Tony Stark: The Invincible Iron Man 2024!

[MichaelC]

I don't think Feilong really got "propped up". He was exposed pretty early as someone who just lucked into a time period when Stark had sold off his company and spent the money buying up all sorts of dangerous weapons on the market.

Feilong was the Dragon https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDragon of the real big bads, something foreshadowed heavily in his name and powerset. Feilong literally means "flying dragon", and he has a dragon's firebreath.

I do think Duggan made some big mistakes in his run, but not foreshadowing that Feilong was merely an attack-dog with delusions of grandeur was not one of those mistakes.

[Tony Stark]

Who do you guys want to take over on Tony? Anyone heard who’s coming next?

[Marvell2100]

I don't think Feilong really got "propped up". He was exposed pretty early as someone who just lucked into a time period when Stark had sold off his company and spent the money buying up all sorts of dangerous weapons on the market.

Feilong was the Dragon https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDragon of the real big bads, something foreshadowed heavily in his name and powerset. Feilong literally means "flying dragon", and he has a dragon's firebreath.

I do think Duggan made some big mistakes in his run, but not foreshadowing that Feilong was merely an attack-dog with delusions of grandeur was not one of those mistakes.

The issue is this: Feilong shouldn't have been a Tony Stark problem. He should have stayed an X-Men problem. Beating Feilong didn't even solve Tony's problem because now Magneto has to come save him from sentient robots.

[Marvell2100]

Who do you guys want to take over on Tony? Anyone heard who’s coming next?

I wouldn't mind Jed McKay or Al Ewing but I doubt we get either.

[Frontier]

I wouldn't mind Jed McKay or Al Ewing but I doubt we get either.

Yeah, Mackay's got Avengers, X-Men, and maybe still Moon Knight/Dr. Strange.

I'm not sure if Ewing will take on any more Marvel books outside Immortal Thor.

[MichaelC]

I've always wanted to see Gregg Hurwitz give it a try, myself, ever since I read "Penguin Pain and Prejudice".

[Huntsman Spider]

Well stated as usual. You are on the nose about Feilong. I always got this feeling that during this entire run that Feilong was getting propped up more than Tony or at Tony’s expense. I think Duggan was trying to do to his creation what Fraction did for his created villain and it just didn’t work.

Thanks.

Feilong himself wasn't even a threat like this last issue proved. It was Tony's tech and inventions being used against him. He didn't come up with an original idea nor did he create anything. It was a derivative of Tony's work and it wasn't even done by Feilong, that was Nimrod and Omega Sentinel.

It was legal issues and corporate play that put Feilong in a position to succeed in the first place.

Now that it's over, let's get back to Tony villains or new villains created specifically for him.

Kind of like Ezekiel Stane back in Fraction's Invincible Iron Man, as Reed Richards himself called Zeke "more imitative than innovative," but even more aggravating, and to an extent, even more despicable. Zeke might have been a little s*** with delusions of grandeur, but at least he wasn't a genocidal little s*** with delusions of grandeur.

Couldn't agree with you more.

I don't think Feilong really got "propped up". He was exposed pretty early as someone who just lucked into a time period when Stark had sold off his company and spent the money buying up all sorts of dangerous weapons on the market.

Feilong was the Dragon https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDragon of the real big bads, something foreshadowed heavily in his name and powerset. Feilong literally means "flying dragon", and he has a dragon's firebreath.

I do think Duggan made some big mistakes in his run, but not foreshadowing that Feilong was merely an attack-dog with delusions of grandeur was not one of those mistakes.

A good point there. At most, to coincide with the TV Tropes reference, Feilong would count more as a "Big Bad Wannabe." He saw himself as Tony's Big Bad, but his ambitions outstripped his actual capabilities, and again, he turned out to be a pawn of machine intelligences that were playing on his ego and his hatred of mutants (and Tony) for wounding that ego to better-manipulate him into giving them the capability to wipe out all sapient organic life, including the humans he portrayed himself as "championing."

The issue is this: Feilong shouldn't have been a Tony Stark problem. He should have stayed an X-Men problem. Beating Feilong didn't even solve Tony's problem because now Magneto has to come save him from sentient robots.

To be slightly fair, those sentient robots are everybody's problem, since the machine intelligences controlling/guiding them are intending to sacrifice Earth's population, mutant and human alike, to achieve Dominion, not to mention that they were going to come for the likes of the Avengers and other nonmutant heroes down the line if left unimpeded.

Who do you guys want to take over on Tony? Anyone heard who’s coming next?

I wouldn't mind Jed McKay or Al Ewing but I doubt we get either.

Yeah, Mackay's got Avengers, X-Men, and maybe still Moon Knight/Dr. Strange.

I'm not sure if Ewing will take on any more Marvel books outside Immortal Thor.

I've always wanted to see Gregg Hurwitz give it a try, myself, ever since I read "Penguin Pain and Prejudice".

Those all sound like good options, though considering how we were just talking about that mini a page or so before, we could have the writer of I Am Iron Man doing a more ongoing run.

[MichaelC]

Kind of like Ezekiel Stane back in Fraction's Invincible Iron Man, as Reed Richards himself called Zeke "more imitative than innovative," but even more aggravating, and to an extent, even more despicable. Zeke might have been a little s*** with delusions of grandeur, but at least he wasn't a genocidal little s*** with delusions of grandeur.

It's pretty common in Iron Man books, because there is a kind of Tolkien subtext to Iron Man. In Tolkienesque stories, evil can not create, only corrupt what already exists. So his villains generally turn out to be variations on pre-redemtion-Stark, Stark without the soul needed to re-invent himself as a better person. They can not create, so they both can not create better versions of themselves, nor can they invent truly new technology. They can only steal Stark's inventions and twist them into weapons of imperialism/colonialism/resource-hoarding/slavery.

