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Missile Madness
The Moment: A tank shoots a missile at Iron Man, who swerves out of the way.
He retaliates by shooting a mini-rocket back, not even bothering to stay and watch the explosion. Cool guys don’t look at explosions…
As Seen In: Iron Man (2008)
Why It's Cool: Iron Man’s just so nonchalant. You fire at me? I fire at you. Done.
If It Had Been Batman: He would have stood, cape billowing majestically as the fire offered him a dramatic backdrop. Brooooood.
Dog Fight
The Moment: Tony takes the skies in his Mark III armour, taking on a pair of American fighter jets – and barely breaking a sweat.
As Seen In: Iron Man (2008)
Why It's Cool : It’s one of the first demonstrations of the suit’s powers.
Plus air fights are just awesome.
If It Had Been Batman: It’d be fighter jets versus the X-Wing
Extremis
The Moment: Iron Man is relaunched by comic writer Warren Ellis, who nimbly uses the Extremis arc to give Stark’s origin story a big of a jiggle – and equip him with some cool new powers.
As Seen In: Iron Man #1-6
Why It's Cool : It manages to make Stark sympathetic in a time when being rich and manufacturing war weaponry is, well, frowned upon.
If It Had Been Batman: Bruce Wayne would have to do hands-on charity work at an orphanage to prove that being rich doesn’t make him evil.
Heart Racing
The Moment: Tony’s at the Circuit de Monaco doing a bit of F1 racing (as you do) when Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) breaks up the party with his giant whips.
Luckily Stark’s got his very own Iron Man briefcase on its way…
As Seen In: Iron Man 2 (2010)
Why It's Cool: As confrontations go, this one’s a doozy. Chuck in Iron Man’s handy armour-briefcase and you’re onto something amazing.
If It Had Been Batman: His belt gadgets would pale in comparison to Vanko’s formidable whips.
Keeping It Loki
The Moment: Tony pours himself a drink and has a chat with Loki. Topics? Avengers and performance issues.
It ends with Stark being thrown out the window and putting his suit on mid-air (again).
As Seen In: Avengers Assemble (2012)
Why It's Cool: Only Tony could remain this cool in the presence of a god. And a mad god, at that.
If It Had Been Batman: It wouldn’t have been so much a chat as a growl-off.
Beating The Mandarin
The Moment: Iron Man goes up against his fiercest foe – the Mandarin, who has designs to unleash the Extremis virus into the human population to weed out the weak.
As Seen In: Iron Man: Director Of SHIELD #28
Why It's Cool: Any plot that involves Iron Man facing off against the Mandarin gets thumbs up from us.
If It Had Been Batman: Mandarin would have used bats in his experiment.
Y’know, just to make it relevant to the Dark Knight.
Hulkbuster
The Moment: We’ve only had the briefest glimpse at it in the trailer, but the Hulkbuster armour makes its debut in Iron Man 3 , and it looks magnificent.
As Seen In: Iron Man 3 (2013)
Why It's Cool: It’s like the Iron Man suit took steroids.
If It Had Been Batman: The Hulkbuster is basically the Iron Man equivalent of Batman’s Tumbler.
Can We Get An Iron Man?
The Moment: Iron Man makes his comic-book debut.
As Seen In: Tales Of Suspense #39
Why It's Cool: Well, it’s our first ever sighting of Iron Man, of course.
But we especially love the excited trumpeting on the issue’s cover. “'Iron Man!' He lives! He walks! He conquers!”
If It Had Been Batman: The tag would have been “Batman! He flies! He grumbles! He drives posh cars!”
Thor Vs Iron Man
The Moment: “Listen well, brother,” begins Thor (Chris Hemsworth).
Then OOF!, he’s dragged off by Iron Man for one sensationally super-powered scrap.
As Seen In: Avengers Assemble (2012)
Why It's Cool: Stark’s got the banter (“Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?”), but Thor’s just as good, unleashing the wrath of (yes) God on the tin man.
If It Had Been Batman: Well, there wouldn’t be quite as much quipping…
Demon In A Bottle
The Moment: Tony Stark is revealed to be an alcoholic.
As Seen In: ‘Demon In A Bottle’ Iron Man #120-128
Why It's Cool: It’s the most famous Iron Man storyline, and easily one of the best (if not /the/ best).
Brilliantly written and adds vital depth to Tony. Iron Man 2 tangoed with it briefly.
If It Had Been Batman: It would be called Demon In A Cave , and delve into Bruce Wayne’s fear of bats.
Seen Iron Man 3 ? Watch our spoiler-filled post-analysis below, as the TF discusses the twists, action, and whether it's the best Marvel movie yet.
*MASSIVE ENORMOUS SPOILER WARNING* though - we don't recommend you watching it until you've seen the movie.
