Sunday, June 25, 2006

Bad Comic Book Dates #6- Iron Man


Iron Man
Originally uploaded by Heidi Meeley.
Yes Tony Stark is rich. Yes he is hot as hell, with expensive taste to boot. Those are some good qualities for a girl to find in a guy.

So where does it go wrong?

Tony is a major playboy who has fidelity issues.

He drinks... too much. Like alcoholic amounts.

Tony is twitchy, and tends to switch loyalites like he changes his under pants.

Besides, beating off the skanks chasing him would wear a nice girl out.

Sorry Tony, you don't make the cut.

3 comments:

Chris Arndt said...

Now Iron Man is a character that has suffered from being written too long and not have a finite story.

Essentially there are and were character arcs which showcased the man's flaws as a creator came up with one or another. Stark overcame each and every one of them. The stories were good. The stories were so damned good that lazy writers copy them.

Even the good ones get lazy.

The alcoholism was established in the seventies. David Michelinie ended the drinking problem with a story called "Demon in the Bottle".

Guess. what. Denny O'Neil started it again. Then other writers took the wheel. and pushed Tony off the wagon.

Kurt Busiek called a moratorium on it. Then he re-ran the theme of Tony's body failing him.

why bother?

Heidi Meeley said...

Yeah, Tony's been done to death so to speak. I love the concept of Iron Man, but his characterization has killed it for me.

It reminds me of when various creative teams put Hal Jordan through a man whore phase, and made him wander aimlessly. It just got to be like recycling after a point. Write the story, but change the chick's name and occupation.

Too sad.

It is the same with Tony. I am to the point where I don't care because I am so jaded by his character.

Maybe someday this will change.

Chris Arndt said...

I'm not sure it can change.

What can they do that they have not already done with the character that would not be out of character?

and the biggest victim of writers in the Marvel Universe is Hank Pym.

Organic character evolution is not on a first name basis with Hank Pym.