I think that's why Doom has never made the permanent leap to Iron Man's book. Doom is part of a different genre: H.P. Lovecraft. In Lovecraftian stories, evil is perfectly capable of creating, but it must delve into Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know to achieve creation, and that leads to madness. In Lovecraftian stories, the line between science and magic is utterly vague, because it's all just Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know, so the line between science and magic is inconsequential and not worth clarifying.

Doom is the quintessential Mad Scientist and Mad Wizard, to the point where the one thing he can never fix is always looking like an experiment in Mad Science or Mad Wizardry just blew up in his face. Notably, the mad scientists and mad wizards of Lovecraftian stories are rarely defeated by heroes. They are destroyed by their own madness as the height of their power.

Iron Man and Doom can't mix permanently, because they are part of very different genres.

[Frontier]

I've always wanted to see Gregg Hurwitz give it a try, myself, ever since I read "Penguin Pain and Prejudice".

Didn't he do Moon Knight...

It's pretty common in Iron Man books, because there is a kind of Tolkien subtext to Iron Man. In Tolkienesque stories, evil can not create, only corrupt what already exists. So his villains generally turn out to be variations on pre-redemtion-Stark, Stark without the soul needed to re-invent himself as a better person. They can not create, so they both can not create better versions of themselves, nor can they invent truly new technology. They can only steal Stark's inventions and twist them into weapons of imperialism/colonialism/resource-hoarding/slavery.

I think that's why Doom has never made the permanent leap to Iron Man's book. Doom is part of a different genre: H.P. Lovecraft. In Lovecraftian stories, evil is perfectly capable of creating, but it must delve into Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know to achieve creation, and that leads to madness. In Lovecraftian stories, the line between science and magic is utterly vague, because it's all just Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know, so the line between science and magic is inconsequential and not worth clarifying.

Doom is the quintessential Mad Scientist and Mad Wizard, to the point where the one thing he can never fix is always looking like an experiment in Mad Science or Mad Wizardry just blew up in his face. Notably, the mad scientists and mad wizards of Lovecraftian stories are rarely defeated by heroes. They are destroyed by their own madness as the height of their power.

Iron Man and Doom can't mix permanently, because they are part of very different genres.

They tried pretty hard in the Bendis era!

[Tony Stark]

I don't think Feilong really got "propped up". He was exposed pretty early as someone who just lucked into a time period when Stark had sold off his company and spent the money buying up all sorts of dangerous weapons on the market.

Feilong was the Dragon https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDragon of the real big bads, something foreshadowed heavily in his name and powerset. Feilong literally means "flying dragon", and he has a dragon's firebreath.

I do think Duggan made some big mistakes in his run, but not foreshadowing that Feilong was merely an attack-dog with delusions of grandeur was not one of those mistakes.

He was propped up in the way of him trying to be made Tony’s new arch nemesis and it failed. Feilong is not or will never be Stark’s number 1 rogue. That’s already taken.

[MichaelC]

Feilong is not or will never be Stark’s number 1 rogue. That’s already taken.

Amen! It's past due time for His resurrection.

[juan678]

Kael Ngu Cover N 20 (Instagram)

This is my last cover for this series - Invincible Iron Man #20 as the series come to an end. I had the time of my life working as the main cover artist for Iron Man, and I gave it my all in every piece. Ive gained many new fans and many new opportunities with this project, and I cant be more grateful to my fellow editors at Marvel - Darren, Noah and Katelyn for entrusting me with this dream task

[Alex_Of_X]

While the Duggan era of Tony was not for me, I know many people dug it, and I'm glad to see it having lasted to 20. Excited for future escapades of the armored avenger

[Tony Stark]

Kael Ngu Cover N 20 (Instagram)

This is my last cover for this series - Invincible Iron Man #20 as the series come to an end. I had the time of my life working as the main cover artist for Iron Man, and I gave it my all in every piece. Ive gained many new fans and many new opportunities with this project, and I cant be more grateful to my fellow editors at Marvel - Darren, Noah and Katelyn for entrusting me with this dream task

His covers were amazing!!! Really! Enjoyed everyone of them.

[Huntsman Spider]

It's pretty common in Iron Man books, because there is a kind of Tolkien subtext to Iron Man. In Tolkienesque stories, evil can not create, only corrupt what already exists. So his villains generally turn out to be variations on pre-redemtion-Stark, Stark without the soul needed to re-invent himself as a better person. They can not create, so they both can not create better versions of themselves, nor can they invent truly new technology. They can only steal Stark's inventions and twist them into weapons of imperialism/colonialism/resource-hoarding/slavery.

I think that's why Doom has never made the permanent leap to Iron Man's book. Doom is part of a different genre: H.P. Lovecraft. In Lovecraftian stories, evil is perfectly capable of creating, but it must delve into Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know to achieve creation, and that leads to madness. In Lovecraftian stories, the line between science and magic is utterly vague, because it's all just Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know, so the line between science and magic is inconsequential and not worth clarifying.

Doom is the quintessential Mad Scientist and Mad Wizard, to the point where the one thing he can never fix is always looking like an experiment in Mad Science or Mad Wizardry just blew up in his face. Notably, the mad scientists and mad wizards of Lovecraftian stories are rarely defeated by heroes. They are destroyed by their own madness as the height of their power.

Iron Man and Doom can't mix permanently, because they are part of very different genres.

That's a pretty compelling analysis of what makes Tony Stark who he is and what ultimately separates him from his "dark mirror" enemies.