Shane Black‘s Iron Man 3 has already grossed over $700 million worldwide, and while a box office success, it isn’t unanimously beloved by critics or audiences like Marvel’s last homerun, Joss Whedon’s The Avengers.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the popular aggregate movie review website, Iron man 3 currently sits at 78% (67% among top critics). On Metacritic, a more analytical aggregate site, Black’s film currently scores 62 out of 100. To put things in perspective, two of 2012’s most divisive blockbuster films amongst fanboys, The Dark Knight Rises and Prometheus, are locked in at 84% and 74% respectively. Iron Man 2, the black sheep of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is at 73%.

In my review, I took issue with misplaced character motivations and the way co-writers Shane Black and Drew Pearce approached Iron Man’s greatest foe, the Mandarin. Well, even after a 1,300-word review, I’m still not finished talking about Iron Man 3. The only way to get over my disappointment with the third (and hopefully final) Iron Man film was to write about how great it could have been if it wasn’t, well, the movie it turned out to be.

So, in an effort to channel the passion and insanity of Patton Oswalt’s epic Star Wars/Avengers rant on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, here are some thoughts on what should have happened in Iron Man 3.

Considering Joss Whedon is the chief creative consultant for all things Marvel at Walt Disney Studios, he would have oversight on the structure of not only The Avengers 2, but any other film that precedes it. One of the biggest stories to hit the web in the past few weeks came from El Mayimbe from Latino Review. According to his inside sources, The Avengers 2 would be a segue for Hulk’s solo film, Planet Hulk, and then use the World War Hulk storyline for The Avengers 3. Previous statements made by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige seemed to support that story.

It seems to make sense. Both Planet Hulk and World War Hulk were highly successful story arcs that sold really well on comic book stands, and those two stories would fit perfectly into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Whedon is coming out and saying that not only a Hulk solo movie would be “very, very hard” to do, but a new report seems to squash all the rumors and speculations of the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe being based on the two aforementioned Hulk story arcs.

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Hello There! This is Adam Frazier and you are listening to Skull-Face Island, the official movie podcast of Geeks of Doom! As always I’m joined by Cornelius Evazan to my Walrus Man, David Allen… and the Outside Hitter for our Island Volleyball Squad, producer Tim Grant.

Today on the Show: We’ll discuss Tommy Wirkola’s‘s latest film, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, and boot-up the Geek-O-Matic TeleFax for all the latest news on Marvel’s big plans for The Hulk and The Avengers in phases 2 and 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

We’ll also wrap up our four-part series of “BEST OF THE YEAR” lists with special guest Sean O’Connell of Fandango, Movies.Com, CinemaBlend, and The Washington Post. On this installment we’ll cover the top five best films of 2012. You’ll definitely want to tune in for the insanity that ensues. I’m pretty sure Richard Parker shows up – and not Peter Parker’s father…

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Stan Lee, who almost singlehandedly (along with illustrators Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko) turned the fortunes of Marvel Comics around with his colorful and lucrative comic character creations, such as Spider-Man, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Iron Man, and Thor, and started a revolution in print and eventually television and film media which helped make him and the comic book industry a somewhat credible, facile establishment, with annual earnings reaching untold BILLIONS, turns 90 years old today!

Born in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1922 as Stanley Lieber, and growing up in poor squalor type surroundings during The Great Depression of the 1930s, Lee found his solace in plenty of books and cinema of that period, in particular the exploits of the characters made famous by old school actor Errol Flynn, best remembered for his portrayal of swashbucklers and Robin Hood. It led to Lee’s writing pastime, which then led to small time gigs where he wrote obits and press releases.

Today marks the birthday of one of the greatest, most influential, and innovative comic book artists of all time, the late Jack Kirby, responsible for creating and co-creating some of comicdom’s most well known and gold standard characters in the history of the genre – Captain America, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, and The X-Men, to name a few.

The New York Times, who had written about Kirby 10 years after his death on February 1994, by which time he had amassed a portfolio of work almost tantamount to the works of Picasso or Michelangelo in his respective field, summed up the style of the man’s art this way: