‘IRON MAN’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Iron Man Begins

“I…AM…IRON MAN!!!”

Back in 2008, ‘Iron Man’ was released at the cinemas. It’s ironic that few people knew this would begin a series of action-packed superhero movies that would be called the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’. I certainly didn’t expect it, though I should have known since Iron Man would be one of the Avengers.

I saw ‘Iron Man’ when it was released at the cinemas for my birthday in May 2008. I later purchased the ultimate 2-disc DVD set of ‘Iron Man’ for Christmas 2008. I now have ‘Iron Man’ as part of the ‘Marvel Studios Cinematic Universe – Phase One’ DVD box set, which I purchased after Christmas 2017.

‘Iron Man’ stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man. The film was directed by Jon Favreau, who appeared in the 2003 ‘Daredevil’ movie and directed ‘Elf’ and ‘Zathura’. The film also stars Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow. It is amazing this movie would spawn a legacy!

Around that time, I was into the Marvel superheroes from seeing their movies including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. I was aware of Iron Man and the Avengers superheroes, but I hadn’t read many original comics to get an idea of what these particular superheroes would be like.

But it didn’t matter since I was into superheroes anyway and I knew I would enjoy this flick. The story of ‘Iron Man’ is based on the original comic book character created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck and Jack Kirby. Iron Man made his first comic book appearance in ‘Tales of Suspense #39’ in March 1963.

In this film, the story focuses on the character of Tony Stark, a successful billionaire at his company of Stark Industries, creating weapons of mass destruction. Tony is a pretty confident and full of himself person. He gambles, takes risks and is a womaniser. He doesn’t think of the work he’s doing.

But when Tony gets critically wounded, captured and imprisoned by a terrorist group in war-torn Afghanistan, he is made to build a Jericho missile in exchange for his freedom. Instead of building the missile for the terrorist group, Tony builds himself an armoured suit to get himself out of the cave.

After escaping war-torn Afghanistan, Tony becomes a changed man and decides for his company not to build any more weapons of destruction. Instead, Tony builds a new armoured suit in his workshop. Thus, he goes to protect the people of the world from harm and destruction and becomes Iron Man.

Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man! What more can be said? I’m impressed by Robert Downey Jr.’s commitment to the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man in the movie and he clearly loves playing the part. He delivers the balance of humour and drama into the role and makes the character pretty complex.

I’ve seen Robert Downey Jr. before in the 2006 film remake of ‘The Shaggy Dog’ with Tim Allen. Up until then, I had no idea who Robert Downey Jr. was as an actor. Now everybody knows him as Iron Man and rightfully so. It’s a movie role he was born to play and it is one I guess will never leave him.

Terrence Howard stars as Lt. Colonel James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes, Tony Stark’s best friend and a liaison between Stark Industries and the United States Air Force in the movie. I enjoyed Terrence Howard’s performance as ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes, as he plays someone who looks out for Tony in whatever he does.

Sometimes ‘Rhodey’ gets frustrated by Tony’s irresponsible behaviour early on in the movie. But he shows concern for his best friend when he seems changed from his imprisonment in war-torn Afghanistan. He gets a big surprise when he discovers that Tony is flying about as Iron Man in the sky.

Jeff Bridges stars as Obadiah Stane, Tony’s second-in-command at Stark Industries. At first, you wouldn’t think much of this character who was Tony’s mentor and friend in the business. But as the movie progresses, it turns out he’s the villain of the piece which I didn’t see coming when I saw this.

More gets revealed in the movie when Obadiah Stane attempts to overtake Stark Industries and turn against Tony Stark. It turns out he’s selling weapons to the Ten Rings terrorist group in Afghanistan. He soon builds a giant exo-suit to fight Tony Stark as Iron Man at the end which was pretty exciting.

Gwyneth Paltrow stars as Pepper Potts, Tony’s personal assistant and potential love interest in the movie. I like how the relationship between Pepper and Tony is portrayed in the movie. At first, it seems a professional relationship between the two. But as the film progresses, they become closer.

