"we are surrounded by chaosâi mean, an all-encompassing disaster of biblical proportions...and all i can think of is him (tony)"
"captain america. steve. i look at your handsome face...into your clear azure eyes...and, as ever, i feel the same guilty envy."
"i feel like a snail or a tortoise, lumbering along in my shell, whenever i'm with steve. so clumsy and so safe, next to his grace and daring."
"that first week after i came out of the ice... it was a dark time... i didn't know what i could hang on to. and then tony stark came in with this little handheld cinema... he showed me a newsreel. right there, i saw a man walk on the moon... and in that moment i felt hope again."
"tony stark and his armor. his wonderful metal suit. the end result of all the technology he's mastered. in his hands the ultimate weapon for good. a good i can never hope to equal."
"you're walking a little funny, steve. next time you should establish a safe word."
"you're walking a little funny, tony. what was that you were saying about a safe word?"
"tony: any excuse to get me to hold you. steve: you see right through me."
"mr. stark, when i woke up in this era, i had no one, nothing. you gave me a purpose, somewhere to belongâŠyou gave me a home"
"only one person can stop captain america... and only one person can stop iron man! no one can take them-- except one another."
"they would fight themselves without hesitation. but their friendship makes them vulnerable to each other."
"because that's the person you present to them. but i don't know that tony stark. i just know you as tony."
"a manâs worth isnât measured by what heâs made of, by blood or bone. itâs whatâs inside, what you believe, and how you act on those beliefs that counts. and by that yardstick ââ i doubt anything could diminish you."
"if it's not the vicious thugs who call themselves heroes today, reminding me how outdated are my old man's ways... it's the amazing inventions that stem from tony's mind. tomorrow's dreams made real"
"cap and iron man couldn't make it. csi and grey's anatomy are newâthey're fighting for the remote."
616 stevetony gave us the "you gave me home" it gave the kiss of life during red zone it gave winghead and shellhead it gave "it wasn't worth it" it gave "good morning, beloved" one was life and one was death if it doesn't win the bracket i'm gonna commit multiple felonies.
"[brother-lover-friend] is coming for me," says whumpee to villain who has been beating them unconscious.
okay. top tier scenario.
but have you considered that brother-lover-friend is in his own dungeon mumbling the same thing and no one is coming for anyone
When I read Invincible Iron Man #8, I couldnât believe my eyes. A reference to Iron Man #182, in my Iron Man comics? More likely than I thought. The fact that the reference was tasteful and also showcased Dugganâs understanding of Tonyâs character was the icing on the cake. To sum up the scene: Tony just got hurt very badly by two Stark Sentinels and is half conscious. He reaches out and asks Emma for help. She gets into his mindscape, which we discover is a snowy alley full with empty bottles and sad tags on the walls.
âNo way out, safe, hopeâ. This is the melodrama I want to see in my Iron Man comics. I also loved that Emma didnât dismiss Tonyâs trauma: âItâs real, but itâs not whatâs happening right now.â She helps him get out of this flashback/mindspace, and the fight goes on.
Thereâs this beautiful panel where Tony surrenders his suit to save Emma:
Look at it!! Look at the colours! Look at the lines! The motion!
Anyways. Tony manages to get Emma away from the fight, taunts Feilong to kill him. Then in issue #9, he refuses Steveâs help when he arrives (because he needs to be alone and he wants to protect his friends) and then he meets up with Emma in the sewers, runs back to his workshop to make her a ring to conceal her from Orchis, and comes back to her. He also bandages his own injuries.
He gets down to the sewers again, and gets into an argument with Emma about his and her actions (or lack thereof) against Orchis/Feilong. And thenâŠ
Tony has a panic attack. Which I think is the first time, ever, we see this happening explicitly in an Iron Man comic (Iâm happy to be proved wrong). He has a panic attack because everything is going to hell and Rhodey is getting hurt in prison and Feilong is trying to kill Rhodey and Tony. Tony is hurting, physically and mentally, and Duggan does not shy away from showing that. I think that Frigeri made an excellent job in drawing Tony so angry and literally foaming at the mouth: heâs not doing well, his emotions are all over the place. He cries (!!) and asks for help, again. Iâm really surprised that Tony asks for help twice in as many issues. Is it because he trusts Emma to calm his mind? Is it easier for him to ask her instead of his friends because itâs less personal? Or is he so desperate that there is no other way? I donât know. Regardless, itâs interesting.
This time, Emma brings him to his happy place:
His happy place, his âidealistic self-imageâ, is him surrounded by the Iron Man armours. Emmaâs comment about there being less unsavoury people and âtrampsâ than sheâd expected pleased my vindicative heart. But more importantly: last issue, we got to see Tonyâs worst mindscape, where he falls into when everything is going to hell and heâs dying. And it was him, alone, in the snow, surrounded by his biggest weakness and fear: alcoholism. In this issue, we see his happy place, which is essentially: Iron Man. What Tony loves most about himself is Iron Man, what he hates most is his alcoholism. AAAAAAAA. This is such quintessential Tony. Itâs him. I think I havenât seen such a good characterization in Iron Man comics in a decade. I still barely believe it.
The following panels set up Tony and Emmaâs alliance for the upcoming comics. Judging from the solicits for IIM 12 and 13, theyâre going to be a team for at least until those issues, and maybe further.
