Super Saturday: The Iron Man Movies

Since 3 has been out for a few weeks I thought I would go ahead and indulge myself with a  recounting of why I love these movies so much. You really need to see all 3 before reading this as I'm not going spoiler free here.I will issue a "Shameless Gushing Alert" though. You have been warned.

There are 3 comic book boxes in my house:

• One is a grab-bag of stuff I've had forever, mostly Marvel, from Secret Wars to some Spider-Man to a bunch of X-Men I was sent by mistake in an Ebay deal. I have them mostly because I've had them.
• One is a bunch of Avengers, including a nearly complete run of West Coast Avengers, which I really liked for a while, and its successor, Force Works
• The most-packed is a box of Iron Man, from around issue 100 up to a little over 300, almost complete, and also a nearly full run of War Machine's first solo series.

Iron Man was my favorite from about the time I discovered him (in the single digits) onward. I liked plenty of other super hero types but he was a lesser-known guy (snobbery at an early age? most kids knew who he was, even if the grown-ups did not) that I thought was really cool.

So I heard they were doing a movie and I cringed - they'll change up something or the special effects will suck or the acting will be terrible. Remember, Superman and Batman had movies before I was born and were on TV all the time, cartoon and live action. Spiderman and Hulk and even Captain America were on TV too, again with cartoons and even some live action (70's live action - it wasn't great but it was there). Iron Man couldn't even get on Saturday morning when I was a kid. Now they're going to make a movie of him? I was afraid that besides being bad it would turn the character into a joke for the next 20 years.

Boy was I wrong.

I will say when I learned Robert Downey Jr. was going to play Tony Stark I thought he was an excellent choice within about 30 seconds of hearing it. So, why is the first movie so awesome?

• They get the origin story right. Eve the update from 'Nam to Afghanistan is perfect
• The villain is right out of IM200, one of the signature moments in the 80's Iron Man books, and they didn't screw him up

• The supporting characters are right out of the comics as well, and handled just perfectly
• They got the suit right. This is a huge deal.
• They got the right actor for the main part. Christopher Reeve fit like this. Hugh Jackman was basically an unknown before Wolverine, befitting the mysterious past of the character and slipped right into it. Downey was all too well known, mostly for being a brilliant failure on some level, and this carried into the part perfectly. It seems like this would be the #1 concern but it isn't always - remember the first time you heard about who was going to be Batman in that big new movie? Michael Keaton? I think there's still a faint question mark hovering over my head from that. They got it right this time.
• Little nods to the fans count for something too: Ten Rings, "Next Time", etc.
• Changing things up at the end with "I am Iron Man" - now you've managed to show respect for the original material AND open things up completely for the future. The closest thing I can think of to how this was handled was the Trek reboot of 2009 and I liked that too.

Iron Man 2 - some people don't like it. I like it just fine. Why?

• We open with natural consequences of the unmasking at the end of the first movie with Congressional hearings and a Russian named Vanko building a rival technology.
• Lots of nods to history - Vanko (the original Crimson Dynamo), Rhodes finally getting into the action, Justin Hammer showing up - lots of that kind of thing.
• They worked in Iron Man's Briefcase AND the Silver and Red armor in one scene! It's so far beyond my expectations at that point that right there in the theater I was ready to anoint it greatest super-movie ever!
• Nods to the camera: "I'm here, deal with it" for the recast Rhodey's first scene.
• Black Widow shows up, much like she did in the comics: pretty face first, action heroine later.
• Finally, that big finale with IM and WM back to back - when the masks clang shut the second peak of the film hits for me - it looks like a comic book cover, then it looks like a two-page spread as they take down a horde of robots together. Yeah!

No, not that one!

No, not that one either!

Yeah, that one!

Iron Man 3 - the Big Finish

• We open with consequences again - this time from that other movie, and more personal than public at first
• Usually introducing a kid into a movie series is a terrible ting - see that last Zorro sequel for all the franchise-wrecking evidence you should need - but it worked in this one. And it was temporary.
• Not a huge fan of the overheated armor-ripping badguys but it worked OK for the story and it is a comic-book movie.
• Thought the house-wrecking scene was really well done, better than I expected from all of those trailers.

Sniff .. it brings a tear to my eye! Why can't all comic book movies be like this?

• The Mandarin thing ... yeah I was pretty shocked as I thought the whole terrorist angle was going to be epic and very modern. Guess not in some ways, a little too "modern" in others, but I appreciate the ability to be shocked by a movie - it doesn't happen much anymore. So I'll call it a draw.
• Tony Stark investigates a mystery and solves it! How very much like the comic character, especially the early years of the comic books! There's more detective work here than in some of the recent Batman movies!

