Robert Downey jun slips into the tailor-made Iron Man suit for the fifth time, counting the two prequels, The Avengers and The Incredible Hulk epilogue, but there is no sign of metal fatigue yet.
This branch of the comic book family tree always took itself less seriously than the others on the big screen, but in an echo of Batman and Bond deconstructions, Iron Man 3 delves into that question touched on previously - who is the real hero, the man or the suit?
To do that, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist Tony Stark is stripped down to the nuts and bolts. No fellow superheroes this time out, no Malibu luxury pad, not even a cameo from Samuel L. Jackson as the eye-patched Svengali Nick Fury.
Stark is literally shaking with anxiety after experiencing the aliens, gods and other dimensions in The Avengers and he's pushing Pepper Potts (Paltrow) away in the process.
Twisted entrepreneur Killian (Pearce), Stark's ingratiating alter-ego, and rising Brit talent Rebecca Hall as Stark's half-forgotten botanist squeeze are the other corners of this $200 million action ''love square''.
The stakes are raised ever higher when ambiguous villain the Mandarin (a superb Ben Kingsley) takes credit for mysterious terrorist explosions without bombs.
Iron Man 3 is the best entry in the trilogy and a great standard setter for Phase 2 in the Marvel saga, with Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers 2 to come by the end of 2015. Bring 'em on.
