….
[Iron Man: 1] is finally hitting theatres today - and fans pulled out from across the country to watch on its very first day.
So did the young trio–
Ryan leaned back in his seat, sipping his soda as the theater lights dimmed. "So… how did this dude get his powers?"
Mark turned to him, eyes narrowing. "You didn't watch the trailer again, did you?"
Ryan grinned unapologetically. "Nope, you know me - I like to go in fresh, no spoilers, and pure experience."
Josh smirked. "Yeah, that's how you walked into that horror movie last time, completely blind, and ended up shitting your pants."
Ryan's expression darkened. "Don't remind me."
Both Mark and Josh burst out laughing, nearly spilling their drinks before finally calming down.
Ryan wiped a tear from his eye. "Alright, fine. But seriously, how does [Iron Man] get his powers?"
Josh shrugged. "I don't know."
Mark blinked at him, stunned. "Dude, he doesn't even have powers. He built everything himself."
"What? I thought it was something like Power Rangers." Ryan said, frowning. "You know, some kind of morphing thing?"
Funny enough, when [Iron Man]'s trailer first dropped, a lot of people actually made that comparison.
Many [Power Rangers] fans claimed it was a rip-off, still salty at Regal, since the last [Power Rangers] movie got crushed at the box office by [Spider-Man] when both released in the same week.
Josh nodded thoughtfully. "To be fair, the morphing part kind of fits. He does wear armor."
Mark added, trying to simplify it. "Yeah, but think of it like this, imagine if the Red Ranger and Gold Ranger were combined into one guy, and instead of being given the morphing power, he built it himself."
Ryan tilted his head. "So… like a DIY Power Ranger?"
"Exactly." Mark laughed.
As the movie played, their conversation spiraled into a series of ridiculous theories - alien metals, government experiments, even secret magic, but somehow, every explanation made less sense than the last.
….
The line wrapped around the block like a coiled serpent of restless fans, phones flashing, voices overlapping in waves of laughter and argument.
Stan Lee adjusted his tinted glasses, observing the crowd with quiet satisfaction. He nudged Zephyr Owlsworth with his elbow.
"Look at them." Stan said, his voice carrying genuine wonder. "Twenty years ago, you couldn't get people to admit they read comics in public. Now they are camping out for opening night."
Zephyr smiled, the wrinkles around his eyes deepening. "Your characters always deserved this. Just took the right storyteller to show the world."
They cut through the crowd, a few fans recognizing Stan and shouting his name. He waved once, genuinely touched but slightly embarrassed by the attention, before disappearing inside the theater.
After Zephyr's call months ago, their old differences had been cleared. The two men had finally accepted each other's mistakes, choosing to build new memories instead of dwelling on old wounds. Tonight was part of that.
Inside, they made their way to the balcony, center row. Stan couldn't contain his excitement, his leg bounced slightly, hands gripping the armrests. Zephyr sat beside him with focused reverence, the posture of someone about to witness something important.
Behind them, a young couple debated whether Iron Man could beat Spider-Man in a fight.
Two seats over, a father was explaining timelines to his confused son.
"No, no - this is before Spider-Man, even though the movie came before."
The boy frowned. "How does that even work?"
"It's… like starting a story in the middle."
"So they messed it up?"
"No, they planned it that way."
"That's dumb."
The father sighed. "You will understand when you are older."
Stan caught Zephyr's eye and grinned. "Kid's already arguing about continuity before the movie starts. That's a good sign."
"Fans only complain about things they care about." Zephyr replied quietly.
Stan nodded, but his expression grew more thoughtful. He glanced around the packed theater, every seat filled.
The vibe and energy there are feeling… It wasn't like [Spider-Man].
That movie had been a promise - a test of belief.
[Iron Man] was different, it carried the weight of expectation, of possibility.
….
The lights began to fade, conversations dropped to whispers, then silence. The theater held one shared, anticipatory breath.
Then the new MarvelD Comics logo began to unfold across the screen.
Pages flipped in rhythm, one after another, their panels alive with color and movement. It was similar to what Regal remembered from another timeline, but not quite the same.
