseract research. Fury reactivates the Avengers Initiative

Once one relocated to the East Coast with the Phase Two materials, Coulson contacts Agent Romanov in Russia and instructs her to cut short her current mission in order to retrieve Banner and bring him to SHIELD. She finishes her interrogation of Georgi Luchkov and heads to India.

May 2- Romanov meets Banner in Kolkata, India and recruits him to help in the search for the Tesseract.

Fury gives Rogers his orders to report to the Helicarrier the next morning.

That evening, Tony Stark brings a miniaturized ARC reactor online to power the newly opened Stark Tower in midtown Manhattan, a high tech remodeling of the former Pan Am building. Agent Coulson calls on Stark with Selvig’s research on the Tesseract and requests that Stark review it.

May 3 – Black Widow arrives on the SHIELD helicarrier with Banner while Coulson arrives with Captain America. Banner begins a search for the gamma radiation signature put off by the Tesseract. Intelligence points to Loki being in Stuttgart, Germany.

Rogers and Romanoff head to Stuttgart where they engage Loki. Stark arrives in his Iron Man armor and helps capture Loki. But Loki’s appearance in Germany is a diversion in order for Hawkeye to steal iridium needed by Dr Selvig to build a device for Loki.

While transporting Loki back to the SHIELD helicarrier, the group is intercepted by Thor who wishes to take Loki back to Asgard to persuade Loki from his plan to attack the Earth and a brief skirmish between Stark and Thor ensues.

May 4 – Captain America, Tony Stark and Thor return to the Helicarrier with Loki. Fury places Loki in a cage originally made to hold Banner. In separate investigations, Banner and Stark and Rogers discover that SHIELD’s “Phase Two” is a plan to create Tesseract-powered weapons similar to the ones Hydra used in World War Two as defense against any alien threats. Loki is able to subtly influence the group, playing up their mistrust of each other in an effort to keep them fractured and unable to form a cohesive defense when his army invades.

When tensions hit their highest, a squad of SHIELD soldiers and Barton, all still under the influence of Loki, attack the helicarrier. While Stark and Rogers race to repair one of the helicarrier’s damaged turbines, Banner loses control of the Hulk who rampages through the helicarrier before leaping at one of the ship’s escort fighters and falling. Romanoff manages to free Barton from Loki’s influence through a sharp blow to the head. Loki escapes, killing Coulson in the process. Fury uses Coulson’s death to nudge the heroes into acting as a group.

Meanwhile, Selvig is able to finish the Tesseract-powered device which opens a portal to allow Loki’s army pass through. In a fierce battle in and over midtown Manhattan, the Avengers – Rogers, Stark, Thor, Romanoff, Barton and Banner in more control of the Hulk than has been previously seen – are able keep the Chitauri from establishing a beachhead on Earth but are having trouble driving them back through the wormhole. Fury defies the orders of the World Security Council to launch a nuclear strike on New York, but a SHIELD fighter pilot acts on that order and launches the device. The nuclear missile is intercepted by Stark who redirects it through the wormhole to destroy the Chitauri’s command ship. (With Stark’s passage through the wormhole he becomes the first recorded human to travel beyond the confines of the Earth’s solar system.) The Chitauri on the Earth side of the wormhole collapse as the worm hole is closed when Slevig and Romanoff destroy the Tesseract-powerd device. (Speculation – The Chitauri were biological/mechanical constructs that ran on broadcast power emanating from the other side of the wormhole.)

Afterwards, the Avengers go for shwarma while the Other reports to his master, Thanos, that to attack the humans would be “to court death.”

May 6 – Thor takes Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard. Banner accompanies Stark back to Stark Tower where Potts is overseeing repairs. Fury defies the World Security Council’s orders to continue monitoring the Avengers’ individual whereabouts.

 

Key:

A: TAA – The Avengers: The Avengers Initiative one-shot comic

A:BWS – The Avengers: Black Widow Strikes three-issue comic book mini-series

CA:FA – Captain America: The First Avenger film
CA:FV – Captain America: First Vengeance four issue comic book mini-series

FBW – Fury’s Big Week four issue comic book mini-series
FTHWTH – A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor’s Hammer short film

IM – Iron Man movie
IMD – Iron Man deleted scene
IMN – Iron Man novelization by Peter David
IMC1 – Iron Man comic adaptation issue 1
IMC2 –Iron Man comic adaptation issue 2

IM2 – Iron Man 2 movie
IM2N – Iron Man 2 novelization
IM2P- Iron Man 2 promotional/viral
IM2F- Iron Man 2 filmmaker comment

IH- Incredible Hulk movie
IHD – Incredible Hulk deleted/extended scene
IHN – Incredible Hulk novelization by Peter David

TA – The Avengers movie

TC – The Consultant short film

TH – Thor movie

A Note On The Canonicity of Sources: As this is a chronology of the united Marvel Movie Universe*, the films themselves are the final authority as to what is “official” in this unofficial timeline. Of secondary authority are comments from the filmmakers clarifying things presented in the films. Finally, other sources such as deleted scenes, novelizations, viral promotions and comic adaptations are considered tertiary and can be revised or completely discarded if later contradicted by a primary or secondary source. Example – While the events of the deleted opening sequence of Incredible Hulk were originally included in the timeline, events in Captain America have called for some revision.

