Tempting Fate

If there's one thing a year and a half plus of blogging has taught me, it's never promise to hit a blogging deadline to anybody but yourself, because that virtually guarantees you won't.

My Five Favorite Avengers later this week (crap, did it again...)

My History with the Avengers

Monthly on Marvel.com, your pal and mine, TJ "It stands for Thomas Jane" Dietsch, does a feature called “My Five Favorite Avengers” where he asks various creators, um, who their five favorite Avengers are. With a new Avengers #1 on sale this Wednesday, I thought why not give the list you’ve all really been waiting for: mine.

But we’ll do that tomorrow; tonight, a slice of my own personal history with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

The first Avengers comic I ever remember reading was issue #291 of the original series, written by Walter Simonson with art by John Buscema. I was like six and my father bought me one of those awesome multi-packs of random comics we had back in the day at the local supermarket when I was up visiting my grandparents in New Hampshire. The story had the Avengers—whose roster at the time consisted of Thor, Namor, the female Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, Doctor Druid and The Black Knight, only the first two of whom I had even a passing familiarity with—all dressed up at some fancy dinner party where Marrina (the Sub-Mariner’s wife) suddenly turned into a fish monster and started destroying the city. There was something going on with multiple Kangs in a sub-plot as well, but I didn’t know who Kang was.

Buscema’s imagery was what stuck with me this was my first exposure to his work and he remains one of my all-time favorite artists), in particular his depiction of Marrina’s transformation from pretty young lady into freaky scaled creature, which scared the crap out of me. Between being suddenly terrified that all girls could potentially turn into sea monsters at a moment’s notice and the fact that Doctor Druid seemed like the least cool super hero ever, I had no particular interest in learning any more about the Avengers at that time.

I next revisited the title in the early 90’s when I was really falling head-over-heels into comics and buying pretty much everything for at least a few issues at one time or another. This was during the Bob Harras/Steve Epting run on Avengers where everybody had brown leather jackets and every story seemed to center on Sersi, The Black Knight and/or Crystal (seriously, based on that old school issue and my 90’s immersion I just assumed Black Knight was the Avengers’ franchise player for a long while). I wrote a bit on this era previously and had a nice conversation with Mr. Epting about it last year at San Diego Comic-Con (he is a very good sport about the leather jackets and let’s just leave it at that).

Frankly put, this was not a great time for the Avengers and I don’t believe it was the fault of anybody in particular. Fact was, X-Men was selling like hotcakes so conventional wisdom said it made sense to make the Avengers more like the X-Men, with more leather and soap opera, less classic foes and nostalgia. Bob Harras was editing the X-Men, so he was the logical choice to make the Avengers more like them (Bob Harras is also, by the way, an extremely underrated writer, and you should check out his work on Breach if you can track it down).

But what worked for the X-Men didn’t work for the Avengers because their DNA just wasn’t the same (oh I didn’t even realize what I was doing there; I am so clever). The X-Men franchise had well over a decade of Chris Claremont doing the ultimate soap opera run in comics and characters who were by design not iconic and thus more suited for the angsty character-driven stuff; Avengers was supposed to be the biggest and best Marvel heroes all in the same book, with epic threats and huge battles as the order of the day.

In the early 90’s, the Avengers very much felt like a B-list X-Men, which was completely wrong as being an Avenger should be the ultimate “you’ve made it” moment for any Marvel hero and being on the X-Men should kinda suck (because you’re feared and hated). It didn’t work for me, and so, for a second time, I ditched the Avengers.

Third time’s the charm, though, as in 2001 (or thereabouts) during my second comic book renaissance, I discovered the Avengers once more, and have been a card-carrying fan ever since (I actually do have a membership card because we had a bunch of leftovers from some promotion around the office recently; it’s signed by David Gabriel, so you know it’s legit).

The way I circled back around to the Avengers was that I’d gotten heavy into the Marv Wolfman-George Perez New Teen Titans and was looking for more of that sweet Perez art fix. Somehow or another I was tipped off to the fact that Mr. Perez drew 30-some-odd issues of Avengers written by Kurt Busiek beginning in 1998, so I was off to the races hitting the back issues bins.

