Before he was red and yellow, iron man had some bulky gray suit, that's how he started out.
And to expound on my theory, Iron Man is the lowest of the low.
You got:
- heroes who have no powers, and just train to become powerful (Daredevil/Batman)
- people who are normal, then undergo some mutation / transformation (Xmen/Spiderman)
- people who are born with powers (Superman)
And then you got lame-ass Iron Man, no powers, no training, he just has a lot of cash so he buys his way into the super hero club. Lame.