Iron Man #12 - "The Secret Origin of Tony Stark, Part Three"

[arbre_rieur]

"I don't think you can have a successful and acclaimed run doing well-executed, straightforward stories about any character in the superhero mainstream without being more bold and creating a vision. Look at the biggest writers in the last decade and look at how they climbed to their current prominence. Look at Jonathan [Hickman] on Fantastic Four and [Scott] Snyder and Batman. Even creators who are established are best hailed for the hefty, re-imagining roles. Warren [Ellis] on Iron Man. Mark [Waid] on Daredevil. Ed [Brubaker] on Captain America and so on.

"I think you can do okay by just doing well-executed and straightforward. Maybe even do well.

"But that's not really enough." -- Kieron Gillen, on going in this direction for Iron Man

When an alien crime boss discovers Howard and Maria Stark and Recorder 451's secret plans, Howard reconvenes "Stark's Seven" to deal with the matter.





They set off some bombs they've planted in the building...



That UFO's actually an image-induced helicopter containing Jimmy Woo, Dum Dum Dugan, and Thunderbolt Ross.

Howard Stark kills the crime boss, but that still leaves the question of what to do about his henchmen...







In the issue's present day sequence, Iron Man's still 451's prisoner, his suit having been hacked and taken over:





451 tells him to look closer, and Tony realizes that thing's 25,000 feet tall.

Comments

[bewareofgeek]

Because retconning in alien bioengineering and a cosmic destiny is EXACTLY the same as what Waid is doing on Daredevil.

[porcupine_advocate]

Well, don't worry. The "cosmic destiny" stuff always gets steamrollered the moment another writer needs the character, because it gets in the way of too much stuff.

[silverhammerman]

What Gillen seems to have missed is that while all those writers did take there characters in bold new directions, they all did so in ways that felt natural and fit with what came before. Sure they did new stuff with them, but they didn't change the characters themselves and they left all the toys intact and in the same condition that they found them, which Gillen doesn't seem to be doing.

Daredevil deciding he wants to enjoy life is a small tonal change, and it's one that's easily undone if the next writer wants to do something else, but it makes all the difference in the world. Tony Stark being revealed as a cosmic warrior baby on the other hand is a huge change to the mythology and fundamental nature of the character, one that can't be easily and quietly gone back on, which is why it could be remembered as a disaster.

[icon_uk]

There's a part of me that thinks the constant need to make the next story "being more bold" and bigger than the last one is actually BAD storytelling for a franchise character. It's that idea that has made every single Batman villain (it would seem) not a kill crazy monster rather than just a criminal.

Yes, no changes leads to stagnation, but too many leads to chaotic continuity.

[silverhammerman]

I feel like these days some creators are more interested in being known for telling good stories than they are in actually telling those good stories. They all want to be the rockstar who redefines a character.

[mrstatham]

I think this was part of the reason I increasingly appreciate Fraction's run on Iron Man. At first I was a little put off by the fact that nothing had really changed for Tony and that his characterisation hadn't really developed at all, but then I thought about it and decided that Fraction had just basically told a long, consistent story, introduced new villains, and really not felt the need to dick around with his character by fiddling with the origin or massively changing the status quo (aside from having to reflect the changes to the ongoing MU).

It's just... Unfortunate this doesn't seem to have carried over to his Fantastic Four run.

[thanekos]

So 451 grew himself a (really) giant robot pilot and support crew all in one?

Impressive.

[damar148]

Pacific Rim tones anyone?

[icon_uk]

The MU used to have Red Ronin and the Shogun Warriors for that sort of a story... including fighting Godzilla IIRC.

[theflames]

It's almost maddening that I don't want to see any of the Avengers in their own solo books. They're simply more entertaining as a team. Iron Man especially is surprisingly dull by himself.

[akodo_rokku]

I've been enjoying Cap's solo book for many years now. Even post-Brubaker, the crazy sci-fi apocalypse "Dimension Z" story Rick Remender has been telling for the last year has been a lot of fun.

[alan_smithee]

Daddy - make it stop!

In some circumstances, 'everything you know is wrong!' is a great move - for example with Swamp Thing, here it is a disaster. The appeal of Stark is that he is a baseline human who stands toe-to-toe with Gods, Aliens and Super-soldiers because he's just that damn clever and he combines that with grit.

"an Alien made him do it" is really one step removed from "a wizard did it and ran away".

The only real question with this arc is how long before it is explained away.

