Come on even the most militant fan of “The Dark Knight” has to admit that at one point “Iron Man” completely stole the thunder from the marketing campaign Nolan and Warner Bros. steamrolled in to theaters and for a short while it looked like the sequel to “Batman Begins” was doomed to be an under performer. It was a brief window but surely enough Marvel took the steam from the Big Eared One. And why wouldn’t it? Marvel has done it again. Sitting down to watch “Iron Man” is an incredible experience and one that warrants at least three or more viewings for any fan of comic books. If you’re a hardcore comic book geek like I am, you’ll know that “Iron Man” had every chance to be a steaming pile because the character has always been a third rate joke in the Marvel Universe.

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Director John Favreau commits a fantastic feat with “Iron Man”: He makes the character interesting. Iron Man has always been a second tier character of the Marvel Comic Universe who was never taken too seriously by avid comic fans. He was boring, and more often than not, lame. Stark was always a very unsympathetic figure of the Marvel mythos, and his ability to be taken down by almost anyone who ripped through his armor to get to the man, rendered him rather forgettable and often satirized. So what does Favreau do? He takes the character and turns him into a hero we want to see. Every adaptation of the character has been bland. Until now that is, where with pitch perfect casting and sharp writing, the character of Iron Man becomes an amazing presence on screen, and even better, Tony Stark becomes an alter ego we can care about, laugh with, and root for.

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