If You Wrote Comics: Iron Man

[MichaelC]

Actually I think it's just the way the Mandarin looks at least in the older comics that reflects that makes me think of the Yellow Peril propaganda.

Stuff like this, you mean?



Yeah, I'll admit a lot of Silver Age art has aged badly. Though it should be noted that white villains tended to be drawn goofily back then, and even the heroes often had goofy faces. But yes, a modern retelling of his origin should use modern art. But the core origin itself is not yellow-peril.

[The Dying Detective]

Stuff like this, you mean?



Yeah, I'll admit a lot of Silver Age art has aged badly. Though it should be noted that white villains tended to be drawn goofily back then, and even the heroes often had goofy faces. But yes, a modern retelling of his origin should use modern art. But the core origin itself is not yellow-peril.

At least Marvel made the Mandarin stand out even during the Cold War era where until Vietnam America was united against the Communists. Yeah this is what I mean the Mandarin had a pretty Fu Manchu esques design back then. Well my mistake on calling the Mandarin's origin steeped in Yellow Peril propaganda.

[MichaelC]

The irony is that he never looked anything like the actual Fu Manchu of the novels. The Fu Manchu of the novels is described as looking like an evil version of Shakespeare. Ra's Al Ghul is actually the spitting image of the actual novel Fu Manchu.


Yet he never gets called on it, because the popular conception of what Fu Manchu looks like has moved miles from how the book described him.

Yet the Mandarin does get called on supposedly looking like Fu Manchu, when he really looks more like Undor Gongor.

[Michael Watkins]

Not that it matters, but I don't associate the character with Yellow Peril.

[The Dying Detective]

At the end of Fractions run. Also he has a daughter by Justine Hammer. That's right, Justin Hammers daughter, but she was killed by her daughter and Ezikel Stane at the end of Fractions run as well.

I can't imagine how old Justine Hammer's daughter would be in contrast to the Mandarin but that does sound quite interesting I wonder whether it's possible for Sasha and Zeke Stane to be married off?

Also really enjoying these threads The Dying Detective. It really gets fans to share their ideas in how they want to see their favorite characters.

Thanks I started them to try to get fans to channel their mind and energy to something more prospective and enjoyable than having to go around feeling dread and unhappiness for their favourite characters even if none of us will ever get to write these characters. I'm thinking of doing thread dedicated to Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Mockingbird but I doubt they will sustain much interest.

[Tiamatty]

The Bastard Son Of Tony Stark, maybe. I have two different ideas for it.

First version: Back in Tony's playboy days, before he became Iron Man, he had a fling with an aspiring starlet. Maybe a Nicole Ritchie-type, a girl born into money who never needed to work, and wanted to be famous, and was briefly famous, but who quickly disappeared into irrelevance. A woman like that. So Tony slept with her, and knocked her up, but never knew about it. She had a kid who had some success as a child star, but, once again, became irrelevant when he hit his teens. Now, the kid, at 18, has learned that Tony Stark is his father, and decides to try to use Tony's money to become famous again. The kid would be a smug little prick who parties too much, and Tony would hate him and want to throw him off the top of Avengers Tower, but feels some sense of responsibility, so would try to help him.

Second version: During a mission in some random location - Nebraska, or New Zealand, or Nigeria, or even somewhere that doesn't start with an 'N', but which is way outside Tony's usual stomping grounds - Tony met some female hero. They worked together, and Tony slept with her, and then he went back to New York. The woman had a kid, and did her best as a single parent. But now the child is developing powers, and the woman isn't sure how to deal with that, so she calls Tony for help.

In both versions of the story, everyone's reaction to learning about the situation is, "Wait, you have a kid? Actually, never mind, I'm more surprised you don't have more kids running around out there."

[Mutant God]

The Bastard Son Of Tony Stark, maybe. I have two different ideas for it.

First version: Back in Tony's playboy days, before he became Iron Man, he had a fling with an aspiring starlet. Maybe a Nicole Ritchie-type, a girl born into money who never needed to work, and wanted to be famous, and was briefly famous, but who quickly disappeared into irrelevance. A woman like that. So Tony slept with her, and knocked her up, but never knew about it. She had a kid who had some success as a child star, but, once again, became irrelevant when he hit his teens. Now, the kid, at 18, has learned that Tony Stark is his father, and decides to try to use Tony's money to become famous again. The kid would be a smug little prick who parties too much, and Tony would hate him and want to throw him off the top of Avengers Tower, but feels some sense of responsibility, so would try to help him.

Second version: During a mission in some random location - Nebraska, or New Zealand, or Nigeria, or even somewhere that doesn't start with an 'N', but which is way outside Tony's usual stomping grounds - Tony met some female hero. They worked together, and Tony slept with her, and then he went back to New York. The woman had a kid, and did her best as a single parent. But now the child is developing powers, and the woman isn't sure how to deal with that, so she calls Tony for help.

In both versions of the story, everyone's reaction to learning about the situation is, "Wait, you have a kid? Actually, never mind, I'm more surprised you don't have more kids running around out there."

That itself could be a storyline where Tony does have multiple kids and each one wants his fortune for either fame or their own armor/tech ideas.

[MichaelC]

Not that it matters, but I don't associate the character with Yellow Peril.

If anything, he seems to be about the evils of war, wealth, and exploitation. He often tries to cause World War III so he can rule the Mad Max world that results. He's constantly trying to steal resources. He's routinely kidnaps scientists and enslaves them to invent for him. He's enslaves regular people for labor. He manipulates governments to further his schemes or destroy his enemies politically. He runs a huge number of corporations. He's an evil Tony Stark, not a "yellow peril". War and money and slavery are his bag, not the furtherance of some sort of racial conflict.