It's funny how one video game or toy can shape your fondness for a character you otherwise have no exposure to until film. As a child of the 90s, X-Men were king, and Marvel vs Capcom 2 had an incredible roster. That gave me a love for War Machine. I played the old Avengers arcade once as a kid so Iron Man was tops and purple mask Hawkeye had a certain appreciation. I also saw some old Captain America cartoon as a child so he and Red Skull had a kind of old-timey greatness.

I'd never seen a DCAU movie but I can see how that would spawn a whole lot of Green Lantern or Flash fans.

Max Power said:

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Just saw this earlier today, not sure how much of a spoiler it is, but it was news to me. This is related to a character likely making an appearance in Quantumania.

Funko Pop has a new toy being released for Quantumania so it looks like we're getting MODOK in the movie. I'm guessing William Jackson Harper is playing him since he doesn't have a character name listed on IMDB yet for the film.

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I thought they had announced it, but might be I was just seeing the Funko as well. I'm wondering if they're going to connect it back to AIM in Iron Man 3 or just keep it separate

This.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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maroon barchetta said:

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Brian Earl Spilner said:

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B is incredibly generous for Iron Man.

B would be Aquaman, The Flash, etc.

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Iron Man was my favorite comic as a boy and the one I read more than any other. I was thrilled when that movie got made.

Plus he was an Avenger. I think he was more well-known than you realize.

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But not as well known among the mainstream. To say he was B-tier is pretty disingenuous.

A tier is a pretty small list. (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, maybe Wolverine?)

B tier is ones that most people would know even if they aren't comic readers, such as The Flash, Aquaman, Hulk etc.

C tier is about the highest I could possibly see someone ranking Iron Man before 2008. Some others I would put here are Ant Man, Captain Marvel, Black Adam, etc.

In any case, this is all just to give props for being able to kickstart an entire franchise with a relatively unknown character.

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Feel like some of these would be different depending on when you grew up and what you were exposed to. I'd personally say Hulk is A-tier, given that there have been multiple TV shows throughout the decades in the same way that there have been for Spider-Man. X-men in general received a huge boost in the 90s with the Fox TV show (amongst others), which of course led into the movies in the late 90s.

All that to say that Iron Man is one of the ones to be a part of that push in the 90s alongside Spider-Man, Hulk, X-men, and Fantastic Four. He had his own show and appeared in the more popular Spider-Man show on Fox as well. Certainly not A-tier, but I think he was probably a bit more well known than you're giving him credit for.

That's fair.

Did not expect it to get this much discussion, but I just think there is definitely a tier of characters between A-List and Iron Man.

I don't think anyone can say Iron Man was as well known as say, the Fantastic Four, Magneto, Prof Xavier, Cyclops, Aquaman, Flash, Ant-Man, etc. If you asked 10 people on the street back in the early 00s, you'd see a definite dropoff there.

The Porkchop Express said:

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bluefire579 said:

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Definitely Not A Cop said:

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Did I catch that right in the trailer? Eyebrows is playing Adam Warlock?

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Yes

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Is that an infinity stone in his forehead? I know he has the soul stone in at least some of the comics, you think that will be the case here?

BTW, he is such a great character in the Guardians video game that came out recently.

Who did he throw off the cliff to get the Soul Stone

This is exactly how I view/viewed it, down to each character.

I love that game

Born in the late 60s, grew up through the 70s and early 80s, but I never read comic books. Still, I knew who Iron Man was prior to the movie coming out in '08. Probably from this hard-bound book of comics that my grandmother had (that I now have after I claimed it while cleaning out her house following her passing in 2004). I know that book is where I first came to know of Captain America.

I recall the 7-11 that was literally on the other side of the fence from my grandmother's house when I was little and would spend a month with her. She'd take me over there to get a Slurpee and some other sweet. There was one summer when you could get Slurpees in plastic cups featuring a super hero. I was through the roof excited when I got both Superman and Batman on back-to-back weeks. (I was something like 4 or 5).

Growing up, I watched the Super Friends animated show on Saturday mornings, where I undoubtedly learned of the existence of Aquaman. We also had the original 60s-era Batman on re-runs, along with The Incredible Hulk (Lou Ferrigno sp?) and Wonder Woman (Linda Carter) that aired in the late 70s. There were cartoons featuring Spider-Man and Fantastic Four that I used to watch. Of course, the late 70s also brought Superman to the big screen. That movie remains a brilliant telling of the Superman story; Superman II has not withstood the test of time, and the subsequent sequels all sucked ass. Batman '89 was great and in some ways remains so, but none of the sequels measured up. Those sequels gave me comic book movie fatigue that kept me out of the theaters for the X-Men movies, although I did go see the Spider-Man movies as well as that Hulk movie with Eric Bana. Spider-Man 3 was so bad that I opted out of Iron Man, not seeing that one until I borrowed the BluRay from a neighbor.

And now, after the infinity saga, I'm back to a burnout on comic book movies. I'm still going to see them, but am finding them to be largely meh. At least they're not Superman IV, Batman & Robin, or Spider-Man 3 awful.

I'm just a little bit older than you and I remember the collector cups from 7-11. They were glorious.

Also had cups for Cannonball Run.

And at one point there were Big Gulp cups that came with a Shrinky Dink on the bottom.

Superfriends was must-see-tv.
Wonder Woman as well.
And the old Batman series was corny but you might see the Julie Newmar Catwoman so you had to watch.

Grandma was nice to take you to 7-11 instead of The Snooty Poodle.

Farmer1906 said:

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Where does Captain Planet rate on the tier list? He was a solid B for 90s kids. He needs a MCU film.

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man, I don't even think he's a B for me. All I know about him is from the dumb cartoon and there were a bunch of other shows I'd have rather watched, and I was in the wheelhouse age group for Captain Planet

Captain America is a perfect example for B-tier.

(And I was listing those in B-tier, btw.)

Sounds like you agree that there's quite a few ahead of Iron Man, but I disagree with most of the X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc being in A-tier.

I'm actually pretty shocked there hasn't been a Captain Planet revival given his popularity back in the 90's and where we are society-wise today

Mathguy64 said:

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Space Ghost and Johnny Quest were Saturday morning staples. I would love to see a live action JQ

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Lol... for some reason, I think they would probably change Hadji's name.

Mathguy64 said:

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Space Ghost and Johnny Quest were Saturday morning staples. I would love to see a live action JQ

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The original Space Ghost was one of my very faves, before he became a talk show host.

Malachi Constant said:

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I only knew who Iron Man was because he was a playable character on the arcade game.

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I literally played this last night. Brought back so many memories.

The Porkchop Express said:

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I'm easily halfway to the grave and there still hasn't been a live-action Voltron movie made.

Meanwhile the Transformers' franchise puts out a trailer with a giant gorilla Transformer yesterday.

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today's 15-30 year old group would just think it's Power Rangers

(also for those who are unaware the Voltron series on Netflix was awesome)

The Porkchop Express said:

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I'm easily halfway to the grave and there still hasn't been a live-action Voltron movie made.

Meanwhile the Transformers' franchise puts out a trailer with a giant gorilla Transformer yesterday.

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I feel like there is/was a live action Battle of the Planets in the works, I want to say with the Russo Bros involved.

MBAR said:

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Brian Earl Spilner said:

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I hope there's at least a line that somewhat explains it. Cause if it's just a matter of good/bad then that's also pretty problematic. Who decides that? He didn't know she switched sides.

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We're really going to try to say that using this maguffin in this way is problematic when its literally rocks taht you snap your fingers to and get what you want?

LOL, come on man.

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They are not rocks!

They are concentrated ingots!