Sympathy For The Devil

Guess who's back?

The wedding was lovely, thank you for asking. The bride surprised the groom by not breaking down and crying (tears of joy, tears of joy), which is probably good, since that would have lead to the groom breaking down as well. I made a fool of myself on the dance floor at the reception, and now I have to hunt down and eliminate all the people with photographic evidence of that. So if posting gets sporadic the next few months, you know why. Just don't tell the authorities.

You know, I could swear I've used that title before. It just sounds so much like the sort of thing I'd think worked well.

'Even iron men have chinks in their armor, Mrs. D.' - Mister Tryp, X-Factor #10.

This quote is one that I hope is foreshadowing, but not for the reason you'd expect. No, as much as I might enjoy the chink in a certain Iron Man's armor being exploited to his physical detriment (again), I actually hope this means something else.

The one thing I'd like to see in the Civil War mess is some sense Tony's human. Sure, his complete certainty that what he's doing is right is an example of human ego and vanity, but I mean human in a positive sense. What I'm hoping is that sometime soon we're going to have a moment where we see Tony grappling with doubts over what he's helped engineer. A moment where he helps herd people that he's fought alongside off to prison and it bothers him.

The thing I think Marvel has missed with their claims that Civil War is going to handle both sides evenly, is that if that were true, then it would be possible to sympathize with characters on both sides. And while I can sympathize with the families of the dead in Stamford and their desire for change, I haven't been able to do the same with the Stark-Richards-Pym/Parker quartet. And that's probably because Tony is so damn dismissive of everyone else.

Luke Cage says that this whole thing sounds a lot like Mississippi in the 1950s, Tony says that it doesn't, even though SHIELD agents later proceed to smash in Cage's door because he's committed the awful crime of sitting quietly in a comfortable chair in his apartment.

Misty Knight says the registration sounds a lot like segregation, while Colleen compares the resistance to dissent to China, Tony (and Reed and Peter), brush them off, effectively saying "You're overreacting, it isn't like that at all", while simultaneously questioning whether the Daughters of the Dragon are people they can count on. And in that case they're actually dealing with people who agree that super-humans need to be registered, people on their side!

The closest I've come to feeling for Tony was his confrontation with Prodigy in Front Line. Tony really didn't seem to want to fight, but that may just have been because he was embarrassed about beating up a drunk. Little too much like looking in a mirror, perhaps.

I would honestly settle for Tony coming to the defense of people who are with him. The government is blackmailing Wonder Man into doing certain things, Simon should be able to go to Tony, and Tony goes to the government and says "Look, Simon is on our side, he's playing ball, there's no need to push him around or harass him like this." Or perhaps Stark sees the sorts of missions his friends are being sent on, and starts to question SHIELD (and the government's) motivations. It's been dealt with before that the U.S. government is uncomfortable with all that Vibranium being in the hands of the Wakandans, who most certainly don't feel beholden to America. And with Cable delivering ultimatums to the President, I can't imagine the two countries he's running right now are viewed positively. I just think that Tony should be a little concerned when Spider-Man starts being told to eliminate the leaders of unfriendly foreign nations. Certainly he shouldn't be playing the "bad cop" when he and Maria Hill are interrogating Jessica Drew.

Of course, the problem is the story risks falling back into the well-worn "Governments can't be trusted and are always being run by people with evil intentions!" But this story is ultimately about the conflict between the heroes on both sides, so I'd say it's more important to portray them evenly.

One can hope anyway. I'd like to go back to not hating Adolph Stark, I mean Tony Hitler, I mean Iron Nazi, oh just forget it.