Chapter 434: Communication

Chapter 434: Chapter 434: Communication

With their worries settled, the shareholders successively stood up and left, and the crowd in the conference room gradually thinned out and dispersed.

Some secretly rejoiced that the crisis had been lifted, some silently watched the subsequent situation, and some secretly plotted the election in a month.

Only Irene deliberately slowed her pace, calm and unhurried, intentionally staying until the last and waiting for everyone to leave completely.

In the spacious and chilly top-floor conference room, only Irene and Peter Cooper, who had just been thrust into a high position in a crisis, were left in the end.

Leaping overnight from chief assistant to Marvel’s interim helmsman, Peter’s face bore no wild joy or ostentation of sudden success; instead, it was lingered with heavy caution, anxiety, and pressure.

He stood in the centre of the spacious venue with a complex expression, his eyes hiding unmaskable awkwardness and unease, and his aura tightly wound, completely lacking the high-spirited demeanour of a newly minted power-holder.

Irene stepped forward slowly, her tone calm and detached, without any condescending posture, and simply asked softly to probe: "How do you feel about just taking over such a heavy burden?"

Hearing the sound, Peter raised his head and looked at the young female shareholder before him who held a significant amount of Marvel shares. Without the slightest concealment, he honestly expressed his truest emotions from the bottom of his heart, his tone carrying a heavy sense of weight: "To be honest, I am both excited and terrified."

He exhaled a gentle breath, his gaze sincere, without a shred of falsehood:

"I am excited because I have gained the trust of the shareholders, and it is my honour to be entrusted with leading the company in a crisis. But more than that, I am afraid. Marvel is currently in a difficult situation, besieged both internally and externally, and swaying in the wind.

I am afraid that my ability is insufficient, that I cannot shoulder this heavy burden, and that any slight carelessness will make things worse for the company. I am even more afraid that in the short three-month transition period, I will not achieve sufficiently brilliant results, will be replaced by others at the next shareholders’ meeting, and ultimately fail everyone’s expectations."

This straightforward and sincere answer added a bit of approval to the depths of Irene’s heart.

Placed in a suddenly elevated high position, he was not dizzy with sudden power, nor blindly arrogant or making empty promises to build momentum. Instead, he maintained a clear understanding of his own situation, anticipated potential crises, knew how to prepare for a rainy day, and always maintained a heart of awe.

Such a calm, lucid, clear-headed, and pragmatic mindset was a hundred times more reliable than those power-holders who loved to achieve greatness and only knew how to talk big.

At least, he was far more worthy of support than the self-willed, greedy, and selfish Isaac.

With a calm gaze, Irene looked straight at him and slowly spoke, throwing out the most core probing question: "Then do you want to firmly sit in this CEO position, not just as a temporary transition, but to long-term and stably helm Marvel, leading the company out of the trough and completely turning things around?"

The question was straightforward and sharp, without the slightest circumlocution.

Peter’s figure paused slightly, a trace of determination flashed in the depths of his eyes, and without a moment’s hesitation, he nodded solemnly: "I want to."

No one was willing to be content with mediocrity, and no one was willing to miss the opportunity to hold power and control the destiny of a company.

Even if the road ahead was covered with thorns and heavy with pressure, he sincerely wanted to seize this opportunity of turning things around in a desperate situation, gain a foothold, achieve results, completely rewrite Marvel’s decline, and fulfil his own career.

"Since you want to." The corners of Irene’s lips rose slightly, her tone firm as she threw out the core question that would determine their subsequent binding relationship: "Then I want to hear, what is your view on the concept of the ’Marvel Universe’ that I previously proposed?"

This sentence was Irene’s ultimate test question.

She wanted to verify whether Peter had truly and seriously thought about Marvel’s way out these past days, whether he truly possessed the vision and pattern to helm the company, and whether he was worthy of her all-out support.

Peter instantly reined in all his thoughts, his expression suddenly becoming incomparably serious. He knew clearly that this was Irene’s core demand and the top priority for whether he could win the support of this key shareholder.

He did not hastily reply, lowering his head to ponder for a few seconds while quickly sorting out the thoughts that had settled in his mind for a long time.

