Superhero Media: Iron Man (2008)

As I write this, it is the last week of August 2019, Avengers: Endgame came out on Blu-Ray a couple of weeks ago, so I got to watch it and Iron Man within a couple of days of each other. It's been really interesting to see the beginning and an ending so close like that, especially as there is more than a decade between the two. In many ways, Iron Man more resembles films like Ghost Rider and Blade than much of the MCU, stripping out a great deal of the fantastic for a more "grounded" approach, something Marvel Studios would abandon a few years later with The Avengers. It made sense at the time, tie this new superhero experiment into reality so as not to alienate viewers and maybe make some money back; at the time, there was no MCU or even a plan beyond vague ideas in Kevin Fiege's head. Yes, even the famous Nick Fury post-credits sting, which is both iconic and brilliant, was a throwaway just in case Iron Man became a hit. Iron Man is, technically, an independent film, as Marvel Studios wasn't attached to any major American production company at the time, so really, the whole thing was a much bigger gamble than it appeared in retrospect. But why was Iron Man, a B-list hero at best, such a hit? 

Sorry, but there's no magic answer here, it's simply that all of the elements of Iron Man come together really well and add to to a great whole. The whole cast are great, not just RDJ, there are just enough references to excite longtime fans and the action sequences are tightly directed; I've said before that Robert Favreau is way better than he gets credit for, and I'll stand by that statement. The story is a pretty standard, striped-down Joseph Campbell hero's journey, with Tony entering the "underworld" of the Ten Rings in the opening minutes of the film. The more I watch Iron Man, the less I tend to get out of it, as the third act, especially the Iron Monger fight feels a bit tacked-on after the Golmera sequence. That said, having not watched it for years before coming back to it made me love it all over again. I think this must have been the first superhero film since Spider-Man 2 that made a huge impact on me (I came around on The Incredibles later), I'm pretty sure I saw it six times in the cinema. 

There is something about Iron Man that resonated with people, beyond the basic quality, and I tend to believe that it's not another "Batman" case of people being able to see themselves in the suit. If the fluke had just been down to the character and RDJ, then the rest of the series would have tanked, but people did end up connecting with just about every hero, even Hawkeye and Captain America. Yes, I like both those guys, but I figured they were the hardest sells. The world wasn't as "grounded" and "gritty" as people claim they wanted, it was actually pretty light and fun for the most part, especially the ending, which usurps the secret identity trope that the Batman films continue to cling to. Iron Man was something new, coming at the tail-end of the first X-Men run and being a strong contrast to the Nolan Batman trilogy. Even if you don't like the MCU films, you can't really deny that they've resonated with the public in a big way, and it started here, with Tony Start stomping out of a cave. More than a decade later, Stark will sacrifice himself to stop a fascist alien from destroying the universe. It's a hell of a ride and it starts here.