Category Archives: geek

Tony Stark is one of the smartest characters in the Marvel Universe. He was a child genius who went to MIT when he was a teenager and inherited a major corporation at the age of 21 complete with major government contracts that did not go away once he was in charge. He has built super weapons, discovered and put into use new sources of energy and, of course, designed the Iron Man armor that he is famous for.

Tony Stark is a smart guy.

I imagine when Archie Goodwin wrote the two-part story “The Coming of the Controller” he may have thought, “Someone with that much brain power clearly needs to battle a villain of equal brain power!” That would make sense, Reed Richards is always best when he battles Doctor Doom, The Doctor when he battles The Master, but there’s a twist…

OK, let’s back track just a little. Remember Janice Cord’s lawyer and how I thought he might be related to the Controller back in THIS POST? Well he totally is and this story-line wraps that all up. Also, we get to see Jasper Sitwell looking for Whitney Frost’s after the hovercraft she escaped in crashed – which happened off-screen I guess cuz I just looked back and she seemed to get away scott free. I even have the page in THAT SAME POST.

Also we spend some more pages making sure that the secret identity that we spent two issues trying to protect stays protected. Seriously, why? Go HERE for more on secret identities and here’s the three pages that finally wrap the identity drama. Pay special attention to how he lays the ground work for never being able to do this again. Don’t worry, in about a decade LMDs become so common it’s a wonder anyone in the Marvel Universe isn’t just a robot.

So let’s get back to the Controller! Here’s the Controller’s Wikipedia page for the full breakdown of his super-villain career, but the origin is right here in this book. Basil Sandhurst not only is a mad scientist of the highest caliber but he also has some rage issues. And his lawyer brother is a bit of a prick too. So when a lack of ethics gets Basil fired from every job he’s ever had (he has been working on how to harness the power of the human brain) his brother gets him a job at Drexel Cord’s factory. Problem is Basil is not happy about having to do the work of simpletons – so he loses his shit.Vincent tries to get him under control, but that goes poorly too and things explode and Vincent, being a caring brother, leaves Basil for dead.

But he’s not dead, see, so out of guilt Vincent builds Basil a super modern home and lab with robotic arms and stuff so Basil can continue his experiments, but those experiments are how to use the human brain to power an exoskeleton that gives Basil not only his mobility back but the combined strength of any people under his control!

See that’s the twist – Tony Stark has brain power, but Controller has “brain power,” or more to the point a brain powered exoskeleton.

So Controller enslaves the town, kidnaps Janice since her dad humiliated him and naturally Iron Man isn’t happy about this so they fight until Shellhead gets taken down and they are taken to the Mental-Wave Absorbatron!

Silly name aside, this device is the is a weird metaphor for the strength of the mind. I know sometimes I sound snarky when I do the plot re-caps, but there really is quite a bit of thought that went into these stories that were intended for children. The Controller ends up being a frightening villain mostly because he can enslave, and in doing so steal the strength from, anyone. And the more people he enslaves with his control disks the more powerful he gets. Iron Man is all about using power to do good for people and the Controller is all about using people as power. Kind of a screwed up super-villain version of democracy, but instead of power to the people it’s power from the people. When we get into the modern era of Iron Man there’s an issue where Maria Hill has to face the Controller and it was actually a bit frightening, but we have a bit before that.

So the Controller gets them back to his place and starts adding them to the mental-wave absorbatron…

…but Iron Man was faking! Fight is on!

Iron Man has roller skates (these come back is surprising regularity)!

Iron Man loses!

Controller steals a train and loads the mental-wave absorbatron on it (I should have probably mentioned that   he needs to be in range of it to maintain his powers)!

S.H.I.E.L.D. has an ESP unit!

I bring up the ESP unit for two reasons:

1. It’s on theme. ESP, extrasensory perception, was very popular in the 60’s and dealt with the human brain having powers beyond what was understood. In a time when minds were being expanded with the use of mind altering drugs and human potential was being tested it made sense to think that maybe there was power there to be unlocked. In the Marvel Universe they did and it became a thing that S.H.I.E.L.D. used. Now S.H.I.E.L.D. uses telepaths, but that’s not really important right now. Also, when dealing with the genius brain power of Tony Stark and the brain powered exoskeleton of the Controller it’s kind of a brain trifecta to have the ESP unit show up. Go human brain!
2. Janice Cord is going to come down with ESP pretty soon.