Here, the montage still used comic illustrations, not cinematic faces. The world wasn't ready for that yet. Only two heroes had faces the audience could recognize: Spider-Man and Iron Man.
But in time, this logo would change. As more heroes were born on-screen, those drawn panels would transform into living ones, faces replacing ink, legends replacing sketches.
Within the flicker of panels, there were flashes so quick they bordered on subliminal: a hammer striking an anvil; a blurred glimpse of a green, monstrous hand; a star-shaped shield spinning past the edge of a frame.
The audience murmured, catching on. Regal Seraphsail had teased 'hidden clues' in interviews, and now the hunt was on.
This single Logo…
Regal wouldn't anticipate but he will be making the livelihood of many youtubers who will be hell bent on finding '100 interesting details you have missed in Iron Man movies.'
Stan Lee leaned forward, pointing slightly toward the screen.
"See that? He is doing it! Regal's planting the future right in the logo. That hammer shot, fans are gonna lose their minds over that for weeks."
Zephyr Owlsworth nodded slowly, eyes locked on the animation. "He is setting the tone, respecting where it all came from, but telling people to look deeper."
Stan grinned. "Even before the story begins, he is saying - 'this isn't just one film.'"
Zephyr finished the thought quietly. "It's a universe being born, one frame at a time."
….
The logo finished its sequence, and the screen went black.
Silence.
Then—
BOOM.
The percussive blast of an explosion rattled the theater's sound system, vibrating through seats and chests.
Tony Stark appeared, riding in a Humvee through Afghan desert roads, joking with soldiers who looked up to him even as they were clearly intimidated by his casual genius and wealth.
"Is that—?" Zephyr started, then stopped himself. "So this is Robert Downey Jr., huh..."
Zephyr hadn't watched any clips before tonight. This was his first time seeing RDJ as Tony, and like many, he had been skeptical about the choice. The casting had raised eyebrows, Downey's troubled past, his comeback still uncertain.
But now, watching him inhabit Tony Stark on screen, not acting, but living as the character, Zephyr understood.
Tony was devastatingly, charmingly, arrogantly real. He made a soldier uncomfortable with jokes about his magazine cover, held up a peace sign with a drink in his other hand - "I don't want to see this on your MySpace page" - when the world exploded into chaos.
The ambush is brutal.
Regal doesn't pull punches.
Bullets tear through metal. Men scream.
And Tony Stark, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, runs for his life only to be thrown back by an explosion from a weapon bearing his own company's name: STARK INDUSTRIES.
The theatre is dead silent as Tony collapses in the sand, looking down at his chest, blood spreading across his expensive suit.
His hand comes away red.
His eyes register something between disbelief and recognition - this is how it ends. Not in a boardroom or a mansion, but here, in the dust, killed by his own creation.
Cut to black.
Zephyr leaned toward Stan without taking his eyes off the screen. "Five minutes in and he has already got them."
Stan nodded slowly, his throat tight. "Every single person in here is holding their breath."
Tony woke to find a car battery connected to his chest and Yinsen - beautiful, tragic Yinsen, smiling sadly at him.
"Welcome back, Mr. Stark."
The exposition flowed naturally as these two men, prisoner and prisoner, genius and genius, bonded over the fundamental question: What is a life worth?
Yinsen built more than an electromagnet keeping shrapnel from Tony's heart. He built the foundation of a hero.
The scenes of them working together had a quiet intimacy.
Tony sketching designs in the sand.
Yinsen translating, facilitating, challenging. The terrorists watched, growing suspicious but not yet understanding what was being built right under their noses.
One night, Yinsen spoke softly while Tony worked on the arc reactor design. The line about legacy, about being more than weapons, landed with perfect weight.
The camera held on Tony's face. Robert Downey Jr. did something remarkable here, you could see the idea take root behind his eyes, even as he deflected with a joke.
Stan felt his chest tighten. This wasn't just superhero origin story mechanics. This was about transformation, about a man realizing his entire life had been built on a foundation of blood.