* This is only for the properties that Marvel Studios owns film rights to and intend on including in their shared universe. Unfortunately, this means no X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Blade, Punisher or Howard The Duck.

Calling The Avengers the best comic book film of all time or the perfect comic book film is a bit unfair, especially with The Dark Knight on the table. But it is a great film that captures the spirit of the Marvel film franchise perfectly. Every thing that makes the Marvel films so great is exemplified here.

Rich gave a rundown of the plot in his review, and adding any more here would send us into spoiler territory. So I’ll just get into my review.

One of the reasons why Marvel comic book adaptations are so successful and most DC Comics adaptations are not is because the Marvel franchise is a sterling example of serving the comic book fan while presenting a quality film for the uninitiated.

The fan service begins immediately with the setting for the first scene, which is a research facility many comic book fans will be familiar. But it builds from there. This is not a spoiler, because the scene is references in the ads for the film, but there is the trademark hero-fighting-hero scene in the film. As any Marvel Zombie would tell you, more often than not, when two Marvel heroes met for the first time, a misunderstanding would cause them to beat the snot out of each other before realizing they are on the same side.

There is also another hero versus hero battle that is a classic chestnut from the comics. Many of the characters have connections with each other that mirror their connections in the books. And unlike other franchises that like to split up the team so they fight each bad guy individually (*koff koff* X-Men*koff koff*), in this one, the team actually acts as the team in the climax, all working together to bring the bad guys down.

But Joss Whedon never loses sight that if the film is going to be successful, it has to be accessible for the non-comic book fans.  In other words, it needs interesting characters and it needs to tell an interesting story.

I have to echo Rich’s kudos to Whedon for skill on getting the most out of an ensemble cast. Each character has a chance to shine and each has an arc through out the film. Granted, the time to shine for characters like Thor and Captain America, whose individual films are fresh in the memory, and Hawkeye, due to plot requirements, might seem less than the time Banner/Hulk or Black Widow get, no one appears to be a third wheel.

Sidebar on the Black Widow. Relegated to a supporting character in Iron Man 2, she is the breakout character here. People seem to forget how good an actress Scarlett Johansson can be, but she gives her all in the role.   I want a Black Widow film, directed by Whedon, now.

Johansson isn’t the only stellar performance in the film. All the actors do a great job in their performances, especially Mark Ruffalo. It’s not easy stepping in a role that has been made famous by three other actors in the last forty years, including an actor he controversally replaced, but Whedon’s decision to go with Ruffalo over Edward Norton makes sense. Ruffalo adds layers to Bruce Banner, nuances that can only be truly appreciated upon repeat viewings after you are informed of a third-act plot point about the character.

The only weak point of the cast, as Rich mentioned, is Cobie Smulders, who, quite frankly, appears to be a bit out of her depth. Her performance doesn’t take away from the film–her Maria Hill exists only to be an exposition engine, the character who asks questions necessary for another character  say something that advances the plot. In this function, her hesitant line readings can be written off as “characterization.” But until this realization takes hold, she seems to be just a bit off in her role.

It’s hard for me to say whether or not you need to see all the other Marvel films to truly enjoy this one because, well, I have seen all the other Marvel films. But it does appear that Whedon made the effort to provide enough about the characters so newcomers will not be totally lost. And the writer has peppered the script with plenty of his trademark zingers, all of which should generate a chuckle or a guffaw.

The Avengers is a great film, another in a long line from Marvel. I am curious to see where Marvel goes from here and if the quality stays the same. But you should go see this film. And if you do, stick around until the very end of the credits, because there are two bonus scenes.

 

In a multi-part series, Comic Book Film Editor William Gatevackes will be tracing the history of comic book movies from the earliest days of the film serials to today’s big blockbusters and beyond. Along with the history lesson, Bill will be covering some of the most prominent comic book films over the years and why they were so special. This time, we’ll cover the latter part of the “Golden Age of Serials”—1942-1945. And, maybe beyond. We’ll start with a character that has filled theaters in four different decades–Batman.

Batman is still around and doing well, even today. The character is set to make his return to movie screens in Christopher Nolan’s (presumably) final entry in the Batman mythos, The Dark Knight Rises. Many people might mistakenly believe that Batman first appeared in live action during the Batman TV show. Not true. Batman made his live-action debut in the serials, of which he had not one, but two.

