I saw the movie this afternoon and collected the Iron Man comics in the 60s (Tales of Suspense, then the Iron Man and Sub-Mariner comic, and later his own title, The Invincible Iron Man). First this movie is excellent, possibly the best superhero movie I have seen. Second, they do a pretty good job in following the comic book from the 60s. In the 1963 comic, after being gravely injured by an exploding shell, Tony Stark was captured by "enemy forces" and forced to build a devastating weapon. Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel in his chest threatens to pierce his heart. Another prisoner held captive with him, Yin Sen, constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart, thus keeping him alive. Stark then secretly designs and constructs a suit of powered armor. He then uses the armor to escape, although Yin Sen dies during the attempt. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers, then heads back to rejoin the American forces. As such, the movie does an excellent job following the original story in Tales of Suspense #39 (though they changed the location from Vietnam to Afghanistan to make the story more current, and changed Sen from an Asian scientist to a Russian scientist). Robert Downey Jr. does an excellent job in playing Tony Stark. I won't say any more so as not to spoil the movie for anyone. However do stay through all the credits, there is an exciting surprise at the end. As a result, I can't wait until next year!
