Iron-Man, the hero who (no one wanted) saved Marvel

Marvel didn't have a good time in the 90's, the comic book industry was already in decline and the only experience Marvel had in the movies were two cancelled cheap movies and Howard the Duck. Things were going very bad so bad that in 1993 Marvel didn't have much money so they sold the movie rights to their most famous characters and declared bankruptcy!

So Universal bought the Hulk, the mutants went to Fox, Blade went vampire hunting with New Line and most importantly Spider-Man went to Sony. Something that would end up being the best decision they could have made because over time these superheroes proved their potential in the hands of other companies. Not all were successful but some hit the jackpot. First Blade, then the X-men and then Spider-man who at the time broke the record for the most successful superhero movie passing the DC giants who up to that point dominated the market. Marvel realized that their characters could make it on the big screen, and selling to us was the best idea because in the 90's Marvel only had money to make low quality movies, they would never have been successful but they were still listed as producers of these new sagas and took a small portion of the profits that helped them out of bankruptcy, and with that money they decided to make the biggest bet in its history.

Marvel paid the loan of ten characters they had already sold to adapt them in the same universe and all because there was a producer named Kevin Feige who dreamed of the crazy idea of putting them together in a movie but for that they had to start with the right foot because if this project failed they would lose millions, being in a worse economic situation than they already were and perhaps canceling the trial completely. There were many reasons to doubt why they chose to start with a hero that not many knew. Iron Man was not popular and was not loved by the entertainment industry. In the 90's he was bought by Universal who did nothing with the character, then they sold him to Fox and the only thing they did was to sell it to New Line who was in talks with Tom Cruise to make a movie but it ended in nothing and they gave it back to Marvel.

Fast forward to 2008 and 'Iron Man' would be the first step in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They started with the controversial decision to hire Robert Downey Junior as the main character, an actor in decline with an image tarnished by his addictions and problems with justice, something alarming but similar to the character of Iron Man.

Tony Stark is not a stereotypical hero, he is not innocent or humble, nor did he have a bad childhood. He is an alcoholic millionaire who sells weapons and maybe that's why he has never been made into a movie before, because of the risk of people disliking him, but we all like a story of redemption.

The introduction says a lot about his personality, the first time we see him is with a glass of whiskey among some military men bragging about how he slept with two supermodels and all to the sound of his favorite band AC-DC.

We go back in time and take a look at the life of Tony Stark, a technological genius who inherited everything from his father and now commands the largest arms industry in the country despite being criticized for contributing to the war, he has a clear conscience because his father founded this industry to defeat the Germans. But times have changed and the company is

is now in the hands of Tony and his partner Obadiah Stane who was a friend of his father. Unbeknownst to them Tony makes deals with people who should not be sold weapons, that's how he is kidnapped by terrorists.

But why would a person who has everything become a superhero?

What we all remember about this part is that he was saved by his ingenuity but there is a very underrated character who helped create Iron Man's first suit, Dr. Yinsen. He saved his life from the explosion by placing a magnetic device in his heart, the tyrants locked him in a cave with Tony to put together a missile which he starts to do because he has a family which Tony has lacked since he was a child. On the sly they made a suit of armor planning an escape. When the day came Yinsen sacrificed herself to distract the guards while Tony finished initiating the mechanical suit saving his life for the second time.

Tony made his way to the exit ignoring all the gunfire and wanted to save Dr. Yinsen so he can see his own again but the Doctor reveals that his family was already dead, the tyrants ravaged his town and all they want is to make them pay for that's why he helped him build the suit. Tony knows he is to blame for the death of Yinsen and his family because the criminals are using his weapons so he burned down the whole camp and escaped.

Now Tony has a mission and it is not to save people just because the right thing to do is to save people to make up for those who died because of him. Tony's conflict revolves around his ego and wanting to clear his conscience. For a person who always achieved what he wanted in his life to become a superhero is not such a crazy idea. He always knew what it meant to sell weapons, it just took a little shock therapy to realize how important it was, so he upgraded his heart technology by compressing the giant reactor into a small piece and stopped selling weapons.

But the moment he became iconic and what was crucial to the success of this character was the redesign of his costume.

It is without a doubt the most epic costume in Marvel history and on top of that it fits his personality perfectly because it is brilliant, flashy and looks like a Ferrari transformer. It's not just armor, it's swagger. Iron Man shows no mercy to enemies, Tony kills a few bad guys while saving a couple of innocents and other terrorists he leaves at the mercy of the people to do whatever they want to them, you can tell that Marvel had not yet been bought by Disney.

Not before reaching the final design Tony had several prototypes that helped Marvel to sell merchandising and this sounds like a small detail but the business of collectibles and action figures sell a lot more than the movies themselves and that is the reason why in every Marvel movie the protagonists always change costumes. Tony had several stumbles before he got to the final version. We saw him propelling himself like a rocket and crashing to the ground so many times that when he manages to fly smoothly you're celebrating with him. You miss Jarvis' voice saying thrusters at maximum alert energy at 23%, it made it feel real, like flying a homemade airplane, not like the Wakandan technology that is practically magic. The Iron Man I suit has its limits, for example it can't fly too high and it's something that is set up just for later use.

Yinsen's line where she calls him "the man who has everything but has nothing" makes Tony reflect on what truly matters in life and he begins to notice more of his assistant Potts who is the closest thing he has to a family.

Pepper Potts has seen Tony at his best and worst, she is the only one who knows the real Tony outside of his public image.

Tony's problems begin when his partner Obadiah reveals that he had him killed to take over the company by selling the weapons to terrorists. He has a sound wave device that can paralyze anyone. Only is known that it was a weapon not approved by the government, it is odd that Tony did not implement that to his armor since Iron Man is also not approved by the government.

Obadiah steals the plans for the first prototype and builds his own overweight Iron Man that also doesn't have the power of that little sound wave gadget. Rhodey saves Tony's life by getting him a spare heart that Potts had saved for him. Obadiah is one of the most forgettable characters in the Marvel universe, but this guy's ambition was always money and it seems to me that real life villains work that way aren't as deep.

In the final fight Tony almost dies but he takes Obadiah to the heights causing his armor to fail and falls into the reactor exploding into a thousand pieces, a fight that would have been easier if he offered the other suit to his friend Rhodey.

As I said Iron Man is not a stereotypical protagonist and his story revolves around his ego so he wants to clean his image by being remembered as a superhero. At that time, seeing a hero reveal his identity in the movies was unprecedented. It was unprecedented, because he didn't just do it for the greater good he also wanted to enjoy it and that gave a lot of personality to the character more with the performance of Robert Downey Jr. who became irreplaceable in the role.

In the first post-credits scene in the history of the UCM Samuel L. Jackson appears with an eyepatch talking about the Avenger initiative, it is a scene that did not seem to make much sense but later in the same year came out the Incredible Hulk where Tony Stark appeared and there everything started to come together.

Iron Man became a resounding success, saving Marvel. From the premiere it had very positive reviews and praise for director Jon Favreau. Ranked as the second highest grossing film of 2008 behind The Dark Knight, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was off to a great start and here to stay.

Marvel immediately scheduled the sequel and Robert Downey Jr. asked for 20 times what he had been paid in the first one, they could not refuse but they had to lower his pay a lot Terrence Howard the actor who played Rhodey, the guy was angry because they were supposed to pay him a fifth of what they had given him in the first one and refused to appear in the sequel so he was replaced by Don Cheadle who today we know as War Machine.

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© Emby Lat

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