Batman first appeared in National/ DC Comics’ Detective Comics #27, cover dated May 1939. He was Bruce Wayne, an orphan who saw his parents gunned down in front of him as a kid. This compelled him to dedicate his life and his vast, inherited fortune to fighting crime. He trained his mind and body to reach the peak of human potential. He spent money to develop the best weaponry and equipment around. After being frightened by a bat flying through a window at his manor home, Bruce became inspired to adopt the guise of Batman as his vigilante identity.

What made Batman popular in the 40s are the two things that make him popular today—the tragic nature of his origin and the fact that he was an ordinary human being, theoretically like us. This allowed readers to relate to him. In 1940, Batman gained another quality that allowed certain readers to relate to him—a kid sidekick named Robin. Robin was Dick Grayson, a circus performer who saw his parents be executed much in the same way that Bruce did. Bruce decided to take the orphan under his care and train him to fight crime as well, starting a trend where just about every superhero picked up a sidekick almost overnight.

Batman and Robin both appear in 1943s Batman, Columbia’s first foray into the superhero serial and National/ DC’s first character to be adapted for film.

In the 15 part serial, Batman and Robin fight a Dr. Jaka, a Japanese scientist who invents a device that can cause men to become his zombie-like slaves. As is typical of the period, there are less than politically correct references and slurs being thrown around. The serial remained relatively true to the comics, with the major difference being that Batman was a government agent instead of a lone vigilante. The serial, much like the Superman radio show did for its character, introduced lasting parts of the Batman mythos, most notably the Batcave.

Columbia promoted the serial as it would one of its own movies, and, therefore had a hit on their hands. It would come back with a sequel six years later with a 15 chapter serial called Batman and Robin.

The sequel was more cheaply produced and it showed. It featured the Dynamic Duo facing off against The Wizard, no relation to the comic book villain of the same name. This Wizard was a scientist who was able to control automobiles and used this device to bedevil Batman and Robin. There would be no more sequels after this 1949 installment.

During 1943, the same year the first Batman serial came out, Republic gave us the 12 part Masked Marvel serial.  While there was a Masked Marvel who first appeared in Centaur Publication’s Keen Detective Funnies #7 (1939), that character bore little resemblance to the main character of this serial. However, people claim that the serial was part of the superhero serial trend, so we have included it here.

Republic also brought us the first and only serial to star a character from Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel Comics. In 1944, the studio brought us Captain America.

If comic book fans are always upset by the copious amount of changes the filmmakers of today make to their favorite characters, they should be thankful that they weren’t alive when this serial came out. The film Captain America resembled the comic Captain America as much as Ernest Borgnine resembles Brad Pitt.

Instead of being Army private Steve Rogers, Cap was district attorney Grant Gardner. Cap’s trademark shield was nowhere to be found, replace by a pistol he used to shot bad guys indiscriminately. And at a time when just about every other serial star was squaring off against Nazi spies and Japanese saboteurs, the hero who was so patriotic that America was part of his name fought a run-of-the-mill mad scientist. Imagine if the Internet was around back then!

Join us next time as we close out the era of the serial as the Man of Steel finally, finally makes his live-action debut and we find out who the Ryan Reynolds (or James McAvoy) of the serial era was.

Licensing shows have often given us our first advanced looks at upcoming films and this year’s Licensing Expo, which kicked off in Las Vegas today, is no exception. Via Bleeding Cool comes this illustrated poster for Marvel Studio’s upcoming The Avengers.

Now we knew that Chris Evans would be sporting a new Captain America costume, different from the one he’ll be wearing in his World War Two-set film opening next month. And this poster offers up our first look at that costume’s design.

We also get our first look at SHIELD agent Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), in what will be his “superhero” costume. It is a bit different look from the one Renner sported earlier this summer during his cameo in Thor.

OK, I know this doesn’t really rate as high as an actual picture of the cast together in costume, but it does whet the appetite for what is to come.

The Avengers hits theaters next summer.

When Latino Review told us that the enemies for The Avengers would be Loki and an alien race believed to be the Skrulls, we thought that the two could be a challenge worthy of the Avengers coming together to combat–a for to big to handle on their own.

Of course, after seeing Thor, we see that Loki can be easily handled by the Thunder God all by his lonesome. And aliens, even if they are shape shifting ones, aren’t really much of a threat. Heck, Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum were able to take out a fleet all by themselves.

Well, Latino Review is back and it appears the threat level has been upped. A new bad guy has apparently been added to the roster, and the first clue as to his identity was given us back in the last Sunday of the 2010 San Diego Comic Con.

The glove on the right, as any Marvel Zombie can tell you, is the Infinity Gauntlet. It is encrusted with what are called Infinity Gems, jewels of extraordinary power. These gems brought together in this gauntlet can give its wearer unlimited power, from time travel to teleportation, from mind control to re-altering the very fabric of reality itself. Whoever wears the Infinity Gauntlet is a major threat. And who is the comic book baddie most famous for wearing the gauntlet and who Latino Review says will be wearing it in The Avengers?

