“Lesson Number One. Heroes: there is no such thing.” It’s here! The explosive first teaser trailer for Iron Man 3 has arrived. And it looks like Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is in for one heck of fight this time around – hasn’t the poor guy been through enough already?

We open to find Stark struggling after the events in New York with the rest of The Avengers team – anxiety and nightmares plague him. To make matters worse two new villains have taken a very personal dislike to all things Stark and (literally) bring the fight to his doorstep. Can the man of iron save himself, while also protecting the one thing he can’t live without? No, not his fancy new armour – although that does look pretty darn cool.

Enjoy!

This looks dark, intense and epic. And the set pieces look spectacular – the destruction of Stark’s house in particular. So basically Iron Man 3 is what Iron Man 2 should have been? – although I do recall that having good trailers too.

We couldn’t have asked for better actors than Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast, Ghandi) and Guy Pearce (Momento, Prometheus) to up the intensity of the franchise’s bad guys; although we don’t see much more of villains The Mandarin (Kingsley) and Aldrich Killian (Pearce) than we did in the recently released images and sneak peak clips. Kingsley’s voice-over is superb though, despite being almost unrecognisable. And I wonder how much Pearce’s geneticist has to do with the Iron Patriot’s involvement in proceedings? I’m sure the full trailer will reveal more.

But the early signs are promising that this will be the instalment fans were hoping for – not an easy task given The Avengers raised the bar considerably.

Thoughts? The perfect tease? Dark enough for ya?

Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

Directed by Shane Black, the film stars Robert Downey Jr, Guy Pearce, Cobie Smulders, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall, Ben Kingsley, Jon Favreau, William Salder, Don Cheadle, William Hunt, James Badge Dale and Ashley Hamilton.

Iron Man 3 is due for release in New Zealand on April 24, 2013 – one week ahead of both the US!