The other day, Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau tweeted a brainy, funny, suitably irreverent essay at Social Creature about why Iron Man is the first 21st. century superhero — because who he is is intertwined with technology, because he's totally transparent and lives in public, and because he has fun being a superhero. And here's the money quote from the Social Creature article:
The first 21st century superhero is a hedonistic, narcissistic, even nihilistic, adrenaline junkie, billionaire entrepreneur do-gooder. If Peter Parker's life lesson is that "with great power comes great responsibility," Tony Stark's is that with great power comes a shit-ton of fun.
You can't get any more Gen Y than that.