Recently in Iron Man Category

Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas, originally uploaded by photontorpedoes.

Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas. Marvel must have given this book to Jon Favreau to help him fulfill his childhood dreams of writing a comic. It will sell well, because of the movie. And I'll say this--if you are an Adi Granov fan--you must buy this book. The artwork is just superb.

The story, however, is all over the place, and may want to make even the Granov fans wait for the trade. It's out of continuity, doesn't resemble the Marvel Universe Iron Man, or even the movie Iron Man (as he has a secret identity here). Stark is literally Richie Rich. He owns airline companies and a Las Vegas Hotel/Casino. It's a silly story designed to induce cheap laughs. The most unreal moment for me is when Stark changes to Iron Man in an airplane bathroom. How is that possible? I can barely turn around to wipe my ass in there!

And then there's the lurking menace of Fin Fang Foom, a monster that's been overdone to death. I think Warren Ellis made the best use of FFF in Nextwave #1-2 (why is that monster wearing underpants). Favreau wastes a double page Granov spread on desert lizards/iguanas/geckos what have you. But he makes up for that mistake by having Granov draw some gorgeous tattooed women.

There you have it, dumb fun, for die-hard Iron Man or Granov completists. Nuff said.

Greg Miller's Iron Man Video Review was just posted on IGN.  While the game truly sucks (IGN gave it a 3.8 out of 10), Miller's review is quite hysterical.  He dresses up as Iron Man and terrorizes IGN's offices.  You get the classic "amazing armor" theme song to boot.  Nuff said.

Looks like the whole nation was infected with Iron Mania.  Shellhead's silver screen debut raked in $100 million for the 3-day weekend, above the projected $70-80 million.  This is good for everyone: Marvel, comic book fans, and Hollywood.

Marvel already projects higher earnings as a result.  They are also planning on an Iron Man sequel in 2010 along with a possible Thor movie.  Will it be the Ultimate Thor or the classic Dr. Don Blake Thor?

Over at Entertainment Weekly, Ken Tucker actually proposes that Downey deserves an Oscar for Iron Man.  Wow...Downey's career has been fully resuscitated.  Don't go mad and fall off the wagon, Robert!  Good things are in store for Mr. Favreau's directing career as well.

Not everything in the Iron Man universe is so rosy.  The Iron Man videogame looks to be getting terrible reviews.  I played the XBox 360 demo a week ago and found it to be a justifiable rental, if you are an Iron Man fan.  The game demo consisted of a level based on the movie where you fly around Afghanistan, blowing up terrorist camps using Stark technology.  Mostly you fly around and use repulsor rays to blow up shit.  The full game is supposed to deviate from the plot and puts you in combat against infamous IM villains.  You can also unlock classic versions of IM armor.

Here's an interesting behind the scenes look at the game.  Looks like good fodder for XBox achievement points, but a clear rental.  Nuff said.

This here greatest moment never happened, cuz it was one of those imaginary stories.  In 1977, Marvel started publishing "What If?" a series devoted to imaginary tales, each one being complete in a single issue.  DC had done "imaginary" stories in their regular superhero titles for years, warning kids on the cover "Hey it's a Goldarned Imaginary Story!" to make sure they knew it wasn't in continuity.  Well, ol' Mighty Marvel figured, if we got a whole series of tall tales, no one will get confused.

What If #3 (What If The Avengers Had Never Been?) was published in 1977, story by Jim Shooter, art by Gil Kane and Klaus Janson.  I think this is one of Shooter's best Marvel stories, and it was enhanced by the Kane/Janson team.  I always loved Janson's inks on Kane's pencils, and this effort was amazin'.  The story takes place right after Avengers volume #2, where the Hulk said "I don't need to be a member of your little superhero club, adios!"  This moment struck fanboys in their chest just like acid-reflux after eatin' a bag of Doritos.  I loved the Hulk, I loved the idea of Hulk in a team.  I always wanted to see the Avengers with the Hulk and never got this again until The Ultimates.  That aside, what happened in Avengers #3?  The Avengers go after the Hulk, the Hulk teams up with Sub-Mariner and nearly wipes them out.  Only the Hulk changin' into his alter ego, Bruce Banner, brings an end to the team up.

In What If #3, the moment the Hulk leaves the Avengers, that's when Thor decides to throw in the towel and call it quits.  Giant-Man and Wasp leave Tony Stark alone, who still realizes that leavin' the Hulk alone ain't a smart idea.  Then Stark has a purty good idea, an idea so good they should have done it in the Initiative.  He creates the Iron Avengers.  Rick Jones, Henry Pym, and Janet Van Dyne, in different variations on the Iron Man armor.  Jones' armor can phase in/out of objects, Pym's armor is super-sized for his Giant-Man form, and Janet's armor is super-small, but with high-tech stingers.  But these guys are losers who can't even keep their own series goin'!  They give up on the armor when they find it is too difficult to control.

Tony Stark decides to take on the Sub-Mariner and Hulk all by his lonesome superhero self.  From here on in, it's all action in the mother of all superhero battles.  Iron Man supercharges his armor and deep fries the Hulk in the ocean.  That takes out ol' Greenskin, but the Sub-Mariner is in his element, and batters Iron Man to pieces.  The calvary arrives when the Iron Avengers decide that those supersuits ain't so bad after all.  They succeed in drivin' away the baddies, but only through Tony Stark's ultimate sacrifice at the end.  It just brings tears to this ol' cowboy's eyes everytime he reads it.  Nuff said.

I've seen Iron Man and I was far from disappointed.  This has now become my favorite superhero movie of all time!  I love it so much I'm tempted to see it again, but I'll probably wait until the DVD comes out later this year.  It did not just match the hype, it exceeded it, largely on the strength of the acting and direction.

