9. Iron Man 3 (2013)
After The Avengers provided the biggest, brashest, largest-scale superhero movie ever produced (at least until Man of Steel came along), many were wondering how Marvel Studios would possibly be able to top it. The ever-savvy studio decided not to bother, and instead made Tony Stark's third solo outing a stripped-down, more character-based affair. Well, as much as was possible when you have a $200m budget and one of cinema's most popular characters in his flying metal armor. Continuing a solid track record of choosing the right directors for their projects, Marvel handed the reins of the franchise to Shane Black for only his second feature (and first in eight years). Unsurprisingly, the script featured some of the writer/director's archetypes (meandering voice-over, Christmas iconography), but Iron Man 3 is still arguably the best-written Marvel Studios movie yet. There are plenty of character moments and humor to complement several spectacular action scenes (with the attack on Stark's mansion the standout), the buddy-cop dynamic between Tony Stark and Rhodey deserves a movie in itself, and the hugely-divisive Mandarin twist took everybody by surprise in the age of internet spoilers. Despite Guy Pearce's underwhelming (and fire-breathing) villain, Rebecca Hall's undercooked character the inclusion of a child sidekick and a rushed ending, Iron Man 3 is undoubtedly one of Marvel's best. Coming just a year after the massive success of The Avengers, Iron Man 3 had the benefit of a huge knock-on effect at the box office. The movie had the second-highest domestic opening ever at $175.3m, and ended up with a worldwide total of over $1.2bn (more than the previous two Iron Man movies combined) that made it the biggest movie of 2013 by some distance and the fifth highest-grossing ever. If Robert Downey Jr. ever signs up for Iron Man 4, expectations have been raised considerably.