http://www.avengersforever.org/articles/default.asp
Tony was very vulnerable at this juncture, and someone was waiting in the corner for just this moment. Obadiah Stane would be your typical corporate raider and he took over the void left by Justin Hammer in Tony’s life. The only difference was, Stane was crafty and sneaky. He planned Tony’s downfall – from some villains setting Tony up to hiring a woman to get close to Tony, manipulate him into being addicted to her love, then dump him at the most opportune (like when he professes his love to her) moment.
Maybe it was timing – maybe it was those pent up pressure, but Stane’s strategy worked, and he did what so many others failed to do. Tony ended up a broken man and sought refuge in drunken bliss, and this time Tony sunk much lower than when Beth helped him. He quite literally walked out on everyone and became a bum. Prior to doing this, though, he showed Rhodey that he was indeed Iron Man.
For Tony, this life was seemingly wonderful, and far better than the pressure-laden one he led as both a CEO and hero - this could have literally been the end of Tony had it not been for his meeting Gretl Anders, who was visibly pregnant and was, like Tony, likewise homeless and aimless – they shared each other’s warmth, they partied all night – then came a really bad winter stormy night.
Gretl gave birth in the middle of the storm and was weakening - she definitely needed help, but Tony himself could not help her beyond being there for her and her new born daughter. This was a different experience of desperation by Tony who used to be able to rely on his bankable nature for favors at the very least – but now, as a bum, Tony had zero influence.
Gretl’s dying breath asked Tony to make sure her baby was safe, and Tony swore, right there and then that no harm would come to the baby. His resolve returned and this was the catalyst to make Tony stop drinking… it may also have been the catalyst for him to see the world in a more pragmatic, and some would say… jaded way. It would be this jaded Tony that many people would be dealing with from now on. Yes he still cared for those close to him, but he would not hesitate in doing something for what he perceived as the greater good – or his greater interest. See, what most people forget is that Tony has had the experience for seeing the big picture rather than just the one current situation, and he made decisions based on this.
He was capable of making complex computations without the need for a calculator, and could easily grasp complex relationships of logic and math. This was balanced with a good and caring heart that believed in and trusted the nature of anyone as being good, and worth fighting for. This more jaded Tony would rely less on the latter, when decisions involving moral concerns would prop up in the future.
Rhodes had been Iron Man for some time, acting independently of Tony and to keep the Iron Man armor away from the clutches of Stane International – since Rhodes knew he could not stop Stane from the take over of Stark’s business and all the technological patents it had, he was determined that Stane would not get his hands on Stark’s crowning glory – the Iron Man armor. Stane, however, found blue prints to the Iron Man armor and got his people working on it.
Tony did not bother fighting Stane back for Stane (Stark) International, and instead built Circuits Maximus – he wanted a blank slate, but Stane had other plans. In his attempt to once again take over Tony’s new company, Stane instead did the opposite of what he wanted to achieve – rather than break Tony, as he felt he had done in the past; Tony resolved to fight back and was forced to don the Iron Man armor to fight Stane.
In his last stand with Tony, Stane paraded his new Iron Monger armor as well. We readers would of course find out that said blue prints he based things on were on the obviously very outdated gray armor. So despite his bravado and cunning nature, Stane was doomed to fail.
Shortly thereafter, Tony would create his Silver sphinx armor (silver, red and slightly bulkier than the red and gold version) and discover that his technology was helping high technology terrorists from inflicting damage to innocents – thanks to Stane having distributed said technology to them. Here was the ghost of Vietnam once again – Tony did not care for the fact that his technology was once again being used to hurt others.
He resolved to take back all his technology to prevent this recurrence and he would fight on two fronts – legally through Stark International’s legal capabilities, and extra legally – as Iron Man. He was just worried how some of his long time friends would react to his plans… most notably, Steve Rogers.
