Invincible Iron Man
So, several months ago I was on here complaining about Marvel. Another bitch fest, this time about how they'd pretty much ruined Iron Man. I was right, but a lot of things have changed since then. So in the interest of being positive, I figured I'd talk about the changes Marvel has made since then and how positive they've been for my favorite Marvel superhero.
And here is the rest of it.
Actually, right around the time of my writing that particular story, they had just released a new comic book series, called Invincible Iron Man, created with the intent to capitalize on the successful movie.
The series (written by "rising star" Matt Fraction and drawn by Salvador Larocca) was initially crafted to be a "partner" book to the other Iron Man book, taken over by the Knaufs (the writers of HBO's Carnivale). This was meant to be the high-octane, big action Iron Man title, in contrast to the main title at the time, which had metamorphosed over the course of the Knaufs' run into this odd...very un-Iron Man-like...espionage, 24-type book.
At the time I was still pretty pissed that not only had Iron Man become a freaking sell-out, thanks to Civil War, but they'd just canceled the superb all-ages title, Marvel Adventures: Iron Man, so after checking out a few interviews of Matt Fraction's on popular comics news sites and seeing where he was headed with everything, I decided to go ahead and check this new series out.
First off, to Matt's credit, his first story arc was an idea I've had for years (obviously he didn't steal it....its just a case of great minds thinking alike), and he did it heck of a lot better than I could have. The story is called The Five Nightmares, and it centers around Tony Stark going up against Ezekiel "Zeke" Stane, the son of Obadiah Stane (yes, the one from the movie...nice tie-in, really), an old Iron Man villain who nearly defeated Iron Man after he took advantage of Tony's alcoholism to steal his company right out from under him.
"Zeke" Stane plays the typical villain part of "child with a grudge throwing a tantrum", but what makes him interesting is that, in his own way, he manages to beat Stark at his own game: By furthering the Iron Man technology, creating Iron Man 2.0--the true merger between man and machine, where the man actually is the armor, where the offensive weaponry is actually powered by your own caloric intake. Zeke uses this tech to first make himself known by giving it to suicide bombers, and after proving its worth, he launches a devastating attack on the four most important factories Stark Industries.
Its a big, crazy, explosive, comic book version of a summer action flick. People die. A lot. Stuff gets blown the fuck up. A lot. And in the end, the hero wins. ...But like most Marvel comics, its a bit of a pyrhhic victory. In any case, all of this explosive-y craziness is covered in various themes and character moments. The story is called "The Five Nightmares" because it deals with the logical worst five nightmares a man like Tony Stark would have, which are (of course) coincedentally all seen in this arc. It deals with what its like to be the Man of the Future, and what happens when the Man of the Future meets the Man of HIS Future. It deals with what might be the thought processes of the geniuses of today--the blogging, Twittering, text messaging teens of today--if they had access to the advanced super-science of the Marvel Universe. (And, y'know, if they were psychotic.)
And most importantly, it deals with Tony Stark. The REAL Tony Stark. The other book had gotten lost (keep in mind, all my opinion) in its subtitle, "Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.". It completely forgot all the aspects that had made Iron Man popular, which this book thankfully remembered. Tony Stark is a playboy. He's the owner of one of the biggest companies on Earth. He's a scientist on the level of Reed Richards, so he's one of the most brilliant people on the planet. And he's a superhero. And the Five Nightmares handles ALL those aspects in addition to dealing with all the things he's done and character changes he's dealt with since Civil War. Its completely amazing work.
Matt Fraction walks an interesting tightrope. The Civil War story, in the opinion of most "old-school" Tony Stark fans, pretty much ruined the character, and I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I thought the only way to get the real Stark back was a full-on retcon. However, at the same time, from a sales perspective, you can't risk pissing off all the "new school" Tony Stark fans that are fans now because they like the changes that have occurred with him since Civil War--either because they agreed with him (*coughs*conservatives*coughcough*), or because they find it makes him a more interesting character. Personally, I would've told this group to kick rocks and done a complete 180. But Matt chose to take the hard road, and in doing so tried to bring back the characterization that made the original Tony who he was, while reconciling the choices he's made during and since CW with that guy, who's a completely different person. It makes for a compromise that's meant to make both groups of fans happy, and considering I was hard line against the changes and I'm enjoying it, he must be doing a good job.
Actually, I'm currently LOVING it. The current story seems to go further down the road of bringing back the "old" Tony Stark without admitting to the new fans that he screwed up. Its called "World's Most Wanted", and its a twelve part epic dealing with the fallout of yet another "big event" story, Secret Invasion, and how it affects Tony. If Civil War and its fallout put Tony at the top of the food chain, Secret Invasion and its fallout has drop-kicked him right back down to the bottom. The entire world now views Stark as a failure, since his vaunted StarkTech *all* failed miserably during the invasion of Earth by the Skrull race (only natural, since if you make yourself the big dog then you're bound to be attacked like that...which was his intent), and Tony lost his place as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. when Norman Osborn "saved the planet" by being seen around the world taking the killshot to off the Queen of the Skrull Invasion forces. Yep, that Norman Osborn. The one that used to wear green and purple, hop up on a rocket-powered glider and spend his nights screwing with Spider-Man. They've put HIM in charge of everything.
