Sunday, September 16, 2007

A Bad Time To Be Named 'Tony Stark'


Yes. Yes it is.

Despite being at the head of the victorious side of this year's Civil War event, billionaire industrialist Tony Stark has been on a bit of rough streak of late. It probably all started to come apart for him when his longtime friend, and opponent in the aforementioned Marvel event, Captain America, was killed after being taken into custody. The living legend's death has to be hung, at least partially, on his former teammate's head, all things considered. And there's at least some indication that Stark feels that awful weight bearing down on him, even as he struggles to figure out what to do with Steve Rogers' shield and outfit.

Speaking of responsibility that he doesn't want to own up to, there's the fact that Stark, along with Reed Richards, Black Bolt and others, sent the Hulk off-planet before Civil War even started, and that group appears to have caused the deaths of an entire planet as a result, including the Hulk's new bride and their unborn child! That's gotta hurt! But maybe not as much as the beating ol' Greenskin just laid on Iron Man in the World War Hulk mini-series, as payback for both the exile and mass murder.

As if that weren't enough, last week Thor # 3 arrived on the stands and showcased a similar smack-down falling on Stark's head, this time at the hands of the newly-reborn Thunder God. Besides being pissed at what Iron Man had perpetrated on many of their mutual friends with the introduction of the Superhuman Registration Act, the Asgardian also had a legitimate gripe about having his own genetic code abused by Tony Stark in the creation of a faux-Thor who was part clone, part android (yeah, I don't get it either). The son of Odin showed his disapproval by knocking the armoured one's ass through a few buildings, and then called up a natural electromagnetic pulse to fry the red-and-gold Avenger's suit.

And that's not even taking into consideration that the villianous Ultron has taken over the Extremis technology that currently powers Tony's armour, apparently killing Stark in the process, over in the pages of The Mighty Avengers. (No self-respecting fan believes that he's really dead, but at the very least any death and destruction caused by Ultron should also give the industrialist some additional pause once he 'recovers', seeing as all the badness was only possible because of his own invention.)

Definitely a bad run of luck for the poster boy for Good Looks, Intelligence and Money in the Marvel Universe.

To which I say: It couldn't have happened to a better guy!

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