And good lord, as incredible as Perez’s stuff was on NTT, I could not believe how much better his Avengers was. I know I’m not alone in praising George Perez for, among other things, constantly working to improve his game no matter how long he’s been on top (his Legion of 3 Worlds work from last year is incredibly even better than his Avengers stuff). George is simply one of the greats, and also a true gentleman in every sense; getting to interview him a few times is one of the high watermarks of my career and a Nova sketch by the man remains among my most sought-after treasures.

But as good as Perez’s art was on Avengers—and it was really really good—Kurt Busiek’s writing is up to the task of matching that work. It really is among the most enormous, most imaginative, most “nothing is too big to cram in here” runs in comics (and a future Essentials entry for sure). Not too many folks who have worked on the Avengers—or many other books—over the years have had a better appreciation for what their material had been at its best and what it would take to bring that out again than Busiek. He recognized the inherent coolness of the Avengers comes from having as many heroes as you can manage in the same place bumping into each other as they go and putting them up against crises that (as the old saying goes) none of them can face alone.

Aside from the regular roster of 7-10 members Busiek generally had on tap, he also had a steady supply of alumni, guest stars, cameos, etc. flowing in for Perez to challenge himself with (and George Perez is always up to the challenge). I can’t think of many comics where the creators’ (and editor’s, because Tom Brevoort deserves a lot of credit here) love for what they’re doing is more evident than Busiek and Perez’s Avengers.

And so I became an Avengers fan; and as a newly-minted Avengers fan, I did my duty and tracked the classics in trade paperback to fully understand what I was getting into.

I started from the start with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original stuff in softcover Marvel Masterworks form—didn’t love it. The sense I got then and have since gotten more from reading both more early Avengers and also other Silver Age Marvel is that Stan and Jack’s real passion went into the stuff they were making up as they went (if that makes sense) like Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, etc. I feel like Avengers was almost more of a book they felt they had to do because stuff like Justice League of America did well and it just made sense that if they had enough “name” heroes to have them all in one book. And don’t get me wrong, Stan and Jack at 70% is still better than most at 110, but it just doesn’t feel like their hearts were as much in those early Avengers stories as the concept more drove itself. You can see the quality level noticeably rise after Roy Thomas takes over writing probably in large part because it (along with X-Men) was the first book he could really make “his.”

The Kree-Skrull War is a science-fiction blockbuster that definitely stands the test of time, though. The aforementioned Mr. Thomas really hits his stride by cooking up a disaster worthy of the Avengers—because if two big, bad alien races going to full-on war with each other isn’t enough, there isn’t much that’s going to be—and hitting both the story and emotional beats with panache. The art chores shared by the Buscema brothers, John and Sal, plus the great Neal Adams are just stunning as well, particularly Adams bold experimentation.

One of my favorite Avengers stories I discovered during this period and really of all-time is Under Siege, the mid-80’s tale by Roger Stern and (again) John Buscema that directly predated my bad Marrina experience and is just one of the most gripping, bad ass things you’ll ever read if you love super hero comics. The gist is that Baron Zemo organizes the most massive Masters of Evil team ever and they just absolutely kick the shit out of the Avengers for a few issues. Hercules gets beat into a coma; Jarvis gets nearly crippled; Avengers Mansion gets leveled. It’s one of the most stark examples in comics of the bad guys really actually winning and the heroes being totally up against the wall, making their inevitable even-half-triumph so much more meaningful; great stuff.

Avengers Forever was also a really sweet jam by Busiek, Stern and Carlos Pacheco, but it’s so elaborate and continuity-packed that I’ll just leave it at that.

So suffice to say by the time I entered the comic book industry fo’ real in 2004, I was well-schooled in Avengers lore just as Brian Michael Bendis was blowing it all up and starting a whole new chapter. Now on Wednesday, after half a decade of redefinition, we’re gonna start seeing how Bendis’ new era meshes with the Thomas/Stern/Busiek days of yore and I’m pretty psyched at hearing what people think.

I think I’ll always be an X-Men guy at heart since that’s what I was reading when I was 12, but I’m glad I was stubborn enough to keep scratching that Avengers itch until I figured out why they were special and now get to enjoy their tenure as comics’ current biggest deal, both in print and on the big screen.

Tomorrow (barring something crazy): my five favorite.

Requiem for Damage

So amidst the chaos that was Blackest Night, several characters ended up taking a dirt nap, as one would expect in an event all about death. Like many other readers, I kinda figured a good chunk of the casualties would end up resurrected by series end, but folks like Tempest, the female Hawk, Firestorm’s girlfriend Gehenna and the new Captain Boomerang were still resting in piece as of this writing, as was former Teen Titans and erstwhile Justice Society member Damage.

