Perhaps the best comics fan site I have ever seen was Unca Cheeks The Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Website. I say 'was' because the site is no longer extant. However, much of the content of this site (sans pictures, sadly) is available on a mirror site that is still crawling along. There is no new content and you can't view the original pictures, but many of the essays and opinion pieces written for the site are still available. I don't agree with all of Unca Cheeks' opinions, I'm more a fan of Bronze Age and 80s Marvel Comics and less of the Silver Age DC stuff which tops his list, but he communicated them very well and his enthusiasm for the subject is clear. I especially recommend any writing whatsoever on the site about Green Lantern, whether his waxing poetic about Hal Jordan or the series of 'rants' about conflicts between Hal Jordan fans and Kyle Rayner fans on online bulletin boards.
One of the more amusing articles is a three part essay on 'The World's Lousiest Super-Villains' entitled 'The Marvel Comics Hall of Shame.' I certainly can't help but agree that a lot of the villains on his list are or were pretty dang awful. Yet his basic premise, which is: 'ONCE YOU HAVE REMOVED DOCTOR DOOM, THE RED SKULL AND THE KINGPIN FROM THE EQUATION... THE VAST MAJORITY OF MARVEL'S SUPER-VILLAINS ARE IRRETRIEVABLY L-A-M-E. (caps in context)' is not one with which I am in complete agreement.
Marvel has managed to create quite a few extremely interesting bad guys as well. I agree, of course, with the naming of the Big Three above. I would also submit that Magneto, Starr Saxon (who battled the X-Men and Daredevil under his own name, battled Daredevil as the second Mr. Fear, and then became the never-really-gone Machinesmith to battle Captain America), the Green Goblin (before being killed, Norman Osborn has never done much for me since coming back from the dead), Tombstone, and Crossbones have all been great as well. The Mad Thinker can be written brilliantly. Marv Wolfman's immortal, jaded, and suicidal Sphinx and his brain-in-a-box mad scientist Dr. Sun were excellent in their heydays.
Since my first post was on the Iron Man movie, I will segue to two Iron Man villains who truly left an impression on me. The pair were two of the best ever foils for Tony Stark outside of his armor, as well as capable of finding ways to cause him trouble as old Shellhead.
The first is businessman-par-excellence Obadiah Stane. Stane actually appeared in the Iron Man movie, played very damned well by Jeff Bridges, but the movie didn't touch on all the depths and complexities of this victim-turned-bully.
Obadiah Stane was the son of degenerate gambler Zebediah Stane, a drunkard who had failed in all his attempts to make a career for himself and whose last moment of life was shooting himself in the head as he attempted to show his young son just how hot the streak of good luck he was riding that night really was, via a game of Russian Roulette that ended very badly. This trauma had two lasting effects on the young Obadiah. First, by the time he was eight years old his hair had fallen out and left him completely bald. Second, repulsed by his gambler father's self-destruction, Stane became attracted to games of pure skill in which proper planning left no room for blind chance to intervene, especially chess. Ultimate, he came to believe that life itself was a chess game and he became determined to win at all costs.
As his life progressed, however, Stane made sure to rely on every possible gambit and stratagem to assure victory. He was more than willing to play outside the rules and make use of the most vicious psychological warfare, whether killing a little boy's dog and leaving it in the kid's locker to make certain he beat the little boy in a chess tournament or taking over his first company by showing his mediocrity of a boss faked pictures of his beautiful young wife and loyal best friend inflagrante delecto to break his spirit.
By the time Stane first met Tony Stark, the two were rivals in the munitions business and Stark's corporate empire thwarted Stane's attempt to form a massive international business cartel. The two soon became deadly rivals. To give himself the ultimate edge, Stane resorted to the most vicious illegal tactics (forcing Iron Man to fight an array of minions and gadgets) and the most ruthless psychological warfare. Finally, Stane won. Tony Stark succumbed to alcoholism and Stane, assisted by the superspy agency SHIELD, was able to buy out Stark International. Stark had ceased manufacturing weaponry and SHIELD, his principle customer, was now able to do business as usual with Stane.
