Edshugeo The GodMoor

No, not Ghostface Killah. That's Tony Starks of Starks' Enterprise, one of Ghost's aliases.

I'm talking about Iron Man (Marvel Comics). Tony Stark is a multi-millionare (billionare, these days I imagine) arms dealer who's main client is the government. One day he gets caught in a booby trap in Korea or Vietnam (Marvel continuity must've updated the story by now, to keep Stark from being too old), where he sustains some damage to his heart. The Iron Man suit, while being a kick ass piece of weaponry, also somehow keeps him alive.

Back in the day, each superhero battle he took part in also was a risk to his heart, so he kinda had a Fred Sandford thing going on, even before Redd Foxx came up with that riff.

During the late seventies, he had problem with alcohol, that made for a decent run on the title, and which everyone seems to remember, unless he's fallen off the wagon since, and younger folks are actually remembering some more recent drunkeness by Mr. Stark.

The casting of Robert Downey Jr. in this role has most people excited. They feel he can bring some depth to Iron Man's darker side. I think it also helps that Downey is pretty much a house hold name, though not a "star" (due to his personal problems), so he brings some visibility to the project without being too expensive.
Should success go to his head and lead to another round of drug related arrests, that shouldn't pose a problem either, because in the eighties comics, Stark eventually turns the Iron Man suit over to his pilot, Jim Rhodes. (I beleve the Black Iron Man, eventually took the name War Machine)
There'll probably be a semi-known black actor in the cast, like that dude from Scrubs that kinda looks like Todd Bridges. Every now and then, the producer will point Downey towards him and say, "You fuck up, he gets the suit."


Here's something I didn't know until now...