Marvel has announced the director on First Avenger: Captain America will be Joe Johnston, who most recently took over for Mark Romanek on Wolf Man, and whose previous credits include Hidalgo, Jurassic Park III, October Sky, and Jumanji.

Johnston first met with Marvel two years ago. When the two parties clicked, general talks turned into Captain America-specific meetings, with much of the project’s current direction resulting from those early conversations.

“This is a guy who designed the vehicles for ‘Star Wars,’ who storyboarded the convoy action sequence for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ ” [Marvel Studios head Kevin] Feige said. “From ‘Rocketeer’ to ‘October Sky’ to ‘The Wolfman,’ you can look at pieces of his movies and see how they lead to this one.”

Then why not hire him as the storyboard artist or the vehicle designer?  So far, all he’s been good at is visual effects.  With superhero movies, it’s the story that’s the hard part.  I smell another Fantastic Four.

Captain America is the heroic alter ego of Steve Rogers, who is rejected by the Army for being too sickly and undergoes an experiment that takes him to the pinnacle of human form. Paired with an indestructible shield, he became a symbol of the war effort, in and out of comics.

The character disappeared in the 1950s but was revived during the early era of Marvel Comics. He was reintroduced as part of the Avengers, the absence explained by having him being in a state of suspended animation during a war mission until found by the superteam.

The only way to revive this project is to cast Furry Captain America.  And if you can’t get him, I hear Gay Black Superman in Tevas isn’t doing anything.