In the background of their cave prison, scratched into the walls among other desperate graffiti, someone with sharp eyes might catch a spider symbol. Not Spider-Man's symbol, this one was different, rougher, like something drawn in desperation.
"Did you see that?" the father whispered to his son.
"What?"
"On the wall. There was - never mind. Watch."
And judging by the absolute silence in the theater, broken only by occasional gasps or nervous laughter at Tony's jokes, everyone in this room was starting to understand that too.
….
The Mark I construction sequence was a masterpiece of tension.
The film intercut between Tony and Yinsen working frantically and the terrorists growing suspicious outside.
Every scrape of metal, every welding spark, every whispered calculation built toward inevitable confrontation.
The theater went quiet as the assembly accelerated. Sparks flew across the screen, metal clanked and scraped. Rough pieces came together - crude, improvised, nothing like the sleek designs from the trailers.
Then, there it was. The bulky, rough-edged Mark I armor. Iron Man's first suit.
The crowd murmured in awe.
Ryan leaned forward, squinting at the screen. Then he turned slowly toward his friends, his expression pure betrayal. "Dude... that's Silver Ranger, not Gold and Red."
Josh and Mark froze. Their proud, confident smiles evaporated. Both looked like kids caught lying about finishing their homework.
Mark's mouth opened, but words failed him. "Aga—" he managed weakly before giving up.
Josh tried to save face. "Hey, at least we were right about the DIY part."
Ryan sighed, shaking his head. "Yeah, yeah… you sure did."
But the laughter died when the terrorists discovered the plan.
The leader spoke in Arabic, his voice cold. Yinsen translated, and the terror in his eyes was real. They were out of time.
Tony was still suited up, still connecting final components. The arc reactor glowed in his chest, powering up the massive metal frame around him.
"Stick to the plan." Tony said, his voice muffled through the suit's crude helmet.
Yinsen looked at him, and at that moment, both men understood. The plan was about to change.
What followed was one of the most quietly devastating moments in superhero cinema.
Yinsen grabbed a gun. Told Tony he would buy him time. And then, with a sad smile that said everything - he said the line about his family. About going home to see them.
Tony, trapped in the armor, unable to move until the systems finished booting, could only watch as Yinsen ran out into the cave corridor.
Gunfire, shouting and the sound of Yinsen fighting, dying, buying seconds with his life.
When Tony's suit finally activated and he burst from the chamber, it wasn't triumphant.
It was desperate - He was too late and he knew it.
He found Yinsen in the corridor, dying, blood spreading across the stone floor.
The exchange was brief but gutting. Yinsen's final words about not wasting life, about Tony's legacy being more than destruction, landed like a physical blow.
The theater was completely silent. A few people wiped their eyes.
Stan felt tears on his cheeks. He didn't bother wiping them away.
"That's what it's supposed to feel like." he whispered.
Zephyr understood immediately. "He is not just adapting your work. He's honoring why you wrote it in the first place."
What followed was catharsis through violence.
The Mark I rampage through the cave was visceral and brutal. Fire exploded from the suit's crude flamethrowers, engulfing terrorists who'd held Tony prisoner, who'd murdered Yinsen.
The armor absorbed bullets, kept moving forward like an unstoppable force of vengeance.
But it wasn't glorified.
Tony's face inside the helmet showed anguish, not joy. This wasn't heroism yet. This was survival and grief.
The escape succeeded, the Mark I destroyed in the process. Tony emerged from the desert, collapsed in sand dunes.
The camera held on Robert Downey Jr.'s face - grief, guilt, determination all warring for dominance.
Onscreen, the Mark I roared to life one final time before being destroyed. Flame burst from its arms as Tony escaped.
The audience erupted in cheers, but the emotion underneath was complex—relief mixed with loss.
Ryan, Mark, and Josh sat in stunned silence for a moment before Mark leaned in, whispering. "Okay, but seriously... tell me that doesn't look like a rejected Power Ranger prototype."
Josh snorted, trying to suppress his laughter. Ryan chuckled despite himself, grateful for the emotional release.
Within moments, they were back to their usual dynamic - laughing quietly, drawing a few irritated glances from the row ahead.
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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