Marvel unveils surprise plan to keep making Marvel movies
In between strutting the halls and slapping the lunch trays out of the hands of other, lesser comic-book monopolies, Marvel asserted its dominance at Comic-Con not only with a showy, goofy Iron Man 3 panel where Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle made implicit dick jokes, but even more so with the announcement of "Phase Two." It's an overarching project title that encompasses a lot of second acts after the big show-stopper of The Avengers—most importantly, the first sequels for Captain America and Thor, which now bear the subtitles The Winter Soldier and The Dark World, respectively. While Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige didn't offer too many details on either, speculation has already been fueled by the implication that, as in the comics, Winter Soldier could refer to a return for Captain America's sidekick Bucky Barnes, as well as a recent Collider interview in which Feige said that the next Thor film would explore his relationship with Natalie Portman's Jane more deeply. So obviously The Dark World refers to the realm created by the love of two people, which remains shrouded in darkness by the fact that they've only known each other for like three days.