So in the post-credits tag for Iron Man, Fury wants Stark for the Initiative. In Iron Man 2, he's no longer suitable. In The Incredible Hulk's post-credits tag, which takes place following Fury's installation of Stark as a Consultant, he's approaching General Ross. In the Marvel One Shot 'The Consultant', we find out that Coulson and Sitwell sent Stark to talk to Ross to derail the usage of Abomination on the team... so his position as Consultant wasn't even being taken seriously. Come The Avengers, Stark is drafted to join the team even though he didn't qualify, because "it's not about personality profiles anymore". After all that senseless back-and-forth - Fury wants him, Fury doesn't want him, he's consulting, no he's not - boom, he's in The Avengers, because he needs to be - because we always knew he was going to be. It's like the flip-flopping was just a way of stalling for time, but looking back on all the movies as a whole it's confusing and annoying. Of course, it's a symptom of Marvel slowly teasing out Phase One and figuring out where all the pieces fit, but given the chance I'm sure they'd streamline it as much as possible.
Cinephile since 1993, aged 4, when he saw his very first film in the cinema - Jurassic Park - which is also evidence of damn fine parenting. World champion at Six Degrees of Separation. Lender of DVDs to cheap mates. Connoisseur of Marvel Comics and its Cinematic Universe.
