Avengers Movie Primer: Iron Man & Iron Man 2

Are you ready for The Avengers on May 4th? We are, but you might need some help (And if you do, you might need some serious help).

We're going to tackle each movie leading up to the Avengers, and while we've already tackled The Incredible Hulk, it's time to tackle The Invincible Iron Man.

Iron Man is the movie that started the buzz, although you wouldn't know that until the end of Iron Man 1. Like the Hulk, the information from the first movie is irrelevant outside of three things you should know before sitting down to watch Iron Man 2.

1) Tony Stark, son of Howard Stark, is a playboy billionaire who owns a technological business developing many advancements on technology, including weapons and the Iron Man armor.

2) Tony Stark has an artificial heart, powered by the arc reactor in his chest which is one of the largest sources of power known in the Marvel Universe.

3) Tony Stark and his super hero identity, Iron Man, is known to the public.

There's also that bit I mentioned earlier about the buzz of the Avengers. Like most Marvel movies, after the credits there is a minute or two of extra footage. For Iron Man, it involves Samuel Jackson appearing in Tony's room, dressed from head to toe as Nick Fury, and proposing to Tony the idea about the Avengers Initiative. This one minute scene sets the Avengers into motion, and gives you a little bit of an expectation when and if you sat down to watch The Incredible Hulk later that year.

Iron Man 2 picks up where Iron Man left off, opening with the Stark Expo, a yearly show that showcases the newest technological advancement by Stark Industries. Of course there is a small introduction, showing a Russian Ivan Vanko and his dying father, completely disgusted in Tony Stark and his Iron Man moniker, and even more disgusted in the arc reactor technology.

We learn several things about Iron Man in these opening scenes, the first being that the government wants to seize control of the Iron Man armor, calling it a weapon. Secondly, we learn that the arc reactor in Stark's chest is slowly poisoning him. Finally, we learn that Ivan's father helped design the arc reactor, with Ivan being able to create his own version of the arc reactor and channel it's energy into large electrical whips. (Us comic readers know that is Whiplash)

So let's jump right into the action- Stark goes to a car race, and competes. During the race, Whiplash appears, nearly killing Stark before getting defeated. The realization that an arc reactor can be duplicated pushes the government's opinion that the Iron Man armor is a weapon, Whiplash is taken into custody. A visit from Stark reveals that Ivan knows about the poisoning, pushing Stark to the further realization that he may die and soon. While in custody, Justine Hammer kidnaps Ivan and forces him to make drones of armor as weapons to be displayed at the next Stark Expo, to gain the financial support of the military and force Stark out of the business.

Believing his life to be cut unexpectedly short, Stark has a farewell birthday party, showing up in his armor and getting drunk. During the fiasco, his friend Rhodes, a military officer, tries to get Tony to stop his recklessness as a drunk and ends up hijacking an earlier version of the Iron Man armor to stop him, taking off in the armor and hand-delivering it to the military. Hammer is called, and asked to upgrade the stolen armor to become a weapon of equal caliber to the Iron Man armor.


Now we can get to the good stuff. Nick Fury. SHIELD. The Black Widow. They are all introduced RIGHT NOW. Well, if you weren't paying attention already, that is. A defeated Stark can be found munching on some doughnuts in a giant doughnut sign. Nick Fury calls him down, and the three of them sit down in a diner to discuss some things.

First thing- Black Widow injects something into Stark to reduce the effects of the poison temporarily. Secondly, Fury insists that the first goal Stark needs to do is solve this poison problem, and he is to resort to his father's records as he does so. Left to babysit him is agent Phil Coulson, a SHIELD agent that seems to be higher up in rank. Initially, Coulson keeps a close watch, but after some breakthroughs in what he is researching, he leaves Stark alone until getting re-assigned...

Stark ends up finding something, plans hidden within plans set by his father, and creates a new element to serve as the core for his miniature arc reactor that won't poison him. At this time, Rhodes and Hammer are at the Stark Expo, showing off the Ivan-made drones and the new model of the War Machine, which is what happened after the older Iron Man armor was upgraded.

However, things go screwy as Ivan takes over, changing all of the drones to attack weapons and compromising the War Machine Armor. Iron Man arrives, taking out most of the drones while avoiding the War Machine Armor.

The Black Widow chases down the room where Ivan was, brutally taking down roughly 12 men in her path in combat, and eventually overrides the War Machine armor and gives control of it back to Rhodes. Ivan appears in front of the two, equipped with his own armor and the electrical whips as Whiplash. He is quickly defeated, and self-destructs, with Stark and Rhodes escaping just in time.

The movie wraps up with two more scenes. The first is Nick Fury telling Tony that while the Iron Man is a suitable candidate for the Avengers Initiative, Tony Stark himself is not. What that means, exactly, even I'm not sure of but they'll probably clear that up in the Avengers movie. The second scene, which occurs after the credits, shows us where Agent Coulson was reassigned to. He's looking down at the ground in the middle of the desert, and says to Nick Fury over the phone what he's found- Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor (Well, we know what it is, he doesn't)

So what does this tell us about future movies? Well there will be an Iron Man 3, and as we already know Iron Man will appear in the Avengers movie. So here's what we can expect in the Avengers movie;

First, we can expect Iron Man to not run out of power or have any "problems" with the armor, as he fixed everything in this movie. Secondly, we can most likely expect more on that new element he's developed. If you read any comics, you're probably guessing what I am, and that is that he's probably created this Marvel Universe's Vibranium. Lastly, Whiplash is dead and War Machine is now a possible character for cameo. Additionally, we know the Black Widow and Nick Fury are in the movie, if not from the trailer then from here, and that Black Widow is quite the fighter in hand to hand combat.

Be sure to look out for our other articles covering The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor! Think you know all there is to know? Check out the wrap up with Fury's Big Week!

The Avengers is OUT! Go see it, or read about it!!!