There were so many ways this movie could have gone wrong.  Fortunately, Jon Favreau populated his movie with top notch actors: Robert Downey, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard, etc.  Downey is Tony Stark, capturing his Richie Rich style of decadent behavior with a dash of humor and self deprecation.  The minute that Downey appears on the screen, riding in the Humvee through the Middle East, the audience instantly clicks with Tony Stark.  Robert Downey nailed this character so perfectly.  It seems like good karma has finally come his way.  Hopefully this will result in Downey appearing in many more films for years to come.

Jeff Bridges was another inspired choice for Obadiah Stane.  We've seen Bridges as a buffoon (Big Lebowski), as a hero (Blown Away), or as a millionaire (Seabiscuit), but never as a villain.  I always think Bridges, along with actors like Kurt Russell, are constantly overlooked for their acting ability.  Everything they do looks so natural, as if they showed up on the set and started reading their lines.  The way that Bridges portrays Stane is chillingly familiar.  I've seen many of these types in Silicon Valley: prematurely rich, overfed, greedy, and egotistical CEOs who will run over anyone to make money.

The movie is faithful to the comics, yet it is not faithful to any particular run.  The screenwriters picked the best bits from several different Iron Man series.  The origin is based on Warren Ellis' revision.  By updating the origin from Vietnam to present day Afghanistan, Ellis provided modern day audiences with a hook into Tony Stark's first adventure.  I am sure he won't receive additional compensation for it.  Tony Stark's mansion is almost a perfect recreation of the Malibu pad that Bob Layton designed during his second run.  Likewise, Stark's pattern of picking up beautiful babes for one night stands comes from the Michelinie/Layton run.  Iron Monger looks much like he does in Iron Man #200.  Stark cannot put on the Iron Man armor by himself, he needs a team of assistants, like he has in The Ultimates, but they are robotic instead of human.

Certain things are different: Rhodey is still Stark's best friend, but he's not working for him yet.  Perhaps the biggest change is Jarvis being an artificial intelligence system rather than an actual butler.

I've got two favorite scenes in the movie.  The first is when Tony is building his "MK II" prototype armor and testing it out in his laboratory.  It's extremely funny in a way that DC superhero movies never seem to emulate. 

The second favorite scene is at the very very end of the film.  YOU MUST STAY PAST ALL OF THE CREDITS TO SEE IT.  Fans of Millar and Hitch will be extremely pleased.  It promises an even bigger Marvel movie in the future.  Nuff said.

Here's a fun little slide show of various Iron Man covers, to get us warmed up for the movie this weekend.  Nuff said.

There are some great, classic Iron Man runs—Armor Wars by David Micheline and Bob Layton immediately springs to mind, as well as Demon In A Bottle.  After the Micheline/Layton team left Iron Man—the first time, around issue #150 or so—Denny O’Neil became the full time writer.  O’Neil’s run lasted from Iron Man #160 to #208, 48 issues, and most of them pretty lame.  I didn’t think that O’Neil was well suited to writing Iron Man.  He was better at writing comics that were more based on character/mood (like Batman or the Question) rather than high tech adventure.  The preceding creative team had developed an incredible amount of new armor and gadgets for ol’ Shellhead.  There was no way that O’Neil could match them on that score, and he didn’t even try.  The one thing he did know how to do was to expand on Stark’s alcoholism.

O’Neil had Stark hit the bottle again—this time harder than ever before.  He lost his company to Obadiah Stane—a character that O’Neil created and is played in the Iron Man film by Jeff Bridges.  Stark lost everything else as well—his homes, his cars, his money, and probably even his porn collection.  He became homeless for a while, eventually hit rock bottom and joined AA.  I have a feeling this was a personal story for O’Neil to tell, but he dragged it out way too long—it took up about 2 years of Iron Man to move this plot along.  In the meantime, Jim Rhodes (Rhodey) got the keys to Stark’s private lab and took over as Iron Man.  This allowed O’Neil to show a neophyte using the armor and learning the capabilites.

But there was a problem: somehow the classic Iron Man armor was designed only for Stark’s brain patterns.   The longer Rhodey wore the armor, the more paranoid he became.  When Stark rejoined Rhodey and his crew, he had no intention of becoming the Armored Avenger once again.  He blamed his superhero alter ego for driving him to drink.  Rhodey was convinced that Stark had come back to take everything away from him—leading to this classic bitch-slap moment.  I wish the sound effect said “bitch!” instead of “blatch!”.

There is no doubt that I am going to see the Iron Man and Hulk movies--heck, I'm sure I'll even buy the DVDs. Although I think if I skipped the movie theater and waited for the DVD in a few months, I'll have saved $10.

The problem is, there's no suspense or surprise with the Marvel movies. Iron Man's trailer gives the whole plot away. The only question in my mind is whether they will kill off Obidiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) by the end of the movie. Likewise, the Hulk movie pretty much lays everything out--I think old Greenskin will batter the Abomination and be somewhat redeemed as an anti-hero. But will the CGI Hulk look better than the previous one? In the trailer he looks pretty fake, a giant green smurf as Kenneth Johnson (CBS Hulk producer) said in a recent Fanboy Radio interview. They would have been better off getting another body builder and painting him green--that might have more heart and emotion. Iron Man can work slightly better because it some scenes it is a Stan Winston suit that Robert Downey or a stuntman is wearing.

I'm more excited about the new Will Smith movie, Hancock. This looks to be loads of fun and even somewhat more realistic. Superheroes flying drunk, smashing into freeway signs and tossing little girls up in the air? Entertainment Weekly suggests that Hancock will outperform both Marvel movies at the box office. Nuff said.