Superior Iron Man and Teen Abomination

[flint_marko]

"I spoke earlier about how you need characters to sympathize with in a book like this. When Teen Abomination came along, and was fully realized by Yildiray Cinar's art, our editor, Mark Paniccia, immediately felt sorry for him and asked me to look after him. This is what you want as a writer. You want readers rooting for characters, and Tony needed someone, too." -Tom Taylor





Later...

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

is it possible to be both squicked and going "awwwww"? because this did... i love that tony wants to help... i am squicked that tony is being a dick while doing it...

[thereddouglas]

Absolutely. That's probably the effect that the writer was going for.

[reveen]

Oooh yeah. This is going to go well.

Seriously? You can't look at him and say "Jamie"? That is just fucking nasty.

[aperturedreams]

Well, this is the same inverted Tony who was basically just murderous and completely evil during AXIS. It's a huge step up that he would help someone at all.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I think he's more interested in the challenge, particularly after his miracle cure did squat for the lad.

[freezer]

I think what bothers me the most here is calling him "inverted" Tony. This is full- throttle, give-no-fucks Iron Dick!Tony. Unless the angle is that his lack of guilt and self-justification is the actual inversion. In which I still say "I'd still like non-sociopath Tony back, plz."

I kind of missed the days when they glossed over the whole inversion thing.

[7dialsmystery]

Isn't full- throttle, give-no-fucks Iron Dick!Tony pretty much the same as always? I'm still not buying Tony Stark was inverted. He's too much like himself.

Re: I kind of missed the days when they glossed over the whole inversion thing.

[chrys]

Only if your always only includes Civil War and a couple other recent storylines and disregards decades of Iron Man continuity.

Re: I kind of missed the days when they glossed over the whole inversion thing.

[arilou_skiff]

Even Civil War Iron-Man isn't "no fucks given". He gives very many fucks, in fact. (especially in his own book)

Re: I kind of missed the days when they glossed over the whole inversion thing.

[chrys]

Yeah, that's what I heard, but given that I haven't read it yet and it's the story people bring up to "prove" Tony is a dick, I conceded that and brought up decades of comics I did read. But thanks for the reply.

Re: I kind of missed the days when they glossed over the whole inversion thing.

[freezer]

He does massively dickish things, but there's usually a layer of "They're going to hate me, but this needs to be done" behind it. Here it's "I know what is best. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.". And I got quite enough of that from SpOck, thanks.

[nyadnar17]

This Tony after being hit with the Inversion spell, his innate fear of his technology shaping a horrible future has been replaced by with an arrogance that the best future requires the unbridled use of his tech.

[rainspirit]

Christ, poor kid.

The Marvel Universe is a terrible fucking place to grow up in with superpowers.

[starwolf_oakley]

The Marvel Universe is a terrible place period. I wonder why more Civil Wars don't happen, even without the "Do what the government tells you, all the time, without question" element.

[reveen]

Superhero universes are shit towards super powered teens period. The Runaways had the right idea in how to deal with that shit. Don't be a hero, just drop off the radar and stay as far away from the powers that be as possible.

[espanolbot]

And even that didn't work, judging from Avengers Arena and its sequels... XP

[tigerkaya]

Always nice to see Hill put down as to Axis Stark, well this is surprising but temporary after what he does to Matt afterwards.

[thehood]

Except Hill was the good guy here and Inverted Tony is the jerk. He's even a Jerk to Jamie while "helping" him.

[tigerkaya]

Okay, agree to disagree than. Besides I was referring to Tony acting nice to the kid in the beginning I just see him acting like a jerk to the kid as some sort of mechanism in his mind fighting against the Inverted side.

Or could be acting like a jerk who knows.

[dcbanacek]

The only "monster" I saw wasn't the kid with green skin.

[geoffsebesta]

Everything was great until he changed his name to Matt! What kind of dominating crap is that?

[cainofdreaming]

I believe he was actually talking to Matt there.

[geoffsebesta]

Oh. Well, then I retract that part of my criticism!

But I still think it's mean to look at a kid who's having issues with their appearance and saying "they don't look like a Jamie." I guess since Iron Man is taking him in and I'm not I shouldn't criticize.

[chrys]

Uh, this is inverted Tony Stark. That was meant to be read as a jerk thing - he's the villain here.

[geoffsebesta]

Well then I retract the REST of my criticism! And I guess I am embarrassed by my lack of modern comics knowledge!

