RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Iron Man's future.

First of all, a small admission; I'm not an Iron Man fan. He always seemed to appeal to me only as part of a larger cast, the necessary voice of modern reason and/or embodiment of plot devices to achieve what the writers wanted to resolve a hard storyline. His alcoholism was long overplayed by the time I started reading comics seriously in the 90s, and too many different creative teams failed to do something really special with Tony Stark's direction.

Enter Civil War and now Secret Invasion, and does anyone else think that while not everyone approves what they've done with the character, at least he serves a niche; he's relevant. He does things no other character has been doing for a while.

Now, I'm also one of those people who didn't like how he was handled at times - as a glorified scapegoat, or just as a punching bag for a long list of other heroes to come over and beat up just because he was being a dick. Everyone, from Captain America, Thor and Spiderman to Hawkeye (and I'm talking about the female Young Avengers version, for crying aloud!) got their turn doing something nasty to him just to prove that they could. Who will our guy beat up today to make himself look righteous and rebellious - ah yes, ol' shellhead. And that's how it was.

But now things are changing. You can't have a character in the spotlight for so long without the flipside coming around to do something positive for him, and if the $100 million live action movie wasn't enough - which it would have been - it's clear the writing cast has some more plans for Tony. Will it be enough to bail him out of that peculiar semi-villainous role he had earned? Will whatever Bendis has planned for the next installments of Secret Invasion (something involving, it seems, a new armor to become somewhat literally a deux ex machina) work out to absolve him - and, in extension, previous writers who misused him in other heroes' books rather blutantly?

I don't know. But it's good to see people doing odd things with some old faces that actually feel fresh without violating the characters' personas. They didn't buckle under and give Stark the old mind control treatment, and they didn't have him revert to alcoholism, it wasn't a clone, it (I'm pretty sure at least!) wasn't a Skrull; and yet it feels like Tony. Hell, for being the easiest hero in the MU to simply replace with a younger, hipper version behind that helmet, they didn't even do that. What he's doing is what he would have done, it's not out of the question.

I kind of like it. Just as I like the way Clint Barton is once more in the spotlight, just like they brought back one-time jokes like Luke Cage and Iron Fist and shaped them into books worth reading. If only Iron Man gets some stories worth reading in his own books then perhaps we could be talking about a return to the A-list - a spot he hasn't earned in a very, very long time.

Or, at least, that's my take on it. We'll see what happens.

who are you?
sorry but you have to have at least 500 posts before you're allowed to post here. it's one of rob's rules.

Go fuck yourself.

No...in order to tell him that, you have to go to the politics forum and you have to be a right winger.

It's in the board rules.

Don't you just love the end result of when cousins marry?

Someone has an intelligent post and they flamebait him...how predictable.. and they supposedly like him?

i doubt they know any better

here have a nice trophy

Since when do they let the developmentally delayed into the boy scouts?

Ummmm...you have met Pariah, haven't you?

your's or mine?

Does it really matter?

Part of the problem is that, logically, if there is a "republican" superhero in the Marvel U, it's Iron Man: billionaire weapons manufacturer, pal of secret agents and, depending on the era, fighter of commies or Islamic terrorists. Further driving the point home is the fact that Stark International is basically the Marvel U version of Haliburton. If there's a plot point involving a big government contract or high tech equipment not belonging to the FF you know that equipment was made on a Stark bid.

Even if you accept the premise that he doesn't want his weapons falling into the wrong hands (see, eg, the movie), that only makes him a conservative with a conscience, not a bleeding heart liberal.

Unfortunately, 99% of Marvel's writers are liberals and, of them, 99% aren't talented enough to write a character who doesn't share their political views. As a result, Tony is often mischaracterized as either: (a) the only 'liberal' weapons manufacturer/capitalist/spy agency bigwig in U.S. history; (b) a caricature of what liberals think a republican is (hence, the frequent use as a punching bag).

I hear you about Iron Man. Got to say, the last time I read his book on a monthly basis was during 'The Armor Wars' storyline. Back when he was in the silver/red and Rhodes was wearing the red/gold. Since then, I've only caught it peripherally. However, about a year ago I began picking up Iron Man: Director of SHIELD. Got to say, I love the book. I think it's solid and forceful, in terms of writing, and the art is gorgeous. There is a dark undercurrent to the entire thing, which cuts some of the normal superhero gloss. That's a required factor when you're talking about differentiating it by making him the Director of SHIELD (such a different direction, it takes changing the title of the book). Not to mention, it has the best modernization of The Mandarin I've ever read: his rings are surgically implanted in his spine! Awesome.

They're hardly rings anymore then, are they?

Spine Rings!

If they slip a little further down they're going to turn into anus rings!

and if he has worms, will they become ring worms?

I'm hoping he has the fireball ring inserted down near his coccyx, just for the pure visual of how he would use it.

on top of the whole liberal/conservative argument, which I think you're dead on, I think the book needs more scifi writers on it like Ellis. I've never been much of an Iron Man fan, but Extremis was a kick ass storyline. the biggest problems seem to be super hero writers can't write him. Tony Stark is a futurist and a brilliant engineer first, using his toys to be a superhero second. as director of shield, he should be acting the same way he did when he was in charge of Stark Enterprises: creating new offensive and defensive weapons and letting maria hill have control for the most part. he'd be realistic enough to know that he's not a soldier and they need to be run by some one with a military background. I mean, he put Ms.Marvel in charge of the Mighty Avengers for that reason.

Huh. You mean it wasn't for the boobies?

I saw this movie the other night. Thought it was excellent. I've been meaning to have a look at Extremis for a while, since its Ellis and the art is good. Having now seen the movie I've now committed to reading more good Iron Man stuff.

Those are all excellent points and ideas. It also dovetails neatly into the plot point of the movie that he wasn't really paying attention to what Stane was doing with the technology. Tony builds it and then lets his "number 2" do the licensing.

Yeah...the movie inspired me to get the trade. Good stuff.

I guess not.

why doesn't it matter?

Friendly Neighborhood Ray-man love User Ultimate Final Justice
10000+ posts Fri May 23 2008 10:27 PM Reading a post
Forum: Comic Books
Thread: Iron Man's future.

Stupid Doog argumentative User Komatakia
7500+ posts Fri May 23 2008 10:52 PM Reading a post
Forum: Comic Books
Thread: Iron Man's future.

And which very typically happens in real life intellectual property commercialisation.