Tony Stark learns the difference between a God of Thunder and a mortal man in a metal suit

[proteus_lives]

Greetings True Believers!

This is one of my favorite moments from the Straczynski run on Thor. The reaction from Thor when he confronts Tony about the clone that Stark, Reed and Skrull-Pym created during the Civil War.

Thor has just returned to Midgard and placed Asgard in it's new home of Broxton, Oklahoma. He's searching for the lost Asgardians when he encounters Iron Man in New Orleans and shows him a different definition of power.





Thor has discovered Heimdall in New Orleans after the Hurricane. Tony interrupts him and begins to explain (very arrogantly) that the world has changed and he can't place Asgard in the American Heartland with no problems. He tells Thor to place Asgard somewhere else while "You sign on with the good guys again and we get back to work."

He asks Thor for a answer.

The God of Thunder responds.






Tony is probably thinking he took the wrong tone now.



Oh, the arrogance of Tony. I know this is a gift to the fans but it's a inaccurate example of Stark's faults.





"In this time, and in this place, I am no longer holding back."

I forget where but it's said in one book that Thor has never fought a mortal foe with more then one-third of his strength.





Thor threatens to unleash the full power of the storm against the government if Asgard is threatened.

Tony folds and says he'll consider Asgard and its people outside of the jurisdiction of the Registration Act. Thor tells him he may leave.

"My armor's fried. How am I supposed to get back to base?"



Damn.

Comments

[freezer]

Perhaps, but normally, Tony wouldn't have taken on a super-heavyweight like Thor unless either he thought the odds were stacked in his favor (special suped-up armor and/or backup) or he thought he had no choice. It just seemed like they had Tony let his newfound (political) power go to his head and thinking he could channel that into Making Thor See Reason.

[proteus_lives]

Good point. Tony isn't stupid.

Maybe he thought Thor didn't have all the facts and he could spin the situation from there.

But even then, he should have backed off once Thor became aggressive. But would Thor have let him leave? Thor was uber-pissed about Clor but he also had a point to make about Asgard.

[freezer]

I always got the feeling Thor would've setting for the warning and light-show had Tony not thrown the first blow. I could be wrong, though.

[proteus_lives]

Actually Thor attacked first.

[fifthie]

"I am not the god of reason and understanding. I am the god of THUNDER AND LIGHTNING!"

[proteus_lives]

And Tony's weaseling would enrage a warrior-god to no end.

[psychopathicus_rex]

What I got from it was - well, Tony's a science guy. I don't know whether or not he has any spiritual or religious philosophies, but basically, he's all about science and logic. That's what he believes in, that's what he's based his career around - and despite having fought alongside Thor for all these years and having seen him do all kinds of incredible things, he's never really believed that Thor actually IS the Norse God of Thunder, with all the levels of power that that implies. It doesn't fit with his world view. Therefore, he's thinking 'yeah, this guy's tough, but I've fought the Hulk - I think I can take him.' He's WRONG.

[freezer]

That's the thing: He's fought the Hulk - and even with fancy Hulkbuster armor has come out on the short end every time he's tried to go toe-to-toe. Belief in Thor's deity status or no, he should've known not to try it.

That and, as I've noticed, Tony's not very good at actually fighting. If he can't overpower a foe or outsmart them, he gets his ass handed to him.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, sure, it was a damn stupid thing to do - but Tony's always been a 'leap before you look' kinda guy to some degree, so that fits his character.