Tony always had a practical and realistic side to him – maybe because he knew he could have things done if he wanted to. He’d try the usual routes, connections, charm, reason, and he was not averse to greasing some palms (within legal limits) to get things going faster. If that did not work, he’d try buying, hiring, leasing or building alternates. But this was the old Tony – the newer Tony did not mind going for the jugular.
At this point in time, Tony could count on a few friends, most notable of which were his team mates as Avengers. It was this loyalty to his handful of comrades that even made his stop a budding romance between him and Janet Van Dyne, who divorced or not, was still the ex-wife of a fellow Avenger and friend Hank Pym.
Steve Rogers was turning out to be one of Tony’s trusted friends. The man was always on the level and was never intimidated of Tony or Iron Man – he definitely gained Tony’s respect – even if Tony felt that Steve was, at times, outdated with his beliefs and values. Despite this, Steve was definitely someone who could be trusted to call things the way he saw them. It was because of this that Tony did think of how Steve would react to his plans.
Tony, wile planning for his technology inquest, felt that Steve would not understand his reasons for getting any technology back by force if necessary, and to Steve’s credit, this is what probably what made Tony exhaust all legal means first. Tony did not want to lose the respect and friendship of Steve and deep inside, he may even have envied how Steve seemed to just gravitate towards a leadership role, and how others would easily be inspired by the person’s presence as Captain America. He may even have remembered that the Avengers would not have had their security clearance, had it not been for Steve being part of the Avengers in those early days.
Steve was a man who others listened to – not because he was their boss, but because they wanted to listen and follow. Tony could do this – but only to a certain point. What Tony could do with money and lawyers, Steve could do just by himself.
If Tony had even thought that most of Cap’s received respect may have been because of great packaging in terms of building the icon of Captain America in the 2nd World War, he would later realize that it was the man and not the mask or package that made the living legend. Tony knew that Captain America was not just a costume for anyone to wear – and anyone would be hard pressed to fill the role, and he would probably have an easier time getting someone else to be
Iron Man, than for anyone to fill the role of Captain America.
But Steve Rogers was an outdated person with so many impractical ideas – he was incorruptible, and as a hero that may have been good – but for Tony, looking for a handle on which to be able to hold Steve, this was a frustration. Yet Tony had a respect for this man out of time – and at most, he had to admit that Steve Rogers was one of those people that even he, Tony Stark, would find hard to compare with and be not found wanting in some respect - more so when he finally decided to implement his armor wars.
When Steve, as the Captain, asked Tony’s help to create a new shield, Tony jumped on the opportunity to help and somehow get to the Captain’s good side of owing Tony a favor. Tony hoped this silver colored shield would be enough to make Steve hesitate when push came to shove.
Needless to say, Tony began a hunting spree – disabling all Stark related technologies around the world, pirated or not. He burned a lot of bridges here… he turned against the guardsmen – including Kevin O’Brien (who saved Tony’s life twice), he hunted down Rhodes and disabled the Iron Man armor being used by James, and he even ended up causing the death of the Titanium Man.
For the Avengers, this was the last straw – they could tolerate Tony getting his technology back, but when he killed (accident or not) they had to meet and consider taking him down. Even the government, which was not spared Iron Man’s purge, was after him. Once again, Tony seemed way ahead of them as he faked the Silver Sphinx armor’s death… and presumably, that too of whoever was residing in said armor.
When the smoke cleared, Tony was however able to convince the public that the rampage of his latest Iron Man was caused by an ex-Stark employee, whom he had immediately dismissed and to most of the public, he was willing to answer for damages incurred. This may have washed for many but not for the few who knew the truth – that during that entire process, Tony was Iron Man.
For Tony, the whole Armor War was a case of the cure, no matter how radical it seemed (he never intended to kill anyone), was better than the alternative. So he accepted the possible consequences of his actions – his resolve to take back that what was stolen from him (the unauthorized use of his more damaging technology) was the cornerstone for the purge that he did and covering up – a thing he would not think of doing in the past was his main concern now.