Upon reflection and seeing the solicit for next month’s issue of JSA: All-Stars, I remembered that I actually kinda liked Damage, so I figured I’d write about him for a bit.

Grant Emerson, the lad who would be Damage, first showed up in 1994 in his own self-titled series. I found the cover to the first issue particularly eye-catching, so I decided to give it a shot. I actually quite enjoyed that initial story by Tom Joyner and Bill Marimon as Grant spends the first half of the issue as your typical put-upon high school teen—struggling through classes, arguing with his folks, crushing on a cute girl, etc.—and then out of nowhere he explodes. Literally. His body becomes ground zero for a huge energy blast and he emerges as a juiced up bruiser who just destroyed his school. And then he fights Metallo for a bit.

It was the moments immediately after the explosion that really grabbed me though. Grant’s best friend is terrified of him and runs away. The coaches and authority figures he instinctively looks to for support and guidance are freak out too. The girl he likes is actually the only one who will come near him, but he bolts because he’s afraid he’ll hurt her. He speeds home to find his parents gone and some forgettable mercenaries at his house, and the issue ends there.

I didn’t end up getting the second issue of Damage—or any other issue for that matter—not for any reason I remember (probably money), but that sequence has always resonated with me. Super hero comics are usually such a wish fulfillment avenue and that moment where the hero gets their powers is typically such a feel good moment, but this was the nightmare version of that, where your whole world falls apart, everybody you counted on abandons you, and you’re left with no idea what to do next. It was a well-written piece of business with a protagonist close enough in age to me that it really stood out to me as being unique and thought-provoking

(Howard Mackie and Tom Grummett did a kinda similar story a year or so later in X-Men Unlimited that also grabbed me the same way and shared a lot of the same themes, but props to Joyner and Marimon for doing it first)

While I didn’t follow Damage in his book, I kept abreast enough of what was going on in comics and the DC Universe via Wizard and other avenues that I learned his “parents” were actually just people paid by Vandal Savage to watch him and that he was the son of the Golden Age Atom injected with DNA from like a dozen other heroes.

The next place I actually saw Damage was in Zero Hour #0, and it was pretty nuts. After not having appeared in the entire line-wide Zero Hour event, Damage shows up in the final issue as part of the randomly-assembled squad of heroes Waverider hastily pulls together to go fight Parallax and save the universe. Despite only having been around a few months, Damage was shoulder-to-shoulder with Superman and Captain Atom fighting for reality. Even crazier, Damage’s powers end up being the key to undoing all the crap Parallax did to the timestream and he literally becomes the “big bang” that re-starts the DC Universe, something that was both bizarrely cool and a point that would be brought up usually as a jab or self-deprecating remark in stories for years to come. I personally always thought it was pretty cool that Zero Hour architect Dan Jurgens was tuned in enough to the DCU to bring in such a new character in such a major role.

I jumped out of comics around this time, but when I came back in a few years later, I caught up on Damage’s time with the New Titans; while that book may have been on its last legs, certainly one of the bright spots was Grant Emerson attempting to fit in among other young heroes with way more experience than him, getting hit on by Terra and reprimanded for not being good enough by Arsenal until he walked out on the team in a huff.

That second bit proved important down the line as Arsenal would end up plucking Damage from a few years in obscurity following the cancellation of his book and recruit him for a new Titans team (and series) partially out of guilt for not being a better mentor. A tiny cosmetic change to Damage’s costume—giving him white pants to contrast his primarily purple top—made him really stand out visually in my eyes, and it seemed like the character was going places…but he never seemed to get there. Writer Devin Grayson never really seemed to find much to do with Grant during her tenure on Titans, and then wrote him out towards the end of her run with the revelation that his fake “father” had abused him as a child. To help Grant collect himself, Arsenal takes him to the Navajo reservation where he was raised in order to give him a safe place to rebuild; it was an interesting premise, but it never really went anywhere.

A couple years later, Geoff Johns began using Damage occasionally for cameos in the JSA books as a member of the unofficial “All-Star Squadron” team that formed during Our Worlds at War and later as part of the new Freedom Fighters. Grant only got a few lines here and there, but formed a neat bond with his real father’s godson, Atom-Smasher, and again seemed to be building a bit of momentum.

