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This summer another comic superhero joins the pantheon of box office smashes. Tony Stark dons his slick mechanised armour and becomes the eponymous Iron Man. His outfit is a gleaming shell of metallic red and gold that transforms its human resident into a hurtling missile.
As a summer flick, Iron Man provides the requisite CGI bombast, and its hero, a weapon manufacturing magnate turned peace warrior, has more than the usual tally of one-liners, imbued with devilish fun by Robert Downey Jr. Thankfully, Jon Favreau's Iron Man isn't a clunky, mechanical, lifeless assembly, but a lively piece of work that flits entertainingly through the customary motions of the superhero narrative.
In this first entry (the date of the sequel has already been announced), perhaps an inordinate time is dedicated to the 'origins' of the character, in this case the development of Tony Stark's powered costume. As the billionaire magnate of weapons manufacturer Stark Enterprises, Stark enjoys a playboy jet-setting lifestyle before he is imprisoned in a cave by an ambitious warlord and has to show his true grit. Instructed to recreate his latest weapon, Stark instead constructs a mechanical suit which he uses to tank his way out, swiping aside or flaming down gun-wielding fighters.
Of course, the metamorphosis into a superhero is predicated by a more personal transformation. That is, from a conceited egotistical nihilist to a conceited egotistical humanitarian. The experience of seeing his weapon in the hand of the bad guys seems to show him the truth about the warmongering ways of his company and, conscience now firmly rooted, he publicly commits to ending Stark Enterprises' war-profiteering ways. He may have seen the light, but there are others who have plans of their own.