Unfortunately, Stane pushed his advantage too far. Rather than being content with his victory, he continued to push his beaten foe until Stark had no choice but retaliation. Wearing his brand new red and silver armor, Stark easily brushed aside all Stane's gadgets and minions to force Stane to confront him in his own suit of super-armor. The inexperienced Stane was no match for Iron Man, and rather than give Stark the final victory of seeing him arrested he killed himself just as his father had. Before he went down, however, he had pushed Tony Stark lower than he had ever been pushed before. If he had been able to resist his own egotistical need for a 'complete' victory, he would have stayed on top.
Justin Hammer was another sinister business competitor of Tony Stark, but unlike Stane he was always terribly careful not to get his hands dirty. Instead, he provided technology, money laundering services, and other amenities to any costumed criminal who measured up to his standards in return for half their profits and their loyalty when he needed a job done. Able to command a small army of super-villains at a moment's notice, Hammer never felt the need to suit up himself.
He had his own set of small victories over Tony Stark, including the use of a device capable of overriding control of the Iron Man suit to force the armor to kill a diplomat at an international conference. He bankrolled the armored terrorist Force and then tried to kill him when he attempted to go straight, making it impossible for him to testify and forcing Stark to bide his time and employ the ex-killer under an assumed identity. Most insidiously, however, Hammer bought the blueprints to the Iron Man armor from the industrial spy and saboteur known as the Spymaster and then sold the technology to a host of governments and supervillains (including the U.S. and Soviet governments, the mercenary known as the Mauler, and the would-be world conqueror the Controller, and the ever-present and ever-dangerous Dr. Doom) without Stark ever knowing... until he disassembled and examined the Force armor. This kicked off the first Armor Wars, a paranoid campaign in which Tony Stark destroyed or stole every suit of armor incorporating his technology. After attacked the U.S. and Soviet governments and unintentionally killing the Soviet freedom fighter and superhero the Gremlin (who wore a version of the Titanium Man armor) in a fight with him and the Crimson Dynamo, Iron Man became a wanted 'terrorist' himself.
While it was the equally nasty Edwin Cord who was directly responsible for the circumstances in which Stark was forced to destroy his armor and fake Iron Man's death at the hands of the absurdly overpowered government hitman Firepower, it was Justin Hammer's machinations that made the confrontation happen in the first place. Worse, Hammer continued to plague Stark after the Armor Wars, completely untouched by the chaos.
Sometimes, the most dangerous suit of armor a foe can wear is a business suit.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Iron Man: My Review
Last night I went to see the Iron Man movie with my girlfriend and our best friend. I wasn't sure what to expect. The original Batman movie, Batman begins, and the three Spider-Man movies have all proved that studios and filmmakers are ready to make good comic book movies. Daredevil and Ghost Rider movie have shown they are still willing to make bad decisions out of misunderstanding of their audience and failing to properly portray characters and stories so they can hold the interest of the comic book fan and live up to the quality expectations of the movie fan. The Fantastic Four movies, the first Hulk movie, and Constantine have shown they are able to make entertaining-if-not-great movies whose resemblance to the comic book material on which they are based is slim to none. So I had no idea which of the three Iron Man would be.
The opening of the movie was very effective. Tony Stark's character was exposited rapidly and clearly and that character was very true to the 'young and brilliant playboy inventor' portrayed in the original origins stories. I was ready to believe this was Tony Stark and my girlfriend, not a comics reader, was able to ascertain quickly what kind of person Tony Stark was. The transition from the militia attack in Afghanistan to the flashback scene of Stark's award acceptance and the outlining of his life was also very effective, and from there the movie proceeded briskly. The characters were introduced, we very quickly knew who they were, and if they were not exactly the same people they were in the comic books they were still clearly recognizable.