Secret Identities.

The superhero trope of superhero tropes.

Clark Kent and Superman

Bruce Wayne and Batman

Peter Parker and Spider-Man

We are all very familiar with the idea that superheroes disguise their real identities to either have or protect their personal lives.

There are very few exceptions to this, the most prominent that I can think of being Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. Sure he has the superhero name, Mr. Fantastic, but he and the whole Fantastic four are publicly known, celebrities even.

In current Marvel continuity and the Marvel movies Tony Stark is known to be Iron Man, but back in the 60’s (hell, well into the new millennium) Tony Stark maintained his secret identity where Iron Man was employed as Stark’s body guard, the reasons for which will be deliberated complained about later. The stories of Iron Man 10 and 11 focus on how Stark deals with the fact that The Mandarin has discovered his secret identity.

The short answer: he tricks Mandy into thinking that Stark and Iron Man really are two different people with the clever use of masks and a Life Model Decoy. In other words, it’s not really dealt with at all, it’s just needless manipulation all the while Stark factories are sitting idle and the whole country is busy thinking Stark is a pinko commie.

Fantastic plan, Stark.

Of course, because this is a comic book, Stark’s plan to save his identity works out perfectly:

• Mandarin is convinced that he’s not Iron Man.
• The LMD distracts the press and, during Shellhead’s battle with Mandy, they hear how Mandarin planned the whole thing and faked the pictures that started the whole mess in the first place.

• Oh and the Mandarin’s betrothed totally turns on him because he doesn’t believe in love… but that’s not really related to secret identities.

• Oh and we found out why he made a Hulk robot in issue 9 – turns out Hulk destroyed his castle in China and Mandy wanted to tarnish Hulk’s name… which is a bit redundant for Hulk but there you go.
• Mandarin seemingly blows up at the end, but even Iron Man says he’ll be back, eliminating the drama of that moment.

 

The idea of a man in a skin tight suit of highly flexible metal armor is fantastic enough. Add to the mix mad scientists, wild temporary mutations, big business deals and secret identities and you are asking for an awful lot of suspension of disbelief…

…then you enter comic book crazy town and suddenly you’re walking down the pier of acceptability right toward the waters of who gives a fuck.

This issue is the event horizon and a robot Hulk is our delivery device, but we’ll get to that in a second.

First let’s talk about a very fundamental superhero comic idea: continuity.

Continuity is the threat of story that is carried from each issue of a comic book series to the next providing a history that readers can latch onto to be the common ground that different writers share when they add to the mythology. It is the thing that says Tony Stark was injured in a war zone and had to build the armor. It is what says that Krypton blew up and Superman was sent to Earth by his parents. It is what says that Abin Sur crashed on Earth and gave Hal Jordan the Green Lantern power ring. Continuity can change. When it is done in a specific book it is called a retcon, or retroactive continuity, and if it is done across the entire line of comic books it is call a reboot (see DC’s New 52). Continuity has fueled nerd rage for as long as there have been fictionalized stories. Seriously, when there were cave paintings there was a caveman who was pissed that the gazelle escaped the hunter. Pre-internet flame wars were actually conducted with flaming sticks!

Actually, don’t quote me on that. I just made it up about the caveman. I’m pretty sure it’s true but… yeah…

Anyway.

We’re actually a long way off from both a retcon and a reboot in regard to Iron Man (but, oh man, are they coming) so we can talk about the other form of continuity, one that everyone should be familiar with, where things that are established to be should remain the same until they are shown to change. HERE’S a dictionary definition.

Marvel cared enough about continuity discrepancies that they used to offer something called a No Prize If you pointed them out! As time went on (and people got greedy) they also required that you include a possible justification with your answer, adding fan-fiction pseudo-science to the mix. The rules have evolved as times have changed, but if you could get a No Prize for pointing out errors in back issues, I’d have a shot today for sure!

Rain, late night deliveries and a dude in a hood – it’s like a noir story and it sets you up to be pulpy and exciting, but what we get instead is a karate chop, a fake statue and…

The Hulk.

