Fumarama

The folks I saw the movie with seemed in total agreement that Iron Man is a lesser comic book story, and has nothing on the Batmans, Supermans, and Spidermans of the world. And I guess they are right about parts of the origination story. Even though I cannot think of a single other character in the same position, the whole arms dealer who realizes he is responsible for all these deaths and so decides to save the world strikes me as trite. That being said, I love the way in which he becomes Iron Man. It is traditional problem solving. Stark realizes he has a problem, he has been helping destroy the world. So he comes up with a solution, turn into a superhero. (seems logical enough) and next he has to figure out and take the steps necessary to implement his chosen solution. And so the audience gets to see all the steps, the trial and error, the frustration, the joy of finally achieving it. All using nothing but his brain power and some gadgets. It is kind of like solving a legal research question. I found it all very relatable.

That, and I love that at the end he tells everyone that he is Iron Man. One of the people I aw the movie with tried to explain to me that this was some sort of joke because (I think) in the comic books the cover is always that Iron Man is Stark's body guard. Anyway, either way, I thought it was great because it made Stark so much more normal. I am sort of tired of these total self-sacrificing/scardy-cat superheros who won't tell anyone who they really are.