Stan Lee's 20 Greatest Marvel Comics Creations
3. Iron Man
Though Stan Lee was a very humble man, he must have had some idea about just how good he was at what he did. He certainly had an inkling, at least when he created Iron Man, as he viewed crafting Tony Stark as a challenge.
The challenge was to create a character who was so utterly dislikable, and then make everyone like him. A rich, cocky industrialist profiteering off war was never going to land instant popularity, but considering he debuted at the height of the Cold War it raised the stakes even higher. It’s a testament to Lee and the fabulous team at Marvel that Iron Man became the overwhelmingly popular hero he is today.
What made Iron Man special was what was inside. Both the suit itself and the exterior image of Tony Stark paint an impenetrable picture of supreme confidence, strength, even invulnerablity. But his heart, both literally and metaphorically, is broken. It’s this projection that draws readers in; we want to know the real Tony Stark, the man behind the mask.
Robert Downey Jnr, himself incredibly likeable despite obvious unlikeable qualities, seems born to play him.