That would be a character named Thanos, one of the biggest bad guys in the whole Marvel Universe.

The comic book Thanos is from a super powered race called the Eternals. He has an unnecessary amorous fixation on the personification of Death, and is willing to do anything to prove his love to her, even killing half the universe.

Thanos is a villain of great stature and importance in the Marvel Universe, and has fought the Avengers a number of times. Depending on how he is portrayed, he is most definitely a threat that Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America would need to team up to face.

But that is an important point–how he will be portrayed. The gauntlet seems to be of Asgardian design. And there is also another object in the same power scale, the reality warping Cosmic Cube/Tesseract, which is set to be introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger. How these facts will play off one another will be interesting to see.  And what role Thanos plays in the whole thing is another reason to keep watching.

The Monday after Iron Man opened to impressive box office numbers back in 2008, Marvel Studios announced that the film was just the first step towards a superhero franchise that would feature solo films for characters like The Hulk, Thor and Captain America all building towards an endgame of teaming up those characters in The Avengers. Now it is looking as if The Avengers is the starting point for an even bigger expansion of Marvel’s cinematic universe.

Speaking to the Disney Fan Club magazine D23, Marvel Studios boss Kevin  Feige stated -

Iron Man was the dawn of the Marvel Studios age and the establishment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the beginning of that continuity. The Avengers is the next big step. Once all these characters come together, it’s the culmination of all that has come before. It launches a new era and a new time in the history of our films. Not only will it be the first film that our new home studio, Disney, will be distributing, but it will also renew each of these characters and launch them into their own franchises, starting with the second film to be released by Disney, Iron Man 3.

Thor will go off into a new adventure, and Captain America will continue to explore the modern world in another film of his own. We hope that holds true for the characters appearing in that film — Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the spy organization, S.H.I.E.L.D. —all of whom are more than worthy and capable of carrying their own films. And, we’ve got a lot of other characters we’re prepping and getting ready for film debuts: the world of martial arts, these great cosmic space fantasies, Dr. Strange, and the magic side of the Marvel Universe. There are many, many stories to be mined.

Some of his statement may seem like old news. We’ve known that Iron Man 3 has been in development with Shane Black signed to direct and Drew Pearce writing the script. We pretty much assumed that Thor and Captain America would be getting sequels as well, providing that their box office was strong. We also knew that a Doctor Strange film was in the works, as the writers of the Conan revamp, Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, have been hired to work on that.

But there are a number of nuggets that can still be panned out of Feige’s statement.

First of all, we now know that Marvel will be keeping their Captain America franchise in the present and a sequel won’t flash back to more World War Two adventures.

Feige’s statement that the studio is prepping a film set in “the world of martial arts” pretty much confirms speculation that the studio is working on a movie featuring the Marvel Comics character Iron Fist. For those unfamiliar with the character, Iron Fist is actually Danny Rand, who as a young boy was taken in to the hidden city of K’un-L’un in Tibet after his parents are killed while mountaineering and is taught the secrets of a mystical form of martial arts.

Slightly less obvious is his mentioning of “these great cosmic space fantasies.” Discounting the characters whose film rights are still held by other studios, i.e., the Fantastic Four, my guess as to who they may be considering for a more cosmic story would be Nova, an Earth-based member of an intergalactic police force. I would suspect that this may be at least slightly contingent on how well the similarly-themed Green Lantern does at the box office later this summer.

I suppose that a possible spinoff film for SHIELD or some of the other hero characters we’ve already met or will be meeting over the next year or so has always been a possibility. I think a SHIELD movie, especially headed up Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury could be a fun, globe-trotting adventure that would open up the franchise. I’m not sure as they stand now, that Fury or Black Widow show as deep characterization as we’ve seen from the characters of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, but that just may be because they have been supporting players in the films so far. Hopefully, if a SHIELD film were to go  ahead, they would add some more depth to those characters.

Via IGN.

It should come as no surprise that Marvel Studios is thinking about a sequel to Captain America even though we’re still five months away from its release. We know that the studio is definitely playing the long game with their franchise management and Captain America star Chris Evans is signed to appear in six films as Cap, with July’s film being the first and next summer’s The Avengers being his second.

One of those remaining four films will be a Captain America sequel, which we have learned today will be written by the first film’s screenwriting duo of Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus.

It is probably a safe assumption that the film will take place in modern times at some point after The Avengers. Beyond that, McFeely and Markus have a wide open field to play with. Will they pick up and adapt one of the many modern day Cap adventures from the past several decades of comics or pen their own story? Will the story feed into whatever overall storyline Marvel has in store post-Avengers? Hopefully, it’ll be fun finding out.

Via Latino Review.