When Perception Battles Reality

Just over a year ago, I proposed DC have a "Beat up Dr. Light Month", where every title DC released that month would involve Evil Dr. Light being pummeled, as we find out that his apparent badassedry was just a ruse played by the heroes to make him feel better about himself.

Thus far, DC hasn't taken the bait, though I haven't seen him around much since One Year Later began either. However, I think Marvel may have been paying attention, because it certainly looks like they've instituted a "Beat up Iron Man" campaign. She-Hulk, Nova, the Hulk, I could swear I saw pages of Spidey duking it out with Iron Man in somebody's Wizard Magazine. But this has me wondering about something.

See, as far as I can tell, Quesada, Millar and the rest are dead serious when they say that Tony Stark was right, and thus the "right" side won the conflict. I don't agree with that assessment, but that's not the point. The Powers That Be at Marvel say Iron Man was right, and he's certainly doing the life-saving hero thing in his own book, so let's take them at their word for a moment. What I'm left wondering is, how are they going to play out these conflicts between Stark and these other heroes that are mad at him?

Are the others going to be portrayed as folks who just don't get it? They can't see the unpleasant alternatives like Tony, so they can't grasp how important it was for him to do all the things that he did? In which case, even though they may feel wronged by Iron Man, and may have, in fact, been wronged by him, they're wrong to get attack him, because he did what was best. (Of course, as the Shroud reminded Warbird, what's "best" isn't always what's "right", but let's set that aside for now.)

Or, are the characters going to be portrayed as people giving Iron Man what he deserves, while Iron Man comes off as someone largely unsympathetic to their complaints (a common thing during the recent difficulties), which would tend to place him as the villain? Then, Tony has been pushing people around, and really screwed things up, and now has to face the consequences of his actions.

In the second scenario, the reader would be clearly meant to side with the person fighting Iron Man, because he's done things that were unnecessary and hurtful. It's the same principle behind my "Beat up Dr. Light Month", because who's going to root for Dr. Light? He's the bad guy! Go {Insert Hero Name Here}!

The first situation is a little trickier. There, Stark did the right thing, and did it the cleanest way he could (In theory; in practice maybe not. I have a hard time buying that the thing with Osborn and the Atlanteans was necessary), but still hurt these people, and so it could be argued that at some point you have to accept the bad with the good. You're Director of SHIELD, been setting this whole thing up from the start? Great, then the buck stops with you. But that still doesn't make him a bad guy; just a person who made tough choices that, as tough choices tend to do, hurt other people.

I suppose it largely comes down to how the creative team portrays him. If he comes across as someone who hurts from the decisions he made, and regrets others' suffering, it'd be the first one. If he comes off as the know-it-all, condescending jerk he was often portrayed as during that big crossover I won't name, then it's going to be pretty apparent we're meant to root for some comeuppance to be directed in Shellhead's direction.