It’s also not an instant “I love you!” situation as you would expect to see in many love stories within superhero movies. Pepper is rather sexy in her own way, but she doesn’t take to Tony’s charms as many other women would. But she’s clearly in love with him and looks out for Tony during the film.

The film also features Shaun Toub as Yinsen, a fellow captive who helps Tony Stark escape from the Ten Rings terrorist group in war-torn Afghanistan. I’ve seen Shaun Toub before in ‘The Nativity Story’ 2006 film. I found Yinsen interesting, especially in his motives to help Tony build the original Iron Man suit.

There’s Faran Tahir as Raza, the vicious leader of the Ten Rings, Leslie Bibb as Christine Everhart, a sexy reporter for ‘Vanity Fair’ and Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. The film’s director Jon Favreau also stars as Happy Hogan, Tony Stark’s bodyguard and chauffeur in ‘Iron Man’. Paul Bettany voices J.A.R.V.I.S., the personal AI system/butler for Tony Stark/Iron Man in the movie.

I’m very impressed with the action sequences and the direction given by Jon Favreau in this movie. The sequences where Tony’s doing tests for his sleeker Iron Man suit in the second half of the movie are very good. They also give me an energised feeling, especially as Iron Man’s flying through the sky.

I especially enjoyed it when Tony Stark’s wearing that first Iron Man suit that looks identical to the grey one in the original comics. It looks cool, even though it’s cumbersome and not as sleek as the gold and red one we know and love. And yes, I found the gold and red Iron Man suit as cool as the grey one.

One of my favourite sequences in the ‘Iron Man’ movie is when Tony Stark decides to go out there as Iron Man to fight off some terrorists and save some innocent civilians in war-torn Afghanistan. It demonstrates Tony isn’t a selfish loser as he seems to be. He clearly has a very compassionate heart.

Speaking of his heart, it’s interesting to note that Tony Stark/Iron Man is given an electromagnet to his chest, following his injuries in Afghanistan. This becomes a small, powerful electric generator called an arc-reactor to keep him alive. It serves to power his Iron Man suit, but it’s also a weakness.

The DVD special features on the ultimate 2-disc ‘Iron Man’ DVD are as follows. On Disc 1, there is a set of eleven deleted/extended scenes to enjoy. There’s also a preview for the Nicktoons animated series, ‘Iron Man: Armored Adventures’. There’s also an Easter Egg to look out for on this DVD disc.

On Disc 2, there’s the ‘I Am Iron Man’ feature-length documentary that can also be viewed as 7 featurettes. There’s also ‘The Invincible Iron Man’ which can also be viewed as a documentary or a section of featurettes. There’s also ‘Wired: The Visual Effects of Iron Man’ behind-the-scenes featurette, the six-minute ‘Robert Downey Jr. Screen Test’ and ‘The Actor’s Process’ featurette.

There’s a short video from ‘The Onion’ website focusing on the film trailer for ‘Iron Man’. There are also a number of galleries, including concept art, tech, unit photography and posters for the movie. There are plenty more special features to enjoy on the Blu-ray release of ‘Iron Man’.

‘Iron Man’ is a great superhero movie that I enjoyed watching at the cinema back in May 2008. Robert Downey Jr. steals the show as Iron Man and the story kept me gripped from start to finish. I had no idea this movie would spawn more superhero movies in a ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ series.

There’s a post-credits sequence at the end of the movie where Tony Stark meets Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury tells Tony that he’s not ‘the only superhero in the world’ and offers him a proposition about joining ‘the Avenger Initiative’. What could this mean?! 😀

‘Iron Man’ rating – 9/10

---

‘IRON MAN’ (NOVELIZATION)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Iron Man is Back!

For Peter David

Let’s check out the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ in novelization form! 🙂

This review is very special for me, as I like to make this as a tribute to one of USA’s most prolific and renowned authors. That is of course, Peter David. Peter David wrote many books and comics in his lifetime. I’ve had the huge privilege of checking out his work over the years.

