http://www.avengersforever.org/articles/default.asp
“Tony Stark makes you feel, he’s the coolest cat - with a heart of steel…” the lyrics came from the old Marvel Super Heroes television shows, and it was probably one of the coolest and appropriate lyrics befitting Iron Man. It would capture the duality of Tony Stark’s life, post-Vietnam.
We are introduced to both Tony Stark and his other identity as Iron Man, how Tony Stark went on a trip to Vietnam to see how his inventions could help out in the effort to win the war – remember that originally, his origin was well connected to the Vietnam conflict back then.
How this history may be retroactively connected, if ever, will be up to whoever writes him next – there are still enough hot spots in Asia, though probably not as high profile enough to get a captain of industry from weapon’s manufacturing to pay a visit – you’d have better luck explaining said visit happening in the middle east these days.
Here’s a summary of what happened – Tony gets caught in an explosion, survives but is hurt, shrapnel finding their way near his heart - he is captured by a warlord (Wong Chu), who then; recognizing his prisoner, forced Tony to work with another captured Physicist (Ho Yin Sen) to build weapons for his (Chu’s) cause. The two (Tony and Yin Sen) come up with a desperate and daring plan to escape, by way of creating an exoskeleton suit which Tony could wear, centering on a chest-plate designed with magnets to hold said earlier mentioned shrapnel from continuously edging slowly towards Tony’s heart – thus keeping it in place and preventing his death.
Genius was at work here and we can even harbor a guess that Yin Sen and Stark made as rare a combination. Making matters more impressive was the fact that the two were able to create a working model with hardly any field test, using what can possibly be the crudest of workshops in a backward province hidden in the jungle. If necessity is the mother of all invention – you can’t get more inventive than when your life is on the line.
Remember those Mac Giver episodes? I guess this comes real close to such a thing. In fact, I can say that Tony would probably not have achieved the same results at the given timeframe if he had no one of Yin Sen’s caliber to help him. Tony can probably count how many times he’s been able to work with such genius his lifetime, but never with consequences so dire – okay, maybe this would be repeated with hank Pym in a latter date, but who’s counting?Was Tony less impressed with others of lesser intellect? Did Tony respect only someone as an equal if he (or she) only showed an equal capacity for intellect and skills? Such was definitely not shown outwardly with how he dealt with others.
Tony was always respectful of the military brass (maybe since they were clients), tolerant of politicians (he could easily see through their schemes) and civil to his rivals in industry – in fact, we was even helpful to some in specifying possible design flaws from their own products. He rarely bore a grudge to anyone. However, if you did not know Tony Stark, he might have rubbed off on you as arrogant – one backed by confidence, talent and riches. Yet he was always gracious in his few social outings.
Was he really arrogant? Yes, when he needed to reciprocate such arrogance – mostly when dealing with business deals turning sour (not from his end), where he could and did play hard-ball and would throw the financial and legal resources of Stark Industries at whoever crossed him… and should whoever this is, up the ante by employing extra legal – if sometimes deadly means, well… Tony had the best security that money could buy… one that would further be enhanced by adding Iron Man as a personal body guard.
If Tony’s rivals were anything like your typical egocentric corporate raider, they be mighty (or royally) pissed – but they would have to think twice or thrice because of Iron Man. Imagine if you could combine Bill Gates’ tech and business savvy with Ted Turner’s aggressiveness and propensity to be outspoken, and then had Iron Man to back that person up – you’d probably have an idea of the kind of love-to-hate relationship and frustration some of Tony’s rivals would feel. Now, before there is uproar from some fans, let me explain that the Gates-Turner example was just the first thing I could think of, and is not indicative of the ‘real’ Tony Stark of course.
Remember my mentioning something about his treating his people well? Tony took care of his employees as a lord would care and protect his subjects. Was there an elitist in Tony? Given his background, would we be surprised if there wasn’t? Tony would employ the best and the brightest, but he demanded excellence and loyalty. Tony was old-moneyed, and enjoyed the life of royalty without the title, and others may have deferred to him by virtue of his influence and clout.
