earlier.

"I tell people the seminal film that's responsible for everything that has happened was 'Batman & Robin,' " he said, referring to Joel Schumacher's infamously bloated 1997 film for Warners Bros. that nearly put the entire sub-genre on ice. "If it hadn't been so bad, things wouldn't have gotten so good."

It was Marvel executive Arad, once a toy designer in Israel, who came to town with the idea of making "serious" comic-book films and putting them in the hands of grown-up fans of 1960s Marvel, such as director Sam Raimi, who had a mural of Spider-Man on his bedroom wall as a kid. Now, the "serious" approach is standard; just look at "Batman Begins," "300" and "Sin City." Marvel is keeping pace -- "Iron Man" may be abouta guy with a red metal suit, but it stars three Oscar nominees (Downey, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges) as well as one winner ( Gwyneth Paltrow). A decade ago, that would have been shocking; now it's barely noted.

At the Playa Vista set late last year, "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau repeated the mantra that audiences relate best to conflicted heroes. "That's where the story and the character is," he said, "but this film has amazing toys too, believe me."

The story is of Tony Stark, a narcissistic weapons tycoon who enjoys women, booze and the sound of lucrative explosions. But while in Afghanistan (updated from the 1960s comic book, when it was Vietnam), Stark is wounded, kidnapped and forced to design a weapon for the enemies of America.