It’s the first MCU film. This is an easily forgettable point but probably the most important one at this point. It doesn’t have to deal with the baggage of being the umpteenth movie in an established cinematic universe, nor the hype to live up to following successful films. It was able to be its own movie. Since the universe wasn’t built yet, it didn’t need to set up other movies, making it coherent and focused.
RDJ has many of Tony Stark’s traits and mannerisms, including similar personal life problems. He was born to play Tony Stark just like Ryan Reynolds was born to play Deadpool. At this point, I feel bad for any Tony Stark actors who have to follow.
It had an original feel. At this point the originality is lost, but remember that Iron Man is what set up the feel of MCU in the first place. We had X-Men, the Spiderman Trilogy, and the Fantastic 4 as Marvel movies and each had their own aura. Iron Man nailed it perfectly with its humor, fun, and heart. Tony was very human and VERY flawed, but wanted to take responsibility with his weapons causing mass destruction.
Iron Man was relatively unknown. He’s no Spiderman or Wolverine. He was only known for his opposition in the Civil War storyline by casual readers. This allows him to be a surprise with no expectations. Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-man were successful for this reason too.
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