The current Marvel Studios move to consolidate the disparate Marvel movie franchises — Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk, maybe Daredevil, maybe Punisher — into a single Marvel universe is a tremendously exciting development. We know we’re getting another Iron Man movie, a Thor movie, and a Captain America movie that all set the table for an Avengers movie. Only a wave of economic mutilation can stop us from seeing Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury ordering the Avengers to protect the earth from a Kree-vs-Skrull-related calamity.

Unless Iron Man 2 turns out to throw the franchise away before it really gets going. Playing off a leaked casting call for the sequel, Comic Book Movie speculates that the movie’s going to feature the Black Widow and… Crimson Dynamo.

If you’re not familiar with Crimson Dynamo, he’s the Russian version of Iron Man and part of an command-economy version of the Avengers known as the Soviet Super-Soldiers. Without the Soviet Union, they don’t really… work. Not long ago there was a Bendis-penned New Avengers plot where the Sentry basically smoked them, if I recall correctly. Bringing him into the franchise doesn’t really make sense. For a movie-going audience, you’re introducing a Russian version of Iron Man despite there being no pressing Russian threat. Or are we supposed to believe that Crimson Dynamo augurs the head-rearing of Vladimir Putin?

I don’t know. Hopefully Comic Book Movie is reading too much into this.