[chrys]

Hey, we've all made comments based on a couple scans and then discovered they were negated by the context. Don't worry about it :)

[thanekos]

Teen Man-Thing would've been something to see.

(And probably would've given Tony a " Whatever knows fear.. " crack in that scene with Matt.)

[randyripoff]

I'm not really sure why the PTB at Marvel have been bound and determined to turn Tony into a villain since Civil War, but I do know I don't like it, and I'm not sure where it's coming from. Yes, Tony is ridiculously wealthy,arrogant and out of touch--I can buy that--but to turn against his friends, then make choices that deliberately put him at odds with everyone he knows and cares about--well, I dunno why the PTB at Marvel think he's that character, but it is what it is. I ain't paying any money for it though.

[philippos42]

One: He has a mustache! Mustaches are EEEVIL!
Two: That old song "Iron Man" seems to have been an inspiration of Civil War. Something something destroys those he once saved, something something.
Three: I'm not sure how much they even consider him bad so much as "different and cool."

[md84]

A mustache AND a beard.

[starwolf_oakley]

CIVIL WAR became class warfare very quickly. For some reason they wanted the evil rich superheroes against the noble poor superheroes. (With a few superheroes with a military background working for Tony for... reasons.)

[silverhammerman]

It's weird to think this is from the same comic as those Daredevil memory wipe pages, which are just kind of aggravating, because this right here is actually quite good. The way Tony Stark goes from seemingly nice to horrible and dehumanizing might not be pleasant or matching with a lot of people's preferred version of the character, but it is a very effective way of characterizing this take on him.

Tom Taylor seems like such a weirdly inconsistent writer, I really don't care for the content of his stories, but he does be excellent at character work. It's like I want to see him given a better story to work with.

[md84]

Way I see it, Inverted!Tony is a Tony who had never gotten shrapnel stuck in his heart and never met Doctor Yinsen.

[chrys]

Yeah. It's like Tony never became a hero and went through those hardships that modeled his sense of responsibility, guilt and fear for what he might cause, but instead only got more irresponsible, egocentric and insufferable than in his early days.

[coldfury]

I think it's interesting that super hero Tony will often improvise plans to stop villains on the fly, adapting them on they go as they fail or coming up with a plan B fluidly.

Inverted Tony seems to take that trait of Tony's, and applies it to everything. "Oh shit, I was going to try to muscle the Mighty Avengers into being quiet and it didn't work out? Uh... thanks Mighty Avengers for saving me from that evil mind controller!"

"Daredevil won't shut up about me modifying him against his will. Let's wipe his memory instead!"

As much as I don't like seeing Tony like this, I like the consistency with it.

[chrys]

Yeah, you put into words one reason I'm interested in this title. Tony is inverted, yes, but he's still Tony, he keeps enough character traits to be recognizable, while many of the other inversions just turned the characters into general villains without personality. I miss regular Tony as much as the next fan, but this is still exploring the character I know and I'm on board for the moment.

[janegray]

Honestly, I prefer Inverted Tony to regular Tony. I have no problem liking villainout characters with the full understanding that they are villainous (heck, I like Starscream so much I made a whole series of posts about him), but it angers and frustrates THE HELL out of me when a supposedly heroic character does shitty things and the author still insists that "no, really, you guys, he feels really bad about it so it's ok!".

Be a hero or be a villain. But do NOT act like a villain and still insist that you are a hero because you feel bad about the shitty things you did.

[starwolf_oakley]

Could be worse. You could do shitty things so "good" people wouldn't have to do them. Meaning you are somehow better than the good people. That sucks worse.

[q99]

Or, even if the character insists, the narrative shouldn't agree, and other heroes shouldn't.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

So when did "Superior" become synonymous with "jerk," anyway?

[q99]

In Marvel, when Octopus decided that he'd try and show up Peter by being 'superior.'

[lbd_nytetrayn]

That part I remember.

As simple as that, huh? "From here on, any time a hero goes bad, they're 'superior'?"

[q99]

I'd say a bit more specific- If they go bad in a way where they're still trying to be a hero, only more arrogantly and with less of a grasp of morals, then they're 'superior.'

If they flat-out become a villain, then not so much.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Fair enough.

Still, it's weird that they see-- or at least market-- being a bigger jerk as "superior."

[q99]

Meant in an ironic way, of course :)