Fresh from the Foundary (An Iron Man review - contains spoilers)

With five days to go until the UK release of Avengers Assemble, I've decided to review the five Marvel Cinematic Universe films leading up to it, in order of release, one day at a time. For the first review, it seems only right to go back to where it all started.

Poster by Jesse Phillips.

2008 was something of a red-banner year for the superhero film, and did this in a one-two punch. The first came from Iron Man, which surprised many critics by showing the broken beating heart behind its main character's titanium-alloy shell; this was a blockbuster that focused on the story and the characters rather than the visual effects (impressive though they were), and was rewarded for it, grossing $585m worldwide. It would have been the superhero film of the year, if that other superhero film hadn't come along and blown everyone's collective brains out.

Nevertheless, Iron Man undoubtedly started the deluge. Superhero films and comic book adaptations had been a license to print money for a while now, but with 2008, they really were earning that paycheck. Plus, you had that famous after-credit scene, both laying the foundation for a larger cinematic universe that had never been attempted before, and inspiring countless jokes about eye-patched spymaster Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) turning up at the end of every film to recruit the characters for the "Avenger Initiative". Marvel have always been fortunate that their superheroes translate so well to film: X-Men, Spider-Man, the Hulk and Blade proved lucrative, whereas DC can only really boast Batman and Superman (Watchmen underperformed financially, and Green Lantern...we don't talk about Green Lantern).

With the preamble out of the way, get your arc reactors pumping as we look at Iron Man.