Happy Mother's Day

My History with Iron Man?

Honestly? Before the first movie came out I didn't even like the character that much. It didn't even have anything to do with Civil War (but that didn't help), but I just never saw much in the character. It was only with the movie (and the Warren Ellis Extremis story arc) that actually brought me in. Even at that, I only have a very few Iron Man trades, including Adam Warren's Hypervelocity and "The Many Armors of Iron Man" trade that Marvel put out just before the first movie hit theatres.

Just FYI.

Friday Night Physics

For reasons that I trust are obvious to everyone, tonight we'll be looking at the War Machine Armor and some of the engineering that distinguishes from the traditional Iron Man armor suits.

An initial disclaimer however - like the Iron Man armor itself, a lot of this is subject to the interpretation of the artist, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

The most important distinction of the War Machine armor is fairly obvious - most of the weapons systems are essentially modified or miniturized versions of existing military hardware - missile launchers, machineguns, autocannons and so forth. While this happens to be a far more reasonable depiction than the various beam weaponry of the Iron Man armor, it also introduces a few entirely new drawbacks that to consider.

The first drawback has to be the limits on ammunition that you can store on a roughly human-sized frame for that many weapons - I mean, even if the armor were hollow (and it obviously isn't) there's no way to put enough ammo to keep a high cyclic-rate of fire chain gun firing for more than a couple of minutes. And of course, there's only so many rockets you could fire which would limit your long-term offensive capabilities.

Secondly, you'd have to consider the short and long term maintenance issues. Even with low-residue "smokeless" propellants, the weapons would require cleaning. Of course, you could bypass this problem by saying that the projectile weapons use an electromagnetic propulsion system such as a rail gun, but this would introduce increased overheating issues, requiring an even more bulky design to accomodate coolants.

Recoil and balance would also become issues, especially with the rockets and most especially during flight (though, as we've discussed before, the Iron man armor isn't exactly aerodynamically feasible). The force of the weapons firing should knock around a human sized target unless it's anchored to the ground somehow. Now, this could probably be overcome using the propulsion of the repulsor flight system, but having never seen this depicted before, it is something that is clearly lacking. Of course, this problem gets a lot worse when you consider the guns mounted on the forearms of the War Machine armor, and gets much much worse when factoring multiple weapons systems firing at once.

Still, it looks awesome, no?

Irony Man

Just a thought.

The whole central premise of the Iron Man movie franchise is the dilemna of whether the creator of something should have the exclusive control over that creation and the benefits derived from it.

Think about that, won't you?

Why the Iron Man Movie matters (and the comics don't)

Numbers.

That's it, just numbers. This movie is going to have a viewing audience of what? 10-20 million? And then on DVD and on-demand and Blu-Ray and whatever the hell else comes out as a format for movies, plus airings on networks for decades to come?

How the hell do the comics compare to that?

The market for corporate super-comics? It's tiny- maybe what, a million? Two million?

They're too expensive ($4 US? Are you nuts? For 1/6th of a story?), they are paced for another format entirely which also isn't cost competitive because while a $20 Trade Paperback is comparable to the DVD price when the movie is first released on DVD, the DVD price will eventually drop with demand - this does not hold true for the TPB.

Oh, don't get me wrong; I love comics, or I wouldn't do this blog...but the atrophied market says something and we might as well say it now.

OK, you know people like Chris Sims? Sure you do - heck, I like him, and think he's probably one of the top (if not the top) comics blogger out there. Heck, I've probably discovered a few comics thanks to him. I love how he talks about the comics he loved when he was growing up and how they influenced him.

And there's the problem - 20 years from now? There's probably no next Chris Sims. And if there is, he'll be talking about how the Iron Man movie "totally rawked" - he won't be talking about Matt Fraction's "epic run" because he won't have read it. Very few will, because the corporate supercomic groups aren't marketing to him, and have no idea how to get a comic into his hands at anything resembling a sane price.

A lot of people I know call this "The Fanfiction Age of Comics", but the more I think about it, the more I think another label is appropriate.

Welcome to the Forgotten Age of Comics.

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Funny how that works

I'm finding the resurgence of the Black Widow in recent Marvel comics (predating her introduction now in Iron Man 2) to be rather interesting. After all, she's been around almost five decades now, and she's never really had an established niche. Heck, it wasn't even that long ago they were trying to phase her out for that blond Black Widow that Rucka came up with (that was Greg Rucka, right)? And yes, while "Hot redhead in a black leather catsuit" should be an easy sell to fanboys, she's only recently started to build a place for herself in the Marvel Universe, and I think there's a few things about that.

