When I was a kid, my two favourite comic book superheroes were The Amazing Spider-Man and Iron Man. That’s the subsequent interests in biology and physics/engineering right there—not to mention their alter egos being a photographer and an anti-communist industrialist respectively. (In my own case, I was transformed into The Geek on a school trip to a power station, where I was bitten by a radioactive lab technician.) Later on, when he stopped being the camp crusader, it was the revamped Dark Knight Batman that got me back into reading comic books.

Now, I am slightly embarrassed at how excited I am about the upcoming Iron Man movie. The trailer suggests that the script will be knowing and funny. Remember Kenneth Branagh’s Frankenstein and his appearance in Wild Wild West. Wish you didn’t? That’s why Robert Downey Jr. is perfectly cast as the rich, mad scientist with a goatee. Imagine how much Branagh would overplay those lines.

Also, it looks like the exploding helicopters will blow up to the accompaniment of chunky rock guitar riffs and Gywneth Paltrow will be strangely hot as a redhead with freckles.

Is it time for me to grow up yet?