The 50 best Iron Man moments

I Nose You

The Moment: “Shouldn’t there be a nose?” was Stan Lee’s feedback on an Iron Man cover in 1974.

Cue a quick suit redesign which saw Iron Man’s mask (briefly) gain a nose…

As Seen In: Iron Man #68

Why It's Cool: Well, it didn’t stick around, but it’s an interesting moment in the continuing development of Iron Man’s armour.

If It Had Been Batman: Iron Man got a nose to make breathing easier.

Surely Batman’s suit needs a zip to make lavatory trips easier?

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.

Iron Scream

The Moment: A drunk Tony Stark suits up as Iron Man and beats the crap out of Machine Man when he comes calling for help.

As Seen In : ‘The Iron Scream’ Iron Man (Vol 1) 168

Why It's Cool: Tony Stark in destructo mode is always entertaining.

If It Had Been Batman: He’d get pulled over by police for DUI and start drunkenly blathering on about his dead parents.

Explode-athon

The Moment: We’re introduced to the gobby wonder that is Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), who’s in Afghanistan to give a demonstration of his new Jericho missile.

Ker-BOOM.

As Seen In: Iron Man (2008)

Why It's Cool: Explosions pretty. It’s also one heck of an introduction to Downey Jr’s singularly wily, loveable Iron Man.

If It Had Been Batman: He wouldn’t have shown up for the presentation. He’s not exactly daylight-friendly.

Bunk Up

The Moment: Tony Stark discovers a bunker built by his dad in Nebraska, and attempts to solve the mystery of his father’s disappearance.

As Seen In: ‘The Bunker’ Marvel Adventures: Iron Man #9

Why It's Cool: Not only do we get a rather more personal Iron Man story, we also get Iron Man fighting an army of grey, Iron Man armour automatons.

If It Had Been Batman:
Isn’t discovering more about his parents more of a Spider-Man thing?

Helmet Head

The Moment: Director Jon Favreau solves the problem of Iron Man’s mask being totally emotionless by putting a camera right inside the helmet.

Hey Presto, we’re in the suit with Tony!

As Seen In: Iron Man (2008)

Why It's Cool: It’s a clever way of reminding us that it really is Downey Jr inside the suit (even if it’s not).

See also: Sam Raimi burning off Spidey’s mask in Spider-Man.

If It Had Been Batman: We imagine it’s very dark inside Batman’s mask. And it probably smells likes tyres. Not somewhere you want to be.

Murder Suspect

The Moment: Iron Man is suspected of killing Tony Stark.

Meanwhile, Hawkeye kidnaps Pepper Potts in order to take Iron Man down. Eeshk.

As Seen In: ‘Suspected Of Murder!’ Tales of Suspense #60

Why It's Cool: It’s the comics playing around with the ‘secret identity’ thing, and has us wondering how Tony’s going to extricate himself from this mess.

If It Had Been Batman:
Sounds a bit like the end of The Dark Knight to us.

Armour Jump

The Moment: Tony Stark launches himself into the air as a colossal explosion goes off behind him.

Unfazed, he jumps straight into his Iron Man suit while still in mid-air.

As Seen In: Iron Man 3 (2013)

Why It's Cool:
It’s just one of those action movie things. Giant explosion. Tony Stark. Mid-flight armour-dressing. Three cool things in one extremely cool moment.

If It Had Been Batman: It would’ve taken a little longer to get the suit on. Rubber’s trickier than metal.

Fighting The President

The Moment: Things get relevant as Iron Man takes on an alternate universe version of the President of the United States.

As Seen In:
Comics

Why It's Cool: It doesn’t really make much sense, but the artwork’s awesome – and it’s Iron Man going up against the lead of the free world, for chrissakes.

If It Had Been Batman: It would be because The Joker was posing as the President. Or something.

From This Conflict

The Moment : Iron Man goes up against Crimson Dynamo, but Janice dies in the scuffle.

As Seen In: From the Conflict…Death!’ Iron Man #22

Why It's Cool:
There are real stakes and real losses here. Janice’s death is a massive blow to both readers and Tony.

If It Had Been Batman: He’d mope and beat himself up over Janice’s death.

Business as usual, then.

Black Widows Debut

The Moment: Slinky sex kitten Black Widow crops up for the very first time, not yet a SHIELD agent and resolutely anti-American, being Russian and all.

Which, obviously, grates with Stark.

As Seen In: Tales Of Suspense #52

Why It's Cool: Loads of Black Widow stuff from this issue eventually made it into Iron Man 2, and is some of the best stuff in the sequel.

If It Had Been Batman: He’d have finally found the perfect woman to get over Catwoman with. Miaow.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.