Iron Man
A rampant comic book reader as a kid, I must confess some embarrassment at having been completely unware of a fairly important character in the Marvel universe. Granted, I mostly read DC Comics, but still...
This update to the 45-year-old series substitutes the original origin story during the Vietnam War with the current war on terror (Afghanistan to be exact), where billionaire weapons magnet Tony Stark is demonstrating his latest weapon of mass destruction. Afterward his convoy is ambushed and Stark is mortally wounded and kidnapped. In captivity, his devises a device to keep the small pieces of shrapnel in his arteries from entering his heart and killing him. This electromagnet can also put out quite a bit of wattage, and he uses it to power a suit of armor he constructs to escape his captors, who think he is building them a superweapon.
Once back in civilization, the free-wheeling playboy decides he has more to give to the world than killing machines and spreading his seed. Thus the birth of Iron Man, a technologically fancier version of his previous suit capable of extraordinary feats and of exacting revenge on his captors and evil doers everywhere.
Or so you would think. Instead, as the circumstances of Stark's abduction unfold, a far less interesting story than I was anticipating started to unfold. In short, and without giving too much away, Iron Man's soon-to-be nemesis is a badly miscast, poorly constructed supervillain who hijacks what had the potential to become a richly intriguing portrait of a reformed man and the woman who deserves his undying love.
That detailed portrait is drawn by the brilliant Robert Downey Jr., now on his third or fourth or fifth life in this profession—a purportedly reformed man himself. Indeed, there is a lot of Tony Stark in Robert Downey Jr. and vice versa. The pre- and post-reform Tony Stark is bar none the most interesting thing about Iron Man, not to mention a burgeoning romantic relationship with his long-time loyal assistant, Pepper Potts. Downey's and Gwenyth Paltrow's chemistry is palpable in every frame they share. If only there had been more of her and less of a dopey, one-dimensional, out-of-the-blue psychotic villain. The bad guys at the beginning would have sufficed the whole way through.
Note: If you're interested in the future of this franchise and other grand plans in the works from Marvel, stay through the credits for a very brief epilogue and special cameo.