The media narrative around Iron Man 3 is growing. The details around the plot can be pieced together from multiple source on the web. What is the takeaway? By in large, the reaction to the film seems universally good. The feeling that this will be a character driven movie is coming through. At the end of the day, this is perhaps the most important element I have garnered from the coverage.
One of the looming questions for Marvel Studios is can they continue to produce films that will engage the audience. To accomplish that, they need to continue to evolve the narrative linking the Marvel Cinematic Universe together and do that while adding depth and texture to the stories that allows everyone to find something they can enjoy. From all account they accomplishing that goal.
Can the comic books that inspired the films accomplish the same thing?
To begin with, I really do like the idea of reading a comic about comics. I think it's a great idea and it's very well executed. As I was reading the first two chapters, I was surprised at how many examples there were of art in recent (and ancient, in some cases) history that are variations of "sequential visual art" and thus the foundations of modern comics. I'd never even thought about it before and it was hard to believe how many different kinds there were. I also love all the discussion about how our human brains automatically interpret certain images in a specific way, how we see others constantly but we identify ourselves when we look at cartoons, and how inanimate objects automatically becomes extensions of our bodies. The pyramid of styles was very interesting too as a way to conceptualize and almost graph or "place" a specific art style in comics. In Comic Book Nation , I enjoyed reading about the evolution of early comics from "funnies...
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