Marvel 2020 (Iron Man, ForceWorks, etc)

[CentralPower]

I know that there is a dedicated "Iron Man 2020 appreciation" thread. But, as with most "appreciation" threads, it includes a fair amount of looking back at old content. I am starting this thread for more focused discussion on the current "2020" comics.

I am planning to read any series or one-shot with the 2020 imprint. Anyone else? What are you expecting or hoping for?


My best guess is that 2020 as a whole is going to end with the adoption reveal (2013-2016) being undone.

Tony has been "rebooted" in ways that would raise questions about exactly what he is (a human, a copy, whatever). And, the current "Iron Man 2020" series is about a robot revolution, complete with questions about how "legitimate" or "alive" artificial intelligence is. The likely resolution will probably be something like "current Tony, AI or not, is alive enough".

There will probably be a reveal that Arno is some kind of AI, which will push him over the edge (and set him up to be a recurring bad guy until editorial forgets about him).

It would make sense to reveal that the plot was orchestrated by Recorder 451 (an adversary from Gillen's run in 2013). 451 was part of the plot that revealed the (back-written) adoption. This was foisted on Gillen/Land as part of the set-up for Bendis' run on the series. (Bendis wanted to write about adoption. And, nobody was going to tell him "no", even when they should.)

I know that some people have said that the mastermind characters should be Morgan Stark or the Mandarin.

However, using 451 to undo the stupid adoption would containing away fromm other characters (allowing Marvel and us to move on and ignore the damned thing by the end of this year). Arno being worried about a space-based threat (as show in the first issue of "Iron Man 2020") in a series about a robot revolution might be hinting at the return of 451 (an alien built robot...that rebelled against his programming).


I suspect that "Rescue 2020" will end with the Stark parents being revealed as fakes....and killed off (or captured as set-up for something in the main series).

[MichaelC]

I don't find 451 interesting, at all, whatsoever, so using him to undo the adoption doesn't interest me. Whereas I'd love to see this all be part of some scheme by The Mandarin to destroy Tony Stark psychologically.

[CentralPower]

I am not saying it is going to read well. Once it starts in earnest, I expect a compilation's worth of moving characters and pieces towards a telegraphed ending.

Using 451 ties the adoption reveal back to when Marvel originally foisted it on Gillen (and by extension us). I know that there is a fixation on the Mandarin. But, I really don't know where it came from.

[MichaelC]

I am not saying it is going to read well.

No, using 451 would not read well. 451 is a boring character and should not be used. I don't care if using a more entertaining character would be more work; I'd still prefer they use a more entertaining character.

[j9ac9k]

- I hope they don't end up trashing Machine Man by the end of this as a second-rate human-hating Ultron wannabe. So far he seems a bit militant like Cyclops, but hasn't entered villain territory, so that's good.
- I am looking to see how many references they might make to previous Iron Man 2020 stories. Not that they'd need to - having Arno is cool enough, but it'll be interesting to see if they actually fold in any of those older stories from the 2020 point of view now that we're here.

[Sutekh]

- I hope they don't end up trashing Machine Man by the end of this as a second-rate human-hating Ultron wannabe. So far he seems a bit militant like Cyclops, but hasn't entered villain territory, so that's good.

Marvel 1000, IIRC, suggested that there were now *two* Machine Men / Aaron Stack's, one being the dude who appears to have hair, appearing much like he did in Nextwave and being a snarky meatbag-hater, and the other being the old-school looking individual who seems to have gained cosmic awareness as a result of his time with the Celestials...

That might be an attempt to 'save' the character from whatever corner he's being written into in this storyline, and could lead to a dilemna similar to what the mutants could be facing over in their corner of the universe; if multiple iterations of 'me' are running at the same time, which one is the 'real me?'