This tendency to aristocracy seemed apparent in two instances – when he was thrown back in time to Camelot, he did enjoy and effortlessly adapt to his experience as Sir Tony, and he did not mind the fringe benefits that came with the title either. The second was when he – along with the rest of the Avengers, was living in a warped reality by Morgan le Fey, he found it difficult to snap out of the spell’s conditioning when Cap and Hawkeye tried shocking him back to reality, maybe because deep inside Tony, he found the situation natural.
Refocusing on the Vietnam experience, Tony definitely escaped, and this experience – specifically the landmine incident, open up his world-view on a few other paradigms – one of them being how his inventions were actually destroying lives of enemies and innocents alike. The businessman/inventor’s eyes and conscience were opened to the realities of war and his hand in it. He decided that he had to stop helping maim and destroy people with such vicious methods – one that he fell prey to with near fatal results.
On the other hand, this also shows a trait that Tony also had in abundance – his ability to make lemonade out of lemons… rather than living a life of frustration with the cards life dealt him, he took his predicament of having to wear the chest-plate, and finished his Iron Man armor… the gray bucket looking one, with the idea of turning himself into an action hero – never mind the fact that he’d have to possibly find himself needing a recharge, once in a while. This man never gave up – and his will was perhaps stronger than his armor.
Tony was never one to go half-hearted into anything. He was always pro-active, and dedicated to whatever he decided as worth pursuing with his time – including becoming a persona named Iron Man, with the thought and desire of helping secure Stark Industry, and as an offshoot, he would have the capability – and the want to protect others while likewise protecting his company’s interests and technology from threats. Maybe Tony wanted to change some perceived mistakes from his past, and Iron Man was a perfect venue for this.
Iron Man, of course, would evolve and become Stark Industry’s unofficial mascot and officially, Tony Stark’s body guard – and through Iron Man, Tony Stark could – by continuously improving the armor’s capabilities, show everyone else what Stark Industry’s technology was capable of. Is it any wonder that many became envious of Tony’s capabilities and desired his technology? Tony was a perfectionist, and the Iron Man armor was his obvious walking, talking and flying advertisement.
The body guard concept was completely acceptable – Tony, being who he is, would need the services of a personal body guard to be with him 24 by 7. Being Tony Stark, he did not just have a body guard – he had one wearing the best weapons he could design. Iron Man would be a good idea for the simple reason that Stark was about to embark on a radical idea… that is, become less of a destructive weapon’s manufacturer.
Unfortunately, Tony had to keep his dual identity a secret, and if anything else, this hit his social life real hard. Previous to the Vietnam incident, Tony may have been a hard worker – but he had the capacity to mix business and pleasure… the latter, with gorgeous and fashionably active ladies - normally, after office hours. It could also be surmised that Tony found the attraction of these ladies pleasurable, and he most probably had dated several of them on occasion, thus more than earning the playboy reputation. Though it must be pointed out that he also was looking to settle down – following the example of his parents, Tony was surely thinking of having a wife – and a son.
The Vietnam incident, however, forced him to have his chest-plate on perpetually, until technology was able to find a way to dislodge the shrapnel embedded in his heart – and during the ’60, technology like this was not heard of. Today, however, an operation could be risked with greater success. Hence, should the accident ever happen now, the effect on Stark would less far-reaching and life changing.
With the chest-plate perpetually powering magnets keeping the shrapnel away from his heart,
Tony’s social life dipped to zero. Anything remotely done as such became more of a pretense to make no one suspect that Tony had anything different - much less, wrong with him… it was bad enough he had to fend of corporate sharks as a healthy Tony, imagine how things would be if these people realized he was not at the best of health.
Tony tried to hide the change to his life. But changes did happen - one of the very first changes he initiated was to break off his engagement to Ms. Nivena – see, he felt he wouldn’t make a good husband with his recent injury, though. I might add, this did not seem to stop him from dating, as we see him with someone called Marion, who incidentally tells Tony that Iron Man would be less scary if he did not have gray as his color and why not be more “knight in shining”-like, so you guessed it. Tony listened to the lady and Iron Man’s next appearance was indeed as a golden knight.
