After Iron Man hit big, it seemed like everything was coming up Marvel. The movie perfectly nailed the comic book feel that drew in geeks, while still feeling current, fresh, and welcoming to non-nerd audiences. Not only that, but the last scene had the most squeal-worthy reveal of the Summer, when it was revealed that Samuel Jackson was playing Nick Fury, and putting together a team called… The Avengers.

One million fanboy heads exploded. People who had no idea what this meant, even, freaked out on basic principal.

Then, everything started to go downhill. A timeline*:

- The Incredible Hulk is released with a thud. By no means a failure, the movie still didn’t have nearly the cross-over appeal of Iron Man. Moreso, people were generally “okay” with it, and that was it. Not a nail in the coffin, but neither was it another home run for Marvel Movies.

- The Dark Knight is released with a bang. This isn’t, in itself, a negative for Marvel. I believe pretty strongly that good comic book movies work well across the board. However, the ageless fanboy discussion of DC vs. Marvel made it’s way into the mainstream press. In this case? DC won.

- Jon Favreau isn’t signed to Iron Man 2. Marvel made a pretty big proclamation, laying out its release dates for Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers years in advance. without first locking down the director (and actors, for that matter) that made Iron Man so great. Even though Favreau, and Robert Downey, Jr. were eventually signed, this created a gigantic wave of negative press.

- Terrence Howard is Out of Iron Man 2. And the hits keep on coming. People are pretty much on board with replacement Don Cheadle. And Terrence Howard is a well known industry d-bag. But couple this with everything that’s come before, and once again, confidence in Marvel’s handling of talent is shaken.

- Punisher: War Zone sucks. Come on, even our resident Punisher expert, Pete LePage, hated it. And he saw the Thomas Jane version in theaters three times.

- Sam Jackson isn’t doing Nick Fury. This came on the heels of Marvel low-balling Mickey Rourke, which, and this is just my opinion, is fine. Mickey Rourke is a great actor, but should be limited to doing The Wrestler, and then getting drunk for the rest of his life. Not having Sam Jackson, on the other hand, is an outrage. More than a good actor for the part, Sam Jackson is, literally, the model for Ultimate Nick Fury. Not having him in the next few Marvel movies would be like not getting Eminem and Halle Berry for the Wanted movie. Oh wait…

- Warner Brothers Takes The Fight To Marvel. And here… We… Go. Remember earlier when I said it was the fanboys building up a DC movies vs. Marvel movies fight? Well, who owns DC? Time Warner, right? And what else does Time Warner own? Warner Bros. Pictures, who just released their schedule for the next two years. And guess what? Most of their major releases are going right up against Marvel’s previously announced releases. It’s not like there’s a lack of weekends in the year, so you’d expect a movie studio would clear out of the way of another major release. Other than counter-programming, you usually only get one big Summer action movie per weekend. Yet, check this out:

July 15, 2011 – Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part II (Last Harry Potter Movie) vs. The Avengers

Who do YOU think is going to flinch there? Because I don’t think it’s going to be one of the biggest series in movie history.

There is one big, shining bright spot at the end of this, that shows Marvel might be turning things around: according to Deadline Hollywood, Marvel has locked down Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury, not just for every Marvel movie… But his own spin-off film. Let’s hope this is the beginning of an upward trend, and not the last blip of light.

*By the way… This is off the top of my head, so if I get the exact order a little incorrect, flame away.