When I first got wind of the Marvel/Ed Norton controversy, I immediately assumed it was Ed Norton’s fault. I’ve now changed my mind. Marvel has officially screwed over Jon Favreau, rejecting him as the director for the upcoming Avengers film, in favor of the cheaper Joss Whedon. Apparently the success of Iron Man couldn’t convince the very cheap Marvel Studios to meet Favreau’s quote. After all, a movie’s success has nothing to do with the director, right? Upon doing further research, I’ve realized that Favreau and Norton are not alone. Marvel replaced Terrance Howard with Don Cheadle for the Iron Man sequel, reportedly because Marvel felt Howard’s performance was too weak to warrant his hefty paycheck. That might be true. But what about Samuel L. Jackson? Certainly his problems with Marvel weren’t based on performance. When Jackson negotiated his deal for Avengers, he made his frustration public. He said, “there seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world so [they’re saying to me], ‘We’re not making that deal.'” Well, at least Marvel’s consistently cheap. If you’re gonna screw over one person, you might as well screw over everyone.