The plot moved well, and it balanced the development of the characters into the places they would occupy at the climax of the movie very efficiently with tension and action that kept me excited and interested during the build-up. The story of Tony Stark's creation of the original armor was spiritually very true to that of the original origin story, even if the venue had been changed from Vietnam to Afghanistan. The destruction of Tony's naivete and his determination to revenge the man who had helped him gain his freedom were very well communicated. His announcement, upon his return from captivity, that his company would no longer make munitions was more true to the character than anything happening in the comic books right now. The first scenes of the perfected Iron Man suit in action were great, and the climax of the movie was great.
The differences were all of the minor sort easily forgiven in a movie adaptation. Making James Rhodes a military liason to Stark Industries introduced him immediately into the action without the rather contrived coincidence of his meeting Stark in the original origin story. Making Obadiah Stane a business partner of the Stark family and a honcho in Stark's company introduced him immediately and swiftly as well, and the changes in his character that went with that did not fundamentally alter who he was: an unrepentant neoconservative and laissez faire capitalist who put money and power before morality, the very antithesis of Tony. Making Jarvis a computer rather than a butler was an interesting change that didn't serious impact the important 'truth' of the story to its material, and further defined Stark as a brilliant geek.
The casting was mostly very strong. Robert Downey Jr was Tony Stark. He looked the part, he sounded the part, he felt the part. He was perfect for the rich, brilliant, ignorant-of-the-real-world playboy Stark was before the origins of Iron Man (I doubt he even had to act, for that part, this is Robert Downey after all) and he played the transition to responsible social engineer admirably. I really can't think of a flaw in his performance. He was more cynical than the original, pre-origin Tony Stark (an idealistic technocrat), but this is a reflection of our times. We live in a cynical age and for Tony to have been a complete idealist would have jarred. The only other actor I can picture doing as well as Tony is Rob Lowe, whose reunion with Clark Gregg (see below) would have been fun.
Terrence Howard was great as James Rhodes. He played the earnest ballast to his too-emotional playboy boss very well. The lack of Rhodes to balance Tony out and Tony's transformation into some sort of emotionally sterile technocratic utopian is one of the weaknesses of the comics right now. Tony was a technocratic utopian before the events of the Iron Man origin humanized him and both before and after he was full of enthusiasm for life and its possibilities. Rhodey always kept him in the real world. Howard kept the combination of intimacy and distance in the Stark-Rhodes relationship clearly defined as well. It was clear that Tony was Jim's friend and equally clear that there was a line Jim wasn't to cross, somewhere we couldn't see it.
Jeff Bridges was magnificent as Obadiah Stane. Despite the slight changes in the character to insert him immediately into the story of the movie, he was still Stane. Bridges breathed him. He had very bit of ego, cynicism, force of personality, and determination to win at all costs that drove Stane in the comics. His breakdown from perfectly controlled super-capitalist to rabid berserker was handled perfectly. His performance was so good that I was sorry he didn't get the chance to act the two defining scenes Stane dominated in the comic books: the half-triumphant and half-despairing monologue of his life and the final moment of defeat in which he reasserted the semblance of self-control so completely and then so coldly took his own life.
The weak link was Paltrow, whose rail-thin frame was not quite right for the buxom Pepper Potts. Her performance was strong and she acted well, but her portrayal of the lively, effervescent, fiery secretary was cold and clinical and all the defining character aspects of Pepper were lacking. The character was interesting and the performance very strong, but it wasn't Pepper, it was a different character whose name was Pepper. I'm guessing the writing changes were to accomodate Paltrow, as I can't see her easily pulling off the giddy, not-quite-silly, bouncing-with-life role as well as she did this one.
