Shane Black Talks Iron Man 3

So Shane Black is directing Iron Man 3.  We now know he's writing it too.  And he had this to say about Tony Stark's final adventure.

"'Iron Man 3' will not be another 'two men in iron suits fighting each other' film,"  "Instead, it will be more like a Tom Clancy-thriller, with Iron Man fighting real world villains."

In some ways, this sounds remarkably spot on.  Iron Man seems to work best when dealing with real world issues rather than more classic supervillains.  Tony Stark is just at home fighting terrorist threats as he is joining up with the Avengers.  The best action scene in the first Iron Man was Tony tearing apart tanks a desert somewhere off in the Middle East.  Not to mention Warren Ellis' character defining story arcs which showed us Tony in a world of conspiracies and espionage.  And the Mandarin actually fits into this perfectly.  The 10 Rings are a terrorist cell, and the Mandarin is a part of that threat.  Now, I still want to see Tony fight the Mandarin in an epic clash.  Fighting against rogue forces is awesome, but Iron Man must battle the Mandarin to win the day.  This is like, comic book 101.

We also have the rumor of "no crossovers".  The first thing we have to do is ask what exactly this might mean.  Are we going to see no extra characters whatsoever?  This I could live with, as long as SHIELD is still around.  You can't have intelligence operations and espionage without SHIELD.  And as much as I want to see a Captain America cameo, it's not something I need.  Additional appearances and extra touches should only be ever added if they can add to the story, or are small enough so that they don't detract from the story and help make the universe a richer place.  So while I'm okay with limiting the influence of outside characters, I see absolutely no reason to take the story outside of the Marvel Universe and it's wonderful continuity.

So is this more isolated approach for the best?  I think so.  Just like the comics, the solo titles need to focus on the main character and their own supporting cast.  Could the Black Widow appear in Thor 2?  Sure, but she doesn't have to play a large role.  Give each character their own time to shine, and let them mash it up together in the Avengers.  Y'know, exactly like it happens in the comics.