In the very first issue of Infinite Crisis, written by Johns, the Freedom Fighters got massacred by the evil Society, with Damage managing to survive but having his face horribly scarred by Zoom. Johns used this set-up to bring Grant into the JSA for real when the Justice Society of America series re-launched, albeit under a full face mask like his dad wore and with a new cynical and self-destructive attitude.

Damage ended up working his way towards a healthier outlook on life in the early issues of JSoA, thanks in large part to the newly-married Hourman and Liberty Belle taking a special interest in him (as Jesse Quick, Belle had actually been one of Damage’s teammates in the Titans). I remember chatting with Geoff on the phone once during the early days of JSoA and assuming that he was working towards some sort of love triangle between the three characters, but he emphatically told me that wasn’t in the cards and that he was far more interested in showing a genuine friendship among the trio; stuff like that, where Geoff zigs when anybody else would have done the clichéd zag, is part of what makes him such a talented fellow and why that first year and change of Justice Society of America was so special.

Over the course of JSoA’s Johns-written era, Damage would undergo many trials and milestones, including a rematch with Zoom, temptation by Gog, and a challenging romance with non-English-speaking Judomaster. After 15 years of wandering through the DC Universe, it seemed Grant Emerson had finally found a nice little niche.

So of course when he had his heart ripped out by Jean Loring during Blackest Night—written by Geoff Johns, no less—I sighed a little sigh.

Fun fact: I’ve never gotten anywhere near close to finishing it to the point where I’d want to really share it with anybody, but I actually have a half-completed Damage script set around the start of Justice Society of America sitting on my desktop. It was born out of the bug I get every so often to try my hand at actually writing comics—it typically doesn’t last long—and another conversation with Geoff, this time about how to construct a comic script. I’ve only attempted that feat a couple times over the course of my life and never made it to the end, but Damage is the one I’ve come closest with. I’d rather not say anymore, because who knows, maybe someday…

(Another fun fact: the above gorgeous black and white piece by Dale Eaglesham is one I had a role in commissioning as it was for a Justice Society sketchbook Geoff and I pitched to Wizard when the series kicked off)

Damage was never really among my very favorites or even a guy I’d likely pick in my top 30, but there was still something about him that stood out. He was a character who provided some impressively memorable moments during his uneven 15-year existence and likely had a lot more potential than ever got used, so here’s to ya, pal; if you get resurrected in All-Stars next month, I will still feel this post was somewhat worthwhile.

Lynn Phegley Watches "Lost" - 2 Down, 2 To Go

My mom's name is Lynn Phegley. She teaches music to elementary school kids in Grand Blanc, Michigan. She likes classic Hollywood musicals, trashy romance novels and "Sex In The City."

And for some reason she's seen damn near every episode of "Lost."

This week, our ongoing "discussion" again racks up multiple episodes in one all-fun go round covering the two episodes before the final two. Surprisingly, I think mom's kind of starting to enjoy this in the last few weeks leaving her with less to disparage against. Maybe. Sort of.

Thanks as always to this site for the screencaps.

Let's begin.

ON "THE CANDIDATE"


"That was melodramatic when Jin and Sun died, wasn't it? Oh my Gosh! So far fetched! And Sayid redeemed himself by blowing himself up. Yeah, right. This is getting too bizarre when they're killing everybody off. And stupid Claire! There she sits...'Where are you going?' 'To do what I started!' God, Claire is the most oblivious person on this show. She's crazy, and she thinks Locke is her friend. Bleh!

"If they all get killed, I'm going to say I wasted my time totally. I think I've wasted my time already, to tell the truth. But when the main characters are getting killed off, you know you're in trouble. But it was at least kind of interesting tonight. You did go, 'Oh my Gosh!' but it's not interesting enough to make you put down your game on your phone. I may have missed a couple of beats, but I can't give it my undivided attention. So it was interesting, but I thought if they kill everyone off, I'll be so mad. And Hurley cried when Jin and Sun were dead! That was dramatic.

"But with Jin and Sun, he should have been able to get her out of there. And she would have said, 'You better go to Los Angeles...our kid is there!' Any mother would have said that. Whoever wrote this story was not a mother."


"I don't see what the parallel reality has to do with anything."

[Me: "The theory is that the parallel reality is what would exist if the Smoke Monster gets off the Island."]

"I don't believe that. Who said that? Oh, the online people! I don't think they know much."


