I have many obsessions: sweet tea, books, “Dance Moms” and most importantly: the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As of now, there are 26 movies and four Disney+ series. Not all of the movies were released in the timeline order, so Disney+ has a feature where fans can watch the movies in the specific order. The fourth movie in the timeline order: “Iron Man 2,” was released on May 7, 2010. Spoiler alerts ahead:

This movie starts months after the events of the first movie. A random man named Ivan Vanko is on the screen and we learn that he is extremely jealous of the life Stark is living. Vanko’s father is dying and he takes a blueprint with his father’s name and also Howard Stark’s name on it.

Stark used his suit to make a peace treaty between the major powers in the world. At the Stark Expo in New York, Stark has to do a quick blood test which reveals that the palladium that powers the arc reactor in his chest is poisoning his body. Also at the Expo,  a woman gives Stark a subpoena to a Senate Armed Forces Committee hearing. 

At the hearing, Stark is being himself and using his humor, ignoring the fact that they are classifying his suit as a weapon. Justin Hammer of Hammer Industries is there and Stark shows that he will not give up his suit. He hacks the committee’s computers to show that the attempts of copying the suit are failures, including Hammer’s.

Stark decides that he wants to focus on being Iron Man and gives Pepper the position as CEO. The next day a notary comes to have Stark sign the company over to Pepper, meanwhile he and Happy are doing fighting training. The Notary’s name is Natalie Rushman, and he has Happy give her a fighting lesson. She does a TKO on her which shows that she may be hiding something. 

Stark then goes to Monaco for the Monaco 500, and after taking another blood test, he realizes that the poisoning is worse and decides to drive the Stark Industries car. Ivan Vanko is also at the face and has on a harness with two energy whips powered by the arc reactor he built after his father passed. Pepper and Stark’s assistant Happy Hogan rush to the scene to give Stark his special briefcase, which is a portable version of  the suit. Stark ends up defeating Vanko. Hammer ends up breaking Vanko out of jail, knowing he has the resources to defeat Stark.

Stark is getting ready for what he thinks will be his last birthday party. He ends up getting really drunk while in the suit and behaving terribly with his weapons. His best friend Rhodey is having enough of Stark, so he went and took the Mark II armor and took it to military authorities at an Air Force Base. 

Stark is found the next day sitting inside a doughnut sign at a doughnut shop in his suit. He is approached by Nick Fury. Stark is still questioning the Avengers Initiative, but Fury explains that he knew his father Howard Stark and that he was one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D. Just then, agents Phil Coulson and “Natalie Rushman” who is actually Natasha Romanoff (the Black Widow, my favorite!) walk in. Romanoff injects Stark with a serum that helps his poisoning.

Later on Stark ends up creating a new element that cures his poisoning and is much more powerful than the earlier version. 

Hammer and Vanko have been working on new military drones and when they are revealed, Rhodey is in a heavily weaponized version of the Mark II armor that he took. It is soon realized that Vanko programmed everything to his benefit. Stark has to battle the drones. Rhodey and Stark end up fighting Vanko head on, and they win. Stark goes to save Pepper, where they kiss and he tells her the truth about his poisoning. 

The post credit scene shows agent Coulson driving to a crater in the desert, where he says to Fury over the phone “we found it.” Inside of the crater is Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer. 

As usual I loved this movie! Scarlett Johansson plays Romanoff and she is one of my favorites throughout the entire Marvel Universe. And like I said before, I love Robert Downey Jr. This is definitely one of my favorites and the post credit scene is leading to Thor! I rate this movie a 7/10!