Most specifically, I’ve read his movie novelizations, including the original ‘Spider-Man’ film trilogy, the first ‘Fantastic Four’ film from 2005 and ‘Batman Forever’. I’ve been impressed by how he’s expanded the worlds of those movies through his novelizations. 🙂

He’s also written some of the most popular and original novels of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’, and he has worked on about every famous comic book superhero, including Captain Marvel, Spider-Man and the futuristic Spider-Man 2099, which is pretty incredible.

It was sad when it was announced in May 2025 that Peter David passed away, as his contributions to sci-fi and superhero genres has been immense and I’m sure many readers have enjoyed his work over the years. It’s a massive loss to a popular community.

The thing that stands out for me when checking out Peter David’s work as a writer is how he was able to explore the characters and their thoughts and feelings whilst moving the plot forward. His writing is engaging, and you can never find a dull moment in any story he writes.

One would have to wonder how much time he spent working through a movie script to understand the ins and outs of how a story is progress to a certain point in a character’s journey. He must have had contact with the original authors of a movie screenplay, surely.

To honour Peter David’s memory and to check out another work by him, I decided to check out the first novelization of what would become the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ series of films. That is of course, the first ‘Iron Man’ movie, which was released in 2008. 🙂

Interestingly, the novelization was released in April 2008 whereas the movie was released in May that year. You can tell from reading the cover of the book when it says Soon to be a major motion picture from Marvel Studios, which is pretty surprising regarding its sales.

There’s even a posit sort-of note at the back of the book to say Launching into Cinemas May 2008. It’s like one of those ‘Five Doctors’ novelization moments where the book of a TV story or a film comes out first before the actual TV story or film is released to everyone.

I do wonder if many people bought the novelization first before checking out the film, as surely, they would purchase the book after the film is released. It’s what I did when checking out the original ‘Spider-Man’ film trilogy and the first ‘Fantastic Four’ film at the cinema.

It’s not a huge factor to focus on concerning the book, but I have to wonder if many people took an interest in ‘Iron Man’ as a movie novelization before and/or after the film was released in 2008, especially when certain things in the novelization don’t match up to the movie. 😐

The movie novelizations of the ‘MCU’ are…well, limited, in my opinion. As far as I’m concerned, there are only three novelizations of three ‘MCU’ movies published with as much depth and range of character development to match Peter David’s style of writing.

This includes ‘Iron Man’, ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and ‘Iron Man 2’. Peter David novelized ‘The Incredible Hulk’ whilst Alexander Irvine novelized ‘Iron Man 2’. Beyond that, there aren’t any more in-depth movie novelizations to cover the rest of the ‘MCU’ film series, sadly. 😦

Oh, sure, there are sort-of movie novelizations on films like ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, but I doubt they match to how Peter David started things off with the ‘MCU’ movie novelizations in the first ‘Iron Man’ movie, where there’s clearly more depth to it. 😐

It’s a shame that movie novelizations of that type went out of style by the time the 2010s came along. As far as I’m concerned, there aren’t any in-depth movie novelizations of the two ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ films nor of the ‘MCU Spider-Man’ films to check out for readers. 😐

Then again, I suppose in 2008, no-one would have anticipated the impact that ‘Iron Man’ would have as a film in starting off the ‘MCU’. Peter David probably wouldn’t have realised himself that he was novelizing the first of a huge series of Marvel superhero films.

This is evident in the fact that the post-credits scene featuring Tony Stark meeting Nick Fury in his house isn’t included in the first ‘Iron Man’ movie novelization. Perhaps it wasn’t included in the film’s screenplay, but it’s astonishing it’s not in the novelization to match the movie.

Despite that, Peter David makes up for any omissions in the novelization to the movie with great character development, especially for Tony Stark, who goes on a very poignant journey of turning from an arrogant businessman to someone who finds his conscience.

It makes me appreciate Tony’s character more and I would have liked that to have been reflected in the rest of the ‘MCU’ film series. Granted, I’ve yet to check out the ‘Iron Man 2’ novelization, but I somehow doubt that it won’t match to how Peter David sets things up.