[Me: "Well, there are a few mysteries left to be solved here."]

"The two Jacobs or whoever they are...the good and evil people. Jesus and the Devil! We've got to know what's going on with them."

[Me: "And we've got to find out who Jack's wife is. Since we know he has a son, everyone is assuming the mother is Juliet."]

"What? Juliet?!? Why would the mother be Juliet? And we've got to know what ever happened to Desmond. There's a lot of unsolved people left out in the Boondocks...people that got buried alive and Juliet. I swore she was going to come back to life, but she was on another show! Maybe she'll show up on 'Dancing With The Stars.'"

[Me: "I still want Walt to show back up."]

"They had to get rid of all the kids because you couldn't drag all the kids along on a parallel reality. [Laughs] Kids need more attention than that. They got rid of every kid in the story!"

[Me: "Well, the story was only taking place over a few months, and the actor was growing at a faster rate so keeping him around wouldn't have made any sense."]

"Well, it doesn't make any sense anyway! How can he help it make any more sense when it doesn't make any sense in the first place? Anyone could tell you that. I think it's all a big hoax. They got everybody invested in watching this stupid story, and it didn't go anywhere."


ON "ACROSS THE SEA"

"If we're supposed to be in the Garden of Eden, I'm going to be mad."

[Me: "It's not the literal Garden of Eden."]

"I think it is. I think your wrong on that. That's what they're alluding to. And how come we never get to hear the Black Smoke one's name? I think it's because he's the devil. And why didn't Locke know what those skeletons were if he's the Smoke Monster?"

[Me: "That was a flashback to like season one or two."]

"That was a flashback?!? I never saw that! Oh good grief, who can remember Season 2. You nerds are the only ones who can remember that far back. That's been blotted from my memory. [Laughs] Oh my God! I do not recall that at all. How can you remember Season 2 if you can't remember the season you're in. I don't think the average Joe thinks about all these little threads."

[Me: "Think of it this way. If you read a novel and the first chapter has no impact on the end of the book, that wouldn't make any sense."]

"When I read a novel, I go forward and read the end and then go back and look for the significant parts."

[Me: "I don't think that's how the average Joe does it, Mother."]

"Oh, I think they do. That's the way I do it. If it gets too intense, I skip ahead because I like a happy ending. I don't think this is going to turn out that way. But I don't remember this flashback. I should consult with [my friend] Liz and [her daughter] Emma on 'Lost.' They're as perplexed as I am. I betcha they don't know about this stuff...I'll call you right back!"

[Mom hung up on me and called back ten minutes later.]

"Ah ha! Liz and Emma don't remember any of those flashbacks! I'm telling you, the average person doesn't remember this stuff."


"Here's what I think [about the Man in Black: if you die and then you can never leave, then everyone's going to be there in limbo forever: Jin and Sun and....oh, I got it! They're not in Heaven or Hell. They're in Purgatory!

[Me: "They're not in Purgatory. They've said that in the past

"Who said that in the past?"

[Me: "The creator of the show!"]

"Oh, I'm not going to trust him! I can't wait to hear the creator of the show after all this is over with."

[Me: "Oh, they've already announced they're not going to do any interviews on the show once it's done."]

"OH MY GOD! [Laughs] They're going to be like a famous author who doesn't give any interviews! Do they think they're J.S. Salinger or what? Who cares about two skeletons in a cave? All I know is that even though they're dead, they're all still floating around on The Island. That is the definition of Purgatory!"

Linko! XLIV

* If there's one thing you've GOT to read in this week's Linko! it's the story of the above photo, courtesy of "the real" Jesse Thompson.

* Occasionally, people will e-mail me links. Every so often, those links are to, say, some kind of web magazine dedicated to Ben Reilly Spider-Man and the Go-Bots. All right then.

* My boy Jack Schmier pointed me towards this awesomely named Lansing power pop band called Cheap Girls.

* If you're for some reason as interested in the business side of cable TV in general and the children's programming side of that market in specific, this article on all-Hasbro network The Hub will make you go, "Damn, that was really of interest to me."


* I click through to Andrew Weiss' "Nobody's Favorites" posts every time Tom Spurgeon puts one up, but this one on Mr. Justice and this one on U.S. Agent were particularly awesome to me for being about two characters I somehow know a lot about but still really couldn't care less about.