Emmaâs ruthlessness and Tonyâs genius can make for a deadly combo. Theyâre not playing around. I hope we will see them shine together. I canât wait for them to give Feilong and Orchis what they deserve. Also, note the way they phrase their alliance: âTo their deaths.â Add to that the way they are framed, both dressed sharply and facing each other like that, and my mind immediately made the connection to wedding vows: âUntil death do us partâ. Am I reading too much into it, or was this intentional from Duggan and Frigeri? Maybe future wil tell.
To end this long post, here are unrelated thoughts:
1. I love the current trend of Avengers actively helping Mutants fight against Orchis. We have Tony, of course, but also Steve who reformed the Uncanny Avengers to fight against Orchis; Thor just saved a mutant in Immortal Thor #1, weâve had mentions of Vision, Reed and TâChalla helping on the information side⊠Itâs great. Between AXE Judgment Day and Fall of X, it seems that Marvel writers/editorial have decided to stop pitting the X-men and Avengers against each other. Letâs hope it stays that way. Avengers help everyone, and itâs nice to finally see it even in x-men books. Also, it gives us awesome panels:
2. Tony is his own nemesis confirmed. Thank you, Duggan.
And thatâs it! If youâve read this far, consider telling me in comments or tags what you thought. I might start doing posts like this for every Iron Man comic week.
I wanted to add that it's not first time Tony in comics has a panic attack. At least what clearly looks like a panic attack. I don't remember exact issue but in vol 1 there was a moment when Tony had a movie date with some woman. Movie contained explosions and Tony had a panic attack as a reaction, and had to leave movie theater. I'm sorry, wish I could remember when it happened, but maybe someone else knows?
thereâs something about this moment in what-if civil war
that just has so much meat about the steve/tony dynamic in times of high stress and moral arguments. in this what-if, steve and tony actually end up working together to manage SHRA. whatâs interesting is that steve was only being able to calm down his self-righteous anger over civil war to see tonyâs side of the story when tonyâŠ.emotionally prostrated himself in front of steve? only when tony bared himself all the way to the bone did steve listen to what tony was trying to say.
itâs not like steve doubts tonyâs ability to intuit the future - he relies on it a lot. but in this scene in CW, it really feels like steve only makes space to pause and listen to tony when steve feels that tony has adequately emotionally bared his throat, all or nothing. only when steve thinks tony has rightfully given steve the upper hand to make a decision, rightfully humbled himself to saying he needs help, admitted that he is deeply flawed.
only then, does steve say yes okay.
i think it could come from a place of not striking someone whose guard is fully down, from a place of not being able to trust without being trusted but, tony in CW actual was asking for the same thing, just couldnât articulate it as openly. for someone as emotionally bullheaded as steve is often, this is a wild benchmark of moral absolutism to hold tony to. heâs really out here saying, ANY AMOUNT OF LYING TO ME IS WRONG. only the absolute truth is morally upstanding! tony get on your knees emotionally and ask me pretty please, say that you need me, assuage my hurt feelings and be more emotionally open and honest with me than i have been with you this entire time, right now, while i hold the possibility of no within my hand and weigh the entire superhuman communityâs future over whether or not i think youâve repented enough and said you love me enough.
this issue also firmly establishes that tony is right in civil war, that someone did have to take the path of lesser evil to prevent project wideawake from sweeping through the superhero population.
so hereâs the narrative establishing that tony stark was right about civil war, but then immediately stating that steve rogerâs feelings and perspective, his desires for how to handle this situation and need for tony to act a certain way are should nonetheless be validated.
and maybe most interestingly, steve in what-if proceeding to do all the things SHRA registration and hill and reed and tony do, is then held as THE supreme example of peaceful coexistence and moral uprightness. this is portrayed as the best possible civil war outcome:
steveâs morals being assuaged and him holding the same secret ID info, holding the same directoral position as tony did.
and its not like thatâs an isolated incident of 616 canonâČs validation of steveâs unique approach to ethical fading, obvs.
here is an example of steve in new avengers vol 4, being highly emotional, berating tony for not being ~truthful, condemning him for his sins, essentially telling him the only way he could have repented for his faults is by being overwhelming truthful 100% of the time with all grand, global secrets
but then the narrative in new avengers goes on to outright say that itâs a-okay to do this apparently immoral lying to the rest of the superhuman community about the infinity stones, IF AND ONLY IF steve rogers is in on it with tony stark, so that tony isnât lying to steve.
lmfaooooo
moral pluralism? more like moral cap-alism
this repressed, head over heels for tony stark, catholic boy that the whole world idolizesâŠ,.,. i tell yâall,.,.
âŠ..not even six hours later i got an offer of a well paying full time long-term job with free room and board in queens in nyc, allowing me independence and a way to escape an abusive situation and an unhealthy environment
likes charge reblogs cast, folks, this is the good luck post
one of my absolutely favorite rhfe hcs is that they got a matching tattoo when they were young with one having the math equation and the other its solution
so it got me thinking about which one they would have?Â
I am absolutely not a math person (and even less at MIT level) but while I was brainstorming with my moots, one of them mentioned the pythagorean theoreme and it actually felt right. itâs very basic and simple but itâs a cornerstone of geometry and even engineering like their friendship is the cornerstone of their life
