As Stan Lee intended it, the steel armor suit is a metaphor for Stark hiding and protecting his vulnerable self. His progression to becoming a superhero is not only the result of a terrifying experience where he escaped his terrorist kidnappers, but it's also a personal odyssey of self-discovery and realizing one's actions have real-world, no matter how unintentional, consequences. Beneath the sarcasm, conceited irreverence and swollen-headed confidence, there is a fragile, self-deprecating and insecure man. And the filmmakers take advantage of this when seeing Stark change his worldview.įor me, this is the key reason why Iron Man works so well. Specifically, the story retains the character's troubled and estranged relationship with his father as a major part of his personality.
As an arrogant and boastful billionaire with a witty, snarky tongue to match, the adaptation is both a departure from the source material and amazingly faithful. Of course, part of the movie's success comes from Downey and the filmmakers tailoring the character to better fit his talents. But much like how the public initially shrugged off Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's Batman thirty years ago, moviegoers and comic book fans everywhere were pleasantly surprised by the actor. playing the wealthy playboy and industrialist Tony Stark, whose superhero alter ego is essentially a weaponized metal suit, seems like an improbable match. At first glance, the idea of Robert Downey, Jr.