[ablackraptor]

"The appeal of Stark is that he is a baseline human who stands toe-to-toe with Gods, Aliens and Super-soldiers because he's just that damn clever and he combines that with grit."

Meh, that went out the second Extremis became a thing with him, and I think that niche's already covered by Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and Black Widow within the Avengers, and by just about every powerless superhero ever outside of that (Especially Batman). Given Tony's powerset when he's using the suit, I don't rally see him as a baseline human type of character since he's often fighting like a Flying Brick. Plus, he's so freaky smart its technically a superpower already, so.

Going by what Stan Lee intended, the appeal to Tony was intended to be that he represents everything the intended audience should hate -he's a spoiled silver-spoon-fed republican billionaire businessman who worked with the military and government in a medium primarily built up of young liberals- and still a character they can like and feel for.
There's also the fact he has an awesome suit of armour, that works well.


Not saying you interpretation isn't valid, just I don't think its what makes him appealing to everyone, or at least not what I personally think makes him appealing, or something I think is that appealing compared to characters with similar aspects who I feel hit that niche better.
Honestly, I like him because he's a jerk, and I like jerks, they amuse me, and because I admire a lot of his personal struggles, with alcoholism and struggles with survivors guilt, the fact he tries to better himself only to make mistakes and his utter desperation to make the world a better place; but mostly because he's a jerk.

[freezer]

So 451 is basically Morlun to Tony's Spider-Man?

[glprime]

Comparison seems legit.

[biod]

Thing is, I liked Morlun and the spider totem thing; it didn't mess with the established canon of "radioactive spider bite" and led to some really good stories. It wasn't so much important whether the spider that bit Spider-Man was magic or not, just that these crazy people/forces thought it was. Plus, Ezekiel made it very clear that being chosen by the Spider didn't automatically make you a hero. Peter was a hero all on his own and that's the divergence with this arc that makes all the difference.
Of course, 451 could just be lying.

[md84]

I'm hoping that 451 is revealed to be lying about the full extent of how much he shaped Tony. Heck, theses scans already show that he's not a totally honest guy. Unless he was using exact words -- as in, "let them go" (into space).

[ablackraptor]

It is possible that he's generated this fake evidence in order to convince Tony to do this for him, its not something that's impossible.

[ablackraptor]

451 feels a lot like Unit from Gillen's Uncanny X-Men run; he's able to hack machines incredibly easily aand is a robot with a humanoid face from a long-since dead race of aliens; in fact given the way Unit spoke to the X-Men is very similar to how 451 speaks to Tony its possible Gillen intended for Unit to do something similar here with Hope, and replaced Hope with Tony when he picked this title up after he was forced to leave Uncanny after AvX (Grrr, another thing that they messed up).

That's honestly my only criticism. I feel like I'm the only person who doesn't mind this change and is enjoying the run. Given that it can easily be cleared away and ignored, its not a big deal for me and it ultimately doesn't effect him that much.

Also: Stark Seven needs a mini, and Bear is now my new favourite character.

[yvonmukluk]

Yeah, he planned to have Unit here, but he felt it would have been too obvious he was a bad guy.

[jlroberson]

Here's the thing. I like Gillen.

But I haven't liked this storyline at all. It just...isn't going anywhere, really.

[akodo_rokku]

Pretty much agreed. I keep waiting for stuff to happen. The flashback stories were neat just for being cool flashback stories. Ultimately though, I think this might just be a case of a writer/book mismatch. Like when Brubaker was writing Uncanny X-Men. Great writer, book was a completely wrong fit for him.

[biod]

At the end of the day "destiny made me do it" played straight is lazy writing, actively harmful to the agency of your character, and kind of fucked up, thematically. Genetic determenism is a stonesthrow away from that.
The most interesting thing to do with this would be to focus on how Tony deals with his fundamental identity being tarnished or taken away and I'm not seeing enough of that yet.

[starwolf_oakley]

Still, "Character A stuck a subconscious hint in Character B's head" isn't too bad, in a VERY longterm-planning pseudo-Inception kind of a way.

[turtlefu]

I haven't liked any of Gillen's output recently.

I have a theory. When an indie-type writer "breaks through" with superhero comics, his first couple series are pretty good. Once he hits the big time and they give him a big-name book, he either bucks to corporate pressure, tries to shoot to high and misses, or rests too much on his laurels.

Remender, Gillen, Bendis, even Fraction and Brubaker to a certain extent.