"To be frank, when I first heard you propose the concept of the Marvel Universe, I felt it was too grand, too advanced, and even somewhat whimsical and unbelievable." Peter’s tone was sincere, objectively stating his initial thoughts:

"At a time when everyone was only staring at single Hero copyrights and fragmented licensing revenues, you proposed stringing all independent heroes into a unified timeline, building a shared universe system, and breaking the limitations of a single character. This model is an unprecedented and brand-new attempt across all of Hollywood."

"However, during this period of time, I have repeatedly pondered and carefully deduced it. The more I think about it, the more brilliant and feasible it feels. This is the ultimate way out that can save Marvel and lead us out of the trough."

"Currently, most of Marvel’s top-tier first-line copyrights have been sold to the outside world, and the remaining second-line heroes seem to lack popularity and have limited potential, but in fact, they contain huge integration space. Among them, the three characters Black Widow, Captain America, and Iron Man can completely serve as the opening cornerstone of the entire Marvel Universe, building a complete, closed-loop unified timeline."

"The identities, traits, and historical backgrounds of the three are perfectly complementary, capable of forming extremely strong dramatic conflicts and plot linkages. More critically, we can establish a unified ultimate villain that runs through the early universe for these three core heroes—the Hydra organisation."

The more Peter spoke, the clearer his thoughts became, and his tone grew increasingly firm, unfolding his complete conception in an orderly manner:

"Hydra has an ancient origin, a secretive force, and strong penetrability. Rooted in modern and contemporary history, it perfectly adapts to Captain America’s World War II background, can also undertake Iron Man’s modern technology confrontation system, and fits even more closely with Black Widow’s agent spy persona.

This organisation is not a single villainous entity, but a secretive force that can be infinitely extended, iteratively layered, and never completely eradicated. It perfectly matches Hydra’s core setting of ’cut off one head, two more shall grow’, and can run through multiple independent films, stringing together the personal stories of different heroes."

"Captain America represents the initial resistance against Hydra during World War II, Iron Man represents the encirclement and suppression of secretive dark and evil forces by modern technological power, and Black Widow wanders in the grey zone, deeply infiltrating and probing Hydra’s latent veins.

The three perform their respective duties, link with each other, and intersect. Solo movies establish personas, lay out plots, and plant foreshadowing; linkage movies fight team battles, burst into conflicts, and expand the worldview, step by step propping up the volume of the entire Marvel Universe.

And in the later stages after the team is fully established, they can also fight against external interstellar culture, which can also avoid the problem of unbalanced combat power."

After listening to this thorough, precise, and highly forward-looking analysis, a trace of amazement and approval quietly flashed across the depths of Irene’s eyes.

Unexpectedly, Peter not only seriously remembered the concept she had casually proposed back then, but also spent a lot of time deeply deducing, improving, and refining it, precisely capturing the dual-line opening of Captain America and Iron Man, and perfectly stepping on the initial blueprint of the Marvel Universe.

Sure enough, never underestimate anyone who can struggle at the bottom of the industry and eventually stand at the top.

People who could cultivate deeply in Marvel for many years and firmly occupy core positions were never simple; their vision, pattern, execution, and thinking power far exceeded ordinary people.

At this moment, Irene completely made up her mind.

Peter Cooper had vision, thought, understood accumulation, knew when to advance and retreat, was sober and pragmatic, not arrogant or impetuous, and understood how to bide his time as well as how to lay out plans.

Compared to the greedy, shortsighted, and self-willed Isaac, he was undoubtedly the most perfect and reliable helmsman candidate at the present stage.

Since the other party had the intention to firmly sit in the position, the ability to understand the overall situation, and the ideas to implement the layout, she would not mind pushing him along the way.

Supporting an interim CEO who shared her philosophy, had consistent goals, was completely controllable, and knew how to be grateful to completely stabilise the situation of Marvel and steadily advance the landing of the Marvel Universe blueprint was far more beneficial to her long-term layout than letting Marvel fall into internal strife again and fall into the hands of a new shortsighted power-holder.

In the spacious conference room, Irene looked at Peter before her, who had a solemn expression and eyes full of expectation, and the corners of her lips raised a faint and firm smile: "Very well. Since you understand and have thought it through, then next, do your job well. As long as you firmly move forward in this direction, I can help you firmly sit in this position."