Ten Reasons I Loved Iron Man

1. Robert Downey Jr. was pretty much perfect - he had the smarter-than-the-room attitude, the stunned moral awakening, the sense of delight in creation, the ladies-man vibe, and, of course, the goatee.


2. The special effects were never too ridiculous to be believable. The Iron Man suit in action had weight and heft and looked like you'd always imagined it would.


3. Jeff Bridges is awesome.


4. They laid the groundwork for sequels with winks subtle enough to be fun - like Rhodey's wistful "maybe next time" as he wistfully eyed the Mark II


5. It took its time - it's well into the second half of the film before we really see the suit in action We sense that this thing took time to invent.


6. The use of A.I. Jarvis was fun and not cheesy. It really could have been cheesy. And the somewhat personality-driven robot arms never got too cutesy.


7. The commitment to the whole "armor keeps Tony's heart working." It's a great bit from the original concept, and one I feared they'd shy away from, modern heart technology being what it is.


8. That the sadly obligatory paid-ad (for Burger King) managed to mock the product a bit.


9. The sense of the larger Marvel Universe they (now that Marvel is making the films themselves) can finally start hinting at - the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were great.


10. The coda. Seeing Samuel Jackson pay out the implied promise in Ultimates #1, from close to ten years ago, was just cool as hell.

Until Whenever