How he could date with such a bulky chest plate? Don’t ask me. I’m here to talk about the person, not the comic. In fact, Ms. Nivena was one of those early not so obvious retcons, and chronologically, I might say that Marion, who appeared in, which was incidentally Iron Man’s second appearance – and first as the golden avenger, would be Tony’s first official date as far as readers were concerned.
How to explain this? Okay... yes, possibly Tony was engaged and he did break up – and news may have traveled fast, so Marion calls Tony to console him (and possibly try her luck) but Tony does not really need a new steady relationship at this point when his life and career are in chaos. But Tony realizes that there will be more questions if he suddenly becomes a recluse, so he decides to bring Marion out on a friendly (i.e. not romantic) date.
Changes also loomed in the business side, as Stark Industries policies – which of course reflected Tony Stark’s views, would put him on a path towards less ‘weapon’s designer mode’ and more of a ‘life preserving inventions’ path. Altruistic as it sounds, not everyone thought this to be the best route for Stark Industries though, and many doubted Tony’s capacity to steer the company to a brighter future outside of weapons development.
Lest we forget, this was the age of the Iron Curtain and the arms race – so losing Stark as a supplier for weapons was something the U.S. government would not tolerate lightly. Not to mention the fact that the Union of Soviet Socialist republic (U.S.S.R.) did not trust Stark and saw him as a target – one to be attacked by their own agents or that of their comrades, and they were numerous. We had the Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man and the Radioactive Man.
Even S.H.I.E.L.D. (then still known as the Supreme Headquarters International Espionage and Law-enforcement Division) at a latter time tried clandestine ways to wrest control of Stark International fro Tony to ensure that any initiatives to weapons development would not stop – as Tony’s inventions were very much a part of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ordnance and capacity to fight global terrorism. This of course made Tony a target for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s foes as well.
If Tony were not equally adept at deal-makings, Stark Industries would never grow into the multi-billion dollar, international conglomerate that is Stark International, with offices around the world. Apparently, aside from just government contracts, Tony ensured that S.I. diversified its interests, with Tony heading the acquisition of new technology to help it contract for space program related initiatives.
Tony proved he was business-savvy, and anyone thinking he had it simple by manner of inheriting Stark Industries just need remember that there were times in his life that he had to start new businesses too; Circuits Maximus and Stark Solutions being two companies he would later build from scratch. Tony knew he could bank on his know-how, and he was definitely a threat to his business rivals, even when, apparently, in start-up mode. Many envied what he could do – others wanted his know-how by hook or by crook.
What Tony did to S.I. placed him and Stark Industries (soon to re-named as Stark International) on the map of the business world. Despite his seeming youth, he was able to steer the company to close many well sought after defense initiated (as in non-weapon’s building) contracts. If anything, this was proof positive that Tony had surpassed Howard Stark’s legacy and shadow.
This not only made S.I. grow, it also made Tony a more respected leader – some would say, a force to be reckoned with, in the business industry. Social circles always sought to have him, hoping to rub elbows with the man, maybe get him to sponsor some worthy cause… but his mind was always to the challenge of building and inventing – proof of this focus with work would be his continuous though hardly used membership to the Hellfire Club, an elite social club catering to the more, ahem… discriminating tastes.
Now we have to remember that Iron Man was a fallback for Tony Stark, and not the other way around – Tony was first and foremost an inventor/industrialist, and in his spare time – or when the situation demanded it, the golden avenger called Iron Man. After all, why go through rough activities that would put a strain on the chest plate’s power?
Remember, every time his chest plate would loose power, the shrapnel would get closer to the heart, so Tony actually felt that he was living on borrowed time. Yet, rather than sulk – he wanted to live life to the fullest by way of adventure – this made him feel alive. His rogues gallery would make sure he lived a life most interesting.