• Our nod to history here is to Iron Man #300 where Ultimo resurfaces and Tony gets his crew together - Pepper, Happy, Rhodey, everybody - and has them suit up to fight it. So in the movie it's just the suits (well, Pepper does get to use one) but the visuals are the same. That kind of thing doesn't happen by accident.
• It ends as appropriately as any superhero movie I've ever seen, especially for a trilogy. It finishes the story and as a side effect pretty much brings the movie character up to date with the comic character in most ways.

Iron Patriot - Beta version

So yes, I liked them. The feeling that somebody gets it and then does it right is a good one to have, and it's all over these movies. The combination of actors, characters, stories, villains, effects, and a general paying of attention to the source material puts them at the pinnacle of the comic book movie pile for me. The Avengers is just the cherry on top. It might not go on forever but it's incredibly good right now.

Motivational Monday

A little celebration this morning

Motivational Monday

Wednesday Funny

Pretty busy but Apprentice Red found this on Facebook and I deemed it worth sharing:

Closing out a Theme

Found on Facebook ...

Iron Man, Year 2 - Part 2 - Tales of Suspense 57-62

So after our big Manadarin two-parter we get ...

First appearance! Hawkeye? Whatever happened to that guy? You know he's Hawkeye because he has a letter "H" on his head. Oh and ...

The more things change ...

Yes we are - for about 8 months until he joins the Avengers! In the meantime he happens to run into the Black Widow purely by chance and she helps him beef up his arsenal. Then she asks him to take out Iron Man and of course he agrees.

I believe this is the first time we see the word "repulser" (OK so the spelling is off) in association with a ray from IM's gauntlet. We also see the side-pods pretty consistently in this issue - they were not present in 55, they appear in parts of 56, and they are in just about every shot of IM in 57. So many firsts!

Anyway IM defeats Hawkeye who escapes with the Widow in a boat. I wonder if we will ever see them again?

Things you could steal: The villain/hero rogue type character is a classic at this point. Having him deceived by a beauty is too. Jealousy as motivation is perfectly fine and pretty understandable in a superhero world.

Whoa, that ain't supposed to happen - here's my 12 cents!

We start off with Kraven the Hunter and the Chameleon sneaking back into America - alright, kind of a crossover thing going on there. Anyway the Chameleon's power proves to be extremely effective and Cap & IM spend quite a bit of time in a scrap until they figure out what's going on. Giant Man and Wasp show up too so we get a little Avengers flavor in the mix as well.

Things you could steal: The master of disguise would have to replace an NPC hero to get any real use out of this but it could be fun.

So after the fight in the last issue they made up and decided to move in together. Note that we have pretty much arrived at the classic Golden Avenger armor that will carry us from 1965 right on thru 1985. As a kid this is pretty much what Iron Man looked like for me.

In this issue the Black Knight breaks out of jail and seeks revenge on Shellhead because the Avengers put him in jail. They have a nice long fight and (Spoiler Alert!) Black Knight ends up back in jail. Stark's heart continues to have problems and in this issue he ends up claiming that Stark had to leave but left him in charge, causing Pepper and Happy to be very suspicious. I like that they worked in this angle to the story - it's a step up in sophistication and could be fun in the future.

Things to steal: DM's, make sure players truly pay for those complications!

Tony Stark is still trapped in his suit to stay alive and his story comes apart rather quickly. Of course Hawkeye and the Black Widow choose this time to strike. Iron Man pulls out a victory but he's still stuck in his suit. Also, the Widow gets kidnapped by Russian spies, presumably to be taken home and punished for her failures.

Things to steal: Recurring villains are handy, especially when mixed in with other complications.

Tony Stark invented the ipod in 1964

A month later we have Issue 61:

Happy and Pepper quit, forcing Stark to make an appearance. Then the Mandarin tries to blast him - from orbit, with a satellite-mounted laser! That's a serious grudge. Everyone thinks Stark is dead so IM flies off to the Orient to deal with the Mandarin. This doesn't go so well and he ends up tied down and threatened with an origin story! Another two-parter for the Mandarin!

 So, issue 62, completing two years of Iron Man stories, and we get the origin of the Mandarin. The first one anyway, as I believe we have had several over the years. In this original origin he finds a wrecked ship once flown by an alien dragon and the ten jeweled rings that powered the ship soon become his source of power. I like it and it does explain the somewhat random nature of his powers and his knowledge of other things.