Peter David wrote the novelization based on the screenplay by Mark Fregus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway. Interestingly, Art Marcum & Matt Holloway worked on ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ and ‘Kraven the Hunter’ after this film. What are the odds? 😀

The book itself is published into 24 chapters with a prologue at the beginning. The prologue itself is from Tony Stark’s perspective and is written in italics. In fact, there are many sections featuring Tony Stark’s perspective that are written in italics throughout this book.

I’ve noticed that in those sections featuring Tony Stark’s perspective, they’re written in the present rather than in the past tense. This can be confusing when reading the book from beginning to end, but it was a fascinating way for Peter David to write that in the story.

The book happens to be dedicated To Stan – The original Iron Man of comics. When Peter David wrote Stan Lee’s cameo in the novelization, it’s more tongue-in-cheek. Peter gives Stan some dialogue when he’s speaking to Tony, which was clearly not evident in the film.

This is especially when Stan Lee’s character in the book goes “Excelsior!” and Tony replies, “Nice to meet you, Mr. Excelsior.” For those who don’t know, “Excelsior!” was a word Stan Lee often used, especially in signing off something in a book, which is very memorable.

I revisited the first ‘Iron Man’ movie on Disney+ to remind myself what went on in the film, as it’s been a while since I did my in-depth review on the movie in 2018. It was amazing to find how a lot of the first ‘Iron Man’ movie matches to what’s included in the novelization.

Mind you, there are notable minor differences in certain plot areas concerning the novelization when matching it to the film. This includes a subplot where Tony goes to Dubai to suit up as Iron Man before he sorts out terrorists in Afghanistan, which isn’t in the film.

There’s also how Pepper Pott discovers that Tony is Iron Man when he returns in a dishevelled state and he’s given hospital-like treatment in his home when Rhodey Rhodes comes to visit him. That’s also different compared to how it’s portrayed in the movie itself.

There’s no “This is not the worst thing you’ve caught me doing” said by Tony when Pepper finds him struggling to de-suit in his workshop, and there’s no Pepper saying, “Are those bullet holes?” in response to that. That frankly was played for comic relief in the movie.

Pepper’s discovery of Tony being Iron Man in the novelization is taken more seriously compared to the film, especially when it explores his recovering from his injuries and trying to overcome any pain that he’s feeling. This makes you emphasise with Tony more.

It also emphasises Pepper’s struggle to accept Tony has become Iron Man, as she can’t take it in when it goes against the comfort and routine she’s had with being his assistant. This is signified by the story’s end when the possibility of Tony and Pepper being together is questioned.

In the climactic battle scene between Tony as Iron Man and Obadiah Stane as the Iron Monger, the moment where Tony lures Obadiah into the sky to freeze his armour isn’t included in the book. This is strange concerning the set up for Tony freezing up in the sky. 😐

Yeah! In the book, Tony trying out his Mark II suit with J.A.R.V.I.S. talking to him and he freezes up when trying to go too high up is included in the novelization. Yet, Obadiah Stane’s Iron Monger armour freezing in the movie isn’t included in the movie novelization.

How odd. Maybe it wasn’t included in the original script. And I get that things change whilst making a movie and you need to update the script as a result of that. But it makes me wonder whether Peter David got the final version of the script or not in novelizing it. 😐

And it’s interesting that Peter David refers to Obadiah Stane as the Iron Monger in the novelization when he dons the suit of armour he acquired from Afghanistan. I bring this up since Obadiah isn’t referred to nor is called the Iron Monger in the film, as far as I know.

Granted, Peter David has more knowledge of Iron Man in the comics to allow him to include that in the novelization and had Obadiah Stane appeared in more ‘Iron Man’ movies after this film, maybe I would have caught on the Iron Monger name being a thing.

But of course, that didn’t happen, and it never caught on, quite frankly. Plus, the Iron Monger is rather boring compared to Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit of armour to be memorable. I recall Obadiah Stane as a villain in the flesh more memorable compared to him as the Iron Monger.

I found Tony’s journey when he’s a prisoner of the terrorists in Afghanistan very compelling. This is especially when it’s spread out across from Chapters IV to X and how Tony has his interactions with Yinsen when they work together to build the first Iron Man suit.