Next: Avengers, romance and the bottle . . .
“Tony Stark makes you feel, he’s the coolest cat - with a heart of steel…” the lyrics came from the old Marvel Super Heroes television shows, and it was probably one of the coolest and appropriate lyrics befitting Iron Man. It would capture the duality of Tony Stark’s life, post-Vietnam.
We are introduced to both Tony Stark and his other identity as Iron Man, how Tony Stark went on a trip to Vietnam to see how his inventions could help out in the effort to win the war – remember that originally, his origin was well connected to the Vietnam conflict back then.
How this history may be retroactively connected, if ever, will be up to whoever writes him next – there are still enough hot spots in Asia, though probably not as high profile enough to get a captain of industry from weapon’s manufacturing to pay a visit – you’d have better luck explaining said visit happening in the middle east these days.
Here’s a summary of what happened – Tony gets caught in an explosion, survives but is hurt, shrapnel finding their way near his heart - he is captured by a warlord (Wong Chu), who then; recognizing his prisoner, forced Tony to work with another captured Physicist (Ho Yin Sen) to build weapons for his (Chu’s) cause. The two (Tony and Yin Sen) come up with a desperate and daring plan to escape, by way of creating an exoskeleton suit which Tony could wear, centering on a chest-plate designed with magnets to hold said earlier mentioned shrapnel from continuously edging slowly towards Tony’s heart – thus keeping it in place and preventing his death.
Genius was at work here and we can even harbor a guess that Yin Sen and Stark made as rare a combination. Making matters more impressive was the fact that the two were able to create a working model with hardly any field test, using what can possibly be the crudest of workshops in a backward province hidden in the jungle. If necessity is the mother of all invention – you can’t get more inventive than when your life is on the line.
Remember those Mac Giver episodes? I guess this comes real close to such a thing. In fact, I can say that Tony would probably not have achieved the same results at the given timeframe if he had no one of Yin Sen’s caliber to help him. Tony can probably count how many times he’s been able to work with such genius his lifetime, but never with consequences so dire – okay, maybe this would be repeated with hank Pym in a latter date, but who’s counting?Was Tony less impressed with others of lesser intellect? Did Tony respect only someone as an equal if he (or she) only showed an equal capacity for intellect and skills? Such was definitely not shown outwardly with how he dealt with others.
Tony was always respectful of the military brass (maybe since they were clients), tolerant of politicians (he could easily see through their schemes) and civil to his rivals in industry – in fact, we was even helpful to some in specifying possible design flaws from their own products. He rarely bore a grudge to anyone. However, if you did not know Tony Stark, he might have rubbed off on you as arrogant – one backed by confidence, talent and riches. Yet he was always gracious in his few social outings.
Was he really arrogant? Yes, when he needed to reciprocate such arrogance – mostly when dealing with business deals turning sour (not from his end), where he could and did play hard-ball and would throw the financial and legal resources of Stark Industries at whoever crossed him… and should whoever this is, up the ante by employing extra legal – if sometimes deadly means, well… Tony had the best security that money could buy… one that would further be enhanced by adding Iron Man as a personal body guard.
If Tony’s rivals were anything like your typical egocentric corporate raider, they be mighty (or royally) pissed – but they would have to think twice or thrice because of Iron Man. Imagine if you could combine Bill Gates’ tech and business savvy with Ted Turner’s aggressiveness and propensity to be outspoken, and then had Iron Man to back that person up – you’d probably have an idea of the kind of love-to-hate relationship and frustration some of Tony’s rivals would feel. Now, before there is uproar from some fans, let me explain that the Gates-Turner example was just the first thing I could think of, and is not indicative of the ‘real’ Tony Stark of course.
Remember my mentioning something about his treating his people well? Tony took care of his employees as a lord would care and protect his subjects. Was there an elitist in Tony? Given his background, would we be surprised if there wasn’t? Tony would employ the best and the brightest, but he demanded excellence and loyalty. Tony was old-moneyed, and enjoyed the life of royalty without the title, and others may have deferred to him by virtue of his influence and clout.
