"If we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn sure we'll avenge it."
Twenty-one movies since it all began, soon to be twenty-two. It's such a wealth of entertainment from Marvel, this huge interconnected world, that I love. I can hardly believe how much time has gone by, because I vividly remember the feelings I had watching Iron Man in the theater: the smiles as it started with "Back in Black"; the chills I got when Tony fought for his life after being struck with shrapnel and finally making his way out of the cave, losing a friend along the way; the laughs as the first suit experiments didn't quite go to plan; the cheers as Iron Man single-handedly saved a village in his first outing as an avenging hero; the lump in my throat when Tony opened his present from Pepper, that old arc reactor with a tender message surrounding it; the appreciation that someone as impressively talented as Robert Downey Jr would not only give a superhero movie a second thought, but actually give it a genuine heart; and the realization during the end credits scene that there was a plan for something more than just a sequel.
