Late Friday night, I was one of the millions of weekend viewers that help make Iron Man the second-best premiere ever.  I am surprised by those results, but only because Iron Man isn't so well-known as other Comic Book heroes like Superman or Batman.

Yes, I liked it and was pretty sure I would even before I wnt.  However, Robert Downey Jr. really did an excellent job as Tony Stark and the movie was faithful to the Origin Story, though it was updated to modern times.  I love to see the casting of good actors to make these characters into movies.

I had heard that there was an extra clip after the credits (which were super long, btw), so I stayed around until they were over and then snapped the picture to the left of the final scene and thought I'd share it with you.

And the cameo dialog seems to mean there will be a follow-up movie of some sort from Marvel, though maybe not Iron Man 2:"... I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative."

I was a big fan of Heroes last year and, to my surprise, it was a big hit even outside of the sci-fi, superhero, geek space.  The combination of the good stories, the new revelations each week and the soap-opera-like connections between the different characters appeared to a bit wider audience than might've been expected.

As Season 2 kicks off tonight, I'm jazzed to watch, but even more jazzed about the Fall TV legacy of Heroes!  What do I mean by that?  Well, when a show is popular and starts getting good ratings, what does it mean?  You can bet that TV executives will come up with shows in the same genre, shows that are similar, shows that try to change very part of the show to keep it similar, but make it just different enough to attract other viewers...  how else to explain the thousands of reality shows that bombard us?

So the legacy of Heroes that excites me is some of the shows in the fall lineup that might not have got the green light without the Heroes success last year.  Here are some I'm looking forward to, including the NBC Super Monday line-up (that is up against my wife's shows - Dancing with the Stars and the Bachelor - thank goodness for Media Center / DVRs).  This is premiere week and here is my lineup:

• Chuck - Monday 8pm / NBC - A Geek Squad, er Nerd Herd, manager teamed with a hot government agent to protect the nation.  Woot!
• Heroes - Monday 9pm / NBC
• Journeyman - Monday 10pm / NBC - about a guy who travels back in time and, presumably, makes changes that affect his life (and the plot) in the current time.
• Reaper - Tuesday 9pm / CW - What if your parents sold your soul to the devil before you were born?  I think its a comedy ... ;-)
• Pushing Daisies - Wednesday 8pm / ABC - Ned can bring folks back to life with a touch.  Of course, the downside is a second touch sends them back the embrace of death.  While teaming with a detective, Ned brings back his childhood sweetheart, who he can never touch or she'll die again...
• The Bionic Woman - Wednesday 9pm / NBC - A new Jaime Sommers hits the screen.  They should have cast Lindsay Wagner as the "Goldman" role...
• Smallville - Thursday 8pm / CW - Okay, it predates Heroes and probably paved the way for Heroes in the first place...
• Moonlight - Friday 9pm / CBS - Detective gets bitten by his Vampire bride 60 years ago, now fighting the good fight as undead detective Mick St. John.

At the same time, I'd like to have a moment of silence for Day Break and The Dresden Files, two excellent series from last year that didn't get renewed... and recognize that probably 5 of the 6 new shows I listed above will not make it into Season 2.