Having gone down this road, he had no other choice – and if he had to do it all again, he would not hesitate to repeat them... and he did. The Armors War would also repeat itself at a later time.
The Avengers tried to do things formally by meeting to discuss Iron Man’s fate – Tony jumped the gun and quit. He left them and for now it seemed that this may be enough of a status quo for the team, but Steve could no longer trust Tony – he had stopped using the silver shield Tony had given him, when he realized that Tony had intended it to be a sort of bribe for non-interference, and this would not the last time these two would find themselves in separate corners of a conflict.
For Tony, the path to the dark side had started (much to many fans protests). He began acting more ruthless as Iron Man, and definitely – he was more impatient as Stark. Tony would find other ways to find himself in opposing sides with Steve, and in one instance, would even lead nearly half the combined East and West Coast Avengers in a bid to end the threat of the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree, for actions against his own race that seemingly wiped them out.
Tony argrued that such an action – removing the Kree race’s evolutionary dead-end by near genocide, was too heavy an act not to punish right there and then – and since they (Avengers) had the means, they were duty-bound to Avenge the dead.
Steve saw it another way. They were not judge, jury and executioners – but Tony stepped in and rammed procedures down everyone’s (especially Steve’s) throat by stating that he was the only remaining active founder in the current team and by that virtue, could decide what Avengers could – or could not do.
Tony showed in this instance that he was impatient and forceful, and his stance would be supported by Wonder Man, Hercules, Sersi, Black Knight, the very logical Vision and Thor – some of these Avengers would later reconsider if what they did was right, but it was too late to redress such an action, and upon return to earth, Captain America left the Avengers.
Tony stayed on, but later, he even became instrumental in voting that the West Coast side of the Avengers be disbanded – a move that seemed brash to others. Tony reasoned out that they would always be seen as the second team. He convinced Wanda and company to join him in creating Force Works. My guess is that from this time onwards Tony was not comfortable in living under the rules (charter) of the Avengers anymore – and he was not able to mold the team the way he would want to. So he created another team with Wanda and company.
Tony’s illogical actions would be later attributed to the fact that he was being controlled and manipulated by Kang (really Immortus) and seduced by Mantis (really the Space Phantom) to follow their desires and plans. It was under this influence that he resorted to doing more drastic cover-ups that included ruthlessly killing people – Rita de Mara (Yellow Jacket), Marilla (Luna’s nanny), Amanda Cheney (Force Works’ P.R.O.) and fatally wounding Jan (Wasp) as well, who was only saved by a desperate gamble by Hank Pym.
Realizing that Iron Man was now a foe under the influence of Kang – a foe who had gone too far, the Avengers decided that there was only one person who could beat Tony Stark by way of helping control his ordnance and that was none other than Tony Stark. They traveled back in time to convince Young Tony to help them. The contrast could not be more glaring as we saw a young confident upstart Tony going against a jaded, tired, angry and still prideful Tony.
Young Tony accessed the Iron Man armor which was designed to respond only to Tony;s DNA and he beat the older Tony’s (and Immortus) plans, but in the ensuing realization of defeat the older Tony, seeing the smug look of triumph from the young Tony’s face, got enraged and thrust his fist into the chest plate of the younger Tony. Shocked with what he had done, the older Stark finally died, finding some sort of honorable death against Kang/Immortus.
The younger Tony – whose heart was damaged earlier by the older Tony’s attack, had to be treated for some emergency procedure to keep him alive. It would be a young Tony now stuck in this world who would take on the role of Iron Man. It was now this younger Tony’s turn to rekindle the tarnished image of the Golden Avenger, and he – along with many valiant Avengers, seemingly sacrificed himself against the threat of Onslaught.
For all intents and purposes, though victorious, many heroes perished that day… including Iron Man. Thankfully another child had a different idea, and Heroes Return heralded the reincarnation of many heroes, including – this time, an older Tony Stark – one not affected by all the baggage of his past.
