Both superheroes kick-started massive franchises. They also have super high-tech gadgets, are smart, rich playboys and are matched against the American poster-boy. They are also both human and they share a decidedly similar plot...
1. Both characters are mega-billionaires with; a mansion, expensive sports cars, a personal butler, monogrammed everything and a minimum of two women on each arm just to make an entrance. And they suffer from a case of dead parent(s) cliché.
2. At the beginning of the film, something bad happens to our heroes, making them M.I.A for a few weeks or months. In Iron Man, Tony gets kidnapped into a desert, in Batman Begins, Bruce runs away on a spiritual quest to the mountains.
3. They both meet an old-ish guy in the villain's secret layer with a 'foreign-English' accent, who teaches them morals and helps them to escape.
4. These movies aren't cheap, so there are plenty of famous faces thrown into the mix. There's this old looking dude with a beard played by one of your favourite actors, who's kind of like a mentor figure to our hero; a black guy played by an award winning/nominated actor who kind of knows what the hero's doing but is too cool to care or snitch; the butler is played by a famous English actor.
5. There are (naturally) multiple villains in these films. They are also mostly cliches; there's the Asian guy who looks like the main villain, the iconic comic book villain who barely gets enough screen time, and the mentor figure who actually is the main villain.
6. Our superhero lead decides it's time to fight crime, so flies home (in First Class, obvs) and starts a science project down in his basement.
7. there's a part where our hero builds his suit and he goes out to test the prototype that looks like a cheap version of the final suit. There's a cool signature shot of the hero's logo that tells the audience the next scene is an action scene.
8. The hero suits up and goes to take out a group of bad guys, and it looks like the hardness has set in easily, because (for his first time as a superhero) he made it look way too easy. #LIKEABOSS
9. The mentor figure ends up screwing the hero over and leaves him for dead in his own home, only to steal a powerful circular device that glows to conquer the world. #traitormuch.
Hmm I'm beginning to sense a pattern here.
10. The hero has an epic fight with his mentor figure who ends up dying in an explosion caused by the device he stole from the hero, in a building owned by the hero.
If you've ever thought about being Batman or Ironman, here's a great infographic online (via Moneysupermaket) which tells you how much it would cost to be both.
Think I've missed something? Let me know in the comments!
*pushes up nerd glasses*
Erm.. actually - Bruce was MIA for years, having run away from Gotham. He was gone long enough to be declared legally dead.
Stark was actually found by the military, and if I remember rightly, came back to the US on a military plane, not first class. Thank-you *removes glasses* - Good read though, will have to watch Batman again soon...