10 Weird Things Left Out Of Comic Book Movies

7. Tony Stark's Alcoholism

Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark was the reason that a relatively-obscure superhero like Iron Man ended up being the surprise blockbuster hit of the summer, and the principle building block in the whole shared Cinematic Universe Marvel have constructed with the crossover Avengers films and the like. He is just the right blend of charming, arrogant and cool - it's almost like the role he was born to play, so you can see why the studio have tried their best to keep him locked down in an ongoing contract, and why audiences are so fond of him.

Tony can often be prickly and a bit of a douche, but he has a heart of gold and everybody loves him for it. The flying robot suit with the lasers firing out of the gloves it pretty cool, too. Things would've been a bit different if Shane Black had been a little more committed to the Demon In A Bottle adaptation the first two films, directed by Jon Favreau, were clearly building to.

The storyline was one of the first big ones for the Iron Man comics, changing the character and the places superhero books could go in general, with Iron Man struggling with alcoholism related to superhero-based stress; the closest we got was the drunken escapades from the second film. It's a character foible that's pretty crucial to the character in the comics, but would be a weird turn for the movie character, especially considering the uncomfortable parallels to Downey Jr's own well-publicised substance abuse problems.