Allow us to enact a scene played out in offices across the country this week: "So didja see Iron Man? Wasn't it great? Who would've guessed that all they needed to do was fill the cast with Oscar-nominated actors and give them a fun script and good special effects? And how about that one scene? Wow!"

You know, there was a time when Marvel movies were terrible, back when DC movies ruled the cineplexes. Those were the days of the Christopher Reeve Superman and the Tim Burton Batman, and I don't care if those two movies were technically 21 years apart, because I'm making a point here. There was a Captain America movie made in 1944, and then the next Marvel-based movie wasn't until 1990, and that one was another Captain America which was so bad it couldn't even get an America theatrical release. Even though Marvel had successful comic books, they just couldn't get the movie deals together.