Getting back to "now" the villain plans to start World War 3 and then step in to rule after the East and West exhaust themselves - not a bad plan, but one Iron Man cannot allow to succeed! He escapes, recharges, foils the plan, then goes toe-to-toe with the Mandarin, fighting pretty much to a draw. Afterward each returns home. Even at this early stage the Mandarin is consistently the one opponent that can fight IM straight up.

Things to Steal: Starting WW3 is a solid villain plot and should get your players going. If it succeeds, well, there's always time travel ... 


So that's the end of Year Two - we've had more Crimson Dynamo, lots more Mandarin, fewer goofy one-off villains, and the first appearance of Black Widow and Hawkeye - that's a pretty solid year and it lays a lot of groundwork for the years to come.

Iron Man Year 2 - Part 1 - Tales of Suspense 51-56

I worked through Iron Man year one a while back and figured it was high time we got to year two! We begin with ToS 51:

 So this Scarecrow is a stage performer, a contortionist, who has some trained crows. He decides to start committing crimes after helping Iron Man stop a robbery - I don't think that's how it's supposed to work! He ends up stealing some of Stark's plans and tries to sell them to the Cubans.

Iron Man intervenes and saves the day, punching them all senseless and then sinking the gunboat where the meet was happening. It is interesting that he's concerned here about facing bigger guns than small arms. The armor is clearly not solving all of his problems yet. Also, in this issue we see nothing about him running out of power - he seems to have that one figured out now and thank goodness for that.

Things you could steal: Well, I'd probably have the crows as a visible, physically present telekinesis power. Also, if you play D&D, here's an example of the creative use of "unseen servant" or "mage hand". Cubans as bad guys is also entirely appropriate for a 60's adventure.

Next up is ToS 52:

Here we have the return of the Crimson Dynamo AND the first appearance of the Black Widow! The Russians are still smarting from the defection of the original Dynamo so they send a male agent named Boris and Natasha Romanov the Black Widow - see what they did there? - to get revenge against Stark, Professor Vanko the defector, and Iron Man.

Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Scarlett Johanssen!

Boris subdues Vanko and steals the Crimson Dynamo suit while Natasha distracts Stark in the most effective way. This second Crimson Dynamo defeats Iron Man and captures him by draining his electrical power, which at least makes sense and is something we haven't seen for a while. Iron Man recovers, escapes, and has a knock-down drag-out fight with Boris the Dynamo. In the end Vanko sacrifices himself to destroy Boris and the Widow escapes in the confusion.

Things you could steal: There are a lot of classics here - stealing someone else's power armor, the beautiful distraction, Russians, the self-sacrificing scientist, and a good solid rematch fight to wrap up. In this one the Widow is a complete non-combatant and not some super-martial artist - a good reminder that combat prowess is not the only way to contribute to a super-story.

This time Tony invents an anti-gravity ray and the Widow comes to take it to find redemption at home. We get to see an angry Senator scolding Stark for the first time - but not the last! Things eventually work out and Iron Man stops the communist plot. We're also back to some power concerns again, even with the new suit. Also, once again, the Widow escapes.

Things you could steal: There's not much new here, although the one-off unrepeatable gadget can be fun if used very sparingly. The redemption angle also makes it easy to explain a return appearance.

IN THE FACE!

Stark redesigns his helmet then gets called to Washington and sent off to Vietnam to check out problems with some of his missiles. This leads him to a second encounter with the Mandarin and a pretty one-sided fight follows. I did like that the Mandarin shows a growing respect for IM during the fight - it's a cut above the more typical criminal/communist opponent we have seen before. This is the first cliffhanger storyline as the issue ends with Iron Man out of power (Yep) and trapped in the Mandarin's lair. Also, we have another first appearance:

Heelys circa 1964

I've always loved that amongst the many super gadgets in the super hi-tech armor Tony Stark has roller skates! He's also removed the pointy-topped faceplate for a more integrated-looking one and we are almost to the classic Golden Avenger armor from the 70's & 80's.

Also in this issue: the origin of the Watcher, if anyone is interested.

Our story begins with IM captured but we learn that he now has a built-in generator which can "recharge his transistors" given a little time. This time we have a much more even fight and IM recovers his missiles, defeats the Mandarin for the most part, and leaves with his dignity intact. We also get our first all about Iron Man section of how the armor works and what kind of gadgets he has in it.

Stuff you can steal: Take a tough villain, put him in his home base, then give your heroes a reason to go there - then make them glad they got out alive. Also, unexplainable powers - why rings? How do they do what they do? No explanation is sought or given.

