The Daily Procrastinator

John Favreau, the accomplished director of the two Iron Man films (among others), recently gave an interview with MTV in which he commented on the next Iron Man movie and its possible villain, The Mandarin.

Iron Man 3's Villain?

“You have to do The Mandarin,” he said. “The problem with The Mandarin is, the way it’s depicted in the comic books, you don’t want to see that. He also has 10 magical rings, and it just doesn’t feel right for our thing, so it’s either tech-based or the rings are not really rings.”

“But maybe with ‘Thor’ and all those others you’ll introduce magic to that world and it won’t seem so out of place,” he said.

Okay, I LOVE what Favreau has done with the Iron Man films – he’s made ol’ Shell Head into one of the most successful comic-book movie franchises (behind Batman and a certain web-slinger which is now being rebooted), despite using a hero many non-comic book readers would consider a B-list hero – but let’s examine that last line a bit more closely: “introduce magic to that world and it won’t seem so out of place.”

Excuse me?

This is a world in which a man can create a body suit of armor in a few weeks using spare parts from stolen weapons.  This is a world in which the same man can create armor that flies at supersonic speeds and fires rockets and repulsor beams, all powered by a power cell that apparently has no ill-effects whatsoever, environmentally or physically. This is a world in which a man exposed to gamma radiation turns into a raging green behemoth when angry.  This is the same world in which a high school kid can get bitten by a radioactive spider and develop the proportional strength and reflexes (and webs!) of the arachnid.  And this is the same world in which people are born with latent fantastical powers (concussive eye-blasts, sheathed claws, the ability to control the weather, etc.) that manifest themselves at the onset of puberty.

And Favreau thinks magic would be “out of place”?

Sure, I agree that historically the character of the Mandarin has been a bit insensitive, a bit politically incorrect.  But Favreau’s not bound by that history (and the villain’s undergone a makeover recently in his comic book, anyway); look how he changed the character of Whiplash for the new film:

The comic book Whiplash

Iron Man 2's Whiplash

(By the way, anybody else notice the times Rourke wore his hair pulled up in a topknot, and how the hair had green highlights?  Well, I thought it was a clever nod.)

I’m worried, though, that Favreau thinks we movie-goers want the “real world” in our comic book movies.  Yeah, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are praised for their realistic look at the Caped Crusader, but…come on.  It’s a guy in a bat costume whose extreme wealth allows him to buy any damn thing he needs.  And the arguments for the movies’ realism also ignore the incredible coincidences (and the impossible physics) that allow Batman to win the day.  Any discussion of “realism” and comic book movies completely misses the point of superheroes: it’s their extraordinary nature that leads us, the audience, to wonder, to be inspired, to dream.

I guess what I’m arguing is that magic in the Marvel Universe is just another power.  In a world where men and women fly or can lift buildings or turn invisible, what’s the difference if someone chants a few words and something fantastic happens?  And here’s a chance for Favreau to move beyond the technology themes he’s developed in the films so far, and address what can be considered technology’s opposite: mysticism. Favreau’s now made two movies that match Iron Man up against another technological terror; the Mandarin, though, comes from a very different tradition than Stark, and the east vs. west conflict represented by Stark and the Mandarin is and will continue to be relevant for the foreseeable future.

Movie-goers buying a ticket to an Iron Man movie aren’t going into it expecting realism – we want escapism.  We want to see what we’ve never seen before; we want to marvel at the feats of our heroes, we want to be entertained.    The magic of the Mandarin shouldn’t be a stumbling block for Favreau, it should be an opportunity for him to make some more of his own.