This tendency to aristocracy seemed apparent in two instances – when he was thrown back in time to Camelot, he did enjoy and effortlessly adapt to his experience as Sir Tony, and he did not mind the fringe benefits that came with the title either. The second was when he – along with the rest of the Avengers, was living in a warped reality by Morgan le Fey, he found it difficult to snap out of the spell’s conditioning when Cap and Hawkeye tried shocking him back to reality, maybe because deep inside Tony, he found the situation natural.
Refocusing on the Vietnam experience, Tony definitely escaped, and this experience – specifically the landmine incident, open up his world-view on a few other paradigms – one of them being how his inventions were actually destroying lives of enemies and innocents alike. The businessman/inventor’s eyes and conscience were opened to the realities of war and his hand in it. He decided that he had to stop helping maim and destroy people with such vicious methods – one that he fell prey to with near fatal results.
On the other hand, this also shows a trait that Tony also had in abundance – his ability to make lemonade out of lemons… rather than living a life of frustration with the cards life dealt him, he took his predicament of having to wear the chest-plate, and finished his Iron Man armor… the gray bucket looking one, with the idea of turning himself into an action hero – never mind the fact that he’d have to possibly find himself needing a recharge, once in a while. This man never gave up – and his will was perhaps stronger than his armor.
Tony was never one to go half-hearted into anything. He was always pro-active, and dedicated to whatever he decided as worth pursuing with his time – including becoming a persona named Iron Man, with the thought and desire of helping secure Stark Industry, and as an offshoot, he would have the capability – and the want to protect others while likewise protecting his company’s interests and technology from threats. Maybe Tony wanted to change some perceived mistakes from his past, and Iron Man was a perfect venue for this.
Iron Man, of course, would evolve and become Stark Industry’s unofficial mascot and officially, Tony Stark’s body guard – and through Iron Man, Tony Stark could – by continuously improving the armor’s capabilities, show everyone else what Stark Industry’s technology was capable of. Is it any wonder that many became envious of Tony’s capabilities and desired his technology? Tony was a perfectionist, and the Iron Man armor was his obvious walking, talking and flying advertisement.
The body guard concept was completely acceptable – Tony, being who he is, would need the services of a personal body guard to be with him 24 by 7. Being Tony Stark, he did not just have a body guard – he had one wearing the best weapons he could design. Iron Man would be a good idea for the simple reason that Stark was about to embark on a radical idea… that is, become less of a destructive weapon’s manufacturer.
Unfortunately, Tony had to keep his dual identity a secret, and if anything else, this hit his social life real hard. Previous to the Vietnam incident, Tony may have been a hard worker – but he had the capacity to mix business and pleasure… the latter, with gorgeous and fashionably active ladies - normally, after office hours. It could also be surmised that Tony found the attraction of these ladies pleasurable, and he most probably had dated several of them on occasion, thus more than earning the playboy reputation. Though it must be pointed out that he also was looking to settle down – following the example of his parents, Tony was surely thinking of having a wife – and a son.
The Vietnam incident, however, forced him to have his chest-plate on perpetually, until technology was able to find a way to dislodge the shrapnel embedded in his heart – and during the ’60, technology like this was not heard of. Today, however, an operation could be risked with greater success. Hence, should the accident ever happen now, the effect on Stark would less far-reaching and life changing.
With the chest-plate perpetually powering magnets keeping the shrapnel away from his heart,
Tony’s social life dipped to zero. Anything remotely done as such became more of a pretense to make no one suspect that Tony had anything different - much less, wrong with him… it was bad enough he had to fend of corporate sharks as a healthy Tony, imagine how things would be if these people realized he was not at the best of health.
Tony tried to hide the change to his life. But changes did happen - one of the very first changes he initiated was to break off his engagement to Ms. Nivena – see, he felt he wouldn’t make a good husband with his recent injury, though. I might add, this did not seem to stop him from dating, as we see him with someone called Marion, who incidentally tells Tony that Iron Man would be less scary if he did not have gray as his color and why not be more “knight in shining”-like, so you guessed it. Tony listened to the lady and Iron Man’s next appearance was indeed as a golden knight.
