10 Worst Moments In The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Back in 2010, there was still a chance the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe experiment could fail. Iron Man was a smash success critically and commercially, but The Incredible Hulk was comparatively weaker on both fronts. Iron Man 2 ended up being decent enough to keep the franchise going, but it was still a downgrade from its predecessor on many fronts, and the crowning jewel of disappointment is easily the birthday party sequence.

Still under the belief the toxins from his arc reactor are going to kill him, Tony decides to get absolutely plastered at what he believes to be his last birthday party. This results in him taking over the DJ decks, skeet shooting with his repulsors, pissing in his own suit, and wrecking his entire house through a drunken brawl with Rhodey. It's a embarrassing scene that's essentially the MCU's equivalent to Dancing Emo Peter from Spider-Man 3.

Not only does the scene stop the story dead for a protracted comedy bit that feels tonally at odds with the rest of the movie, it wastes the oppurtunity to explore Tony Stark's genuine problem with alcoholism from the comics by throwing it away as a gag. Now doing an entire superhero movie about a guy struggling with dependency may be a bit much, but trivialising such an intrinsic part of the character isn't the right way to go either. The MCU may have gone on to better things since, but this moment more than any shows that the series is far from perfect.