Colonel James Rhodes to don the Mark II armor and subdue him. Tony throws what he believes will be his last birthday party and promptly proceeds to get drunk whilst wearing the Mark IV armor, forcing his friend Lt. Vanko is promptly broken out of jail by a revenge-seeking Justin Hammer, who puts him to work fashioning a line of armored combat suits that he will use to upstage Stark at his own Expo. Defeating Vanko with the aid of his Mark V armor (a transforming briefcase), Stark discovers that Vanko is the son of disgraced Russian physicist Anton Vanko, who collaborated on the first arc reactor with Stark's father Howard. While racing in Monaco, Stark is attacked by Ivan Vanko, who has constructed a miniaturized arc reactor of his own, including whip-like attachments harnessing the electrical energy. Slowly going off the rails as a consequence of what he believes to be his impending death, he appoints his former personal assistant Pepper Potts CEO of Stark Industries, replacing her with Natalie Rushman. All is not well in Stark's life, however: he has discovered that the palladium in the arc reactor keeping his heart beating has begun to poison his body, slowly killing him, and all attempts to find a substitute element have failed. Stark refuses, publicly shaming rival Justin Hammer in the process by highlighting his own failed attempts at recreating the technology. Stark is, however, still vilified by the United States government, and Senator Stern in particular, who demands that he hand his armor technology over for military application. Six months later, Stark has used his Iron Man armor to bring about a negotiated peace between the major super powers of the world, and his immense popularity with the general public is only furthered when he fulfills his father's dream by opening the " Stark Expo", to showcase all the latest inventions that will benefit the world. 3 Continuity and References to the Marvel Cinematic UniverseĪs Tony Stark reveals to the world that he is Iron Man, in Russia Anton Vanko died after telling his son Ivan to use what he had been taught.A levity that, one could argue, went a long way in distinguishing it from the joyless direction in which Warner Brothers took much of the DCEU following the success of Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy. By leaning into Robert Downey Jr.'s ability to play Tony Stark as inexplicably likable, wry, and charming - while at the same time being a deeply flawed and potentially dangerous narcissist - director Jon Favreau's "Iron Man 2" injected a necessary levity into both the MCU and the genre on the whole. Moreover, as its New York Times review pointed out, the film took what was, at the time, a fairly major risk - being funny - in a genre that had been "overtaken" by "solemnity." More than a decade later, Marvel audiences have become accustomed to the difficult balance between humor and high-stakes action that the MCU has managed to nail repeatedly in films like "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Thor: Ragnarok."Īround the time "Iron Man 2" was released, however, Christopher Nolan's exceptionally dark takes on DC Comics' most complicated hero had come to define the genre. Per CBR's report, the book notes, "The lesson Marvel Studios took from their first sequel experience was simple but vital: Above everything else, always make sure there is a good creative reason to make a sequel." In addition to forcing Marvel to re-think the fast-tracking of sequels or their willingness to create a follow-up "just because," the second installment in the "Iron Man" saga contributed to the universe in other ways as well. The reviews weren't necessarily bad, but they contained an air of apathy and ambivalence that, as Tara Bennett and Paul Terry's "The Story of Marvel Studios" (via Goodreads) reveals, the then-fledgling MCU wasn't too keen on reliving. Scott came down a little harder on the follow-up, saying the film " the basic requirements of the genre, which can be summed up as more of the same," and noting that it failed to "achieve the emotional complexity of 'Spider-Man 2' or the operatic grandeur of 'The Dark Knight.'" Roger Ebert said that while it " the job done," it was "not as good as the original," and went on to focus much of his review on praising the actors' performances rather than the film as a whole. When Marvel Studios' "Iron Man 2" hit theaters in May 2010 (yes, that happened over a decade ago), its critical reviews contained little of the love-struck enthusiasm and praise that were showered on its predecessor.
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