Behold the slick visage of super-scientist Aldrich Killian, as played by Guy Pearce in Iron Man 3. This is not the kind of bespoke tailoring and peroxide highlights you'd find on, say, James Dyson. No, Pearce, fresh from catapulting the human race into hammerpede-y hell in Prometheus, is playing another svelte but ethically challenged boffin whose pioneering research could - could - be more likely to endanger us all than win him an OBE.

Shane Black's Marvel movie sees Killian working alongside Rebecca Hall's fellow brainaic Maya Hansen to harness the power of nanotechnology. It's a plot thread inspired by Warren Ellis' immensely influentual Iron Man: Extremis arc. Those familiar with that six-issue run of the comic-book won't be shocked to discover this sentence featuring the words "dangerously powerful new tech", "falling into" and "the wrong hands".

Judging by the trailers to date, Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark will be left picking up the pieces when The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) swoops on the research. Fortunately, he has Iron Patriot (Don Cheadle) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) to even the odds. 

Iron Man 3 will be out in the UK on April 26, a week ahead of its US release.