Superhero movies weren't new when
Iron Man strolled onto the scene in 2008. Superman had been fighting kryptonite since 1976. Throughout the 1990s to early 2000s went either straight-to-video (
Captain America and
The Death of the Incredible Hulk) or were on their third sequels (
X-Men, Spider-Man). Though Christopher Nolan's Batman overshadowed 2008 with
The Dark Knight, a string of lukewarm movies (
Daredevil, Fantastic Four, and Ghost Rider) made the superhero genre seem less and less like a gamble worth betting on.
But fast-forward ten years from 2008, and generations have grown up knowing and loving the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it. With a slew of characters and multiple spin-offs on the way,
Iron Man is where it all started and where it changed everything, and where it seems to remain as one of the most underrated Marvel films.