* I have no idea why this was on the Paste Magazine website, but I'm glad it was Link: A killer roundup of comics folks from Bryan Lee O'Malley to Mike Mignola to John Romita, Jr. to Crag Thompson and so much more talk about their first ever comic book in honor of Free Comic Book Day.

* In general, I'd say my interest in video games falls somewhere in the same range as my interest in Colonial-inspired dress up dolls and getting kicked in the gonads, but one of my few gamer soft spots is for the "King's Quest" series mostly as I spent hours and hours wandering around "Kings Quest V" in middle school, beating nothing and learning less. So when I came across this article on how the owners of the brand may allow some fans who have spent years making their own "King's Quest" sequel while the property languished to officially release their personal "King's Quest IX", I read the whole thing and felt good for those people.

* Personal Favorite of Mine Link: Why Do Educated People Use Bad Words?

* Demos, my friend Slayer's place of employ, gets a nice write up in the New York Times.

* You know, I've never actually read any of these books, but I know a lot of young women around my same age have read a TON of Babysitters Club stories, and I really dug Catherine Garcia's report of meeting "BSC" author Ann M. Martin at EW.com.


* OK: one other exception to the whole "I don't care about video games" rule up there is old school adventure games like LucasArts used to make, and I very much appreciate what the former Lucas guys at Telltale do in terms of storytelling. And now they're making a fucking Grickle-like game with Graham Annable? HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT.

* In case you missed it: This Adam Ant Interview is INSANE.

The Appeal of Iron Man

In my view, it’s generally a worthwhile and interesting endeavor to try and figure out what makes any popular comic book (or fictional) character that way, but since he’s currently got a number one movie out and ain’t doing too shabby in the periodicals either, let’s take a look at Iron Man for a bit.

Way back when I was in elementary school, I have a pretty distinct memory of going up to a girl in my class during recess and telling her I was related to Iron Man; now though I do feel I developed the flirting gene earlier than most dudes I grew up with (or at least overcame my “girls are icky” phase far sooner than most), I didn’t do this out of any desire to impress a member of the fairer sex, it was just what seemed to my young mind a cool thing to do. Surprisingly though, the lady in question responded to my revelation with, “Yeah, so am I.”

Was either of us actually related to the fictional Armored Avenger? I can say definitely that I at least am not, but the more interesting thing here is that not just a burgeoning comic geek like myself but also a girl who had little to no interest in super heroes both knew who Iron Man was while still in grade school and thought he was impressive enough to feign familial ties with.

I think Iron Man is a character that appeals very quickly and on a very surface level to children and inner children alike. He’s basically a walking action figure, the type of concept that is like candy coated in crack to a kid, as you can go wild over his accessories and the fact that he’s got different suits for different occasions. I also think the idea of “suit of armor” is just easier for people to wrap their head around than something like telepathy, a healing factor, freeze breath or even super speed (to say nothing of the really complex super powers). And the other nice thing about the abilities Iron Man’s suit afford him are that they’re really only limited by the imagination of the writer and/or fan; you can pretty much take any super power from any other hero—flight, super strength, energy projection, invulnerability, sonic blasts, heat blasts, roller skates, etc.—and graft them all onto Iron Man at once with pretty simple if pseudo-science-packed explanations (but that’s part of the fun).

For whatever reason, I also maintain and will stand by as expertly as a color blind person can that the combination of red and yellow (or “gold”) as a character’s costume is inherently pleasing to the eye, particularly for people just getting into comics. It’s the shading scheme for Iron Man and The Flash, but also figures prominently into the looks of Superman, Robin, Captain Marvel (both of them), Deathlok and so on; red’s a good medium between flashy and subdued and yellow just accentuates it well.

But digging deeper beyond the stuff that make a 10-year-old—or 28-year-old in arrested development—smile, the main under the helmet, Tony Stark, is obviously the biggest component of Iron Man’s continued relevance and success, particularly in cinematic form. I give all the credit in the world to Robert Downey Jr. for making Tony Stark simply magnetic and a star around which a cinematic universe can be anchored, but with respect to RDJ, his major accomplishment has been realizing and “getting” a protagonist who came to him with a boatload of upside and potential, not spinning him out of thin air.

Tony Stark is in his own way as unique and groundbreaking a character in the medium of comics as Peter Parker was in his. Where Peter was among the first (and certainly the most prominent) teenage heroes to actually behave like a real teenager, Tony was perhaps the first flawed hero who didn’t necessarily learn from his mistakes, and he’s been alternately succeeding in and failing to do so ever since.