Next: Everything old is new Again . . .
Tony was very vulnerable at this juncture, and someone was waiting in the corner for just this moment. Obadiah Stane would be your typical corporate raider and he took over the void left by Justin Hammer in Tony’s life. The only difference was, Stane was crafty and sneaky. He planned Tony’s downfall – from some villains setting Tony up to hiring a woman to get close to Tony, manipulate him into being addicted to her love, then dump him at the most opportune (like when he professes his love to her) moment.
Maybe it was timing – maybe it was those pent up pressure, but Stane’s strategy worked, and he did what so many others failed to do. Tony ended up a broken man and sought refuge in drunken bliss, and this time Tony sunk much lower than when Beth helped him. He quite literally walked out on everyone and became a bum. Prior to doing this, though, he showed Rhodey that he was indeed Iron Man.
For Tony, this life was seemingly wonderful, and far better than the pressure-laden one he led as both a CEO and hero - this could have literally been the end of Tony had it not been for his meeting Gretl Anders, who was visibly pregnant and was, like Tony, likewise homeless and aimless – they shared each other’s warmth, they partied all night – then came a really bad winter stormy night.
Gretl gave birth in the middle of the storm and was weakening - she definitely needed help, but Tony himself could not help her beyond being there for her and her new born daughter. This was a different experience of desperation by Tony who used to be able to rely on his bankable nature for favors at the very least – but now, as a bum, Tony had zero influence.
Gretl’s dying breath asked Tony to make sure her baby was safe, and Tony swore, right there and then that no harm would come to the baby. His resolve returned and this was the catalyst to make Tony stop drinking… it may also have been the catalyst for him to see the world in a more pragmatic, and some would say… jaded way. It would be this jaded Tony that many people would be dealing with from now on. Yes he still cared for those close to him, but he would not hesitate in doing something for what he perceived as the greater good – or his greater interest. See, what most people forget is that Tony has had the experience for seeing the big picture rather than just the one current situation, and he made decisions based on this.
He was capable of making complex computations without the need for a calculator, and could easily grasp complex relationships of logic and math. This was balanced with a good and caring heart that believed in and trusted the nature of anyone as being good, and worth fighting for. This more jaded Tony would rely less on the latter, when decisions involving moral concerns would prop up in the future.
Rhodes had been Iron Man for some time, acting independently of Tony and to keep the Iron Man armor away from the clutches of Stane International – since Rhodes knew he could not stop Stane from the take over of Stark’s business and all the technological patents it had, he was determined that Stane would not get his hands on Stark’s crowning glory – the Iron Man armor. Stane, however, found blue prints to the Iron Man armor and got his people working on it.
Tony did not bother fighting Stane back for Stane (Stark) International, and instead built Circuits Maximus – he wanted a blank slate, but Stane had other plans. In his attempt to once again take over Tony’s new company, Stane instead did the opposite of what he wanted to achieve – rather than break Tony, as he felt he had done in the past; Tony resolved to fight back and was forced to don the Iron Man armor to fight Stane.
In his last stand with Tony, Stane paraded his new Iron Monger armor as well. We readers would of course find out that said blue prints he based things on were on the obviously very outdated gray armor. So despite his bravado and cunning nature, Stane was doomed to fail.
Shortly thereafter, Tony would create his Silver sphinx armor (silver, red and slightly bulkier than the red and gold version) and discover that his technology was helping high technology terrorists from inflicting damage to innocents – thanks to Stane having distributed said technology to them. Here was the ghost of Vietnam once again – Tony did not care for the fact that his technology was once again being used to hurt others.
He resolved to take back all his technology to prevent this recurrence and he would fight on two fronts – legally through Stark International’s legal capabilities, and extra legally – as Iron Man. He was just worried how some of his long time friends would react to his plans… most notably, Steve Rogers.
