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“A veteran of Spider-Man, X-Men and Avengers comics as well as event series such as Secret Invasion, Siege and Age of Ultron, Bendis has written Iron Man in various other series, though some in the Marvel offices thought he’d succeed on a Tony Stark solo book. The writer wasn’t convinced himself until he watched a cut of 2013’s Iron Man 3 film, where the ending had Downey’s Stark looking at a little screwdriver found in the rubble of his wrecked Malibu mansion and smiling, knowing he’d build his life back up again. “I loved that shot so much. Everything was destroyed, everything’s over. He picks up his screwdriver and knows exactly what he needs to do next,” says Bendis, who’s even written in the screwdriver into the upcoming comic. “This is what I would do for Iron Man 4.” Bendis calls Invincible Iron Man “a futurist’s look at what he has to do next as a superhero” — the series picks up eight months after the conclusion of the current event series Secret Wars with Tony wanting to be a better man in every aspect of his life. (The recently wrapped Superior Iron Man comic had him based in San Francisco and being more of a jerk than usual.)”
— Bendis gives Iron Man ‘Invincible’ new life (via chujo-hime)
I’ve been so torn on the depiction of Tony Stark in recent years. Once upon a time, he was all about the wild-eyed entrepreneurial spirit and applying technology and the power and wealth he was lucky enough to have in order to make a better world.
He didn’t live in an uncomplicated world (he was created around the Vietnam War and Cold War and through him, Marvel was controversial in what it had to say about uncritical patriotism and capitalism) and he had his fair share of problematic issues, but he was an optimistic character. He was a rich guy who’d clued into his role in the military-industrial complex and decided he wouldn’t play that game anymore. He’d learned to question himself and his world, and he’d actually try–sometimes successfully!–to make peoples’ lives better. He used his position in the system to fix the system. The Elon Musk of his time.
(He was originally patterned on a young Howard Hughes, but we must stay relevant.)
These days he’s so…he wants to do good, but basically every choice he makes is inevitably the wrong one and driven primarily by the flawed, desperate desire to find a quick fix for his guilt complex (which in itself is an interesting character trait but is a vastly damaging one for anybody in charge of people, businesses or superhero suits). And ultimately, the stories now seem to imply, all somebody like him can apparently ever do is make the world worse, never better, with the limited exception of punching supervillains in the face.
It’s depressing not only for my continued ability to cheer on my favorite Marvel hero, but also in terms of what Marvel is saying about their confidence that the world can get better or that anybody who has power or wealth could possibly actually want the world to get better.
Like, the Tony I see these days should not be a superhero. He’s too driven by his demons, too blind to the needs and experiences of others, too tied up in his own head to be able to make clear-headed strategic decisions or trust (or be trusted by) anyone else he’s on a team with. Those have always been flaws he struggled with, and he has been on and off teams (and the Dow Jones Index) because of it, but the way he’s written now, they’ve totally taken over his character and I’d frankly be terrified if I lived in a world where somebody like him had an Iron Man suit.
Which is fine, insofar as people are like that sometimes and he’s a realistic portrayal of a very flawed person who struggles with the position of extreme privilege he’s been given. But as a superhero, he’s a wash.
That said, he is the perfect spokesperson for, “Look, I know Cap is basically perfect, but we can’t just trust everybody who comes along with a superhero name to use their power in a reliable, ethical way. The normal, breakable people out there need some controls on all this before they get crushed by falling buildings we’ve dropped on them.”
Hrnghrgh
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1RSZFcz