Because of the fact that Iron Man was always a second-stringer before the MCU, I don't think people fully appreciate that the Robert Downey Jr version of Tony Stark is something they basically made up https://twitter.com/mightygodking/status/1290339919731335176

Yeah the details on paper were the same, arrogant billionaire playboy with daddy issues and alcohol issues and commitment issues, etc

But the *personality* was absolutely new

"Tony Snark"

I mean from my POV it's kind of obvious that their actual most popular character, Spider-Man, was still languishing under Sony's control

So they just said "Let's do a movie where Peter Parker is Iron Man instead"

Which for a Marvel fan at the time sounds like a hilariously bad idea

BUT IT WORKED

It worked so well

Somehow all this snarky bitchy angsty scrappy teenager energy transplanted into a middle-aged billionaire struck a deep chord with America

To the point where they took it full circle, when they got the Spider-Man rights back and could have an actual Peter Parker in the movies he's just Iron-Lad

He's defined by worshiping Tony and being in his shadow