Iron Man #24 - "Rings of the Mandarin, Chapter II"

[arbre_rieur]

"What manner of elf wouldn't hate a man of Iron, after all? All elves hate Iron. I'm really pushing the unusual, alien psychology of Malekith. The Elves simply aren't like us. Tony's been into space in my run, and I think my elves are at least as alien than anything he met up there." -- Kieron Gillen

Malekith the Accursed has gotten his hands on four Mandarin rings, so Iron Man's journeyed to his kingdom to do something about that.









Shevaun's big gun proves a resounding success:









The elf-bone in Iron Man's earpiece was cracked in the fighting, cutting off his inter-dimensional communications, but he has a solution to that problem:

Comments

[cainofdreaming]

Someone got hit by claw-envy, I see. And please tell me that's not a whaling harpoon, Tony.

[icon_uk]

Better to repurpose it for use it on psychotic elves, than use it on a whale

[cainofdreaming]

But where will he find a psychotic elf that's large and buoyant enough? There's nary a blubber in those thighs of theirs.

[althechi]

That's no way to talk about Terrana! You take that back before she kills you.

[onceaskrull]

Is that Barbara Gordon wearing Ted Kord goggles?

Okay, so I didn't actually read the scans.

[skemono]

Me neither. All I know is that apparently Tony is hunting the Navi. Well, more power to him.

[ablackraptor]

If only that was true; hated those little hypocritical cat-elves.

[his_spiffynesss]

That's the Marvel UK heroine Dark Angel.

[lonewolf23k]

You'd think the Elves would think twice at the idea of hunting a guy called IRON Man.

[icon_uk]

You'd think humans would think twice about hunting sharks

[lonewolf23k]

Sharks kill about 5-10 people a year, tops.

People kill hundreds of thousands of sharks yearly.

Who's the real threat to whom?

[icon_uk]

Fair point, but "swatting mosquitos" didn't have quite the same dramatic implications. :)

I could also have suggested skydiving, free solo climbing or crocodile bungee jumping.

My point is that something being inherently, insanely dangerous is actually an irresistible siren call to a certain mindset.

[doodleboy]

This entire arc seems to be Kieron Gillen going "Screw you elves!".

[icon_uk]

I can't think of elves now (aside from a couple of fantasies involving Legolas we won't dwell on) without remembering Terry Pratchett's summary in "Lords and Ladies";

Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.

[shadowpsykie]

huh.... intruiging....

[icon_uk]

Always happy to recommend Terry Pratchett to others! :)

"Lords and Ladies" is one of the Lancre Witches novels in the Discworld series, where you meet an interesting trio of witches (Who are NOT a coven, they are all agreed on that, a group of witches isn't a coven, it's an argument), and how they deal with their roles as witch/wise woman/midwife/etc.

[mola_ram]

With the amount of crap he changes and makes up as he goes along, it's no wonder that Gillens elves feel like aliens, seeing as there's hardly anything left of the original elf myths in his take on them.

While I have no problem with authors changing myths and mythology to fit within a specific universe, watching them being smug about pointing out a specific original aspect that they are using, is kinda like watching Stephenie Meyer being smug about how her vampires still drink blood.

[cainofdreaming]

Umm, I'm not really seeing how they're that much different from how Simonson portrayed Malekith and his elves. It's not like they're Giffen's own creations or something, he's using the toys that were already in the box.

Only working on the limited samples that are available here, so just correct me if the rest of the issues introduced more changes.

[mrstatham]

This. Complaining about the elves of Marvel not feeling much like the elves of mythology is like complaining about their take on Hercules, or the entire bunch of Asgardians. They're never like the original, mythological takes, often with good reason.

[ablackraptor]

Technically speaking, these elves are based on the Dökkálfar of Norse Mythology, which actually have very little surviving text on them (after a good search, at least, it appears they were only referenced once in the Pros Edda, and that mostly just summed them up as 'evil little bastards that live that live underground and aren't like the Light Elves that live in the sky). So, really, they're not that off the mark: They don't look like Light Elves, they're evil, and they live in caves-IE, Underground.
(Of course, I'm just going from what I've read; there might be more about the Dokkálfar out there that's completely contradictory to what Gillen's doing, but I wouldn't know; my knowledge on original Norse mythology is mostly centred around the original, pre-Christianized Loki stuff)
And even then, like cainofdreaming said, he didn't create this version of them, so he's about as responsible for their depiction here as any Thor writer is for Thor not having red hair or being in what's essentially an open marriage with a Blond-haired Sif. He's just playing with toys that others made; if they're broke, its not his fault.

On top of that, I don't see how he's being 'smug' here. Having just tracked down and read the interview the quote above came from, he just states its something elves are known for, he doesn't act like its anything big or make a big deal about it, he just mentions it. Don't know why you felt it was smug.

[mola_ram]

If it fits within a particular story or universe, an author is free to paint a Elf purple, let him ride a pogo stick and fart cotton candy.
The intrepertation of old folktales and ancient mythological tales change with age or are reimagined all the time, and the Marvel version of norse legends has since the very first issue of Thor grown to become its own solid "mythology".
Marvels version is but one of many alternate takes, and I enjoy both the "new" versions and the "original" versions of (in this case) norse mythology respectively.

