"We got a plan, and we're going to stick to it" – Tony Stark

As great as Guardians of the Galaxy is, it's hard not to resent Marvel for what it has done to cinema. If it wasn't bad enough that the studio is lining up 10 more-or-less identical superhero films for release between now and 2019 (including three in 2017, by which time I'll hopefully be too old to care), now everyone else is at it too. DC Comics is also making 10 new superhero films. At least five Star Wars films are in the works. There's even talk of Warner Bros making a cinematic universe out of The Lego Movie, for crying out loud.

The trouble, where superheroes are concerned, is that everyone already knows how all the films will go. There will be an orb, or a cube, or some kind of other glowing nonsense. A baddie whom we won't meet properly for five years will order an underling to fetch it. Standing in his way will be a man in a silly costume. Two and a half hours later, an arbitrarily-chosen city will get smashed to pieces. And then you'll have to sit through the credits to see Samuel L Jackson cock an eyebrow at a statue or whatever.

But it wasn't always like this. Before superhero fatigue, there was Iron Man – Marvel's all-or-nothing shot at glory. No orbs. No Thanos. No city-wide destruction. Just a man, a cave and a hammer. No wonder it still holds up as one of Marvel's best.

"I don't think you could tie your shoes without me" – Pepper Potts

While everyone credits Robert Downey Jr – who, admittedly, has always been a terrific actor, even in his down-and-out Ally McBeal years – with Iron Man's success, that does tend to mask what a brilliant character Tony Stark is. True, Downey's iteration of Stark is about 75% Downey – the character has all the same caffeinated quirks and inflections as the ones Downey played in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and A Scanner Darkly and Zodiac and those phone adverts – but it's still remarkable how we're made to care for such an unrepentant douchebag. He's Gene Simmons, basically, but an alcoholic Gene Simmons who sells the bombs that blow up the Middle East and has the vocal cadences of Vince Vaughn. By rights, we should absolutely hate him.

Stark doesn't have the relatability that gets us onside with other superheroes. We don't see him bullied, like Peter Parker. We don't see his parents get murdered, like Bruce Wayne. We don't see him have to eke out a miserable wage in a dying profession, like Clark Kent. Stark is smarter than you and richer than you, and he's ready to rub that in your face at every turn. Yet, somehow – right from the very first scene, where he drunkenly sweet-talks a truckload of soldiers (and, by extension, us) – we're right onside with him. To the extent that, when things get serious, it's almost a letdown. If Iron Man was nothing but two hours of watching Stark breeze through his impossibly charmed life, it would have still been a perfectly good film.

"Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy" – Pepper Potts

And, to be fair, that's not far off. Iron Man is an origin story and, like all origin stories, there isn't really a lot of room for conflict. Once we've met Stark, heard his life story (literally delivered via PowerPoint presentation) and watched him slowly become Iron Man, complete with all the necessary epiphanies and refinements that the transformation brings – and then finally get introduced to the notion of SHIELD – we only have about 45 minutes to pit Stark against his evil colleague, played by Jeff Bridges. And Stark spends almost 10 of those minutes unconscious.

Which in all honesty is about the time that story deserves. Bridges is selling weapons to an al-Qaida analogue, so Stark stops him. Then Bridges builds a ridiculous, oversized Iron Man suit of his own; they fight, Stark wins, and that's the end of the film. It's the slightest of plots but – now that superhero films are an impenetrable muddle of mythology and maguffins and universe-building – it's actually quite refreshing.

Notes

• Of course, the definitive top three Marvel films are Iron Man 3, Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron Man. I will fistfight anyone who disagrees with me.

• As the Iron Man suits get ever-more sophisticated – and, if rumours about Avengers 2 are to be believed, they're about to become a bit too sophisticated – it's nice to relive the days when it was just a bulky flamethrower delivery system made from scrap metal.

• If Jon Favreau does nothing else in his life, at least he'll be able to say that he created that shot of Stark inside his suit. It's an elegant, cheap and, most importantly, human piece of visual grammar, one that reminds the audience this is foremost a film about a man. It's one of the smartest moves in an already very smart film. Oh, and Elf. That's not bad for a lifetime, is it?

• Weird that, despite all his riches and intelligence, Stark chooses to own a ridiculous swivel-screen LG VX9400 phone, one of the ugliest mobiles ever created. You probably can't even play Snake on it, either. See? Superheroes can be fallible too.