Marvel's Infinity Saga: Every MCU Movie Ranked Worst To Best

7. Iron Man 3 (2013)

Just as Thor: Ragnarok pulled the God Of Thunder out of the drain, Shane Black's Iron Man 3 did a lot to restore Tony Stark. Following on from his great part in The Avengers, Black's take on Tony set the model for the rest of his story in the MCU. In actual fact, Black had been a consultant on Stark's entire story, so he probably deserves a lot more credit than he gets for Iron Man.

Anyway, in his hands, Iron Man 3 becomes a nostalgic, swaggering buddy actioner with the chemistry between Iron Man and War Machine pushed far better than it had been before. And crucially, Tony Stark's struggles with PTSD add an interesting, grown-up undercurrent to the action and the comedy that is very welcome.

It's not all perfect - mostly because some of the story is a little... incendiary (not the Mandarin twist, but the side-lining of Maya Hansen most erroneously), but it's enormously entertaining and delightfully reflective on action movies of years gone by. And without it, we wouldn't have Tony's perfect climax in Endgame.