"World's Most Wanted" shows the battle between the new head man in charge Norman Osborn and the fallen Tony. Osborn, having replaced S.H.I.E.L.D. with H.A.M.M.E.R., his own personal government organization, wants access to the giant database Stark has with the identities of every sanctioned superhero in America. (Shh...no "I told you so's" just yet. I'll tell you when.) Tony not being a complete idiot, realizes what kind of havoc that would cause, so he takes the database and goes on the run, placing the information in the one place he knows Osborn can't find it (his brain), and goes on a mission around the world with the intent of completely "zeroing out" the computer the data is held on. Yes. That DOES mean what you think it means.
The story sees Osborn throwing all the contacts he has at his disposal at Tony, which are quite considerable, since elsewhere he's been shown to have deals with the most major villains of the Marvel Universe with the intent of letting them get away with whatever they want as long as they stay out of his way. This would be challenge enough, but Tony has to do this while on the run, and while his brain slowly grows less and less intelligent. He's even forced to operate weaker and weaker Iron Man models, as his brain becomes unable to operate the higher end models. Which brings me to yet another reason I love this run. Tony's eventually going to end up in the gray armor (I'm sure), but for the past few issues, he's been running around in this:
Designed by Sean Chen during Kurt Busiek's initial "Heroes Return" story during the late 90's, this is the first Iron Man armor I saw when I bought the comics, and my fucking FAVORITE version of the standard Iron Man suit, ever. Its beautfiul, isn't it?
Anyway. The comic is only 13 issues in, with another six parts to go with this World's Most Wanted storyline. I have no idea where it will all end up, though I at least hope its with an improved version of the Iron Man suit. I was sick of the Extremis armor.
This is definitely one of the best comic books on the stands right now, and the only, minor complaint I have about it is that I wish James Rhodes was in this book too, alongside Tony. He was already on the run as of the end of Iron Man volume 4, he and Tony could have been in this together. Let's face it: Eventually Tony's going to end up in the gray armor, two steps away from being retarded. Already he's well in over his head, and there's only so much Matt can throw at him in the stories without it being ridiculous that Tony can win. With a fully upgraded War Machine at his side, they could've put them both up against a lot more, and shown the deep friendship Stark and Rhodey share. But this is a minor complaint, so there's no way I'm going to let it bother me.
Oh. Last thing: Pepper's Iron Maiden armor? The shit. That is all.
And here is the rest of it.
Actually, right around the time of my writing that particular story, they had just released a new comic book series, called Invincible Iron Man, created with the intent to capitalize on the successful movie.
The series (written by "rising star" Matt Fraction and drawn by Salvador Larocca) was initially crafted to be a "partner" book to the other Iron Man book, taken over by the Knaufs (the writers of HBO's Carnivale). This was meant to be the high-octane, big action Iron Man title, in contrast to the main title at the time, which had metamorphosed over the course of the Knaufs' run into this odd...very un-Iron Man-like...espionage, 24-type book.
At the time I was still pretty pissed that not only had Iron Man become a freaking sell-out, thanks to Civil War, but they'd just canceled the superb all-ages title, Marvel Adventures: Iron Man, so after checking out a few interviews of Matt Fraction's on popular comics news sites and seeing where he was headed with everything, I decided to go ahead and check this new series out.
First off, to Matt's credit, his first story arc was an idea I've had for years (obviously he didn't steal it....its just a case of great minds thinking alike), and he did it heck of a lot better than I could have. The story is called The Five Nightmares, and it centers around Tony Stark going up against Ezekiel "Zeke" Stane, the son of Obadiah Stane (yes, the one from the movie...nice tie-in, really), an old Iron Man villain who nearly defeated Iron Man after he took advantage of Tony's alcoholism to steal his company right out from under him.
"Zeke" Stane plays the typical villain part of "child with a grudge throwing a tantrum", but what makes him interesting is that, in his own way, he manages to beat Stark at his own game: By furthering the Iron Man technology, creating Iron Man 2.0--the true merger between man and machine, where the man actually is the armor, where the offensive weaponry is actually powered by your own caloric intake. Zeke uses this tech to first make himself known by giving it to suicide bombers, and after proving its worth, he launches a devastating attack on the four most important factories Stark Industries.
Its a big, crazy, explosive, comic book version of a summer action flick. People die. A lot. Stuff gets blown the fuck up. A lot. And in the end, the hero wins. ...But like most Marvel comics, its a bit of a pyrhhic victory. In any case, all of this explosive-y craziness is covered in various themes and character moments. The story is called "The Five Nightmares" because it deals with the logical worst five nightmares a man like Tony Stark would have, which are (of course) coincedentally all seen in this arc. It deals with what its like to be the Man of the Future, and what happens when the Man of the Future meets the Man of HIS Future. It deals with what might be the thought processes of the geniuses of today--the blogging, Twittering, text messaging teens of today--if they had access to the advanced super-science of the Marvel Universe. (And, y'know, if they were psychotic.)