First, her character arc probably has greater relevance now than any time in her history since the Cold War. We live in a era of constantly nebulous and shifting allegiances, and a time where espionage and the moral grey areas of international policy are being highlighted more and more in the public arena. Natasha, who as a character, is defined by her own shifting allegiances and her difficulties in gaining and accepting trust, strike a natural chord that probably hasn't been present in a while.

Then there is the fact that unlike a lot of modern superhero tales, hers are relatively easy to depict. There aren't a lot of calls for exotic powers, technology or mysticism attached to the types of stories she'd appear in (barring her work with the Avengers), so it's relatively easy for most artists to give her simple but dynamic and catching action sequences simply using references from existing spy-action tropes. It also helps that even a new reader can come in and understand the action plainly enough.

Finally, there is the fact that with her establishment within the Marvel Universe as a member of the Avengers, and working with SHIELD/Nick Fury, she's got an easy go-to-excuse to fit into any story. Need to have Natasha in Ghost Rider? She's investigating what happened to her old Champions teammate. Punisher? Checking up on him for Nick Fury. Nova? On a mission with the Avengers. Very simple explanations that easily get her into the story and doesn't drag down the action.

Of course, the catsuit probably doesn't hurt.

What If we lived in a Comic Book Universe? Part 59

Your Moment of Funny

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Awwww!

Feeling sick, so this is what you get.

Thoughts: Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore

Finally got to read Alan Moore's prose book, Voice of the Fire, and I'm just going to give a few random scattershot thoughts, because when it comes to Alan Moore, I'm not sure I'm in a position to offer a review on this work.

-The first chapter of this book is one of the most challenging things I've ever read in my life.
-The "fires" are those of lust, of avarice, of fears and insecurities, and how they consume us.

-It's a book about Alan's hometown, given a pantina of fiction and drawn through thousands of years of development.

-Ultimately what probably holds me back from truly enjoying this work is that while I acknowledge Moore's insane level of talent, I don't care for his bleaker, darker tales - I acknowledge that this is probably a failing on my part and an inability to separate Moore's darkness from the nihilism of the "grim'n'gritty" modern corporate comics landscape that aped all of his tricks without any of his heart or brains.

-It is a book that questions everything, even itself

-It is a story about a place, and how people create their environments, and their environments in turn create (or destroy) them.

So, that's what I have to say on that. I do recommend the book as a challenge or for people who really really want to try to understand the properties of fiction the way Moore does. As for me, I think I prefer his more lighthearted stuff (such as Tom Strong above).

BONUS!

Because Just once I want to get something cool like this posted before MightyGodKing.

Popular comics Myth busted

"Mark Millar's Superman Adventures run proves he can write good, positive super-comics."

I've heard this one a lot over the years - usually as some kind of back-handed defense of Millar's current output. I've even seen this one from my good friend and comics-blogging mentor, Alan David Doane. Pity it's not in any way, shape or form true.

Oh, on the surface, there's a degree of positivity. Superman does heroic stuff, fighting bad guys and so forth. One imagines that it's the bare minimum expectation for what a corporate super-comic should be, and I think the fact that this is considered extraordinary says alot about how degraded and depraved the corporate spandex hero genre has become. However, a look at the subtext displays a lot of what makes Mark Millar's writing absolutely insufferable.

There's the absolutely-out-of-nowhere fake-outs and deux-ex-machinas, showing his failure to play fair with the reader. There's the focus on villains doing really out-of-character actions (such as the Parasite) and the high level of nonsense covered by layers of "high stakes". But worst of all is the way Millar's budding cynicism just bleeds through even this heavily edited material. In the (much lauded, for some reason) "One Year Later" storyline, Superman finds that through a mad science accident, he's been transported one year into the future, where he finds that Lex Luthor has risen to the challenge and helped to solve all super-crime and make the world a better place. Of course, by the end of the storyline, we find out this is an alternate Earth, and Superman returns to his own world, but the damage is done and Millar's true face revealed. Not only does he heavily imply that Luthor is right, but in doing so, shows Superman as a vainglorious fool for not immediately leaving his own world to allow Lex to rise to power to make the world better.

And that's pure 100% Mark Millar folks. I'll stick with Scott McCloud's run on the book, thanks.

Just Sayin'

You know what would be awesome?

If in the run up to "Iron Man 2", Robert Downey Jr went on say, the Colbert Report and gave an interview IN CHARACTER as Tony Stark.

Marvel, be smart for once and make this happen.

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Your Moment of Funny

What If we lived in a Comic Book Universe? Part 58

This guy would be your new king, that's what.

Happy Earth Day!

I bring the Cute

And today, I introduce you to Armand Zefram Pogue, who's a brave little lad you can meet here. Thanks to his parents for giving me permission to put this up.

I think I'll just leave this one up for a few days, if that's alright?