Even though Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man run has sadly ended, fans have been left with many long-lasting and emotional memories over the last 12 years. It was fairly well-known that Robert Downey Jr's initial contract ended after the third Iron Man solo movie in 2013, but he soon returned as more of a supporting role in movies such as Captain America: Civil War, and Spider-Man: Homecoming. Many elements are taken into consideration when making a movie such as character development, story, action, and comedy and in Downey's original Iron Man trilogy some elements are done better than others.

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Marvel is constantly tasked with cramming so many of these elements into such a short space of time and sometimes, certain elements have to be sacrificed to better serve the overall story. Let's take a look at some things each Iron Man movie did better than the others.

Iron Man - The Mechanic

Tony Stark getting out of his suit

The first Iron Man movie gave fans a proper look at what Tony goes through when making one of his suits. We saw the design and making of the Mk1, Mk2, and Mk3 suits including the shaping of the metal, the color, and the interface. From then on, Marvel took the approach of having Tony create all his subsequent suits off-screen, leaving fans to accept that Tony upgraded the tech in his suit at some point between the previous movie and now.

A brief glimpse of Tony Making the briefcase armor from Iron Man 2 or the pilot-less gold suit from Iron Man 3 would have been a fun addition to the movies.

Iron Man - The Villain

Obadiah Stane hears Tony Stark won't make weapons anymore

It's safe to say that all of the villains throughout the Iron Man trilogy were the result of being bitter about something Tony had done. Obadiah Stane in Iron Man resented Tony for taking back control of Stark Industries, Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2 simply wanted to prove that he was done living in the shade of Tony's scientific shadow and The Mandarin from Iron Manwas annoyed because Tony left him on a rooftop.

Compared to other MCU movies, the motivations for the villains are slightly lacking in depth but having Obadiah Stane, a man who knew Tony from when he was a small boy adds an emotional connection between the hero and the antagonist.

Iron Man - The Plot

Tony escapes the cave in his Mark I armor in Iron Man

The story of Tony Stark becoming Iron Man for the first time, Obadiah Stane, a face from Tony'spre-Iron Man life, becoming the main antagonist of the story, and the evolution of Tony and Pepper's relationship, makes it a stronger plot than Iron Man 2 and 3.

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Iron Man 2 showed us a Tony learning that he was dying from the arc reactor in his chest, going off the rails and then returning to being the hero again. Iron Man 3 comes in a close second with the added PTSD element, the Pepper and Aldridge Killian angle and the fact that the villain wasn't another bad guy using Tony Stark's own tech against him.

Iron Man 2 - Connection To The MCU

Black Widow inside Hammer Industries in Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 heavily featured scenes with Nick Fury and Black Widow, two other members S.H.I.E.L.D/The Avengers. Upon hearing that he was on his deathbed thanks to the depleted core in his chest-mounted arc reactor, Tony became far more reckless and this required Fury and Widow to put him back on track. The lack of inclusion of any other S.H.I.E.L.D agents in Iron Man was due to this movie being purely about Tony Stark's journey and any other key MCU characters may have overshadowed this.

The main connection to the MCU that we got in Iron Man 3 was Tony's PTSD from the battle of New York. Aldrich Killian was the main antagonist and idolized Tony Stark in the 90s in hopes of working with him. If you were to take the events of Iron Man 3 out of the MCU, it would leave very little/no impact going forward. Iron Man trashed all of his suits for Pepper, only to have another brand new one in Avengers: Age of Ultron.  This is not to say that every MCU movie has to have drastic consequences for the larger cinematic universe in order to be good, but in terms of an Iron Man movie having at least a small effect or impact on the MCU, Iron Man 2 did it better than the rest.

Iron Man 2 - Easter Eggs

References to original Marvel comics are peppered throughout the MCU and some are still being discovered. Iron Man has nods to the original Iron Man theme which is played in the casino scene and the Mk. 3 gold suit from the comics.

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Iron Man 2 has references to Captain America, with his shield being in Tony Stark's lab, a line that directly references the re-casting of Rhodey, Tony's briefcase armor which is a nod to Tony Stark always carrying around his suit neatly folded in a suitcase, while also showing multiple Marvel easter eggs in the final scene between Nick Fury and Tony Stark where to–mention one–Wakanda can be seen on the screens as a place of interest to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Iron Man 2 - War Machine

Iron Man and War Machine team up in Iron Man 2

With Terence Howard being replaced by Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine in Iron Man 2, fans were intrigued to see his take on the character. Although he spent some of the movie being Ivan Vanko's puppet, we saw Iron Man and War Machine not only fighting each other in their armor but fighting side by side in the final act of the movie. For most of Iron Man 3, War Machine was flying to potential Mandarin locations and was then held hostage inside his own armor.

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In the final battle, Tony also enabled the 'House Party Protocol' where the 35 extra suits he made as a hobby came to his and Rhodey's rescue to defeat the Extremis army. This could have been a great opportunity to see Rhodey back in some armor for the final battle, but the suits were only coded to Tony leaving Rhodey to fend for himself. Once he rescued the president he fled the scene. Perhaps that, because we saw War Machine fight at the end of Iron Man 2, the writers maybe wanted to display Col. James Rhodes in action for a change.

Iron Man 3 - Comedy

Tony Stark is known for his attitude and quick one-liners that he has delivered multiple times throughout the MCU. Much of the comedic moments in the first two Iron Man films came from Tony Stark's own dialogue.

With the addition of the Mandarin in Iron Man 3, a character that left some fans annoyed at the route that Marvel took with him, this added another source of many comedic moments during the film.

Iron Man 3 - Character Development

Tony's character development is much more apparent when you look at it across the entire MCU from Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame. It is much harder to imagine the Tony Stark fans saw in Endgame as the same one that we got in Iron Man than it is to compare Tony at the beginning and end of each Iron Man movie individually.

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The added PTSD element in Iron Mangave Tony Stark a personal journey that could be argued was slightly less apparent in the other Iron Man films. At the end of Iron Man and Iron Man 2, Tony Stark was still very much the arrogant but lovable billionaire he was at the beginning.

Iron Man 3 - Score

Iron Man 3 Tony Stark

While AC/DC provided a great soundtrack for Tony Stark in the first two Iron Man movies, looking at the musical score in Iron Man 3, it has a stronger action movie/Iron Man feel to it compared to the score for Iron Man 2. The score was written by Brian Tyler and has features such as the sound of a hammer hitting Iron as the beats for the music, which add sentimental and personal value to the music.

Many fans were eager to hear this score again in a future Avengers movie but were sadly disappointed. That being said, by no means do the Avengers movie scores require any changes.

NEXT: Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy: 3 Things Each Movie Did Better Than The Others