Earlier in the week, my wife and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few essentials. During a quite jaunt through the toy department, I happened across a lone Marvel Mighty Muggs; Iron Man. Being the only one I was sure I wanted from this wave, I bought it and after seeing the Iron Man movie last night, I felt I should review it.

Iron Man uses the standard Mighty Muggs mold that most of the Star Wars line uses, featuring an over-sized head and three points of articulation; the next and shoulders. The legs are separate pieces, but, as with the rest of the line, don't seem willing to move. This is probably a good thing since these guys might not stand well otherwise.

Iron Man is decked out in the deco of his suit he wore through a good part of the 80's. It retains some of the iron look of the original, with a bit of a modern 80's look about it. This is how I think of Iron Man when I think of the character from the comic books. I love the simplistic design and the Mighty Muggs mold lends itself well to it.

I have no doubt that there will be more Iron Men in the future of this line, especially with a sequel in the works for a 2010 release. If you like Iron Man and Mighty Muggs, make this a part of your collection.

We saw Iron Man tonight with my Father-in-law, who's visiting for a few days from Texas, and let me start by saying my expectations were exceeded.

The casting was top-notch. Robert Downey Jr. is quite possibly the best choice in the world for Tony Stark. He was incredible from start to finish. Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrance Howard, and Jeff Bridges also were the great in their roles as Virginia "Pepper" Potts, James Rhodes, and Obidiah Stane.

Iron Man is a great modernization of the original origin story and worth paying full price for evening show. Go out and see this ASAP. And when you do, make sure you stick around until the credits are through. Trust me.

After one of the worst days at work I've had in the three years I've been with Half Price Books, something I really cannot get into here due to obligations and the fact that I don't want anything I say online to come back to bite me in the ass later, I sat down to leftovers and a couple beers and popped in two animated films I've been wanting to watch for some time but haven't had the opportunity to do so until tonight; Invincible Iron Man and Superman: Doomsday.  See, Mrs. GripX is away with her Mom visiting her Brother and his family. So, I have the place to myself until Saturday night.  Woo.  Hoo.

Invincible Iron Man, for me, is instantly forgettable.  Maybe it was due to the crappy day I had or maybe it's that I'm not a big Iron Man fan.  I mean, he did start that hero registration bullshit in Marvel's Civil War last year.  Ass clown.  Anyway, this is the origin of Iron Man retold to make him more modern, much like the upcoming feature film.  This is a very well made feature with great cg, voice acting, etc.  I just found myself not caring what happened to the characters.

Tony has a love interest, people get killed (and not in the "they'll-be-back-later-because-this-is-a-comic-book" way that's the norm in comics and their animated counterparts), and the Stark Corp./Tony's father arc was all right.  It was nice to see James Rhoades in the story, but it was a little disappointing he wasn't used more.  I'm sure Iron Man fans appreciate this more than I do.  As I've said, I'm not a big fan of the character or his origin.  It was well made and that's the positive I give it.

Up next tonight was Superman: Doomsday, a retelling of the Death of Superman story from DC Comics. This feature takes the iconic story of Superman's demise from the perspective that he is alone of Earth.  There are no cameos from Batman, Wonder Woman, the Justice League, or even Plastic Man.  Superman is alone.  At first, I was a little disappointed about this, but it worked really well and I think had they included other heroes, it would have mucked up the story.

What I didn't care for was the cast.  DC decided to use "big" names like Adam Baldwin, James Marsters, and Anne Heche instead of the people who've been doing the voices of Superman, Lex Luthor, and Lois Lane for years.  This is a beef I have with theatrical animated films as well, but that's for another blog someday down the road.  It took a while for me to warm up to the acting, but by the end I was well beyond that.

The story goes through the battle with Doomsday, which probably could have been a little longer, then comes the grieving and the return... or is it a return?  Like the comic version, there's some doubt when he makes his return.  This time, there's only one Superman and not four.  I feel this was another great move as multiple Supermen would have complicated a 75 minute story.

So, if I had to recommend just one of these, it'd be Superman: Doomsday. It's just better.  It's also making me think that maybe I'm not the Marvel fan-boy I think I am.  Maybe, just maybe, I'm a closet DC fan and only now acknowledging it.  Hmmm...