How he could date with such a bulky chest plate? Don’t ask me. I’m here to talk about the person, not the comic. In fact, Ms. Nivena was one of those early not so obvious retcons, and chronologically, I might say that Marion, who appeared in, which was incidentally Iron Man’s second appearance – and first as the golden avenger, would be Tony’s first official date as far as readers were concerned.
How to explain this? Okay... yes, possibly Tony was engaged and he did break up – and news may have traveled fast, so Marion calls Tony to console him (and possibly try her luck) but Tony does not really need a new steady relationship at this point when his life and career are in chaos. But Tony realizes that there will be more questions if he suddenly becomes a recluse, so he decides to bring Marion out on a friendly (i.e. not romantic) date.
Changes also loomed in the business side, as Stark Industries policies – which of course reflected Tony Stark’s views, would put him on a path towards less ‘weapon’s designer mode’ and more of a ‘life preserving inventions’ path. Altruistic as it sounds, not everyone thought this to be the best route for Stark Industries though, and many doubted Tony’s capacity to steer the company to a brighter future outside of weapons development.
Lest we forget, this was the age of the Iron Curtain and the arms race – so losing Stark as a supplier for weapons was something the U.S. government would not tolerate lightly. Not to mention the fact that the Union of Soviet Socialist republic (U.S.S.R.) did not trust Stark and saw him as a target – one to be attacked by their own agents or that of their comrades, and they were numerous. We had the Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man and the Radioactive Man.
Even S.H.I.E.L.D. (then still known as the Supreme Headquarters International Espionage and Law-enforcement Division) at a latter time tried clandestine ways to wrest control of Stark International fro Tony to ensure that any initiatives to weapons development would not stop – as Tony’s inventions were very much a part of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ordnance and capacity to fight global terrorism. This of course made Tony a target for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s foes as well.
If Tony were not equally adept at deal-makings, Stark Industries would never grow into the multi-billion dollar, international conglomerate that is Stark International, with offices around the world. Apparently, aside from just government contracts, Tony ensured that S.I. diversified its interests, with Tony heading the acquisition of new technology to help it contract for space program related initiatives.
Tony proved he was business-savvy, and anyone thinking he had it simple by manner of inheriting Stark Industries just need remember that there were times in his life that he had to start new businesses too; Circuits Maximus and Stark Solutions being two companies he would later build from scratch. Tony knew he could bank on his know-how, and he was definitely a threat to his business rivals, even when, apparently, in start-up mode. Many envied what he could do – others wanted his know-how by hook or by crook.
What Tony did to S.I. placed him and Stark Industries (soon to re-named as Stark International) on the map of the business world. Despite his seeming youth, he was able to steer the company to close many well sought after defense initiated (as in non-weapon’s building) contracts. If anything, this was proof positive that Tony had surpassed Howard Stark’s legacy and shadow.
This not only made S.I. grow, it also made Tony a more respected leader – some would say, a force to be reckoned with, in the business industry. Social circles always sought to have him, hoping to rub elbows with the man, maybe get him to sponsor some worthy cause… but his mind was always to the challenge of building and inventing – proof of this focus with work would be his continuous though hardly used membership to the Hellfire Club, an elite social club catering to the more, ahem… discriminating tastes.
Now we have to remember that Iron Man was a fallback for Tony Stark, and not the other way around – Tony was first and foremost an inventor/industrialist, and in his spare time – or when the situation demanded it, the golden avenger called Iron Man. After all, why go through rough activities that would put a strain on the chest plate’s power?
Remember, every time his chest plate would loose power, the shrapnel would get closer to the heart, so Tony actually felt that he was living on borrowed time. Yet, rather than sulk – he wanted to live life to the fullest by way of adventure – this made him feel alive. His rogues gallery would make sure he lived a life most interesting.
Next: Avengers, romance and the bottle . . .
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