I Am Iron Man....

I thought I'd go with something lighter today.  And before I get any further I want to thank all of those on Facebook and Google+ who wished me a happy birthday yesterday.  I am now another year older, and hopefully another year wiser.  And while it was my third birthday since I chose to transition, it was actually my first one legally as Madison and legally female, so it will hold a special place in my memories.  What made it even more special was that J was on vacation this week and we've spent a lot of great time together.  We've watched some television, been to a couple of movies, done some shopping, had a couple of meals out, and even went grocery shopping a few times - I know the latter may not sound like fun to some/many/most of you, but believe it or not we have fun doing that together.  But all of that stuff aside, the best part was all the time we were simply together, even the times just being able to go to bed together at night or even for a short nap.  She is my world and I don't know what I would do without her.  I love her with all of my heart.

Now, back to the topic at hand.  Let me first say that I am *NOT* a comic book person, nor really a "Marvel" person, so my experience with the "Marvel Universe" is simply from some of the movies I've seen, and those would be:

• Iron Man / Iron Man 2 / Iron Man 3
• The Avengers
• Captain America: The First Avenger / Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Thor / Thor: The Dark World
• Guardians Of The Galaxy
• Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. television show

I actually had no desire to really see any Marvel movies, but when Iron Man came out on Blu-Ray, M2 bought it - he's a huge comic book and Marvel fan - and he and M sat down to watch it one night and asked if I wanted to watch it.  I really didn't, but I wanted to be polite so I sat through it and really liked it.  I really think what sold me was Robert Downey Jr.'s performance.  I've never been a big fan of his, most of his work that I had seen prior to that were things where he wasn't necessarily the lead such as Back To School and U.S. Marshal's.  Watching Iron Man, he was the perfect a**hole as Tony Stark - I really think he nailed that role.  I also thought Gwyneth Paltrow was great as Pepper Potts.  I normally don't care for her, but something about her in this movie - well suffice it to say that her "Pepper Potts" would be on my list of women I'd love to spend an evening with. :)  I wasn't as keen on Iron Man 2, and frankly I thought the first Captain America was alright.  For some reason the first Thor movie did hook me, although I think that was almost as much for Tom Hiddleston's portrayal of Loki as anything.  

The movie that really hooked me was The Avengers.  I really wasn't familiar with "Black Widow" or "Hawkeye", or even S.H.I.E.L.D. for that matter, but I enjoyed the movie enough that I've since made it a point to see try and catch up on the other Marvel movies that I hadn't seen and have even went back and re-watched the ones I had (Hulk being an exception).  I really love how they tie the movies together, little cameos here and there and even the teasers in the credits such as Thor's hammer at the end of one of the movies (Iron Man?).  Samuel L. Jackson has been great as Nick Fury, and Scarlett Johansson's portrayal of Black Widow would also make my list of women to spend a night with - probably higher on the list than Pepper Potts and that's saying a lot. :)  

I think Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson deserves a special mention as well.  He's been a bit player in some of the movies and I took a liking to his character, although what really sold me was when M2 showed me one of the Marvel One Shots (I think that's what they are called) of him.  It was the one where he went into a convenience store and there was an attempted hold up - I believe the title was "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor's Hammer" - although that might not be exact.  I think it was on the Captain America First Avenger Blu-Ray.  It hooked me enough to make sure I watched the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. show when it premiered and while I think it started off slow, it was good enough to hook me.  It definitely suffers a bit from having to work around the events in the movies, but so be it.  I just watched the first episode of season 2 yesterday and I'm not quite sure how it's going to go this year, but I'm interested enough to keep watching.

So what is the point of this post?  I'm not really sure, other than to pay homage to what I think have been some good to really good movies and a television show.  I will admit that I'm curious about how the Iron Man stuff plays out with Robert Downey Jr.  I'm just not sure that I can really see anybody other than RDJ play the role and it really seems like that's where it's heading.  Now I'll admit that I felt the same way about the James Bond movies - I grew up on Roger Moore, but I wasn't attached to him like many people were to Sean Connery as Bond.  I was excited with it appeared that Pierce Brosnan had the role as I loved Remington Steele, so when he had to pass on Bond because the show got renewed for another season I was pi**ed off and I never took to Timothy Dalton.  So when Brosnan got the gig a few years later he was *my* Bond and when he was forced out I was even more pi**ed off than I was over Dalton.  I'll admit that I was wrong and Daniel Craig is a very good Bond, albeit a significantly different one than Brosnan was, and in some ways that's great and in others - well it's a disappointment, but I've grown to have an appreciation for him.  So when/if RDJ is replaced as Iron Man/Tony Stark, I hope for as much success as the Bond series has had, but I know I'll be disappointed that someone else will have the role.

Of course, I also get the impression - and perhaps I've just not read enough, or maybe too much - that Marvel may well be moving away from established characters such as Iron Man and into others.  I suppose Guardians Of The Galaxy is part of that and while I've actually seen the movie in the theater twice now and I liked it (not enough to see twice, that's a long story) - I just didn't like it the way I liked Iron Man or the Avengers - hopefully some of the other newer movies will drag me in, otherwise my time as a Marvel fan may well be short lived.  But even if that's the case, it's been fun while it lasted.

With that I'll bid everyone a good weekend, although I suspect I may well be back with another post as I've got a couple of things that I think would make good topics to write about.

- M