In the book, there are new scenes included for Rhodey Rhodes, who makes the decision to go out and rescue Tony, which isn’t included in the book. There’s also a scene where Rhodey communicates with Pepper over the situation regarding Tony when he’s missing. 🙂

I greatly appreciate those scenes being included in the book and wish they were included in the movie. Perhaps they were in the original script or maybe Peter David wrote those scenes as new for the novelization. It’s hard to say, but I’m glad they’re included in the book.

Pepper insisting to Rhodey that he go out and find Tony against US Army orders illustrates how much Tony means to her. At least it would explain how Rhodey was able to find Tony as quickly as he was able to, as Tony could’ve been in the desert for days after his escape.

Rhodey finding Tony when he walks out in the desert on his own away from the terrorists’ base after flying in the first Iron Man suit is different in the book compared to the film. In the movie, Rhodey locates Tony, and he simply says, “Next time, you ride with me, okay?”

In the book, Rhodey finds Tony lying in the sand and from Tony’s perspective he sees Rhodey looking down at him. Rhodey is about to take out the miniature arc-reactor from his chest that’s keeping him alive before Tony stops him, telling him he needs it to keep alive. 😐

It’s interesting how things differ in the book compared to film. Maybe Peter David didn’t find that scene in the original script compelling enough and in order to provide emphasis that Tony needed the mini arc-reactor to keep alive, he has Rhodey attempting to remove it.

This is clearly indicated when Rhodey initially thinks that it’s a bomb planted into Tony’s chest by the terrorists instead of it being like a new heart for his friend. I like how it’s included in the novelization. 🙂 At least Tony doesn’t yell his head off at Rhodey by declaring,

Doctor: HARRY SULLIAN IS AN IMBECILE!!!!!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. 😀 It’s also interesting to explore Tony’s post-prisoner character development. Earlier, he was very cocky and arrogant in his businessman persona for Stark Industries. Following his rescue, he’s so shaken by the experience he went through.

A thing that Wolfie from the Divergent Wordsmiths asked me about the first ‘Back to the Future’ movie novelization was whether Marty McFly sounded like Michael J. Fox or not. I replied by saying that I found it easy to visualise Michael J. Fox as Marty whilst reading the book.

The same can be said for Tony Stark when reading the first ‘Iron Man’ movie novelization, as I could clearly hear Robert Downey Jr.’s voice whilst reading his dialogue in the book. Then again, I have that mental picture of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark from the films anyway.

Whether that was what Peter David experienced when writing the novelization is a different matter, as he would have written the book before seeing the movie when it came out in May 2008. Thankfully, the feel of the movie is mostly felt throughout the book itself.

In the book, we begin with the idea that Tony Stark is bored. By the time the book comes to an end, it states that Tony will never be bored again. This is something that’s not mentioned in the film, but I’m glad it’s touched upon when reading the movie novelization.

There’s emphasis that Tony drinks quite a bit before he gets captured and becomes a prisoner. The alcoholism aspect of Tony Stark’s character isn’t so prominent post-Afghanistan, especially as he becomes more focused with building the new Iron Man suit.

I like how, in the book, Tony noticed one of the terrorists wearing a watch worn by Jimmy, who escorted him the HUMVEE in Afghanistan. It angers Tony as he seeks revenge on the terrorist as soon as he’s in the bulky Iron Man suit. Tony, in the suit, crushes the watch in the process.

When picking up Tony at the airport following his escape from the terrorists, Pepper is crying. Happy Hogan notices she’s crying and he hands her a handkerchief, but says nothing. It’s good that aspect of Pepper’s character is established in her feelings for Tony.

In the press conference where Tony promises to stop making military weapons, it’s filled with hundreds of reporters and not a small group. Plus, they don’t sit down like they do in the film. To be fair, in both scenes, no chairs are provided for the reporters to sit down on.

I like how it’s established that Tony originally wanted Rhodey to don the new Iron Man suit. But in his encounter with Rhodey in the aircraft hanger, Tony realises that Rhodey would do what the military would want him to do, which is the opposite of what Tony would have wanted.

