Iron Man

**Iron Man had all the class, quirks, genius, and fun to birth one of the greatest film franchises in cinematic history.** The movie that started it all. That created the personality of a multi-billion dollar entertainment behemoth. That introduced the world to the first of many characters that have become household names and cultural icons. Iron Man stormed on the screen with a lead actor that Hollywood had given up on and a small start-up studio without a single movie under its belt backed by Disney, who had little to no live-action comic experience of their own. But director Jon Favreau’s adlibbed approach leveraged the strengths of his cast and created a world that was simultaneously realistic and magical - where a man could build a flying suit of armor, or a Thunder god could fall in love with a quirky mortal. Many forget that Robert Downey Jr’s personal struggles had left him blacklisted by many in Hollywood, making his casting a risky stroke of brilliance. The result of all this was precisely the lightning in a bottle needed to birth the Marvel Cinematic Universe.