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At this year's San Diego Comic Con, the Russo brothers teased the Dr. Doom casting reveal by saying that "If we're going to bring [Doom] to the big screen, then we're going to need the greatest actor in the world to play that character." Moments later, Robert Downey Jr. pulled off a silver mask and history was made, but in the few seconds in between, you'd be forgiven for expecting to see a different Hollywood great headed back to the Marvel Universe. Of course I'm talking about Nicolas Cage.

Before I get into this week's fan-filled look at Marvel we called Marvel-Ous, let me clarify: as the title says, I don't necessarily think either Ghost Rider movie is good. Both movies lacked the edge that other Marvel horror-hero hybrid Blade nailed, an opinion that I share with Nic Cage himself, actually. That said, I think Spirit of Vengeance gets too much flack. Plus, I saw the original when I was pretty young and impressionable, meaning it still has nostalgic value for me. But neither of those reasons are what has me convinced of Cage's status as "Best Marvel actor." 

No, that comes down to the absolute commitment and complete confidence in the ridiculous that Cage displayed in the making of either movie. In case you didn't know, Nicolas Cage went full method in Spirit of Vengeance, a process he best detailed in a 2012 interview with Movies.ie. There's so much wild stuff you're going to read if you click the link, including that Cage painted his face to look like a skull, wore contacts during filming that made his eyes jet black, and sewed Egyptian artifacts and rocks with "alleged frequencies" into his clothes while filming. All of this would produce an "aura of horror" about Cage that "led me to believe maybe I really was this spirit of vengeance."

Cage explains that his acting on the Marvel sequel came from a theory of ancient shamanism.

"What this Shaman would do," Cage says, "is he would go into an altered state of consciousness to try and find answers and solutions to give to the village people that were there [...] when you think about it, it was a way of channelling the imagination to talk with spirits to give answers to the village."

"So I thought," Cage continues, "‘Well because I’m dealing with this supernatural character, why don’t I try a little bit of that and see what happens?’" 

Now we know exactly what happened, probably best represented in the behind-the-scenes image below:

You hear a lot of talk these about how "grounded" comic book fare should be. Some argue that it's best to take the Dark Knight Trilogy's approach to superheroes, while others point out American comic characters' long history of high camp. Nicolas Cage proved that the distinction is moot, that for some characters who debuted in the technicolor worlds of Marvel and DC, the only way to act is ridiculous... and in a deadly serious way, at that.

Find yourself in the Marvel U with our MCU watch order, best Marvel Comics list, all of the MCU movies ranked, and our weekly column on all things Marvel - Marvel Matters.