INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #11: When Tony met MJ

[starwolf_oakley]

Here's a page from a flashback to when Tony Stark met Mary Jane Watson. I am not quite sure when it takes place, but it happens when Mary Jane was a model and when Tony was hitting the sauce. So it is before IRON MAN #128?



While Tony and MJ are talking, Iron Man is acting as Tony's "bodyguard."



Something I know about Mary Jane Watson: Mary Jane isn't from Queens. She's from Pittsburg.

Something I don't know about Mary Jane Watson: When Mary Jane became a model. I think it was during Tom DeFalco's run on AMAZING. Which was AFTER Tony quit drinking (the second time).

Comments

[locuatico]

those kind of guffs (Mary Jane becoming a model after Tony had quit drinking) I am willing to handwave away by saying "well, it could be it did not have alcohol" or, since this characters don't have any story together, I can be flexible with the timelines and pretend that Mary Jane's career as a model actually began before Tony quit drinking. It's one of those things that don't really matter in the end.

Mary Jane implying no one believed that Iron Man was tony's bodyguard... that I have more of a problem.
Something of a common theme I have seen in recent comics is the idea of how hard to keep a secret identity is, particularly in the era of Social Media and people everywhere having a camera in their pocket. But this is not that.

people believed Tony wasn't Iron Man because Tony, unlike the clearly serious and professional Iron Man, had a bad reputation as a heavy-drinker party goer who loved to sleep with beautiful women and who, unlike Bruce Wayne (whose reputation was carefully constructed by himself to take suspicion off him) genuinely was (and still is to a lesser extent) that person.
Like, the birthday scene in Iron Man 2? that's what I think most people back then would have assumed Tony Stark would do if he was the one in the Iron Man suit.

[janegray]

To be fair, she didn't say "did anybody believe that," but rather "did any of us believe that."

Depending on who this "us" is, I can see her point. "Us" as in "people with familiarity with superheroes" would absolutely have been able to see through Tony's front. Mostly because most superheroes have plenty of fucked up human flaws that make it completely believable that even a guy like Tony could be a hero when duty calls.

[q99]

Yea, like... MJ could've possibly been suspicious due to her connection to Peter, experience picking up secret ID tells, and so on.

Also, it's easier for people to think 'oh it's obvious!' in hindsight while at the time nothing actually made them make the connection. Like, nothing here indicates past-MJ was acting as if she figured it out, just narrator-MJ knows.

[icon_uk]

I think "Did any of us everfall for that" gives the impression that model MJ apparently also knew.