I'm still plowing through the original run of the Iron Man comics; as a matter of fact, I've made it all the way to issue #200.
So: remember what I said about "Demon in a Bottle" and its preceding context? Ha ha, just kidding. The stretch I read this week is in fact The Rough Patch. Here's a sampling of Facebook posts that documented my emotional response to this portion of volume 1 in real time:
Iron Man comic multiple choice:
Is SI on fire?
A) Yes.
B) Not yet, but soon!
If you work for SI, are you currently in the process of betraying Tony Stark?
A) Yes.
B) Not yet, but soon!
C) I'm actually one of the precious few who won't betray Tony ever.
(Okay, I'm exaggerating -- but only slightly.)
A visual summary of my reaction to Iron Man, v.1 #162-167:
*gif of girl screaming*
*then, four hours later in the middle of the night...*
More Iron Man comic multiple choice:
You're a woman Tony's into. Do you...
A) die?
B) marry someone else?
C) leave when your presumed-dead husband is found alive?
D) go insane?
E) betray him?
-OR-
F) pretend you share his feelings to pull off a crazy conspiracy to destroy him because you're a STONE COLD BITCH?
These are your only options so far. Jesus God.
*looks at Iron Man v.1 #168-182*
Ok, you know what's going to happen. You did your research a long time ago. You can do this.
*ten minutes later*
HELP HELP I CAN'T I'M BROKEN AND CRYING TEARS OF BLOOD
So I've dialed up the melodrama in my reactions to the first relapse arc in the Iron Man comics mainly to entertain all of you -- but the serious fact remains that I probably would've gone CRAZY if I had been old enough to see that unfold over a year-plus of publication time. Thank God I can binge read it now instead of waiting in agony!
*then, in the comments to the post above...*
But if I hadn't been 4-5 when those comics were published, I would've been that girl writing monthly tear-stained missives to the letters department begging them to stop the pain.
At this point, you probably get the picture: I was losing my mind all week long. Now let's explain to the movie-only folks* why the bloody hell I was freaking out.
(*Like my brother, for example. Matt is movie-only by choice. He took one look at a comic I was reading and said, "Nope. I can't get used to Tony looking like that. He has to look like Robert Downey Jr." Heh. In fairness to Matt, whenever I read Marvel fanfiction on AO3, I picture RDJ too. If the fic is marked "Marvel 616," I have to work hard to adjust my mental image -- even though I've read some of the comics!)
(Also in fairness to Matt: he doesn't like universal reboots, which have happened in the comics. I'm not looking forward to that either, but at this point, I'm committed.)
One: 616 Obadiah Stane makes his appearance. Yeah.
MCU Obadiah Stane is a creepy effer who not only takes advantage of Tony's disengagement to deliver weapons - and Tony himself! - to terrorists (bad enough!) but also consistently invades Tony's personal space in a manner that can only be described as "clinically affectionate." Seriously: whenever I watch Iron Man, I'm always a little surprised that Obie doesn't, at some point, start patting down Tony's haunches or examining his teeth like he's a prize-winning show dog. And I don't think this expectation is off the mark given that, as he's removing Tony's arc reactor at the start of the climax, Obie makes it pretty explicit that he doesn't value Tony as a friend -- or even as a human being. The "golden goose" indeed!
Still, MCU Obie doesn't hold a candle to 616 Obie. 616 Obie's goal is to take over Stark International from the outside for his own nefarious purposes, so he constructs an elaborate plot to break Tony completely. First, he sends his "Chessmen" in quick succession to battle Tony until our hero is emotionally and physically exhausted. Then comes the coup de grace: Indries, a woman Tony dates throughout the Chessmen arc, reveals herself to be an associate of Stane and basically trashes Tony to his face as pathetic and unlovable. Note: when I read that last indignity, I yelled YOU BITCH loud enough to wake the neighborhood. I'm not even remotely kidding.
Two: 616 Obie's plan works -- initially. Tony starts sucking down booze again and basically disappears for more than a year (at least in publication time).
Of course, I already had prior knowledge of this plot; indeed, I'd already read a few of its more famous issues. (Cap carrying Tony out of a burning flophouse, anyone?) But reading every last little bit of this relapse broke my damn heart. Tony waking up from a blackout, realizing that SI's being attacked, trying to access his armor, but then ultimately failing because he's too trashed to get his shit together? Tony running away from Rhodey's mom - and Cap - because he can't face his own shame? Tony sitting in a raging blizzard knowing that if he doesn't find shelter, he's going to die -- but then deciding he doesn't care? GOOD. GOD. DAMN. Listen, guys: one of my uncles was found dead in a park from a drug overdose many years ago. Watching Tony spiral thanks to a related affliction hits me in a very personal way.
And you know what also makes this story so exquisitely painful? The fact that we keep seeing flashes of Tony's core heroism. In one issue, he gives up the diamonds he's wearing - diamonds he could've sold for alcohol or a place to sleep - to protect a fellow drunk from a gaggle of local bullies. And then there's the very thing that helps him pull out of the tailspin: Gretl's baby, for whom Tony resolves to live and sober up.
I respect the hell out of 1980's Marvel for taking this huge risk. I can easily see a story like this going so very wrong in the hands of some of today's hacks, but the writers of the 80's manage to drag Tony through the mud and mire without actually destroying him utterly. That's an accomplishment.
And in the end, despite all my wailing, I'm glad there's a relapse story in volume 1, and I'm glad it's so devastating. It makes Tony's triumphant return as Iron Man and victory over Obie in issue #200 all the more sweet. Which just goes to show, once again, that if you're a writer, you have to let your heroes suffer and fail because that's what makes their successes actually matter.
And when it comes to writing Tony Stark in any medium, it seems redemption arcs are an inescapable part of the gig.
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