Hollywood's latest pushback against the laws of gravity and logic will be setting down in plenty of Maryland homes this week, thanks to the release of three separate video editions of "Iron Man" (Paramount Home Entertainment, rated PG-13, single DVD $29.95; "Ultimate" two-disc edition $37.95, and on Blu-ray Disc $39.95).

However you book it, it's a flight of fantasy worth taking due mainly to two strong assets: gorgeous, high-tech art design and a lead performance by perhaps the most intriguing actor in American movies right now -- Robert Downey Jr.

Downey has apparently escaped from his own Devil's Island of substance abuse, returning as living proof that F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong about the impossibility of second acts in American lives. Where Downey once employed his gifts to please his audience like an over-excited puppy, he now shows the relaxed indifference of a wounded aristocrat. The actor infuses every frame of "Iron Man" with his Karl Wallenda-like sense of death-defying grace.

As Tony Stark, billionaire weapons developer, Downey undergoes a similar transformation in this screen transposition of the Marvel Comics saga. Captured by terrorists and coerced into making them a super-weapon, Stark manages to elude his captors in a high-tech suit of armor and vows to become a more potent force for civilization.

Eventually, Stark is countered by a trusted business partner (Jeff Bridges in full Daddy Warbucks mode) who has no reservations about making deals with devils. Add to that a tension involving romantic brushfires between Stark and his super-efficient secretary, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and you have the prescription for formula yawns.

Never fear, though: Downey, cast and crew provide a warehouse full of helium balloons and party hats. Director Jon Favreau works all the angles and takes extra care in making sure we stay strapped to our chairs for some rocket-propelled escapism.

Bonuses on the upscale video editions are essential for those wanting to know how the illusions were pulled off. They include a seven-part "making of" feature, Robert Downey's screen tests and deleted scenes. If you're lucky enough to have high-def capability, the Blu-ray Disc is a state-of-the-art delight. It has all the above extras, many of them in 1080p resolution, plus TrueHD Dolby sound and the latest BD-Live access to further on-line supplements.

'Daredevil' vs. 'Batman'

Cinema prospectors were hoping to mine another rich superhero vein in 2003 with the big-screen debut of a Marvel Comics crimefighter named "Daredevil." As a movie franchise, though, it had two huge marks against it: Ben Affleck playing an elite lawyer. Even in a mask and bodysuit, Affleck telegraphs his smirky-smugness like plutonium radiates heat. So who cares what troubles he gets into after dark?

The concept behind his superpowers -- an errant chemical bath in youth that left him blind but boosted all his other navigational senses -- evidentally enthralled readers in comic book form. On screen, though, one's suspension of disbelief is defeated whenever this blind super-athlete goes somersaulting around skyscrapers in mid-town Manhattan -- perhaps the noisiest and most confusing human habitat on Earth.

The generic nature of Mark Steven Johnson's script is underscored by the names of his adversaries: Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan), the local crime czar, and Bullseye (Colin Farrell), a sadistic, sure-as-shootin' assassin. Raising the temperature around Affleck somewhat is Jennifer Garner as both a love interest and a superheroine-in-training named Elektra.

Trivia note: Affleck's perplexed law partner is played by the same Jon Favreau who later donned the director's hat for "Iron Man."

At least the new Blu-ray Disc of "Daredevil" (20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment, rated PG-13, $39.95) makes us newly thankful for our own senses. Nothing beats high-def video at seeming to open up a penthouse window on New York at night. Those million-odd points of manmade light firing up out of the silky dark canyons are enough to take your breath away -- and make you smile forgivingly upon Affleck's foolishness.

Blu-ray extras include all those on the special edition DVD, including a director's commentary, picture-in-picture trivia, Jennifer Garner's screen test, three music videos and numerous "making of" featurettes, many of them in high-definition.

When it comes to avenging vigilantes, though, DC Comics' "Batman" is still the box office champ. All eyes are now on Warner Bros. for the Dec. 9 arrival of "The Dark Knight" on video. In the meantime, Warner Home Video has whetted appetities with a sterling high-def edition of 2006's "Batman Begins" (rated PG-13, Blu-ray Disc $29.95).

Director Christopher Nolan ("Memento") and star Christian Bale gave the series a new lease on life with this truly Freudian spin on the origins of the masked crusader. Its coldly sleek surfaces and darkly handsome lighting schemes are particularly well served by Blu-ray's 1080p resolution and boosted contrast levels. The Dolby TrueHD soundtrack gives home theater enthusiasts more rumble for their extra bucks.

The new disc is also loaded with all the bonuses from last year's two-DVD edition, including commentaries, spoofs and features such as the film's "reinvention" of the Batmobile, a look at the use of miniatures and a breakdown of that CGI monorail chase. A BD Live connection promises even more of the filmmakers' back stories as you experience the movie.

Horrors for Halloween

We must be getting near Halloween, judging by the new crop of horrors on the loose. Beware, here's what's creeping up behind you ...

* "Buried Alive" (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, NR, $24.95). This disturbing and short (only 65 minutes) video production from the cultish, online Fearnet series, looks more like an experimental video than a theatrical horror film, a la "The Blair Witch Project." It's aimed at the "Saw" audience, focusing on the travails of a circle of friends undergoing the torture of the title, mostly in metal cages wired for video and filled with clues as to their supposed "offenses." It's something of a trailblazer, though not for the squeamish.

* "Wizard of Gore," "Pulse 2" and "Mother of Tears" (Dimension Extreme & Genius Products, not rated, but offensive, $19.95 each). These new arrivals on the Weinstein Company's horror label are for fans of the macabre only. None of them bears up under questioning, but as the old ad says, "sometimes you feel like a nut." Nothing is nuttier than Chrispin Glover given full rein to be goofy as a mad stage magician in "Wizard of Gore," based on a no-budget blood-feast "classic" from 1970. "Pulse 2" returns us to Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2005 original's apocalyptic interface with malevolent spirits from cyberspace; and "Mother of Tears" is an English-language production by Italy's Dario Argento about an evil power disinterred to threaten a nubile American art student in Rome.

* "Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King" (Warner Home Video, not rated, $19.97). The cartoon canine and his pal Shaggy return in this original cable-TV movie for newborn fans of the Hanna-Barbera series. Scooby-Doo must catch a ride aboard the Grim Reaper Railroad to Halloween Land and retrieve a stolen talisman before everyday folks are transformed into Halloween monsters. Very young viewers might find it too intense when the heroes cross paths with the Headless Horseman and other iconic boogeymen from nursery school.

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