Tony Stark: Iron Man Appreciation 2018

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Iron Man #5 Jun 1998
"Into the Fire!" Part 2 of 2.
The fiery conclusion to Iron Man's battle with Firebrand.


Black Widow cameo.

Story by Kurt Busiek. Art by Sean Chen, Eric Cannon, and Sean Parsons.

[MichaelC]

How long until marvel comics resurrects the character? A month, a year or 2 years from now?

Hopefully his next appearance won't be a resurrection per se, but an outright retconning of him dying in the first place.

[SuperiorIronman]

Until more clarification is given, he was brought back if only to be killed by Frank Castle. 5 years and some change and he is spontaneously back and with his rings, the Hell? Weren't those confiscated by Iron man? Last we saw they had been with him and the A.I on them had been shut down. So how did he regain his rings? And then there is the question of Red Peril, did Abigail get fridged or depowered if only to make the Mandarin a threat? She was clearly using Incinerator and not the Master Ring at the end of Gillen's run.

-So we have a disabled (as in missing both hands) female hero depowered to repower a male villain who is a murderer and now capitalist (things she was against), which is the very thing Mandarin is being used for.
-To kill off said male villain in the same issue but not by the depowered hero but The Punisher
-Killed off by a male Anti-hero who does the very thing Red Peril was vocally against

And then we are given no explanation to how Mandarin came back nor how he even reclaimed his rings.

So instead of actually doing anything with a clearly established hero, we have to dig up an Avengers villain's corpse and shoot it ignoring 2 following Iron man runs in the process. Not to mention the fridging or depowering of a disabled female hero.

And it's not like the writer can claim ignorance either, that was apart of a major Iron man run (the final issue notably) from less than 4 years ago. He never stopped and checked to see if Mandarin's rings had been in usage since then? The Mandarin ring stuff was 2/3 of that run.

[MichaelC]

If I had my way I'd clean that up by retconning everything post the Knauf story as being clones or robots or something, and the rings as being fakes. They were doing things the rings had never done before, like having A.I.'s and generally seeming way, waaayyyy more powerful than they were classically. So I'd retcon it by saying that they were experimental duplicates that were more powerful than the actual rings, but at the price that they would have burnt out and killed their wielders with radiation or something in a matter of days if Iron Man hadn't beaten them before that.

Abigail, being the one person who kept a ring, would be suffering from cancer and her fake ring long since burnt out.

The thing killed by Punisher would also turn out to be a clone or robot. It was too slow, unskilled, and passive to be the real Mandarin, and since when can Mandarin levitate people with lightning bolts?

So, have all of the post-Knauf appearances turn out to be fake; distractions created while the real Mandarin enacts some scheme. The real Mandarin reveals himself, and he's the classic Mandarin: an enormously skilled and aggressive martial artist and a brilliant schemer. The rings are back to classic, modest levels of power, yet he's a tremendous threat because his personal abilities as a schemer and a warrior are what truly make him a threat to the world.

[John Keyt]

Well just read issue 3 , enjoyed it . The cover kinda reminds me of those 70's velvet glow in the dark posters . I know I just dated myself . Enjoyed the Machine Man in this issue . Anyone else notice how much issue 1 of Mm jumped in valve last week . LCS's were asking 50 bucks for a decent copy .

[Tony Stark]

Iron Man #5 Jun 1998
"Into the Fire!" Part 2 of 2.
The fiery conclusion to Iron Man's battle with Firebrand.


Black Widow cameo.

Story by Kurt Busiek. Art by Sean Chen, Eric Cannon, and Sean Parsons.

Thanks for sharing. I loved this run. Every few days I open up my omnibus and reread it. Just great run all around.

[Tony Stark]

Well just read issue 3 , enjoyed it . The cover kinda reminds me of those 70's velvet glow in the dark posters . I know I just dated myself . Enjoyed the Machine Man in this issue . Anyone else notice how much issue 1 of Mm jumped in valve last week . LCS's were asking 50 bucks for a decent copy .

That always happens. When they first showed Thanos, alot of the LCS's around here started to jack up the prices of The Infinity Gauntlet and other books that related to them. Also glad you enjoyed issue #3.

[Hypestyle]

so what new villains are going to be created with these new arcs? I'd like to see some all new villains.

[Digifiend]

I take it Hunt For Wolverine was set before Tony Stark Iron Man and Aaron's Avengers? He was still using Friday as his AI.

[Mantis Dad]

That always happens. When they first showed Thanos, alot of the LCS's around here started to jack up the prices of The Infinity Gauntlet and other books that related to them. Also glad you enjoyed issue #3.

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but did you get a chance to read #3 yet? I always look forward to any heroes biggest fan giving their thoughts, and I don't think I have seen yours yet.

[Tony Stark]

I take it Hunt For Wolverine was set before Tony Stark Iron Man and Aaron's Avengers? He was still using Friday as his AI.

Definitely took place before Tony Stark: Iron Man and Avengers. It was a really fun mini series and any Iron Man fan should check it out. The last part of the mini's Hunt for Wolverine Dead Ends came out today. Putting a cap on all the mini series that were about finding Wolverine.

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but did you get a chance to read #3 yet? I always look forward to any heroes biggest fan giving their thoughts, and I don't think I have seen yours yet.

No need to apologize my friend. I LOVED issue #3. Having eScape out there for people to have a great time and be any Iron Man they choose to be is simply put a great idea. I wish we had that in the real world now lol. I really liked how Jocasta stuck up for herself and chose her own path. My favorite part of the issue was the conversation between Tony and Jocasta at the end. Were Tony basically rebooted himself, that he wondered if he still had a soul. I thought that was a incredible powerful question for Tony to ask. It just shows that he is not just a big ego. That there is such human frailty to Tony and that is one of the thousands of reasons that he is my hero. Again I am the one who should apologize my friend as you asked me for my thoughts, but I had simply forgotten to post them.

[MichaelC]

My favorite part of the issue was the conversation between Tony and Jocasta and the end. Were Tony basically rebooted himself, that he wondered if he still had a soul. I thought that was a incredible question for Tony to ask.

Agreed. That was brilliant writing on Slott's part. :-D

[Mantis Dad]

Definitely took place before Avengers. It was a really fun mini series and any Iron Man fan should check it out. The last part of the mini's Hunt for Wolverine Dead Ends came out today. Putting a cap on all the mini series that were about finding Wolverine.



No need to apologize my friend. I LOVED issue #3. Having eScape out there for people to have a great time and be any Iron Man they choose to be is simply put a great idea. I wish we had that in the real world now lol. I really liked how Jocasta stuck up for herself and chose her own path. My favorite part of the issue was the conversation between Tony and Jocasta at the end. Were Tony basically rebooted himself, that he wondered if he still had a soul. I thought that was a incredible powerful question for Tony to ask. It just shows that he is not just a big ego. That there is such human frailty to Tony and that is one of the thousands of reasons that he is my hero. Again I am the one who should apologize my friend as you asked me for my thoughts, but I had simply forgotten to post them.

Thank you; I agree with all you stated about Tony. Loved the ending with him and Jocasta as well.

[juan678]

2025 Avengers 4 Trailer Anime awesome

[Tony Stark]

2025 Avengers 4 Trailer Anime awesome

That is a really cool trailer. I love it when people come up with stuff like this. It takes some talent to make this.