BY GLENN WHIPP > FILM WRITER

Robert Downey Jr. took a meeting with Marvel Comics two years ago.

It was a general get-together, a howdy-do, a let's-do-something-together-someday kind of thing.

Unexpectedly, one of Marvel's meet-and-greeters was Jon Favreau, who was planning Marvel's next superhero movie, "Iron Man." All of a sudden, Downey found himself answering questions about a character he hadn't really thought much about. When the hour was over, there was very little enthusiasm on either side. It was a square-peg, round-hole deal. But as the days passed, Downey couldn't stop thinking about Iron Man. And he came to a rather unexpected conclusion.

"I sincerely believed that I was supposed to do it, and I could do it better than anybody else," Downey says. "I never quite trust someone making a case for themselves based on things that aren't intuitive.

"When you can see that the lights are truly on in someone's eyes, and they're not just on with ambition or glory, but you can tell they're experiencing -- for lack of a better word -- a little peppercorn of what God's will is for them, then they're either a zealot or the right guy for the job."

Downey pauses for breath. "Or they could be both a zealot and the right person. Or neither. But not either/or. Anyway, I thought I was right for the job."

After much lobbying ("I had to remember my roots and reapply humility," Downey says), the 42-year-actor won the part in the popcorn flick that will kick-start this year's summer movie season on May 2.

"Robert's a guy who has been a very strong supporting player but hasn't been given the opportunity to open a movie on his own," Favreau says of Downey. "This is a nice stretch for him."

For those of you without a stash of Marvels underneath the mattress, here's the history lesson. Marvel mogul Stan Lee co-created Iron Man in 1963. The character is the alter ego of Tony Stark, a wealthy inventor who goes to Vietnam to check on a munitions system he devised, and while there is wounded and captured.

Stark's captors order him to build weapons. Instead, he secretly constructs a flying suit of armor and escapes.

Presto, change-o -- Iron Man is born. Stark sheds his playboy ways and arrogant attitude and takes to heart the immortal words of James Brown -- Get up, get into it, and get involved.

Stark's story has been updated over the years, with the action moving first to the Persian Gulf and later to Afghanistan. Favreau has set the film in Afghanistan, likening the current American political climate to the era when Lee invented the character.

"It's fun to see what can be explored by putting Iron Man in these modern times," Favreau says.

Downey calls Stark's transformation the "coolest origin story of them all."

"The great thing about Tony Stark is that he winds up becoming a hero serendipitously," Downey says. "He doesn't have any childhood traumas that have him obsessed with certain flying marsupials. Nor are there any gamma rays involved. He's injured by his own machinations and creates this awesome piece of machinery not just to save his own ass, but because he has this change inside.

"To me, Stark's story is so appropriate for the Information Age," Downey continues. "And also this kind of crisis, post-Gen-X-Y, what's-next thing? We're not quite ready for the whole `Omega Man' experience. At least, I don't think so. I think we'd like a little more wiggle room."

Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672