Quote Originally Posted by CentralPower View Post
I mostly agree.

But, Amanda is not coming back, unless it is to dispose of her more decisively. Similarly, I suspect that this will end with Arno being revealed as being a fake of some kind, and never related to Tony. The net result will be that the adoption angle will go away, never to be mentioned again.

If I recall, (from back in 2013/14), the adoption reveal was foisted on Gillen, mid-run. He had not planned to include a reveal that Tony Stark was adopted. (Look at the God-Killer armor shown in "The Secret Origin of Tony Stark". It looks like a suit of Stark tech, almost as if Tony were genetically pre-disposed towards that design. The basic visuals imply that Arno was a last minute, and back-written addition.)

Gillen's comments implied that he had the idea to use Arno (who was "just there") for the adoption reveal. At the same time, Marvel was disposing of the old (DeFalco/Trimpe) Arno Stark, along with some other future characters in Remender's concurrent run on "Uncanny Avengers".

The old iteration of Arno (aka "Iron Man 2020) was one of a half dozen characters shown being pulled from previously established futures that were being wiped out by some kind of time-travel brouhaha. The common theme for most of those futures is that they were getting harder to justify as define as "distant". (Even 2099 is within an expected human life-span at this point.) If we assume that Marvel was initially planning to use "Secret Wars" (2015) as a way to dispose of the multiverse, then getting ride of established futures (and related characters) makes even more sense.


Since showing up in the early 80s, Arno Stark has gone from being a descendant, to a cousin's descendant, an off-spring of that cousin (in the 90s), a long-lost pseudo-sibling (during Gillen's and Bendis' runs) and will probably end up being some kind of evil techno-clone. .
I used to think they would retconned it but we are deep the rabbit hole. I don’t think there’s turning back. How would they retcon this mess.

Gotta say iron man 2020 #1 surprised me. Really enjoyable.