And most importantly, it deals with Tony Stark. The REAL Tony Stark. The other book had gotten lost (keep in mind, all my opinion) in its subtitle, "Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.". It completely forgot all the aspects that had made Iron Man popular, which this book thankfully remembered. Tony Stark is a playboy. He's the owner of one of the biggest companies on Earth. He's a scientist on the level of Reed Richards, so he's one of the most brilliant people on the planet. And he's a superhero. And the Five Nightmares handles ALL those aspects in addition to dealing with all the things he's done and character changes he's dealt with since Civil War. Its completely amazing work.
Matt Fraction walks an interesting tightrope. The Civil War story, in the opinion of most "old-school" Tony Stark fans, pretty much ruined the character, and I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I thought the only way to get the real Stark back was a full-on retcon. However, at the same time, from a sales perspective, you can't risk pissing off all the "new school" Tony Stark fans that are fans now because they like the changes that have occurred with him since Civil War--either because they agreed with him (*coughs*conservatives*coughcough*), or because they find it makes him a more interesting character. Personally, I would've told this group to kick rocks and done a complete 180. But Matt chose to take the hard road, and in doing so tried to bring back the characterization that made the original Tony who he was, while reconciling the choices he's made during and since CW with that guy, who's a completely different person. It makes for a compromise that's meant to make both groups of fans happy, and considering I was hard line against the changes and I'm enjoying it, he must be doing a good job.
Actually, I'm currently LOVING it. The current story seems to go further down the road of bringing back the "old" Tony Stark without admitting to the new fans that he screwed up. Its called "World's Most Wanted", and its a twelve part epic dealing with the fallout of yet another "big event" story, Secret Invasion, and how it affects Tony. If Civil War and its fallout put Tony at the top of the food chain, Secret Invasion and its fallout has drop-kicked him right back down to the bottom. The entire world now views Stark as a failure, since his vaunted StarkTech *all* failed miserably during the invasion of Earth by the Skrull race (only natural, since if you make yourself the big dog then you're bound to be attacked like that...which was his intent), and Tony lost his place as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. when Norman Osborn "saved the planet" by being seen around the world taking the killshot to off the Queen of the Skrull Invasion forces. Yep, that Norman Osborn. The one that used to wear green and purple, hop up on a rocket-powered glider and spend his nights screwing with Spider-Man. They've put HIM in charge of everything.
"World's Most Wanted" shows the battle between the new head man in charge Norman Osborn and the fallen Tony. Osborn, having replaced S.H.I.E.L.D. with H.A.M.M.E.R., his own personal government organization, wants access to the giant database Stark has with the identities of every sanctioned superhero in America. (Shh...no "I told you so's" just yet. I'll tell you when.) Tony not being a complete idiot, realizes what kind of havoc that would cause, so he takes the database and goes on the run, placing the information in the one place he knows Osborn can't find it (his brain), and goes on a mission around the world with the intent of completely "zeroing out" the computer the data is held on. Yes. That DOES mean what you think it means.
The story sees Osborn throwing all the contacts he has at his disposal at Tony, which are quite considerable, since elsewhere he's been shown to have deals with the most major villains of the Marvel Universe with the intent of letting them get away with whatever they want as long as they stay out of his way. This would be challenge enough, but Tony has to do this while on the run, and while his brain slowly grows less and less intelligent. He's even forced to operate weaker and weaker Iron Man models, as his brain becomes unable to operate the higher end models. Which brings me to yet another reason I love this run. Tony's eventually going to end up in the gray armor (I'm sure), but for the past few issues, he's been running around in this:
Designed by Sean Chen during Kurt Busiek's initial "Heroes Return" story during the late 90's, this is the first Iron Man armor I saw when I bought the comics, and my fucking FAVORITE version of the standard Iron Man suit, ever. Its beautfiul, isn't it?Anyway. The comic is only 13 issues in, with another six parts to go with this World's Most Wanted storyline. I have no idea where it will all end up, though I at least hope its with an improved version of the Iron Man suit. I was sick of the Extremis armor.
This is definitely one of the best comic books on the stands right now, and the only, minor complaint I have about it is that I wish James Rhodes was in this book too, alongside Tony. He was already on the run as of the end of Iron Man volume 4, he and Tony could have been in this together. Let's face it: Eventually Tony's going to end up in the gray armor, two steps away from being retarded. Already he's well in over his head, and there's only so much Matt can throw at him in the stories without it being ridiculous that Tony can win. With a fully upgraded War Machine at his side, they could've put them both up against a lot more, and shown the deep friendship Stark and Rhodey share. But this is a minor complaint, so there's no way I'm going to let it bother me.
Oh. Last thing: Pepper's Iron Maiden armor? The shit. That is all.
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