Come on, admit it, does anyone care that Gwyneth Paltrow is in this movie? When was the last time she was relevant besides being Apple‘s mom? And unless the villain is some visually stunning character you can go ahead and leave him off the poster too! Why they’re using Obadiah Stane (Iron Monger) as the first major villain instead of a more comic book-y Iron Man foe is beyond me. I’m guessing he just fits into the origin story better as a rival billionaire industrialist for Tony Stark. But, I was hoping for a Mandarin or Crimson Dynamo appearance. Since they’re using Stane as the villain then they’d better be using other parts of his classic storyline which includes Stark’s battle with alcoholism, one of the most realistic and moving aspects of the legend of Iron Man.
I do love the casting of Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes, Tony Stark’s personal pilot, sometimes stand-in as Iron Man and later War Machine. I think Rhodes is one of the tragically underused characters in the Marvel universe. No matter how many times he’s brought back to prominence it never last too long and he is again shuffled to the background. Hopefully he can stick around in the forefront as one of the leaders of The Initiative.