I know a lot of people—particularly non-comic fans exposed via the movie—dig Tony Stark because he’s both cool and far from perfect, while I know many folks, including some of my closest comic-reading buddies, who can’t stand Tony because he is—for lack of a better way to say it—kind of a douche. Indeed what some people really like about the guy is a part of what other people find off-putting, but this is the risk you run with a character as boldly imperfect as Tony Stark.

Superman is more or less infallible in his drive to do the right thing. Spider-Man was born out of a selfish act but has sought to make up for it ever since. Batman is singularly driven to pursue justice due to personal tragedy and adhered to a strict moral code. These are perhaps the three biggest archetypes in comics—though there are countless exceptions to that rule—and while Iron Man takes pieces from each, he does not fully owe his characterization to any.

Tony Stark experienced personal tragedy when he was abducted and had damage done to his heart. He has spent years trying to replace his legacy as a glorified war profiteer and make up for his past by striving for peace. At his heart, he is a guy who wants to do the right thing.

However, despite being a decent man beneath his layers, Tony Stark remains more often than not selfish, arrogant, cavalier and prone to treating people very poorly. He doesn’t do any of these things out of real malice; he’s just a person with a litany of character defects. Comics in general and the Marvel Universe in particular are littered with these types of heroes, but Tony is something of a rarity in that despite being a genius, he doesn’t always learn from his mistakes.

To put it in another way: if Uncle Ben died on Tony’s watch because of something he did, he’d feel terrible about it and do everything in his considerable power to make right the wrong he was responsible for, but there’s no guarantee he’d be so vigilant as to make sure he didn’t commit the same faux pas again the way Peter Parker always is.

Tony Stark always feels he’s the smartest guy in the room and that his way is the right way, regardless of what people tell him. He showed this decades ago during Armor Wars and that didn’t necessarily work out terribly well for him, and yet despite all that event—and its aftermath—cost him, he still took it upon himself to be the be-all, end-all authority during Civil War and beyond. His reward for that was having to induce his own brain-death and watch Norman Osborn run the country.

Despite that, the next time a similar crisis erupts and a judgment call needs to be made, Tony Stark will most likely once again put it on himself to make that call, not necessarily heeding the judgment of those around him. This is partly out of ego and partly out of impatience, but there’s also a part of Tony Stark that just feels taking on the burden of responsibility is the heroic thing to do.

Like I said, some people I know process all of the last few paragraphs and combined with Tony’s general smarminess do not like the character; I get that and he’s certainly not a character you’d expect to be universally-beloved. On the flip side, I do think most of us can see a lot of ourselves in Tony’s basic behaviors, though it might be tough to recognize at first because we don’t possess the resources or abilities to succeed or fail on the epic level he does. Ultimately though, most of us do tend to believe we are right in most instances, most of us will impose our way if we have a chance rather than take the gamble that somebody else’s will fail, and most of us will make the same mistake more than once before learning not to (if indeed we ever do).

Tony Stark is something of a wish fulfillment character in that he’s wealthy, suave and charming, but he’s not a paragon of virtue in the sense that the aforementioned Superman, Spider-Man, et al. are. He’s a hero to be sure, but he’s far from perfect at it. For some people, that makes him among our favorite characters because he’s relatable to the way we are; for others, that makes him a guy they don’t want to read about because that’s not an aspect of themselves they particularly want to explore in escapist fiction.

Iron Man and Tony Stark each have a great many surface-level qualities that make them appealing that I covered early on and there’s a great deal going on a bit deeper that either adds to or subtracts from that appeal depending on where you fall. That Iron Man is not so much a character that creators, actors, directors, etc. feel needs to appeal to all people at all times both contributes to his unique standing in the pantheon of super heroes and perhaps explains the appeal he does possess best of all.

Comic Shop Stop: What I Bought The Last Few Weeks - Plus FCBD!

I've fallen behind a bit on the Comic Shop Stop postings! Here goes for the last few weeks!

Here's what I been buying, ya'll:



WILSON - I've only just started reading Daniel Clowes (Ghost World, Ice Haven) in the last year, so I showed up in his fan club just in time to grab this new standalone graphic novel (his first to not be a collection from an earlier work) from Drawn & Quarterly! And thanks to a sale at Jim Hanley's Universe, I was able to get it for 40% off, too!



