After the buzz of the Paramount panel on Thursday, the Marvel Films panel was one of the most eagerly anticipated gatherings at the convetion, not just for its subject matter, but for the big stars it brought to little ol' San Diego, such as Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Robert Downey Jr, Gwenyth Paltrow, and Terence Howard.

After staying in the room immediately after the Pixar panel, Robin and I secured good seats in the packed house where Marvel Films' hosted their first ever panel at Comic-Con.  Today they featured the star studded casts of The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.  The Hulk paneled featured stars Edward Norton (Bruce Banner), Liv Tyler (Betty Ross), director Luis Laterrie, producers Gale Anne Herd, Avi Arad, and Marvel Films president Kevin Feige.  This movie will be a complete departure from the original film, a true "part one" (ignoring the last film) heavily inspired by the Bruce Jones era "Return of the Monster" stories.  They didn't have any footage, as they only started shooting 2 weeks ago, but they did give us a glimpse of what the Hulk would look like.  He definitely looks harder, darker, and meaner, just from looking at his face.  Tim Roth couldn't join the cast on stage as he was still back in Vancouver doing night shooting as the Abomination/Emil Blonsky.  The big surprise of the day (although I thought he was joking at first) was that Edward Norton wrote the screenplay (or at least co-wrote it with the director).  Ed is a huge comic book fan and sees this effort as an attempt at tapping into the mythic saga that surrounds the Hulk, even drawing off of the television series in little ways, hoping to make his character as a lonely and sympathetic fugitive as Bill Bixby portrayed Banner in the 70s and 80s, searching for a cure to his condition with the help of love interest Betty Ross, played by Liv Tyler, who sees things in Bruce that no one else can or is willing to see.  He wants the classic modern mythology to be taken seriously, seeing this as a multi-part saga that doesn't necessarily begin at the beginning, so don't expect them to blow through the origin just to get you to the main story as quickly as possible.  The origin should be spooled out throughout he movie.  Most movies have about 150 scenes and already this film has approximately 350 scenes, making it a BIG film with lots of story.  Expect to see some familiar faces from Hulk's supporting cast, including Doc Samson.  From all indications, this looks like a promising effort and I personally can't wait to see how they handle it.

A few minutes later, John Favreau whipped the crowd into a frenzy as he introduced his cast, including Terence Howard (James Rhodes),  Gwenyth Paltrow(Pepper Potts), and the charismatic Robert Downey Jr  (Tony Stark/Iron Man).  As we noted earlier in the week when we first saw footage of Iron Man made especially for Comic-Con, we are convinced that Robert Downey Jr IS Tony Stark.  There is no better casting in the world.  Period.  From the opening scenes of the 4 minute clip, Downey portrays Tony as a man with all of the fast talking arrogance a man can have when he's smarter and wealthier than any man has a right to.  Downey won us over within the first 30 seconds before there was even a mention of anything remotely Iron Mannish.  Terrence Howard had lobbied for the part of James Rhodes long before they were considering anyone for the role.  If this does well, there is always a chance for a War Machine spin-off.  Stan Lee was brought out on stage at one point to riotous applause and chatted with the cast, trading zingers and barbs with Downey the most (he, of course, has a small part in the movie).  When approached with the idea that Marvel Films would consider teaming up a number of their characters/stars in a Avengers movie or something like it, the head of Marvel Films could only nod and say "that's definitely the plan".  Here's hoping that each of you will get a chance to see this footage (legally) sometime soon as it looks absolutely amazing as Iron Man outstrips a pair of fighter jets in the final scenes of the clip, armor shining in the sun.  With lots of comedy, and tons of action, this still looks like the movie to beat in May 2008.

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