When journeyman actor Jon Favreau wrote and directed his first movie, Made, a disorganized crime caper, in 2001, with himself and his buddy Vince Vaughn in the lead roles, you can bet he never dreamed he’d graduate to calling the shots on a $US165 million superhero movie.

I doubt he ever had such grandiose notions either when he subsequently directed the unsubtle Will Ferrell comedy Elf or the fantasy adventure Zathura. So how in the world did he end up at the helm of Iron Man, the first movie produced and self-financed by Marvel Studios, which, judging by the initial reviews, looks set to be a massive hit when it opens worldwide on May 2 (May 1 in Oz)?

Simple really. Marvel’s faith in Favreau is yet another sign that comic book-based movies have progressed into a whole new realm, creatively and financially, far beyond their cheesy origins as low-budget affairs such as 1989’s The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren; 1994’s The Fantastic Four, executive produced by Roger Corman; and 1996’s The Phantom, which Catherine Zeta-Jones, who co-starred with Billy Zane, would probably wish to forget.

Studios have successfully gambled on hiring indie directors who bring an intelligence, smart humour and depth in characters to what was once a pulpy art form. Sam Raimi proved the wisdom of that strategy when he jumped from writing and directing micro-budget fare like Evil Dead and Darkman to masterminding the Spider-Man franchise in 2002.

Likewise, Brit Christopher Nolan moved seamlessly from making Memento and Insomnia to helming Batman Begins in 2005. So it was a logical step for Nolan, now 37, to take charge of The Dark Knight, which opens in July.

“It’s nice that you have all of these guys coming out of independent films who don’t resent big movies – it’s not like the ‘70s where the system is keeping us down; we’re people who grew up loving movies and the reason we’re doing small movies is because we don’t know any better or have the resources,” says Favreau, 41.

“So you see Peter Jackson, Chris Nolan and Bryan Singer finding a way to bring integrity and a sense of fun to these big movies. It’s not one that a director is doing apologetically, they’re doing it because they’re excited about it and they love it. I get to play with all of the toys, build the suits, CG, all of these great sets. With the indie background, all you have is character – that’s your car chase. Your car chase is a funny scene, your big explosion is two people having a conversation that’s interesting. It sort of sharpens those tools so that by the time you have all these great storyboard artists and designers and CGI wizards coming in, you’re not relying on that, just hammocking between those set pieces.”

Iron Man overturns the traditional notions of how you cast superhero movies, with 43-year-old Robert Downey Jr. as the billionaire industrialist turned saviour of the world, flanked by Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard (who was Oscar nominated for his lead role in Hustle & Flow).

Of course the superhero has long been a mainstay of Hollywood movies, since Christopher Reeves pulled on the tights in 1978’s Superman, with Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor and a cameo from Marlon Brando as the Man of Steel’s pop. (The Man of Steel first appeared in Action Comics volume one back in 1938).

Comic books, together with a hefty number of graphic novels, have crawled out of their geekdom origins and clicked with mainstream audiences, despite the occasional critical or commercial misfire such as Catwoman, Ghost Rider and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

It will be fascinating to see how this year’s crop of comic book inspired movies compares with the benchmarks like Spidey. After Iron Man, the line-up includes Speed Racer (based on Japanese anime cartoon Mach GoGoGo), The Incredible Hulk, The Dark Knight, Wanted and Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.

The real pioneer of the superhero business is Stan Lee. The former president and chairman of Marvel Comics, in collaboration with several collaborators, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, and numerous other characters.

Now aged 85, the tireless Lee is still using his ingenuity to invent properties for various media, including the big screen, via his company POW! Entertainment. He’s written three projects for Walt Disney Pictures: Nick Ratchet, to be directed by Richard LaGravenese (P.S. I Love You) from a screenplay he’s writing; Blaze, scripted by Gary Goldman (Next); and Tigress. And he’s planning a series of CG-animated films based on a new superhero, Legion of 5, with Vancouver-based Rainmaker Entertainment and Brighton Partners.

Marvel launched Marvel Studios to seize full control of its destiny after years of licensing its properties to other studios. Backed by a revolving credit line of $US525 million, Marvel can green-light movies costing up to $165 million for a small financial outlay, and on top of the profits, it gets a producer fee of 5% of all film-related revenues.

There’s one downside- if these movies tank, Marvel will forfeit the film rights to a number of characters including Captain America, Thor, Nick Fury and the Avengers, according to The New York Times. At the Comic-Con convention on April 20 in New York, where extended footage of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk was shown to an excited audience, Marvel executives were brimming with confidence. If those movies are hits, Marvel's President of Production Kevin Feige declared, fans can look forward to new instalments in both franchises in 2009 or 2010.

Last year Lee issued 10 rules for comic book movies. Much of his sage advice could be applied to storytelling in general, such as: Keep it simple, keep it suspenseful, spend the money, and hire actors who care, even for the smaller parts.

Other Lee-isms: Don't forget what made the comic popular: “So often in transforming comics into a screenplay, they leave out the elements that made the comic book popular.”

But don’t worry too much about the fans: “They care so much that it’s important to them that everything is done just right … but it would be a bigger problem if they didn’t care. But they are bright and fair and willing to wait, and now, for instance, you can’t picture anyone else but Tobey Maguire playing Spider-Man. I think fans are sophisticated enough to know that you have to do things differently for the movies.”

Or the mythology: “Jim Cameron originally had planned to do Spider-Man many years ago, and he told me that he thought it would be better if the web came out of the hand organically rather than through a web-shooter. So there are two great filmmakers, Cameron and Sam Raimi, and they both felt it would be better the way they did it.”