GIRL FUCK - Guide to the sex lives of lesbians by Erika Moen. It caught my eye after I read about it over here.



TEN THOUSAND THINGS TO DO #6 - Finally found the sixth issue of Jesse Recklaw's diary comic after hunting for it the past 3 months!



WALKING DEAD #71 - Kirkman zombies!



INVINCIBLE #71 - The Viltrimite War begins!!!



FCHS - A fairly easy-going high school drama comic, FCHS has a major strength in its distinct art from Rachel Freire. I remember digging the AdHouse Free Comic Book Day single issue of this book in 2009, but after something fell through with AdHouse distributing the book (I'm not sure what happened there since the book is still on their site), FCHS fell off my radar until this morning when I found a digest-sized volume at Hanley's on the shelf published by "FCHS Comix."
Added bonus: While checking out, the nice girl ringing me up, who I recognized from past trips to the shop, politely revealed she was Rachel (!), offered to sign my copy, and said I was the first person she witnessed buying a copy who she didn't already know. I didn't tell her about how her slick, clean art with its impossibly simple sense of space was my favorite part. I'd have been embarrassed.



ORC STAIN #3 - Goblins! It's like someone dropped a rainbow Bomb Pop in the woods and a troop of ants moved in, evolved into humanoid creatures, and started having explosively rockin' adventures!



THE GUILD #2 - Jim Rugg Jim Rugg Jim Rugg!



HELLBOY IN MEXICO #1 - I almost skipped buying this issue and then I betrayed my waller and opened the thing up to see Hellboy fighting a demon Luchadore who looks like this. Sorry, wallet.

As for my Free Comic Book Day 2010 - IT WAS THE BEST EVER. I hit three NYC shops on May 5 (Hanley's, Cosmic Comics, and Forbidden Planet), and got all the FCBD issues I wanted. My girlfriend Sam even got all the ones SHE wanted! And I bought stuffs so as to show my support for the stores! I wish FCBD was quarterly. Yeah, I said it!



MOME 12 & 14 - Thanks to Hanley's month-long anniversary sale of 25% off everything in the store, I'm catching up on Fantagraphic's constantly entertaining anthology starting with vol. 12 and vol. 14.



BOOK OF GRICKLE - Graham Annable is one of my favorite comic creators and, I find, one of the best gateway drugs for bringing friends into comics. I already have the 2 collections this book collects, but having a hardcover that holds all the stories in one place (along with it being 30% off at Cosmic Comics) was too good a deal to pass up. I loaned it to a friend SECONDS after buying it. GO NOW AND GET THIS THING!

The FCBD books I'm most looking forward to sitting and reading (other than THIS, which I read already and loved) are right here:



G.I. JOE #155 1/2 - Oh fuck oh shit oh fuck! This IDW book takes place moments after the end of the original Marvel Joe series (hence the #155 1/2)!



YOW! - It's not so much the content of this issue from Drawn & Quarterly that has me so excited so much as the ad in the back for a collection I had no idea was coming! In Fall 2010, D&Q plans on publishing annuals of Doug Wright's Nipper comic strip series about mid-'60s Canadian middle-class suburban life! That's what I'm talking aboot!



WEATHERCRAFT - I've never read a Jim Woodring comic before. NEVER EVER. I think I'm finally ready for his signature brand of cartoon dementia and absurdity and this free sample is PROBABLY about to set me on a path of Woodring fanaticism. Well played, Fantagraphics.



DOPE FLOUNDER - Sparkplug Comic Books, Teenage Dinosaur, and Tugboat Press team up again for the third in a series of free anthology mini-comics with dope production quality spotlighting up-and-coming talent. Right off the bat, contributors in this issue who caught my attention were Jesse Recklaw (whose mini-diaries I adore) Sean Chistensen (whose Miranda Baby mini-comic I adore), and Nicole Georges (whose diary mini-comic I adore)!

What've you guys been buying?

(Quick disclaimer: I borrow a LOT of stuff from Ben each week from Marvel, so I don't always buy single issues of the Marvel books. And I get everything from DC, WildStorm, Vertigo, and Zuda for free, so I never really buy anything from them unless I'm picking up for somebody else. So don't take my exclusion of DC stuff as a sign that the books aren't good enough to buy. They are. So there.)