In minor roles, Clark Gregg appeared as a SHIELD agent and nailed the job dead on. After his turn on the West Wing as FBI Special Agent Mike Casper, he clearly has the feel for professional and earnest government agents. That was a nice little bonus for me, as a West Wing fan. Jon Favreau, who directed, was a stolid background figure as Stark bodyguard Harold 'Happy' Hogan. He didn't have much of a role in the movie, but he was visible and it was clear what his job was. Leslie Bibb was an obnoxious reporter with whom Tony has a one night stand, and she was a good mix of sexy and annoying. All provided strong support for the three leads and key supporting actor Howard.
There were some differences from the comic that bear some time for solid comic book geeks. Rhodey is a colonel in the air force and the military liason to Stark Industries, rather than the pilot and personal aide/confidant of Tony Stark. While they are clearly close friends, he does not work for Tony (though he is clearly in a subordinate role) and he never leaves the military over the course of the movie. Tony implies job offers over the course of the movie but Rhodey turns them down and appears disappointed that Tony is getting out of arms business and will not be working with the military. While the end of the movie sets up a potential situation where Rhodey accepts a job offer from Tony, it never explicitly occurs.
Obadiah Stane, as mentioned above, is a business partner of the Stark family: the financial/corporate side of the company and a business mentor to Tony Stark. The two appear to have a close relationship (Tony calls Stane 'Obie' and Stane brings pizza back from New York after a board meeting he knows Tony won't want to hear about) and are very comfortable working together. This is a far cry from the evil, megalomaniacal gamesman who set out to personally defeat Tony Stark in order to prove he was the best. Of course, all isn't as it seems, Stane wants to kill Tony and take over the company out of his personal greed, ambition, and neoconservative and ultra-capitalist worldview. Stane dies in the climactic battle rather than killing himself after finally admitting Stark has defeated him. Stane's moving and yet repulsive life story is omitted entirely, as is his obsession with games and winning.
Jarvis is a computer instead of Stark's butler, and this allows him to be a partner in a way he never could be in the comic books. Jarvis lends a voice to many of the technological minutiae of the comics and allows Tony to communicate verbally the thought bubble observations of the comics.
Now for the list of nods to comic geeks everywhere in the course of the movie:
The origin story is nearly identical to Warren Ellis's version of the origin story in the Iron Man relaunch.
`The 'Ten Rings' mercenaries who capture Tony are a clear nod to the Mandarin, who used ten magical rings to fight Iron Man.
Obadiah Stane refers to himself and Tony as 'iron mongers' in an argument over Tony's decision to stop making weapons, referencing the name of the project Stane launched to duplicate and improve upon Tony's armor in the comics.
As he takes a call from Tony, Stane is pictured looking over a chessboard, referencing the comic book Stane's obsession with games of skill in general and chess in particular and his 'Chessmen' minions.
One of the buildings seen in the climactic action scene bewteen Tony and Stane bears the name 'RoxXon Corporation', referencing the evil energy conglomerate Roxxon Oil from many Marvel comics.
Stan Lee has his mandatory Marvel movie cameo. :)
James Rhodes looks at an unfinished suit of armor after Stark flies out to fight Stane and says 'Next time.' A reference to Rhodes' armored identity as War Machine in comics since the 90s and his previous habit of substituting for Tony as Iron Man in emergencies, including a spell as Iron Man while Tony was battling alcoholism and gave Rhodes the armor.
Overall, my grade for the movie, from A to F, is a very strong A-. I don't give it quite the full A because more could have been done with Stane and Rhodes and Gwynneth Paltrow's role just wasn't Pepper Potts, however well she played it. According to Wikipedia, Paltrow asked to read relevant comics to the role and came out with the notion of the character as 'smart, level-headed, and grounded.' All this is true, but it was all hidden under a facade of bubbly, perky, hot-tempered lust for life and Paltrow's performance doesn't portray that.
The opening of the movie was very effective. Tony Stark's character was exposited rapidly and clearly and that character was very true to the 'young and brilliant playboy inventor' portrayed in the original origins stories. I was ready to believe this was Tony Stark and my girlfriend, not a comics reader, was able to ascertain quickly what kind of person Tony Stark was. The transition from the militia attack in Afghanistan to the flashback scene of Stark's award acceptance and the outlining of his life was also very effective, and from there the movie proceeded briskly. The characters were introduced, we very quickly knew who they were, and if they were not exactly the same people they were in the comic books they were still clearly recognizable.