It emphasises how vital it is that Tony should be Iron Man instead of Rhodey, especially when Obadiah Stane later states that Rhodey is part of ‘the war machine’. This is a nice nod to Rhodey’s future persona, especially when he later becomes War Machine in ‘Iron Man 2’.

The comical robot that appears in the film when spraying Tony with a fire extinguisher isn’t included in the book at all. This is an improvement as far as I’m concerned. No disrespect to the film, but the comical robot was too much, even if it appeared in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’.

It’s established in the book that J.A.R.V.I.S. turned off the power, not the ice, when Tony went up into the sky during the Mark II test. On reflection, it explains why the Iron Monger freezing up in the sky didn’t happen in the book’s climax, but it’s still sad not to find it, frankly.

There’s a section in the book where Pepper’s first meeting with Tony is established, as, apparently, there was a mathematical mistake Tony made and he hired her to be his assistant after that. Tony gave her the name ‘Pepper’, since her real name is Viriginia Potts.

The confrontation between Obadiah and Tony where Obadiah steals his mini arc-reactor is different in the book. Before doing that, Obadiah brings Tony a pizza and a resignation letter to say they can’t work together anymore. That should’ve been in the movie.

I know it comes as a surprise when Tony gets attacked by Obadiah without noticing, but the fact that Obadiah is disarming Tony with pizza as well as a resignation letter would have made the scene very effective. It’d provide more character interaction between them.

There’s a moment in the story where Rhodey tries to put on the Mark II suit, but his head is too big for the helmet. That’s different in ‘Iron Man 2’ where Rhodey did don the Mark II suit in a party scene, I believe. But hey, that was Don Cheadle instead of Terrence Howard.

Rhodey also gets to drive Tony’s Audi car into the Iron Monger to save Tony’s life and ultimately smashes the car. I don’t recall that being the movie and it was probably invented in the book by Peter David. At least Rhodey gets involved in the story’s action more.

The book ends with Tony Stark revealing to everyone at a press conference that he’s Iron Man. The Black Sabbath song ‘Iron Man’ is referred to in the book’s closing chapter. This fits in well to the instrumental of the Black Sabbath ‘Iron Man’ song for the film’s end credits.

The ‘Iron Man’ movie novelization has been great to check out. I’m pleased I read it to pay tribute to Peter David, after enjoying his movie novelizations for the original ‘Spider-Man’ film trilogy, the 2005 ‘Fantastic Four’ film and ‘Batman Forever’. His works are excellent reads.

It’s noticeable to see the differences between the book and the film, especially when the post-credits scene meant to feature Nick Fury isn’t included. I’m very pleased Peter David commenced the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ in book form with the first ‘Iron Man’ movie.

It’s a shame that the rest of the ‘MCU’ doesn’t have novelizations, apart from ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and ‘Iron Man 2’. I would’ve liked there to be more novelizations of the ‘MCU’ films, especially in exploring more character journeys, just like Peter David’s ‘Iron Man’ did.

It would have been fascinating to explore the ‘Avengers’ movies as novelizations as well as the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and the ‘MCU Spider-Man’ movies. Whether that’s still a possibility is yet to be determined, but there doesn’t seem to be any indication of that yet.

The ‘Iron Man’ novelization doesn’t have an unabridged audiobook to go with it. If there was ever an unabridged audiobook produced, I would gladly re-read the novelization with the audiobook to get a new experience of it. Would Robert Downey Jr. read the audiobook? 🙂

Who knows? Regardless, it’s been great to check out the first ‘Iron Man’ movie novelization to commemorate Peter David as a well-loved author. And it’s nice to restart checking out the ‘MCU’ with the first ‘Iron Man’ movie novelization to find out how it all began.

Will I check out ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and ‘Iron Man 2’ novelizations after this? I would like to think so, especially knowing Peter David novelized ‘The Incredible Hulk’ in book form. For now, I’m content that I’ve checked out the first ‘Iron Man’ movie novelization in 2025. 🙂

‘Iron Man’ (Novelization) rating – 9/10

---

	The next story For Iron Man is ‘The Incredible Hulk’ (Film) For War Machine is ‘Iron Man 2’ (Film)
Return to Marvel Cinematic Universe