I just saw this film for the first time yesterday. Iron Man was not a character I had any familiarity with either, it was all new to me too.
The first thing that’s apparent within the Marvel universe - if Spiderman is their equivalent of Superman (both have a blue & red costume and both work for a newspaper), then Iron Man is definitely their answer to Batman - both are eccentric millionaires without any actual superpowers other than what gizmos are built into their costumes.
Speaking of which - how many gadgets does Iron Man have in that big suit of his, eh? It’s almost as if James Bond had said to Q, “I want to be a superhero” and Q had obliged! I hasten to add I don’t mean that in a bad way!
One thing that stuck out in my mind was how obvious it was, even for a newcomer like myself, that Obadiah Stane was going to be the bad guy even from his very first photographic appearance in the flashback prologue of Stark’s early life. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily, there were such a small number of main characters that you knew there was going to be one traitor so what the hell. It’s when there’s a large cast of characters and it’s obvious early on who the snake-in-the-grass is going to be that there’s a problem.
One thing I really did like was the way the relationship with Pepper Potts was kept on a strictly “will they-won’t they” level, and unresolved (at least in this first film, I don’t know how it progresses in the sequels but I’m guessing they end up together).
The biggest flaw in this film, as with Spiderman, was the time taken to set things up in the early part. They could again probably have trimmed off a few bits here and there.
Still on the whole, I thought it was all right. The way Stark’s character is introduced and how he developed his conscience is excellent, the playboy arms maker who sees firsthand what his weapons are actually doing and realises something needs to be done about it. Also his willingness to admit to being Iron Man - pretty unique among superheroes. Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker all go to massive lengths to hide their identities. This makes for a fascinating departure from the norm. Makes me wonder whether he had any particular motive for doing so. Maybe there’s something about it in the sequels.
As for the comment of the big finale between the hero and a villain with basically the same set of powers, yes, it can be overdone, but if used sparingly it would be the perfect finale to the franchise closer. Thundercats’ first season ended with “Fond Memories” in which Mumm-Ra became an evil version of Lion-O for the real thing to battle. Of course, that still ended with the usual gimmick but still . . .
Actually the best example of a hero having to face an enemy who is actually a version of himself occurs in Defenders Of The Earth - we covered this in ROCKS 2A-2D, look up the episode “Flash Times Four”. Flash Gordon has to beat not one but four robot clones of himself created by Ming. It’s arguably his best episode in the whole series (most of Flash’s episodes had room for improvement, this was one of the two episodes he had that was top quality).
But I digress - Iron Man. Yes, enjoyable. I think I enjoyed it more than Spiderman or Fantastic Four.