Iron Man: October 2006 Archives

David Micheline and Bob Layton sent the standard for Iron Man stories back in the 70s and 80s. They fleshed out Tony Stark's corporate world (featuring corporate espionage and villains like Justin Hammer, Spymaster) and personal life (girlfriend Bethany Cabe and bodyguard Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes). The classic "Demon in a Bottle" storyline, which told the story of Tony Stark grappling with an addiction to alcohol, will always remain the high point of the Iron Man mythos (no matter what Joe Quesada says). I believe the forthcoming Iron Man movie by Jon Favreau will borrow many of these concepts. Micheline and Layton's first Iron Man (116-153) run ended in 1981. They returned in 1987 to kick off a second historic run (215-250), which included my second-favorite Iron Man storyline of all time.

"Stark Wars" (later re-named Armor Wars) ran through Iron Man 225-232 (volume 1, 1987). The war begins after Stark examines the armor of a former adversary called Force (who went straight in the previous issue). Upon close inspection of the circuitry, Stark discovers that his own technology was powering Force's armor. Since he had never published or patented the designs for the Iron Man armor, Stark thought it was in safe hands--but a villain called Spymaster had stolen Stark's designs and sold them to evil industrialist Justin Hammer. Hammer in turn used these designs to power the armor of numerous super-villains. It infuriates Stark to think of innocent people suffering from something he created. After making every effort to stop them legally, Stark makes a list of these guys (Controller, Beetle, Stilt-Man, Titanium Man, Crimson Dynamo) and goes after them one by one.

Stark's resolve to eliminate all outside use of his technology goes beyond attacking third-tier super-villains. He decides that even the government can't be trusted with it. As long as a government-sanctioned agent uses a variation of his armor, there's always the possibility that Justin Hammer will steal it. At the end of Iron Man 225, Stark makes a declaration: "...with the government's support, or its hindrance...by the law or against it...I'm going to get back what's mine. And Heaven help ANYONE who gets in my way!"

I've written before about how illogical Reed Richards and Tony Stark are acting during the Civil War. Straczynski seems to be hell-bent on casting them both as major Republican assholes, especially in last week's Amazing Spider-Man #535. Tony Stark went from father figure to adversary in twenty two pages. First, he threatened Peter while touring the Negative Zone super-prison: "But I agree with you on one thing, Peter. It would be a terrible thing. To be here. For the rest of one's life." Second, he makes a veiled threat that Aunt May and Mary Jane safety depends on Peter's loyalty. Finally, when Peter does try to escape Stark's Tower with his family, Stark attacks him in full Iron Man gear. And the worst thing is-Peter really hasn't committed any crime whatsoever!

We've seen Tony Stark act in this totally over-the-top evil way before, during Avengers: The Crossing, published in 1995. In that series, Stark killed two people in Avengers Mansion and eventually "died" himself. A time-displaced younger version of Tony Stark from an alternate reality became Iron Man. This all went away after Heroes Reborn and it was all kind of swept under the rug when Heroes Return occurred. There's some speculation on message boards that the Civil War Tony Stark is the one from The Crossing. Yet another theory postulates that Stark has been driven insane by the Extremis nano technology.

I can't buy into this, because it wouldn't explain Reed's bizarre behavior. In the last panel of this week's Fantastic Four #540, Reed sings a lyric from the Tom Lehrer song about Wernher von Braun. The song was meant to a satirical view of the ex-Nazi scientist who contributed to the NASA space program. Supposedly it's made up of real quotes from the scientist. Why is Reed singing it? He must have gone off the deep end to let a deep dish like Sue Richards fly the coop. Nuff said.

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