With three movies behind him and his latest The Avengers achieving the status of the third most popular movie of all time, it's sure that you'll be seeing Iron Man in more movies to come.

One who doesn't know of him might ask who Iron Man is and what is so special about him?

Well to tell you the truth, Iron Man is the story of a billionaire industrialist who makes weapons. He originally had a problem with alcoholism and was quite the jetsetter. His real name is Tony Stark and he owns a global multi-billion dollar weapons and technology corporation named after him. During an accident his heart was damaged and he developed technology to help him survive. This technology led to him developing his own armor that made him practically invincible as he fought the menaces of the Cold War era of the early 1960s. His creators Jack Kirby and Stan Lee knew they had a winner with Iron Man. They knew they could get the readers hopped up with a guy who could fly, repel missiles, and wipe out tanks with a gesture. Iron Man became a hit and a staple of the Marvel empire. For fifty years his adventures have entertained comics readers and he's had several incarnations in animation too.

Iron Man struggled as a character with some of the most well written scripts in comic book history. Many at first couldn't believe that a comic book company would put out a story about an alcoholic superhero who struggled daily to just survive and keep his head on straight. This was the key to Marvel's success with Iron Man. A man who was vulnerable to his own foibles but countered that with a high tech suit of body armor that was as powerful as an army itself. Villains came at him trying to get the secret of his armor. Villains like the Mandarin who had an array of lethal rings. The Crimson Dynamo that was then Soviet Russia's attempt at developing their own version of Iron Man. The list of villains and other superheroes who wanted to take on Iron Man is quite lengthy but he always makes it through.

Nowadays with top flight actor Robert Downey Jr. playing Iron Man, fans are flocking to the movies and comic conventions trying to get as much Iron Man merchandise as possible. Most fans thought that an Iron Man movie wouldn't make it because so many people didn't know who Iron Man was at first. That all changed when Downey stepped on board. He brought life to the character that matched what was originally scripted by the original creators and more. Downey changed the playing field when it came to superhero movies and that raised the bar for the craft as well as for Iron Man products around the world.

With his sidekicks Pepper Potts, Happy, and Rhodi, Iron Man continues to be a super popular favorite of comic book fans and now movie fans around the globe.