Marvel: A Lazy-Ass Superman

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If Stark Pictures couldn’t pull it off, then at worst this technology would just be thrown down the drain. But if it worked, Henry would have accelerated the development of film production technology—and carved himself a slice of a very large pie.

After all, Henry’s contract with Tony Stark clearly stipulated that any technology developed under Henry’s leadership would grant him 50% of the patent rights and resulting profits.

It wasn’t everything, but considering that legal matters and market promotion would still require the Stark Pictures brand and corporate backing, splitting profits down the middle was perfectly acceptable.

Besides, for Henry this was almost like finding money on the ground. This path had never even existed in his original life plan.

Even if Henry wanted to form his own company and monopolize everything, he’d still have to bear legal and promotional costs—likely far exceeding that fifty percent.

Otherwise, how could anyone calmly accept such enormous wealth while surrounded by wolves and tigers? It wasn’t as if he could rely on Kryptonian fists to punch them all into submission. And if it really came to throwing punches, he might as well just rob them outright—why bother with patents, technology, or business deals?

Besides, in the film industry, 1995 was a particularly important year.

Back in 1986, Steve Jobs had acquired the computer animation division of Lucasfilm and established Pixar Animation Studios. In 1995, Pixar—together with the entertainment giant Disney—would release Toy Story, the world’s first fully computer-animated feature film.

This project had been in development since 1990.

Jobs’ original intention had been to sell his image-processing computers—hardware, not movies. He wanted to compete head-on with Apple, the company he had founded and then been forced out of, and reclaim his pride.

Who could have guessed that things would turn out this way? Profits from making an animated film far outstripped anything he could earn by selling hardware alone. Pixar ended up pivoting on the spot, abandoning its original mission to focus on animation.

Now it was easy to see why Jobs would later sell Pixar and desperately return to Apple. Competing with Disney in animation wasn’t his strength—hardware was.

In any case, this marked a clear and irreversible trend: computers were entering the film industry.

And after five years of development, Pixar had likely already mastered a substantial amount of technology related to computer-based film processing.

Fortunately, Pixar was focused on computer animation films and hadn’t yet truly stepped into full digital film production. But for Henry—who was jumping into this field late—the feeling of time waiting for no one couldn’t have been clearer.

That was why, when he heard the equipment department director speak—barely stopping short of openly calling for Tony Stark’s help—Henry merely smiled with confidence.

"You don’t seriously think Mr. Tony Stark brought me here just to collect a paycheck and do nothing, do you?" Henry said.

"I already have concrete results regarding upgrades to filming equipment technology. What we need now is collective brainstorming to refine it further.

"The relevant equipment is in my car. When I toured the company earlier, I noticed an unused soundstage. Equipment department staff can head there first—bring along a few more engineers to observe. I’ll take some people with me to move the equipment.

"As for the other department heads, proceed according to today’s meeting decisions. Everything is documented in the approved files returned to you. If anyone has free time and interest, you’re welcome to observe at the soundstage as well."

Henry acted decisively. Once the instructions were given, he led the administrative staff waiting outside the conference room away, leaving only a couple of people behind to clean up.

A group wheeled carts down to the parking lot and unloaded the equipment from Henry’s Cadillac—custom-built filming gear he had originally made to help train Charlize Theron’s acting, including a projector.

For post-production, he didn’t bring the hand-built computer he’d made himself. Instead, he installed the software on a Stark i486 computer he’d purchased more than four years earlier and brought that into the company.

By the time the equipment was wheeled into the designated soundstage, nearly all the executives from the meeting had arrived—along with a few extra faces.

Today was a full-on firepower demonstration, so Henry had no intention of sending anyone back to work. Even if he didn’t need flattery, he needed as many people as possible spreading word of the new equipment.

Several balding engineers were practically glowing with excitement as they crowded around the homemade setup. With many components exposed—wires and connectors visible—it looked unfinished.

But that raw mechanical aesthetic was exactly what engineers loved most. Instinctively, they began analyzing it piece by piece, confidently naming functions and identifying component brands.

Then they realized something unsettling: more than half of the components had functions they couldn’t identify.

Henry didn’t rush to explain. Instead, he personally set up the camera and connected it to the projector and the computer.

Unlike his home, the company didn’t have an easy white wall for projection. Fortunately, Stark Pictures specialized in filming equipment—pulling a projection screen from storage was trivial.

By the time the screen was up, Henry had finished assembling everything. He hadn’t let anyone else help—teaching them now would’ve taken longer than just doing it himself. There would be plenty of time for research later. Right now, everyone wanted results.

Once everything was ready, Henry clapped his hands to draw attention.

"Gentlemen, this is a digital filming system I developed at home.

"The footage is stored on high-capacity hard drives—the same kind used in ordinary computers—instead of film or tape. We can play it back immediately, or import it into a computer for post-production.

"Now, let’s have a colleague stand in front of the camera. We’ll record a short clip and play it back so everyone can see the results. Who wants to volunteer as a model?"

The fantasy of performing in front of a camera was something almost everyone harbored, especially people working in a film company.

Hands didn’t exactly shoot up en masse, but Henry didn’t need to single out any unwilling victims.

One lucky guy stepped in front of the camera. He looked around awkwardly, unsure what to do, and asked shyly, "What should I do?"

Standing behind the camera, Henry asked, "Have you seen Forrest Gump?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then give us the ’life is like a box of chocolates’ line. Feel free to improvise."

The man immediately put on what he thought was a simple, honest expression—though to everyone else he just looked goofy—and delivered an improvised version of:

"Momma always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get."

To everyone’s surprise, the idiot even slipped in a dirty joke.

The men chuckled knowingly, and even the women laughed along.

It was fortunate that the internet wasn’t yet advanced enough to support video uploads—otherwise this clip of a goofball cracking a dirty joke would’ve gone viral instantly, a guaranteed case of social death.

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