The plot moved well, and it balanced the development of the characters into the places they would occupy at the climax of the movie very efficiently with tension and action that kept me excited and interested during the build-up. The story of Tony Stark's creation of the original armor was spiritually very true to that of the original origin story, even if the venue had been changed from Vietnam to Afghanistan. The destruction of Tony's naivete and his determination to revenge the man who had helped him gain his freedom were very well communicated. His announcement, upon his return from captivity, that his company would no longer make munitions was more true to the character than anything happening in the comic books right now. The first scenes of the perfected Iron Man suit in action were great, and the climax of the movie was great.
The differences were all of the minor sort easily forgiven in a movie adaptation. Making James Rhodes a military liason to Stark Industries introduced him immediately into the action without the rather contrived coincidence of his meeting Stark in the original origin story. Making Obadiah Stane a business partner of the Stark family and a honcho in Stark's company introduced him immediately and swiftly as well, and the changes in his character that went with that did not fundamentally alter who he was: an unrepentant neoconservative and laissez faire capitalist who put money and power before morality, the very antithesis of Tony. Making Jarvis a computer rather than a butler was an interesting change that didn't serious impact the important 'truth' of the story to its material, and further defined Stark as a brilliant geek.
The casting was mostly very strong. Robert Downey Jr was Tony Stark. He looked the part, he sounded the part, he felt the part. He was perfect for the rich, brilliant, ignorant-of-the-real-world playboy Stark was before the origins of Iron Man (I doubt he even had to act, for that part, this is Robert Downey after all) and he played the transition to responsible social engineer admirably. I really can't think of a flaw in his performance. He was more cynical than the original, pre-origin Tony Stark (an idealistic technocrat), but this is a reflection of our times. We live in a cynical age and for Tony to have been a complete idealist would have jarred. The only other actor I can picture doing as well as Tony is Rob Lowe, whose reunion with Clark Gregg (see below) would have been fun.
Terrence Howard was great as James Rhodes. He played the earnest ballast to his too-emotional playboy boss very well. The lack of Rhodes to balance Tony out and Tony's transformation into some sort of emotionally sterile technocratic utopian is one of the weaknesses of the comics right now. Tony was a technocratic utopian before the events of the Iron Man origin humanized him and both before and after he was full of enthusiasm for life and its possibilities. Rhodey always kept him in the real world. Howard kept the combination of intimacy and distance in the Stark-Rhodes relationship clearly defined as well. It was clear that Tony was Jim's friend and equally clear that there was a line Jim wasn't to cross, somewhere we couldn't see it.
Jeff Bridges was magnificent as Obadiah Stane. Despite the slight changes in the character to insert him immediately into the story of the movie, he was still Stane. Bridges breathed him. He had very bit of ego, cynicism, force of personality, and determination to win at all costs that drove Stane in the comics. His breakdown from perfectly controlled super-capitalist to rabid berserker was handled perfectly. His performance was so good that I was sorry he didn't get the chance to act the two defining scenes Stane dominated in the comic books: the half-triumphant and half-despairing monologue of his life and the final moment of defeat in which he reasserted the semblance of self-control so completely and then so coldly took his own life.
The weak link was Paltrow, whose rail-thin frame was not quite right for the buxom Pepper Potts. Her performance was strong and she acted well, but her portrayal of the lively, effervescent, fiery secretary was cold and clinical and all the defining character aspects of Pepper were lacking. The character was interesting and the performance very strong, but it wasn't Pepper, it was a different character whose name was Pepper. I'm guessing the writing changes were to accomodate Paltrow, as I can't see her easily pulling off the giddy, not-quite-silly, bouncing-with-life role as well as she did this one.