By now in Marvel Universe continuity Iron Man and The Hulk have encountered each other quite a few times, including starting the Avengers and then later fighting each other because of one misunderstanding or another. Now our mysterious hooded figure has managed to bend The Hulk to his will and bad things are about to happen.

Now for my chance at a retroactive No Prize, check out this page specifically the panels with Vincent Sandhurst on the phone:

See that huge diamond ring on his finger? It’s like they’re calling attention to it, right? Like it might even be a story point? Then in the bottom left panel it’s totally gone!

Oh, and it’s pretty clear now that Sandhurst has ulterior motives in selling Cord Industries to Stark – but we won’t know this issue.

The Hulk bursts in on the sales meeting and kidnaps Janice Cord, our resident damsel in distress, and then there’re pages of fight. Here’s a couple of them:

See all that swirling cloud there? That’s definitely a fight!

So, naturally, it turns out that it’s not really The Hulk it’s a Hulk robot! Oh and the hooded figure is the Mandarin.

So let’s take a look at a few things here:

1. So The Mandarin says at the end that this whole ruse was to see what would happen when people Tony Stark cares about are put in harms way and to confirm his suspicion that Tony Stark and Iron Man are the same person. However:
   1. Why make a robot Hulk? The two heroes have a public history in this universe, one where they worked together and formed a premier super team. Why not use a different super villain or, better yet, make the robot just a random monster? (Real world answer: Hulk sells comic books, but he’s not allowed to actually be a bad guy so put him in the book and make him a robot in the end – Sales Win!)
   2. Why Janice Cord? Yes she is a woman, and by 60’s standards that’s all you need, but she and Tony haven’t even dated yet, like, ever. So why target her?
2. Why is The Mandarin in a hood? He’s hiding from his own people? And then when he pulls off the hood he’s got a mask on too?!?!?!? Fashion faux pas! (Real world answer: so the reader doesn’t know that it’s him. But, seriously, all the Chinese iconography and the purple and green outfit, who else is it going to be?)
3. Remember this cover!!!! There are a few times when old covers, like this one, will be re-used in the series for totally different stories!

To start off, I think I may need to get more of these stiff Mylar bags for the old comics. The colors in issue 7 alone look like they are printer fresh and that’s pretty cool!

This is the first real multi-part story for the regular series. Even though each issue has represented essentially a day in the life of Iron Man (which makes this one hell of a week) and all of the events have strung together, this two-parter has an actual cliffhanger.

In this issue the Maggia hires the villainous Gladiator to help defeat Iron Man and rob Stark Industries. Here’s what he looks like:

There’s another character called Whirlwind. He looks like this:

When I was but a boy I fancied myself quite the Marvel Maniac. I knew trivia that impressed comic shop owners and, had the internet been a thing in the late 80’s, I had the over-confidant swagger of an internet troll. The fact that both of these characters had saw blades on their wrists, though, completely threw me. I was convinced they were the same character with different names – completely ignoring that Whirlwind has a whole separate set of powers (he controls wind, you see). But the saw blades! Why would you do that? The risk of injury seems really high and not one but TWO super-villains used the same weapon! Gah!

It took years to finally realize that they were different, which is a little embarrassing to admit in public, but it’s true.

There’s also a character named Vincent Sandhurst, he’s Janice Cord’s lawyer. I’m wondering if he’s related to Basil Sandhurst, The Controller (a villain we’ll meet in a couple issues). So many things I don’t remember!

Can we look at the covers again really quickly here?

These kind of covers are really rare in modern comics. They’re like mini-art pieces and there’s something in the way that they’re printed that gives them a deep, rich almost “painting” feel.

Anyhow, story synopsis:

• Maggia is planning heist of Stark Industries.
• Gladiator says, “I can take out Iron Man!”
• Whitney Frost, the Maggia’s Big M, says, “Uh, o-ok.” She now has feelings for Jasper Sitwell and doesn’t want him to get hurt. Actually Whitney Frost as a character is pretty progressive considering she is a product was the late 60’s. She is a really strong woman who isn’t all fainting and in need of saving, that job goes to…
• …Janice Cord, who visits Tony in hopes that he will buy what’s left of her father’s company. Her attraction to him begins here – until Tony has to escape to become Iron Man:

• Probably should have mentioned earlier that Gladiator kidnapped Stark, Sandhurst and Janice.

