'Iron Man' was released on May 1, 2008, setting the standard for superhero movies to come. Disney
'Iron Man' was released on May 1, 2008, setting the standard for superhero movies to come. Disney
'Iron Man' was released on May 1, 2008, setting the standard for superhero movies to come. Disney
'Iron Man' was released on May 1, 2008, setting the standard for superhero movies to come. Disney

How 'Iron Man' launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe 12 years ago


Razmig Bedirian
  • English
  • Arabic

Long before the Avengers assembled on the silver screen and the Marvel Cinematic Universe became a multi-billion dollar franchise, Iron Man was alone at the helm. The first of a 23-movie cinematic saga.

In fact, it has been exactly 12 years since Robert Downey Jr first donned the high-tech Iron Man suit on May 1, 2008. This was also before superhero flicks became all the rage.

In many ways, the Jon Favreau-directed Iron Man set the tone for all the superhero films to come. There was quite nothing like the film when Iron Man first came out. It was as adrenaline-pumping as it was funny, as slick and cool as it was suspenseful.

And though Iron Man would eventually lead the way for Marvel to claim its place as one of the highest grossing movie franchises of all time, filmmakers weren't always so sure about how the film would fare.

In fact, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige once said in an interview he wasn't even sure that Iron Man would make it into the theatres, especially since it was a B-list character.

Iron Man, which also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, and Jeff Bridges, went on to gross more than half a billion dollars worldwide, making it the eighth highest-grossing movie of 2008.

The film had a number of hurdles set against it. It was Marvel's first self-financed film and in the beginning, they had a hard time trying to get a writer on board. Producers also weren’t sure how the film would fare, especially with the murky reputation of its lead actor, Downey Jr, who was coming out of rehab and was a frequent and notorious figure in the tabloids. Still, Favreau insisted on him with a certainty that swayed the rest of the Marvel crew.

But despite everything, Downey delivered a timeless performance as Tony Stark. As exciting as Iron Man was as a superhero movie, it is the fact that the story touches upon universal themes that resonated with its audience. There was the exploration of the burden that comes with a fraught father-son relationship, and the peeling back of the ugly layers of the narcissism. It showed a flawed and self-occupied character going through an introspective journey in order to better himself.

The year 2008 may not seem so long ago, but it has been a lifetime for the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe and the superhero-movie genre. It may be a $22.5 billion (Dh82.6 billion) franchise now, but perhaps its best movie is still its first and least assured. Mainly due to the odds that were stacked against it and the retrospective knowledge of how Iron Man would draw contrails in the sky with for other superheroes to follow.

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Sheikh Zayed's poem

When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.

Your love is ruling over my heart

Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it

Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home

You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness

Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins

You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge

You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm

Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you

You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it

Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by. 

Tales of Yusuf Tadros

Adel Esmat (translated by Mandy McClure)

Hoopoe

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”