10 Superhero Movies That Made Major Changes To Iconic Comic Moments
4. Demon In A Bottle - Iron Man 2
The Comic Book Moment: A defining part of Iron Man in print, Demon In A Bottle put focus on Tony Stark and his alcoholism, drawing parallels between it and his alter-ego and deepening one of Marvel's key, but then-undersung characters. It still dominates his characterisation until this day; Tony Stark is a drinker.
The Movie Version: The first Iron Man adjusted a lot of Tony's character, making him more Robert Downey, Jr-esque (something that would cause controversy now, but in 2008 when Iron Man was an unknown went down fine), but the sequel did do an approximation of Demon In A Bottle, with Tony suffering physically from the effects of his arc reactor, getting drunk a lot and generally seeing his life fall apart. The result was so different that some people don't even consider it an adaptation.
Does The Change Work? When Iron Man 2 was released and executed a half-hearted addiction/self-destruction sub-plot many fans were pretty disappointed, but in retrospect is was one of the best things to happen to the MCU. It established that the series wasn't going to be a slave to the comics, instead taking interesting themes and playing with them in fresh, new ways. Iron Man is a much more interesting character than a simple alcoholic and where the movie's have taken him is more complex than following that track would have ended up.