I don't mind Marvels take on the Dark elves. It's based loosely (as you point out) on Snorre Sturlasons Edda prose, which (when it comes to elves) borrows heavily from the christian mindset about good elves living in skies and evil elves living in beneath the earth.
If that's the inspiration they're building the foundation of their tales on, I'll disregard the original scandinavian pre-christian version of the elves [and be happy to fill you in on some of the details, should you wish to hear them, ablackraptor] and that Malekith is a modern made up character with no connection to norse mythology, and just roll with the Marvel universe stories.
As cainofdreaming said; it's not Gillens fault if the toys are already broken.

It's when Gillen claims to bring any sort of original folklore into the mix of an already established modern "mythology" I start raising an eyebrow and begin to feel the smugness creeping in, because that's when we as readers leave the modern intrepertation behind and start moving into some pretty set standards of how Elves "work",
In all fairness I'd say that judging from the interview he seems to have done some fairly good homework, which is either based on the wrong source material or he has changed it as he saw fit.
You could say I was having sorta the samme feeling that Gillen himself had about the spartans when he read Frank Millers 300 and wrote Three in responce. [You hunted slaves!]
But let me (finally) get down to what I think Gillen is doing wrong;
Firstly; While it's true that Elves are vulnerable to Cold Iron, (not iron melted within in an alloy, nor iron tipped steel weapons) they can also smell or sense it a good distance in advance.
Tony Stark hasn't prepared himself for combat against the dark elves as much as he has painted a big glowing "shoot me" sign and walked into a dark room, or in this case a very dark forrest.
Secondly; Changelings are not Dark elves, have never been Dark elves, and have never collaborated with Dark elves.
Changelings are a subspecies of Trolls, and Elves and Trolls aren't exactly on the best of terms, but usually just avoid one another..
Thirdly; Elves don't steal children. A strapping young fellow, a fair damsel, a hero with a particular destiny or some poor farmer who unintentionally angers them perhaps may be lured within their Elf hills, but Elves as such couldn't care less about a human child (that's something they leave for the Trolls)

These abovementioned grievances aren't something I have read about in any earlier stories featuring Malekith and the dark elves, (the concept of Cold Iron has shown up in several other Marvel stories, usually featuring Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider or some of the midnight sons stories as far as I can remember) but if they have been brought up, I'll consider myself properly corrected.

So that's my take on it so far. As for the story itself; There are still several issues left of the story for me to read, and I'm usually witholding judgement on a story until the last page has been turned, so who knows, there might be some future revelation down the line that'll make me go "oooh", especially since I really like Gillen as a writer.

[icon_uk]

Another Terry Pratchett quote comes to mind, which he stated at the start of a talk he gave to the British Folklore Society;

"I think I'm about to disappoint you all, because I think of folklore in much the same way a carpenter thinks about trees."

[mola_ram]

Hehe. Classic Pratchett. :D
Another quote from the man regarding folktales...
Mythology’s jus the folktales of the people who won ‘cos they had bigger swords

A funny thing about Folklorist Societies is that they rarely want to take a closer look at the tales that was completely edited out of the larger folklorist collections, because they usually consisted of fart jokes and procreating with anything that wasn't nailed down.

(The really funny thing however, is pointing out how a modern but controversial take on a character (like casting Idris Elba as Heimdal) actually makes sense interpertationwise with the ancient myths, and then watching them squirm)

[espanolbot]

Ah, so they're Pratchettian elves, neat! And the National Elf joke did make me laugh, well done.

[thosefew]

There is a natural progression between that pun and Tony pulling bones out of his ears.

[quatoria]

Tony wasn't pulling the bone out of HIS ear, darling.

[icon_uk]

Being in a situation where you need to pull your bone out of someone ELSE's ear is just... socially awkward.

[shadowpsykie]

well sometimes it's very... errr... ummm nevermid....

[big_daddy_d]

I do admit, this Mandarin Ring arc has been pretty interesting I think.

[drtechnobabel]

Yeah, from how it began, you would expect the Mandarin Rings to find their hosts, and then there would be an Iron Man vs. The Ten Mandarins fight. Who would've guessed that this story would end up with Malekith chopping off people's hands and Tony Stark building elf-hunting armor?

[md84]

'Yeah, from how it began, you would expect the Mandarin Rings to find their hosts, and then there would be an Iron Man vs. The Ten Mandarins fight.'

Funny thing is, that probably was the rings' original plan before Malekith screwed things up.

[sir_razorback]

Ok, first Hulk's brain is sticking out the back of his head, now Tony is carving out ear-bones? This has been an interesting couple months from Marvel. Abit messier than their norm.

Many of you won't get this comment, but...

[7dialsmystery]

... It's spelled "Siobhán"!

Re: Many of you won't get this comment, but...

[icon_uk]

Shevaun is, I believe, a perfectly valid Anglification of the Irish... but I suspect, given your comment, that there's a pop culture reference I'm missing.

Shevaugn Haldane

[7dialsmystery]

Second most butchered Irish name in America.

http://www.irishcentral.com/culture/craic/Most-mispronounced-Irish-language-names-in-America.html

[shadowpsykie]

i pride myself i knowig a great deal about greek and roman mythology as well as Arthurian mythology (Actually working on a modern day Arthurian story)

however, i only know very slight information about Norse and Celtic Mythology and would like to know more. anybody know what i should read to become familiar with these lores? People Mention the Prose Edda and stuff like that, but which version? which translation (are there translations that have the original translation side by side?) I MUST KNOW.