And Joel -- thanks for posting the pic. You got across what I was trying to say! Like you, I dig the version JB depicted in the classic Incredible Hulk #316.

The "Golden Avenger" should have gold in his armour.

"Iron" is never what I literally took his armor to be made of anyways. It is similar to calling Colossus "Tin Man" it's just a phrase and not an actuallity.

+++++++++
as a science nerd as a child, I loved this sort of thing. I loved someone using
a "tachyon pulse" just cause it sounded cool. I think they are also pandering
to kids who love technological sounding words.

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Not quite. Colossus is, after all, called COLOSSUS, so at the very least you would expect him to be a BIG guy. "Tin Man" is just a nickname, like "Matchhead" or "Jade Jaws". You would, I hope, expect neither to be literal.

IRON MAN, on the other hand, is the name Tony Stark chose for his armored alter ego*, and even when I was a lad, I felt some important point was being lost when he was referred to as "the Golden Avenger".

Iron Man, indeed, may have been the first Marvel character to lose any connection to his name, despite Stan's insistence that it should be possible to pick a character out of a crowd on the basis of that name. Stan not following his own rules, here.

,,.

*The moviemakers decided to borrow from SUPERMAN - THE MOVIE, and have it be the press that hangs the name on Stark's creation. This doesn't work, really, since no one in the press has seen the "iron" version of the armor. It would be more logical to call Stane's creation "Iron Man" and come up with something else entirely for the scarlett and gold guy fighting him.

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Calling himself Iron Man AFTER the press has already dubbed him Iron Man is not "playing off" anything -- except the fact that he has ALREADY been dubbed Iron Man by the press. And, again, there would be no reason for the press to dub him IRON Man. There is absolutely nothing "iron" about what the suit presents to the world. Calling him "the Golden Gladiator" would make more sense!

In an otherwise close to flawless movie, this is a bad example of Peter Jackson style thinking. Things happen because the writers need them to happen, not because they spring from any internal logic. Like I said, if you were a reporter writing a story about the two armored figures who had just had a dust up at Stark International, which one would YOU dub "Iron Man"?

deleted - doesn't fit.

The press loves going for existing references when naming something.  "Fill-in-the-blank-gate" for a political scandal (spilling over into some non-political scandals); calling anyone who scales a building "Spider-Man," and so forth.

Maybe my listening tastes are broad enough, but I'm not aware of a classic (or contemporary, for that matter) song called "Golden Gladiator."  I am, however, aware of one called "Iron Man," which has spawned quite a few cover and parody versions.  As far as Tony "playing further upon that," I was referring to his specific phrasing, echoing the song's lyrics.  Clearly, that was an intentional play on the song by the filmmakers, as it led immediately into the song.

And that's just one existing reference, not even exploring the so-called "Ironman" competitions, in which particpants compete based upon pure strength and power.

With just those two references, I have no problem accepting the press dubbing a powerful, metallic figure "Iron Man."