Tony always had a practical and realistic side to him – maybe because he knew he could have things done if he wanted to. He’d try the usual routes, connections, charm, reason, and he was not averse to greasing some palms (within legal limits) to get things going faster. If that did not work, he’d try buying, hiring, leasing or building alternates. But this was the old Tony – the newer Tony did not mind going for the jugular.
At this point in time, Tony could count on a few friends, most notable of which were his team mates as Avengers. It was this loyalty to his handful of comrades that even made his stop a budding romance between him and Janet Van Dyne, who divorced or not, was still the ex-wife of a fellow Avenger and friend Hank Pym.
Steve Rogers was turning out to be one of Tony’s trusted friends. The man was always on the level and was never intimidated of Tony or Iron Man – he definitely gained Tony’s respect – even if Tony felt that Steve was, at times, outdated with his beliefs and values. Despite this, Steve was definitely someone who could be trusted to call things the way he saw them. It was because of this that Tony did think of how Steve would react to his plans.
Tony, wile planning for his technology inquest, felt that Steve would not understand his reasons for getting any technology back by force if necessary, and to Steve’s credit, this is what probably what made Tony exhaust all legal means first. Tony did not want to lose the respect and friendship of Steve and deep inside, he may even have envied how Steve seemed to just gravitate towards a leadership role, and how others would easily be inspired by the person’s presence as Captain America. He may even have remembered that the Avengers would not have had their security clearance, had it not been for Steve being part of the Avengers in those early days.
Steve was a man who others listened to – not because he was their boss, but because they wanted to listen and follow. Tony could do this – but only to a certain point. What Tony could do with money and lawyers, Steve could do just by himself.
If Tony had even thought that most of Cap’s received respect may have been because of great packaging in terms of building the icon of Captain America in the 2nd World War, he would later realize that it was the man and not the mask or package that made the living legend. Tony knew that Captain America was not just a costume for anyone to wear – and anyone would be hard pressed to fill the role, and he would probably have an easier time getting someone else to be
Iron Man, than for anyone to fill the role of Captain America.
But Steve Rogers was an outdated person with so many impractical ideas – he was incorruptible, and as a hero that may have been good – but for Tony, looking for a handle on which to be able to hold Steve, this was a frustration. Yet Tony had a respect for this man out of time – and at most, he had to admit that Steve Rogers was one of those people that even he, Tony Stark, would find hard to compare with and be not found wanting in some respect - more so when he finally decided to implement his armor wars.
When Steve, as the Captain, asked Tony’s help to create a new shield, Tony jumped on the opportunity to help and somehow get to the Captain’s good side of owing Tony a favor. Tony hoped this silver colored shield would be enough to make Steve hesitate when push came to shove.
Needless to say, Tony began a hunting spree – disabling all Stark related technologies around the world, pirated or not. He burned a lot of bridges here… he turned against the guardsmen – including Kevin O’Brien (who saved Tony’s life twice), he hunted down Rhodes and disabled the Iron Man armor being used by James, and he even ended up causing the death of the Titanium Man.
For the Avengers, this was the last straw – they could tolerate Tony getting his technology back, but when he killed (accident or not) they had to meet and consider taking him down. Even the government, which was not spared Iron Man’s purge, was after him. Once again, Tony seemed way ahead of them as he faked the Silver Sphinx armor’s death… and presumably, that too of whoever was residing in said armor.
When the smoke cleared, Tony was however able to convince the public that the rampage of his latest Iron Man was caused by an ex-Stark employee, whom he had immediately dismissed and to most of the public, he was willing to answer for damages incurred. This may have washed for many but not for the few who knew the truth – that during that entire process, Tony was Iron Man.
For Tony, the whole Armor War was a case of the cure, no matter how radical it seemed (he never intended to kill anyone), was better than the alternative. So he accepted the possible consequences of his actions – his resolve to take back that what was stolen from him (the unauthorized use of his more damaging technology) was the cornerstone for the purge that he did and covering up – a thing he would not think of doing in the past was his main concern now.
