I have a thought regarding this, I think.
One of the most memorable moments in Iron Man came when the film jettisoned all of the baggage of a secret identity. When Tony Stark admits to a packed press conference that he is Iron Man, it flouted 40 years of Marvel Comics tradition, but fans didn’t seem to mind a bit. The line was not scripted — it was a Downey ad-lib — so it took a measure of courage to include it.
I didn’t realize that it had been ad-libbed. As for the reaction? Well, when I went to see Iron Man in theaters I had been consistently impressed, up to that point: it was an awesome gadgeteer movie, complete with showing how a real-life gadgeteer might go about creating his super-suit in a realistic, yet entertaining fashion*. This was not a guaranteed result, in 2008.
So when they abruptly jettisoned the entire secret identity concept, I was actually mildly relieved about that. Secret identities work better in comic books than they do in comic book movies. Oh, it makes sense for somebody like Spider-Man, since the kid’s in high school; but watching them try to maneuver around Tony Stark’s double life as Iron Man would have taken up valuable screen time that could be better spent on other stuff**.
So, hey, good call there, Robert.
Moe Lane
*My wife is an engineer, and this is her favorite scene in the movie. By far:
https://youtu.be/ZTRbCo5sIIc?t=3m19s
**This is a personal opinion and my own personal taste.
A lot of ad libbing was done in Iron Man, from what I understand. A lot like Die Hard in that respect.