Warren Ellis Officially Misses The Point
This is a short post.
I'm so angry I can't even see straight.
Maybe angry's not the right word. Sad, I guess. These are only comics, after all.
I just read Iron Man #5, allegedly by Warren Ellis.
I like a lot of what Warren Ellis does.
I absolutely hate what he's done with Iron Man.
And I should have seen it coming.
Ellis has changed the archetype. Iron Man is now essentially a cross between Mitch Hundred from Ex Machina and Colossus from the X-Men.
I am not kidding.
Tony Stark is now essentially a God of Technology.
Ellis has "merged" man and machine.
Which is what makes me sad, because here all along I thought Iron Man was all about the separation of man and machine, and our struggle to keep up with our own technology, and our increasing dependence on technology.
I just threw Iron Man #5 in the trash.
Congratulations, Marvel.
I can't even talk about this any more.
9 Comments:
Is this series in continuity? Because that just sounds goofy.
Oh, and did you actually put the comic in the garbage? Like threw it out for real? Wow, I've hated a lot of comics in my life, but I can't remember ever putting one in the trash immediately after reading it.
(I have thrown books across the room,though, but that's just a symptom of my impotent rage)
That's a start. Now moving on to Fell...
Sadly, it's the "regular" "ongoing" Iron Man series, so I have to assume it's in continuity.
Here's hoping the next writer (another guy from TV, I think)starts on page one with "That technovirus has been rejected by your body. Sorry, no more ridiculous powers."
And yes, it's actually in the trash. There's a half-eaten banana, a Slurpee cup, and some napkins resting on top of it.
And Jake is still wrong about Fell. It deserves the hype.
If you're looking for an unduly hyped Ellis comic to trash, though, Jack Cross or Desolation Jones are probably good places to start.
Well, I've thrown books in the trash before. More than one. It's called Rob Liefeld draws Teen Titans!
Seriously though, I saw that in the store today and picked it up and read it. I can't really relate my reaction, mostly it was just "What the hell?" Didn't they do this once? Tony's techno-organic heart merged with his armor and took control of Tony's body. Or something.
I'm not a big Iron Fan, but the way I see it on a basic level is that he's the guy who stands toe to toe with Thor and the Hulk because of his amazing technological prowess. He's the normal guy who makes himself super, through technology
Giving him any sort of powers just muddies that, in my opinion. Isn't this kind of thing the whole reason why they did Ultimate Iron Man?
Perhaps it's an after-effect of Wanda's tampering...
Kelvin, you're exactly right. He's sort of the poster boy for "humans can still provide value in a world with six jillion mutant/alien/irradiated heroes without resorting to imbibing some sort of X Potion".
And they're doing it in the Ultimate universe, which I don't care about, since it's Make Believe Iron Man over there anyway.
And what they've done here, technically, is made him super through technology, as you say, but now it's a literal part of him so as to be indistinguishable from a mutant power, and (more importantly to me) it's SOMEONE ELSE'S TECHNOLOGY, which is so _not_ the idea. The way Ellis has done it here equates the armor/techno powers with, say, snorting cocaine, only leaving out the "drugs aren't good for you" part of the message.
I'm not even making sense to myself at this point.
And I know I get waaaaaaaaaaaaay too worked up over things like this, and that everything will (probably) be back to normal in a year or so. But dammit, I Just. Don't. Like. It.
Weird. Supposedly Joe Casey's "The Inevitable" mini-series is in the same continuity as Ellis' main title, but there's no mention of this development at all. And it's not like Casey wouldn't have been aware as the main series is so delayed, this arc would have been finished by the time he started his story. Glad I dropped the main title after the first issue. (The Inevitable was quite good, BTW.)
It's ok Chris!
Just read the mini out right now. It's good and it won't melt your brain!
It's one thing to get worked up about how much Iron Man's new armor is teh suxxors, but I think it's fine to cry foul at such a dumbheaded inversion of the basic character.
But then again, I'm just excusing myself in a way because I felt the same way when Johns revamped She-Hulk.
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