To start this one off Stark cops an attitude, smashes a bunch of stuff while feeling sorry for himself, treats Pepper and Happy poorly, blows off the Avengers, and heads out for a date. Meanwhile a new villain attacks one of his factories, using the "irresistible power" of his unicorn horn to "sabotage America's military production" - oh my. He's also looking to fight Iron Man so he trashes the place, beats Happy senseless and kidnaps Pepper. The horn appears to be a multipower/array that can perform ranged blasts, magnetically move objects, and form a shield around him as a strong defense. He and Shellhead tussle for a while while Stark feels guilty for getting Happy put in the hospital. At the end the Unicorn appears to have won but Iron Man manages to pull an upset and the Unicorn slinks away to possibly return again.

Stuff to steal: The "Uncanny Unicorn" is from behind the iron curtain and the original Crimson Dynamo scientist helped design his suit, so we have a connection to a previous enemy with the ongoing theme of "communists everywhere hate Tony Stark". That's a useable idea in a campaign. Also the Unicorn is goofy enough I may have to have him show up in a game of my own, perhaps after being frozen or something for 50 years.

That's all for the first half of Year 2 - more next time!

More Tales of Suspense

Tales of Suspense 40-50


After ToS 39 these cover the first year of Iron Man, circa 1963. Artists are pretty much Don Heck and Jack Kirby depending on the issue.

#40 features Gargantus, a giant Neanderthal Man. A girl doesn't show up for a date with Tony (clearly an indication of trouble) so Iron Man flies over to the town where she was visiting and finds it's cut off from the surrounding countryside by a big stone wall. He burrows under the wall and finds the townspeople hostile, referring to a "Gargantus" who now rules the town. he had them build the wall and they are now building a statue to him in the town square. The buildup here is pretty good.

Now there's no way IM is going to tolerate this state of affairs so he starts damaging stuff and calls the big G out. The traditional caveman with fur briefs and a big club appears (about 10' tall too) and starts fighting IM all over the town. Tony notices something weird about his eyes during the fight, deduces that he has hypnotized the town and that therefore he's more than just a caveman and then uses some kind of magnetic attack to rip Gargantus apart - he's a robot! And he's controlled by a UFO hovering above the town concealed by an artificial cloud! The aliens flee and the people snap out of it, saved by our hero.

Armor: Iron Man is repeatedly told that he is frightening at the begining of this issue so on the advice of a girlfriend he paints the suit gold to give himself more of a shining knight appearance. He's otherwise the same, so this marks the beginning of the original gold suit. Another thing to note is that he really doesn't have a lot of blasting powers at this stage. He's very much like a tech-based Magneto as he is throwing out magnets, reversing charges, and tossing metal around. He is strong and he can fly and he is armored but he is constantly running out of power and struggling to get to an electrical outlet to recharge.

Things you can steal: I think the basic plot looks like a lot of fun, though it makes no sense at all. Sure, have a local town cut off by a big stone wall and have a huge hypnotizing caveman robot controlled by a UFO behind it all! It's awesome! Then when your players tell you it's stupid you can point to the second Iron Man comic ever and say "Stan Lee and Jack Kirby thought it was just fine" and bask in the glow of your superiority!  Seriously, you might need more than one big robotic Neandethal to give your team some real opposition but it can work.

 
#41 features "Dr. Strange" who is definitely not the Strange we all know. This one is a villain in a purple suit (eventually - see:).

He does use magic, sort of - he's a kind of menatlist. He disappears at the end.

#42 features Red Barbarian who is not literally red (unusual for this time period) nor is he literally a Conan-esque barbarian, nor does he appear to have any actual powers, but he is pretty angry during most of this story. He is a Chinese warlord who plans to steal Stark technology by sending a face-changing agent known as "The Actor" (effective but not very inspirational) over to impersonate Stark. There is some simple skullduggery here and rather than a straight-up fight Iron Man uses his brains to get ahead of Actor and set him up for execution at the hands of Red Barbarian. RB is alive at the end of this one.

#43 features Kala, Queen of the Netherworld who again does not appear to have powers beyond being the queen of an underground kingdom with some advanced technology. Her goal is to conquer the surface world. She uses a device like a Star Trek transporter to kidnap some people, including Tony Stark who is caught without his suit. Feeling a little Deja Vu he promises to build weapons for her if he is left alone in a lab for a while. He promptly builds another suit (gold from the start this time) escapes, makes his way into the throne room, and then convinces the queen to marry her right-hand-man who is against the war anyway. This is another one where Stark talks people into things to resolve the situation instead of just issuing an armored beatdown. Kala ends the issue engaged and dissuaded from attacking us. Note the rather conservative costume, by today's standards anyway.

