[This is a re-post of my retrospective series in which I take a look back at the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  These articles do not contain spoilers for unreleased Marvel movies. If you know any spoilers about the unreleased Marvel movies, please do not post them in the comments section.]

2008 is the most important year in superhero films, which also makes it one of the most important years in modern movie history. It’s the year that launched superheroes to a new level, and ultimately led to “movie universes” thus pumping steroids into the traditional franchise model. 2008 would also solidify the landscape of how geek culture would view superheroes by creating two distinct tones originating from a similar character.

Iron Man was released on May 2, 2008. The Dark Knight was released on July 18, 2008. Both have come to define modern movie superheroes with one representing the lighter, happier side of comics and the other driving for a darker, grittier aspect grounded in reality. These two sides originate from the same character—a billionaire who technically doesn’t have superpowers, but who uses his wealth and genius to become a superhero after he’s personally affected by a negative event. While The Dark Knight is a singularly important film, Iron Man, through ingenuity, risk, and dumb luck, lit the fuse on a remarkable cinematic achievement that still has audiences captivated.

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Image via Marvel Studios

For a movie that worked from an outline and rehearsals rather than a script, Iron Man hits the ground running and tells you absolutely everything you need to know about Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in less than two minutes. He’s fearless in an oblivious way, he’s quick-witted, he’s a lothario, he’s arrogant, and we love him immediately. And then terrorists attack his convoy.

Director Jon Favreau crafted smart, economic way introduction to the character and inadvertently set the template for a Marvel Studios movie: It’s fun and light-hearted but also thrilling and unique, and then carried by absolutely perfect casting, although in the case of Iron Man, it’s a casting the choice the studio didn’t want at first.

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Image via Marvel Studios

Casting Robert Downey Jr. was a huge risk because he was basically uninsurable. He had too much history with drug abuse and even said in court to the judge, “It’s like I’ve got a shotgun in my mouth, with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal.”  This was the guy, talented as he was on screen, who was being entrusted to carry not only a second-tier superhero, but also Marvel Studios’ first independently produced feature.

Try to imagine another actor in that role and you can’t. Some may not even call the performance that much of a stretch since Downey tends to act like Tony Stark in interviews. He’s gregarious, charismatic, personable, but with just a twinge of cocky arrogance that’s somehow endearing. He was perfect casting, and Jon Favreau knew it, not only from seeing Downey’s performances, but also the actor’s personal life. He was a talented guy who had fallen low and was trying to make a comeback. The first shot we ever see of Tony is with a drink in his hand, which hints at arguably the most famous Iron Man story from the comics, Demon in a Bottle.

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Image via Marvel Studios

Iron Man sets that darkness aside for his debut and launches into a far more colorful tale, although it still has an unsettling tone if you look beneath the flash and glamour. Tony Stark is Bruce Wayne without the brooding, and there’s a refreshing honesty in that. Both heroes are selfish men masquerading as selfless heroes, but at least Tony’s ego is in full view. He has the honesty to make sure that his weapon—one he uses unilaterally—is the only one that can save the day and he’ll do it stylishly to boot. If Tony really only cared about “the mission”, he wouldn’t throw in the “hot-rod red”. For Tony, it’s all about ego, but because of Downey and Favreau, we find that ego endlessly captivating.

Marvel movies have become synonymous with joyous blockbusters that don’t shy away from their comic book origins, and while they occasionally dip their toe into darkness, they’re more about likable characters, bright colors, and lots of humor. Iron Man sets the tone for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and anything outside that tone (i.e. The Incredible Hulk) feels odd. Jon Favreau created a movie that’s poppy, catchy, and continues the evolution of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 by embracing the comics, but breaking through the four-color world to exist in one with a little more shading.

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Image via Marvel Studios

One of my favorite superhero movie moments is Tony testing his repulsors to fly. After smashing himself into a wall, messing up his classic cars and his laboratory, he achieves a nice level of flight, and says, “Yeah. I can fly.” It’s akin to when Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) starts swinging with his webs, but there’s a bit more attitude and cockiness to the achievement, which fits the character and signals a distinction between Iron Man and every other hero.

The charming attitude is one of the film’s various lovely tricks. In many ways, Tony Stark is a much darker figure than Bruce Wayne because Tony doesn’t brood. He doesn’t hesitate. His certainty isn’t an Achilles heel, but it’s comforting and disturbing in equal measure. Iron Man is just crafty enough to let us forget that Tony kills people without hesitation and goes far beyond defending one polluted city and turning its criminals over to the authorities. He’s taking on the world, killing people at his discretion and answers to no one. While there is something somewhat noble in Tony’s mission—trying to clean up the mess he’s made, and technically putting himself in harm’s way to do it—it’s also egomaniacal.

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Image via Marvel Studios

The Dark Knight gets a lot of credit for being a post-9/11 film since its villain is a terrorist, and the movie wonders how you deal with terrorism especially since the War in Iraq showed that an entire army couldn’t do the job. Superhero movies contain an element of wish fulfillment, and stopping street-level thugs in the post-9/11 era is too smalltime.

Both The Dark Knight and Iron Man come to the same conclusion—it takes a single figure acting unilaterally, but while The Dark Knight contemplates the darkness of that action (before ultimately celebrating it with a triumphant conclusion), Iron Man is the rah-rah hero who makes sure that the “bad guys won’t want to come out of their caves.” He’s literally in the Middle-east, and takes it upon himself to do what the military can’t. When fighter jets try to bring him down, he ends up saving one of the pilots. If we could have Iron Man, we could win the War on Terror and Tony Stark wouldn’t hesitate to drop a “Mission Accomplished” banner.

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Image via Marvel Studios

I don’t think that’s what Favreau and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige intended when they made their movie, but it’s there, and that’s not a bad thing. I don’t agree with that ideology, but I’m glad it’s lurking somewhere beneath the candy-coated surface. The flavor of the picture was their primary concern, and that’s remarkable considering that the movie didn’t have a script.

The script would become a secondary concern to Marvel as the studio would insist on getting plenty of coverage and necessary reshoots to shape the film in the editing room, but the loose feel of Iron Man gives it some bravado that may border on the outright silly, especially near the end as Obediah becomes a cartoonish figure with his secret files marked “Secret”, “Top Secret”, and “Ultra Secret” and Jeff Bridges chewing the scenery with lines like “Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps!”

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Image via Marvel Studios

Iron Man also has lots of nice little touches like having JARVIS (voiced by Paul Bettany) as a new kind of sidekick, and the simmering relationship between Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Tony that doesn’t even reach a kiss. You can also see the Marvel Studios way of storytelling taking shape with tropes that would be reused in future Marvel movies, like “the wise scientist-mentor who must die for the hero to take his next step forward”, and “the hero fighting a darker version of himself.”

More than anything, the distinct personality and bigger picture became what set Marvel apart from its competitors and started changing the game, because it was a movie full of risks, a distinct personality from its peer superheroes, and a protagonist who embraced his flaws and proudly declared, “I am Iron Man.” Tony Stark is the same guy, but a more powerful one who claimed a sense of purpose, even though that purpose isn’t entirely noble and sunny. He’s not a Dark Knight; he’s not even the hero type. And understanding why that could be a lighthearted experience made Tony Stark, Iron Man, and ultimately Marvel a force to be reckoned with.

But the story wasn’t finished.

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Image via Marvel Studios

“’I am Iron Man’. You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet,” Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) tells Tony after the credits have rolled. “I'm here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative.” Thus began one of the biggest gambles in movie history. However, the next Marvel movie didn’t know the game had begun.

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