his week The Incredible Hulk destroyed the competition at the box office, raking in a massive pile of cash totaling $55 million. It was the second major success for Marvel Studios this summer, following their shockingly good and successful Iron Man, that's made $297 million in only seven weeks. This was an important summer for Marvel as the studio was financing movies themselves for the first time. While Marvel executives were involved with the X-Men and Spiderman franchises, those movies were primarily funded and released by major Hollywood studios. But due to the enormous success of both franchises, Marvel has made enough money to start financing and producing movies themselves, depending only on Hollywood studios for distribution.

Treating talent properly is film studio ethics 101 and the inexperienced Marvel executives need to rethink how they deal with their actors and directors if they wish to succeed as a studio.

This is a major step forward for the comic book world that had been long dismissed as disposable “funny books” until the generations of children who read them obsessively grew up and started viewing superheroes as 20th century mythology. Now they are the most bankable blockbuster properties in Hollywood and the once successful but disrespected publishing company Marvel has become a burgeoning movie studio. Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk are Marvel’s first productions without Hollywood financing and their ultimate intention is to create a series of interlocking Marvel films involving the company’s infamous characters (Robert Downey Jr.’s character in Iron Man already made an appearance in the new Hulk to kick off this trend). It’s an ambitious plan, but given the history and love that fans have for the Marvel universe, it is entirely possible. These films have already reached the level of success that Marvel hoped for and their goal is entirely possible from a financial standpoint…however, the way the company has been dealing with the talent involved in their films may ruin everything.