How strange is this: After the success of the first two Iron Man movies, Hollywood wants to inexplicably tinker with their format.

Instead of engineering another molten-metal hit in the U.S., the Walt Disney Co. has announced that 'Iron Man 3' will be produced in China by DMG Entertainment of Beijing.

What a bummer, huh?  The previous two Iron Man movies were cast-iron success stories, and we enjoyed the underlying message that "tinkering" in a lab can be fun, and that building things really does matter when it comes to innovation. 

Essentially, Iron Man showed that manufacturing can be high-tech and modern.  So what does it say when suddenly Iron Man has to be made in China, too?

EDITOR'S UPDATE (4/18): An astute reader brought it to our attention that some of the work for the Iron Man 3 movie is being done in North Carolina with union labor.  We didn’t get the story 100% right, and relied on media reports that did not mention the production in North Carolina. But…the larger point stands.