#44 features a trip back in time where Tony hooks up with Cleopatra and defeats the Mad Pharoah who is rebelling against her. This is an odd side trip story and is the kind of plot you probably cooked up when you were 12. It's kind of funny to see several panels regarding Tony's contemplation of whether he could have scored with Cleopatra - almost as much time as is spent on whether IM could defeat an ancient Egyptian army. Iron Man smashing chariots is cool and all but that's about it.

#45 finally features another super-powered opponent: Jack Frost! He runs around freezing stuff (including Happy Hogan) until IM reverses a polarity somewhere and freezes Frost. He is melted out and taken into custody. A lot of these early plots boil down to "guy attacks Stark Industries, Iron man has to figure out how to stop him in between charging cycles, Iron Man pulls new manuver that defeats bad guy" - this is one of those. Also: Hapy Hogan and Pepper Potts (called "Kitty" in one panel for some reason) make their first appearance. Not sure about that "favorite" comment on the cover but they are a part of the lore.

#46 brings in one of my favorite bad guys and one of IM's oldest (maybe he is the oldest,  looking at the timing here) recurring foes: CRIMSON DYNAMO! A Russian electrical genius builds a battlesuit, gets endorsed by Khruschev, then flies off to America to take out Stark and Iron Man. It's a big bulky red suit against a big bulky yellow suit! Stark eventualy convinces the scientist that the Russian leader is planning to betray him by using a trick voice recording (wasn't that part of 24 Season 2?). The Russian defects to America and all is well by the end of the issue. The funny thing is that the Russian leader WAS planning to betray him. This follows the pattern I mentioned above but it's better because it has communists and the Dynamo.

#47 features a new supervillain named the Melter (again descriptive but not all that imaginitive). He has a ray gun strapped to his chest that melts things when fired. This again follows the usual pattern but it has Tony running around worried about his secret identity being revealed if his maks gets melted off. Personally I would be worried about having molten metal dripping down my face but that's not really an issue here as the melted armor seems to run off without burning the exposed skin beneath. There is an extended running fight and the Melter ends up fleeing into the sewers, surely to return another day.

#48 introduces a brand new red and gold suit, the one with the "double-peaked" yellow mask It also introduces "Mister Doll" (wow that is bad, even for 1964) who uses a small voodoo doll he stole from an African witch doctor to cause harm. He uses it on several millionaires to get them to sign their fortunes over to him (on threat of voodoo-torure, not because of mind control) and then comes after Tony Stark. The odd thing is that he shapes the doll to look like Iron Man and makes Tony hurt...then he makes it look like Stark and hurts him again - I'm not sure that should work that way but it's magic anyway so who cares? Iron Man saves the day by reversing the whip - he makes a sudden move and changes the doll to look like its owner just as he drops it from a height, seriously harming the villain. He is taken away by the police.

#49 is the first IM crossover featuring Angel from the X-Men, who gets caught in a nuclear blast which scrambles his brain and makes him a bad guy. He and Iron Man get into a scrap, he quits the X-Men, then spends a bunch of time doing bad things to get the attention of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants until Iron Man comes back and sorts him out by ... falling. He puts himself into a lethal situation which forces the good side of Angel to act and snaps him out of the evilness. This seems a little out of character for what we know about Tony so far and it also seems to me to be more like something a sidekick would do to save his hero, not something Iron Man does to save an X-Man he just met the same day! Gaming note: If your players can handle it then having one of them "turn bad" for a session could be a lot of fun.

 
#50 features the first appearance of The Mandarin, a recurring Iron Man enemy. He has a big old fortress somewhere near China and is a bad enough dude that Chinese generals go to him begging for help and fearing for their lives. The Pentagon asks Iron Man to do something so he flies out and pretty much gets his lunch eaten by the Mandarin. He ... sort of defeeats the Mandarin, then while he is recovering IM escapes ... and flies back home. This is the first time we see IM not really coming out completely victoroius - instead it feels like he was lucky to get away! This is kind of an odd way to go but it does set the big M up as a formidable opponent. It also reverses the typical plots we have been seeing which is kind of neat.

One funny note: despite being Chinese the Mandarin's costume features a big "M" in the middle of his chest. It's one of those Silver Age things you don't see as much anymore and I love it.

So by the end of Iron Man Year One (1963 edition):

- We know his origin

- We've met Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts, two major supporting characters

- We've met Crimson Dynamo and The Mandarin, two major recurring villains

- His powers are more like Batman plus Magneto than the later versions of the character

- We've seen him build a suit, repaint a suit, build another suit, and build a new version of the suit much closer to the iconic version

 Oh and ...

Yeah, that dreamy Rock Hudson...guessing it would be Clooney today.

Yeah. Anyway that's not a bad first year. More to come...