In minor roles, Clark Gregg appeared as a SHIELD agent and nailed the job dead on. After his turn on the West Wing as FBI Special Agent Mike Casper, he clearly has the feel for professional and earnest government agents. That was a nice little bonus for me, as a West Wing fan. Jon Favreau, who directed, was a stolid background figure as Stark bodyguard Harold 'Happy' Hogan. He didn't have much of a role in the movie, but he was visible and it was clear what his job was. Leslie Bibb was an obnoxious reporter with whom Tony has a one night stand, and she was a good mix of sexy and annoying. All provided strong support for the three leads and key supporting actor Howard.
There were some differences from the comic that bear some time for solid comic book geeks. Rhodey is a colonel in the air force and the military liason to Stark Industries, rather than the pilot and personal aide/confidant of Tony Stark. While they are clearly close friends, he does not work for Tony (though he is clearly in a subordinate role) and he never leaves the military over the course of the movie. Tony implies job offers over the course of the movie but Rhodey turns them down and appears disappointed that Tony is getting out of arms business and will not be working with the military. While the end of the movie sets up a potential situation where Rhodey accepts a job offer from Tony, it never explicitly occurs.
Obadiah Stane, as mentioned above, is a business partner of the Stark family: the financial/corporate side of the company and a business mentor to Tony Stark. The two appear to have a close relationship (Tony calls Stane 'Obie' and Stane brings pizza back from New York after a board meeting he knows Tony won't want to hear about) and are very comfortable working together. This is a far cry from the evil, megalomaniacal gamesman who set out to personally defeat Tony Stark in order to prove he was the best. Of course, all isn't as it seems, Stane wants to kill Tony and take over the company out of his personal greed, ambition, and neoconservative and ultra-capitalist worldview. Stane dies in the climactic battle rather than killing himself after finally admitting Stark has defeated him. Stane's moving and yet repulsive life story is omitted entirely, as is his obsession with games and winning.
Jarvis is a computer instead of Stark's butler, and this allows him to be a partner in a way he never could be in the comic books. Jarvis lends a voice to many of the technological minutiae of the comics and allows Tony to communicate verbally the thought bubble observations of the comics.
Now for the list of nods to comic geeks everywhere in the course of the movie:
The origin story is nearly identical to Warren Ellis's version of the origin story in the Iron Man relaunch.
`The 'Ten Rings' mercenaries who capture Tony are a clear nod to the Mandarin, who used ten magical rings to fight Iron Man.
Obadiah Stane refers to himself and Tony as 'iron mongers' in an argument over Tony's decision to stop making weapons, referencing the name of the project Stane launched to duplicate and improve upon Tony's armor in the comics.
As he takes a call from Tony, Stane is pictured looking over a chessboard, referencing the comic book Stane's obsession with games of skill in general and chess in particular and his 'Chessmen' minions.
One of the buildings seen in the climactic action scene bewteen Tony and Stane bears the name 'RoxXon Corporation', referencing the evil energy conglomerate Roxxon Oil from many Marvel comics.
Stan Lee has his mandatory Marvel movie cameo. :)
James Rhodes looks at an unfinished suit of armor after Stark flies out to fight Stane and says 'Next time.' A reference to Rhodes' armored identity as War Machine in comics since the 90s and his previous habit of substituting for Tony as Iron Man in emergencies, including a spell as Iron Man while Tony was battling alcoholism and gave Rhodes the armor.
Overall, my grade for the movie, from A to F, is a very strong A-. I don't give it quite the full A because more could have been done with Stane and Rhodes and Gwynneth Paltrow's role just wasn't Pepper Potts, however well she played it. According to Wikipedia, Paltrow asked to read relevant comics to the role and came out with the notion of the character as 'smart, level-headed, and grounded.' All this is true, but it was all hidden under a facade of bubbly, perky, hot-tempered lust for life and Paltrow's performance doesn't portray that.
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