Having gone down this road, he had no other choice – and if he had to do it all again, he would not hesitate to repeat them... and he did. The Armors War would also repeat itself at a later time.
The Avengers tried to do things formally by meeting to discuss Iron Man’s fate – Tony jumped the gun and quit. He left them and for now it seemed that this may be enough of a status quo for the team, but Steve could no longer trust Tony – he had stopped using the silver shield Tony had given him, when he realized that Tony had intended it to be a sort of bribe for non-interference, and this would not the last time these two would find themselves in separate corners of a conflict.
For Tony, the path to the dark side had started (much to many fans protests). He began acting more ruthless as Iron Man, and definitely – he was more impatient as Stark. Tony would find other ways to find himself in opposing sides with Steve, and in one instance, would even lead nearly half the combined East and West Coast Avengers in a bid to end the threat of the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree, for actions against his own race that seemingly wiped them out.
Tony argrued that such an action – removing the Kree race’s evolutionary dead-end by near genocide, was too heavy an act not to punish right there and then – and since they (Avengers) had the means, they were duty-bound to Avenge the dead.
Steve saw it another way. They were not judge, jury and executioners – but Tony stepped in and rammed procedures down everyone’s (especially Steve’s) throat by stating that he was the only remaining active founder in the current team and by that virtue, could decide what Avengers could – or could not do.
Tony showed in this instance that he was impatient and forceful, and his stance would be supported by Wonder Man, Hercules, Sersi, Black Knight, the very logical Vision and Thor – some of these Avengers would later reconsider if what they did was right, but it was too late to redress such an action, and upon return to earth, Captain America left the Avengers.
Tony stayed on, but later, he even became instrumental in voting that the West Coast side of the Avengers be disbanded – a move that seemed brash to others. Tony reasoned out that they would always be seen as the second team. He convinced Wanda and company to join him in creating Force Works. My guess is that from this time onwards Tony was not comfortable in living under the rules (charter) of the Avengers anymore – and he was not able to mold the team the way he would want to. So he created another team with Wanda and company.
Tony’s illogical actions would be later attributed to the fact that he was being controlled and manipulated by Kang (really Immortus) and seduced by Mantis (really the Space Phantom) to follow their desires and plans. It was under this influence that he resorted to doing more drastic cover-ups that included ruthlessly killing people – Rita de Mara (Yellow Jacket), Marilla (Luna’s nanny), Amanda Cheney (Force Works’ P.R.O.) and fatally wounding Jan (Wasp) as well, who was only saved by a desperate gamble by Hank Pym.
Realizing that Iron Man was now a foe under the influence of Kang – a foe who had gone too far, the Avengers decided that there was only one person who could beat Tony Stark by way of helping control his ordnance and that was none other than Tony Stark. They traveled back in time to convince Young Tony to help them. The contrast could not be more glaring as we saw a young confident upstart Tony going against a jaded, tired, angry and still prideful Tony.
Young Tony accessed the Iron Man armor which was designed to respond only to Tony;s DNA and he beat the older Tony’s (and Immortus) plans, but in the ensuing realization of defeat the older Tony, seeing the smug look of triumph from the young Tony’s face, got enraged and thrust his fist into the chest plate of the younger Tony. Shocked with what he had done, the older Stark finally died, finding some sort of honorable death against Kang/Immortus.
The younger Tony – whose heart was damaged earlier by the older Tony’s attack, had to be treated for some emergency procedure to keep him alive. It would be a young Tony now stuck in this world who would take on the role of Iron Man. It was now this younger Tony’s turn to rekindle the tarnished image of the Golden Avenger, and he – along with many valiant Avengers, seemingly sacrificed himself against the threat of Onslaught.
For all intents and purposes, though victorious, many heroes perished that day… including Iron Man. Thankfully another child had a different idea, and Heroes Return heralded the reincarnation of many heroes, including – this time, an older Tony Stark – one not affected by all the baggage of his past.
Next: Everything old is new Again . . .
Comments