So I’m sure many comic book fans of Marvel know of the Marvel Crossover event “Siege” Which was published in 2010. It received mixed reviews from Fans but still it managed to be one of the more popular Marvel cross over titles of this century. The story line follows Norman Osborne who is now head of a “peace keeping” organisation (Kinda like S.H.E.I.L.D) and is being manipulated by Loki to lead a full scale attack on Asgard. However, Captain America assembles his Avengers and show the Iron Patriot (Osborne) and his Dark Avengers what for!

I felt that after reading this and connecting the dots this could really work as a movie and I wondered If Joss is planning on building this storyline in Marvel’s Phase II films.

How could this story work in the Marvel Studios Universe you say?… Well alright, I’ll tells ya!

First of all!

Obviously Norman Osborne is part of the Spider-Man franchise that Sony holds the rights to (cinematically speaking) so there would have to be some sort of replacement for him…. How about this guy http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120602143061/marvel-cinematic-universe/images/0/05/Justin_Hammer.png ? (If you were to lazy to click the link) Justin Hammer. Do you remember him from “Iron Man 2”? Played by the brilliant Sam Rockwell. While “Iron Man 2” seemed to be many of the fans least favourite of the Phase 1 Marvel Films, Sam Rockwell in my opinion was flawless in his role as the ego centric CEO of HAMMER INDUSTRIES; business rival to Tony Stark . In “Iron Man 2” he tries to develop his own version of the Iron Man suit, as we all know he fails and hires Ivan Vanko to build him one… of course he doesn’t do it, but! During the later part of the film he decks out one of the early prototype Iron Man suits that Rhodey steals from Tony after their fight, creating War Machine! Blah blah blah, the big climax to “Iron Man 2” yada yada yada, BUT WAIT! Justin Hammer is taken away from the police and says to Pepper that “He will be seeing her again soon, real soon!” could that be an empty threat or might we see him again?… Also, did I mention before that Norman Osborne’s equivalent to S.H.E.I.L.D in the comics is called H.A.M.M.E.R?… Could Justin’s name be a coincidence or are they trying to build something?

Flash Forward to “Iron Man 3” and we see something that looks a lot like the suit of Iron Patriot in the comics being worn by Rhodey, who is of course War Machine, the producers have said that this is the War Machine costume, just with a new paint job. However, could it be so crazy that seeing as though Justin Hammer customised the suit he feels that it’s his right to own the suit? Could this lead him to steal the suit back from Rhodey during “Iron Man 3” and take his vengeance on Tony once and for all?

As for the whole attack on Asgard angle and how it could work cinematically, we know from “The Avengers” that Earth is cautious about Asgard. Nick Fury claims they have been building weapons of mass destruction with the tesseract as a defence against Asgard because of the Destroyer that was sent by Loki that “Levelled” a small town in “Thor”. So we as the audience know that there is a sense of fear and tension between Earth and Asgard, especially from Loki’s second attack that was seen in “The Avengers” when he nearly levelled New York! The other world leaders in “The Avengers” that spoke to Fury at the end of the film seem to be very cautious of the fact that Loki has been simply sent back to Asgard and has not felt the justice from the people of Earth from what he did. Sure, The Avengers took care of him and foiled his scheme… but even the heroes themselves are being called for questioning by Politicians to “answer” for the devastation that has been done to New York City. This could mean that there is political unrest over the topic of super human beings, including the Avengers, which could lead to maybe Justin Hammer, with his “Newly Acquired” Iron Patriot costume, calling for “Justice” for New York. Also, we still don’t know much about “Thor: The Dark World” yet, maybe we will see another attack from another realm towards earth that could cause chaos and then be blamed on Thor, Super heroes and the people of Asgard itself. In the story line of Siege in the comic books, H.A.M.M.M.E.R has replaced S.H.E.I.L.D as a peace keeping force after the events of Secret Invasion where Skrulls were able to compromise S.H.E.I.L.D’s StarkTech technology and the government blames it all on Tony Stark, head of S.H.E.I.L.D (In the comics that is!). So in “Thor: The Dark World”, “Iron Man 3” or any of the Marvel Phase II films, we could see a similar situation arise where S.H.I.E.L.D or the Avengers have failed to keep the peace and is replaced by H.A.M.M.E.R led by none other than Justin Hammer who would then strive for the “Justice” against Loki for what he has done. Little do the government know that he has been possessed by Loki.

This brings me onto the next reason why It would work well and be a plausible idea, Loki. Tom Hiddleston can reprise his role as Loki and manipulate Justin Hammer to do his dirty work. Everyone who saw Thor and The Avengers felt that Tom Hiddleston portrayed Loki with such Charisma and devious charm that people would love to seem him return to the big screen. We know in the comics that Norman Osborne has that other homicidal character inside him, (If people don’t know… The Green Goblin, DUH!) , and we know that this entity plays becomes a sort split personality within Osborne. What I suggest Is to keep this Split Personality alive with Justin Hammer and have Loki possessing Hammer (like the green goblin to Norman) and make him do unspeakable things that he might not be able to have the balls to do otherwise e.g Kill People. Loki can tempt him by promising him Vengeance on Stark and gain power and influence on earth while Loki himself has his own quest, to finally take over and be ruler of Asgard after it has been overthrown by Hammer as the Iron Patriot. Sam Rockwell himself has been known to play some dark and disturbed individuals in the past E.g “Wild Bill” Wharton from The Green Mile, Sam Bell in Moon etc so it’d be great to see him take it up another notch by developing the character of Justin Hammer and playing him out now to be the humiliated, power hungry, dangerous man he would be and become a formidable villain in the shape of the Iron Patriot. This “twisting of the knife” could be what Joss Whedon is alluring to, seeing this demented, humiliated, power hungry man could be very dark to see on screen. Especially if he is being possessed by the god of Mischief who could only be amused by Hammer’s torment.

Of course I am not suggesting to stick entirely to the story of Siege. For example building up the Thunderbolts would take up a lot of Screen Time and would need to be introduced in some of the other Phase II films before The Avengers 2 or 3 but to take elements from it and flesh it out with other notable Marvel Cross over events and Avengers story lines, but hey Joss… I’m free to discuss Ideas!

But yeah, what do people think? Is it a good prediction/Idea? Or do you think I’m talking shit when I should be revising for an exam I have in 3 days?

P.S Yeah I know about Thanos at the end of The Avengers/Avengers Assemble that’s why I have been mentioning the idea of a third Avengers movie.