• Then Gladiator tries to drop a piece of heavy machinery on the Janice and Sandhurst, but Iron Man saves them in the proverbial nick of time, smashing his repulsor rays in the process:

• So we are left with this cliffhanger:

Issue #8 opens like this:

Right off the bat I’m impressed with how good the color is in this issue. It is remarkably well preserved.

I’m not sure if the scan does it justice, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

As I read through these early books of the series two things hit home more and more:

1. I was not paying anything close to attention when I read these the first time because I barely remember any of them.
2. Removing the fact that no one except the bad guy gets permanently hurt in any given issue, these stories are surprisingly mature – in a sophisticated way, not an inappropriate way.

If you’ve ever listened to “Tom vs. The Flash” then you probably know just how often 60’s era comic book stories would rely on time-travel. (Here’s the iTunes direct link just in case.)

Actually, if you’ve ever seen an episode of Star Trek the Original Series you know even more so!

Even though Iron Man is set, by comic book standards, in a more realistic world there was no way to escape time travel in the late 60’s. The thing that I found eerie, though, is just how much 24th century Earth sounds like 21st century internet culture, but we’ll get into that.

There is no delay in the start of the action this issue, page one is Tony getting ripped through time to the future, and he is unable to reach his armor.

Three panels later he’s being accused of creating the computer that runs the world – CEREBRUS!

When we learn what Cerebrus is it comes off as a proto-Skynet created by Stark to help run America’s defense planning, but it didn’t end there!

Cerebrus was so good at it’s job that people started using it for everything and it functioned on an international level, expanding as needed.

Here is a quote: “Cerebrus swelled like a mammoth mechanical spider-web — until it engulfed the world!”
Kinda’ sounds like the internet, right?

Here’s another quote: “The world had grown almost totally dependent on Cerebrus’s monolithic might… many gave in to become zombie-like slaves of the machine…”
Now it totally sounds like the internet, except internet trolls don’t have the Mr. Universe physique!

The differences between Cerebrus and the internet quickly become apparent, though, when two “Tracking Coils of Cerebrus” come bursting through the wall. As far as I can tell Google apps doesn’t currently support  tracking coils.

Naturally Tony is helped by hot-lady-scientist who delivers exposition and leads him to a museum where his Iron Man armor has been kept – remarkably well preserved considering being over 400 years old. (To be fair, at this point in continuity Stark wears the power source to the armor, the chest plate, all the time so the only parts that he uses from the museum are the extremities and helmet. But still…)

Tony takes the fight to Cerebrus, who can manipulate energy and become just about anything – like God in Star Trek 5

So fight, fight, fight, fight, fight – neither can get the upper hand so Tony pulls his mask to show Cerebrus that the man Cerebrus is fighting is actually his creator and that Cerebrus risks destroying himself  if he kills Stark. This freaks the machine out and hot-lady-scientist blows up the computer core and before all energy in the world goes away Tony is transported back to his own time.

Yeah, the ending feels as rushed as that was written. The whole thing wraps up in two pages, seven panels from explosion to “Next Ish:”

Like all media, you can see what the concerns of the day are by what is dealt with in its entertainment. Just like “Soylent Green” dealt with over population, this issue is all about the growth of automation and human dependence on machinery. But even though writer Archie Goodwin may be able to laugh now looking back on his horrors of the 24th century, take a look at this ad for Cheerios to see the context of where we were in 1968:

Intelsat III was the height of tech that most consumers had access to. 1200 calls and 4 TV channels, my phone can do that. In that world what would they think of the internet? What would it sound like to know that you have a little box in your pocket or purse at all times that knows exactly where you are and functions as both eyes and ears in our society? Would it be cool or scary that you could turn on the lights of your home, start your car and change the TV channel all with the same device?

Part of me likes to laugh at the “quaint-ness” of these comic stories, but are they really all that different from the horror stories we tell ourselves now? “Contagion” was a terrifying movie about a world-wide pandemic, but in fifty years will we be so medically advanced that we’ll look on that movie as a wild exaggeration? It’s nice to take a look at these and see how far we’ve come while at the same time realizing that it isn’t as far as I thought.

On a completely different subject, but still related to time, I found this great video on I09 about why old books have that “old book” smell. Breaking into these old comics has made my office smell like a used book store.  My romantic writer side is loving it!

Next time: