Iron Spring can't be stopped or diverted! One could almost say it was. . .fated? Unavoidable? Damn it, right on the tip of my tongue. . .
Iron Man: The Inevitable is about evolution. Tony Stark at this point has the Extremis virus that lets him manipulate and control armors or other technologies at a thought. "See through satellites" was I think how he described it in that incredibly delayed story where Warren Ellis and Adi Granov gave him the ability.
With this new perspective, Stark is trying to do things differently. Improve the world with new inventions, as well as de-fang his old enemies via more peaceful methods. He wants to be done with the old "punch 'em up, repulsor ray 'em up," stuff of the past. But not everyone is as ready to move on from how things used to be.
Casey lines up three villains: Living Laser, Ghost, and Spymaster. The Living Laser is in some sort of discorporated energy state, so Stark brings in a Dr. Maggie Dillon to try and reach him through 'telepathic intrabeam particle communication.' The idea being she'll help Laser to see what's driven him to keep being a super-villain, and realize it's a dead end path he should abandon.
This Spymaster (3rd in the series, apparently) is a rich corporate raider type that thinks being a super-villain is a specific calling, complete with a code, and Tony Stark is breaking the code by trying to pretend he's not Iron Man any longer. Spymaster hires and discards the Ghost (who gets a boring costume design here, basically a beige body stocking) to try to mess up Stark's stuff. Ghost doesn't care about money, or politics or any of that. Stark owns a massive corporation, and the Ghost wants to tear it down for that alone.
Really, all of them just want Iron Man to acknowledge them. Banter, fight, and argue. Give them something to push back against. For power, for the thrill, for the weight it lends to their ideology. Stark wants no part of it, because it all seems like a waste of life and time and effort.
But Stark might not be as beyond the old ways as much as he pretends. Having gone back to pretending Iron Man is Tony Stark's bodyguard, he speaks in a faux-tough-guy tone. About being sick of their b.s., or pretending anything connects him to them. He refers to himself in 3rd person, claiming he's not going to play the same games with them Stark did, because he's not soft like that. It's Stark trying to pretend this isn't him, that's he's outgrown all of it, but it's a lie. When he guides the Ghost into a trap, he can't help info-dumping an explanation of what's happening, just like Tony Stark would. At this point, he could control the armors remotely, more than one even, as he notes after things go sideways. Heck, just tell SHIELD or the Avengers if it's really so beneath him.
Frazier Irving really likes the color pink and purple. They pop up everywhere. At the banal parties Stark has to attend as a corporate head. In the laboratories where Dr. Dillon tries to reach Laser, and in the weird space where the two of them talk. I don't know the significance of the color choices. The faces he draws are sometimes strange, falling in that uncanny valley where eyes look too wide, or hair doesn't sit naturally on their heads. Doc Samson shows up since Dr. Dillon was briefly a student of his, and Irving shades his face to really emphasize the cheekbones and brow ridges. It makes Samson look like a caveman.
Maybe that's how Stark is supposed to see him, since it's during a scene where Tony explains he still uses phones and computers when he doesn't have to, because it looks "normal". When he's alone, he doesn't bother, sends texts by just thinking of it (Irving's good about including those differences) so it's just for appearances. To not frighten the people scared of the future, and he's growing sick of it. Though mostly he just seems sick of the fact he still cares, that he lets these people locked in the past hold him back. He's a futurist, you know.
Maybe the issue with the faces is deliberate. It's most noticeable in those party scenes, or when Tony is interacting with anyone other than Dr. Dillon. Not absent the rest of the time, but not as noticeable as the oddly elongated necks, rictus grins, and weird hair at those parties. But the parties are all bullshit. The wealthy at the events that are going to do "something" to help the less fortunate, when it's really about making sure they're seen attending. It's all a waste to Stark, who has to be reminded to attend them.
But the uncanny valley issue goes away when everyone's in costume. Even if Stark's pretending he's not Iron Man, he's pretending less with that armor than he does at some gala. Ghost, Spymaster, the mask lets them be who the want to be, but aren't willing to be openly. Living Laser isn't wearing a mask, but he's a glowing outline with dark spots for eyes and mouth. No distinct features, it might as well be a mask.
But he's the guy who, like Stark, has become something more than human. Sentient light, but all he can think to do is try to kill Iron Man. It's all he wants, but the same way Stark is still just using one armor, the Laser's not expanding. Iron Man flies away and the Laser just chases him. He's light, he's the fastest thing in the universe! He could chop Iron Man up like cold cuts in a micro-second! But he can't think outside the same limited range he's used to.
2 comments:
I read this, because I was a fan of Irving from his work in 2000AD, and I may even have reviewed it, but I have no memory of it...
I only bought very late last year, I think because some of the covers stuck in my mind, and I usually find Joe Casey's stuff interesting.
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